Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Boss, why are you standing outside in a daze?” Bella saw Lin Jie’s astonished expression and giggled. “It’s a huge surprise, right?”
“Ah… ah, a little.” Lin Jie’s eyes opened wide with curiosity as he first touched the potion racks and moved on to the inventories with 400 block spaces. He thought that even Bella had become prettier and almost pinched her cheeks to check.
Bella raised her chest in pride as her beautiful figure clad in a qipao swayed, and she giggled. “Sky Provisions Shop has undergone rapid development for the past 2 months. Seven Ears said that since you didn’t care about the shop, he was going to set a new strategy. He doesn’t allow me to tell you because he wants to give you a surprise.”
“Erm… Bella, it’s not very nice to speak ill of me when the boss is here.” Seven Ears popped out from the second floor, running down hurriedly with his arms wide open. He said loudly, “Boss, welcome to Sky Provisions Shop!”
Lin Jie was thoroughly amazed, he had only been away for a short period of time, what had happened to the store?
It turned out that Seven Ears had been waiting for Lin Jie’s order to expand, but it had never come. Seeing how well the shop’s business was, he had decided to proceed with the expansion.
Loaning was the first step. Although the shop had quite a large amount of savings, they were insufficient if they wanted to expand out wide and strong. Hence, Seven Ears had gotten in touch with several hardware stores for sponsorships. To his surprise, 9 out of 10 stores had not required an interest, because Sky Provisions Shop had provided them with augmenting gems for job-changing missions, and equipment for dungeons missions, lower than the market rate when they had been in need of them.
Although those solo players did not have high combat power and abilities, but when countless of them came together, the power of teamwork was massive! Those players had provided the shop with 120,000 gold coins with zero interest.
The second step was expansion! They would start off by building the foundation floor and then upgrade to higher floors as they progressed. It cost 100,000 gold coins to expand 5 floors of the shop! And the price would only increase with the number of floors.
The third step would be to recruit a considerable number of professional Living Job gamers, and this was not hard for Sky Provisions Shop, which was already in direct contact with Brotherhood and possessed a large amount of solo player information and resources.
“Boss, let me bring you around.” Seven Ears was about to let Lin Jie have a look around the shop when a loud growl sounded from the second floor.
“Seven Ears, you are late by 60 seconds! 60 seconds! How long are you going to take? I am waiting for your slurry!”
Seven Ears twitched his lips and said, “This madman used up my slurry again. Bella, keep the Boss company, I don’t believe I can’t fulfill his needs.”
Bella laughed gently and nodded. “Go on, go on. Boss, let’s take a look at the second floor. Oh right, the little Priest that you sent is waiting on the 5th floor, you can look for him later.”
Lin Jie followed Bella’s footsteps and felt that visiting this familiar yet strangely unacquainted shop was an interesting experience.
The second floor was specifically for the potion rooms, there were more than 20 Potioneer Apprentices other than the 2 super Potioneers, which were the Potion King, Seven Ears, and Potion Maniac. The apprentices were a bunch of highly talented professional Living Job gamers that were about to break through to middle-grade.
Lin Jie spotted a couple of familiar names from his previous life: Drowning Fish, Sisters Flowers A.VI…, etc. Seven Ears seemed to have a pretty good eye, it was evident from the talents he had drawn in!
“Boss!”
“He is the secret boss behind Sky Provisions Shop, Codename Lone Wolf?”
“Boss, I joined Sky Provisions Shop because of you, can I please have your autograph…”
The Potioneers grew excited, they knew long ago that the Provisions Shop’s secret boss was the Brotherhood leader, the sensational Codename Lone Wolf. Now, they had finally met him.
Lin Jie smiled as he took out the [Magus Berserker Potionery] from his book and placed it on the table. “Whoever’s Potionery improves the most within the next 5 days will get to learn from this Potion Book.”
“…”
Other than the Potioneers, even Seven Ears sucked in a cold breath of air. After the Perfect Natural Potion, this was the second Potionery Book he had ever seen—Magus Berserker Potionery!
“Ahhhhhhhhh! Magus Berserker Potionery already sounds powerful! I want it!”
“Get lost, that’s mine, I am about to break through to middle-grade.”
“What’s the big deal about middle-grade? I’ll reach superior-grade soon! This book is mine!” Suddenly, a shout burst out from a corner.
It was the Potion Maniac! His potions were piled into a mountain in front of him as compared to the others that had neatly arranged their potions on the shelves! Potion Maniac was indeed a madman, he had been making potions all the time for days, and his two-month salary was a startling amount of 450,000$! If Living Job players like Domestic Fat Cattle and Ophadi Wantless were to learn of that, they would probably want to die.
Bella whispered, “Seven Ears is also about to reach superior-grade and become a Superior Potioneer. However, he is to keep up with Potion Maniac that works for 20 hours a day. Hence, both of them are extremely competitive and always trying to get one up each other.”
Lin Jie pondered, it wasn’t easy to break through superior-grade. At the final stage, one would have to refine a potion that exceeded their current grade! Lin Jie would have to help them then as he couldn’t afford to lose these two talents.
