Chapter 22

Of course, learning a recipe doesn't mean you can immediately make it. Anyone can learn a recipe, but you must also master the relevant life skills and prepare the necessary materials to make it.

As for the lavender essence, the required materials are several types of fresh flowers and plant oil. These can be bought, and currently, no player can produce plant oil, so it can only be purchased from NPCs at a price of 10 silver coins per bottle. As for the flowers, they are quite cheap. Some casual players enter the game just to play around, planting flowers and such, mostly women, and the price of flowers is very low, so buying in bulk doesn't cost much.

As for life skills, you just need to know alchemy, with no specific level requirements, though the synthesis process can be a bit troublesome.

Yang Ye first ran to learn the alchemy skill, then used the more than a hundred gold coins he had left to buy a large amount of flowers and plant oil.

One portion of lavender essence requires 2 white lilies, 3 tulips, 1 hyacinth, 4 cherry blossoms, and one bottle of concentrated plant oil, totaling 15 silver coins.

With the materials prepared, Yang Ye found a quiet corner outside the trading hall and began making the lavender essence.

[system: You have started making lavender essence, synthesizing...]

When Yang Ye clicked "start making," he saw a few small words under "start making" in his miner's hat—after successful creation, 2 portions of lavender essence will be synthesized.

He immediately canceled the process, the small words disappeared, and when he clicked "start making" again, the small words reappeared—after successful creation, 1 portion of lavender essence will be synthesized.

He canceled again, clicked "start making" once more, and the small words changed—this time, 3 portions of lavender essence would be synthesized!

Yang Ye was overjoyed. Although it was a bit troublesome, he could maximize his profits, and the only downside was that it took a bit more time. But that wasn't a problem!

Learning about this exciting function of the miner's hat, Yang Ye was no longer sleepy. He focused on making the lavender essence.

After repeated experiments, Yang Ye figured out some tricks. The maximum he could get was 5 portions, and the minimum was a failure, with nothing produced. Generally, out of 14 or 15 attempts, one would yield the maximum. Yang Ye didn't aim for the maximum; he would directly make it when he got 3 portions.

After more than an hour of busy work, all the materials were used up, and he had made over 2600 portions of essence, costing 125 gold coins.

Looking at the tens of thousands of portions of essence in his backpack, Yang Ye felt it was worth it despite his fatigue.

He took out 100 portions, listed them in the trading hall with a starting bid of 1 gold coin each, for a 6-hour auction, without a buyout price. Then he went to the forum and anonymously posted a thread, roughly saying that something magical had appeared in the auction house that could greatly reduce the difficulty of clearing the Orc Tribe, and the guild leaders competing for the first kill (Yang Ye had opened the dungeon but not achieved the first kill, which was still up for grabs) should act quickly. Everyone knew it was an advertisement, but they couldn't help but look, as everyone wanted the first kill, including the guild leaders.

After finishing everything, Yang Ye logged out of the game, took a shower, and went to bed without eating dinner.

Around 6:30 PM, Yang Ye was woken up by a phone call from Qin Yan, inviting him to have dinner. Yang Ye hesitated for a moment but eventually got up.

"Qin Yan," Yang Ye said while chewing his food.

"Hmm? Is there something you need?" Qin Yan asked.

"Let's go buy a helmet, and play the game together?"

"No... no... I don't know how to play, and the helmet is expensive, over a thousand yuan, right?" Qin Yan hesitated. Although she had already paid off 100,000 yuan of debt, it was Yang Ye who had paid it off. Despite agreeing to be his girlfriend, she still wanted to be clear about things. Besides, Yang Ye had set a condition of 300,000 yuan... even 30,000 yuan would be difficult for her.

"Don't worry, money isn't a problem. You can work while trying the game. If you think it has potential, you can stay and continue playing. If not, you can quit and continue working. How about that?" Yang Ye said, not knowing if the essence in the auction had sold yet, but hoping the guild leaders would act quickly.

Qin Yan didn't say anything, which Yang Ye took as a yes.

After dinner and a short rest, it was already 7:30 PM. The two of them changed clothes and headed to the TOST game-themed store to buy equipment.

The Linjiang Flower Sea Theme Park is a city planning project located by the river, with a well-designed layout. It includes a financial street, high-end residential areas, a large trade zone, and this theme park. Across the river is a train station.

The superior geographical location has attracted many investors. The city's only TOST game-themed store is located on the first floor of the largest trade center, Huayu International, occupying an entire floor.

Yang Ye had been there once before, dreaming of working there. But now, he felt it wasn't that important.

"Let's go in," Yang Ye said, holding Qin Yan's hand. She had never been to such a place before and felt a bit timid and scared, tightly gripping Yang Ye's hand.

The bright and soft lighting here made Yang Ye and Qin Yan feel like they were under a spotlight, making them feel uneasy and hesitant. This was a long-standing sense of inferiority. Even though it was his second time, he still felt a bit intimidated by the bright lights.

