Chapter 61: NPC Shang Cheng Gong

【High-price cash purchase for Body-Forging Combat Techniques. Transaction completed, instant offline transfer. No deception, young or old.】

【Who has an unused Body-Forging Combat Technique? Don't fear I lack funds. As long as you're willing to sell, name your own price.】

……

Zhou Xiao's good fortune reignited the player community's fervor to find the God of Wealth.

And the purchase request post for Body-Forging Combat Techniques published by heavy-spending players on the forum further ignited player enthusiasm.

The price for a single Body-Forging Combat Technique on the forum has been bid up to 4 million cash, with demand exceeding supply; aside from Zhou Xiao, no other player has obtained one yet.

Although some players placing bids were just shouting prices on the forum, Body-Forging Combat Techniques still held immense temptation for ordinary players, meaning obtaining one could make them overnight rich.

……

Blood Plain.

A ten-player squad was engaged in fierce combat against a group of monsters named Angry Horns, resembling mountain goats.

"Flame, heed my call, appear!"

Accompanying the cringe-filled shout, two pools of ink-black flames ignited in the hands of a player in the squad, rapidly spreading over his body; flesh and blood dissipated under the flames' forging, revealing stark white bones.

Switching to Bone-Flame Form, the player raised his hand to condense several fireballs, shooting them toward the Angry Horns.

"Grant you all, become lamb skewers!"

The three Angry Horns struck by the fireballs were instantly engulfed by Xiong Xiong ink-black flames, emitting wails of agony.

"Chi Tu, kid, can you stop being so cringe? It's giving me goosebumps. Can't you use some proper lines?"

Hearing these words, Chi Tu, transformed into Bone-Flame Form, raised his middle finger at Sha Xin Dong:

"Pah, isn't your 'Little Snake Coiling' awkward?"

"It's Great Snake, you're the Little Snake..."

While hunting monsters, bickering constantly filled the squad's voice channel, creating a cheerful atmosphere.

Just then, Chi Tu suddenly spotted what seemed to be a familiar figure in the distance; he immediately switched to Eagle-Head Demon Form to look.

With the Eagle Eye buff active, the distant figure became clear.

"Brother Li, it's the God of Wealth!"

Hearing Chi Tu's shout, Li Zheng, transformed into a Great Snake Form over ten meters long ahead, felt a jolt in his heart.

"Pah!"

Spitting out the Angry Horn, resembling a mountain goat, from his mouth to one side, he raised his massive head to look in the direction Chi Tu indicated.

His vertical pupils suddenly contracted, zooming in his vision; sure enough, he saw a familiar figure.

He was about 1.65 meters tall, with a head of pale blue hair; his expressionless appearance resembled a exquisite doll toy, currently sitting upright on a twisted tree, eyes closed in meditation.

"Hiss, good fortune has arrived right here."

As Li Zheng spoke, his form twisted and shrank rapidly, switching to Human Form; a black cloth robe automatically appeared on his body.

After grinding for several days in the Dim Cave and completing the Purification Quest, his contribution ranked first; the reward brought his Body-Forging level to 3, but when facing low-level monsters he could easily kill, he still habitually preferred fighting in Black-Armored Snake Form.

His current Black-Armored Snake Form had grown to level 22, with a body length of 11 meters; his formidable physical constitution could easily constrict and snap a large tree.

He had reached the realm of True Great Snake Coiling.

Upon discovering the God of Wealth's trail, Li Zheng and the brothers of the Grind King group appeared extremely excited, decisively rushing toward the direction where Duan Xing was located.

Meanwhile, Duan Xing, not far away, sensed a figure approaching; he opened his pure white eyes to look at Li Zheng and the others.

But he did not choose to leave, curious in his heart about what these beings calling themselves the Player Race wanted from him.

Waiting for Li Zheng and the others to approach, he leaped from the tree trunk, landing steadily.

Before he could even speak.

"God of Wealth, finally seeing you. Let's get the process started quickly."

"God of Wealth, I want a Body-Forging Combat Technique too. There are ten of us here; one for each person."

"God of Wealth, do you have a hidden Shangcheng function? Can you buy good things not available in the normal Shangcheng?"

……

Duan Xing: ……

This barrage of questions left Duan Xing bewildered.

Seeing Duan Xing standing stunned in place, Li Zheng and the other Grind King players suddenly felt worried.

Members of the Grind King squad spoke one after another in the squad voice channel:

Family-Shared Godfather: Brother Li, is the approach wrong? We can't ask directly; we must be subtle.

Leopard Head Zero-Recharge: Don't mess up; progress is too fast. I saw on the forum that others chatted for a long time before getting the Body-Forging Combat Technique red packet. We must chat slowly too; wait for the right moment, and the God of Wealth will give it himself.

