Chapter 84 The Unscrupulous Squad Monopolizes Abyss Materials, Across the Server

The day after the twelve Test Server employment contracts were signed, Fatty Wang completely rearranged the shelves on the first floor of the Unscrupulous Business Center. Next to the area where Abyss Crystals were originally displayed, he added a whole new row of specialty counters for Test Server items. Test Server Star Core Fragments, Test Server Seal Fragments, and Test Server Version Essences were all priced at half the market rate.

The shelves had just been set up, and the news hadn't even been officially released yet, but a long line had already formed at the entrance. It wasn't because players came spontaneously; someone had leaked on the forums yesterday that all twelve Test Server bosses had signed employment contracts and that the materials would be on the shelves today. The leak post was made in the middle of the night, and people were already camping out at the entrance of the Unscrupulous Business Center by 3:00 AM.

When Fatty Wang opened the main door, he was startled by the sea of heads at the entrance. The line stretched from the entrance of the Unscrupulous Business Center all the way to the Dawn City plaza, rounded a corner, and extended to the edge of the teleportation array. The player at the very front had two dark circles under their eyes; it was obvious they had been camping out all night.

"Brother Ye, are the Test Server materials really half price?"

Fatty Wang pointed to the price tags on the shelves. "Whatever the price tag says, that's what we sell it for."

The player rushed to the shelves, grabbed three Star Core Fragments, and ran toward the checkout counter. The people behind them surged in like a tide. The fifty shopping baskets Fatty Wang had prepared weren't enough, so he had Zhao Kai urgently push two more carts over from the warehouse.

Players who managed to snag the materials started posting screenshots on the world channel. Screenshots of the attributes of the Test Server Star Core Fragments were posted everywhere: 100% success rate for weapon enhancement, guaranteed max stats for armor enchanting, and even ordinary materials could upgrade Epic equipment to Legendary grade. The players who didn't manage to get any were green with envy.

"Wocao Wuqing: 100% enhancement success rate? These materials are heaven-defying!"

"Data Emperor: Test Server materials are debugging items used for version development; they inherently have no failure probability. Brother Ye taking these things out to sell is equivalent to putting official backend items on the shelves."

"Brick-Moving Expert: Won't the officials do anything about this?"

"Data Emperor: How can the officials do anything? The materials were voluntarily handed over by the Test Server bosses who signed the contracts. Brother Ye didn't steal or rob anyone."

Lin Ye sat by the third-floor window, watching the messages on the world channel. Su Qinghan sat opposite him, holding a tablet. On the tablet was a list of private messages from various major guilds, with over ninety-nine unread messages.

"War Soul Hall wants to order five hundred Star Core Fragments and is offering three times the market price. Divine Punishment Pavilion wants to buy out next week's Test Server Seal Fragments, and they said we can name any price. Hundred Flowers Valley wants to sign a long-term supply agreement, with payments settled monthly in gold coins."

Lin Ye picked up his teacup. "Three times the price? What do they plan to do with them once they buy them?"

Su Qinghan flipped through the private messages. "War Soul Hall says they want to use them to craft the first set of Legendary-grade guild gear on the server. Divine Punishment Pavilion wants to monopolize the Seal Fragments and then resell them to overseas guilds at a high price. Hundred Flowers Valley is more practical; they just want to hoard materials."

Lin Ye set down his teacup. "Tell War Soul Hall that we don't have five hundred pieces; we can supply a maximum of fifty per week. The price will be the marked price; they don't need to pay triple. Tell Divine Punishment Pavilion that they cannot buy out the Seal Fragments; each guild is limited to purchasing ten pieces. We can sign the long-term agreement with Hundred Flowers Valley, but add one clause: the materials must be for their own use and cannot be resold."

Su Qinghan noted it down. Fatty Wang ran up from the first floor, holding the sales data he had just tallied. "Brother, in one hour of business, all the Test Server materials were sold out. Revenue is eighty million gold coins."

Lin Ye nodded. "Restock in the afternoon."

Fatty Wang was stunned for a moment. "Restock? The Test Server bosses only hand over materials once a week. We only have that much in stock, what are we restocking?"

Lin Ye pulled the Abyss Badge from his inventory. The energy imprint on the badge was slightly hot; the cross-dimensional contagion chain for the twelve employment contracts had already connected. "When I signed the contracts, I added a cross-dimensional Decay contagion. The bosses aren't handing over materials once a week, but once a day."

Fatty Wang's mouth opened wide enough to fit an egg. "Every day? Won't the Test Server bosses be worked to death?"

"They are Test Server bosses; they don't need to sleep."

Fatty Wang gave him a thumbs up.

As soon as the news of the afternoon restock was released, a long line formed at the entrance of the Unscrupulous Business Center again. This time, the people lining up weren't casual players, but the guild masters of the major guilds. War Soul Hall Guild Master Li Tianci came in person, Divine Punishment Pavilion's Zhao Wuji came in person, and Hundred Flowers Valley's Liu Ruyan came in person. The three of them stood in front of the counter, neither willing to give way to the others.

