Chapter 235: A Win-Win Situation, Winning Big (Request for Monthly Tickets)

Colorful Mist Coast.

Twilight deepened, and a patch of dark blue bled across the horizon where sea met sky.

Mist drifted over the water's surface, dyed pale purple by the last rays of the setting sun.

Lights began to flicker on along the shore as the saifish tribe set up their barbecue stalls one after another.

The sea breeze carried the aroma of grilled fish and meat, mingling with the salty dampness to drift through the twilight.

As more and more players arrived, the coastline became exceptionally lively.

At this moment, in a corner of the beach.

"Three more silver-tail fish."

After shouting the order to the barbecue stall owner, Liu Yi glanced at the floating party interface in the upper left corner, listening to his brothers' complaints in the channel.

"It's too painful, truly too painful; every time I log off, I feel like a fish about to drown. The water pollution is far too severe."

"Yeah, I logged off yesterday to change my nutrient fluid and couldn't bear to stay a moment longer. As soon as I finished, I immediately logged back on. It feels like the Monster World has an addiction system that makes it impossible to extricate oneself."

"I hope the Eclipse Clan launches game pod accessories to assist with physical exercise soon; otherwise, staying in the game without logging off isn't viable long-term. Lack of exercise causes certain harm to the body. Nowadays, every time I log off, I have to drink a can of body-regulation fluid... Also, every logout feels like rushing through a foul-smelling toilet while holding my breath; I just want to get back online ASAP."

Hearing his brothers' complaints, Liu Yi took a large gulp of spiritual wine and interjected:

"Your issues are nothing compared to a brother in our chamber of commerce who plays the Monster Stream. That guy is truly miserable; after two months without logging off, he forgot how to walk. When he finally exited his game pod, he crawled out on all fours, having degenerated into a quadruped. Realizing something was wrong, instead of trying to stand and walk, his brain short-circuited, and his instinct was to switch to his Black Armored Snake form to slide along the ground... This brother plays the Black Armored Snake and Roar monster forms. Later, when he realized the problem, he slapped himself twice hard before finally reshaping back into human form."

Upon hearing Liu Yi's account, bursts of laughter immediately erupted in the voice channel.

"By the way, Old Liu, how is your Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce developing?"

"We've already completed several transactions, but most other races come directly to Dream Island to trade with us. We haven't opened a trading market yet, but we're not in a rush. As long as we maintain growth, a trading market will inevitably be established in the future."

"I'm really envious of you; nowadays, even with sacrificial power, one can't get into the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce. They only recruit workers; we missed our chance."

"What you envy is the profit. When we first started, pioneering and recruiting clients, we worked around the clock, twenty-four hours a day, until we were nearly vomiting from exhaustion. We barely managed to get one day off to rest by the coast. I wanted to invite you guys for a meal, but none of you brats were willing to come," Liu Yi said somewhat dejectedly while eating skewers.

"It's not that we didn't want to come; today the Allied Guilds are gathering to deal with the Ground Nian Bullies, so we had no time."

"Alright..." During the conversation, Liu Yi occasionally glanced at the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce group chat.

It displayed real-time updates on transaction information.

[Crimson Flame Ore (Arrived on Island): 1,500 jin of Crimson Flame Ore, total expenditure 45,000 points of sacrificial power, profit: 12,000 points of sacrificial power.]

Transporting Race: Black Wolf Clan.

Transaction Status: Completed.

Profit Acquisition Method: Sacrifice to Brother Di Zhao.

[Ice Crystal Flower (Arrived on Island): 200 stalks of Ice Crystal Flowers, total expenditure 18,000 points of sacrificial power, profit: pending.]

Transporting Race: Ghost Bat Clan.

Transaction Status: Completed.

Profit Acquisition Method: Consignment via the Trading Exchange.

[Dragon Scale Grass (Arrived on Island): 18 stalks of Dragon Scale Grass, 30 self-made energy crystals, estimated expenditure 58,000 points of sacrificial power, profit: estimated 18,000 points of sacrificial power.]

Transporting Race: Red-Belly Clan.

Transaction Status: Incomplete; currently haggling. The damn Red-Belly Clan hopes for a higher price; I will update the information after finishing negotiations.

Profit Acquisition Method: After completing the transaction, consignment via the Trading Exchange.

Whenever an alien race arrived on the island, the brothers in the chamber would tally the trading resources they carried and appraise their value.

Then, information such as resource value and the transporting race would be posted in the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce chat group for real-time updates.

This was one of the chamber rules established by the president, "Collect Sacrificial Power."

By making every transaction transparent, chamber members could click the information integration tab in the group chat interface to view details at any time.

