Chapter 96 The First Pot of Gold
The door to the storage room was pushed open with a bang, revealing a bright and tastefully decorated interior that contrasted sharply with the chaotic state of the convenience store at that moment.
No, does this make sense?
The player was so stunned that he forgot to close the door.
He only heard the mermaid sitting leisurely at the front desk shout something, and then a strong gust of wind hit him in the face.
When he opened his eyes again, a little girl in a long robe was sitting on the dragon throne placed next to the front desk, and the girl's gaze was looking contemptuously at the eyeless ghost in the distance through his shoulder.
What's going on? Can a young child really keep the boss in check as a bodyguard?
The player's heart sank. He quickly ducked between the table and the wall, his taut nerves finally giving way, and he collapsed to his knees.
"Get lost." The girl only said one word, and the eyeless ghost who was about to follow suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, which sprayed in a radial pattern onto the convenience store shelves.
The gloomy gaze was fixed on the door of the storage room, but the eyeless ghost hesitated to make any further moves. It merely licked its blood-stained lips and stared longingly at its trembling prey.
The mermaid cupped her hands to both sides, chanting, "Harmony brings wealth, harmony brings wealth."
Although he spoke kindly, his actions were ruthless. The mermaid got up and quickly slammed the door of the safe house shut, keeping the vengeful but helpless eyeless ghost outside.
From receiving the death notice card to taking refuge in the safe house, the entire ordeal took place in less than three minutes, but by then, the player's live stream had already attracted several thousand viewers, with the chat refreshing rapidly.
[Wait, I think I've seen that little girl in the famous boss encyclopedia before. She looks a bit like the Empress...]
[Why don't you use your knees to think about how the Empress ended up in a place like this? You're such a paramecium.]
[What kind of look is that? I'm punishing you by making you go back and look at the boss's encyclopedia a hundred times over.]
[I strongly suspect this live stream was a marketing campaign orchestrated by the owner of the safe house. Thinking about it, it wouldn't cost much. Just set up a small convenience store storage room, hire an actress who looks like the Empress, and coordinate with the corresponding dungeon boss beforehand. Those three minutes alone earned them over a thousand ghost coins in tips—it's definitely a profit.]
[Hilarious, what a marketing genius!]
[Am I the only one who thinks it doesn't look like acting? The area of the first floor of this safe house is bigger than a supermarket. What convenience store would have such a large storage room? It looks like a high-level spatial linking device.]
Moreover, this kind of prop can only be used by the actual owner of the house, meaning that this storage room was bought by someone, probably for tens of thousands of ghost money.
[+1, it doesn't seem that simple.]
[…Here's a little tip: several hundred players were kicked out of the Ancient Dynasty dungeon two hours ago. The official reason is dungeon maintenance, but the rumor is that the Empress paid a penalty to leave the permanent dungeon.]
[Huh?! So this safe house is real? How much would it cost to hire a boss of the Empress's caliber??]
[Are you crazy? What kind of ridiculous rumor is this?]
As the door closed, realizing he had escaped a deadly situation, the player was still shaken, belatedly feeling the pain in his knee from the impact of his kneeling.
"No need for formalities, please rise."
The little girl casually uttered a sentence, never making eye contact with anyone, and left with her chin held high.
The player rubbed his knee before slowly beginning to observe his surroundings.
The vending machine next to the front desk sells energy drinks that can restore energy and heal wounds, as well as some enchanted knives.
After carefully reading the instructions, I found that most of these drinks are large bottles of diluted carbonated beverages. They are much easier to drink than the astringent-tasting functional drinks sold in the system store for emergencies, and are more suitable for slowly replenishing energy during short breaks.
Soothing music played in the 360-degree surround sound system in the lobby, the sofas along the walls were made of fine velvet, and the terrazzo floor made the space exceptionally bright.
Wait, is this heaven?
Having spent years in a drab, dusty dungeon world, the luxurious decor here is almost disorienting, instantly pulling you out of the tense, exciting, and rough dungeon environment, as if you've been transported to an orderly future society.
Since we're already here and have paid for the expensive admission tickets, we're definitely going to make some money.
He spent two ghost coins to buy a self-service shower, booked a five-hour sleep pod, and bought a bayberry-flavored energy drink from the self-service machine.
He initially thought the two ghost coins for a bath were a bit expensive, but when he saw the huge overhead showerhead with a diameter of over forty centimeters in the bathroom, he instantly felt it was well worth the price.
He had heard that this kind of showerhead cost at least several hundred ghost money. The water mist gently drifted down, and he had never enjoyed such a smooth and silky water flow before. He couldn't help but close his eyes and slowly savor it.
Thinking back to the past month when he could only take simple showers with ice water from the tap in the dormitory, he was so moved that he almost cried.
When he arrived at the double room, he discovered that it wasn't a traditional iron bed; instead, there were two huge hibernation pods in the room.
Each cabin is approximately 3*2*3 cm in size, large enough to fit a bed, a long table next to the bed, and a solid wood wardrobe in the corner.
The cabin was fully equipped with a game console and projector. Silk duvet covers and sheets draped over my body, and I let out a satisfied and happy sigh.
What he didn't know was that the various facilities in the safe house were like a hand grenade thrown into the live broadcast room—
[Can you even lie still? Get up and let me lie down for a bit.]
[Why can I sleep so soundly in a dungeon? Damn it, who allowed that?!]
