Chapter 30: Chapter 29: Verbal Alliance
[Private Chat]
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: What’s going on?
Conscience Merchant: What "what’s going on"?
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: You don’t know?
Conscience Merchant: What don’t I know?
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: ...
Conscience Merchant: What the hell are you talking about? What am I supposed to know? Also, can you not message me so late at night?! My sweet dream, my mountain of gold... POOF! All gone.
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: And you call yourself a Merchant. You’re so out of the loop. Look at the chat channel. Something big has happened.
After that message was sent, Conscience Merchant went silent.
Meanwhile, beneath the barren earth, a dusty Mobile Fortress was parked inside a large tunnel dug out by Gophers.
Conscience Merchant closed the chat window, his brow furrowed. Although he hadn’t spoken with the Undead City Lord face-to-face, he could sense the urgency between the lines. ’Could something major have really happened? Something I don’t know about?’
He opened the chat channel interface. His eyes widened at the sight of the chat history, which was exploding with messages like a geyser. Without a second thought, he began scrolling through it at high speed.
For a Merchant, the flow of information was a lifeline. Gathering useful information faster meant he could assess the situation earlier, find ways to make money, and earn more with every second he saved.
Conscience Merchant scrolled quickly, but he couldn’t keep up with the speed at which new messages were being sent. Even so, it was enough for him to understand what had happened.
Closing the chat channel, Conscience Merchant leaned back and collapsed onto his bed. A complex look filled his eyes as he muttered to himself, "So it’s true!"
As a Merchant, he had his own channels and had obtained a lot of information unknown to the general public. He also knew a few "big shots." One of them had once told him during a chat that while the exact number of Transmigrators was uncertain, it was definitely less than the total population of their previous world, and that new Transmigrators might appear later.
Their batch of Transmigrators were test subjects, the first guinea pigs. If they played their cards right, their chances of survival would be much greater than those who came later. It was a first-mover advantage.
At the time, Conscience Merchant hadn’t taken the big shot’s words to heart, simply laughing them off. ’A joke. Transmigration in waves? You think this is a game with a bunch of testing phases? Internal tests, closed betas, second and third closed betas, open betas...’
’This is transmigration!’
’Do you get it? Real, living people were brought here! If you die, you’re really dead! How could there possibly be more Transmigrators coming?’
But the information in the chat channel today was a slap in the face, telling him that the big shot had been right. There really were new Transmigrators.
Conscience Merchant quickly recovered from his shock. He smelled a business opportunity. If new Transmigrators could arrive this time, they would probably keep coming in the future. More and more Transmigrators would arrive in this world. And they, the first batch, although their head start wasn’t long, had a crucial first step in development over the others. This short period was enough to create a crushing advantage.
’Fairness?’
’What a joke. There’s no such thing as fairness. This isn’t a game. If you don’t want to play in the Otherworld, you can just kill yourself. No one’s stopping you.’
Conscience Merchant leaped up, opened the system interface again, and began scrolling through it rapidly. According to the big shot’s tip, besides new Transmigrators, the system itself was also likely to have changed.
And sure enough, he found something new: a new module similar to a forum or message board. Quite a few people had already made posts.
The posts were divided into two categories. One was public posts, which were a chaotic mess of everything and anything. The other category was resource posts. To view the content of these, you had to pay a price in resources. The amount was set by the original poster.
’Information has been priced!’
Conscience Merchant let out a long breath. He had a premonition that the "carnival" was about to begin.
Not all Transmigrators were good people. In fact, only a small minority still clung to their moral compass. In the lawless Otherworld, driven by the desire for survival, power, and strength, too many had revealed their true natures. Plundering and killing had already become commonplace in just a few short days.
In the Otherworld, the enemies of the Transmigrators weren’t just the Natives and Monsters. Far more danger came from fellow Transmigrator Lords.
The new Transmigrators, freshly arrived in the Otherworld, without any foundation and completely unfamiliar with their surroundings, were clearly fat sheep in the eyes of these predators. A single bite would be juicy and greasy—a small effort for a huge reward.
The easiest way to strengthen one’s own Mobile Fortress was to annex another Lord’s, making it a part of your own. These newly arrived Transmigrators fit the profile of perfect prey.
’The strong get stronger.’
He didn’t know if there would be a place for him, the Lord of Gopher City, in this "carnival." But he did know that he had to be extra careful for the foreseeable future. He couldn’t risk biting off more than he could chew and losing everything. ’If I can’t save others, I should at least protect myself.’
To protect himself in the coming turmoil, he needed an Ally. And conveniently, there was one nearby. The Undead City Lord seemed like a good choice. It wasn’t that he knew Li Ziyu well; it was just a gut feeling.
Conscience Merchant felt that the Undead City Lord wasn’t a crazed plunderer. After all, the Wasteland hadn’t descended into chaos, and the Undead Lord had been very rule-abiding during their trades. It was worth a try to reach out and form an alliance.
With this in mind, he opened the private chat window again.
[Private Chat]
Conscience Merchant: Whoa, something huge really did happen.
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: You know the details now?
Conscience Merchant: I’ve got the gist of it.
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: Don’t keep me in suspense. Spill it.
Conscience Merchant: /rubs fingers/ Information costs money, dear.
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: If I hadn’t tipped you off, you’d still be off in dreamland. And now you want money from me? What’s wrong with you?
Conscience Merchant: Tsk, so harsh.
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: Harsh? Something this big happens, and you want me to be polite? What, you want us to exchange pleasantries for two hours before getting down to business?
Conscience Merchant: New Transmigrators have arrived. The system updated and added a forum-like feature. I predict things are about to get chaotic for a while. That’s all I know for now.
Inside the Undead Mobile Fortress, Li Ziyu stared at the private chat, his eyes narrowing. ’So there really are new Transmigrators, just as I guessed.’ He had also seen the system update, but he hadn’t immediately thought of the consequences that Conscience Merchant predicted. He had been too caught up in the shock.
After a moment of thought, he knew Conscience Merchant was telling the truth. It was almost inevitable that chaos would ensue. He understood the reasoning behind it just as well as Conscience Merchant did; there was no need to spell it out.
’The guy really did give me a valuable warning.’
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: What are your plans?
Conscience Merchant: Dear, what plans can a simple Merchant like me have? I can’t beat anyone. Just gonna lie low and play it safe.
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: That’s it?
Conscience Merchant: What else can I do? How about we make a verbal alliance?
Don’t Want to Get a Driver’s License: Done.
Conscience Merchant: A pleasure doing business with you.
The two of them agreed to the verbal alliance without hesitation, but they both knew in their hearts that since they had never even met, nor had they signed a system-provided contract, the reliability of this Ally was a complete unknown.
Even so, just having a verbal alliance brought them both a small measure of peace in the face of the coming chaotic era.
