Chapter 60 - Contribute Tuna Roe

Da Fei returned to the trading exchange. All the merchants were still berating him.

Chey, are you guys done being so righteous? Are you sure that you’re the victims from just now? Own up. You must be hired by that idiot to insult me, right? Sure, Raging Sea of Blood, I’ll start calling you the Poverty Alleviation Director from now on! Just you wait. I’ll make you one of the Top Ten Best Teenagers in the country! I’ll make you become the Chairman of the Red Cross!

Da Fei then started his first trade with the NPC at the exchange as if nothing happened.

—System Message: You sold 80 units of cider at the price of 38 gold coins per unit. You earned 3,040 gold coins.

—Novice Guide: As your selling price is lower than the purchase price, you cannot obtain any EXP through this trade.

There’s nothing I can do about that. After all, the cider is produced in this city. It’s good enough that they aren’t taking it in at half-price. There’s no way I’d be willing to make that trade usually. However, my ship needs to be emptied before it can be repaired.

—System Message: You sold 125 units of fragrant nuts at the price of 125 gold coins per unit. You earned 8,125 gold coins. Your net profit from this trade is 1,825 gold coins. You gained 182 EXP.

—System Message: You said 40 units of lavender at the price of 200 gold coins per unit. You earned 8,000 gold coins. Your net profit from this trade is 1,500 gold coins. You gained 150 EXP.

—System Message: You said 300 units of morrowgrain at the price of 45 gold coins per unit. You earned 13,500 gold coins. Your net profit from this trade is 1,700 gold coins. You gained 170 EXP.

All the trades were completed. Da Fei received 32,665 gold coins in total. That was a huge fortune for any player at this stage in the game.

Indeed, a man can never get rich without earnings outside his regular occupation. Actually, I didn’t want to take so much money. I just wanted to clear my Red Name. Sigh, I guess when the fortune God wants to visit you, you just can’t stop him. Wahaha!

Two things were closely related to trading: trading EXP and city specialty products.

Under normal circumstances, the EXP that players received would only be 10% of the net profit value. However, this was the difference that separated high-level merchants from ordinary merchants who were more like delivery couriers.

Trading required plenty of skills. The market trend and prices were constantly changing. There were a few scenarios that would grant merchants additional EXP. The most common one when a city was in urgent need.

For instance, if the merchant player heard that NPC trader saying to himself, “Aiya, the city is in urgent need of nuts!” The merchant could immediately transport a batch of fragrant nuts back for sale. He would instantly receive a 100% net profit to the EXP conversion reward. Furthermore, he would receive additional Reputation rewards. If the trader was happy, he might even directly give out a piece of equipment or low-level item. When the city faced urgent needs, huge profits could be earned. The players would gain money, EXP, and Reputation all at once.

The next scenario would be catastrophes. For instance, if a city faced negative situations like diseases or famines, merchants could receive 100% profit to EXP conversion by delivering medicine or food. Finally, during festivals or special occasions, merchants could sell alcohol, sweets, and flowers for 100% EXP as well.

However, even if all three situations occurred concurrently and players received 300% EXP to net profit conversion, the EXP they received would still be a lot lower than the players who fought monsters. After all, trading took a lot longer. At the same time, beginner merchants always traded in small amounts due to their small ship capacity.

The real, significant deal was actually cross-kingdom trades. Especially cross-kingdom specialty product trades!

Elf Kingdom products could be sold for 8-10 times the purchase price in the Human Kingdom. The reason for such exorbitant profits was that these products were not ordinary products. Instead, they were Alliance-approved “specialty products”! Trading specialty products would grant merchants a 100% additional EXP boost.

In Da Fei’s case, if he spent all 30,000 gold coins to purchase the city’s specialty product, “Goddess Oak Statue” and traveled for a month in-game, or three days in real life, to the Human Kingdom, he could sell them all for 300,000 gold coins. He would also receive 300,000 EXP!

300,000 was too little?

The purchase price of the Goddess Oak Statue was 100 gold coins for one unit. 30,000 gold coins would only be enough for 300 units. Da Fei’s cabin would not be full yet. That was indeed too little. If he had an initial capital of 100,000 gold coins though, he could hit full capacity for 1,000 units. If he transported all that over? 1,000,000 EXP!

Three days of real-time for 1,000,000 EXP. Who would find that too little? Hm, maybe for players above Level 60. However, nobody would find it unimpressive for 100,000 gold coins to turn into 1,000,000 gold coins, right?

