Chapter 12 Breaking the Monopoly! Unscrupulous Merchants Dare Not Cooperate with Zhao Kai

Zhao Kai's actions were faster than Lin Ye had anticipated.

Early the next morning, when Lin Ye logged into the game, he noticed the atmosphere in the Novice Village was off. The prices of all basic materials in the Trading House had multiplied several times—Iron Ore rose from 1 gold to 10 gold, Herbs from 50 silver to 5 gold, and even the common Whetstones used for repairing equipment were being sold at astronomical prices.

[World Channel]

[Player 'Brick-Moving Expert': Wocao! 10 gold for one Iron Ore? This is crazy!]

[Player 'Solo Player Old Li': How are we supposed to play? Repairing a single piece of equipment costs dozens of gold. How much can I even make from a day of manual labor?]

[Player 'Milk Tea Without Sugar': Someone must be manipulating things behind the scenes! All the material merchants in the Novice Village have raised their prices; we can't afford anything!]

[Player 'Newbie White': I just took a quest that requires 10 Iron Ores. 100 gold? Where am I supposed to get that?]

Lin Ye frowned as he watched the wailing on the World Channel. He opened the Trading House and took a look; the prices of all materials had indeed risen several times, and the quantities were extremely low. It was clearly a price hike after someone had deliberately swept up the stock.

Just as he was pondering this, a private message popped up—

[Private Message] Master Kai: Brother Ye, do you have enough materials in the Novice Village? Do you want me to lend you some? Hahaha!

Zhao Kai's tone was full of smugness, his ego practically soaring to the sky.

Lin Ye's eyes turned cold as he replied, "Your doing?"

[Private Message] Master Kai: How could I have that kind of ability? I just had some tea and a chat with a few material merchants. They felt the previous prices were too low and decided to raise them on their own. It has nothing to do with me.

Lin Ye didn't reply further. He closed the private message and glanced at the map. There were six material merchants in the Novice Village, scattered in various corners, responsible for buying and selling basic materials. These merchants were all system NPCs. Normally, their prices were fixed, but now they had all increased—there was only one possibility: someone used a certain method to influence the NPCs' pricing mechanism.

He walked up to the nearest material merchant, an NPC named "Old Chen," who wore a worn-out leather apron and was squatting at the entrance of the blacksmith shop.

"Boss, how much for the Iron Ore?" Lin Ye asked.

Old Chen looked up at him with an expressionless face. "10 gold each. Take it or leave it."

Lin Ye frowned and opened his Talent panel to test something—

[System Notification: Target [Old Chen] is a neutral NPC; Decay Talent cannot be triggered.]

Ineffective against neutral NPCs. Lin Ye was a bit disappointed, but he didn't give up and tried again—

[System Notification: Detected that target [Old Chen] is executing a commercial monopoly agreement issued by player [Master Kai]. This behavior has been judged as "Assisting Malicious Behavior," and the Decay Talent can be triggered!]

Lin Ye's eyes lit up. Assisting malicious behavior counts too? This Talent's judgment mechanism was incredibly intelligent.

Without another word, he stacked 10 layers of debuffs on Old Chen—

"Ding! Target [Old Chen] has been afflicted with the [Decay] debuff. Current stacks: 10. Effect: Any transaction will result in a level drop."

Old Chen's health bar instantly dropped by 10%, scaring him so much he jumped up from his chair. "You... what did you do to me?!"

Lin Ye ignored him and turned toward the next material merchant.

The second merchant, the herb dealer "Grandma Sun," was also hit with 10 stacks of the debuff.

The third, the miner "Old Li," hit.

The fourth, the leather merchant "Big Sister Zhao," hit.

The fifth, the general store owner "Uncle Wang," hit.

The sixth, the weapon merchant "Blacksmith Liu," hit.

In just ten short minutes, all six material merchants in the Novice Village had been debuffed by Lin Ye. The effect was simple—whoever traded with Zhao Kai would trigger the debuff and suffer an immediate death and level drop.

Just as Lin Ye finished with the last one, Zhao Kai's messages exploded—

[Private Message] Master Kai: What the fuck did you do to my merchants?! They all refuse to trade with me now!

Lin Ye smiled and replied, "Nothing much, just gave them some insurance. From now on, whoever does business with you will lose a level."

[Private Message] Master Kai: You... you're fucking going too far!

[Private Message] Ye: When you were monopolizing the materials, why didn't you think you were going too far?

