Chapter 57: Money Comes So Fast!

The moment the suona's sound rang out...

Those blood-red giant eyes on the river surface sank back into the water with a heavy splash.

"It actually works?"

Chen Ye was somewhat surprised by this.

He had originally thought that with the increased number of blood-red giant eyes, they would have more confidence.

At the very least, they shouldn't back down so easily.

He hadn't expected them to be such cowards...

Could they really be scared off by his suona?

Chen Ye couldn't help but speculate: "What is the underlying principle that makes these blood-red giant eyes avoid the sound of the suona?"

According to Aloy, if it were only ordinary pollution, relying on the self-purification ability of ocean currents, there would basically be no impact at all.

However, this pollution kept spreading, even encroaching upon the city, and caused such a large-scale, shocking spectacle.

Clearly, it was not ordinary pollution.

Yet it would actively avoid the suona in his hand?

One had to know that, given Chen Ye's current stage of strength, he was merely a Tier 1 [Wandering Musician]!

He simply couldn't fathom the reason behind it...

As if remembering something, Chen Ye returned to the embankment once more.

However, he observed that the rings of calamity intertwined above the heads of the surrounding sea god descendants had dimmed slightly in color.

This meant that the suona was indeed effective in curbing the pollution in the lower reaches of the West River.

Yet the rings of calamity above their heads had only dimmed by a fraction; the overall trend remained unchanged.

"It seems I'll have to come down to the lower reaches to play the suona more often in the future," Chen Ye thought to himself.

After all, the West River was still the source of normal drinking water for the entire City of Fate. If something went wrong here, he wouldn't even know where to find cheap, safe, and delicious water sources in the future.

He played for the entire afternoon.

At this moment.

Chen Ye's weirdness value had risen to nine thousand points, pushing his ranking to twelfth place.

The top ten rankings had already exceeded ten thousand points.

At this stage, relying on the weirdness value role-playing method, everyone's growth rate was roughly the same.

Chen Ye vaguely sensed that his role-playing growth had also hit a certain bottleneck, making further increases difficult.

Aside from playing duets with the erhu-playing old man, gains from other methods struggled to break through three hundred points.

Evening had fallen.

Taking advantage of the time before night settled completely, Chen Ye hurried back to Xining Alley.

Passing by the nearby barbecue stall...

At that moment, Chen Ye noticed that the barbecue stall was doing a thriving business, and the roasted meats on the grill had actually sold out?

The price list nearby had also changed:

One skewer of roasted meat, five copper coins;

Two skewers of roasted meat, ten copper coins;

Three skewers of roasted meat, twenty copper coins!

"Prices have gone up?"

Chen Ye frowned slightly. A stall selling such unpalatable barbecue having unexpectedly good business...

In itself, it was anything but normal.

At the same time, observing the stall owners through his Eyes of Fortune, he found that the pitch-black halos lingering around them had grown even denser.

Dusk gradually receded, and night descended in its wake.

As if following a prior agreement, the barbecue stall owners packed up their stalls with synchronized movements and walked toward a secluded intersection leading to the urban village.

Chen Ye narrowed his eyes slightly, gazing at the direction where the stall owners' figures vanished, and opened the [Wandering Map] in his mind to check.

He discovered that the corresponding location was shrouded in a layer of mist, marking it as an unlocked area.

This indicated that starting from this intersection, it belonged to another region, and one had to travel there to unlock the complete map information.

Looking from afar at the intersection, wisps of pitch-black fog continuously extended inward from the narrow path.

"These people have issues!"

"There is danger in that place!"

Chen Ye's instinctive intuition made this analytical judgment.

Naturally, he did not rashly venture forth to clear the map.

His current nine thousand weirdness value points were at a delicate critical threshold.

He would soon break through the ten-thousand mark!

When that time came, his characteristics in all aspects would be further enhanced, and his movement speed would leap from "five meters per step" to "six meters per step." Escaping from danger would become even faster.

Moreover, although Chen Ye possessed multiple characteristics now, most of them leaned toward functional utility.

Combat-oriented characteristics were still somewhat lacking.

To play it safe, Chen Ye chose to return to Xining Alley first.

He opened his bloody phone and suddenly found that a large number of transaction messages had appeared on it!

As many as thirty-plus entries!

All of them were here to trade for candied chestnuts...

"Does a Gourmet's appeal really run this strong?"

Chen Ye clicked through the transaction list one by one and put the candied chestnuts up for trade.

He found that many players even traded for several candied chestnuts at once.

Although the list only contained around thirty transaction messages, the copper coins earned in a single instant reached four hundred and ten.

At this moment, Chen Ye's personal assets instantly surged from "115 copper coins" to "525 copper coins."

The speed of making money here was faster than he had imagined!

If one possessed enough wealth to head to the Yong'an Market, they might even be able to directly purchase characteristic items.

Just at that moment.

In the center of the bloody phone's screen, a new transaction message popped up—

[Player 'Wang Jing' requests to trade with you...]

"Is it that Gourmet?" Noting this familiar name, Chen Ye immediately accepted.

The chat box quickly popped up with the message sent by the other party—

[Wang Jing: Big shot, do you still have candied chestnuts? I'd like to trade for as many as possible.]

[Ding!]

Across the trade window, Wang Jing immediately placed one hundred and fifty copper coins on it.

"Good grief!"

Chen Ye hadn't expected this kid's money-making speed to be so astonishingly fast as well?

He put fifty candied chestnuts up for trade at a bulk price.

After all, the [Gourmet] and [Chef] professions had complementary effects, and since he had finally encountered such a wealthy sucker of a customer, the appropriate discount still needed to be given.

[Chen Ye: "Sure, where did a kid like you get so many copper coins?"]

[Wang Jing: "Big shot... to be honest with you, this money was bought with my life! If it weren't for your candied chestnuts, even if the Gourmet wouldn't be poisoned to death, these foods could have eaten me to death..."]

Following that, Wang Jing detailed how the customers who came to the shop over the past few days had all brought problematic food!

After eating it, he suffered from violent vomiting and diarrhea!

He instantly suspected whether he was being targeted; how could every piece of food made by a weird spirit threaten his life?

Generally speaking, the weird spirits seeking out a Connoisseur had relevant professions and wouldn't poison people casually, right?

Yet today's food kept having problems one after another.

Although the [Gourmet] could immunize against the lethal effects of food, as a trade-off, it still brought negative impacts.

Over the past few days, Wang Jing had been suffering from frantic vomiting and diarrhea, draining the water from his body. Even if he couldn't be poisoned to death temporarily, he would be worn down to death alive!

Fortunately...

The candied chestnuts purchased from Chen Ye possessed the ability to restore the body.

Thus, Wang Jing tasted poisonous food with one hand while using the candied chestnuts made by Chen Ye to recover his health with the other.

That was how he managed to cling to this little life of his.

Of course, the majority of the fees earned from tasting would flow right into Chen Ye's pockets.

Chen Ye frowned slightly, holding off on replying to Wang Jing's words for a moment as he opened the forum.

Just skimming through a few pages...

Soon, he saw quite a few players on the forum discussing how today's food had gone wrong!

...

[PS: There will be an extra updated chapter tonight at midnight!]