Chapter 11: Boss Fan
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Upgrading the title was just the prelude; the true VIP experience come next—
[VIP Treatment 1: Complete Product Information Transparency]
“This ‘I See Through You’ is actually a reconnaissance-type stationery. When used on any challenger, it allows you to see their Intelligence, Stamina, Attack power, Defense power, Comprehensive Danger Level, and more at a glance. The only downside is it’s a one-time use per stationery.”
“Moments of Joy Levitation Technique is mainly used for cushioning high-speed falls, enabling a brief suspension in mid-air, with an effect lasting approximately 15 seconds. I know it’s quite short, but you see, the Underground City is just the first level, and many stationery effects here are basic.”
“Golden Shield needs no further explanation, providing basic physical defense that lasts for about 5 minutes. It can block most conventional weapon attacks, but against exceptionally powerful attacks or unconventional methods, it’s difficult to defend.”
“Into the Mist creates a dense fog within a small area in a very short time, disrupting environmental visibility. It doesn’t possess defensive capabilities on its own, but it can interfere with opponents during battles, making it a form of defense. Additionally, as a friendly tip, it’s quite useful for escaping.”
[VIP Treatment 2: Mix and Match Purchases]
“Boss, if you’re going for standard combat, go for ‘I See Through You’ and ‘Golden Shield.’ If you want to be more creative, I recommend ‘Floating Art’ and ‘Into the Mist.’ Of course, single selections work too. It mainly depends on your existing tools and combat preferences…”
[VIP Treatment 3: Generous Gifts to Take Home]
“For the first two items, buy one, and I’ll gift you a pair of sunglasses. Buy two, and I’ll give you a handheld high-frequency fan. As for the last two items, buy one, and you’ll receive a multifunctional pocket knife and three small loaves of bread as gifts. Buy two, and you’ll get a multifunctional pocket knife, five small loaves of bread, and a can of milk.”
Liang Xin spoke eagerly, that his mouth became dry. He almost wanted to make a purchase himself. However, he noticed that the person across from him seemed unflustered.
He pushed the guest’s glass of water closer to him. “Boss?”
With his hands resting on the table, fingertips slightly interlocked, Fan Peiyang asked, “Are these all the items you have?”
Liang Xin chuckled, “Don’t you want to ask about the prices first?”
Fan Peiyang looked at the catalog paper and said, “Tell me about it.”
Liang Xin stopped teasing and said, “I See Through You, 5,000; Moments of Joy Levitation Technique, 15,000; Golden Shield, 30,000; Into the Mist, 30,000…” He paused for a moment and added, “In Liang Xin’s trade, there is no bargaining.”
Fan Peiyang remained silent, contemplating.
Liang Xin sighed, “Boss, I know what you’re thinking. Tens of thousands for a single piece of equipment, and it’s gone after one use, the money burns faster than you can imagine. But think about it from a different perspective. In a critical moment, one piece of protective gear could be a matter of life and death. Do you still think I’m selling it too expensively?”
Fan Peiyang raised his eyes and finally spoke, “Are these all the items you have?”
Liang Xin：“……”
“Swish—”
Another page of paper was placed in front of Boss Fan, on it were four vibrant characters – <[Heal] Pain Relief and Pain Stopping>.
Fan Peiyang’s eyes flashed as his gaze locked onto those four words, frozen in thought.
Liang Xin was unusually sincere, “Boss, this is my hidden treasure. I won’t deceive you. Here, the best items are defensive equipment, followed by weaponry. The rarest are healing items, and among them, healing stationery are the scarcest. They’re like a needle in a haystack…..”
“I didn’t acquire this one; I had a stroke of bad luck when encountering a nocturnal creature that night. I managed to use it to escape. Don’t underestimate its simplicity; when you’re truly injured, you’ll realize that even pain relief can be a lifesaver. I’ll be honest, Boss. If you miss it today, tomorrow it will be like trying to obtain a mountain of gold that you can’t reach…”
“Let’s talk price,” Fan Peiyang interrupted calmly.
Liang Xin’s eyes lit up, “You want this?”
Fan Peiyang placed two sheets of paper together and handed them to him, “I want them all.”
