Chapter 340: Buying Land

Li Cheng first made a trip to the black market, sold off all the items produced by the toy factory this month, and earned over 16,000 game coins.

Then he went to the auction house, listed the 【Breakdance King Battle Boots】 at 11,000, put them up for sale, and within half an hour an anonymous player snapped them up with a one-shot offer of 16,000.

Subtracting the auction house's handling fee, adding the 8,000 points from the Immortal Court lawyer quest, plus the 4,049 he had saved up, his net worth officially broke through the 40,000 mark, reaching 46,113.

With such a huge sum of money in hand, naturally he had to spend some.

Li Cheng walked out of the auction house; it was just evening (Slum Street existed as a physical arena, with no sunlight, relying entirely on street lamps and high-altitude searchlights to simulate the dawn and dusk of a day),

the streets teemed with pedestrians, the neon lights on both sides of the road dazzling and colorful—song halls, dance halls, game arcades, cinemas, sauna baths.

"Handsome young man, come play~"

A pure and alluring voice rang out from across the street; two big sisters in skimpy outfits leaned against the wall beckoning to Li Cheng, while a neon billboard above their heads projected the words 【Blood Fighting Club】.

"Uh, I've got things to do, I'm leaving."

Li Cheng politely declined and quickly walked away.

According to the player forums, this 【Blood Fighting Club】 was suspected to be a joint venture between a South American drug cartel and the Thousand-Throat Beast guild,

equipped with an unrestricted fighting arena and monster cultivation pods.

Players could, through the neural interface, control monsters to enter the arena and fight to the death, just like controlling a game character.

Whether killing an opponent or being killed by one, in round after round of hyper-realistic near-death thrills, they could vent and release their pent-up emotions—

the average lifespan of the player base was less than two and a half years; the extremely high mortality rate brought enormous survival pressure, causing many players to suffer from mental illnesses ranging from mild to severe.

Controlling monsters in high-fidelity deathmatches and feeling the thrill of near-death, compared to self-harm or doing drugs, was already considered a milder symptom.

As far as Li Cheng knew, there used to be players who would deliberately take drugs to give themselves split personalities, switching to a ruthless, decisive persona every time they entered a scenario mission,

and after completing the mission, switching back to their main personality to enjoy life.

As for the final outcome—contrary to what many works of fiction described, with the secondary personality growing dissatisfied over time and scheming to eliminate the main personality to take over,

the main personality instead went to GS Biotech, got themselves a sex-changed clone body, transferred the secondary personality into it, and the two of them got married and lived together.

One could only say the arena was vast, and nothing it couldn't produce.

Li Cheng hurried through the alleys of Slum Street, politely declining gym membership pitches and Amway sales pitches along the way, and arrived at the Slum Street Government Building.

That's right—since the toy factory's operations were now on track with stable monthly income, it was time to buy a plot of land on Slum Street and open a shop. No more paying auction house fees every time he bought something.

"Self-service for real estate purchases is over here."

The government building was empty and nearly deserted. Li Cheng glanced at the wall map, walked over to the self-service terminal, and began selecting land.

When the arena had first descended, the major guilds led by GOC discovered Slum Street and noticed the setting that prevented players from harming each other there, so the major guilds immediately launched fierce struggles over the ownership of Slum Street. Many died.

Until the several sides grew tired of fighting, they sat down to negotiate, jointly developing Slum Street. They sent representatives, formed a committee, and built the government building.

Slum Street's water, electricity, gas, internet, garbage and sewage treatment—all of these services were managed by the government building.

If a player wanted to buy land and open a shop, they had to come here to handle it.

"Does downtown property really have to be this expensive? 400 square meters for 150,000 game coins—robbing a bank wouldn't make as much as you guys."

Li Cheng looked at the purchasable land prices displayed on the self-service terminal and couldn't help clicking his tongue in amazement.

The average purchase price of a high-rise office building in downtown New York was only 120,000 RMB per square meter, yet Slum Street land prices had skyrocketed to a terrifying 3,750,000 RMB per square meter—more than 31 times the former.

And that didn't even count the high premium when large amounts of game coins were exchanged for real currency.

"Forget it, forget it, let's look somewhere else."