[No, are you serious? This renovation must have cost at least tens of thousands of ghost money, right??]
[That's about all the perspective I have. Didn't you see there's a second floor? If the second floor maintains this style, you won't be able to get down without hundreds of thousands of ghost money.]
[Haha, I looked it up, and that showerhead alone costs over 400 ghost coins. When I'm bored and browsing the shop, I often wonder who buys these flashy but impractical things. Turns out there really is a market for them, hahaha. I'm not jealous at all.]
[I cried while lying in my five-square-meter cubicle. The blanket was so thin and I was so cold. Could you please let me put it on now?]
[Wait, since the hibernation pod and showerhead are so high-end, could the Empress be a real one...?]
[...It's impossible to think about it in detail]
[So how much money was actually invested in this safe house? Who has that kind of money?]
Fang Zhuo got up at seven o'clock sharp and received the first income from the safe house.
On the first day the safe house opened, three transactions were recorded, with each player spending an average of 45 ghost coins.
According to the system's tenfold rebate, he received a total of over 1,400 yuan, which can be considered a successful start.
He doesn't really care how much profit the first batch of pilot operations can bring; the key is to generate discussion and buzz among players.
A large number of system notifications also accumulated beneath this bill—
[Congratulations, host! You have completed Task One: Establish a safe house in place of the original protagonist.]
[Rewards: Three selectable dungeon cards, and dozens of forum posts within the dungeon]
[Congratulations, host! You have achieved the 'First Pot of Gold' achievement.]
[Company's current reputation value: 10, matching title 'A First Try']
[Two unnamed blind boxes have been given away and added to your system inventory]
[Current number of blind boxes remaining: four]
After turning off the system announcement and rushing to the company to clock in, Fang Zhuo then took a taxi to Hengke Real Estate.
The 40-square-meter safe house is still a bit cramped; the urgent task is to continue expanding its size.
Having learned from his previous home-buying experience, this time the agent didn't immediately ask him to verify his funds. Instead, he quickly made a phone call, and then more than ten people crowded into the office area.
"Boss, would you like some fruit? Or some water?"
Suanpan smiled sincerely and explained, "Since your last visit, the regional leaders have moved the regional headquarters here. We will do our best to serve you, and we are confident that you will be satisfied this time."
Fang Zhuo: "Which cities are included in your region?"
Suanpan quickly spread the large map on the table: "Our region covers all the beginner and basic tribulation dungeons, with a total of nine main cities and three auxiliary cities, including more than two thousand tons of dungeons."
Fang Zhuo nodded: "Help me pick a room inside each instance, the closer to the main workplace the better."
"The room should be as small as possible, a storage room or dressing room of only five or six square meters is fine, as long as it has a door."
Just like last time, everyone in the office fell silent.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. After a long while, Suanpan spoke first: "Boss, do you mean you want to buy more than two thousand rooms?"
"Any questions?"
"No problem, no problem, this is great, this is perfectly normal." Suanpan was so excited that he started rambling incoherently and quickly began to calculate the room types and prices with his colleagues.
They exchanged a glance, their surprise at the order barely concealed in their eyes.
If there are three things in the world that cannot be hidden, they are a cough, love, and the desire for exorbitant commissions.
After working for most of the day, more than ten people finally presented Fang Zhuo with a long list of documents, looking both apprehensive and anxious.
This table includes not only the size of each room, but also the corresponding total price of the room. The prices in the suburban area are much lower than those in the main city, at just over 2,000 yuan per square meter.
Fang Zhuo glanced at it briefly and crossed out six of the abandoned toilets.
These rooms are only about ten square meters on average, much smaller than when I bought the house last time. The total size of the more than two thousand cramped rooms is only 320 million ghost money.
After the "Real Estate Tycoon" ability given by the system took effect, he only used a little over 300 million of his balance.
As the wristband beeped on the POS machine, he clearly heard everyone in the office gasp.
She gripped the abacus tightly in her palm to prevent herself from letting out a sharp, excited scream.
She originally thought that getting the verification machine with a limit of 1 billion yuan to run at full capacity was the boss's limit, but she didn't expect that something even more shocking was yet to come.
The other party bought up all of their region's business volume for several decades in one go, which is more than 300 million ghost money, not more than 300 million Happy Beans. How could they spend it without batting an eye?
Even if the supreme deity were to come, he would have to admit that this wealth was a miracle.
With that much money, why bother with dungeons? Just throw money around and sweep through.
If she were a dungeon boss, she'd practically worship anyone. The money the big boss splurges from between his fingers would be enough for her to live comfortably for a while.
The order was unexpectedly huge, and the entire office was caught off guard. They didn't even have a box to store the keys, so in the end they could only prepare a huge, transparent, square hard plastic bag for the boss.
Suanpan watched the boss's departing figure with envy; the bag of keys seemed quite plain and unpretentious at that moment.
Fang Zhuo casually placed a bag full of keys on his workstation and went to the time clock to clock out. When he returned, he was met with envious looks from the fat man.
"Sir, are you going to buy goods?"
After the fat man finished speaking, he leaned closer and whispered a reminder:
"By the way, sir, there's a little news. You'd better try to stay home as much as possible for the next few days. Generally speaking, there will be a high-risk dungeon event at a random time next week. If you're not in the dungeon when the event occurs, it might attract the attention of the higher-ups in the dungeon world."
"Based on my experience, this mechanism is most likely related to water, so you can make some preparations in advance."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
