Sword Among Us

For a man, having the woman of his dreams eating lunch with him was definitely an overwhelmingly happy occasion, but to Happy, the meal was a little terrifying!

By his side was the usually gentle and quiet Xu Xin, but at that moment, she gave off the air of the mistress of the “base”, which was something rarely seen. She continuously placed food in Happy’s plate, and it made him feel that she was being very hospitable. It also made his heart feel warm.

On his other side were two other girls. He could ignore Glutinous Rice, but Phoenix Dances was clearly glaring at him, and it made him feel as if there was a glacier beside him…

One side was warm, and the other side was cold.

Happy was stuck between ice and fire, and he felt horrible, as if he was sweating because it was cold and hot at the same time.

After laboriously finishing his meal, Happy burped in satisfaction and handed his cutlery to Xu Xin in the spirit of machismo. He knew that if he let Phoenix Dances continue waiting, there was no telling what she would do.

“I’ll wash the dishes. Please take your time and talk.”

Xu Xin smiled faintly and left the living room with the cutlery in a great show of “consideration”.

“Hmph, you sure are living your life to the fullest right now.”

“It’s alright, haha.” Happy rubbed his nose while he laughed in embarrassment. “This first meal can be considered a housewarming meal, I guess. It’s rare that I can eat something so good… By the way, you said that you have something urgent to tell me. What is it?”

“Beautiful Robes Faction obtained more than seven high-grade masterpieces in the royal mausoleum. We also obtained some other items. When we totaled them, we had earned more than three hundred thousand taels of silver, and they made our faction storage richer. But these are not enough for Beautiful Robes Faction’s development. I think that you won’t be using your masterpieces for the time being. Hence, we’ve decided to buy all of your masterpieces and weapons with cash.”

“Cash? Buy?”

Happy could not wrap his head around it, and he quickly said, “Actually, you don’t have to tell me this. I was prepared to send it to you. Wait, what’s with you saying that you’ll buy it?”

At that moment, Glutinous Rice spoke up as well. She explained their thoughts in a serious tone.

“In truth, we considered it as a group operation, but it was only later that we learned that the royal mausoleum is a hidden quest for the Murong Clan. Even if we didn’t have Little Jade’s calming incense, you could have went in to carry out your clan’s quest. Hence, the higher ups of Beautiful Robes Faction have come to a general consensus that your loot cannot be considered as part of the faction’s loot.”

Phoenix Dances nodded in silence.

Happy thought about it with a frown.

‘I see!’

“Even if it’s a hidden quest, why can’t I just change all of my loot into contribution points and put them in the faction storage? Why exchange it with me with cash? Has the cash flow in the storage encountered problems?”

“No!” Phoenix Dances shook her head. “The faction has been developing really well over this period of time. Even though we bought a lot of equipment during the early stages of the game, we have practically monopolized some of the beneficial areas in nearby cities, hence, the rewards we gain every day are very astonishing. The reports last week showed that our cash flow has already surpassed five million taels of silver.”

“Five million…”

Happy was astonished. He did not have any experience in managing a sect, so he did not expect that Beautiful Robes Faction, which had needed to contact others to buy a few high-tier martial art manuals during its early days, would actually be able to grow so fast.

“If you bring out a part of the five million taels of silver from the cash flow, it’ll be enough for you to buy all the items I got from the royal mausoleum.”

“But that’s not the problem,” Glutinous Rice said. “The students from the Economics Department have observed and investigated the float rate of the money exchange rate in the market within World of Martial Arts as well as the increase and decrease in prices for the masterpieces. They then came up with an assessment.”

‘Observation? Research? Assessment?’

Happy was stunned. His mind was instantly filled with questions!

‘What the heck are you going on about?!’

“They believe that based on the speed current players fork out cash, they should be able to gain five thousand taels of silver every day. They spend around two thousand taels of silver on medicinal pills, so if they just focus on farming money, they can reach an astonishing degree of gaining fifty thousand taels of silver and spending only ten thousand five thousand taels of silver.

“When our people linked it to the average income of the people in society right now, with the current exchange rate, a smart professional player would be able to earn around 800 to 1,000 RMB in a day!” Glutinous Rice provided a general figure with her clear voice, and it allowed Happy to realize something.

“As of now, everyone only earns an average of 200 RMB per day in society,” Phoenix Dances said.

“Are you saying…”

“The income in the game is too high. It can be because the game is currently very popular in the market and the players have expectations that are too high. However, once it goes over its initial popularity, it will definitely drop to the level that society can accept.”

“Which means…”

“The preliminary assessment given is that the drop in silver crumbs will reach three to four times its current value!”

Happy tried hard to recall the events in his previous life. Back then, the exchange rate between cash and in-game money was basically fixed at a conversion ratio of 1:100.

The assessment of the students in the Economics Department was very reliable!

“So you decided to change all the cash flow in the faction into RMB?”

“Not all. We’ve come up with the cash flow that the faction needs. Once we did that, the higher management all agreed that we should exchange three quarters of it,” Phoenix Dances answered. “This is a way for us to retain the value of the faction’s funds, because you’re at the highest level of management in Beautiful Robes Faction, and you are also the elder with the highest contribution points. Hence, once we contact the buyers, we will make sure that we will get your approval first before we make the trade.”

Happy smiled. “I believe in everyone’s judgment!”

“So does that mean you agree to it?”

“Yes, it’ll be good to have cash at hand. Why should I refuse something as good as getting cash?” Happy said while smiling. “By the way, you also mentioned something about an assessment regarding masterpieces?”

Glutinous Rice was clearly the one who had all the data at hand. When she heard him, she said, “That’s right! As of now, the price for low-grade masterpieces is between fifty thousand taels of silver to one hundred thousand taels of silver. Middle-grade masterpieces are between eighty thousand taels to two hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver. They are all dropping in value.

“As for high-grade masterpieces, since their drop rate is low, they are currently going at a stable rate of five hundred thousand taels of silver and above. As for sabers and swords, the lowest is at eight hundred thousand taels of silver. Supreme grade weapons like Silver Wolf Emperor Breaker Swords have already gone up to the price of two million taels of silver!”

She paused for a moment, then earnestly stated that low-grade and middle-grade masterpieces were soon going to saturate the market. They should thus seize the time to sell them. Beautiful Robes Faction would continue to make sure that they had a steady source of high-grade masterpieces, because in the future, they would definitely be the common trend!

Once Glutinous Rice finished speaking, a hint of confidence and pride appeared on her face.

Even though Happy’s abilities had filled the students of the University of South China with admiration to him, they could use their own strength to fill that top player on the Famous People Rank with admiration for them!

However, when Happy heard the last things she uttered later, he said, “That’s not necessarily true.”

“Hmph?”

The two girls instantly showed that they thought otherwise.

“You don’t have to be in a hurry about this. I believe that you know that occupations are beginning to become popular in World of Martial Arts. This is another system. You made a very sufficient assessment of the weapons and armor, but you overlooked occupations. This system hasn’t risen to the surface yet, so it’s too soon to come to a conclusion about it.”

The certain in Happy’s voice and the liveliness of his eyes made the two girls suddenly feel the pressure of facing the top player on the Famous People Rank. They could not help but listen to his words.

“Alright, we can set this aside for the time being and continue observing it. But there is still something else that I wish to get your approval on. I have decided to step down.”

Phoenix Dances’ words shocked both Happy and Glutinous Rice!