Chapter 335: Gourmet Food and the Bizarre

Chapter 335: Chapter 2: Gourmet Food and the Bizarre

The forums were surprisingly full of content about the event. Even on the third day after it ended, the related forums were still incredibly lively.

Threads for trading and selling all sorts of items were an absolute mess. Hundreds of new posts appeared every second, making it impossible to keep up even by constantly refreshing.

Realizing it was difficult to find any useful information, Little Fatty decisively took action. He programmed on his high-end phone and quickly created a simple indexing system.

Then, after some adjustments by Duan Fei, it became a forum search tool that allowed him to conveniently index more information and find what he was looking for.

After trying it out, Duan Fei remarked, “Little Fatty, with a skill like this, you wouldn’t even starve in prison.”

“Guild Leader, if you don’t know how to give a compliment, please just shut up. Thanks.”

“For someone in your line of work, isn’t ending up in the slammer an affirmation of your career?”

“Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about hackers? Although, I admit I am *that* kind of hacker.”

Watching from the side, Jinghong looked at Duan Fei and Little Fatty’s interaction with considerable envy. She wanted something like that for herself.

After all, her conversations with Duan Fei were always a bit restrained. She really envied the kind of brotherly atmosphere where they could trade barbs with each other.

‘Later, when no one’s around, I’ll have to give it a try.’

Meanwhile, Duan Fei held his phone and started searching the forums using the plugin Little Fatty had made. He quickly found a lot of information that interested him.

But the forums were full of trolls and scammers. The moderator of the trading section, Zhao Gongming, even pinned a trade warning, reminding everyone that non-official trades weren’t secure and that you were on your own if you got scammed.

Even so, tons of players still got scammed. Reading the posts from the victims was part of the fun.

Of course, what interested Duan Fei the most were the threads about Divine Artifacts or legendary items.

Currently, there were only two ways to obtain a Divine Artifact: from deeper-level dungeons or from event lottery tickets.

The deeper dungeons required Level 20 to enter. At that point, players would go through their first Profession advancement.

After the advancement, their existing Profession prefixes would be integrated into their Profession, and they would then get new ones.

More Professional Skills would unlock, giving players more interesting ways to play.

Eight Desolates had already been to the deeper dungeons, but he said the difficulty was too high. He didn’t plan on exploring them further for a while, so he was just sticking to the city areas.

Therefore, the main source of Divine Artifacts right now was still the event lottery tickets.

Looking at the threads, Duan Fei discovered that the Divine Artifact drawing had become a lottery-like event, personally organized by the administrator, Zhao Gongming. Players could donate event points into a pool. Once the pool reached 500,000 points, a drawing was held. The resulting item would be sold, and the event points or Abyss Coins would be proportionally returned to everyone who contributed.

The items put up for sale would be available for a buyout price or through auction.

For an auction, the item would have a starting price. Any player could place a bid before the auction ended. After the time was up, the item would be sent to the highest bidder.

Currently, Abyss had tens of millions of concurrent players and over a hundred million real players in total. This massive player base meant the auction house was filled with items, including plenty of good stuff.

To prevent players from bidding and not buying, auctions also required a security deposit. If you won the bid but didn’t pay within a certain time, the deposit would be forfeited.

There were two main strategies for tackling these auctions.

The first was the “fishing” method: place a small bid on every item you want. When the auctions end, you might snag one or two that slipped through the cracks and make a profit.

The other was the “sniping” method: place a large bid at the last second before an auction ends to snatch the item away.

After looking for a while, Duan Fei found a legendary item he really wanted and immediately bought it.

“Prophetic Robot: Uncontaminated, Gold.

Description: This is a small robot with an unknown Energy source. Each player can use it once per calendar day to learn their luck for the day and what they need to watch out for.

Please note: The robot’s prophecies are self-fulfilling. If you find out your luck is bad, it’s best not to play the game today, or something might go wrong.”

The Prophetic Robot cost Duan Fei 100,000 points. He used the remaining 1.4 million points, along with the script Little Fatty made, to bid on other items he wanted using both auction strategies.

Once he was done, Duan Fei said to Little Fatty and Cuihua, “Alright, let’s go complete the trial for that Divine Artifact. Then Cuihua can cook for us. I can’t wait.”

Cuihua couldn’t speak, but she looked at Duan Fei with gratitude.

Jinghong didn’t say anything either. She just checked the time in the real world and said to Duan Fei, “Remember to log off early when you’re done. I’m making dinner tonight. How about vermicelli scallops, garlic shrimp, and tomato beef?”

“No problem.”

“And after dinner, remember to come with me to buy pajamas. The ones I brought are too warm.”

“Got it. See you later.”

Little Fatty watched Duan Fei and Jinghong, his jaw on the floor the entire time.

After Cuihua activated the ancient Flat-bottomed Pan, turning a fire door into a dungeon entrance, the group walked inside. Only then did Little Fatty pull Duan Fei aside and ask, “Duan Someone, what’s your relationship with Jinghong?”

“We’re living together.”

“…Isn’t that a little fast?”

“We’re bros living together. What’s fast about that?”

Staring at Duan Fei, Little Fatty thought, ‘This guy is usually so smart. How does he get so dense when it comes to women?’

After a moment of thought, he asked, “So how do you two usually hang out?”

“Nothing much. We just cook together, play games together, watch horror movies together… When we get tired, we turn on the AC and sleep together. It’s no big deal.”

Little Fatty squinted at Duan Fei. He wanted to give him a push, but then again, he felt this situation was pretty good as it was.

‘They’re young,’ he thought. ‘Let the ambiguity simmer for a bit, and something will eventually happen.’

Even though he wasn’t older than Duan Fei, he still put an arm around Duan Fei’s shoulders with a mischievous grin. “When you two finally make it official, remember to treat me to a meal.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ll get it when the time comes.”

And so, amidst Little Fatty’s mischievous laughter and Cuihua’s anticipation, the trial for the Divine Artifact began.

Before them stood a Daoist School.

The three players stood at the entrance, looking at the Daoist School before them and beginning to observe their surroundings.

Duan Fei looked at Cuihua and Little Fatty and saw they were both in modern-looking outfits. He guessed this dungeon must be set in the modern era.

The main gate of the Daoist School was shut tight. A massive ginkgo tree grew in the courtyard, its yellow leaves blanketing the ground.

Suddenly, Duan Fei felt like something was staring at him.

He whipped his head around and saw a pale shadow flash past behind him. But when he looked closely, there was nothing there.

Then, with a CREAK, the courtyard gate in front of them opened. A Little Daoist appeared in the doorway and said to the three of them, “Benefactors, you have arrived.”