Li Tianci spoke first. "Brother Ye said there's a limit of fifty pieces per week. We want all fifty pieces for this week for War Soul Hall."

Zhao Wuji sneered. "The meaning of a purchase limit is that every guild gets a share. If you take them all, what are the others supposed to buy?"

Liu Ruyan ignored the two of them and turned directly to Fatty Wang. "Hundred Flowers Valley signed a long-term agreement last week. According to the terms of the agreement, we have priority purchasing rights."

The three of them argued incessantly in front of Fatty Wang. Fatty Wang's head ached from listening, so he turned to look at the third floor. Lin Ye was standing by the third-floor railing, watching this scene below.

"The purchase limit rules remain unchanged. Each guild gets fifty pieces per week, first come, first served. Today's quota was sold out this morning; you all should come back tomorrow."

The three guild masters looked up at Lin Ye simultaneously. Li Tianci opened his mouth as if to say something, but Zhao Wuji pulled him back. There was no point in haggling with Lin Ye; his rules were the rules. The three guild masters turned and walked out of the Unscrupulous Business Center.

Fatty Wang let out a long sigh of relief. Su Qinghan's tablet rang again; this time, it wasn't a guild from the Chinese Server, but from overseas servers.

"The Korean Server's Goryeo War God Temple wants to order Test Server materials. They are offering five times the price of the Chinese Server guilds."

Lin Ye glanced at the screenshot of the private message. It was from Kim Hyun-tae, and his tone was much more polite than it had been during the last cross-server league.

"Reply to him. The price for overseas guilds ordering Test Server materials is ten times that of the Chinese Server guilds. Also, they are limited to ten pieces per week. Take it or leave it."

Su Qinghan sent the reply. Less than ten seconds later, Kim Hyun-tae replied.

"Ten pieces is fine, ten times the price is fine. As long as you can supply them, you can name any price."

Lin Ye's lips curled up. The overseas guilds were even more eager than the Chinese Server guilds; they were venting all their resentment from not being able to buy the top-tier version of the Abyss Protection Package onto these Test Server materials. He opened the cross-server channel and sent a message.

"Cross-Server Channel Ye: Test Server Star Core Fragments, overseas version now on the shelves. Price is ten times that of the Chinese Server, limited to ten pieces per week. Buy soon before they're gone."

The cross-server channel exploded instantly. Private messages for orders from major overseas guilds like the Japanese Server's Sakura Shrine, the US Server's Freedom Alliance, and the European Server's Divine Hall flooded in like snowflakes. Su Qinghan's tablet lagged from the sheer volume of messages.

Fatty Wang looked at the backend data, his mouth opening wide enough to fit two eggs. "Brother, overseas orders have broken two hundred million gold coins in ten minutes."

"Not bad."

"Not bad? Two hundred million in ten minutes, and you tell me it's 'not bad'?"

"I haven't even included the daily production capacity of the Lord of the Abyss mining underground yet. If you include that, the number will be even bigger."

Fatty Wang stopped talking.

At dusk, the Unscrupulous Business Center finally closed. The shelves were completely empty, the warehouse was empty, and even the spare shopping baskets that Zhao Kai had pushed over from the warehouse were snatched up. The server-wide material market was completely monopolized by the Lack-of-Virtue Squad; from Abyss Crystals to Test Server fragments, from Epic materials to Legendary cores, the pricing power for all rare materials was firmly in Lin Ye's hands.

Su Qinghan finished organizing the sales report for the day. Daily revenue exceeded five hundred million gold coins, which converted to over twenty million in real-world currency. Fatty Wang slumped in his chair, not wanting to move a finger. Zhao Kai crouched at the warehouse entrance, counting the remaining cardboard boxes.

Lin Ye stood by the third-floor window, watching the night view of Dawn City. Faint energy fluctuations came from the direction of the Abyss Rift; that was the sound of the Lord of the Abyss mining in the depths of the Abyss. At the entrance to the Test Server, Xiao Zhou was still squatting there, guarding the gray door. The sign of the Unscrupulous Business Center glowed in the night.

He opened the cross-server channel and took a look. The overseas guilds were still arguing over the quota for tomorrow's Test Server materials; Kim Hyun-tae and Yamada Ichiro had argued for over three hundred posts in the cross-server channel. Lin Ye closed the cross-server channel and turned away from the window.

"Starting tomorrow, the price of Test Server materials will increase. Chinese Server prices will remain the same, but overseas prices will double."

Fatty Wang sprang up from his chair. "Still increasing? Ten times is already ruthless enough."

"Kim Hyun-tae said himself that I could name any price. If I don't raise it, I would be letting down his sincerity."

Su Qinghan couldn't help but laugh. This person even managed to shift the blame onto the overseas guilds when raising prices. She closed her tablet and stood up; tomorrow would be another day where the shelves of the Unscrupulous Business Center would be cleared out.