Chapter 512 - Selling Gems (1/2)

Chapter 512 - Selling Gems

Ignatius was the owner of the secret fur shop. He was the old man Nie Yan had previously entrusted with the information of the demon beast invasion. He held an extremely esteemed position in the Hilton Stronghold. Based on the events of the previous timeline, almost all the NPCs lost their lives during the invasion. However, in this timeline, roughly 10 percent survived. Thanks to the timely reinforcements of the capital, several powerful Generals and Great Generals also got out alive. This was all Nie Yan’s contribution. The leadership of the stronghold would surely want to reward him, or else they would be seen as ungrateful.

Ignatius searching for Nie Yan was likely for the purpose of rewarding him.

The Faulkner Warhorse was on cooldown for a day after being killed. Nie Yan could only head to the Hilton Stronghold on foot. He activated Gale Step and pressed on ahead.

Before long, Nie Yan arrived at the Hilton Stronghold. Bladelight and the others had already set to hunt their first demon beast. Their target was the Crusoe Demon Beast, a Level 90 Lord which resided in the dark caves on the outskirts of the stronghold. It was a giant beetle that came from the Underworld.

One Strike Vow had gone ahead to scout out the exact location of the Crusoe Demon Beast. Only then did Bladelight and the others set out with the expedition team.

Nie Yan had complete faith in the leadership of Bladelight and Smoke Stub. He left them to their own devices and continued on toward the Ignatius Fur Shop.

The gem market slowly turned lively again over the past several days. The players finally realized they had been swindled. That so-called secret gem shop never existed in the first place. A rumour was going around that it was all a scheme by the Century Financial Group. They had started the fake rumours, so that they could gobble up all the gems after their prices plummeted. Then when the prices recovered, they would sell back everything for a profit.

Originally, the Century Financial Group had some evidence to prove their innocence. However, public perception of their guilt solidified after word came out that they did in fact acquire gems en masse. Cao Xu never thought it would play out this way. He had only treated the shift in the market as an easy investment opportunity. He didn’t expect to be actively plotted against and have dirty water dumped on him. Sadly, his enemies were too numerous. Finding out the culprit was impossible. He only had himself to blame for not being covert enough. All he could do was swallow his anger.

The Century Financial Group, Alliance of Mages, Divine Protectors, God Executioner Sword, Penumbra Empire, all of them had the foresight to take advantage of the shift in the market. Some invested more while others invested less. As for who was the main culprit, it was already too late to find out. Those who had sold their gems in a panic were filled with endless regret. Those who had kept onto their gems were inwardly celebrating.

After experiencing the huge dip, the gem market rebounded right back up. The prices rose to more than double their original price.

“God dammit. I should’ve bought gems when the prices were still low. Look at the prices now! Some of the gems are even tens of times higher than before!” a Thief player lamented.

“It’s a pity I didn’t have any gold a few days ago. I would’ve spent all my spare change to buy some myself. Now it’s too late...”

“We need Fire Resistance Gems to run Nightmare Gorge. What do we do?”

“We buy. What else can we do? The prices will only keep getting higher.”

“Shit, it’s all the fault of those bastards from the Century Financial Group!”

The players were dumping all their resentment on the Century Financial Group. It was the largest financial group in the virtual reality industry. Its reputation was already stained. This sort of accusation levelled against them meant nothing to them.

The demand which had been suppressed for so many days suddenly erupted out all at once. All the gems listed up in the market were swept clean as prices started skyrocketing to unreasonable levels. Dungeon teams took the biggest hit. If their resistances were too low and didn’t meet a dungeon’s requirements, they would almost certainly wipe. The easiest way to make up for this deficiency was with potions or gems. The former wasn’t that cost effective since they were single-use consumables. On the other hand, the stat increases from gems were permanent, and the socketed equipment could be sold for gold later on.

「Nie Yan, should we start selling now?」Guo Huai asked. The gem market was quite heated right now.

Nie Yan checked the price of gems. It had already doubled from what it was originally at. Any higher and it would exceed the threshold players could tolerate.「Alright, start selling. Be careful. Make sure no one finds out.」

「No worries. Just leave it to me!」Guo Huai said. The gems they had amassed would soon be converted into gold. Asskickers United had heavily strained their finances for the sake of this undertaking, even resorting to borrowing a large amount of capital from high interest loan companies. Now all these matters could be resolved. After paying off the lenders, the remainder was enough to settle their money problems for at least a year.

「Don’t sell everything off at once. List up 5% every day. After you’ve sold off 70%, save the remaining 30% for our guild members to use,」Nie Yan said. The lesser the amount of gems circulating in the market, the higher they would fetch for.