Chapter 293: Listen to Our Sincerity
Faye Yardley spent 1000 silver coins to buy a simple, user-friendly robot from Rhonda Dixon to act as a shop clerk. She named it Eliza Yardley. It could only rigidly follow set prices for buying and selling, collecting money without ever offering discounts on its own.
Of course, Eliza Yardley could also open the shop for business and close it for the day on its own, as long as the times were preset.
Most importantly, it only needed to be charged to run, so there was no need to worry about its daily needs like eating or drinking.
Although its functions were a bit simple, after Faye took possession of it, the system automatically registered Eliza Yardley as her personal property.
This meant it had been completely disconnected from Rhonda Dixon’s system. Rhonda Dixon herself was shocked by this, and her face went pale. "I got a warning from the game system," she said. "It told me that if this happens again, I’ll be kicked out of the game."
"I’m sorry. I didn’t realize asking you to buy this for me would cause so much trouble."
"Neither did I."
Faye Yardley took a jar of floral and fruit tea from her backpack and gave it to her to help calm her nerves.
Although she didn’t know how much of a cut Rhonda had taken, Faye Yardley still felt it was a great deal.
Returning from the clothing store to her own empty shop, Faye Yardley confirmed that the water and electricity were working. Still, she’d have to ask how to pay the utility bills later. Otherwise, if the power suddenly went out, Eliza Yardley wouldn’t be able to function, even with its auto-charging capability.
On the second floor, she chose the innermost, 10-square-meter room as her living quarters. Then, she installed the small, circular plate in the corner.
[Small Fixed Teleportation Array successfully placed. Return to the raft to set it as a fixed teleportation point before use.]
Faye Yardley’s brow furrowed slightly. ’I was hoping that once the Teleportation Array was set up, I could go back to the raft and then come back here. I wanted to pick up some of the furniture I made from that nice wood.’
’Oh well. I’ll just focus on the banquet for now and figure this out when I get back.’
’Speaking of which, I still don’t know what I’m going to do with this shop.’
She took out the two beautiful outfits she had just bought. The pale yellow dress gave +1 Magic Resistance, and the light green one had a +1 damage reflection effect.
After a moment of thought, she changed into the light green dress. She redid her hair, tucking the Ruby Hairpin deep within its strands and adding a white thorn flower as an accessory.
She locked the door to her room on her way out, went downstairs, and closed the main shop door. She planned to take a good stroll around Lumina first. Since there were so many players from other planets, she wanted to listen to their needs and, more importantly, get a sense of the local market prices.
With this goal in mind, Faye Yardley wasn’t in a rush. She continued her leisurely stroll. Although there were many shops on this street, most of them seemed to be player-run, and many were closed. There weren’t many people on the street, either.
She left the street, but it didn’t lead directly to a main road. She had to cut through another alley to reach a secondary thoroughfare. Here, the storefronts were much larger, and the foot traffic increased dramatically.
She was immediately overwhelmed by a cacophony of sounds.
Faye Yardley wasn’t sure if it was because of the system, but she could understand everyone’s speech here.
’That certainly saved a lot of unnecessary trouble.’
A pretty young woman walking alone on the street always attracts a certain amount of attention, and even a few attempts at conversation.
Faye Yardley, of course, ignored these tiresome people. She found a restaurant that looked busy and had a pleasant atmosphere and went inside.
Sure enough, her good luck was working its magic as always. A small table had just opened up, and she took it.
The location was perfect. Not only were there people eating at the tables in front, behind, and to her right, but they all seemed to be in a very talkative mood.
The conversations were about all sorts of things, but Faye Yardley’s keen ears quickly picked up on the important details.
’Wow. So, although Lumina is a major city in the game, it’s only a Level 30-40 zone. That means the highest-level monster outside the city can’t be more than Level 50, and that would be the biggest boss in the whole area.’
’There aren’t that many people from Planet Xylos who have reached the right level to come here yet; most of the outsiders are from another planet called Gagada Star.’
’It’s not that people from different planets are necessarily hostile to each other here. In fact, conflicts are more likely to break out between the major guilds from the same planet.’
Right now, the conversations around her were split between the major guilds’ progress on a certain boss raid and tonight’s banquet hosted by the City Lord.
So far, it seemed only the top player among the Gaga Star arrivals had received an invitation.
Also, a lot of big-spending guests had arrived in the last two days, so the city guards were cracking down harder on players. Anyone who dared to cause trouble would be thrown out of the city. If you died out there, there was no respawn point, and you’d be locked out of the game for days.
Faye Yardley had ordered three dishes and a soup for herself. She ate slowly, deliberately, just so she could overhear more.
"Hey there, beautiful. Mind if I share this table?"
Faye Yardley looked up to see a young man with a flashy, spiky hairstyle trying to look cool. Though his tone was flippant, she could see his nervousness. The refusal on the tip of her tongue died, and she simply nodded. "Sure."
"Huh? No, that’s fine... Oh, you said yes?!"
This time, Faye Yardley didn’t respond, concentrating instead on the restaurant’s specialty dishes.
The young man glanced over his shoulder, then bit the bullet and sat down across from her. Steeling himself, he picked up the menu and ordered two staple dishes.
’So even players over Level 30 don’t have much money. This place is only so popular because the customers are all top players from major guilds, and even they can’t afford to eat here every day.’
Faye Yardley suddenly knew what she could do with her shop.
’I could open a small teahouse, a place for people to gather. I could sell some things on the side, like Blood Replenishing Potions. I don’t expect to make a fortune, but I at least have to earn enough to cover utilities and other necessary expenses.’
When the young man’s flatbread arrived, he grabbed it and started eating. He devoured more than half of it before he finally paused, glanced around, and lowered his voice. "Hey, miss... are you going to the City Lord’s banquet tonight?"
When Faye Yardley didn’t answer, he quickly added, "Uh, I saw you coming out of the City Lord’s Manor earlier... Oh! I was just doing a repeatable quest in the area and happened to see you, that’s all."
Faye Yardley ladled a bowl of soup for herself before asking, "And?"
"So, uh... could I ask you to take me into the City Lord’s Manor with you tonight? I can share my quest with you! We can split the rewards, how about it?"
’If Faye Yardley were a player like him, she might have been a little interested in hearing about the quest and its rewards.’
’But unfortunately, she wasn’t like them.’
’They had infinite lives here; she only had one.’
’To this world, people like them were the Fourth Calamity.’
’Getting tangled up with them for no good reason was not a good choice.’
"Not interested."
"AHEM. ’Don’t be so quick to refuse! We’re being very sincere. Just listen to what we have to offer first.’"