Chapter 319 - 298: The Ruthless NPC Vice President
Da Fei might be asleep, but the Earth, of course, kept turning.
In room 102, 1st floor of the Elorin Chamber of Commerce headquarters, the smartly dressed Coltner, flanked by several Elf noblewomen, confidently moved into the office!
— Guild Channel [Dragon Cavalry Chamber of Commerce Appointment Announcement]: Baron Coltner has formally taken up the position of Vice President of the Dragon Cavalry Chamber of Commerce!
As the news broke, the entire guild channel erupted in commotion! Vice President? An NPC? This really is an NPC, right? The Chamber of Commerce actually appointed an NPC to be the Vice President?
At this moment, Da Bing, who was sailing the new ship, Octopus, towards the mission destination and feeling triumphant, suddenly felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over him from head to toe! So Da Fei had been delaying the appointment of a Vice President just to let an NPC take the position? That was Da Fei’s plan? Then what am I?
— Guild Channel [Dragon Cavalry Chamber of Commerce Appointment Announcement]: The Vice President has officially appointed Spielberg as the Fishery Group Leader!
The guild was in uproar again! Another NPC! Now everyone realized that Da Fei had taken under his command the two NPC Captains he sailed with! Considering the situation since the public beta, recruiting NPCs into a guild is extremely difficult—it requires a very high level of friendliness! And yet, Da Fei managed to recruit two big ship captains in one fell swoop, which means those two big ships have already become the ships of the Chamber of Commerce! Da Fei is really too strong!
Da Bing seemed to start understanding Da Fei’s intentions, to only trust NPCs and not players, which made him feel really uncomfortable. Even though he was one of the earliest to join the guild, as an ordinary member, he couldn’t even see the guild’s prestige, funds, or the number of ships—so what was he really?
Then another guild message followed one after the other!
— Guild Channel [Dragon Cavalry Chamber of Commerce Administrative Announcement]: Greetings to all members of the Chamber of Commerce! The Dragon Cavalry Chamber of Commerce is a long-standing Chamber with a history; it was once suspended due to historical reasons, but now under the leadership of Mr. Da Fei, the Chamber is reviving its glory and has ambitious plans. The Chamber needs to raise a significant amount of funds and prestige in a short period, so from today onwards, the trading system will be significantly adjusted—75% of the merchants’ profit will be taken as a cut and submitted to the Chamber as capital, while the cut of contributions from merchants will also become investment capital for the Chamber. Every merchant is a shareholder of the Chamber, and dividends will be distributed quarterly based on the contribution ratio. We hope everyone can work together to support the faster and better construction of our Chamber of Commerce!
— Guild Channel: Vice President Coltner has adjusted the Chamber’s cut to 75%!
— Guild Channel: Vice President Coltner has introduced the share dividends feature for the Chamber!
— Guild Channel: Vice President Coltner has issued challenging targets for the guild members!
...
Just when all the guild members were still feeling very intrigued by NPCs becoming officers, a big block of text made the guild fall silent for a brief few seconds. And when everyone finally realized what it meant, the whole guild exploded in shock!
"A 75% cut! Holy shit, that’s too much! No guild dared to do this during the public beta!"
"Damn, my assessment target is to contribute at least 150,000 in funds within 3 months!"
"What’s the use of those shares?! Can the quarterly dividends make up for the cut taken from me?"
"We’re in the crucial phase of early development, where we need money to continually compound, so how can we develop when 70% is taken away? Is the early development of the Chamber more important or our own early development?"
"Guild Leader! Say something, Guild Leader!"
"The Guild Leader is not online!"
"Shit! Someone, Invincible Soldier, say something!"
At this moment, Invincible Soldier himself was also stunned. Having Blood Sea Studio submit 75% of their profits to the Chamber of Commerce—harsh! This NPC was just too ruthless! Now I get it! I finally understand Da Fei’s intention—he didn’t want to do this dirty work himself, so he passed it off to an NPC. If anyone has questions, he just says, "The NPC did it, nothing to do with me," and shirks responsibility! So it appears that Da Fei, who seems careless and unrestrained, actually has very deep and calculated thoughts, huh? With such a boss, success is a given!
Facing the noisy doubts in the guild channel, Da Bing, having figured things out, immediately jumped out, "I’ll only say this much, I have confidence in Brother Fei, and I have confidence in his guild! That’s all from me!" Wahaha, it serves you right, since all of you are undercover agents from Blood Sea Studio! Now what are you going to do?
...
At this point, Blood Sea Studio’s chat group was also in complete chaos, whether it was Brother Tian, Little Ma, or Blood Sea Wave, they all felt at a loss. In fact, they had never even considered what they would do in Da Fei’s guild after occupying a spot as undercover agents. As long as they could continue their trading and keep earning money for the studio, that was good enough. But now, with Da Fei’s new system in place, Blood Sea Studio could forget about making any money; not only would they not profit, but they’d also be working for Da Fei. Such a thing was absolutely intolerable! Only a fool would do such a thing!
"Leave this crappy guild!" Blood Sea Wave, having lost interest in playing the role of an undercover agent, said in frustration, and then with reluctance added, "And then smear this trash Da Fei and his trash guild to death on the forums!"
Brother Tian shouted angrily, "Cuss them out! Rant hard in the guild channel right now!"
Soon after, the Dragon Cavalry Chamber of Commerce channel was filled with a barrage of curses once more!
"What a sh*tty Chamber of Commerce! They start fundraising without any prospects! How is this different from a scam? Da Fei is truly trash! I’m out of here!"
