Chapter 044: The Hidden Pearl

After heading upstairs, Lin Jia traded the three sets of professional gear to Monkey and his crew. In return, his inventory now held four new items. The boss, curious, craned his neck to see, “You’ve been running up and down—have you managed to sell anything yet?”

With a sly grin, Lin Jia opened his inventory for the boss to see. “Take a look! Just exchanged these!”

The boss stood up, hurried behind Lin Jia, and grabbed his mouse to hover over each piece of equipment. After a while, he remarked, “I’m taking the Demon-Slaying Ring.” Lin Jia almost fainted on the spot.

When the fourth brother heard this, he quickly came over as well. One glance at the Frost Blade and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Damn! How did you trade for this?”

Lin Jia replied smugly, “Three sets of junk pro gear! Oh, and by the way, give me some level 15 or so rare items for Taoists and Warriors.”

“You’re kidding, right? You traded those three sets for these four pieces? With that skinny guy from before?” Now it was the fourth brother and the boss’s turn to be stunned. The fourth brother stared incredulously at Lin Jia. “Are you scamming kindergarteners now? How did you manage this? And why do you need those rare items?”

Lin Jia chuckled. “To give away, of course! One can’t be too heartless.” He took six or seven rare items from the fourth brother and was about to dash off when the fourth brother caught up, opening a trade window.

“What now?” Lin Jia turned, puzzled. The fourth brother glared at him fiercely. “Don’t play dumb! Hand over the Frost Blade and the Golden Bracelet!” Lin Jia was speechless. Why were all his brothers the same?

After trading the two items to the fourth brother, Lin Jia looked at the only thing left in his bag—a magnifying glass. He sighed, shook his head, and ran to the safe zone. There, he traded the rare items to Monkey’s character, the Warrior “Gangang,” who was still standing around, and sent a message: “Bro, thanks a lot!”

Monkey replied, “Thanks for what? If you get anything good, don’t forget us!”

Lin Jia laughed. “No problem! I’m off—still got stuff to sell!”

Just as he was about to head back to the warehouse to join his brothers in selling equipment, a little Taoist named “Maple Moon” ran over and opened a trade window with Lin Jia. Lin Jia watched, wondering what he was up to. After a moment, the little Taoist placed a ring into the window—the very Paralysis Ring Lin Jia had spotted earlier in the warehouse beside Monkey.

Only then did Lin Jia recall that this “Maple Moon” was the same guy who’d been standing next to Monkey earlier. Seeing the other party had already clicked to confirm the trade, Lin Jia smiled and accepted. After all, it was a nice-looking trinket, and though not particularly useful, it was pretty rare—a good addition to his collection.

After the trade, Lin Jia put on the Paralysis Ring to admire it. Maple Moon messaged him: “Guai Zi! Take care of us in the future! If you ever need anything, just call—we’ll be there!”

Lin Jia replied with a laugh, “Sure thing,” but then noticed the color of the message was different from his own, and no speech bubble appeared above the character’s head. Puzzled, he asked, “Why is your message a different color from mine?”

Maple Moon replied, “Seriously, Guai Zi? You don’t know how to private chat? There are several chat methods in Legend! Enter ‘/’ and the other person's name for a private chat—only the two of you can see it, no matter where you are. If you just type normally, only those nearby can see your messages. There’s also the ‘!’ shout mode—messages show up in yellow and everyone on the current map can see them. See all those yellow lines on your screen? People selling stuff. And if you use ‘!!’ before your message, it’s team chat—only your party members can see it.”

Lin Jia laughed. “Oh! Thanks! We’ve always played sitting together, never asked anyone else how it works. Gotta go, see ya!” With that, he headed back to the main city warehouse. The fourth brother and the boss were still happily selling gear. Lin Jia glanced at the Paralysis Ring on his finger and chuckled. Since they’d insisted on giving it to him, he might as well keep it as a memento. According to logic, any piece of equipment not listed on the official homepage should be a good item, but this ring was only level 16 and had an attack of 0–1—practically useless. By Lin Jia’s standard method of evaluating gear, it was a worthless trinket. Yet, in Legend, the better-looking the gear, the higher the level it usually is, so this ring seemed to break all the rules. He couldn’t make sense of it.

He took off the Paralysis Ring and tossed it into the warehouse, then organized the gear he’d stockpiled. Opening the chat window, he entered an exclamation mark and typed: “!I have a large number of level 20 three-class set gear for sale! Come to the main city warehouse to check it out! Skeleton set trades accepted!” and sent it out.

Lin Jia kept sending out messages, but after a while, still no one came to check the goods. Puzzled, he asked the fourth brother, “Did you see my yellow message?”

The fourth brother paused, confused. “Why are you sending yellow messages instead of selling gear? Careful, or the censors will get you for spreading adult content!”

It took Lin Jia a moment to realize the double meaning in his words, and he couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly. “No, I mean shout messages, not explicit content! Look, the words appear in yellow on my screen! The guys earlier said it lets everyone on the map see your message!”

The fourth brother, who was outside the warehouse, glanced at his chat window. “I don’t see it,” he said, surprised.

The boss leaned over. “I see it! It’s right here,” he said, pointing at his own screen, where several of Lin Jia’s messages appeared.

The fourth brother checked again and said curiously, “Try sending one out here.”

Lin Jia, tired of typing, simply copied the message, ran out of the small warehouse to stand beside the fourth brother, and sent it several times. The fourth brother exclaimed, “There it is! Now I see it!” The boss, meanwhile, said, “I don’t have it now.”

Lin Jia cursed, “Damn! Even a tiny warehouse counts as a separate map?” Yet, he had to admit, this shout method was effective. Immediately, people started contacting him via private chat, asking about his wares and prices. The fourth brother and the boss were amazed and bombarded him with questions about how it worked. Lin Jia cheerfully explained the “!, !!, /” chat methods. Soon, the entire main city was filled with their trio’s yellow messages, prompting the rest of the players to copy and paste their own advertisements, flooding the chat window as messages scrolled by in a blur. Otherwise, any message sent would vanish within a tenth of a second, creating a wild, competitive loop of spamming.

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(Trouble: Sigh! Someone actually threatened me and said if I didn’t want their Paralysis Ring, they’d burn my house down...)