Chapter 73

In order to avoid spending the night outside the city, Bei Qiao spent the rest of the time driving, completely ignoring the scenery along the way. Bandits who tried to rob her either couldn't catch up with her or were driven back by her pelting with stones.

They sped along until dusk, when Bei Qiao finally spotted the open gates of the capital city in the distance. True to its name, the walls surrounding it looked more majestic than any city she had ever seen. The towering towers stood silently in the night, like giants guarding the city.

It was almost dark, but many people were still coming in and out of the city gate. Bei Qiao drove across the moat on the bridge and went to the queue. He saw the soldiers guarding the city strictly checking the belongings of those leaving the city.

Was it that the city's exit control had always been so strict, or had something happened inside? Bei Qiao looked at the people being stopped and questioned, and a familiar, ominous feeling came over him: No way, can't they just let me travel peacefully and complete my market research at the same time?

"Huh?" Huihui raised his ears: Why are these people looking at me like that?

"Don't be in a daze, hurry up." Bei Qiao patted Huihui's side with her whip, urging it to move forward. When she approached the city gate, she supported the city wall with her hand: Is this the legendary city wall made of absolute spirit stone? From the outside, it looks no different from ordinary bricks and tiles.

After queuing up and passing the inspection, Bei Qiao drove into the capital from the city gate, found the official inn nearest to the city gate, and parked the carriage.

There weren't many rooms left in the inn, but luckily there was one ground-level room available. The cost was a bit painful: "One hundred and sixty wen a night, so I'll stay for two nights." She had spent nearly one or two taels of silver on accommodation alone. If she hadn't run into Qin Huan, she would have had to save up that much money for half a year.

"As usual, I'll take a look at the escort agency here first, although I probably won't learn anything useful this time." Bei Qiao put the worthless luggage into the room, put the key in his pocket and went out: The Qiao Family Escort Agency, which had just been open for half a month, was like a small store in the village. It was easy to be self-sufficient, but to say that it would learn experience from chain supermarkets in big cities was unreliable no matter how one thought about it.

The capital city was huge. This was Bei Qiao's first impression as he stood on the street. Compared to other cities he had passed by before, the architectural style here was similar, but the clothing styles of the pedestrians were much more diverse than before.

"Hey, she's here too?" The girl who had been carried by Bei Qiao to escape stopped unconsciously in the crowd.

"Who? The person who saved you last time in Langyu City?" The brother who was traveling with her looked in the direction she was looking. "Who is it?"

"Hey, hey, hey, stop looking, brother!" The girl jumped up and twisted her brother's face in the opposite direction: "We haven't found out who arrested me last time! Don't let my savior get in trouble!"

"Okay, okay, I won't look anymore." The brother cooperated and turned his face to the other side: "Do you still need to ask? You have always been obsessed with looks. I just need to find the best-looking person in the crowd, right?"

Bei Qiao heard the two men talking, but she didn't stop. She swiftly slapped away the hand that was about to snatch her purse and found a security guard agency at a crossroads. It was very close to the city gate, its gate open to the street, and carriages were constantly coming in and out.

Business seemed brisk, with plenty of carriages. The carriages he'd seen during this time alone were worth his entire current net worth... After a rough estimate, Bei Qiao immediately turned and left: "It really wasn't worth the reference. Other escort agencies have more people, more horses, and more customers. My own escort agency can't learn from them. It's nothing, just no money!"

"Forget it, let's go back to the inn and rest. We've been traveling all day..." Bei Qiao looked at the bustling crowd on the street, crossed the road, and planned to go back to the inn from another street and check out the shops on the other side. As she walked, she spotted a familiar five-pointed star pattern on the plaque of a chamber of commerce across the street.

Chamber of Commerce...official Chamber of Commerce?

With a bit of curiosity, Bei Qiao crossed the road and walked into the Chamber of Commerce called Xia Rong.

Seeing Bei Qiao come in, one of the Chamber of Commerce staff sitting behind the counter stood up and greeted him, asking Bei Qiao why he came.

"What are the benefits of joining the Chamber of Commerce?" Bei Qiao took the agreement from the staff and looked at the curtained door behind the counter. As she was talking to the staff, several people stepped out from behind the curtain, chatting and laughing as they left.

"Of course there are benefits. By the way, where is the guest from?"

"A native of Yuanshan Village."

"Yuanshan Village... Oh, so the guests are from Yuanshan Village. We are fellow villagers!" The staff member didn't know what he was thinking, and his originally businesslike expression suddenly became enthusiastic: "Let me tell you, fellow villagers don't cheat on fellow villagers. The benefits of our Chamber of Commerce are really good. If you don't believe me, come with me and see!"

