24: Chapter 24 Treasure Pavilion Steals Business

"I've put up with you for a long time too."

Zhang Hao shook his wrist and looked at Hou San on the ground with a simple and honest face. "Remember for next time, a good dog doesn't block the way. Also, don't use that guy with the surname Wang to scare people; I get nauseous just hearing that name now."

The mercenaries entering and exiting the area burst into laughter. In this world where strength is respected, the biggest fist makes the rules.

The fact that two high school students could return from the wilderness in one piece and beat up a gatekeeping lackey was proof of their strength in itself.

Lin Fan patted Zhang Hao on the shoulder, stepped over the unconscious Hou San, and swiped his card to enter the city.

"Let's go, Fatty. Wasting time on trash is the most unprofitable business in this world."

...

Back at the rental house, Lin Fan took out all the exotic beast carcasses from the system space and piled them on the living room floor.

Over fifty E-Rank exotic beast carcasses piled up into a small mountain, emitting a strong smell of blood and... the scent of money. Adding the cash scavenged from the Black Snake Squad and the estimated value of their gear, his assets had already surpassed eighty thousand.

"Eighty thousand..."

Lin Fan sat on the sofa, looking at the string of numbers with a slight frown.

He was still four hundred and twenty thousand short of the five hundred thousand needed for Xiaoya's first surgery. Although he had an S-Rank Talent and making money was only a matter of time, Xiaoya's illness couldn't wait.

"I must speed up the progress."

Lin Fan's fingers tapped rhythmically on the table. To gather such a huge sum in a short time, relying solely on selling low-level blind boxes at the night market wasn't enough. He needed a larger market, higher premiums, and... a more explosive gimmick.

"System, get to work."

Lin Fan took a deep breath and pressed his hands onto the pile of carcasses.

Blue light flickered.

All night long, the rental house was filled with eerie energy fluctuations. When the first ray of dawn pierced through the curtains, the mountain of corpses on the floor had vanished, replaced by exactly fifty-five E-Rank blind boxes emitting a faint blue glow.

Among them was a D-Rank premium blind box made from the Three-Eyed Demonic Wolf, which he had prepared as his shop's crown jewel.

...

Night fell, and the city lights began to shine.

The West District night market of Jianghai City was as bustling as a tide.

Lin Fan and Zhang Hao pushed their familiar tricycle, but as soon as they turned into the street where they usually set up their stall, they were stunned by the sight before them.

The dilapidated grocery store that used to be opposite their stall had vanished overnight. In its place stood a magnificently decorated shop.

On a massive neon sign, the three characters for 'Treasure Pavilion' were blindingly bright in the night. A red carpet was laid out at the entrance, flanked by expensive flower baskets, and they had even hired two rows of welcoming ladies in high-slit qipaos, posing provocatively for passersby.

"Holy crap? Who is this? Such a big show?" Zhang Hao's eyes widened. "This renovation must have cost at least several hundred thousand, right?"

Lin Fan didn't speak, only narrowing his eyes.

The world is truly a small place for enemies.

Among the group of welcoming ladies, who else could it be but Wang Teng, wearing a custom white suit with his hair slicked back till it shone?

At that moment, Wang Teng was holding a megaphone, giving an exuberant speech to the surrounding crowd.

"Good evening, fellow townsfolk and fellow martial artists!"

"I am Wang Teng. Today is the auspicious day of the grand opening of Treasure Pavilion, a subsidiary of our Wang family! I know that recently, some foul swindlers have appeared in this night market, putting dead cats and rotten dogs into boxes to cheat people of their money with some 'blind box' nonsense, treating everyone like monkeys!"

As Wang Teng said this, his gaze happened to sweep over Lin Fan, who had just parked his tricycle. A playful smile instantly appeared on his face. He raised a hand and pointed, and all the spotlights immediately fixed on Lin Fan.

"Oh, look who's here. Big Boss Lin, I thought you'd run off with the money."

Whoosh!

Hundreds of eyes turned toward him in unison. The customers who were originally planning to line up at Lin Fan's stall stopped in their tracks, their faces showing expressions of awkwardness and hesitation.

Lin Fan's expression remained unchanged as he went about unloading the folding table from the cart, spreading the tablecloth, and neatly arranging the blind boxes one by one.

"A stall is just a stall; why so much nonsense?" Lin Fan didn't even look up, his tone indifferent. "Has Young Master Wang's family gone bankrupt? You're actually coming to the night market to compete with us for a living?"

