After agreeing to meet up to share the compiled list later, Yu Zhiye left his party and went exploring solo.
Though this was supposed to be a village, the scale was actually much larger than expected.
But most cottages stayed locked to the guests. They were like the background board only there to decorate the map.
Among these, there were special accessible cottages sporting various unique designs from butcher shops to blacksmiths.
It goes without saying that the butcher sold the meat that was enough to make most of the players here drool.
They weren’t monks. They’ve been chewing dry ramen and snacks for almost a week… how could they not drool for some Tang Seng meat?
Alas… that’s merely a feast for their eyes and nothing more for now.
Moving on to the other merchants...
The blacksmith accepted x15 coal for an emerald and had various iron chainmail armor pieces up for trade.
Nearby, there was a leatherwork shop decorated in skins. The main highlight here was obviously leather armor.
At another place, a toolmaker was selling stone tools—stone pickaxes, hoes, and the likes.
Opposite that was a fletcher selling x16 arrows for an emerald. A decent ammo restock for archers.
None of these interested Yu Zhiye much. Even if it did, there’s only a single emerald left to his name and he couldn’t afford wasting it!
But that mentality changed when Yu Zhiye bumped into a villager wearing a monocle like an English gentleman.
It was the cartographer profession and this villager actually had a x24 paper for x1 emerald trade-in!
“Paper! I can get that!”
Not only did Yu Zhiye have it, he had a lot!
What, why, how, and where?
Two words: toilet paper.
That’s right! Those toilet paper rolls he packed up since day one actually counted as paper!
There’s 256 toilet sheets per roll, and once broken off from the roll, every 4 sheets counted as x1 paper in the system inventory!
Essentially: each roll was a stack of x64 paper!
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
And how many stacks did Yu Zhiye have?
Yu Zhiye quickly found a hidden alley between cottages to set up his door.
Back in the base, he hurried over to his chest and moved out all six stacks he owned!
That’s right! Six stacks of paper!
Why did he have so much? Well…
Over the past week, he went to “borrow” some from the lady’s toilet when everybody was out.
Oi, don’t blame him for being shameless! If he doesn’t take it, somebody else will! Ahem.
Back to business.
Yu Zhiye returned to the village and hurried back to the cartographer’s cottage.
Immediately, the trade interface booted up and the stacks of paper were quickly exchanged for emeralds!
Unfortunately, after using four paper stacks to gain ten emeralds this way, the trade option grayed out and a red X marked the exchange box.
“Huh? Thought the maximum was 12 trades?”
Yu Zhiye didn’t know if he remembered wrong or if somebody else already got the jump on him.
That lost him 2 emeralds and left him with two stacks plus 16 sheets...
“Eh... gotta keep some for personal use, I suppose.”
Anyways, +10 emeralds was good enough. His total wealth was now 11!
With pockets rich, Yu Zhiye turned his focus to spending.
“8 emeralds plus a compass for an explorer’s map…”
Yu Zhiye checked the trade then looked at the special map displayed on the cartographer cottage’s wall.
That map not only showed the nearby terrain, but actually even marked the spots of quicksand!
Anybody can tell how important this map is for explorers!
Even though Yu Zhiye was not an explorer yet, he was still very, very tempted.
Won’t it be great to know the exact location of his fishing zone everyday? That’s +efficiency!
But once Yu Zhiye took another look at the price, he still shut down the trade interface under the stare of Mr. Cartographer.
“Huh. Just a little convenience that’s unnecessary!”
He patted his butt and left. Out of sight, out of mind!
Back in the village, Yu Zhiye hurried to find the farmer to get some of that holy resource for survival: water!
Minus 6 emeralds! Three water buckets added to his inventory!
Even if infinite water is not possible, that’s plentiful enough water to last a week.
“Well… just in case. I hope the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen, but never too early to prepare for emergencies.”
Especially since the inventory chest’s stasis storage meant he didn’t have to worry about losing any water or deterioration in water quality.
And as a bonus, once the water gets finished, there will even be iron buckets for personal use!
“2 emeralds per? Not a rip-off at all!”
Yu Zhiye almost wanted to spit on that farmer’s smiling face, but he resisted the urge to offend the only water merchant for no reason.
Move along!
After trading another emerald for a stone pickaxe, there’s still four emeralds left, but Yu Zhiye held back from splurging anymore and went around window shopping instead.
Good thing he did because he soon spotted a special merchant that stuck out like a sore thumb in a dark, narrow alley.
Sitting behind a low market stall was a female NPC decked out in a mysterious gypsy’s outfit that matched her lilac-colored hair.
Though her face was veiled in mystery, her hot curvy figure was enough to make most men’s eyes stick.
As if noticing his gaze, she looked over then beckoned him closer with a slender finger.
Quite the shady act… almost like some suspicious black market merchant, but Yu Zhiye still can’t resist going up to check her wares.
[Wandering Trader - ???]
At first glance, he already noticed something wrong with her profession title.
Her level was a mystery! Either it was hidden or… there’s an enormous power gap between them!
An NPC that can’t be offended!
But what shocked Yu Zhiye even more was the items available for trade!
It wasn’t the variety of plants and ice like in the original game, but all sorts of potions!
And it wasn’t just any normal potion from the original game… these were…
[x10 Emerald > Player Potion]
[x20 Emerald > Lycanthropy Potion]
[x20 Emerald > Vampire Squire Potion]
[x30 Emerald > Random Bloodline Potion]
Potions of evolution!