Translator: Star River from w.a.n.gmamaread
Proofreader: Rhith
Xie Mingzhe remembered that he and Brother Qi once saw the monthly rent of a 50-square-meter store was 20,000 gold coins at auction. This store with an area of 200 square meters was in such a good location, so its monthly rent would exceed 80,000 gold coins.
As expected, bidders scrambled for the store and the rent soon rose to 80,000 gold coins.
Xie Mingzhe had 660,000 gold coins in his bag. He liked this store and Brother Chen also thought it had a good location. Chen Xiao whispered to him, "Your business will expand in the future. You'd better start your business by renting a larger store so as to avoid having no place to put your cards."
Xie Mingzhe nodded. The price stayed at 80,000 for a short while, and when the auctioneer started to count down, Xie Mingzhe offered a price – 85,000.
Someone bidded against him – 90,000.
Xie Mingzhe increased his offer calmly – 100,000.
110,000!
120,000!
130,000!
150,000!
He felt totally different when he pressed the increase-bid b.u.t.ton in person. Xie Mingzhe, who used to be a bystander standing in the crowd watching the auction, had never expected himself to be a rich man bidding against others at auction. The change was so fast.
If the owner failed to manage the store whose monthly rent was 150,000, he would sustain huge losses. Taking this into consideration, the other bidder gave up.
The monthly rent of this 200-square-meter store in the commercial street was currently 150,000 gold coins. It's a deal!
As the hammer fell, the right to use the store would be transferred to Xie Mingzhe.
Xie Mingzhe, along with Brother Chen, excitedly went back-stage to go through the formalities, and then they went to the commercial street to see the store.
He had the authority to manage the store now, so he brought Brother Chen in directly.
The store was empty. It looked like a "roughcast house" on earth, which was simply decorated. But it was a south-facing store and it was light. On the first floor, he would set up some special areas, for example, the Card Display Area, Customer Message Area and Store Announcement Area, and the second floor would be used to sell cards only.
Chen Xiao suggested, "You can redecorate the store. Chi Qing is good at this, you can ask her for help."
Xie Mingzhe was sure that Chi Qing would decorate his store beautifully. Brother Chen called Chi Qing over. When she learned that Xie Mingzhe needed her help to decorate the store, she didn't ask much about the reason, but simply said, "What style do you prefer? More luxurious or simpler?"
Xie Mingzhe answered, "Simpler and more elegant. Sister Qing, you can decide how to decorate the store."
Chi Qing asked, "Is the warm beige color OK?"
Xie Mingzhe nodded, "No problem!"
Chi Qing quickly began to decorate.
"Does buying furniture in the game cost money? Sister Qing, keep an account of expenses and I'll transfer the money to you." Xie Mingzhe said.
"Furniture is my gift to you." Chen Xiao said readily. "Draw money out of the studio account directly, A'Qing. Xiao Xie will open his first shop, and we will cooperate with him in the future. These are my gifts to him."
"Thanks, Brother Chen." Since Xie Mingzhe will cooperate with them, he didn't want to be stingy, so he said, "Brother Chen, I'll give you some shares of the store's profit. How much do you want?"
"How about 2% commission per person?" Brother Chen said frankly.
Brother Chen was not greedy. Xie Mingzhe loved to deal with straightforward people, he replied immediately, "No problem."
This amount meant nothing to him. If there was a team to support him, he would be able to focus on making cards and wouldn't have to worry about the card upgrades or the strengthening materials, which would save him lots of time and energy. In addition, once he became a professional card player, all his cards would have to be upgraded to the highest level, which would consume lots of materials. He couldn't do it alone.
Xie Mingzhe watched Chi Qing buying furniture from the system's shop and quickly decorating the store.
Sister Qing was a master of decorating. She changed the store to a completely new look in less than an hour. The shop was decorated according to Xie Mingzhe's idea. On the first floor, there was the Card Display Area, Store Announcement Area and Customer Message Area, and on the second floor there were more than a dozen rows of display cases.
Xie Mingzhe changed the store's name to "月半 Card Store", starting to put the cards into the display cases.
He proposed, "In order to make customers see the data of the seven-star cards more directly, I want to exhibit my two seven-star cards. What do you think, Brother Chen?"
"Great idea. What are the cards' attributes? I'll give you the materials you need to upgrade them."
"A wood card and a water card."
As the fragments had just been handed over to the customer, Brother Chen retrieved the leftover cards, collected when they were farming instances, from the studio and let Xie Mingzhe deconstruct them. Xie Mingzhe deconstructed those cards into hundreds of sets of fragments in an instant and leveled [Lin Daiyu] and [Xue Baochai] into seven-star black cards.
These materials were expensive. Brother Chen was willing to help him, so Xie Mingzhe didn't say anything. When the card sold, he would give everyone a share.
When everything was done, Xie Mingzhe looked at his shop and smiled.
It's wonderful to be a boss!