This eliminated potential trust crises during development, thereby affecting the growth of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce.

The Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce was now on the right track, generating daily transaction volumes; although the profit distributed to each member was not large.

One could already foresee the future expectations once it matured.

Imagining the future Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce chat group refreshing one transaction per second, earning a fortune daily was no longer a dream.

Looking at the transaction records in the group chat, Liu Yi felt in high spirits.

Just then, a Challenger notification rang in his mind:

[Challenger Notification: Player "Aowu Big Monster" requests a video connection. Accept?]

They had just been discussing this brother from the Monster Stream in the chamber, and unexpectedly, the connection request arrived immediately.

Upon mentally touching to accept, a light screen image formed before his eyes.

A monster resembling a brown bear, eight meters long with interwoven red and blue fur, appeared in the connection feed.

The great bear spoke in human language:

"Vice President, stop taking your vacation; there's a matter that needs your handling."

Thinking something had gone wrong, Liu Yi's expression instantly turned serious, and he put down the meat skewer he was about to eat:

"Has Dream Island been ambushed?"

"This island has nothing on it; who would ambush it? Do you remember the Tiger-Stripe Clan? The race I visited four or five times before finally establishing trade relations with great difficulty."

"Of course I remember. Back then, you even said you were about to vomit from swimming and planned to swap your Black Armored Snake for a High-Speed Soul to swim faster."

Facing the inquiry, Liu Yi nodded immediately.

He had a deep impression of the Tiger-Stripe Clan; they were a faction on an island north of the Cangxing Sea, with their clan lands located 223 nautical miles in a straight line from Colorful Mist Coast.

At that time, the brother currently on the line died and went back repeatedly; through sheer perseverance, he finally opened up the trade channel with the Tiger-Stripe Clan.

Nowadays, the Tiger-Stripe Clan was also one of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce's stable clients, bringing considerable trade profits to them.

"The Tiger-Stripe Clan just arrived on the island with a batch of resources, but compared to the past, the amount is much smaller. I specifically asked for the reason and learned that their core mining area on the island has been occupied by a monster emerging from underground. The Tiger-Stripe Clan has attacked several times but failed to retake it, suffering significant losses. Recently, they plan to recall all clan members abroad, but exactly when they will make their move is still being prepared."

"I'm afraid it will take some time, and there's no guarantee they can defeat that monster."

After listening to his brother's explanation, Liu Yi fell silent briefly before asking:

"You contacted me specifically because you want to help the Tiger-Stripe Clan solve this problem?"

"Yes. I take the lion's share of the profits from this trade route, so naturally, I hope the Tiger-Stripe Clan's trade remains stable. Now, because of that monster, my profits have plummeted, and when stability will return is completely unknown. I was thinking maybe we should handle it ourselves."

"Do you know the monster's hunting level?"

"I don't know; the distance is too far for me to analyze it. However, judging roughly from the Tiger-Stripe Clan's combat power, the hunting level should be around level 70+. The Tiger-Stripe warriors are all around level 40, so fighting a level 70 is too strenuous; even breaking their defense is difficult. Plus, the underground mine cave environment is narrow, making numerical superiority hard to utilize."

"I understand; wait for my notification."

"Okay."

After ending the connection, Liu Yi fell into deep thought.

He could fully understand his brother's desire to intervene; after all, the stability of this trade route concerned his brother's future earnings.

Naturally, everyone wanted to restore normalcy as soon as possible.

But hunting this monster would not be easy.

None of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce members were combat personnel; even the president, Collect Sacrificial Power, had a main soul only at level 46. Even if the whole group went together, they would struggle to contend with it.

In terms of combat power, they would be completely crushed.

As for seeking help from a top-tier guild, that was indeed a good option.

The Divine Hall Guild possessed many top-tier combatants; sending just a small squad might solve the problem.

The only question was what price would be appropriate.

These top-tier players earned very high sacrificial power from hunting in the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range battlefield; inviting them to act would inevitably cost a significant amount of sacrificial power, surely exceeding ten thousand.

If they decided to invite high-level players from a top-tier guild, this expense would obviously need to be listed under the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce's comprehensive expenditures.

It would require a vote from all Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce members or a final decision by the president.

Thinking of this, Liu Yi immediately summoned his contact list, found the president "Collect Sacrificial Power," and sent a connection request.

Shortly after, a light screen popped up, transmitting sounds of heavy breathing and the "beep-beep" noises emitted by mechanical lifeforms.

"Wait a moment," President A Lan's voice came through.

In the screen, the president leaped violently; the battle axe in his hand erupted with golden streamers, splitting an engineering robot in one strike. He then Shunshi lifted his right leg, kicking away a robot attacking from the side.

