Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Blocked by Other Players
"You already know our address, don’t you? Our establishment is just a little special—ordinary people can’t enter, only players can."
After receiving his answer, Tate Joyner nodded, then turned and left The Card Tavern. He needed to go prepare the money and then make a trip to the Survival Game Administration at dawn.
He didn’t know when the offline trade meet would start, and he didn’t want to wait. Best not to let things drag on.
After Tate Joyner left, Perry Yates finally came down from the second floor, holding the Little Ferret in her arms.
Ever since the renovations were completed, she had been keeping the Little Ferret here.
The butler slid a glass of grape juice in front of her.
Perry Yates took a sip of the juice. It was sweet and refreshing—as expected of her Ascended three-star grape juice.
Seeing Perry Yates’s blissful expression, the Little Ferret took a small taste as well and then put on an equally entranced face.
"Butler, I’m going out tomorrow. I’ll leave The Card Tavern in your hands."
Hearing this, the butler nodded. "Do you have something important to attend to?"
"Not really," Perry Yates said, downing the rest of her juice. "I just haven’t been shopping in a while. I plan on buying a few things and getting a haircut."
"Oh, right. If that man comes tomorrow, tell him that for anything other than cards, we only accept payment in cash, Gold, gemstones, jade, rare herbs, and the like.
Skill Cards can only be exchanged for other cards. For item cards, however, we can be a bit more flexible with the standards."
’I need cash for shopping, after all. And as for Gold, gemstones, and jade... well, that’s partly my personal preference. Who could resist sparkly things?’
"I understand," the butler said with a nod.
「The next day.」
Perry Yates changed into a sharp outfit and headed out.
First, she made a trip to the salon to get her hair trimmed.
The hairstylist looked at Perry Yates’s thick, dark, and lustrous hair with unconcealed envy. They gushed that they had never seen such amazing hair and asked for her maintenance routine.
In response, Perry Yates simply offered a mysterious smile and said nothing.
Fortunately, the stylist seemed to guess something and didn’t press the matter.
After her haircut, Perry Yates left the salon and headed straight for the supermarket.
As a homebody, snacks were an essential part of her daily life.
After clearing out the shelves of all her favorite snacks, she also grabbed several boxes of ice cream bars.
At checkout, the cashier politely asked if Perry Yates needed home delivery.
The snacks were one thing, but the ice cream bars needed to be put in a freezer right away, or they would melt.
"No need," Perry Yates replied coolly.
Then, to the cashier’s utter shock, she stuffed all her purchases into the pack on her waist.
"Oh, so you’re a player!"
The cashier’s eyes filled with envy.
Even though it was common knowledge that players had an extremely high mortality rate, ordinary people still envied them.
As for the players, perhaps because they never knew when they might die in a game, most of them adopted a "live for the moment" mentality, aside from buying cards to increase their power.
After buying her snacks, Perry Yates went to the mall to buy clothes.
Her entire shopping spree followed a simple rule: if she saw something she liked, she bought it.
It wasn’t until noon that Perry Yates finally put a temporary halt to her shopping spree and found a hot pot restaurant for lunch.
She couldn’t handle spicy food, so she usually ordered a tomato or mushroom broth base.
Seeing that the thinly sliced fatty beef in the hot pot was cooked, Perry Yates eagerly picked up a piece with her chopsticks and took a bite.
After a couple of chews, Perry Yates’s blissful expression suddenly turned into a frown.
She kept chewing, but her brow remained tightly furrowed.
After a long moment, she finally swallowed the beef, but her brow remained knitted.
Looking up at the beef in the pot and the uncooked slices still on the table, Perry Yates muttered to herself, "This meat is awful."
’Has my palate gotten too refined?’ The fatty beef, usually her favorite, now had an indescribable, unpleasant taste.
’Oh, well. I’ll just stick to the vegetables.’
Once she was full, Perry Yates left the hot pot restaurant.
She had originally planned to continue shopping in the afternoon, but the disappointing hot pot meal had completely ruined her mood. ’Forget it, I’ll just go home,’ she thought.
’The snacks I bought today should last me a while, anyway.’
Just as she turned to leave, a woman suddenly blocked her path. She had voluminous, wavy hair, wore sunglasses, and was dressed head-to-toe in designer brands.
"Hey, you’re a player, right? Can we talk?"
Perry Yates looked up, meeting the woman’s insistent gaze. "About what?" she asked.
’I don’t even know this woman.’
"I like your bag. Name your price," the woman said, her tone haughty.
Hearing this, Perry Yates realized the woman was after her Space Backpack.
’But that makes sense,’ she thought. ’I’ve used the Space Backpack so many times today, it was bound to attract attention.’
She didn’t regret it, though. That kind of open display was perfectly normal among players.
’Since my cover’s blown, I might as well be open about it.’
"Sorry, I have no intention of selling my Space Backpack. I don’t need the money, either. You should ask someone else."
Perry Yates’s rejection was blunt.
’I could sell her one, I suppose. I have plenty of Space Backpacks. But I really don’t like her condescending tone, so I chose to refuse.’
The woman was taken aback, clearly not expecting to be refused.
"Wait. If you agree, I can trade you a Skill Card for it."
At the mention of a Skill Card, Perry Yates paused. "What kind of Skill Card?"
"There are too many people here. Let’s talk somewhere else," the woman said, her voice dropping.
Perry Yates glanced around. The street was bustling with people, and since the two of them were standing in the middle of the sidewalk, they had already started to draw attention.
Spotting a nearby café, they decided to talk there.
Once inside the café, they chose a secluded corner.
As soon as they were seated, the woman took out the card.
It was a one-star Skill Card.
Perry Yates merely glanced at it before saying, "Ma’am, while Skill Cards are rare, my Space Backpack is two-star. Besides, this card’s attribute isn’t a good fit for me."
As she spoke, Perry Yates subtly glanced at the card on the table.
The front of the card depicted a door, and it had dual attributes: Moon and space.
"Besides," she added, "even if the attributes were a match, what use is a one-way door that I can only exit from, not enter?"
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