SWNOVELS Chapter 99.1: It's Tough Being Mayor
Chapter 99.1: It's Tough Being Mayor
Ou Huang logged out at noon and only logged back in at 4 p.m., after the event was over.
He had gone offline at Weisshem and remained there when he logged in.
Weisshem's streetscape in the morning didn't appeal to Ou Huang at all, and he didn't step off the spawn point after logging in and teleported straight to Exile Town.
After stepping off Exile Town's teleportation point at the Crossroads, Ou Huang opened his character panel and took a look at his stats.
ID: Ou Huang
Race: Undead
Gender: Male
Level: 2contemporary romance
Potential Value: 124
Ou Huang silently closed the interface.
Although he played the game as if he were a hermit in seclusion, Ou Huang also had a competitive spirit. At this current stage of the game, his Potential value easily outperformed his fellows. After all, most of the game's players were in the 70-80 Potential value range.
But… when it came to the Potential value rankings, Ou Huang couldn't even squeeze into the top three.
The number one player in the game, Ji Tang, had a Potential value of 168 and stood out as the undisputed pinnacle.
There was no point in being envious since Ji Tang was known to be a former special forces soldier with an undisclosed military designation—even though Ji Tang had never openly admitted this, it didn't stop players from slapping him with a "Soldier King" nickname.
What was truly frustrating was that the second and third in the Potential value rankings couldn't be considered standard players. The two elderly gentlemen, whose IDs were Old Geng and Master Liu, had Potential values of 141 and 130, respectively.
Whenever players went to the merchant association canteen for quests or to trade in materials, they couldn't help but feel a strange mix of sadness and resentment, seeing the stats of those two. Also, they were rather indignant that these two old men had achieved such high scores without farming monsters or completing quests, but it was also awkward to accuse these obviously non-gamer elders of exploiting the system.
The days of these two when they logged in revolved around the merchant association canteen. They cooked for all the town's NPCs and collected materials from players in exchange for gear.
But ask any player if they were willing to sacrifice their game experience and swap with them, and the answer would be a definite no.
In any case, these two elders didn't compete with players for monsters or quests; they simply used numerical cheats…
Ou Huang had no intention of competing with these two canteen elders and was always cordial when he saw them. With half a bag of grasshoppers in his backpack, he entered the merchant association canteen. Master Liu saw him and warmly greeted Ou Huang, "You're here, young brother. What are you bringing this time?"
Ou Huang looked around, headed to the utensil cabinet, and took out a plastic basin. He then emptied the grasshoppers from the bag into the basin and presented it to Master Liu.
"You can catch these little things? Did you catch them in Weisshem?" Master Liu exclaimed in amazement as he picked up a relatively large grasshopper with two bone fingers. "Woah, this one's quite big!"
Old Geng, who was busy steaming mantous (also a frozen product), came out from behind to the partially open kitchen counter. He wiped his hands on his apron, then picked up one of the grasshoppers Ou Huang brought, examining it closely. "Not bad, Old Liu. These can be fried with salt and they'll taste great."
Master Liu didn't respond immediately. Instead, he used Identify (their NPC interface had player skills available as well), verifying that the grasshoppers Ou Huang caught were white-quality before accepting them. "Alright, they're usable. Let me weigh them. Young brother, are you exchanging them for reputation again?"
Ou Huang nodded.
Currently, there are two ways to earn reputation with the "Undead Merchant Association." The first method was to complete quests at the association canteen, and the second was to exchange materials.
Practically, all the "products" obtained by Ou Huang's butcher lifestyle class skills were accepted by the canteen, and this allowed him to accumulate Undead Merchant Association reputation much faster compared to regular players.
Master Liu accepted most of the grasshoppers and opened his tool player interface with practiced proficiency. "Young brother, adding this batch will get you up to Friendly reputation. Not bad, you're the first."
Ou Huang kept his panel open, and with the new reputation points credited to his account, his reputation bar shot up to full and reached the "Friendly" tier. This unlocked options to exchange specific materials, potions, equipment, and items, as well as an option to hire NPCs, which got him quite excited.
Reputation with the Undead Merchant Association wasn't easy to earn because there were limited daily quests each day. If one didn't camp for them or wasn't quick enough, they would have to wait for the next day.
"Someone achieved 'Friendly'?" Two round skulls appeared behind the partially open kitchen counter. "Who could be that fast—ah, it's Boss Ou Huang!"
"You've beaten us to it first," Teacher Yu Chi, who camped regularly at the canteen, expressed her disappointment. "I still said that I would be the first to reach 'Friendly' after completing today's canteen quests."