What could you do with 1,000,000 gold coins? Angels were 5,000 gold coins each. You could buy 200 of them! If you had enough Reputation points, you could even build a small city in the New World!

Of course, Angels, huge ships capable of transporting thousands of orders, specialty products, and building cities were all things possible only in the distant future. Those were not concerns that players should have at this stage, especially specialty products. Players had to possess extremely high Reputation in both the city and the Alliance, as well as high-level Sailing Permits. Furthermore, specialty products were allocated based on the player’s investment share in that particular city.

What did allocation based on investment share mean? Each city had its own Prosperity value. Players could spend gold coins to invest in the city’s Prosperity value, in turn raising the city’s cargo and specialty product yield and quality. Once the quality was maxed out, new specialty products could be developed. Of course, players could raise their own Reputation during this process. For instance, a player whose personal investment share in a city was 20% could only purchase 20% of the specialty product yield. During the open beta, some large Guilds with rich financial reserves started trade wars. They madly invested in certain ports to push out individual players and dilute their investment shares. The cruelty of the trade wars was no less intense than physical battles. Those who lost in the trade wars lost both their lives and their money.

In conclusion, specialty products were not so easy to obtain. Normal players should just focus their attention on high-quality products. After all, they could still earn 2-5 times the profit through normal cross-kingdom trades.

Da Fei held onto his 30,000 gold coins and sighed secretly as he heard the merchants around him yelling, “Nobody should trade with him!”. According to his original plan, he would have been yelling at the top of his lungs now, “High price to buy in purchase orders!” Then, a huge crowd of merchants would have approached him for trades, and his ship would have been filled with cargo. Even if they were not specialty products, he could still earn a lot of EXP, Reputation points, and gold coins by selling them in another kingdom. I could’ve earned so much money!

Sigh, I pissed everyone off. Even if I didn’t do the things I did though, people would probably still not accept my big ship. Life is like floating on the river and the ocean. I can only fix my ship and prepare for long-distance missions. What a waste of talent.

Wait! Specialty product? I have that!

Da Fei hurriedly took out an item.

—Tuna Roe: Sea product. Can be used to breed tuna in territories owned by players near the ocean. Tuna is a delicious large-sized type of seafood. It’s difficult to catch and wildly popular on the market.

According to the official site’s introduction on contributing new products, offering this will equate to adding a new industry to the city, regardless of whether the item is considered a specialty product by the Alliance. My Reputation will instantly turn positive. Furthermore, I will own at least 10% of the supply quota for this product. This 10% is solely reserved for me, without any requirements on my Sailing Permit. Other merchants can’t buy the supply even if they have the money. I won’t lose this trade war!

In other words, once the timing is right, I won’t even need to set sail. I can just buy out all the tuna stock in the exchange. Then, I’ll just sell it off right away for a profit. “Selling fish for high prices! Big bosses, come to collect them from me!”

Even though I originally planned on selling this after observing the market trend, I can’t wait anymore under the current circumstances. Business opportunities are all about being first. Furthermore, I’m heavily disadvantaged right now and losing my edge. I have to open up the playing field with a big move! Of course, the most important thing is that I get to vent my feelings! I need to act cool and posture! If I don’t posture, people might think that I’m struggling to survive. That way, nobody will ever shut up. How will I ever enjoy some peace and quiet again?

Hence, Da Fei instantly made a decision. He looked for the NPC manager at the trade exchange. “I want to offer a sea product.”

The manager was overjoyed. “Thank you for supporting our city’s development. We are a coastal city, and this sea product is very suitable for us to develop! You have contributed greatly to our city’s growth! This is my letter of recommendation. Please proceed to collect your reward from Mayor Oserriman at the City Hall!”

I see! Meeting the mayor directly, what does that mean? Friends, do you understand how high of a level I need to be in order to meet the mayor directly?

Da Fei walked out of the exchange laughing. He was surrounded by constant and non-stop cursing from the other merchants, and nobody knew why he was so happy!

…

—Erolyn City Broadcast: Congratulations! Da Fei contributed a new product to Erolyn City. Mayor Oserriman has given player Da Fei the title of “Erolyn City Honorary Citizen” for his great contribution. Player Da Fei’s Reputation in Erolyn City is now “Respected”!

Everyone was instantly stunned. Then, the entire city was outraged. “What the heck! Where’s the justice in this?!”