Chapter 219 The Calm Before the Storm (Part 1)

Of course, there was no point worrying about it. The best solution Ye Ci had was try and head back into the dungeon. After making an inventory of all the consumables she had, Ye Ci decided to resupply in Red Lake City before trying to re-enter the dungeon.

However, once she arrived in Red Lake City, it was a long while before Ye Ci could leave. First of all, Ye Nantian’s shop was doing badly. Due to their lack of special recipes and their low level, Ye Nantian and Zuo Xiaolan were not able to produce any high quality consumables. Even with the strategic location of their shop, business did not go well.

This situation was a far cry’s away from what Ye Nantian and Zuo Xiaolan had expected when they first started their business. After some careful consideration, the couple made the decision to quit the game. They decided to hand the shop back to Ye Ci so that she could rent it out to avoid further losses.

Ye Ci was having a taste of one of the broth sold by Ye Nantian as the words came tumbling out of the couple’s mouth.

“Little Ci, we’ve decided to not continue our business. Why don’t you rent this shop out to someone else?”

“Pffffftttt…..” perhaps it was the shock of listening to her parents words, or perhaps it was because of the unpalatable taste of the broth, Ye Ci spurted the broth onto the faces of her parents.

“Ah… Sorry! I’m so sorry!” Ye Ci immediately apologized to her parents.

Although such actions will not cause damage to her parents in game, it did made some changes to their appearance. Ye Nantian immediately cleaned the face of his wife with a cloth, and said jokingly “Little Ci, we’ve already washed our faces this morning.”

Ye Ci was embarrassed. After letting out a chuckle, she immediately seized the opportunity to change the topic, “What were you talking about just now?”

“We’re saying that we don’t want to continue our business in this shop anymore. Why don’t you rent it out?” Zuo Xiaolan repeated her statement.

The corners of Ye Ci’s mouth twitched. Instead of answering their question, Ye Ci responded with a question of their own, “Why?”

If the question was asked by someone else, Ye Nantian and Zuo Xiaolan would have responded with a load of nonsense to save face. However, the question came from their daughter, who they had no intention of lying to her. “LIttle Ci, we’re a family, so we’ll be honest with you.” Zuo Xiaolan sighed, and shared a look with Ye Nantian, “This shop is indeed in a good location, and we have had a lot of visitors everyday. Even then, our shop is not doing as well as the other shops nearby, and we don’t even know why. We thought that it would be a good idea to close down the business so that you can rent this shop out to someone else. At least you can earn something out of it.”

“Rent it to someone else?” Ye Ci smiled, “Mom, although the game is said to 100% realistic, we don’t have all the facilities that exist in real life available to us. I can’t sublease the shop to somebody else. A function like this does not exist in the game.” and she thought to herself, of course, it will be added into the game in the near future.

“T-then what do we do? Do you want us to continue suffering losses from this?” said Zuo Xiaolan, who was a very frugal person, “No way! There’s no way I’m going to continue a business that will only cause losses for me!”

“Mom, don’t forget that we’ve signed a contract. You will have to pay a penalty for breaking the terms of the contract.” a mother knows her daughter well, and the daughter would also naturally would know the thoughts of her mother. As the daughter of Zuo Xiaolan for two lifetimes, Ye Ci knew what was going on in her mother’s mind. She ignored Zuo Xiaolan’s objection, and began exerting pressure on her through the contract.

“Penalty? What penalty?” Zuo Xiaolan and her husband have always dismissed Fate as a mere online game. This was why they did not even to read the contract up.

“What? Mom, didn’t you read the contract that we’ve signed?” Ye Ci pretended to be surprised. She, of course, knew that her mother would never read the contract.

“The contract?” the corners of Zuo Xiaolan’s mouth twitched. She slowly shifted her glance to Ye Nantian. Her husband, who did not read the contract as well immediately shook his head, indicating that he had no knowledge about the contract.

“It’s that thing that you insisted to sign despite my objection.” Ye Ci narrowed her eyes, and a calculative smile formed on her lips. She even reminded her parents that they were the ones who insisted upon signing the contract. She stared at her confused parents, “It’s those documents that we signed in the town hall, you’ve even commented about the mayor’s body figure…”

“Alright, alright! I remember now!” Zuo Xiaolan was embarrassed when she was reminded of their mistake. How could she forget about that incident? The couple was full of curiosity when they entered the game. They did not take their surroundings seriously as it was all just a game. When they were greeted by the mayor of Red Lake City, the couple began to have an open discussion about the mayor’s body figure.