[Private Message] Master Kai: ...You just wait!

Lin Ye ignored him and walked toward the Novice Village plaza. With all six material merchants dealt with, Zhao Kai's monopoly plan had completely collapsed. But it wasn't enough—the inflated prices hadn't come down yet, and the newbie players still couldn't afford materials.

He walked to the center of the plaza and shouted to the surrounding players, "All material merchants have adjusted their prices back. Those who were ripped off can go get a refund for the price difference."

The onlookers were stunned for a moment, then a burst of cheers erupted—

"Wocao! For real? Brother Ye, how did you do it?"

"I just went to check; Iron Ore really dropped back to 1 gold!"

"Brother Ye is awesome! How did you pull that off?"

"It must have been that SSS-rank Talent! Brother Ye cleaned up all the profiteers!"

Lin Ye smiled and didn't explain much. He walked to Old Chen's blacksmith shop and tapped on the counter. "Boss, the prices are back to normal?"

Old Chen looked at him, his eyes filled with terror, and nodded frantically. "They're back, they're back! Selling everything at original price! Are you satisfied, Great Grandpa?"

Lin Ye nodded with satisfaction and looked at the other merchants. The several NPCs were all huddled in corners, not daring to even breathe loudly, fearing this bringer of calamity would slap another debuff on them.

"Alright, everyone disperse." Lin Ye waved his hand and turned to leave.

But he didn't go far; instead, he hid in the shadows and observed for a while. Sure enough, in less than five minutes, Zhao Kai rushed to the blacksmith shop with several people.

"Old Chen! Where's the money I gave you? Where are the materials? Why aren't you selling anymore?!" Zhao Kai was so anxious he was stomping his feet.

Old Chen glanced at him, then at the direction where Lin Ye was hiding, and shrank his neck. "Not selling anymore, not selling. I'll refund everything to you; I can't do this business."

"You!" Zhao Kai's face turned green with rage. "I'll give you more money! Double! Triple!"

"No matter how much you add, it's a no." Old Chen directly returned the money to him. "Please leave; don't ruin me."

Zhao Kai took the money, his face ashen. He ran to the other merchants, but the result was exactly the same—no one dared to do business with him.

"Damn it!" Zhao Kai cursed up a storm, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't exactly start a fight with NPCs, could he?

As he was feeling depressed, a lackey leaned in and whispered, "Brother Kai, how about we change our strategy? If he won't let us monopolize materials, we'll steal their mobs. We'll occupy all the mob spawn points in the Novice Village so those solo players can't even farm. Let's see how that Ye helps them then."

Zhao Kai's eyes lit up. "Good idea!"

With a wave of his hand, he led his lackeys toward the wild monster areas of the Novice Village.

Lin Ye watched this scene from the shadows, a devious smile playing on his lips. Stealing mobs? Fine, he wanted to see just how long Zhao Kai could keep that up.

He opened his Talent panel and looked at the newly unlocked effect—"Territory Decay."

[Territory Decay (Newly Unlocked)]

Effect Description: Can apply a Decay effect to a designated area. All targets within the area judged to be performing "malicious behavior" will automatically trigger the Decay Debuff.

Unlock Condition: Accumulate 3 instances of stopping malicious commercial monopoly behavior (Completed).

Without hesitation, Lin Ye applied a "Territory Decay" to each of the three main mob spawn areas in the Novice Village. The effect was simple—whoever stole mobs or bullied newbies in the spawn areas would automatically receive the debuff.

Just as he finished, Zhao Kai and his men rushed into the first spawn area.

"Everyone get out! This mob area is reserved by Brother Kai!"

Several newbie players were scared and quickly ran away. Zhao Kai stood triumphantly in the center of the spawn area, just about to start farming—

In the next second, red damage numbers popped up over his head.

[System Notification: You are performing a malicious mob-stealing behavior, triggering the Territory Decay effect! 50 stacks of Decay Debuff applied!]

Zhao Kai's health bar instantly dropped by 50%, turning his face white with fear. "What's going on?! I didn't do anything!"

His lackeys were the same; as soon as they stole a few mobs, they were all hit with the debuff, their health bars plummeting.

"Brother Kai! My health is dropping too fast! I can't take it!"

"Run!"

The group scrambled out of the spawn area in a panic. Only then did the debuff stop.

Zhao Kai stood outside the spawn area, panting heavily, his face iron-blue. He looked at the spawn area, then at his own health bar, completely bewildered.

