Chapter 1650

Zhao Chi immediately asked, "How much is the Mysterious Lady Ruler? Don't you have any stock at your exchange?"

Shopkeeper Wanyan smiled and said, "The exchange's stock isn't fixed—after all, it changes every day, and who can predict when those goods will sell? Plus, the prices of these fragment-type items fluctuate wildly. Sometimes a seller urgently needs money, or someone who doesn't know the market just lists a price, and you can grab it for a few hundred gold coins. If it hasn't appeared on the market for a long time, the price might reach 3,000 gold coins. But normally, a Mysterious Lady Ruler fragment runs around 1,500 to 2,000 gold coins."

"Understood. Do you have Kunlun Mirror fragments or Pangu Axe fragments? I need any fragment-type items."

"Same thing—I need to confirm first before I can give you an answer. But these fragment-type items are all super-rare tier, so there definitely won't be many, and the prices are basically all over a thousand gold coins."

"Alright, help me source them. I'm definitely buying."

Shopkeeper Wanyan nodded: "No problem, but you know, the magic arrays between different cities aren't connected, so sending messages is very cumbersome. Most of the time it's done through merchant caravans, so it will definitely take longer. And to make sure these messages are accurate and timely, we need to pay a fee. After all, if it's free it's cheap, but the other party won't put much heart into it. Once you pay, they have to treat it like a task and complete it."

"Understood."

"This fee isn't paid for nothing either. If our Ruby Merchant Guild doesn't have it, we'll still go ask other shops, exchanges, auctions, and so on. It's a bit pricey, but it's definitely much more reliable."

"No problem. How much?"

"No, I haven't finished yet… Because this also requires having a caravan bring the goods over. Even though the items are small in size, their value is quite high, so if there's any danger on the road the loss will be huge. Normally no caravan is willing to carry extra-high-value goods, because if they get no benefit from it, they definitely won't take on the extra responsibility."

"I understand, transport also needs some fee, right? I can cover it."

"Yes, and sourcing goods isn't just this. If we bring goods over from another city and the client doesn't want them, we still have to sell them locally, which adds more uncertainty. Of course, I'm not talking about you—I'm talking about the guild's rules."

Zhao Chi smiled and said, "It's fine, Wanyan, you don't need to explain so much. Just tell me straight how much it costs and what fees I need to pay."

Shopkeeper Wanyan said, a little embarrassed:

"Young Lady Zhao Si, you're truly understanding. Then let me put it simply.

"The fees you need to bear are '100% of the item's price' + '5% of the item's value as an information service fee' + '2% of the item's value as a sourcing service fee' + '10% of the item's value as a transport service fee'. In total, you need to pay 117% of the item's value.

"Of that, the 10% information service fee, the 2% sourcing service fee, and the 5% transport service fee—these three must be paid in advance.

"On top of that, you also need to pay a 20% deposit in advance.

"So in total you need to pay 37% of the item's value in advance, and 80% of the item's value upon delivery.

"It is a bit high, but it's all necessary.

"Also, please be sure to note: some items are so rare that we might search every shop and still not find them. In that case, the 5% information service fee is paid for nothing.

"I hope you can understand."

Shopkeeper Wanyan finished speaking, pressed her lips together, and nodded.

Zhao Chi, however, didn't think it was a big deal.

And it actually felt pretty reasonable…

Hearing her sound so apologetic, Zhao Chi almost expected the price to double.

But it only went up 17%?

Then of course there's no problem.

Isn't this basically overseas purchasing?

And this is way more dangerous than purchasing.

Zhao Chi had personally experienced the transport process—traveling through spatial rifts really is both oppressive and dangerous, so he could understand charging a 10% transport fee.

It really isn't cheap, but if there's no profit in it, who would do it?

The information service fee is just as Wanyan said: if you want to gather intel for free, you have to bear the consequences of inaccurate or fake information.

Information is money too.

Why should anyone provide it to you for free?

Are you the only smart person in the world?

Are you the only one who knows how to save money?

This isn't the old world—Zhao Chi wouldn't be that naive.

Some information is even more valuable than the goods themselves.

And gathering information often can't be done by one person alone—it might take several people coordinating and asking around in the middle. Which link doesn't cost money?

As for what Wanyan said, some items might be too rare and the goods simply can't be found, so the information fee is paid for nothing.

That's understandable too.

After all, that money is just hiring people to go gather information—it's labor costs.

You pay whether it works out or not.

Of course, 5% really isn't cheap either.

But Zhao Chi accepts that 5% too.

Finally, the sourcing service fee.