"Compete for a living? You think you're worthy?"

Wang Teng sneered and picked up an exquisite crystal box from the shelf behind him.

The box was completely transparent, polished from high-strength synthetic crystal. Through the casing, one could clearly see a piece of beast bone shimmering with a green light inside.

"Everyone, look closely!"

Wang Teng held the crystal box high and shouted, "Our Treasure Pavilion focuses on honesty! What are blind boxes? Those are for fooling idiots. Ours are 'Clear Boxes'!"

"What you see is what you get! No gimmicks, no fraud! Every item has been appraised by senior Appraisers specially hired by our Wang family. Quality is guaranteed!"

"Furthermore, to give back to everyone, everything is 20% off today! E-Rank beast bones for only eight thousand! E-Rank essence blood for only twelve thousand!"

Boom!

The crowd instantly exploded with excitement.

"Holy crap! You can see the items? This is so honest!"

"Yeah, Lin Fan's blind boxes are exciting, but the risk is too high. These Clear Boxes are a bit pricier, but they're reliable!"

"And with the Wang family's backing, there definitely won't be fakes. Let's go, let's go check it out!"

Human nature is such. In the face of absolute certainty, the gambler's mentality often temporarily retreats.

In just a few minutes, the flow of customers that had originally gathered in front of Lin Fan's stall surged toward the Treasure Pavilion across the street like a receding tide.

"Don't push, everyone! Line up! There's enough for everyone!"

Wang Teng stood on the steps, looking at his bustling shop and then at the deserted stall of Lin Fan across the way. The smugness on his face was almost overflowing.

"Fight me with capital? Fight me with channels? Lin Fan, how do you expect to win?"

Wang Teng had even specifically hired an old man with a goatee to sit in the center of the shop, pretentiously using a magnifying glass to explain things to customers.

"This young brother has a good eye! This Wind Wolf Leg Bone has a warm color and dense bone quality, with a faint sound of wind and thunder. It's definitely top-grade material for refining leg-technique pills! Buying it is a steal!"

"Oh my, this bottle of snake venom is of extremely high purity. Look at the viscosity on the walls of the bottle—tsk tsk, a masterpiece!"

The so-called "Appraisal Master" was incredibly eloquent, hyping up every item to the skies. The customers who were still hesitating were dizzied by the professional terminology and one after another took out their money to swipe their cards.

"Brother Fan... what do we do?"

Zhang Hao watched the booming business across the street, sweating profusely from anxiety. "This bastard is specifically targeting us! If this keeps up, our stall is finished!"

Lin Fan sat on a small stool, playing with the Three-Eyed Demonic Wolf blind box in his hand. Not only was there no anxiety on his face, but a playful smile also appeared.

"Fatty, don't worry."

Lin Fan pointed to his own eyes. "Sometimes, what the eyes see might not be real."

S-Rank Talent, [Eye of True Sight], activated.

The originally magnificent Treasure Pavilion instantly lost its glamorous exterior in Lin Fan's vision.

Countless red data streams cascaded down like a waterfall, reducing those over-hyped treasures back to their truest forms.

Lin Fan's gaze landed on the Wind Wolf Leg Bone that the "Appraisal Master" had praised as a masterpiece.

[Item: Wind Wolf Leg Bone (Defective)]

[Status: Marrow is depleted, internal structure has comminuted fractures, surface has been treated with industrial wax and fluorescent agents.]

[True Value: 200 alliance coins (Too much smoke even to use as firewood).]

[Suggestion: Feed it to a dog; even a dog wouldn't eat it.]

Pfft.

Lin Fan almost laughed out loud.

He then looked at the bottle of so-called "Top-grade Snake Venom."

[Item: Diluted Venom]

[Composition: 5% ordinary snake venom + 80% saline solution + 15% green food coloring.]

[True Value: 15 alliance coins (The bottle is worth 10).]

[Suggestion: It won't kill anyone, but it might cause diarrhea.]

Brilliant.

Lin Fan scanned the shelves and found that 80% of the items in this shop were this kind of "gold on the outside, rot on the inside" defective trash. The remaining 20% of genuine goods were priced at more than double the market rate.

This wasn't doing business; this was clearly a leek-harvesting machine with sickles swinging so fast they were throwing sparks.

Wang Teng wasn't just trying to ruin Lin Fan's business; he was grinding the intelligence of these martial artists into the dirt.