Chapter 48: Selling All Assets, Qin Wentian Raises Protection Money

On Qin Wentian's fifth day as a "Novice Instructor" in the Novice Village, Lin Ye suddenly called him back to the Commoner Supermarket.

"Guild Leader Qin, have a seat." Lin Ye pointed to the chair opposite him, his tone much more serious than usual.

Qin Wentian sat down, feeling a bit uneasy. He knew Lin Ye too well; whenever this guy got serious, it never meant anything good.

"Have you finished paying off your debts?" Lin Ye asked.

Qin Wentian nodded. "I've apologized to everyone on the list. I've also paid the compensation I owed."

"And what about yourself?"

Qin Wentian was stunned for a moment. "Myself? What do you mean?"

Lin Ye leaned back in his chair, fingers interlaced on the table, and stared at him. "What can you do with your current gear? Monsters don't drop anything for you, NPCs won't sell you items, your voice is a loli's, and your character model is a pixelated mess. Do you think you can stay in the Novice Village helping people grind mobs forever?"

Qin Wentian fell silent. He knew Lin Ye was right. In his current state, forget high-level dungeons—he couldn't even leave the main city gates. NPCs wouldn't sell to him, so he couldn't even afford health potions. If it weren't for Fatty Wang bringing him some potions every day, he wouldn't even be able to tank the mobs in the Novice Village.

"Then what do you think I should do?" he asked.

A wicked smile curled on Lin Ye's lips. "Spend money to avert disaster."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll help you clear the debuffs. But you have to pay."

Qin Wentian's eyes lit up, but quickly dimmed again. "How much?"

"Fifty million gold coins."

Qin Wentian nearly jumped out of his chair. "Fifty million?! Where would I get that much money?!"

Lin Ye shrugged. "That's your problem. I'll give you three days. Scrape together fifty million within three days, and I'll clear your debuffs. If you can't... these debuffs will stay on you forever."

Qin Wentian's face turned deathly pale. His entire net worth combined wasn't even worth five hundred thousand gold coins. Fifty million? Where was he supposed to get that?

"Brother Ye, aren't you making things impossible for me?" His loli voice carried a hint of a sob. "You know what I'm like right now. My gear is gone, my money is gone, even my guild has disbanded. How am I supposed to scrape together fifty million?"

Lin Ye stood up and patted him on the shoulder. "You have it. You still have one thing."

"What thing?"

"The wealth you accumulated in the past. Even though the Heavenly Temple has disbanded, your private warehouse still exists, doesn't it, Qin Wentian? Don't you know exactly how many good things are hidden in there?"

Qin Wentian's expression shifted. He did indeed have a private warehouse containing all his savings from the past few years. Epic gear, rare materials, limited-edition items, and several unique collectibles. He had planned to keep them as his retirement fund; he hadn't expected Lin Ye to know about it.

"How... how did you know?" he stammered.

Lin Ye laughed. "Do you think I keep Ghost (the team hacker) around for nothing? He found the coordinates to your private warehouse long ago. I just didn't say anything because I wanted to see when you'd come clean voluntarily."

Qin Wentian slumped into his chair, completely defeated. He thought he had hidden it well enough, but Lin Ye had already seen through him entirely.

"Fine." He gritted his teeth. "I'll give it. Fifty million it is. But you have to promise me that after the debuffs are cleared, you'll let me stay in the Commoner Guild."

Lin Ye nodded. "Of course. If you leave, who's going to help me train the newbies?"

Qin Wentian gave a bitter smile, stood up, and walked out of the Commoner Supermarket. He was going to his private warehouse to sell off the treasures he had cherished for years, one by one.

The private warehouse was in a hidden basement on the east side of the main city. Qin Wentian pushed open the iron door to reveal a small room filled with his collections from over the years. Shelves on the walls held various pieces of epic gear, boxes on the table contained rare materials and limited-edition items, and a safe in the furthest corner locked away several unique collectibles.

He stood in the center of the room, looking at it all, feeling an indescribable mix of emotions. These collections were gathered with countless amounts of effort and money. Behind every single piece was a story.

That [Shadow Cloak] had dropped the first time he led a team to clear a high-difficulty dungeon. He remembered the guild channel being filled with cheers that day, and his brothers tossing him into the air in celebration at the dungeon entrance.

That [Dragon Flame Sword] was something he had bid one hundred million gold coins for at a black market auction. The entire venue had gone crazy; no one dared to outbid him. Holding that sword on the auction stage, he felt like the king of the entire server.

That [War God Badge] was the only one in the entire server. He had received it personally from the developers during an official offline event. Back then, he was the leader of the number one guild, and everyone revolved around him.

But now? He had become a "good person" wearing starter gear, covered in pixels, with a loli's voice. What was the point of keeping these collections?

Qin Wentian took a deep breath and began to pack. He took the gear off the walls one by one and put them into his bag. He packed the materials box by box. He opened the safe and carefully wrapped the unique collectibles.

After three full hours of packing, his bag was stuffed. He walked out of the basement and headed to the Trading House to list them for sale.

[System Notification: You have listed [Shadow Cloak] (Epic), priced at 5 million gold coins.]

[System Notification: You have listed [Dragon Flame Sword] (Legendary), priced at 20 million gold coins.]

