I Live on the Land in Global Games
Chapter 106 - 105: Morning at Spirit Dragon Gorge

Chapter 106: Chapter 105: Morning at Spirit Dragon Gorge

"All that effort for nothing," Jiu San said with a mournful face.

It seemed a bit unreasonable not to try to get such a treasure of a shopkeeper to move to one’s own place. You could earn a lot of information for free. Mu Ying’s eyes spun, "Can your shop move? Qingshan Territory still doesn’t have an inn."

"The shopkeeper can’t leave the territory now, unless you sign a settlement agreement with the lord of another territory, so moving is impossible," Jiu San sighed.

"Is this the settlement agreement?" Mu Ying pulled out a piece of paper from the territory interface, which she also needed to sign when recruiting shops before.

"What?" Jiu San didn’t react at first, took the paper in a daze, and read it thoroughly. Indeed, it was a genuine settlement agreement, produced by the World Evolution Center, complete with a security mark. It couldn’t be more authentic.

He clutched the paper tightly, "You, you, you are the Lord? The Lord of Qingshan Territory?"

Mu Ying nodded her head, "Do you want to come? I plan to lead all the people in this camp to my territory. I guess your place will be deserted by then."

"I’ll go, I’ll go, is the senior 559 really at your place?" As if in disbelief, Jiu San asked again.

"Yes," confirmed Mu Ying, "it’s just that I plan to open a road between the two camps, which will take some time. If you want to go there, you might have to wait a while."

"No problem, I need to earn some more money here; otherwise, paying the rent and taxes will be tough when the time comes," he thought. A No Master Camp like this one, due to its limited developmental prospects and the inability to upgrade, usually ends up degrading and disappearing. The only good thing is that there are no taxes, and the shops are free. As long as one is willing to come, they can make pure profit, albeit a small one.

"Since it’s settled, I’ll head back to my room now. You can have the candlestick; I don’t need it," Mu Ying happily went upstairs.

This trip was not a loss. The inn was secondary. Recruiting shops for a while would achieve the goal, but the real earnings came from bringing back a chatty shopkeeper. Who knows, maybe one day he’d accidentally let slip something valuable.

After chatting for just a few minutes that night, Mu Ying learned a lot more.

Especially the words "Evolution Center," which she had heard from the Mushroom Man Elders, just not in as much detail as from Jiu San.

It seemed that these outsider NPCs were governed by the World Evolution Center, with many restrictions. Perhaps the Doomsday Game is also related to this organization.

NPC is just what the people of Deep Blue Star called these outsiders, and by now hardly anyone treated them as a bunch of programmed data.

Mu Ying was now more convinced that they were simply people from outside Deep Blue Star, perhaps originating from the same source as those monsters that fell from the sky, just with different allegiances.

Compared to NPC, perhaps calling them alien beings was more apt.

The small suite was indeed small. The door opened to a tiny living room with a table, followed by a small bedroom and a washroom.

The room was clean, and the furnishings were brand new, probably because no one had stayed there before. It seems the inn’s business wasn’t too good.

After touring the room, Mu Ying got ready to rest directly.

The next day, woke up by the noise from outside the window and looking at the unfamiliar ceiling, Mu Ying was confused for a moment. Once she realized she wasn’t at home, she got up and pushed open the window.

The room’s window offered a broad view of the bustling square outside, crowded with tents—likely belonging to those who couldn’t afford rent and were unwilling to splurge on an inn.

Unlike the silence of last night, the square now had a much livelier atmosphere, with many people cooking over open fires.

It was a bustling scene, with people coming and going—a stark contrast to the atmosphere in Qingshan Territory.

Mu Ying stood at the window for a long time, estimating there were probably about a thousand people in Spirit Dragon Gorge Camp—all potential resources.

Enticed by the smell of roasted bread and meat coming from somewhere, the gremlin in Mu Ying’s stomach was roused.

Having left the guesthouse, Mu Ying spotted the small bakery next door. The bakery’s storefront was much smaller compared to the guesthouse, and there were a few people lined up outside.

Mu Ying also joined the end of the queue, standing on her tiptoes to see what the person at the front was buying. "Isn’t that a hamburger?"

The girl standing in front of her heard her muttering and turned around, "Yes, it’s a hamburger. I heard that someone made quite a bit of money selling a hamburger recipe... Which store’s NPC are you? I’ve never seen you before."

Mu Ying shook her head, "I’m not an NPC, nor an owner, oh, and I’m also not a foreigner," guessing that the girl hadn’t seen her last night.

"Oh, sorry," the girl apologized, her face turning red with embarrassment.

Noticing it was her turn and she was still absentmindedly looking around, Mu Ying reminded her, "It’s your turn."

"Oh, right, thank you," she quickly came back to her senses, handed the money she had counted in advance to the owner, and walked away with her hamburger.

Taking advantage of the moment, Mu Ying got a clear look at the variety of food and prices displayed outside the store.

The bakery items were not much different from those at Marin’s bakery, with only the hamburgers and sandwiches at the top of the menu being somewhat unique.

"I’ll have a pork cutlet hamburger and a ham and egg sandwich," Mu Ying ordered.

"Coming right up," the owner glanced at her without slowing his hands. He took a round bread cut in half, placed it on a piece of greaseproof paper, then added a fried egg, two lettuce leaves, and a small piece of hot, saucy pork cutlet before covering it with the other half of the bread. A quick roll of the paper, and it was wrapped up.

The ham sandwich consisted of three slices of toast with two slices of ham, a bit of lettuce, and a fried egg, all tightly wrapped in greaseproof paper.

Mu Ying handed over seven copper coins and walked away with the still-warm packages wrapped in greaseproof paper.

As breakfast, the price was not cheap, but with meat, vegetables, and egg, it was nutritionally balanced and quite substantial.

She unwrapped the greaseproof paper around the hamburger and took a big bite while it was still hot, the fluffy bread mixed with thick sauce and crisp veggies, "Delicious!"

The ingredients were much more honest than those in fast food restaurants before the apocalypse.

After the apocalypse, there was no need to worry about eating fake meat and substandard ingredients.

Because now, everything was purely natural.

Walking and eating, Mu Ying discovered that the variety of shops in Spirit Dragon Gorge Camp was quite comprehensive, including general stores, clothing stores, fabric shops, bars, restaurants, equipment stores, pawnshops, blacksmith shops, and clinics, among others.

The items sold inside were fairly similar, and some were not even as good quality as those in her own territory.

Behind the row of shops were identically styled small buildings.

In front of these buildings hung signs indicating they were for sale, with a price of 10 Gold Coins; they were also available to rent, but the daily rental cost was 20 copper coins.

Mu Ying estimated that not many people could afford this price, and sure enough, after walking around, she saw that ninety percent of these houses were vacant, with only a few showing signs of being rented.

No wonder there were so many people pitching tents and living in the square. The entry fee and rental combined cost 30 copper coins a day, and since the layout of the houses was fixed, there were many inconveniences to sharing a space; it was more economical to spend some copper coins to get a tent, which provided both private space and saved money.

Those who were too stingy to waste even the entry fee set up tents at the entrance of the camp, taking turns keeping watch every day, ducking into the camp if there was trouble.

Monsters that often harassed the camp were few, except for the kind that fed on humans; generally, they wouldn’t venture out to attack them.