“Let’s go Boss, these Potioneers were all recruited by Seven Ears, and they are all excellent at their crafts. Once they are in the zone, you will not be able to distract them even with infinite wealth.” Bella giggled and led Lin Jie upstairs.
The third floor’s blazing heat was due to the Smithing Zone! There were countless furnaces burning in the gigantic space as brand new equipment was produced. Many Blacksmiths had been recruited, but none had reached the middle-grade.
The fourth floor was much larger as compared.
“The fourth floor is the Synthesis Chamber. The Provisions Shop can only be built to level 5 because your nobility rank is insufficient, so we invited a Great Space Mage from Holy Church to cast Space Overlap. This floor is about 5 times the size of the other floors, and it contains the Enchantment Chamber, Disintegration Chamber, Engineering Laboratory, Leather Manufacturing Laboratory, and Smeltery. Your friend, Innocent Killer lectures here occasionally.” Bella laughed gently as she guided Lin Jie to the fifth floor.
There were at least 100 people gathered on the fifth floor!
Some of them were players from Brotherhood, and they were all crowding and clustering like admirers around a girl with pigtails. They were all carrying various types of snacks, fruits, and barbequed meats…
It seemed as though they were having a birthday party for the little girl.
“Don’t be anxious, don’t rush! Brother Lone Wolf has given word, I will only enhance 100 equipment every day. I will enhance those that bring me good food, the rest can wait till tomorrow!” Tsundere Phoenix grabbed a piece of Barbecued Simon Behemoth Hind Leg and started chewing, unbeknownst to the drop of meat juice that hung from her lips. She said carelessly, “Alright, alright, I am going to begin the enhancing soon. As long as you give me something good, I will enhance your equipment, simple as that— Eh, Big Brother, Big Brother!”
Tsundere Phoenix spotted Lin Jie and exclaimed delightedly as she ran over, “Good morning Big Brother! Long time, no see.”
Lin Jie was stunned, then Bella hurriedly explained, “This is the enhancement chamber specifically for her, her enhancement success rates were so high that even Seven Ears had to give her this special privilege. Hehe, these players have to exchange 1,000 points from the Brotherhood for one chance of enhancement. The fifth floor is also used to welcome VIPs occasionally due to its great ambiance.”
“So that is how it is…” Lin Jie ruffled Tsundere Phoenix’s cute head and asked, “You seemed to be enjoying your stay here?”
“Of course, these people are always giving me good food, I can’t stop them.” Tsundere Phoenix pouted with a look of reluctance even though she continued chewing and looked content.
Everyone scratched their heads awkwardly and replied, “Yeah, we are the ones that wanted to give them to Sister Phoenix.”
“Sister Phoenix?” Lin Jie laughed out. ‘Seems like this chick has some capability.’
The fifth floor was dedicated to housing Tsundere Phoenix’s enhancement chamber. Lin Jie had originally asked her to enhance the equipment of 100 men per day, but she had changed it to 100 equipment per day. That greatly reduced her workload and stress, so she had begun leading her princess life.
In-game food was indeed better tasting as compared to reality, plus she would receive a salary on top of her earnings, what harm would there be? Even the large guilds such as Triumphant Midnight and Hunter’s Guild had to join the Brotherhood, accumulate enough points, and get a number before they could enter and get her to enhance their equipment.
How many people in The New Age were able to have a 100% success rate for +5 enhancement?
Even +7 and +8 enhancements were possible if Tsundere Phoenix was in a good mood. Thus, the fifth floor had become her exclusive floor.
“Phoenix, the mission I assigned you was to enhance the equipment of 100 people per day, not 100 equipment, stop eating!” Lin Jie flicked her tiny forehead as he put on a stern face, “How long have you been lazing around?”
“Ah? 100 people!” Tsundere Phoenix’s happy face crumbled. “Brother, enhancement is really tiring, and the furnace is huge, it’s so tough to move it…”
“Oh, really? Then isn’t it tiring for you to eat?” Lin Jie glared and said to the rest, “Everyone, pack the snacks and hand them to Bella.
“Bella, in the future, don’t give Phoenix any food if she doesn’t work.”
“Wuwu… don’t, don’t, I will get down to work.” Tsundere Phoenix hugged the furnace tearfully and said pitifully, “Come, I shall enhance…”
The crowd swarmed up!
Everyone thought, as compared to boosting their abilities, it’s fine if they let Little Loli suffer just a bit. At most, they would buy her more tasty snacks in the future.
At this moment, the shy little Priest Fire Bomb finally found a chance to speak, and he said cautiously, ” Boss Lone Wolf… My name is Fire Bomb, and I am a Fire Gun Specialist, I have the confidence that I can produce the best Fire Gun for you.”
Lin Jie’s mouth curled as he patted Fire Bomb’s shoulders and said, “Great, Fire Bomb, right? You shall start working here from today onwards, on the same floor as Tsundere Phoenix. Look for Seven Ears or Bella if you need any materials. I shall wait for your fire gun.”
“Ah! Thank… Thank you, thank you!” Fire Bomb trembled with excitement as he lost the ability to speak clearly. He was like a fan that had just received hugs and praises from his idol. This was the legendary Lone Wolf! He was extremely honored to be able to work for him, this news would definitely garner jealousy and envy.