[Defense] I See Through You: 11 items x 3000 = 33000
[Defense] Moments of Joy Levitation Technique: 1 item x 15000 = 15000
[Defense] Golden Shield: 2 items x 30000 = 60000
[Defense] Into the Mist: 1 item x 30000 = 30000
[Heal] Pain Relief and Pain Stopping: 1 item x 70000 = 70000
Total: 208,000 RMB
The above was President Fan’s shopping list.
As the sound of card reading echoed inside the automatic teller machine, the entire payment was transferred to Liang Xin’s account.
During the wait for the transfer to complete, Fan Peiyang suddenly became curious and asked Liang Xin, “Is this for your family?” The Underground City have no use for money, but Liang Xin seemed eager to receive the payment, and that was the only reason he could think of.
Liang Xin stared at the ATM screen and gave a bitter smile. “Since the person can’t go back anymore, I can at least earn some money for them.”
Fan Peiyang: “They might worry even more because they receive money without knowing where you are.”
Liang Xin replied, his voice less worldly and softer when talking about family, “No, they won’t. I’ll just tell them I’m working abroad.”
Fan Peiyang looked at him indifferently and said, “But who will tell them?”
“The people upstairs have a chance to go back. After a certain period, I’ll have them help me check on my family and let them know I’m safe.”
“People upstairs? You mean the challengers?”
“Yes.”
After the transfer was completed, Liang Xin helped Fan Peiyang press the card return button and then returned the bank card to its owner. He asked, “Do you want to know how I contact the people upstairs?”
Fan Peiyang didn’t rush to put the bank card back into his pocket and inquired, “Do I need to pay for this information?”
“……” Liang Xin wished the whole world had bosses like this.
“Alright, I know you’re not short on money, but for the sake of our long-term cooperation, today I’ll share some valuable information with you…”
“When you advance to the upstairs levels, you not only have a chance to return to reality but also an opportunity to come back down here. Of course, you can’t stay for too long, and you can’t redo this particular challenge level. It’s more like a short-term journey. When the time is up, you automatically return to the upstair level. So usually, it’s when the factions need to pass on messages that they send people down…”
Fan Peiyang contemplated for a moment and asked, “So you mean a sizable faction usually has someone at each challenge level?”
Liang Xin: “And the higher you go, the more elite they become.”
“One last question,” Fan Peiyang recalled the clock next to the subway entrance, “Is the passage of time here the same as in reality?”
Liang Xin fell silent for a moment before slowly shaking his head, “Here, one year is equivalent to half a year in reality.”
Back in the attic, Liang Xin clicked on the arm icon, projecting an interface into the air. He opened his stationery box and selected [Gift]. Fan Peiyang did the same, opening his stationery box and choosing [Accept Gift].
In mid-air, the two interfaces that initially couldn’t see each other slowly merged into a shared interface visible to both.
Indeed, Liang Xin had just these stationeries, after this transaction with Fan Peiyang, he was completely sold out. However, Fan Peiyang was more interested in how he ensured the safety of his merchandise. “Aren’t you afraid of being robbed with so many stationeries?”
Liang Xin openly admitted, “Of course, that’s why I pay protection fees every month, so several factions protect me.”
Fan Peiyang raised an eyebrow slightly, finding the ecosystem of the underground city quite intriguing.
“Speaking of which,” Liang Xin became curious, “you transferred the payment to me without receiving the stationeries first. Aren’t you worried I might back out?”
Fan Peiyang shrugged nonchalantly: “Just a small loss if it happens, not a big deal.”
“……” Liang Xin decided to stop the conversation and focus on transferring the stationeries.
A few minutes later, the last item, <[Defense] Into the Mist>, also landed in Fan Peiyang’s stationery box. With the transaction completed, both parties were satisfied.
“This is a gift. Take it,” Liang Xin handed a bulging handbag to Boss Fan.
Fan Peiyang accepted it without checking and said, “If you receive new stationeries within seven days, contact me. If they are healing stationeries, I’ll pay you double the price you set, based on today’s transaction.”
He believed Liang Xin would find a way to reach him as long as he was still in the Underground City.
Liang Xin wasn’t surprised by this request; he had noticed Fan Peiyang’s interest in healing stationeries when he presented <[Heal] Pain Relief and Pain Stopping>. He never inquired about the reasons behind a customer’s needs, only their specific requirements. “There are many types of healing stationeries,” he replied, “if you have a specific direction in mind, feel free to let me know, and I’ll search for it.”
