Chapter 85 Guild Alliance Steals Materials, Abyss Lord Personally Escorts Them

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

As soon as the shelves were set up, before any news had even been sent out, a long line had already formed at the entrance. It wasn't players coming spontaneously; someone had leaked on the forums yesterday that the twelve BOSSes of the Test Server had all signed work contracts and the materials would be on the shelves today. The leak was posted in the middle of the night, and by 3:00 AM, people were already camping outside the Business Center.

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 Business Center all the way to the Dawn City plaza, turned a corner, and stretched to the edge of the teleportation array. The players at the very front had dark circles under their eyes, clearly having camped out overnight.

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

Fatty Wang pointed at the price tags on the shelves. "Sell them for whatever they're marked."

That player rushed to the shelf, grabbed three Star Core Fragments, and ran toward the checkout counter. The people behind him poured 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 grab materials started posting screenshots on the world channel. Screenshots of the stats for Test Server Star Core Fragments were plastered everywhere: weapon enhancement with a 100% success rate, armor enchanting with guaranteed max stats, and even ordinary materials could upgrade Epic equipment to Legendary grade. Players who didn't get any were green with envy.

"Wocao Wuqing: 100% enhancement success rate? These materials are insane!"

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

"Brick-Moving Expert: Won't the officials care?"

"Data Emperor: How would the officials care? The materials were voluntarily handed over by the Test Server BOSSes after they signed contracts. Brother Ye didn't steal or rob them."

Lin Ye sat by the window on the third floor, watching the messages on the world channel. Su Qinghan sat opposite him, holding a tablet. On the tablet was the private message list from various major guilds, with over 99 unread messages.

"War Soul Hall wants to order five hundred Star Core Fragments, offering three times the market price. Divine Punishment Pavilion wants to buy out all of next week's Test Server Seal Remnants, naming any price. Hundred Flowers Valley wants to sign a long-term supply agreement, with monthly settlements in gold coins."

Lin Ye picked up his teacup. "Three times the price? How do they plan to use them if they buy them back?"

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 in the entire server. Divine Punishment Pavilion wants to monopolize the Seal Remnants 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 put down his teacup. "Tell War Soul Hall that there are no five hundred pieces; we can supply at most fifty per week. The price will be as marked, no need for three times. Tell Divine Punishment Pavilion that the Seal Remnants won't be bought out; each guild is limited to ten pieces. The long-term agreement with Hundred Flowers Valley can be signed, but add a clause: the materials are for internal use only and cannot be resold."

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

Lin Ye nodded. "Restock in the afternoon."

Fatty Wang paused. "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 mark on the badge was slightly hot; the cross-dimensional contagion chain for the twelve work contracts had been connected. "When I signed the contracts, I added 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 exhausted to death?"

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

Fatty Wang gave a thumbs up.

As soon as the news of the afternoon restock was released, a long line formed at the entrance of the Business Center again. This time, those queuing weren't individual players, but the guild masters of various major guilds. Guild Master Li Tianci of War Soul Hall came in person, Zhao Wuji of Divine Punishment Pavilion came in person, and Liu Ruyan of Hundred Flowers Valley came in person. The three of them stood in front of the counter, none willing to yield.

Li Tianci spoke first. "Brother Ye said it: a limit of fifty per week. War Soul Hall wants all fifty for this week."

Zhao Wuji sneered. "The limit means every guild gets a share. If you take them all, what will others buy?"

Liu Ruyan ignored the two of them and looked directly at 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 endlessly in front of Fatty Wang. Fatty Wang's head hurt from listening, so he turned to look at the third floor. Lin Ye stood 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 sold out this morning; you'll have to come back tomorrow."

The three guild masters looked up at Lin Ye simultaneously. Li Tianci opened his mouth to say something, but Zhao Wuji pulled him back. Bargaining with Lin Ye was pointless; his rules were the rules. The three guild masters turned and walked out of the Business Center.

Fatty Wang let out a long breath. 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 sent by Kim Hyun-tae, and the tone was much more polite than during the last cross-server league.

"Reply to him. The price for overseas guilds to order Test Server materials is ten times that of the Chinese Server guilds. And there is a limit of ten pieces per week. Take it or leave it."

Su Qinghan sent the reply. In less than ten seconds, 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."

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

"Cross-server Channel Ye: Overseas version of Test Server Star Core Fragments listed. Price is ten times that of the Chinese Server, limited to ten pieces per week. Buy while supplies last."

The cross-server channel exploded instantly. Sakura Shrine of the Japanese Server, Freedom Alliance of the US Server, Sacred Hall of the European Server—private messages ordering from major overseas guilds poured in like snowflakes. Su Qinghan's tablet lagged from the influx of messages.

Fatty Wang looked at the backend data, his mouth wide enough to fit two eggs. "Brother, overseas orders broke 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'?"

"The daily production capacity of the Lord of the Abyss mining hasn't been counted in yet. If you count that in, the number is even bigger."

Fatty Wang stopped talking.

By evening, the Unscrupulous Business Center finally closed its doors. The shelves were empty, the warehouse was empty, and even the spare shopping baskets Zhao Kai had pushed over from the warehouse were snatched up. The entire server's 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 held in Lin Ye's hands.

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

Lin Ye stood by the third-floor window, watching the night scene of Dawn City. Faint energy fluctuations came from the direction of the Abyss Rift; that was the movement of the Lord of the Abyss mining at the bottom of the Abyss. At the entrance of the Test Server, Xiao Zhou was still squatting there, guarding that gray door. The signboard 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 about tomorrow's quota of Test Server materials; Kim Hyun-tae and Yamada Ichiro had argued for over three hundred posts on the cross-server channel. Lin Ye closed the cross-server channel and turned away from the window.

"Starting tomorrow, Test Server materials will increase in price. Chinese Server remains the same, overseas doubles."

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

"Kim Hyun-tae said himself to name any price. Not increasing it would be disrespectful to his sincerity."

Su Qinghan couldn't help but laugh. This person even shifted 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 emptied.