158: Time that can't be bought

The next morning, news came from the Shicheng Military: a team of extremely powerful Professionals had entered Stone City's territory today.

According to the returned reports, the leader could wield formidable lightning power.

Gu Qinghan understood that this was very likely Luo Mu.

He immediately inquired about their exact location and brought Luo Mu and his group to the Shicheng Military base.

The Shicheng Military tacitly approved Gu Qinghan's actions, even granting him extremely high access privileges.

Except for a few restricted areas, Gu Qinghan could move freely within the base.

The reasons for this decision, besides Gu Qinghan's formidable strength, also included Sun Liancheng's desire to curry favor with Gu Qinghan.

In chaotic times, such a powerful individual could only be an ally.

"You brat, you've reached Level 21?"

Gu Qinghan had already found Luo Mu; it had to be said that the ability to fly was truly convenient.

Luo Mu scratched his head and smiled; he didn't have any of that 'boss' aura at all at the moment, looking rather harmless.

He suddenly remembered something and handed a storage ring to Gu Qinghan, saying:

"Brother, most of An City's supplies have been collected by me, and I even found a warehouse supermarket.

It's a pity this space is full, otherwise I could have scavenged more.

Now everything is in this ring; I'm entrusting it to you for safekeeping."

This storage ring had consumed all of Gu Qinghan's previous magic crystals.

These storage rings could be fused to expand their internal space.

At the time, Gu Qinghan had originally wanted to summon the so-called game merchant fatty, but he was stood up again.

Helpless, Gu Qinghan could only focus on the task at hand.

Gu Qinghan did not accept the ring; he smiled at Luo Mu and said:

"Why give it to me? You're the one starting a faction, not me.

This is your startup capital; do a good job."

Luo Mu immediately looked anxious; he said:

"But I'm creating a faction for you! I'm better off just following you alone!"

Gu Qinghan felt a bit helpless; Luo Mu truly had no independent thoughts in front of him.

But he just smiled and said to Luo Mu:

"That's true, but I prefer to be a hands-off boss.

Didn't you say when you were little that you wanted to be a big boss managing many employees? Isn't this an opportunity?"

Luo Mu's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this.

Perhaps because he was looked down upon as a child, his dream at the time was to lead many people.

He nodded heavily, then said to Gu Qinghan:

"Alright, then don't blame me if I mess it up."

"Go for it, but our faction only needs elites; we can't have people who just eat and wait to die."

"Hmm, I think so too!"

The two brothers hit it off immediately, sitting on the Crow King's back and quickly flying towards the Shicheng Military base.

He had already informed the military beforehand that he would be staying there for a while.

When he returned, Kong Yan was already waiting for him at the entrance of his residence.

"Big Brother, you're finally back; I've been waiting for you for half an hour."

Kong Yan's appearance at this time was almost back to normal, a testament to the power of a Healing-type Professional.

He nodded to Luo Mu and the others behind Gu Qinghan, then handed a storage ring to Gu Qinghan and said:

"These are the magic crystals given to you by the survivors of Time Settlement, and also the magic crystals from trading with several other Gathering Places.

A total of sixty-two thousand seventy-three, plus we rounded it up for you.

Seventy thousand magic crystals are all inside."

Gu Qinghan was startled; seventy thousand magic crystals! The most he had ever had before was just over two hundred.

It seemed that sometimes, having more people really had distinct advantages.

He took the storage ring and gave Kong Yan a grateful look.

The military adding a few thousand magic crystals for him must have had something to do with Kong Yan.

After seeing Kong Yan off, Gu Qinghan and Luo Mu ate and chatted about what they had seen and heard over the past two days.

Precisely at twelve noon, the voice that everyone could hear rang out again:

"[Global Game has finished updating. We wish all players a pleasant game.]"

Hearing this, Gu Qinghan immediately opened his game panel and indeed saw some new items in the mall.

Among them were some complete sets of equipment, but their attributes were very poor.

For example, a set of Level 10 equipment would only increase combat power by an average of just over a hundred.

But the equipment wasn't expensive, costing 3 magic crystals.

These equipment also came in different types; some were for melee, while others were for ranged Professionals.

Gu Qinghan even saw various weapons, although their prices and combat power increases didn't seem very high.

Then, the mall began selling some vitality potions and mana potions.

"[Low-grade vitality Potion (Bronze): Immediately restores 20% of maximum vitality, and additionally restores 10% of maximum vitality over the next 10 seconds.]"

"[Low-grade mana Potion (Bronze): Immediately restores 20% of maximum mana, and additionally restores 10% of maximum mana over the next 10 seconds.]"

The most crucial thing was that these two types of potions were not single-use; they both had a one-hour cooldown after use.

Of course, their price was a hefty 20 magic crystals each.

However, as a Bronze-grade item, and one that could potentially change the tide of battle at a critical moment, this price was not expensive.

"vitality potions don't seem very useful to me; I have Bear King as a power bank... mana potions are somewhat useful, but the recovery amount isn't much. It would be good if they could be used on skeletons."

Gu Qinghan bought one to try, but was disappointed to find that skeletons couldn't use it.

These were all the new things in the mall, and they were not very useful for a powerful individual like Gu Qinghan.

Gu Qinghan had a feeling that this mall update was intended to boost the overall strength of players.

The job change system was also open, but Gu Qinghan could only see a fog, with no clues for now.

Finally, he could only focus all his energy on the newly appeared auction system.

Just then, someone Gu Qinghan hadn't expected slowly appeared before him.

"Fatty?"

Gu Qinghan frowned, looking at this guy who stood him up every time, immediately curious about the purpose of his appearance here.

As soon as the fatty appeared, he immediately rubbed his hands, looking at Gu Qinghan as if he had seen a long-lost relative, saying:

"Brother! Listen to my explanation, I actually heard your summons, but I was really too busy!

Your progress is too fast; I was busy preparing for the auction house, so... hehe."

Gu Qinghan was startled upon hearing this and asked:

"You opened the auction house?"

The fatty nodded, then quickly shook his head and said:

"Not entirely, but I'm one of the creators of the auction house."

Gu Qinghan's eyebrows immediately raised; this guy actually had such an ability.

No wonder every time he saw this guy, he looked so rushed.

He pondered for a moment and asked:

"I want to ask, what can you buy in your auction house?"

The fatty chuckled, then suddenly smiled mysteriously:

"There's only what you can't think of, not what you can't buy, as long as you have enough magic crystals."

Gu Qinghan glanced at him, then suddenly asked:

"You can buy anything, so can you buy time?"

The fatty showed no surprise at Gu Qinghan's question; he looked twice behind Gu Qinghan and said:

"Yes, but you need too much time; you can't afford it."