Ye Ci’s expression darkened when she overheard the conversation between her parents. She let out several coughs in an attempt to get her parents to stop. Zuo Xiaolan and Ye Nantian who was oblivious about the impact of their actions, however, stopped only when the mayor spoke up with a darkened expression, “Are you here to sign the contract, or are you here to insult me?” At that moment, Ye Nantian and Zuo Xiaolan finally realized that even the NPCs would react to their conversation. They were both surprised and embarrassed by the revelation.

Because of that, they did not even paid much attention to the contract, and hid it in the darkest corner of their warehouse. They were eager to forget the incident.

They were caught off guard when Ye Ci reminded them of that incident. Zuo Xiaolan silently hoped that Ye Ci would have forgotten about the contents of the contract. Although the chances were slim, she wanted to try her luck, “So what if we signed a contract? I don’t remember anything about it!”

“It’s okay if you don’t remember, mom. I have a copy with me, and I can read it out for you if you want.” replied Ye Ci with a smile.

Zuo Xiaolan stared at Ye Ci with a face devoid of expression, “How can you remember something that I’ve long forgotten? Are you still my daughter?”

Ye Ci raised her eyebrows, and began reading out the contents of the contract. The contract was filled with special terms and conditions, unable to be processed by normal means. Before long, she received a complaint from Zuo Xiaolan, “Stop! Stop it! I can’t understand any of it.”

Of course, Ye Ci had her own way to deal with Zuo Xiaolan. She nodded at her mother, and kept away the contract, “Alright, mom. Let me explain it to you. It’s actually very simple. Since the contract was signed with mutual consent, if either party wishes to forcefully breach the contract, the party would have to pay the other party an amount of ten times the monthly rent.”

“Ten times…” the corners of Zuo Xiaolan’s mouth twitched, “How much is the rent again?”

“By the way, the rent for this shop is collected in a one-off payment. Even if I did not collect any rent from you, it was already registered in the system. Mom, if you insist upon breaching the contract, I’m afraid that you’d have to pay me 10 years worth of rent, at 10 times the price.”

“The question that I asked is ‘How much is the rent?’.” asked Zuo Xiaolan in a loud voice. She had the urge to beat her daughter up when she noticed the smirk on Ye Ci’s face.

“Ahh, it’s nothing much. You’ll only have to pay me a small sum of 20 million gold coins.” said Ye Ci as she shook two of her fingers in front of her parents.

Zuo Xiaolan’s eyes widened. She stared at Ye Ci with disbelief and then pointed at herself and loudly ranted. “You brat! Are you telling me that you want me to pay you 20 million gold coins for this virtual shop? Do you think that I’m stupid? I will not spend real money for a bunch of data in game…”

Ye Ci was not angry at all. Her mother’s reaction was something that she anticipated. It was the exact reaction she was waiting for. Zuo Xiaolan and her husband had never taken the game seriously. They were casual gamers. She would have to tie them down if she wanted them to take Fate seriously. If she was able to tie Zuo Xiaolan down, Ye Nantian would automatically be involved as well. There was an easy way to bind Zuo Xiaolan: through a huge sum of debt.

“Mom, if someone overhear this, they might beat you up.” Ye Ci reminded her.

The words were able to shut Zuo Xiaolan up. She walked up to Ye Ci, with anger still boiling within her, “You damned brat! Stop trying to fool me! I will definitely get tricked if I don’t play this darn game! But I now know that everything here is just a bunch of data! Everything is fake! Even that contract that you signed with us is fake! I’m telling you this: I quit! I don’t want to play this game anymore! I quit!”

Ye Ci nodded and clapped. “I’m impressed, mom. You’ve managed to learn so much in such a short amount of time.”

“Hmph! Don’t you dare mistake me for an idiot! I’m not that gullible!” Zuo Xiaolan, who could almost taste victory, shot Ye Ci a glare.

“If memory serves, I’m sure you’ve received a legal document from the Bank of China some times ago. Of course, I received a copy as well.” Ye Ci narrowed her eyes and stared at Zuo Xiaolan with clear mischief.

“Yeah, what about it?” Zuo Xiaolan snorted. In her eyes, she was just like Buddha, while Ye Ci was Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong will never be able to escape the Buddha’s palm [1].

“That was an official document recognizing the legality of our contract signed within the game, which means that… Even if your shop is just a clump of data… The contract is legal.” Ye Ci smiled at Zuo Xiaolan, “If you break the contract, the legal department will be notified, and the money you own in the game will be automatically deducted.”