Fellow countryman? Bei Qiao looked at the completely unfamiliar face in front of him and finally chose to follow him.

The staff member ran to the door behind the counter and stepped in first. He then lifted the door curtain and stuck his head out, continuing to speak to Bei Qiao in an overly enthusiastic tone: "I'm serious, fellow villagers don't lie to each other!"

"Yeah." Bei Qiao smiled politely at the staff, walked into the door on the same path he had walked, without saying whether he believed it or not.

Behind the door curtain was a room that looked like a warehouse. Inside was a table used as a shelf, and there was a shelf with miscellaneous items against the wall. In addition to the door Beiqiao and his companions had entered, there was another door opposite, also covered with a door curtain. A gust of wind blew, and Beiqiao caught a glimpse of a corner of the stairs through the gap in the door curtain.

"Please!" After lowering the door curtain, the staff member put away his previously enthusiastic, somewhat exaggerated smile. After gesturing towards the wall without any pretensions, he turned and stood at the door, his back to Bei Qiao, as if guarding the door.

Bei Qiao listened for a moment, confirming no one was approaching and no footsteps on the stairs. Then, he stood in front of the wall and opened the forum. The sound of a popcorn machine emanating from somewhere next door opened up, and at the same time, the two curtained doors closed silently, ensuring no one else had strayed in.

Following the instructions at the entrance, Bei Qiao put on a mask and walked down the stairs to the basement. He finally saw the official Chamber of Commerce's dedicated entertainment venue for players—an empty room with nothing but tables, chairs, and benches. Even if a native accidentally broke through the wall and broke in, they wouldn't be able to find anything unusual here because there was nothing there at all.

Compared to the ground, there were more people here. They weren't interacting with each other, but instead occupied separate corners, their eyes blank, seemingly operating a forum.

Bei Qiao arrived late and had no place to sit, so she found an empty corner and leaned against the wall, folding her arms as she opened the forum. In the upper left corner of the forum, she saw the icon for a newly added official chamber of commerce.

As expected, I was right. This trip was the right one!

Clicking the icon, Bei Qiao opened the official Chamber of Commerce homepage and began to learn more about it. As the name suggests, an official Chamber of Commerce is one officially initiated and guaranteed. While it ostensibly welcomes everyone, including players and natives, in reality, it's more focused on providing convenience for players. Here, players can accept quests guaranteed by the Chamber of Commerce, and the rewards are generally cash.

For various reasons, the official Chamber of Commerce only had branches in a few counties, with the capital being the headquarters. Bei Qiao found a list of cities with branch offices at the bottom of the Chamber of Commerce homepage and discovered a city he had visited before: Linjie City.

There are really a lot of tasks in the official chamber of commerce. The people who issue them come from all over the world, and the content of the tasks issued is also varied.

Capital General Association: Goods received, the list is as follows, those with large quantities will be given priority.

Metropolitan General Association: Does anyone know how to repair donkey hooves? Salary negotiable.

Linjiecheng Branch: Help, has anyone seen a half-year-old black pastoral dog that was lost near Lao Wangtou Pancake Shop this morning?

Capital General Assembly: Is there anyone else who can fight? I've been locked up in a dark room by the natives for several days. It's so annoying. I don't have any tools in the room, so I can't break down the doors and windows.

Besides trading posts, most of the posts here are help requests. As for why they are posted in the Chamber of Commerce tasks instead of directly in the form of help requests, it is because these requests are not urgent, and it is also to avoid occupying public resources and prevent the posts of players who are really in need of help from being deleted.

To ensure player safety, the publisher of the Guild quest and the players who accepted it could chat anonymously. The players currently sitting in the room would sometimes form a group specifically for a quest, then disband the group after the quest was completed.

When posting in Beiqiao, some quest floors are locked and cannot be opened. This is because the quest poster has already negotiated with someone else and is only waiting for the other party to complete the task before setting the task status to completed. If the task is not completed, the floor will be unlocked again, waiting for the next player to accept the task.

Because missions vary in difficulty, some allow multiple players to apply for them together. For example, the player imprisoned in the dark room had a large cash reward set for her mission, with no limit on the number of participants. As long as anyone could rescue her, she would pay. As for how the money was divided among others, she didn't care.

Bei Qiao briefly scanned the quests and discovered that the mission to rescue the player in the small dark room had already been accepted by many players. The mission had been posted five days prior at noon. However, as of this evening, it was still pending. Clearly, the natives holding the players were a formidable nemesis, and even a team of ordinary players couldn't defeat this boss.

Should I take a mission and give it a try... Bei Qiao glanced through the mission list: I feel that the cost-effectiveness of other low-difficulty missions is a bit low, and the mission rewards are too low.