"Grandpa Village Chief, I have some equipment here. Please help me identify them. As for the price, I wonder if there's any discount?"
"Alright. Stone City, I'll give you half-price identification for your items."
"Really？ Thank you so much, Grandpa Village Chief!"
Grandpa Village Chief is such an upright man, always looking out for me. I quickly took out all four pieces of equipment.
"Not bad, Stone City. You've actually obtained so many high-level items."
"Ah！ There's actually a divine artifact here."
Although Grandpa Village Chief is a man who has seen the world, he was still very shocked by the equipment I brought out. Especially the divine artifact, the Adamantium Greatshield. Grandpa Village Chief held it in his hands and kept turning it over to examine it.
"Stone City, you got a divine artifact this quickly, along with all these good items. That's really amazing！"
"Hehe, Grandpa Village Chief flatters me."
"You know, so far over a hundred million players have entered 'The King,' but only thirty-plus pieces of equipment at Gold level or above have been defeated. You getting so many pieces above Gold at once is truly impressive！"
What, a hundred million players? The game 'The King' hasn't even been in open beta for a full day, and already a hundred million players have entered. Such a huge number, it's really unimaginable."
It seems 'King' will indeed bring about a huge revolution, inevitably becoming humanity's second world and an indispensable part of people's lives. Entering the game early was indeed a wise move.
Grandpa Village Chief is an NPC in the game. Because of the intelligence of 'King,' he can read game data, so there's absolutely no way he's wrong.
"Appraising Wolf Fang costs 70 gold coins, War Bear Armor is 80 gold coins, Greed Ring is 100 gold coins, and Diamond Shield is 1500 gold coins." After his exclamation, Grandpa Village Chief sized up the four pieces of equipment and quoted me the prices.
"No way, how can this be so expensive? Grandpa Village Chief, is this the right price? Are you sure this price is correct?"
Holy crap, that's insane！
The price Grandpa Village Chief quoted almost made me fall over in shock—it was completely beyond what I could afford.
"This is the price, based on the equipment's value, and it's already half the original price."
Grandpa Village Chief looked over the equipment again, confirming there was no mistake.
Dammit！ Longfei Group is way too shady—this is literally a money pit.
Looking at the 153 gold coins in my bag, which was all my hard-earned, scrimping-and-saving income from today, it wasn't nearly enough.
It seems the gold coin setup in 'King' is very strict.
Thinking about my experience today, if I hadn't appraised these pieces of equipment, the gold I earned from fighting would have been enough for my own expenses. So 'King' doesn't make players suffer too much or struggle too hard; it doesn't let the game become a burden or lose its flavor.
But why does appraising equipment require so many gold coins？ Especially the cost to appraise divine artifacts—far beyond what I could imagine？
If players want good equipment, great enjoyment, powerful abilities, or to stand out from the crowd, they need to spend a lot of gold coins. This creates balance; once the exchange between in-game gold and real money is enabled, a kind of equilibrium will emerge.
Frustrating—I don't have enough gold coins. I'll have to pick and choose which useful equipment to appraise first.
The divine Diamond Giant Shield is certainly useful. I want to become a knight. Compared to other classes, knights have an extra shield, which is their great advantage. But I don't have enough gold coins to have it assessed, so I have no choice but to put it on hold.
As for the remaining items, the Wolf Fang is a bow and arrow weapon, so I can't use it myself. I won't identify it for now. The War Bear Armor requires level 20 to equip, so I won't identify that either. I can only identify this red Ghost-grade Gear, the Greed Ring.
"Grandpa Village Chief, gold is tight, so I'll only identify this Greed Ring."
"Alright, it's a pretty good item." A red light flickered in Grandpa Village Chief's hand. After the Greed Ring emitted a beam of light, Grandpa Village Chief handed the Greed Ring to me.