One minute later.

The battle ended; the president stood panting heavily on the spot, the Force Brute Axe in his hand dissolving into specks of golden light.

"Old Liu, what's the matter?"

"Just now, Monster contacted me; he said there's a problem with the Tiger-Stripe Clan trade route..."

After listening to Liu Yi's account, A Lan in the connection feed remained silent for a long while before shaking his head:

"From your description, there might be more than one monster inhabiting the Tiger-Stripe Clan's underground mine. Inviting high-level players from a top-tier guild to act once is fine, but if it happens repeatedly, the expense will be truly too large. Perhaps we can try a different approach."

"Here's the plan: I'll contact you shortly; first, let's resolve the monsters in this vicinity."

"Understood," Liu Yi nodded.

Shortly after, a connection prompt appeared before Liu Yi.

President A Lan's figure appeared on the light screen; looking at him, he nodded and said:

"Some time ago, I had the idea of forming a Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce Guard Squad. Now that the Tiger-Stripe Clan situation has arisen, it's the perfect time to discuss it with you."

Hearing this, Liu Yi felt puzzled in his heart:

"President, back then you said forming a chamber guard squad would consume too much sacrificial power to maintain a group of warriors; why do you have the idea to form one again?"

A Lan in the screen shook his head:

"It's different. The guard squad I want to form is not one supported by the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce, but a Free Guard Squad."

"The specific plan is this: we still provide services by establishing a platform similar to a mercenary organization; you can also understand it as an adventurer platform in other games. By publishing demand tasks from other races and completing them for them, we earn profits. For this part of the expenditure, we won't spend a single point of sacrificial power ourselves; instead, we can collect a 5% profit margin from the rewards of completed tasks. This way, we not only solve the needs of our trade clients but also ensure the connected trade channels continue to operate stably.

"Taking the Tiger-Stripe Clan as an example, since their mine has been occupied by monsters, they are clearly more anxious than we are. This is the perfect time to approach them with a service proposal: we set a price to solve their problem based on our player legion's capabilities. If the Tiger-Stripe Clan agrees to pay that price, we will post the mission on the forum for players to accept and resolve the issue. Once the accepting players complete the mission, the Tiger-Stripe Clan must pay us the pre-agreed reward, from which we will deduct a 5% commission."

"This approach also provides forum players with an additional channel to earn Sacrificial Power; the Tiger-Stripe Clan, the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce, and the players accepting the orders all benefit from this arrangement."

A Lan's answer made Liu Yi's eyes light up.

Indeed, other players would never be able to execute a plan to build a mercenary platform.

After all, ordinary players simply lacked any channel to connect with other races.

But their Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce was different; through trade, they had already established connections with numerous clans, allowing them to build a mercenary platform on top of their existing channels.

They wouldn't even need to search for clients, as their current trade partners could provide various mission requests.

However, Liu Yi quickly thought of a problem:

"Guild Master, the fluidity of independent players is too high; this order-acceptance model will struggle in its early stages, and the influence of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce is far from sufficient... Should we try spending money to get 'Nightfall Approaching' to promote us? With his influence, it would be easy to expand our reputation and draw more players' attention to our mercenary platform. After all, a mercenary organization cannot take a single step without mercenaries to execute its missions."

A Lan, visible on the screen, shook his head:

"There's no need for that, but you are right; having a stable flow of mercenary orders is the core of developing a mercenary platform."

"That is why I have thought of a special group who might help us solve this problem."

"A group?" Liu Yi wondered in his heart.

"Yes, they are the Arena Faction players. These players gather daily by the Colorful Mist Coast, drawing lots while waiting for a chance to board the transport to the Ancient God Arena. However, the arena airship only takes a small fraction of them each time, leaving the rest of the Arena Faction players to hunt for challenge targets as lone wolves."

"Therefore, I plan to build an assassin organization under the framework of the mercenary platform, cooperating with these Arena Faction players. We will filter out hunting-type missions and offer them to these players, allowing them to enjoy hunting while earning extra Sacrificial Power rewards... Most importantly, Arena Faction players generally possess excellent combat skills and can defeat enemies above their own level, which fits my positioning for members of the assassin organization."

"Of course, even after the assassin organization is successfully established, we will not restrict the freedom of these Arena Faction players. We will only provide a mission list for them to choose from; they simply need to submit a screenshot upon completion for instant payment... Even if the client who posted the mission hasn't paid us yet, we will still pay the reward to the player who completed the task first."

After hearing A Lan's explanation, Liu Yi was stunned.

He had never imagined one could play the game this way.

If they could truly build both a mercenary platform and an assassin platform on the foundation of their trading center, the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce would gain two additional revenue streams.

