Profiteering

Currently, if we’re talking about the most famous player in ‘Legend of Kaloran’, if Cecilia claims second, absolutely no one would dare claim first.

She clinched the first world boss kill within three hours of launch, holding firmly onto first place on the global level leaderboard. The next day, she tamed another boss as her pet.

One world announcement after another—every player was utterly shaken.

Forums worldwide were abuzz, with endless speculation about this mysterious female player; some even gave her the nickname “the humanoid Boss Raid Princess.”

It’s said that after seeing Cecilia tame a world-class boss, domestic esports clubs went green with envy, issuing sky-high bounties for any intelligence on yet-to-appear bosses.

It was precisely the lure of money that brought this three-person team into the heart of the Mired Swamp. They hadn’t found a world-class boss, but instead stumbled upon Cecilia herself.

It was as if you were playing ranked at Bronze tier, and suddenly found Uzi as the enemy AD.

No, it’s even more outrageous than that! In Brother Yu’s opinion, finding intelligence on the real Cecilia was on par with discovering two brand new world-class bosses!

Right now, all Brother Yu could think was: Someone, please slap me and tell me this isn’t a dream!!!

Meanwhile, Chen Zixuan was still fighting the Witch of the Swamp.

The 20 seconds of blood burst mode ended quickly. As the power faded within her, she felt an intense fatigue.

The skill’s negative effect had kicked in—her attack and agility stats had dropped by 50%, to last a total of 15 minutes.

She’d wanted to finish off the Witch of the Swamp in 20 seconds, but only managed to deal 3,000 damage. Looks like the level gap is still too big.

Time to level up, Chen Zixuan sighed quietly.

Fortunately, her [Silverflash Pierce] was almost off cooldown.

True damage is unaffected by debuffs—though her attack was now only 59, the skill’s bonus would still be calculated based on her pre-nerf stat of 117.

At that moment, the Witch of the Swamp’s original eight legs had already been chopped off by Chen Zixuan—six were gone. The witch now lay on the ground, breathing heavily, with only about 1,000 HP left.

While she had the chance, the silver-haired girl glanced at the three people in the distance.

Since creating this character, Chen Zixuan had found her senses much sharper—she could pick up on the smallest changes, and was far more alert than before.

As soon as those players arrived, Chen Zixuan had noticed them, but she’d been focused on the fight and didn’t bother.

She saw that the male mage wasn’t moving, just standing there in a daze. When he noticed her looking, he even gave a goofy, brainless grin. Chen Zixuan silently withdrew her gaze.

They looked like fools—probably not here to kill-steal.

In the wild, it’s all too common for players to muscle in midway on boss kills, or even outright kill other players.

Chen Zixuan always thought it took a real jerk to deliberately steal a boss kill, but after seeing Dragon Abyss shamelessly claim loot earlier, she realized: there really are a lot of these punks in the game.

If those three over there actually tried to steal the kill, Chen Zixuan wouldn’t mind sending them back to the main city for free.

She was already flagged as a red-name anyway—a few more kills wouldn’t matter.

But seeing that idiot grin, Chen Zixuan thought for a moment and decided not to bother.

When her cooldown came up, Chen Zixuan chugged a mana potion and triggered [Silverflash Pierce].

The pitch-black dagger plunged into the Witch of the Swamp’s chest, a -1872 gray number floating up. With a screech, the spider creature collapsed, its evil life ended.

“System message: You have slain the elite monster [Witch of the Swamp], gaining 211 experience points!”

“System message: You have reached Level 6. All attributes +3, assignable stat points +1!”

“System message: You have a new skill unlockable. Please complete the main quest [Night Visit to Vampire Mentor] as soon as possible.”

“System message: Your reputation in [Talif Village] has increased by 1,000!”

“System message…”

Finally made it to Level 6…

As the endless chimes in her ear faded, Chen Zixuan walked over to the monster’s corpse to collect the loot.

It was just an elite, but the Witch of the Swamp was still a level 20 monster. She dropped over ten gold coins and a rare blue staff—priest only.

With the [Blood Moon Slayer] set, Chen Zixuan was set for gear for now. Judging by its stats, this staff alone could fetch over a hundred thousand real-world yuan.

In every online game, priest players are overwhelmingly female—and as everyone knows, making money from women is always easiest.

As Chen Zixuan checked her loot, her attention was caught by a yellowed parchment document.

[Lawrence’s Traveling Merchant Permit (Basic)]

Effect: Allows a player to set up a stall anywhere outside a city’s designated trade zone, without being driven away by guards.

(Description: An official merchant’s permit issued by the royal family; its last owner was so large that even a single pot couldn’t contain him.)

Chen Zixuan was momentarily taken aback by the item’s function—then a flicker of joy blossomed in her heart.

In ‘Legend of Kaloran’, while players can freely trade equipment and items, setting up a stall requires going to each city’s [Trade District]—which are often sparsely populated, and come with hefty management fees.

Otherwise, patrol guards in the main city will chase you off—and if they catch you again, they’ll confiscate all your belongings.

But with this item, she could set up shop anywhere with heavy foot traffic, and never worry about city inspectors again.

Profiteering—my favorite!

As for street vending, Chen Zixuan had plenty of expertise; she was fond of those old street vendor days and, now with this permit, she could do it in game too.

She opened her personal panel and, to her delight, saw that her wanted status was almost cleared.

After the run-in with Dragon Abyss, she’d needed 56 more monster kills to clear her red name, but after defeating the Witch of the Swamp, she’d need only eight more water ghouls to be fully absolved.

Though this fight had been tough—in the cave, she’d nearly wiped—at least the rewards were substantial, all useful to her in the near term.

Stowing all the loot, Chen Zixuan rose to her feet and, without a word, headed straight out of the swamp.

That old man she’d met before was surely still waiting for her outside the map.

When Brother Yu, the player, saw Cecilia leaving without so much as a word, he panicked, hurriedly waving and chasing after her.

“Ey ey, wait! H-hey! Miss, don’t go yet!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep