Cheng Shuili stepped forward, continuing with a smile, "Of course, I won't ask you to die, nor will I ask you to throw your life away. I guarantee that you can earn plenty of game coins; it's just that for some matters, you must listen to me."
The monster merchant stared blankly at Cheng Shuili, taking quite a while to process what her demands were.
Its only purpose in wanting to join Cheng Shuili's safe zone was to earn game coins. A prerequisite for earning those coins was, naturally, staying alive. Since Cheng Shuili had already guaranteed both, it could fully agree to her terms.
However, it still felt a bit uneasy.
"You won't use me to harm my own race, will you? Even though I escaped, my roots are there. I would absolutely never agree to that kind of condition."
The skeleton's face wore an expression of unyielding defiance, as if Cheng Shuili were some heinous villain.
Although Cheng Shuili didn't voice it, she remembered every single thing this guy had done, clear as day; she just hadn't settled the score yet.
"Of course not," Cheng Shuili said, her eyes curving and her lips hooked into a gentle arc.
This smile sent a chill down Su Rui's spine as she watched from the sidelines, and she couldn't help but quietly retreat half a step.
The monster merchant, however, was oblivious, even eagerly leaning forward as its bone joints emitted soft clicking sounds.
"I assure you," Cheng Shuili's voice was as soft as a breeze, "I will never use you to harm your people. After all... we are partners now, aren't we?"
A jubilant expression appeared on the monster merchant's exposed skull. It rubbed its bony, articulate palms together and asked impatiently, "Then shall we sign the contract now? Just issue me the permit to enter your safe zone. I don't care if there's no house; I can set up a stall or build one myself! As long as you, Lord of the territory, are willing to take me in!"
Cheng Shuili unhurriedly produced a trade contract with dozens of clauses written out. She stared at the terms, thinking for a moment to ensure nothing was missing, before handing it to the monster merchant.
"If there are no issues, sign this first."
The monster merchant looked bewildered. It had indeed agreed to sign a trade contract with Cheng Shuili, but this first clause...
What did it mean to willingly be used by the master, Cheng Shuili, via a Territory Servant Card?
What was this?!!
Didn't this person just say they were partners?
Was she not even going to pretend for the first clause of the trade contract?!
The monster merchant revealed its upper row of teeth, missing one, and raised a hand to wipe a forehead that couldn't produce cold sweat, then asked cautiously, "Aren't we discussing doing business in your safe zone? What does this Territory Servant Card mean? Aren't we partners?"
It believed its tone was sufficiently careful and respectful toward this human.
Yet, she suddenly raised an eyebrow, and the gentle mask on her face vanished in an instant, leaving only a cold, scrutinizing gaze.
"What does it mean?" She chuckled softly, tapping her fingertip against the clause. "It means I don't trust you."
The monster merchant's skeleton frame stiffened.
"Partners?" Cheng Shuili repeated the word with slow deliberation, her tone carrying undisguised mockery. "Didn't you just say I was ignorant and stupid as hell? Now you want to talk about cooperation with me; don't you find that laughable?"
She pressed forward a step. Despite being shorter than the tall skeleton, her presence completely overwhelmed it.
"If you want to enter my safe zone and earn game coins on my turf, fine. But the prerequisite is that your life and death must be entirely under my control. The Territory Servant Card is that guarantee. Sign it, and you live; you earn money. If you don't sign..."
Cheng Shuili paused, her gaze sweeping over the monster merchant's empty eye sockets. Her voice was light, yet carried a lethal chill.
"If you don't sign, you'll still have to sign. I believe the last experience should have convinced you that I have the strength to make that happen, right?"
The monster merchant felt a chill seep into its very bones, triggered by the murderous intent in her words.
The cold wind whistled; it was the first time the monster merchant felt that a skeleton should also wear clothes.
It had no doubt that if it dared to say "no," this human, who flipped her attitude faster than a book, would strike immediately.
If she actually attacked, its skeleton frame would likely end up fractured.
Humans have tendons to hold their broken bones together, but it didn't have such things!
If it fractured, it would truly fall apart!
Having been out on the streets for so long, the monster merchant understood the logic of when to yield and when to stand tall!
And so, its previous "unyielding" backbone shattered into nothingness in the face of a genuine death threat.
"I'll sign! I'll sign it!"
The monster merchant shouted in a hurry, its bone claws trembling as it took the contract. It didn't even dare look at the harsh clauses again, wanting only to escape this suffocating pressure. "As long as I can get into the safe zone, I'll sign anything!"
Watching it nimbly leave a name at the end of the contract and feeling the agreement take effect, Cheng Shuili's lips curled into an extremely faint arc once more.
"Very good."
She put away the contract and, with a thought, a card appeared in her hand.
It was the Territory Servant Card taken from the Abyss Ring.
"Don't resist."
She said, choosing to use it on the monster merchant!
The moment it took effect, the massive skeleton frame vanished abruptly, leaving only two humans at the gas station.
This wasn't the first time Su Rui had seen her boss use this card, so naturally, she wasn't surprised.
The moment the monster merchant disappeared, Cheng Shuili recalled a key issue—her territory, which was already packed with people, had no room to accommodate this conspicuous skeleton frame?
Almost simultaneously, the regional channel exploded.
"Holy crap! A skeleton just spawned in the Black Feather territory!!"
"Where? Where?!"
"Right by the farmland! It scared the hell out of me. I was squatting there studying the crops, and when I looked up, I met a pair of black hollow eye sockets!"
"Isn't this a safe zone? Where did a monster come from?!!"
"Is it a monster? Isn't the safe zone supposed to be absolutely safe?!!"
"This thing looks familiar, but I can't remember where I've seen it."
"Wait, wait?! You guys said skeleton, and it just clicked! I was pushed to the side earlier and saw a real monster; isn't this the monster merchant from the gas station?!! How did it get to Black Feather's territory?!"
"What's going on? You're saying this guy is an NPC??"
"If you ask me, Black Feather isn't safe enough. Everyone, let's get out of here; this safe zone isn't safe! If there are any more people, I'm going to be squeezed to death!"
"That abacus is clicking way too loud!!"
Cheng Shuili rubbed her temples and turned to Su Rui. "Let's head back first. This guy will be under your management from now on."
Su Rui was stunned. "Me?"
"Yes." Cheng Shuili nodded. "You are familiar with its tactics and know best how to guard against it. You will be responsible for supervising and recording all of its future trades. Earnings will be deducted according to territory rules, and you can negotiate the distribution of the rest yourselves."
Watching Cheng Shuili's calm profile, the lingering resentment Su Rui felt from the past was suddenly suppressed by a heavy sense of trust.
She took a deep breath and responded solemnly, "Yes, Boss. I will keep an eye on it."
The two returned to their vehicle, and Cheng Shuili instantly arrived at the noisy, chaotic Black Feather territory.
Cheng Shuili appeared in an area not open to non-Black Feather players. She stood on the second-floor balcony of the lord's residence, overlooking the bustling crowd below.
It was a literal sea of people, comparable to the tourist spots in the Dragon Country during the National Day holiday.
Players surged like a tide through the designated public areas, filling nearly every inch of land.
On the edge of the commercial area planned not far away, that conspicuous skeleton frame was pitifully huddled in a corner, separated by a semi-transparent barrier set by the system, surrounded by players pointing and whispering.
"Seriously, this skeleton feels like it might have a decent texture."
"This counts as something from the Black Feather safe zone, right? We all paid the entry fee; Crow Boss wouldn't be so petty as to not let us touch it, would she?"
"What is that foreigner over there babbling about? Wait, is this real-time translation?"
Once those words were out, the noisy Dragon Country crowd suddenly went quiet. They had been watching the monster merchant like a monkey, but now they picked a random foreigner and stared intently.
The foreigner, who had been babbling on, turned beet red under the intense gaze of so many people and finally shut his mouth.
A group of people who hadn't participated in the full-server dungeon seemed to have discovered a new continent, talking excitedly: "It really is real-time translation!"
"I don't know English anyway, but I actually understood it just now."
"I understood it too, how magical!"
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Cheng Shuili pulled up the safe zone management panel and acted quickly.
【Territory Announcement: The Black Feather territory has officially accepted 'Monster Merchant Bone-Er' as a territory merchant. Its business scope is intelligence trading; specific locations and trading rules will be announced later. Please note that any form of violence within the territory is prohibited; violators will be punished by the system and permanently expelled.】
The announcement scrolled by three times, and the direction of the players' discussions shifted immediately.
"So it's a special NPC!"
"Isn't this the merchant from the trading post? Crow Boss actually tricked the merchant into the safe zone!"
"Crow Boss is awesome! Getting the first merchant so quickly!"
"Intelligence? Sounds high-end!"
"Asking, when will trading open? What are the conditions?"
Cheng Shuili closed the noisy regional channel and fixed her gaze on Bone-Er in the corner.
It seemed to have finally gained permission, and the monster grew confident. It produced a cloth from somewhere, shook it flat on the ground, and cleared its throat twice. Seeing the crowd in front of it quiet down, it tapped its fan and began doing business just as it had at the gas station.
The first piece of intelligence was free; the second cost nearly everything the player had, capped at 100,000 game coins.
Its first piece of intelligence always managed to touch the players' hearts, often concerning the things they cared about most. Because of this, most players chose to pay, even though the intelligence was quite expensive.
Cheng Shuili watched for a while. Seeing that there was no trouble and that a line had consciously formed in front of its shop, she felt much more at ease.
This counted as the first small shop in Black Feather, and it had officially opened for business today.
To develop, these shopkeepers were indispensable. It seemed that when necessary, she would have to poach some talent from the beastman town.
And... Cheng Shuili thought of another question.
Among humans, there must be those with the ability to open shops, right?
Just like how Wanyue could open a restaurant, and Zhou Zhuxing could open a seed shop.
The human race still had hope.
Cheng Shuili was amused by her own thoughts. Just as she was about to open the regional channel to post an announcement, she saw a debt collection reminder.
【Emergency Notice: An abnormal transaction flow has been detected in player 'Angry Crow Takes Flight's account. Upon verification, it has been determined that during the purchase of the 'Rule Service Interface — Novice Safe Zone Absolute Protection Barrier' service, a payment loop BUG was triggered due to unknown reasons.】
【System Processing Plan:】
【1. Terminate the abnormal deduction process immediately.】
【Termination successful!】
【2. Recover the 'Novice Safe Zone Absolute Protection Barrier' service issued due to the BUG error.】
【453 services recovered... 6 services remaining in recovery...】
【Error... Error...】
【Activated services cannot be recovered...】
The last page popped up several times.
Although Cheng Shuili didn't fully understand the system's working mechanism, she understood what this meant.
6 services could not be recovered, and the effective duration of one service was one month—this was six whole months!
Six months of activation time, six months of peace!
But this also meant she owed the system six million.
Cheng Shuili glanced at her balance: negative four million plus.
Four million plus?!
Cheng Shuili was a bit stunned. She still had some game coins, but definitely not that many!
In other words, in the short time the safe zone had been open... the 100-game-coin tickets per person had already earned her over a million?
Was this money coming in too fast?
Even Cheng Shuili, who had seen plenty of the world, couldn't help but gasp.
This was too much!
No wonder this system service only sold for one million; earning game coins after establishing a safe zone was just too simple.
Cheng Shuili had never realized that making money could be such a relaxed affair.
And paying in advance could be considered a good thing; otherwise, the Rat King might have already attacked by the time she saved up a million game coins.
Everything was the best possible outcome.
Cheng Shuili lamented that she finally had a stroke of luck. Just as she intended to close the debt collection page, she found the system had popped up a new page:
【3. Issue a warning announcement to player Angry Crow Takes Flight once!】
【Announcement made!】
What was this? Cheng Shuili opened the regional channel and saw the pinned announcement.
【Player 'Angry Crow Takes Flight' has improperly profited by exploiting a system vulnerability, with an outstanding debt of 4,628,780 game coins! A warning is hereby issued! We hope all players will take this as a cautionary tale, abide by the rules, and play fairly!】
This world announcement scrolled by three times, like a ladle of cold water poured into a boiling pot of oil, and the entire player community instantly exploded!
"Holy crap! What does this announcement say?? Is it Chinese? Why can't I understand it?!"
Rate on N.U.
