Section 004: Seeking to Purchase Dye

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He was a man of action. After returning to the center of the settlement and making a thorough inspection, Li Zhan found nothing unusual and logged off.

Upon logging out, the first thing Li Zhan did was open the official website. Before he could even access the forum, a headline on the main page, ending with the letters "ne," caught his eye. It read: "The Twelve Elite Settlements of Chaos Mainland Suffer Setbacks."

Clicking the headline, he found detailed news. The armies of the twelve elite settlements had all exceeded the local militia ban's limit; since none of the settlements had much gold and lacked the strength to resist the ban, they were forced to pay hefty resources to offset the government's penalties, and the surplus militia was demoted back to villagers—thus becoming the first batch of players punished by the system.

In truth, far more players were penalized than just those twelve settlements. It was only that the prominence of their names made them the focus of news and player attention, so they were singled out in this report.

Below the article, related news listed numerous other settlements punished by the militia ban, including some wiped out by NPC factions for resisting. This fulfilled the prophecy made by a forum user known as "NotADonkey."

Li Zhan shook his head after reading, closed the page, and switched to the forum. He had no interest in following these so-called hot topics; more pressing matters awaited him.

After entering his username, he logged into the forum. In the "Supply and Demand" section, most supply listings bore the "ne" tag. Clearly, other players shared Li Zhan’s commercial acumen, rushing to sell goods on the forum as soon as the regional mode opened. He browsed the headlines: almost all matched his earlier intention to sell cotton, focusing on raw materials for profit, with processed goods rare—only two listings for tea, labeled as dried.

Reading through from start to finish, Li Zhan smiled. Though it was called "Supply and Demand," the forum only had "Supply"—he was the first to post a demand.

After some thought, Li Zhan made his debut post, also the first demand listing:

Title: [Wanted] The Yanhuang Settlement of Danyang County under Moliang City Seeks Plant Dyes

Content: As stated. The Yanhuang Settlement seeks plant dyes, primarily in blue, red, and yellow, to be exchanged for premium sashimi. Requirements: pure quality, vivid colors, reasonable price. Distant sellers and those lacking sincerity, please do not disturb.

Players interested in genuine exchange, please reply with your dye name, quality, exchange price, and username.

Li Zhan, Chief of Yanhuang Settlement.

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Li Zhan intentionally required players to state their prices in replies. Dyes were in absolute oversupply; players were eager to convert them into profit and would compete to undercut each other, driving the price lower and lower. Ultimately, the beneficiary would be Li Zhan, the buyer.

Early in the game, players had little gold—even the twelve elite settlements paid penalties in resources, so ordinary players were in an even tougher spot. The exchange rate for ordinary sashimi to grain was 5:1, while Li Zhan’s premium sashimi traded at 8:1 (exchange rate means one unit of premium fish could be swapped for eight units of grain). Li Zhan was confident his enticing offer would attract a swarm of dye-holding players lacking sufficient grain resources.

Even dye players with ample grain were drawn to Li Zhan’s terms. No one else was seeking dyes, and to them, these dyes were inedible and useless—yet now someone offered premium fish in exchange. Upon seeing this demand, all dye players thought the same: Is this a dream?

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After posting, Li Zhan exited the forum and returned to the game.

When he logged in, Ruoyan was online too. She was with four spinning workers, turning a spinning wheel and learning to spin yarn. The girl was curious about everything, trying her hand at every villager’s trade; just two days ago she even spent half a day at the stone warehouse chiseling with the stonemasons, only to complain afterward about her aching waist and legs. Watching Ruoyan diligently learning to spin, Li Zhan shook his head and smiled wryly.

The cotton fields had expanded to seven acres, unfurling eastward from the settlement center in a snowy expanse. Zhou Min had now been appointed by Li Zhan as the team leader, in charge of seven cotton farmers and tending the fields, passing her experience to them through daily work.

In the distance, by the cattle pen, Li He and Jin Xue each led a wild ox, practicing plowing. Jin Xue’s skill proficiency was already at eighty-seven percent; behind this, a gray box displayed the words "Taming." Once her proficiency reached one hundred percent, she would fully master the taming skill, resetting her proficiency until she encountered a new villager skill.

Seeing Li Zhan online, Ruoyan put down her work and walked straight to his side, saying,

"Hey, where did you go? Why are you just logging in?"

Li Zhan glanced around instinctively; with no other villagers nearby, he gave Ruoyan a look and replied,

"I’ve been online for ages. You think this settlement is a hotel—come and go as you please?"

With that, Li Zhan walked past her to begin his daily routine—inspecting the settlement.

Ruoyan pouted, following him and retorted,

"I had exams recently, so I couldn’t stay online too long." Then, delighted, she added, "I just finished today. From now on, I can be online regularly!"

Just then, Li Zhan’s friend icon began flashing—a player wanted to add him as a friend.

Li Zhan clicked accept, and the player’s avatar was added to his list: someone named "Game Guide."

Game Guide: "Dear player, congratulations! You’ve just received a globally limited edition lucky account from United International. With this lucky account, you’ll gain abundant resources and special NPC villagers, easily defeating all rivals. Simply transfer one hundred world credits to Silver Card 5547268145782, and we’ll bind the lucky account to your existing account..."

Li Zhan didn’t hesitate—he dragged this player straight into his blacklist. Cheat me? Try again after a hundred years of training.

The friend icon kept flashing. This time, Li Zhan carefully checked the names, deleting any that seemed deceptive.

After removing several, he added a player named "Alright."

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Alright: Alright!

Li Zhan: ? What’s good?

Alright: This game has an add-friend feature—how nice!

Li Zhan: … (thinking, have you never played an online game? Which one doesn’t have add-friend?)

Li Zhan: Did you add me for a reason? (Li Zhan forced himself to ask; he had no time for idle chatter.)

Alright: Yes!

After a while…

Li Zhan: What is it? Speak!

Alright: I just wanted to test if the friend feature works well!

Li Zhan: Please, don’t waste my time, okay? I have real business!

After a long pause, Li Zhan was about to delete him when…

Alright: How can you call it wasting time? Out of the vast sea of people, you and I have come together—this is fate! Maybe someday, when we both leave this game, you’ll recall you once added a player named "Alright" as a friend, and proudly tell your friends: I was so honored back then to have 'Alright' as my friend…

Li Zhan: Get lost!

Li Zhan’s hands were shaking with rage as he dragged the player into his blacklist.