Poor-Enough-To-Eat-Dirt: Is there a possibility that the prerequisite for asking the God of Wealth for a red packet is having enough personal Shang Cheng Gong? Last time, the special event of saving the God of Wealth changed his Shang Cheng Gong toward our Player Faction from Hostile to Friendly, so he didn't attack on sight, but his Shang Cheng Gong toward us individually is zero. Asking directly for things definitely won't work; we must proceed step by step. Based on my years of gaming experience, giving gifts is the simplest way to raise Shang Cheng Gong.

Sha Xin Dong: Yes, raise Shang Cheng Gong first, don't ask for things directly; that's too rude.

……

"I don't understand what you are saying. What exactly do you want from me?" Looking at Li Zheng and the others standing dazed in place, Duan Xing asked in a deep voice.

After communicating via the voice channel, Li Zheng and the other Grind King players decisively changed their strategy.

They took out various flavors of food cans from their spatial bags and handed them to Duan Xing with ingratiating expressions:

"Want some?"

Seeing Li Zheng and the others suddenly produce a pile of items out of thin air, Duan Xing's expression became extremely dramatic.

He realized one thing.

These guys actually carried spatial artifacts on their persons.

How could he not know the value of such items?

Currently, he was only a reserve warrior, unable to be equipped with spatial artifacts.

Yet even for a formal warrior promoted to the Reverse Tide Legion, equipping spatial artifacts required exchanging a vast amount of battle merit.

Such a precious thing, yet these folks calling themselves the Player Clan had one apiece.

But upon careful thought, Duan Xing could not help but shake his head in his heart.

Spatial artifacts all possess physical carriers; previously, he had slain a massive number of Player Clan members, and after their deaths, they all dissolved into black mist without dropping any items, which did not align with the characteristics of spatial artifacts.

Could it be a peculiar body structure, with a space for storing items inside their bodies?

Duan Xing immediately thought of another possibility.

Within the Reverse Tide Legion, there existed a racial faction named the "Void Clan," whose members possessed a special racial skill: upon reaching adulthood, their stomachs would undergo a miraculous change, forming a space where they could store things.

He believed Player Clan members likely mastered a similar ability, altering their body structure to form a small space within their bodies for storing items.

But upon careful thought, this explanation still failed to clearly resolve the issue of why they dissolved into black mist after death without dropping any items.

Facing the food offered by Li Zheng and others, Duan Xing did not refuse, reaching out to take it.

He intended to chat properly with these Player Clan members next, probing into their clan's internal situation and the origin of their special abilities.

Sitting on the ground, Duan Xing violently twisted open the can lid; after taking a small taste of the food, he could not help but frown.

This food carried not a shred of energy, purely serving to satisfy fullness, utterly worthless, and less efficient than directly absorbing the energy of heaven and earth to replenish bodily consumption.

But to gather intelligence, he still endured the patience to eat in small bites, seeking an opportunity to ask questions.

During this time, Li Zheng and others also sat down before Duan Xing, watching his eating process, automatically imagining text prompts popping up and jumping on the God of Wealth's head:

Affinity +1

Affinity +1

With a good start, next one only needed to wait for the affinity to reach the standard to harvest the God of Wealth's gift.

In the subsequent exchange, Duan Xing asked about the Player Clan's origins.

Although he had already asked Zhou Xiao this question, he still intended to understand it in depth.

Facing the inquiry, Li Zheng's thoughts were completely different from Zhou Xiao's.

Zhou Xiao thought of saying whatever there was to say, without any concealment, nor ever considering the potential impact it might bring.

But Li Zheng was different.

As a veteran player, he knew the NPCs in the game world were actually intelligent AIs created by the Eclipse Clan; from the moment of their birth, memories corresponding to the game world's background were implanted in them, they were unclear that they were NPCs, believing themselves to be living beings, and knew nothing that their existence's purpose was to create game content for players.

Therefore, explaining directly that one was a player was essentially breaking the game rules, giving NPCs content they could not understand.

In Li Zheng's view, this behavior was extremely shameful; in severe cases, NPCs who learned the truth might be recalled by the Eclipse Clan and undergo initialization processing to prevent NPCs from doubting their own positioning and developing thoughts outside their positioning.

As a player, Li Zheng felt he had to immerse himself in the player's background positioning when contacting NPCs.

This was also a way to enhance one's own game immersion.

So when introducing the Player Clan, he used guidance introducing the background as a reference description.

He stated he was once a member of the Player Clan who believed in Beneath Di Zhao; after the Black Tide descended, the Player Clan fell into slumber until recently awakening, wanting to rekindle the fire of Beneath Di Zhao and reclaim the territories swallowed by the Black Tide.

During this time, Li Zheng also introduced the land beneath their feet to Duan Xing.

He stated this was the Di Zhong Mountain Range region, the place where Beneath Di Zhao was once buried, and also the borderland of the Monster World.