"What... what the fuck is happening?!"

A lackey said tremblingly, "Brother Kai, could it be that Ye's doing again?"

Zhao Kai grit his teeth. "It must be that piece of trash! Damn it, mob stealing doesn't work, monopolizing materials doesn't work, what the hell does he want?!"

As he was cursing, Lin Ye slowly walked out from the shadows.

"Brother Kai, we meet again."

Seeing Lin Ye, Zhao Kai shuddered and instinctively took a step back. "You... what do you want?!"

Lin Ye smiled. "Don't be nervous, I just came to see you. I heard you've been monopolizing materials lately? And stealing mobs?"

Zhao Kai's face was ashen, but he didn't dare admit it. "I didn't! Don't you go spouting nonsense!"

"No?" Lin Ye pointed at the spawn area. "Then who was that leading people in there to steal mobs just now?"

Zhao Kai was speechless.

Lin Ye patted his shoulder. "Brother Kai, let me give you a piece of advice: don't pull these little stunts. You can't beat me."

Zhao Kai grit his teeth, not daring to speak.

"I'll let today's matter slide." Lin Ye turned to leave, but after two steps, he looked back and added, "By the way, remember to get your money back from those material merchants. Otherwise, they're going to go bankrupt."

Zhao Kai watched Lin Ye's back, shaking with rage. But he had no way out, absolutely no way.

He had spent a hundred thousand gold to bribe the material merchants, and now it had all gone down the drain. He wanted to steal mobs for revenge, but the spawn areas were blocked too. He wanted to cut off Lin Ye's source of income, but his own was cut off first.

"Brother Kai, what do we do?" a lackey asked quietly.

Zhao Kai grit his teeth. "What else can we do? Let's go!"

He led his men away dejectedly. But he was holding a grudge that he couldn't swallow.

Returning to the safe zone, Zhao Kai sat in the plaza, getting angrier the more he thought about it. He opened his friend list and found an ID—"Bounty Hunter."

[Private Message] Master Kai: Old Hunter, help me post a bounty. One hundred thousand gold to kill that Ye once.

[Private Message] Bounty Hunter: A hundred thousand? Are you sure? Is it worth that much to kill a player in the Novice Village?]

[Private Message] Master Kai: You don't understand. This Ye is no ordinary player. One hundred thousand gold for one kill. Can you take it?

[Private Message] Bounty Hunter: Fine. I'll post it for you. But a hundred-thousand-gold bounty will make the whole server go crazy.

Zhao Kai grit his teeth and transferred a hundred thousand gold over—

[Private Message] Master Kai: The money is there. Arrange it as soon as possible.

[Private Message] Bounty Hunter: Received. The bounty announcement will be out immediately.

Three seconds later, a glaring red bounty announcement popped up across the server—

[Bounty Announcement] Player [Master Kai] has placed a bounty of 100,000 gold to kill player [Ye] once. The bounty is valid for 72 hours, and any player can participate. Claim the reward with a system screenshot after the kill.

The entire server exploded again—

[World Channel]

[Player 'Wocao Wuqing': One hundred thousand gold?! To kill a player in the Novice Village?! Master Kai must be insane!]

[Player 'Little Prince of Pay-to-Win': A hundred thousand gold! That's enough for me to work for a year! I'm taking this bounty!]

[Player 'Solo Player Old Li': You above me, do you have a death wish? Brother Ye even dared to fight the Heavenly Temple, and you dare to provoke him?]

[Player 'Yes Little Follower': Master Kai is really desperate, willing to spend a hundred thousand gold. But will Brother Ye be afraid?]

Lin Ye also saw the bounty announcement. He raised an eyebrow, a devious smile appearing on his face.

One hundred thousand gold? To kill him once?

He opened his Talent panel and looked at the newly unlocked effect—"Rebound Decay."

[Rebound Decay (Newly Unlocked)]

Effect Description: Can convert incoming attacks into Decay Debuffs and reflect them back to the attacker. Rebound Stacks = 10% of the attack damage.

Unlock Condition: Accumulate a malicious bounty amount exceeding 100,000 gold (Completed).

Lin Ye looked at this effect and laughed until he was doubled over.

Zhao Kai spent a hundred thousand gold to put a bounty on him, but it ended up unlocking a new Talent for him instead. This was a massive win.

He opened the World Channel and sent out a message—

[World Channel][Ye]: Master Kai, thanks for the hundred thousand gold. But I'm afraid your money is going to go down the drain.