The key point was that once these two platforms were established, the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce could solve clients' problems without spending a single coin, making trade between both parties more stable.

A win-win situation; they had won big.

What Arena Faction players lacked most was stable income, so the establishment of an assassin organization would also be a benefit to them.

"Guild Master, you're awesome."

"By the way, to structure these two platforms, we need to establish some clauses in advance. For instance, if two clients who already have trade relations with us develop a conflict of interest and post bounties against each other, we cannot accept such orders. The Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce must always maintain a neutral stance among our clients and never intervene in disputes between trading partners..."

As A Lan spoke, Liu Yi opened the forum and continuously recorded the key points mentioned.

"That's the situation. I have formed a combat guild on my end and have been quite busy lately, so I can only entrust the management of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce to you all for now. My apologies."

"Hahaha, Guild Master, you just need to provide the brains; having you around feels great. Whenever we can't figure something out, we can just ask you." Hearing A Lan's apologetic tone, Liu Yi burst into laughter.

Closing the conversation, Liu Yi immediately took action.

He entered the forum to search for information, and before long, he locked onto the target he needed to find.

Opening his contact list, he added a note and sent a friend request to the target.

A few seconds later, the friend request was accepted, and a chat window popped up.

Phase Kill: ???

Crab Roe Seat: Big Brother Phase Kill, I am the Vice President of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce. I have a stable way to make money and would like to cooperate with you. Are you interested?

Phase Kill: Not interested.

Crab Roe Seat: Don't rush, Big Brother Phase Kill. This money-making channel will not only let you fight to your heart's content but also allow you to lead your brothers in earning extra Sacrificial Power rewards.

Phase Kill: Oh? Tell me more details.

Crab Roe Seat: Let me first introduce our Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce... Currently, we intend to build a mercenary platform to accept order requests from various races. Furthermore, under the framework of this mercenary platform, we plan to establish an assassin organization, prioritizing hunting and challenge missions from our orders for this group. Our requirement for members of the assassin organization is possessing formidable combat abilities, which fits you Arena Faction players perfectly.

Crab Roe Seat: Let me be clear from the start: for every completed mission, the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce will take a 5% commission, while the remaining 95% goes entirely to the brothers who completed the task. Payment is settled immediately upon mission completion. As for whether the race that posted the mission has paid us yet, you don't need to worry about it. Even if we lose money on a specific order, we will bear the loss ourselves...

At this moment, in a corner of the Colorful Mist Coast.

After reading the content Liu Yi described three times over, Phase Kill felt tempted.

If this platform could truly be established, it meant the brothers of the Arena Faction would have an additional way to earn Sacrificial Power in the future.

If they couldn't wait for the shuttle bus, they could accept orders and head out to sea to challenge hunting targets.

This was undoubtedly paving a road to wealth and prosperity for Arena Faction players like him.

He immediately shared the chat content in the Arena Faction group chat "Unceasing Battle."

Before long, group members popped up one after another, expressing their willingness to cooperate and hoping for plenty of orders.

However, they hoped the orders would include detailed descriptions of the mission difficulty; otherwise, accepting missions that were impossible to complete would only waste time.

Phase Kill relayed the group members' thoughts to Liu Yi.

Crab Roe Seat: Rest assured. Since we have decided to build this platform, we will certainly provide detailed mission information. We will rate the difficulty of mission orders using an S-F grading system or subdivide them according to hunting levels. If, during the actual execution of a mission, the difficulty is found to exceed its rating, the player who accepted the order only needs to provide a video of the process, and we will grant extra compensation. Of course, we will also demand additional rewards from the party that posted the mission. We will handle those negotiations; you have no need to worry.

Receiving Liu Yi's clear response and having no further worries, Phase Kill asked again:

Phase Kill: How exactly do we proceed?

Liu Yi: I will create a new group chat shortly and add you as an administrator. At that time, you can invite all the Arena Faction players you know into the group, and they can also invite their Arena Faction friends. The more, the merrier. In the future, I will release mission orders in this group. What do you think?

Phase Kill: I agree.

Having received the nod from the leader of the Arena Faction, Liu Yi smiled broadly.

After creating the new chat group, he added Phase Kill to it.

As the number of people in the group chat grew rapidly, Liu Yi decided to set off immediately for Tiger-Stripe Island.

Since the Tiger-Stripe Clan had already left the island, he would have to go personally to negotiate the reward for this order.

Then, he would release the first hunting order in the assassin chat group.

Glancing at the remaining skewers of grilled meat on the table, he stored them in his personal space and ran toward the surging waves at the end of the beach.

"Let's go, make money!"

(End of Chapter)