Yu Lei's suggestion left Dao Yu Wusheng silent for a moment, after which he nodded.
One more friend meant one more path forward. If you wanted to do well in the game, making a wide circle of friends was essential—especially high-level players.
"If we just barge in and bother him like this, we'd better watch our words carefully. Every expert has a different personality—some are outgoing, some cold, some proud and aloof. If we rub him the wrong way, it'll backfire," Dao Yu Wusheng said in a low voice.
"I know that much," Yu Lei replied with a sheepish grin.
"You know?" Dao Yu Wusheng shot him a look. "Remember last time, when we ran into Yuan Fei—one of this year's Ten Rising Stars in the gaming world? How exactly did you manage to piss him off?"
"That was all him! He was being ridiculous—claiming he wanted every single item and rolling on everything." Yu Lei still had a major grudge against that Yuan Fei.
They'd been lucky enough to encounter a lord boss out in the wild and had been kind enough to invite Yuan Fei to join the fight. After the boss went down, he insisted on rolling for every piece of loot. The boss had taken over a dozen people to take down—items that even the roller couldn't use, and he still wanted to roll?
His excuse? "If I can't use it, I can sell it."
"That whole thing is in the past—we'll just avoid contact with him from now on. There's no need to make enemies. But you? You didn't say a single word before you started swinging. That's not making friends, that's making enemies. Even now, Yuan Fei still holds a grudge against us." Dao Yu Wusheng felt exasperated just thinking about it.
Yuan Fei was one of this year's Ten Rising Stars in virtual gaming, recruited by the Star River Alliance with an annual salary of two million credit points.
Because they'd offended that petty-minded Yuan Fei, the Star River Alliance had given them no shortage of trouble, and life in Star Moon City was getting harder and harder. If Dao Yu Wusheng hadn't personally known the Star River Alliance's leader and settled things, they probably wouldn't have been able to stay in Star Moon City at all.
"I got it. It won't happen again." Yu Lei nodded quietly. He knew he'd been in the wrong, but his hot-headed temperament really wasn't easy to change.
While the two continued chatting in hushed tones, they walked toward Shi Feng.
Shi Feng had already gotten a rough picture of the prices in Star Moon City.
Overall, prices were lower than in White River City. A stack of Sturdy Stone could sell for ten silver coins in White River City, but here it was only nine. Whetstones were the same—a stack sold for thirty-five silver in White River City, but only thirty-two here. As for Advanced Whetstones, the price was about the same: one gold coin per stack.
Iron Rank weapons and armor, on the other hand, were ten to twenty percent more expensive than in White River City, and Mythril Rank equipment ran a staggering thirty to forty percent higher.
"So with more people, more resources flood the market. Iron Rank gear, which is hard to find in White River City, is plentiful here—and they're even selling Mythril Rank equipment. Truly worthy of a capital city; the concentration of experts is far greater than in any other city." From the listings in the Auction House, Shi Feng could clearly feel just how fierce the competition was in Star Moon City.
It was precisely this intense competition that produced a steady stream of top players, each racking their brains and trying every trick to boost their strength and climb their way up in this city of elites.
Otherwise, how could precious Mythril Rank equipment ever end up on the Auction House?
For a guild, selling weapons and equipment above Iron Rank was completely out of the question—those were strategic assets. At the very most, they might sell gear crafted by blacksmiths, but which blacksmith out there could currently produce Mythril Rank equipment?
Even Shi Feng himself, with all his auxiliary tools, found it difficult to make. Other blacksmiths were lucky if they could craft Bronze Rank gear—Iron Rank was their absolute ceiling.