Chapter 77: Quest Line

Unlike towns, players weren’t allowed to casually set up stalls here. If you wanted to sell, you needed a proper shop this time around and not just a fee. But shops didn’t come cheap. The cost was out of reach for most players, and even then, only those with enough reputation could buy one. Higher status meant better shop locations, closer to foot traffic.

Still, that didn’t mean players had no way to sell items.

The first option was the Auction House. Golden Card’s auction system is connected to seven smaller cities in the region, making it a trade hotspot. But it came with a price. Listing fees were based on the item’s price and how long you wanted it up. And once it sold, the Auction House took another 7% cut. In total, you’d lose about 14% of the item’s value just in fees. For cheap items, it wasn’t even worth it.

The second option was the player market. Once every three days, the plaza hosted a public bazaar. For a small fee, anyone could rent a stall and sell whatever they wanted. It was a perfect setup for solo players or small teams. The only drawback? The market ran only once every three days—and only at night, lasting ten hours.

For players who weren’t into grinding or adventuring but still wanted to progress in Ecplise Online, owning a shop in the city was a game-changer.

Shops let players run businesses around the clock, literally 48 hours a day in-game time. As the world of Ecplise Online expanded, the income from running a shop in Golden Card City could rival what someone might earn from a real-world business.

In Yone’s last life, plenty of players skipped combat entirely. They poured everything into acquiring a shop instead. Even if their stores were tucked away in quiet corners of the city, they still brought in enough profit to cover real-life expenses, and even had some to spare as well.

Shops in cities were simply that lucrative.

Walking for about five minutes, Yone reached the red point on his map, which is what the guard pointed him to go and went into the store.

’Here we go, let’s hope this isn’t a crazy quest and I won’t have to abandon it,’ Yone prayed as he went inside the store after knocking thrice on the outside door like he was instructed.

Inside the store, an old man who wore a clean black suit of high quality was cleaning a glass cup. The moment Yone entered, he didn’t bother to look at him and spoke.

“A cup?”

Yone took the hint and relayed what the guard told him word by word.

“Three cups into one, make it one into three, then three into one. All in all, it’s just one, but people make it seem like three.” Yone shuddered, saying these words.

For a moment, he felt that he was actually acting as a mafia boss in a movie and going into a secret room.

He liked this feeling!

“Hmm, people?” The old man spoke again, just a simple question as usual.

“Lost, people are lost in the vast world, between worldly affairs and desires, the real purpose of life is write in front of them yet they fail to see it. Is it greed? Desire? Maybe, and maybe other examples.”

’Such a tiring script, thank god I have the message he told me ready as well in front of the quest or else I couldn’t imagine myself recalling all of these information,’ Yone breathed a sigh of relief.

He then couldn’t help but feel that the message itself touched upon the real world and Eclipse Online, its just that he couldn’t pinpoint the exact thing he was looking for.

’Must be my imagination.’

Brushing away those thoughts, he focused on the old man as he looked at him with squinted eyes, smiling before speaking, and placing his hand under the reception desk.

Click!… Click!

Click!

“Go from that door,” The old man said his usual few words as usual.

Yone looked at two doors neighboring each other and followed the finger point of the old man,’ The left one, hope so at least.’

“Be sure to walk slowly and not look like you’re here to fight, or else don’t blame me for what can happen to you,” The old man took another glass cup and kept cleaning it as he looked at the back of Yone.

Yone looked back and nodded his head,’ He most likely noticed that I had my guard up. As for how, no idea,’ He thanked him inwardly and opened the door and stepped inside.

Subsequently, Yone opened the quest again and took a closer look.

Description: Meet the hidden envoy of the Royal Palace in front of the Golden Gate Kingdom’s capital city. Upon seeing the contents of the information he will give you, it is upon you to abandon the mission altogether or keep on going on this path.

System Note: The mission can affect kingdoms if not more, so choose wisely. Rewards are calculated based on your performance.

’Well, the general description is spot on, but a few things here and there don’t match.’

Yone felt that something was off.

He knew quests were detailed, given that it was given by the system AI itself, therefore, mistakes shouldn’t occur once a player gets a quest, but instead the mistake would be in his limited understanding or wrong interpretation of the quest itself.

The mistake he noticed where the first: Capital City.

Yone wasn’t in the literal capital city but just the named capital city, yet in the description, the ’Named’ part wasn’t mentioned, like it didn’t matter or was a mistake?

The next part was the envoy of the Royal Palace…

He did indeed meet a guard who told him about a few details like the meeting spot and code to enter, but never did he meet a Royal Palace envoy.

Since the AI can’t be mistaken from what I know, these two aren’t true mistakes, but things I’m just unaware of.

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