"You are almost there, Yu Chi, just 200 points." Master Lu chuckled. "Just Miss Xiao Liu is still some distance away, at least 1000 points."
The young lady, Liu Meng, scratched her head, slightly embarrassed. "Aiya, I've gone on the expedition quest recently, and it slowed me down."
Ou Huang nodded amicably at the two female players. They were fellow comrades in grinding merchant association reputation and crossed paths several times a day. Ou Huang didn't consider them close friends, but they were acquainted.
Just then, another tool player peeked in from the side door of the kitchen. "Could someone help me carry water? The tank is empty."
"I'll do it, I'll do it." Liu Meng ran over energetically.
The newly arrived canteen tool player, ID Ye Zhenzhen, real name Zhao Zhenzhen, had the vibe of a mature older sis. Seeing Ou Huang standing beyond the counter, she called out, "Are you doing the quest? Come over if you are." [TL note: Ye Zhenzhen is a character from a drama series.]
Ou Huang entered the kitchen at once. He hadn't only come to exchange grasshoppers but was also hoping to get issued a quest at the merchant association canteen.
Zhao Zhenzhen had first logged in during the period when the second expedition quest was underway. At that time, most players were focused on the expedition quest and didn't notice that another member had joined the "nepo party." Otherwise, there would've been a flurry of forum posts criticizing this—after all, Zhao Zhenzhen also "cheated" when entering the game, with an initial Potential value of 122 already.
Around 7:30 p.m. game time, the NPCs staying in Exile Town began to arrive for dinner.
Players were only responsible for pre-meal preparations, while the washing and cleaning were handled by NPCs. Teacher Yu Chi, who had a kid, hurriedly logged out to prepare dinner after exchanging greetings with Liu Meng.
Liu Meng also didn't stay idle. After tidying up, she got ready to teleport to Weisshem and accept the cooking quests over there.
"Do you want to go together, Boss Ou Huang?" Just before parting ways, Liu Meng politely invited.
Ou Huang shook his head and instead made his way to the Butcher's Workshop. He still preferred to operate alone. Playing with others was just too troublesome.
With the players gone, the three tool players of the merchant association canteen huddled together and had a discreet conversation.
"Xiao Zhao, what's going on at the research institute? Can't they assign you a helper?" Old Geng asked.
"I'm afraid that's impossible," Zhao Zhenzhen replied. "My helmet already took a great effort by Director Lu to procure. There's a severe shortage of helmets in the institute right now, especially with the number of patients in line for clinical stimulation."
"That's indeed troubling…" Old Geng mused. "How about this. I see the young lady Liu Meng online quite a lot. She's simple-minded and enjoys cooking. Perhaps you can consider using her."
Master Liu shook his head. "That doesn't seem too appropriate, Brother Geng. Youngsters nowadays are smart. The more likely they are exposed to too many such situations, the more likely they are to catch on to the issues. We also can't seek out that young lady in the real world and ask her to sign a confidentiality agreement, right?"
"Why can't we? After graduating, college students still have to find jobs. Wouldn't it be settled with special recruitment?" Old Geng waved his bone claw in a worked-up fashion.
Zhao Zhenzhen didn't really know how to respond. "Uncle Geng, there are regulations in our department…"
"What regulations," grumbled Old Geng. "Back in our day, we didn't have so many rules."
"Aiya, Brother Geng, times have changed," Master Liu quickly tried to defuse the situation. "The young people today are quite different from those in the past. They are sharp and quick-witted. Anyway, besides these players, we can consider using the natives. The town there has lots of natives, so we can explore developing them—"
"We can't even understand each other's language, so how are we even going to develop natives?"
Master Liu chuckled and gave Zhao Zhenzhen a wry wink. "Brother Geng might not understand, but you would surely get it, right, Xiao Zhao?"
Zhao Zhenzhen didn't really know how to respond once more.
Master Liu had quite a bit of wit about him—players could hire NPCs, and Ji Tang, who had gotten the position of mayor, definitely had a way of communicating with NPCs; it was just that their motives for interacting with NPCs would be entirely different from the players, and there was a need for confidentiality.
A frowning Old Geng eyed Zhao Zhenzhen and Old Liu for a moment and understood that these two had already figured out a means to resolve this issue, just that they hadn't informed him.
Old Geng also didn't wish to trouble Zhao Zhenzhen, so he pointed a finger at Liu and jokingly grumbled, "Good job, Old Liu. You didn't tell me anything and just left me worrying here!"
Master Liu shook his head and chuckled.
———
done.co