But unlike Zhou Xiao, Li Zheng did not mention Di Zhong Village.

Because the newbie village was the player respawn point, which in Li Zheng's view was obviously difficult for NPCs to understand.

This exchange went very smoothly, with no issues of content being blocked or speech silenced.

After Duan Xing collected this intelligence, the thought in his heart of wooing the Player Clan grew ever stronger.

But the problem lay in the fact that the Player Clan was an ancient race; their faith remained the ancient creator god Beneath Di Zhao, their thoughts were backward, and they seemed unwilling to join the Reverse Tide Legion.

After chatting for a long time, finding Duan Xing had not yet proposed the idea of giving a red envelope, Li Zheng could not wait any longer.

As a grind-player, time was money in his eyes; he could not waste it like this anymore.

"God of Wealth, we Player Clan have a saying called 'courtesy demands reciprocity,' meaning after a friend gives a gift, one should return a gift; this is a very polite expression."

Hearing these words, Duan Xing could not help but pause, then looked down at the food can in his hand which was already empty.

Li Zheng's meaning was expressed very clearly; obviously, he hoped Duan Xing could return some gifts.

Thinking of the Player Clan's life-saving grace, Duan Xing did not quibble too much over the food's value; after brief thought, he took out a purple crystal from his bracer and handed it to Li Zheng:

"This is a Purple Soul Crystal, my return gift."

Taking the Purple Soul Crystal and seeing the analysis information display it was a Level 7 Spirit Ore, Li Zheng beamed with joy.

Having chatted for a long time, finally there was a harvest; indeed, one must first grind affinity before unfolding the subsequent red envelope phase.

But after taking the crystal, he still could not help asking:

"God of Wealth, do you have any body-forging combat techniques to gift here?"

Hearing these words, the veins on Duan Xing's forehead jumped; he realized obviously the news of previously gifting the Player Clan body-forging combat techniques had spread within the player community.

Demanding body-forging combat techniques was their main purpose for approaching this time.

"None left; I only carried one set of body-forging combat techniques on me." Duan Xing decisively shook his head to indicate refusal.

Duan Xing's answer left Li Zheng and others somewhat disappointed; the squad voice channel also made an analysis on this:

"Brother Li, maybe our affinity isn't high enough, or the God of Wealth's backpack hasn't refreshed body-forging combat techniques yet; let's come back next time."

"What a pity; we finally met the God of Wealth, but unexpectedly the inventory of body-forging combat techniques is already empty; we can only wait for the next refresh."

"Exchanging a food can worth 1 Shou Shou Jili for a Level 7 ore is already a huge profit; brothers, don't be so greedy; time to retreat."

The topic ended here; Li Zheng and others stood up to bid farewell.

But what Duan Xing did not know was that precisely because of his friendly behavior toward the Player Clan, it led to constant harassment following.

Not long after Li Zheng departed, he posted a guide on the forum.

【The Correct Way to Open the God of Wealth, Hidden Attribute in the Game: NPC Affinity.】

Poster: Game Grind Party.

Content:

I learned a lot from the guides posted by fellow brothers on the forum, and today I finally have a practical guide to return to everyone.

Getting straight to the point: everyone has been searching for the God of Wealth lately, believing that finding him will grant gifts—but this idea is wrong, because I discovered the game contains a hidden attribute: Affection.

The three characters "Affection" need no explanation; any brother who's played the game understands.

In other games, NPC Affection can be directly viewed through the attribute panel; reaching a certain level of Affection grants service conveniences, discounts, or access to special items.

But in this game, Affection is a hidden attribute—it cannot be seen on the attribute panel or elsewhere, yet it truly exists…

…

The guide post published by Li Zheng describes how he gave gifts to the God of Wealth and received red packets in return.

A Level 7 quality Spirit Ore.

This post rapidly rose in popularity on the forum; many players replied to thank him, saying they had learned the correct way to interact with the God of Wealth.

Li Zheng's success reinforced the players' impression of Seeing Duan Xing.

They believed the God of Wealth was a special game mechanism—encountering him meant a small windfall; if lucky, his space bag would just happen to spawn a Body Strengthening Combat Art, making one rich overnight.

This sparked a craze for trading junk for treasures.

All players wanted to buy cheap items from Shangcheng and exchange them with the God of Wealth for high-value Body Strengthening Combat Arts or high-quality Spirit Ore.

At this moment, Seeing Duan Xing remained completely unaware, still pondering whether to investigate the Player Clan further.

For example, locating their ancestral lands and secretly observing to gather intelligence.

When he one day returned to his homeland, he would report Player Clan intelligence and attempt to recruit them into the Counterflow Legion, making them one of the servitor racial factions.

Yet he did not know a wave of "Affection-boosting harassment" was about to strike.

(End of Chapter)