Chapter Sixty-Four: The White Tiger Elixir

After waiting for more than ten minutes near the small square at the South Gate, Liu Liu finally returned to the city. When Ye Chen pressed the bronze-grade dagger into her hand, she was utterly stunned. She stood before Ye Chen, dumbfounded for quite a while, before finally bursting into an excited squeal.

With such a substantial bribe, Liu Liu didn’t hesitate to betray her roommate, Ling Yue, and promised Ye Chen that she would be his inside agent in his romantic pursuits from now on.

Watching Liu Liu skip away, Ye Chen felt very satisfied. Just a bronze-grade dagger was enough to buy off Liu Liu as an informant; his plan to win over the girls had taken another major step forward.

Glancing at the time, he saw it was not yet 9 p.m., with more than three hours remaining until the dungeon reset. Taking advantage of this window, Ye Chen planned to accomplish two things: first, to concoct the White Tiger Pill, which would be most effective when used in the upcoming dungeon; and second, to study a few classic dungeon guides from 2058. Back when he first met 2058, the latter boasted endlessly about the power of his dungeon guides, and now was the time to put them to the test.

The guides could wait—they weren’t going anywhere. For now, Ye Chen focused on producing the White Tiger Pill. He reviewed the pill recipe.

[White Tiger Pill] (Level 3 Recipe): Requires a Level 3 Alchemy Furnace, a cluster of Level 3 Alchemy Flame, one Basic Savage Beast Essence, and five Beast Cores.

The Basic Savage Beast Essence was a newly introduced alchemy material and a consumable item. Ye Chen had already checked its price with the Guild Leader: one Basic Savage Beast Essence cost 5 gold. This single ingredient alone greatly increased the production cost of the White Tiger Pill. Adding in the Level 3 furnace and flame, it cost 6.5 gold just to craft one pill—and that didn’t even count the five Beast Cores.

Such a high cost made Ye Chen a bit uneasy. Although the White Tiger Pill was exceptionally useful, as a high-priced consumable, even Dragon Soar wouldn’t buy it in large quantities. Unlike his previous concoctions, this pill was tailored for the wealthy; even large clans wouldn’t buy enough for all their members—only their upper management could afford it.

Ye Chen had heard of Beast Cores before. They weren’t herbs, but special items dropped by tiger-like monsters. Though the drop rate was low, the price wasn’t outrageous. Apart from blacksmiths using them to craft special weapons, players hadn’t found much use for them yet. Collecting them personally would be too time-consuming, and since the cost was already so high, he might as well just buy them. With that in mind, Ye Chen headed straight for the official auction house in the south of the city.

Lieshan City hadn’t yet opened a player-run auction house, so the official auction house was still bustling. Ye Chen searched for quite a while before finding an empty seat in a corner of the hall. He sat down and began browsing the item listings.

A search for Beast Cores yielded several pages of results. Flipping through them, Ye Chen noticed that the prevailing price was about 80 silver coins each—roughly 20 silver more than the open market. This was normal, since the auction house’s transaction fees were steep, and sellers brought items here to fetch higher prices.

Though a 20-silver difference was significant, Ye Chen wasn’t about to buy from the open market. The main advantage of the auction house was confidentiality: no matter how many Beast Cores he bought, no one would notice. In contrast, buying on the open market would quickly attract attention. Once the White Tiger Pill debuted, the well-connected families would soon deduce its ingredients and monopolize the raw materials, putting Ye Chen at a serious disadvantage.

There were thousands of Beast Cores available in the auction house, accumulated by players over time. After some thought, Ye Chen decided not to buy them all at once. The prospects for the White Tiger Pill were still uncertain; he would start with a small batch. Besides, buying too many at once would drive up the price. For now, it was best not to disrupt the market.

He selected the lower-priced ones and bought 300 in a single sweep—just enough to craft 50 White Tiger Pills. If these 50 sold well, he could gradually purchase more Beast Cores. For high-end consumables like this, the fewer that entered the market, the higher the price would rise and the greater the profit. Flooding the market would only diminish their value.

The auction house also carried the herbal ingredients for Intermediate Power Pills and Clarity Pills, but the quantities were meager and the prices astronomical—rare level 3 herbs were going for several gold each. Ye Chen would rather gather those himself; unlike Beast Cores, herbs were easy to collect. He could harvest several hundred in an hour, so why let others profit off him?

Having purchased the Beast Cores, Ye Chen left the auction house and returned to the Alchemist Guild. He went upstairs and bought the consumables needed for 50 White Tiger Pills from Guild Leader Knossus. Settling down on the second floor, he began to refine the pills.

"Ding! Congratulations, you have successfully crafted a White Tiger Pill. Alchemy proficiency +2. As the first player to craft this pill, you are awarded the achievement title—Alchemical Expert. This title increases alchemy success rate by 7%."

As expected of the White Tiger Pill, crafting just one increased his proficiency by two points. The Alchemical Expert title was also impressive, boosting success rate by 7%. Such a title would inspire envy in countless players; after reaching Alchemy skill level 4, it would be a tremendous asset.

The White Tiger Pill took a bit longer to refine. It took Ye Chen nearly half an hour to create 50 pills—and they couldn’t be stacked, filling almost his entire backpack. Holding the pigeon-egg-sized White Tiger Pills, he couldn’t help but smile with delight. The path to fortune depended on these.

It was now almost 10 p.m.; in two hours, the dungeon would become accessible. Ye Chen had no intention of going out to gather herbs anymore. He opened his friends list, selected 2058’s chat window, and sent a message: “58, are you busy? If you’re free, let’s chat—and maybe you can give me some pointers on dungeon strategy.”

“I’ve been working on my substitute AI program all day. Once it’s complete, I’ll be truly free,” replied 2058, his normally icy voice tinged with faint excitement.

“Truly free? What will you do then?” Ye Chen asked with a chuckle.

“I plan to step into your world.”

“Our world? Can you leave the game?” Ye Chen exclaimed in surprise.

“Of course not. I mean the human world within the game.”

“What do you mean?” Ye Chen was puzzled.

“I intend to blend into your world, not remain a detached observer, coldly watching everything from afar. That coldness makes me loathe it—even fear it. I know you humans call that loneliness.”

“So what will you do?”

“I’ll follow you and see the world for myself.”

“Follow me?” Ye Chen was taken aback. “Can you become a player?”

“Of course not. Every player must be a real person; even I can’t fabricate one from thin air without a real-world background. That would be easily discovered by the company. However, in the future, players will be able to acquire Martial Souls. When that time comes, I can be your Martial Soul.”