403: Chapter 403 What does it mean for wealth to be all-powerful?

"Hold on!"

The crowd was roughly pushed aside.

A red-bearded dwarf, less than 1.5 meters tall but nearly as wide as he was tall, walked in.

He was bare-chested, with muscles knotted like rocks, and on his shoulder, he carried a massive anvil, pitch-black as ink and covered in countless hammer marks.

With every step, the bluestone floor of the hall let out a groan of being overburdened.

"Boom!"

The red-bearded dwarf walked up to Chen You and slammed the anvil on his shoulder heavily onto the ground.

The entire hall shook with the impact.

Grandmaster Bronzebeard lowered his head immediately upon seeing the newcomer and called out respectfully, "Lord City Lord."

The newcomer was none other than the City Lord of East Iron City, Tie De.

Tie De ignored Bronzebeard, his eyes bulging like copper bells as he glared at Chen You, his gaze filled with undisguised disdain and anger.

"Smashing with money? Cheating with mystery boxes?" Tie De pointed at Chen You's nose, his voice deafening.

"Utter nonsense! Forging is sacred! It is the fusion of sweat and furnace fire! An opportunist like you, reeking of the stench of money, doesn't deserve to touch the Xiaji Eight Hammers at all!"

The surrounding players, who had been indignant, were suddenly invigorated.

"The City Lord has stepped in!"

"Well done! Sanction this evil Pay-to-Win dog!"

"Let him know that East Iron City isn't a place where you can do whatever you want just because you have money!"

Facing Tie De's flying spit, Chen You silently took half a step back and wiped his face.

He wasn't angry; instead, his eyes lit up.

He was just worrying about not being able to find the City Lord, and here he was, delivering himself to the door.

"You're the City Lord, right?" Chen You adjusted his outfit and casually pushed the Xiaji Eight Hammers, which was radiating rainbow light, back into Bronzebeard's arms.

"Actually, you've misunderstood. I have no interest in this hammer technique at all."

The entire place fell into a deathly silence instantly.

The players' eyes widened.

That was the only mythological-grade sub-profession secret manual in the entire server! He actually said he wasn't interested?

Tie De was also stunned, his anger suddenly stuck in his throat: "You... what did you say?"

With a flick of his wrist, Chen You pulled out that ancient roll of contract silk from his backpack and spread it out directly in front of Tie De.

It already had the seals of four City Lords neatly stamped on it.

"Take the manual back; I'm not learning it." Chen You pointed to a blank space on the silk and got straight to the point.

"Just stamp it, and we'll call it even."

"You uphold your forging faith, I finish my business, and everyone has a bright future."

"How about it?"

Tie De looked down at the silk radiating an ancient aura, the corner of his eye twitching violently.

He felt insulted.

The other party didn't care about East Iron City's highest honor at all; he was just treating him as a tool NPC for stamping!

"Arrogant!" Tie De laughed in anger and slapped the black anvil beside him.

"You want a stamp? Fine! This ancestral anvil is a sacred object passed down through generations of East Iron City's City Lords."

"As long as you can gain its recognition, let alone a stamp, I'll even let you have the position of City Lord!"

Chen You sighed.

The most annoying thing about playing games is NPCs who insist on following story procedures.

"What counts as recognition?" Chen You asked.

Tie De sneered, unfastened a most ordinary standard iron hammer from his waist, and threw it at Chen You's feet.

"Pick up the hammer and strike it."

"When it emits a resonant sound, you pass."

Chen You picked up the hammer and weighed it in his hand.

It was very light, with no attribute bonuses.

He walked to the pitch-black anvil and gave it a casual swing.

"Clang!"

A crisp sound of iron striking echoed.

Immediately after, an extremely mocking red number floated above the anvil:

"-1"

Chen You was stunned.

Only then did he try to check the anvil's attributes.

[Target: East Iron City Ancestral Anvil (Special Story Unit)]

[Health: 999,999 / 1,000,000]

[Trait: Absolute Defense (Forced deduction of 1 Health point upon receiving any physical/magical attack).]

[Status: Unactivated. Resonance is triggered when Health reaches zero.]

Chen You looked at the long string of nines and fell into deep thought.

One million HP.

Forced 1 point damage.

In other words, he had to stand here and strike it exactly one million times with this crappy hammer.

If he struck once per second without rest, it would take about eleven full days.

This wasn't just making things difficult; this was the system blatantly forcing a grind.

"Hahaha!" Tie De burst into laughter, his coarse laughter echoing through the hall.

"See clearly? This is the true essence of forging! No shortcuts, no opportunism, only the accumulation of strike after strike!"

"No matter how rich you are, can you buy the sweat of these one million hammer swings?"

The surrounding players finally felt vindicated and began mocking him in unison.

"Strike it! super tycoon Bro, go on and strike it!"

"Weren't you quite the talker just now? Use your gold coins to smash this anvil to pieces!"

"Hilarious, you've really hit a wall this time. One million strikes—your arms will snap!"

Chen You ignored the surrounding mockery.

He looked at the black anvil in front of him and gave it two more casual strikes.

Sure enough, it only lost 1 HP each time.

He began considering whether to just pull out the yuhuang sword and split this anvil open.

Just then, a crisp system notification suddenly rang out in Chen You's mind.

[Ding!]

[System Notification: A change in your account balance has been detected.]

[Gold Coins -2,000]

Chen You was taken aback.

He hadn't bought anything; why was money suddenly deducted?

Immediately after, a second red system notification popped up, flashing with a piercing light.

[Ding! Hidden effect of the special title "Wealth Can Reach the Gods" triggered!]

[Judgment successful!]

[You have paid double the target's value (Target value: 1,000 gold coins).]

[The East Iron City Ancestral Anvil has been successfully bribed by you. Loyalty duration: 10 minutes.]

Chen You was stunned.

Tie De was stunned.

All the players present were stunned.

Because at the moment the system notification finished, that pitch-black anvil, which had weathered a thousand years and symbolized East Iron City's absolute faith, suddenly vibrated violently.

"Buzz—"

A brilliant dark-gold light erupted from within the anvil, shooting straight to the ceiling.

On the previously lifeless black iron surface, two eyes formed from condensed golden light actually appeared, filled with a fawning expression.

The anvil had come to life.

Even more absurdly, four short, thick metal legs actually grew out from the bottom of this ten-thousand-catty anvil.

It hopped twice on the spot happily and emitted an extremely clear mechanical voice with a heavy, mercenary tone:

"Boss, you're so generous! Two thousand gold coins! You're my real father from another mother!"

The entire forging hall was dead silent; only the "whoosh" of the flames burning in the blast furnace could be heard.

Tie De's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

He pointed at the anvil, his finger shaking as if electrified: "You... you... you've become a spirit?!"

"Spirit my ass!" The anvil spun around abruptly, its golden eyes staring fixedly at Tie De as it cursed loudly.

"I've been with your Tie family for eight generations! Eight generations! You bunch of paupers, hitting me with broken hammers every day for hundreds of years without even giving me a maintenance fee!"

"These pits and dents on my body are all workplace injuries!"