"Hello, welcome," the receptionist said with a professional smile, and Yang Ye nodded politely.

Stepping into the hall, Yang Ye suddenly felt all his fears disappear. He thought, he didn't need to be afraid of these things; he could have them in the future, so why be afraid?

He firmly held Qin Yan's shoulder, gave her a reassuring smile, and led her around the store.

...

At 11:00 PM, the two returned home. They installed the external devices for the helmet and informed Qin Yan that she could play by putting on the helmet and turning on the power. Since Qin Yan had to work the next day, she wouldn't play tonight. If there were any issues, they could deal with them tomorrow.

Yang Ye put on the helmet and logged into the game.

As soon as he logged in, he received a system notification:

[system: You have received a new email.]

He opened it and saw that the lavender essence he had listed had sold for 12 gold coins per portion, with a total of 100 emails. The highest price was 33 gold coins, and the lowest was 12 gold coins.

100 portions of essence, with a total profit of 1680 gold coins! After deducting the 15 silver coins cost and 1.5% handling fee, the net profit was 1640 gold coins!

What a profit! Yang Ye thought, feeling the monopoly was great.

After some thought, he listed 500 more portions at 7 gold coins each, and they were all sold out immediately. Although 500 seemed like a lot, it was a drop in the bucket for millions of players.

He listed another 1000 portions at 7 gold coins each, and this time it sold more slowly. Everyone seemed to be waiting, unsure how many more would be available. If a large number suddenly appeared, buying now would be a loss.

A few minutes later, the 1000 portions were also sold out.

At this point, Yang Ye stopped selling. He had 1500 portions left. The market was already hesitant, so he couldn't release more, or the price would keep falling. He needed to make them feel the scarcity to control the price.

In total, he sold 1600 portions of essence, not counting the first 100. The remaining 1500 portions sold at 7 gold coins each, totaling 10,500 gold coins. After deducting the cost and handling fee, the net profit was 10,117.5 gold coins! Adding the previous 1640 gold coins, Yang Ye had earned 11,757.5 gold coins tonight!

Looking at the string of gold coins in his backpack, Yang Ye felt for the first time that money was so easy to earn! Before the gold coins lost value, he divided them into four parts, 3000 gold coins each, and the last 1000 separately, and exchanged them for RMB online. The exchange rate was getting lower, now at 1:80, and it might drop to 70 tomorrow, so it was better to act quickly.

10,000 gold coins, at 80 RMB per gold coin, totaled 800,000 RMB! Now, Yang Ye could call himself a small capitalist, and beating up Qin Dongsheng would be easy.

Satisfied, he patted his pocket and thought about his next steps:

He needed to continue leveling up. The top player was now level 27, and because of a treasure hunt quest, Yang Ye had fallen behind again. He needed to continue making essence, as it was a monopoly period, and he should earn as much as possible before others got the recipe. There were also hidden quests in the city that he needed to complete, one for gold equipment and another for a special title. He also needed to keep up with the dungeons to know what was needed to make money.

After thinking it through, he decided to level up first.

He sent a gold coin to Lilina and said playfully, "Hey, you have to accompany me today!"

Lilina's eyes lit up, and she bit and blew on the gold coin, ignoring Yang Ye. She mumbled, "Okay, Lilina knows, remember to give gold coins."

Yang Ye was frustrated and pinched Lilina's cheek as they headed toward level 20 monsters.

The Out-of-Control Mechanical Beast is a level 20 mechanical monster, with high attack speed but low durability, making it suitable for Yang Ye to farm. Earning 800,000 RMB today put him in a great mood, and his farming efficiency increased.

[system: You have received a message.]

It was from Zhulong, the leader of the Chinese server, who seemed to have some free time today.

"What's up, Zhulong?"

"Do you want to sell the spirit gear?" Zhulong asked directly.

"Not selling. Zhulong, you're so busy, you wouldn't just chat with me. I heard SeVenNighT got the first kill on the Orc Tribe. Aren't you worried?"

"That's what I wanted to talk about. The lavender essence, is it yours?"

"Yes, what do you need?"

"I need it, badly. Do you have more? Can you give me some?"

"Sure, at a friend's price, 6 gold coins each, any quantity."

"Is our friendship only worth 1 gold coin? I'll take 200 portions. A lot of people are waiting."

"1 gold coin is too little? I'm telling you, it's a lot! 200, right? Wait, I'll send them to you. Send the gold coins directly."

"Alright, I'll continue leading the raid. Send them over."

The conversation ended, and Yang Ye sent 200 portions of essence to Zhulong, receiving 1200 gold coins in return.

Just as the transaction was completed, the mail notification sounded again, along with a message from Feiyu:

"Promise, are you there?"

"Leveling up, what's up?"

"I've sent you the shoes. Also, a friend of mine wants to talk to you. She's very pretty. Interested?"

"Give me her ID!"

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