"What ’Number One player in the China Region’, ’World’s top amateur player’ - ever since I joined this crappy Chamber of Commerce to trade, my ship has mysteriously sunk 3 times already. There must be something fishy! Who the hell would be an idiot to join this crappy Chamber?"
"Exactly. Running trades in his guild only gets you enemies, and going out to the sea means getting hunted. There’s no sense of security at all!"
And so,
——Guild Channel: It’s very regrettable that XXX and our Chamber of Commerce’s visions are not aligned. They have left the Chamber of Commerce!
——Guild Channel: It’s very regrettable that XXX and our Chamber of Commerce’s visions are not aligned. They have left the Chamber of Commerce!
......
Thus, in a torrent of curses, almost a hundred members left the massive guild. At the same time, various posts such as "Da Fei Dragon Cavalry Commerce Announces a Scam System, Traders All Flee," "The Truth About Da Fei’s Scamming Chamber of Commerce, Players Beware!" and "My Fortnight as a Trader at the Dragon Cavalry Chamber of Commerce" were being swiftly produced with accompanying graphics. This time, Blood Sea Wave was ready to use the power of public opinion to thoroughly blacken Da Fei’s already tarnished reputation!
Looking at the guild member list, now desolately empty, Da Bing felt a rush of mixed emotions—he was glad that the undercover members had all buggered off. Good riddance! But then, entrusting management to NPCs, isn’t that a bit too unreliable? After this incident, would Brother Fei still make use of regular players?
Meanwhile, One Sword Eastward, seeing the great turmoil within the chamber, couldn’t help but feel secretly elated, but firmly said, "A bunch of short-sighted idiots, still dreaming of being traders?"
Da Bing chuckled and replied, "It’s better to clear the spots for others. They will regret this!"
One Sword Eastward smiled and said, "Then let’s start thinking of ways to recruit new guild members!"
Da Bing nodded, "Alright!"
One Sword Eastward silently snickered to himself. At a critical time like this, trying to recruit new members would surely attract even more criticism, right? That’s the effect he wanted! There’s a special thrill in going against the wind!
......
Skyshattering Thunder became famous!
In just one hour, his post about trading the Divine Artifact spread like wildfire across the China Region forums and was even shared on foreign forums. Numerous large guilds and tycoons from the China Region left messages wanting to buy his Divine Artifact Weapon Gun, all of which he refused. Some tycoons even made an astonishing offer of 1 million, which he vehemently turned down with resentment!
Skyshattering Thunder had his own bitter reasons. If it were any other player, they might have scammed him for 1 million and then deleted the account to start anew with a fresh face—what’s the big deal? Regrettably, his account had the value of a blacksmith’s business, certainly more than 1 million. Anyway, he kept calm with the intent to bait Da Fei.
Right now, the experts’ appraisal was very favorable for him. Aside from its flashy appearance, even just as a personal weapon, its practical value was no less than that of a strategic Divine Artifact. For instance, in narrow mountain caves, ancient castle terrains, or jungles where large armies could not deploy or enter in large numbers, strong personal combat prowess could decide the outcome of a battle. And this gun, with an extra 100 points of hefty life and the paralysis stun effect, is undoubtedly the main tank’s weapon for instances!
Not to mention, this gun was also a quest item, which meant the potential for even greater profits upon completing the quest. Overall, the experts were extremely optimistic.
However, the opinions on Da Fei’s Destiny Coin Divine Artifact were causing a tremendous debate. What is the "God of Luck"? What is "Absolute Misfortune"? The questions were too high-end and beyond the experts’ understanding, but experts are experts after all, and that didn’t prevent them from concocting the reality that the God of Luck means a 100% chance of good luck, and Absolute Misfortune as a 100% chance of bad luck. Is 1 day of luck worth 30 days of misfortune?
Worth it! At least on the day of the championship, it’s definitely worth it! Compared to the championship’s 1 million US Dollar prize money, even if the account was rendered useless after 30 days of misfortune, it would still be worthwhile! In a person’s life, the chances to change their fate are often just once or twice!
In the end, despite many negative reviews and rational skepticism—for instance, some experts didn’t even believe such equipment could exist in the game—Skyshattering Thunder had already fully recognized the value of Da Fei’s Divine Artifact. If he could just get his hands on it, he could go wild upgrading skills in the blacksmith shop on that day, and he would have success in everything he did! As for the so-called 30 days of Misfortune, that’s just three days in reality. If worse comes to worst, he would just keep his blacksmith account stationary in the middle of the plaza and do nothing, playing with his trading account. What’s the harm if a thunderstrike from the heavens wants to kill him?
Once the three days pass, he could continue with the God of Luck and repeat the cycle; it would be impossible not to prosper! Even if the experts doubted the usefulness of the Divine Artifact and speculated that Da Fei himself, after using it, found it crummy and wanted to get rid of it, how could it possibly be more disappointing than his gun?
In any case, he just needed to get the gun out there! But what price should he offer? Maybe he could add money on top of the gun for Da Fei’s Divine Artifact Coins and negotiate? Negotiate my ass! How could Da Fei be offline right now?
As Skyshattering Thunder was agonizing over this, the forums exploded with another bombshell—negative news rolling out about Da Fei’s Trading Company. Da Fei became (in)famous again! Oh, fame is good. By hanging out with a celebrity, my reputation also rises! He’s the negative; I’m the positive. The contrast is clear as day. Thanks, Da Fei! (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)