mesbooks Chapter 403 What does it mean for wealth to be all-powerful?
Chapter 403 What does it mean for wealth to be all-powerful?
"Wait!"
The crowd was roughly pushed aside.
A red-bearded dwarf, less than 1.5 meters tall but almost as wide as he was, walked in.
He was shirtless, his muscles bulging like rocks, and he carried a huge, jet-black iron felt on his shoulder, its surface covered with countless hammer marks.
With each step, the bluestone floor of the hall groaned under the weight of the weight.
"boom!"
The red-bearded dwarf walked up to Chen You and slammed the iron felt on his shoulder onto the ground.
The entire hall shook.
Grandmaster Bronzebeard immediately bowed his head upon seeing the newcomer and respectfully greeted him, "Lord of the City."
The newcomer was none other than Tie De, the city lord of Dongtiecheng.
Ignoring Copperbeard, Tie De stared intently at Chen You with his eyes wide like copper bells, his gaze filled with undisguised contempt and anger.
"Use money to bribe? Use blind boxes to scam?" Tie De pointed at Chen You's nose, his voice deafening.
"That's utter nonsense! Forging is sacred! It's the fusion of sweat and furnace fire! A speculator like you, reeking of money, is not worthy to touch the 'Eight Hammers of the Clouds'!"
The players around them, who had been indignant, were immediately invigorated.
"The city lord has made his move!"
"Well done! Punish this damn pay-to-win bastard!"
"Let him know that East Iron City isn't a place where money can buy anything!"
Faced with Tie De's spittle, Chen You silently took a half step back and wiped his face.
He wasn't angry; instead, his eyes lit up.
Just when I was worried about not being able to find a city lord, he delivered himself right to my door.
"Lord of the City, is it?" Chen You straightened his clothes, then casually pushed the book "Eight Hammers of the Clouds" that was radiating seven-colored light back into Copperbeard's arms.
"Actually, you misunderstood. I have absolutely no interest in this hammering technique."
The entire venue fell into a deathly silence.
The players' eyes widened.
That's the only mythical-level secondary profession manual in the entire server! And he actually said he wasn't interested?
Tie De was stunned. A surge of anger suddenly caught in his throat, unable to rise or fall: "You... what did you say?"
Chen You flipped his wrist and took out the ancient [Contract Silk] from his backpack, spreading it out directly in front of Tie De.
The marks of the four city lords were already neatly stamped on it.
"Take the manual back, I'm not practicing it anymore." Chen You pointed to the blank space on the cloth and got straight to the point.
"Just stamp it, and we'll be even."
"You upheld your forging beliefs, I completed my business, and we both have a bright future."
"How is it?"
Tie De looked down at the roll of cloth that exuded an ancient aura, his eyes twitching violently.
He felt humiliated.
The other party didn't care about East Iron City's highest honor at all; they just treated him as a tool NPC to stamp their seal!
"Arrogant!" Tie De laughed in anger, slapping the black iron felt next to him.
"You want to get it stamped? Sure! This ancestral iron felt is a sacred object passed down from the successive city lords of East Iron City."
"If you can gain its approval, I'll give you the city lord's position, let alone its seal!"
Chen You sighed.
The most annoying thing about playing games is encountering NPCs who force you to follow a specific storyline.
"What constitutes approval?" Chen You asked.
Tie De sneered, took a standard-issue iron hammer from his waist, and threw it at Chen You's feet.
"Pick up the hammer and hit it."
"You pass the test when it resonates."
Chen You picked up the hammer and weighed it in his hand.
It's very light and doesn't offer any attribute bonuses.
He walked up to the black iron felt and casually waved his hand.
"when!"
A crisp clang of metal striking metal rang out.
Immediately afterwards, a highly sarcastic red number floated above the anvil:
"-1"
Chen You was stunned.
Only then did he try to check the properties of the felt.
[Objective: East Iron City's Heirloom Iron Felt (Special Story Unit)]
[Health Points: 999,999 / 1,000,000]
【Characteristic: Absolute Defense (When attacked by any physical/magical attack, 1 point of health is forcibly deducted).】
[Status: Inactive. Resonance is triggered when health reaches zero.]
Chen You stared at the long string of 9s and fell into deep thought.
One million blood.
Forced to deduct 1 HP.
In other words, he has to stand here and use this broken hammer in his hand to smash a million times.
If you smash it once a second, without stopping, it would probably take eleven whole days.
This isn't just being difficult; it's the system blatantly forcing us to work harder.
"Hahaha!" Ted laughed loudly, his rough laughter echoing in the hall.
"Did you see that clearly? This is the true essence of forging! There are no shortcuts, no opportunism, only the accumulation of experience, hammer blow after hammer blow!"
"No matter how much money you have, can you buy back the sweat of a million swings of the hammer?"
The surrounding players finally felt vindicated and began mocking each other.
"Smash it! Rich guy, go ahead and smash it!"
"Weren't you quite the talker just now? Then use your gold coins to smash this anvil!"
"That's hilarious! You've really messed up now. A million hits, and your arm will break!"
Chen You ignored the jeers around him.
He looked at the dark iron felt in front of him and casually pounded it twice.
Sure enough, it only caused me to lose 1 point of health each time.
He began to consider whether he should simply draw his Jade Emperor Sword and chop the iron felt in half.
Just then, a crisp system notification suddenly rang in Chen You's mind.
【Ding! 】
[System notification: A change has been detected in your account balance.]
[Gold Coins - 2000]
Chen You was taken aback.
He didn't buy anything, so why was he suddenly charged?
Immediately afterwards, a second red system notification popped up, flashing with a blinding light.
[Ding! The hidden effect of the special title "Wealth Can Move Gods" has been triggered!]
【The judgment is successful! 】
You have paid double the target value (target value: 1000 gold coins).
[You have successfully bribed the East Iron City family heirloom felt; loyalty period: 10 minutes.]
Chen You was stunned.
Ted was stunned.
All the players were stunned.
Because the moment the system notification sound ended, the pitch-black iron felt that had withstood a thousand years of wind and frost and symbolized the absolute faith of the Eastern Iron City suddenly began to vibrate violently.
"Buzz—"
A dazzling dark golden light burst forth from within the iron felt, shooting straight up to the roof.
Two eyes, formed from golden light and filled with fawning intent, suddenly appeared on the originally lifeless black iron surface.
The anvil came to life.
Even more outrageous, four short, thick metal legs actually grew from the bottom of this iron felt weighing tens of thousands of kilograms.
It hopped around merrily twice, emitting a very clear, mechanical sound with a strong commercial flavor:
"Boss, you're so generous! Two thousand gold coins! You're like my biological father!"
The entire forging hall was deathly silent, with only the whooshing sound of flames burning in the blast furnace audible.
Ted's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
He pointed at the anvil, his fingers trembling as if electrified: "You...you...you've become a spirit?!"
"You son of a bitch!" Iron Felt suddenly turned around, his two golden eyes fixed on Tie De, and cursed loudly.
"I've lived in your Tie family for eight generations! Eight generations! You bunch of poor bastards, you've been hitting me with that broken hammer every day for hundreds of years, and you haven't even paid a maintenance fee!"
"All these dents and bumps on my body are from work injuries!"