Brother Chen asked, “When are you going to open the store? I will go to the forum to promote it. In addition, remember to set ‘unlimited traffic' mode for your store in the settings. On the first day the store opens up, there will be a lot of people joining in on the fun to crowd into the store.”
“Okay, then the store will open at 7:00pm.” Thankfully Brother Chen reminded him, otherwise he wouldn't know about the “unlimited traffic” mode. In this mode, if thousands of people squeeze into his store, then the store will quickly generate countless copies with synchronized data, which is more convenient for players to enter with everyone seeing the same scene. As to who can successfully buy the card… then it depends on APM※ and internet speed.
A moment later, Brother Chen post on the official forum of Star Card Storm – Card maker 月半 will open his card store on time at 7:00pm. Location: Store No. 1-315 in the south section of Xiushui Street, behind the Auction House, Aquarius galaxy downtown area. Everyone is welcome.
Many players replied:
“What cards will Pangpang※ sell?”
“Don't be [Lin Daiyu] again!”
“Do you hate players using flower cards? Is it because your ex-girlfriend loves flowers?”
“You want to sell [Lin Daiyu] in bulk? Poor Legend Tang!”
“I will definitely go to Pangpang's store!”
“Pangpang, what is your real name? Are you really a fat uncle?”
Everyone was curious about the card maker, so they all said they would go to the store.
Soon, Chi Qing, Pang Yu and Jin Yue all knew that Xie Mingzhe would open a store.
Pang Yu widened his eyes, “Wow, I didn't expect that my roommate was actually a genius card maker! Will I benefit from my a.s.sociation with Xiao Xie?"
Jin Yue smiled, "Working as a booster while having extra income, not bad!"
Chi Qing said calmly, "If you lack materials in the future, we will help you."
Brother Chen concluded. “From today onwards, our studio will temporarily stop receiving orders, but you will get paid as usual. The materials we get in the future will be given to Xiao Xie to upgrade his cards. We will help Xiao Xie to operate the store first.”
Xie Mingzhe was very happy, “Thank you all! Let's make money together!”
***
At 7:00pm.
To Xie Mingzhe's surprise, the first players who visited his store mostly had familiar IDs – Can Yang, Huan Yue, Hong Zhu… and the rest were “XX Club's Vice President” or “XX Club's Manager”, who he had never heard of.
How many players from major clubs had come here?!
Thankfully Brother Chen told him to open the unlimited traffic mode; his store, full of players, generated over ten copies. In addition to big clubs rushing to buy [Lin Daiyu], there were countless pa.s.sers-by looking around.
When the onlookers entered the store, they felt that the decor of the shop was particularly beautiful. The beige wallpaper and floor tiles gave them a warm feeling, like walking into their home. The first floor was s.p.a.cious, with just a row of card showcases, but most of them were empty. Only the two at the centre had cards in them.
Illuminated by the light hanging from the ceiling, the two fully upgraded black cards looked so delicate.
Two level 70 black cards – [Lin Daiyu] with IDE against flower cards, and [Xue Baochai] with IDE against b.u.t.terfly cards. A notice was posted on the showcase: “These cards on show are not for sale.”
Players who didn't want to buy cards were curiously observing the two beautiful girls, while others rushed upstairs.
The layout of the second floor was completely different. There were more than a dozen rows of display cases, but most of them were empty. Only the first row of display cases had some cards, all of which were level 1 cards. 10 [Lin Daiyu] cards on the left, while 10 [Xue Baochai] cards on the right.
All the players couldn't help but sigh in admiration, “They're all IDE cards!”
“Can he sell so many cards all at once?”
However, just when the crowd was puzzled…
A terrible scene appeared.
10 [Lin Daiyu] and 10 [Xue Baochai] in the display case were snapped up within one second!!
All the onlookers were shocked, thinking that their eyes had deceived them.
At the same time, in the professional league players chat group –
Ye Zhu: “F**k, how did this Pangpang make IDE cards targeting b.u.t.terfly cards?! It's even an initial card with 30 Agility, which will increase to 100 when the card is fully upgraded!”
Shen An: “I told you not to laugh at my Shifu, now you have been targeted, hehehe!”
Tang Muzhou: “:smile:”
Everyone: “Legend Tang, why are you smiling?”
Tang Muzhou: “Wait for him to make more IDE cards.”
Everyone: “………”
Then someone said: “月半 Card Store particularly made room for an announcement area which currently has written – Today all cards have been sold, thank you for coming. In addition to [Lin Daiyu] and [Xue Baochai], the card maker will release a new card tomorrow. The store will open at 11:30am tomorrow. See you there!“
Everyone: “……………………”
Translator's Note:
1. APM: actions per minute
2. Pangpang: As said before, 月 and 半 are two parts of the Chinese character 胖 which means fat. And 胖 is p.r.o.nounced "pàng", so other players give XMZ a nickname "Pangpang".
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