Li Cheng decisively swiped the screen. "This plot's not bad—45,000 game coins, 200 square meters."

"Huh? Master Pi Fu?"

A familiar voice came from behind. Li Cheng turned around and saw the Crimson Rider, still wearing his motorcycle helmet, holding a registration form, with Bai Ji Bear standing beside him. "Oh, it's you two."

Li Cheng's tone was relaxed. The Crimson Rider was an old acquaintance, and Bai Ji Bear had been a teammate during the Otherworld Collapse mission before. "You two here to register and get a certificate?"

"? Get what certificate? This isn't the Minzheng Bureau."

The Rider awkwardly scratched his helmet and held up the registration form. "We're here to pay the overdue fire safety fee."

The Crimson Rider and Bai Ji Bear were friends who knew each other in the real world. The two of them had rented an empty lot on the very edge of Slum Street as a park for breeding magical beasts and training magical pets, and also to make short videos and earn some带货 fees.

But raising too many magical beasts easily led to accidents. A few days ago, an underage fire dragon had escaped its cage and was spraying fire everywhere in the park, nearly causing a blaze. The Rider had come today to pay the overdue fire safety fee.

"Huh, Master Pi Fu, you're here to buy land?"

Bai Ji Bear's gaze was sharp; he noticed the self-service terminal behind Li Cheng.

"Yeah," Li Cheng nodded. "I'm planning to open a little shop of my own, run a small business."

"."

The Rider and Bai Ji Bear exchanged a glance, their astonishment barely concealed.

!

Renting land and buying land on Slum Street were entirely different concepts. Renting meant paying a bit of rent each month and using the rest of the money to strengthen yourself.

But buying land cost tens of thousands of game coins in one go—enough to buy several pieces of perfect-quality gear. Even some lv25 or even lv30 high-level Transcendents probably couldn't produce that much cash on hand.

Bai Ji Bear hesitated for a moment, then couldn't help asking curiously: "Um, would you mind telling us, Master Pi Fu, what your shop mainly does?"

"Main business should be taking commissions, helping people custom-make gear and skill scrolls."

Li Cheng said casually: "I'll also offer body enhancement and medical services on the side, and occasionally moonlight as a vet."

Ah.

Ah?

The Rider and Bai Ji Bear both wore blank, dumbfounded expressions. You see, even a large guild like Prometheus that kept many logistics-type players only offered custom gear to VIP and VVIP clients.

As for custom skill scrolls, in their experience they had never even seen one.

More crucially, logistics-type skills usually specialized in only one direction,

yet here was Pi Fu doing custom gear, scrolls, AND offering body enhancement and medical services. Could it be that he alone possessed two different logistics-type abilities?

Bro, are you hacking? If I join a group can you share the parameters?

Ba Ji Xiong hesitated and asked, "What form does the medical service take?"

"We can treat internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology, and proctology—all of it. The solutions just might not be conventional."

Li Cheng cleared his throat; the assembled doll·modified, equipped with a Technological Singularity Device, could affect other people.

It could ignore physical laws and biological immune systems, arbitrarily modifying living organisms.

Heart disease? Remove the heart, install a high-power engine inside, and your mobility will skyrocket—your heartbeat frequency rivaling that of an imperial engine.

Cancer? Remove the cancerous organ, replace the lungs with an air purifier, substitute the intestines with PVC hoses, and replace nerves with optical fibers.

Amputated limbs? Here, here—on the left are mechanical prosthetics, on the right are demonic beast limbs; one will surely suit you, guaranteed no rejection reaction.

Even for terminal illnesses that directly attack the brain—Alzheimer's, Huntington's, brain cancer—Li Cheng had a solution.

First, activate the Information Synthesis Glasses to locate the affected area, then use the assembled doll·modified to excise the diseased tissue, and finally implant two CPUs.

Guaranteed, a demented elderly person instantly becomes a mental calculator, capable of matching the strongest minds.

If the patient's family doesn't mind, Li Cheng could even transform a dying patient into a super-soldier: three hearts, two lungs, copper skin, iron bones, titanium alloy spine, electronic eyes and radar ears, a Gatling gun on the left hand, a rocket launcher on the right, a brain-controlled suicide drone swarm, and turbofan engines sprouting from the back.

(End of Chapter)