I quickly took it and checked its stats：
Greed Ring： Ghost-grade Gear. Originally an ordinary platinum ring, it was buried for years among demon creatures filled with greed, slowly transforming into the Greed Ring. No equip requirements. Backpack capacity increases by 5 times. Life recovery speed +1 （automatically recovers 1 life per second）. Magic recovery speed +1. Gold drop rate ×2.
Not bad, it's a good item. I immediately put it on, and my backpack instantly became 250 capacity.
This is great. With this Ghost-grade Gear Greed Ring, I won't have to worry about capacity overload anymore. Things will be much more convenient from now on.
"Grandpa Village Chief, I'm already level 10. I need to go to the city to change class." My time in the novice village is over; it's time for the next step.
"Stone City, it is my great honor to see you embark on the path of a warrior. This invasion of the Heavenly Demons is fierce and overwhelming, and with the sheer number of demon creatures, it will be the greatest catastrophe to ever befall Tianmeng Continent. Fortunately, there are passionate young people like you, dedicating yourselves to this great war of defense and counterattack for the sake of justice, peace, brotherhood, and faith. May the Goddess of Tianmeng be with you, and grant you her divine power."
Geez! Here we go again. Grandpa Village Chief's serious and solemn expression puts a lot of pressure on me!
"Stone City, I'm glad you've reached level 10, which shows you've been through the baptism of battle and gained some experience. But the path to eradicate the Heavenly Demons is a long and bumpy journey. You must continue to work hard, strengthen yourself, accumulate experience, and seek the legendary artifacts, skills, and powers to become the new hero of the Tianmeng Continent."
"I'm dizzy, what a blabbermouth. Just teleport me to the city already. Listening to this boring nonsense almost puts me to sleep."
"Alright, Stone City, I will now teleport you to a city in the Tianmeng Continent. That will be where your growth begins. But before you leave, I will teach you some basic skills, hoping they will bring you some help on your future path."
"Ding-dong, Stone City, the village chief of the newbie village wants to impart some basic skills to you. Do you accept?"
"Damn, even this needs a prompt? I'm not an idiot, of course I accept."
"Ding-dong, player Stone City has been instructed by the newbie village chief and learned the skill 'Capture Art'."
"Ding-dong, player Stone City has been instructed by the newbie village chief and learned the skill 'Gathering Art'."
"Ding-dong, player Stone City has learned 'Gathering Art', and due to experience exchange, the level of 'Gathering Art' has increased."
"Haha, never expected something this good. Since these two skills taught by Grandpa Village Chief are basic skills gifted by the system with the highest priority, my 'Gathering Art' skill stacked up and rose by one level directly. Truly unexpected."
"Let's look at these two skills："
Capture Art： Support skill, Beginner 0/50000.
Gathering Art: Support skill, Advanced 0/200000.
"No way, Capture Art is this hard to train? Going from beginner to intermediate needs 50,000 experience? That's just perverted, and unbelievably perverted at that."
"And Gathering Art, to max out the advanced level actually needs 200,000 experience. I reckon even if a player levels up to the max level of 100, they still might not max this out."
"But for now, I'm already satisfied, no complaints."
"Alright, Stone City, this is all I can help you with. Now I'm going to teleport you."
Grandpa Village Chief finally finished speaking, then began muttering an incantation. A flash of light immediately enveloped me, and in a flickering moment, I appeared in the square of the imperial capital, Tianlong City.
"Wow, this is way too spectacular and majestic！！！"
Looking at the sight before me—the thick city walls, the wide streets, and the luxurious, towering buildings of all kinds—it was dazzling. It suddenly felt like I had arrived in a prosperous and powerful ancient Chinese city.
Damn, this is so epic. I really have to admire the power and technology of Longfei Group. This virtual tech is just too realistic.
But right now, Tianlong City seemed a bit deserted.
Think about it—in this huge square, besides me, there were only some system NPCs and city guard officials. There wasn’t a single player, so of course it felt much quieter compared to the lively newbie village.
Forget it—let's hurry up and change class. I dashed toward the martial arts hall, leaving a trail of footsteps echoing on the cold, heavy blue-stone streets.