Sourcing and gathering information are about the same.

It's just that one comes before, the other after.

Once the information is confirmed, you need to buy the goods, then find a reliable caravan to bring them back.

That also needs someone to do it.

But relatively speaking, this is the execution stage after confirmation—it's just a matter of following the process, so only 2% is charged, a bit cheaper than the other two.

Perfectly reasonable.

Zhao Chi accepts it too.

But there's still one question.

"No problem, Wanyan, I can accept all of this. But how is the item's value determined? You just said the prices fluctuate a lot. Do you estimate a price first?"

Shopkeeper Wanyan nodded: "Right. I'll derive a rough price based on the item's historical sale prices, and charge fees according to that price. Of course, I'll try to calculate it at the lower end for you, so you can save a bit more on extra expenses."

Zhao Chi said, "It doesn't matter. What I need is efficiency and stability—price isn't an issue."

Shopkeeper Wanyan said, "There's one last situation: if the actual price of the item is cheaper, we'll refund the extra payment to you. But if it's more expensive, you'll need to pay the difference. It's refund the overage, make up the shortfall."

"Like that? Is there a range? You're not going to tell me at the end that the price is ten times higher and make me sign a supplement, right?"

"How could that be? Our Ruby Merchant Guild is also a 5-star credit guild — you can rest assured on that point. Besides, you're the one who sets the highest price for the goods, so we won't exceed the maximum price you've set."

"Understood, no problem."

Shopkeeper Wanyan let out a breath of relief.

She said with a relaxed smile: "That's wonderful then. Please give me the specific products and quantities, and I'll arrange the rest for you."

Zhao Chi asked: "There should be an agreement for this kind of thing, right?"

Shopkeeper Wanyan nodded: "Yes, of course there is. After all, this is a transaction of over a thousand gold coins, so we definitely need to be cautious — it's good for both of us. However… signing an agreement would definitely require your identity information to be valid. I wonder if that's convenient for you?"

Before, it really wasn't convenient.

But now there's no problem.

Gu Qing already counts as a person of this Great World.

All the system's various functions are fully activated, so having Gu Qing sign the agreement would be fine.

As for Gu Qing's identity, it doesn't matter either.

After all, during the opening test before, all the instructors were watching remotely, and Gu Qing and the others had makeup on their faces back then — they couldn't be recognized at all.

As for someone who had seen Gu Qing up close, there was only Li Ruanyu, who had come to the rescue.

And Li Ruanyu can now be confirmed as safe.

This way, it's absolutely foolproof.

Moreover, this is actually more convenient — it allows Gu Qing to directly add Shopkeeper Wanyan's contact information, and afterward can contact Shopkeeper Wanyan remotely.

This can be considered killing two birds with one stone.

Zhao Chi nodded and said: "That's fine, I can sign the agreement. But what I need isn't only these — I also need some Primal Bloodlines or Bloodline Sprouts. How is that calculated?"

Shopkeeper Wanyan said: "No problem, which specific type? Primal Bloodlines have a relatively higher probability, but Bloodline Sprouts are very rare — we probably won't be able to source them."

Zhao Chi shook his head: "No specific type — as long as it's a Primal Bloodline, that's fine. Same for Bloodline Sprouts — as long as it's a sprout, any race will do."

"I see…" Shopkeeper Wanyan nodded and said: "The overall process for bloodlines is the same. If you don't care about the race, then it needs to be reversed — it's determined by how much money you need to spend on the bloodline. If your budget is at the 5,000-gold-coin level for a Primal Bloodline, we'll source according to that price. If your budget is 10,000 gold coins for a Primal Bloodline, we'll source according to the 10,000-gold-coin level for you."

"Alright, then things like Racial Gene Expansion Stones, Racial Improvement Tomes, and Technological Improvement Tomes — they're all the same, right?"

"Mm, all the same. Just give me a list."

Right now, Zhao Chi has a total of 9,150 gold coins on hand.

Among them, selling 3,000 tons of flour to the Zhao family brought in 3,000 gold coins; selling 300,000 rush-harvested Experience Fruits to Li Ruanyu brought in 5,400 gold coins; plus the original 750 gold coins — so altogether it's nearly ten thousand.

Adding in the fashion items to be sold shortly, there will be over 48,000 gold coins in total.

Actually, the pajamas are worth even more.

If the pajamas were sold, there would definitely be even more.

But this is still the first cooperation with the Ruby Merchant Guild, and these 48,000 gold coins are already an extreme amount — Zhao Chi is already taking a risk doing this.

Even with an agreement signed, it's not 100% reliable.