Fan Peiyang appreciated his attentiveness. “Ideally, it should be related to memory, something that can help recover lost memories. Repairing is also acceptable, fixing memories or addressing any adverse effects caused by the previous stationery, but it must not erase the healing effects of the previous stationery. That’s a strict requirement.”
Liang Xin gazed at his customer in silence. Fan Peiyang maintained an innocent demeanor and asked, “Hmm?”
Liang Xin finally responded, “Boss, this is stationery, not a custom-made product…” Even with money, there were limits to what they could do!
Leaving Liang Xin’s shop, the noise of the Underground City’s machinery seemed to have diminished slightly. Fan Peiyang checked the time on his phone; it was 5:40 PM, approaching evening.
With his handbag in tow, Fan Peiyang was about to retrace his steps to find his way back when someone approached him.
“Boss, I’ve got some even better stationeries here. Take a look?”
This person looked disheveled, with ragged clothes, unkempt hair, and sunken cheeks as if they hadn’t had a proper meal in days. However, it was clear that he wasn’t appearing out of nowhere; at the very least, he knew that Fan Peiyang had just completed a transaction with Liang Xin.
Usually, this kind of street vendor selling like they were peddling pirated DVDs either had pirated goods or something extraordinary to offer. Fan Peiyang didn’t mind taking a look and said, “Sure, let me see.”
The disheveled individual opened his darkened arm, revealing a single slot with something inside it, but the quantity was impressive.
<[Unique] I am VIP> x5
……
Underground Well, 6 PM
Tang Lin kept glancing at the time, Fan Peiyang still hadn’t come back.
Torn T-shirt and the two brothers were finishing off a can of eight treasure porridge. Now they were drinking water to fill the emptiness in their stomachs.
“I said there would be Night Roamers at night…” He was about to scold them, but met Tang Lin’s indifferent glance and shut up.
Zheng Luozhu handed a box of cookies to Tang Lin: “Eat something.”
Tang Lin accepted the cookies but didn’t eat them. Instead he turned to Torn T-shirt and asked: “Are the Night Roamers really that hard to deal with?”
“They really are,” Torn T-shirt hugged the water bottle, wishing he could show them an educational video, “They go roaming every seven nights, but on the day they receive notice that the level is open, they will definitely come out. Like I told you guys this morning, they don’t have a physical form, they’re just a mass of black fog, floating around like ghosts. How are you going to hit them? And they also like to go out in groups, so it’s a swarm attack…”
“But you also said that if you can successfully injure them, not only do you gain experience points, there’s also a chance to obtain stationery.” Tang Lin reminded him.
Experience points were those numbers they didn’t understand yet on the Stationery Tree.
For example [?/100/1] meant unlocking that permanent stationery required 100 experience points and passing the first level.
When Torn T-shirt mentioned the Night Roamers that morning, they first learned this from him. And fighting the Night Roamers was one way to obtain experience points.
Tang Lin: “If they’re like you said, the Night Roamers have no physical form, just fog, so how do you injure them?”
Torn T-shirt helplessly: “Yes, they will indeed take physical form under certain circumstances, which is when they attack!”
Tang Lin quieted down, unconsciously rubbing the cookie packaging and making faint sounds.
Zheng Luozhu looked at the graffiti wall worriedly.
Only attacking would make them take physical form, which meant upon encountering Night Roamers, either run, or grit your teeth and take their attack head on, only then is there a chance to fight back.
“Actually there are dangers after dark besides the Night Roamers,” Chubby carefully spoke up, “There are also many strange animals, big and small, cow-like or not cow-like, sheep-like or not sheep-like, cat-like or not cat-like, dog-like or not dog-like, all very bizarre and fierce…”
“Psst—”
Chubby looked back and disdained Zheng Luozhu: “I haven’t even gotten to the truly scary part yet, and you’re already gasping. What will you do later?”
Zheng Luozhu was as wronged as a June snowstorm: “When did I ever gasp.”
“Psst—”
Torn T-shirt, Chubby, Chubby: “…”
Zheng Luozhu: “…”
Tang Lin suddenly stood up, looking out past the metal mesh, into the smooth, obscure darkness that seemed to stretch on endlessly ahead.
“Psst— Psst—”
Amidst the faint sound of flowing water, bizarre hissing grew nearer and nearer.
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