[System Notification: You have listed [War God Badge] (Unique), priced at 30 million gold coins.]

As soon as the items were listed, the Trading House exploded.

[world channel]

[Player 'Wocao Wuqing': Holy crap! [Dragon Flame Sword]? Isn't that Qin Wentian's weapon? Why is he selling it?]

[Player 'Brick-Moving Expert': And the [War God Badge]! A unique collectible! How much must that be worth!]

[Player 'Invincible Sword God': Is Qin Wentian quitting the game? Why is he selling off his entire fortune?]

[Player 'Yes Little Follower': He's not quitting, he's paying a debt. He's finally going to pay back what he owes Brother Ye.]

In less than an hour after being listed, the items were snatched up. The server's whales bid like crazy; the [Dragon Flame Sword] was driven up to 25 million gold coins, and the [War God Badge] reached 35 million. Including the other miscellaneous items, Qin Wentian collected over sixty million gold coins in total.

He transferred fifty million gold coins to Lin Ye and kept over ten million for himself.

[System Notification: You have transferred 50,000,000 gold coins to player [Ye].]

Upon receiving the money, a wicked smile appeared on Lin Ye's face. He raised his hand and cleared some of the debuffs on Qin Wentian—the 99% Drop Rate Nullification was lifted, the NPC Favorability reset was lifted, the forced pixelation was lifted, and the automatic voice changer was also lifted. However, he left a backdoor hidden in the deepest layer of Qin Wentian's account. Should Qin Wentian cause trouble again, all the debuffs would return instantly, and this time—they could never be cleared.

Qin Wentian watched as his character model changed from a mass of pixels back to its normal form, and he was so moved he nearly cried. He touched his face and looked at his gear; though it was still starter equipment, at least he could clearly see what he looked like.

"Thank you, Brother Ye," he said softly. His voice had returned to normal, no longer that dainty loli voice.

Lin Ye waved his hand. "No need to thank me. You bought this yourself."

Qin Wentian smiled bitterly. "Yeah, it cost fifty million."

"Regret it?"

"It hurts. But it's worth it." Qin Wentian looked out the window; the sunlight hit his face, feeling warm. "I used to think money was the most important thing. Now I know some things are more important than money."

Lin Ye patted his shoulder. "Let's go. Time to work."

"What work?"

"Taking you to grind for gear. Wearing that starter set, you can't even beat mobs in the Novice Village."

Qin Wentian was stunned. "You're helping me grind?"

Lin Ye laughed. "Not helping you, taking you. You'll do the fighting yourself. I'll just watch from the side."

That afternoon, Lin Ye took Qin Wentian to the Ash Plains to grind mobs. Fatty Wang and Su Qinghan went along too. In their party of four, Lin Ye led the way, applying debuffs to the wild monsters and beating them down to low health before letting Qin Wentian land the final blow.

[System Notification: You have killed an [Ash Wolf], gaining 500 Experience Points. Obtained item: Ash Fur (Blue) ×1.]

Looking at the blue material in his bag, Qin Wentian's hands trembled with excitement. He hadn't seen a blue item in days; it had been nothing but starter trash. Finally, a blue drop.

"Continue," Lin Ye said.

Qin Wentian nodded and continued grinding with Lin Ye. Over the course of the afternoon, he leveled up from 30 to 35, and his bag was filled with blue and purple materials. Although no epics dropped, he was already very satisfied.

"That's enough." Lin Ye clapped his hands. "We'll stop here for today."

Looking at his full bag of materials, Qin Wentian couldn't help but ask, "Brother Ye, why are you helping me?"

Lin Ye thought for a moment and said, "Because you're useful."

"Useful?"

"Right. You were the leader of the Heavenly Temple; you know a lot of people and a lot of inside information. These resources are useful to me."

Qin Wentian smiled bitterly. "You really are... calculating about everything."

Lin Ye shrugged. "It's professional."

He turned and left, leaving Qin Wentian standing there alone. Qin Wentian watched his back, feeling a complex mix of emotions. He knew Lin Ye wasn't helping him out of the goodness of his heart, but because he was useful to Lin Ye. Even so, he was still grateful. Because Lin Ye had given him a chance to start over.

He turned and walked toward the Novice Village. The sunlight hit him, feeling warm. He was going to continue being his "Novice Instructor." This was the path he had chosen, and he would walk it to the end.

Meanwhile, Lin Ye stood on the roof of the Commoner Supermarket, watching Qin Wentian's retreating figure in the distance, a wicked smile on his lips.

"Brother, do you really think he can keep this up?" Fatty Wang came up and asked.

Lin Ye nodded. "He can. Because he has already found what he wants to do."

"What's that?"

"Helping people." Lin Ye pointed toward the distant Novice Village. "Look at him, see how happy he is smiling."

Fatty Wang looked where he was pointing. Qin Wentian was squatting among a group of newbies, gesturing as he explained something, a smile on his face as bright as a child's.

"True." Fatty Wang laughed. "Back when he was a guild leader, I never saw him smile. Now he smiles much more."

Lin Ye nodded. "Because the old him wasn't himself. The current him is the real Qin Wentian."

He turned to go downstairs, leaving behind one last sentence: "Keep an eye on him. Don't let him stray off course again."

Fatty Wang watched his back and chuckled. "Don't worry, Brother. Leave it to me."