“Well, I’ll just stay offline.” Zuo Xiaolan lost her fighting spirit as soon as legal documents in real life were involved. As an ordinary citizen, Zuo Xiaolan would of course be afraid of being involved in legal proceedings.

“Sure. When the money in your game account dries up, they will begin deducting funds from your real world bank account instead. And when that is not enough to pay the penalty…” said Ye Ci after a short pause, “Mom… Even I don’t know what will happen.”

“You unfilial daughter! How could you do this to your own mother!” Zuo Xiaolan exploded into a fit of rage, and began landing blows on Ye Ci. The system identified Zuo Xiaolan’s actions as an assault on another player. Due to their level differences, however, the only punishment she received was the restriction of her actions.

Zuo Xiaolan could do nothing but sitting back onto her chair, and began employing less forceful methods, “Little Ci, I’m just afraid of the losses we might suffer.”

“Mom, even I am not afraid. So what are you afraid of?” Ye Ci was unmoved.

“But can’t you see that nobody is buying our stuff? I’m worried!” Zuo Xiaolan voiced out her concern.

“There’s nothing to worry about. You can take it slowly.” Ye Ci took another sip of the broth and smiled at her mother, “It’s not that I’m asking for rental payments from you two.”

“Take it slowly…” Zuo Xiaolan mumbled, “I do want to take it slowly, but I don’t think that I have what it takes to run a business. It’ll be a waste of money. Little Ci, we’re not rich at all. We don’t have the money to waste. Can’t you think of something?”

“Mom, I know what you’re thinking, but running a business in Fate is not as hard as you think. Your business is bad because your Life Skills are at a lower level, while the average player level is at lvl35-lvl40. The items that you sell are all for players who are at lvl10. Even if they have a need of lower level items, they would usually acquire them from the Auction House at a cheaper price. This is why your business is bad.” Ye Ci immediately began analyzing the situation to her parents.

Zuo Xiaolan and Ye Nantian came to a sudden realization, “So, you’re telling me that if I want to have a good business, I must work hard to level up my Life Skills?”

“Of course. The higher the level of your Life Skills, the more popular your items will be. If you can get your hands on some unique recipe, you can even monopolize on the market. This is why high level Life Players are able to earn huge amounts of cash.”

“But…” Ye Nantian immediately pointed out a problem, “Leveling Life Skills takes up a lot of our time. We can’t even get the materials to level our skills, and could only head out to collect scraps that were discarded by the other players. This is going to take a lot of time.”

“Why do you even need to risk it? You’re not like the rest of the players. It’s impossible for your current level. Why do you have to resort to such a method?” Ye Ci was confused by her parents’ words, “Don’t you know that you can acquire the materials that you need from the Auction House?”

Of course, not everybody shared Ye Ci’s common sense. Ye Nantian and Zuo Xiaolan immediately directed a question to Ye Ci, “Won’t that be expensive?”

Ye Ci rolled her eyes, “It’s not as if you’re going to pay for if out of your own coffers! Didn’t I give you guys a large sum of money? Why don’t you spend them?” she was sure that her parents did not spend even a single gold coin from the funds she entrusted to them.

“We’re keeping it in case of emergencies,” replied Zuo Xiaolan, “If we spend them now, what do we do if there’s a disaster or something?”

“It’s a game! Nothing of that sort will happen!” Ye Ci had the urge to slam her head onto the table.

“If we spend the money, it’ll be gone forever,” Zuo Xiaolan continued her argument, “I’d rather store them away safely in the bank…”

“Mom! You will not receive interests from the in-game bank!” Ye Ci was almost driven mad by her mother.

“I don’t care! I do what I like!”

“Are you telling me that you would rather suffer more losses?” Ye Ci’s temper finally flared, “You told me that you wish to avoid losses, but you’re not willing to level up your Life Skills! So, tell me! How long do you want this situation to continue?”

Translator's Note:

[1] In the story Journey To The West, Sun Wukong (The Monkey King) was trapped by Buddha on his palms after he wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Court. The incident was known as Havoc in Heaven.

Hiya minna-san! I'm sure many of you are wondering where has Jimmi been for the past week xD

So after spending like 120 Saint Quartz, and like a dozen or so Summon Ticket, I was unable to pull Tamamo Lancer during the Summer event! I then noticed that many of you who have added me in FGO has Tamamo Lancer and Artoria Archer in your support list! Yes, especially you TLF! And you too Gleipnir! So I've decided to punish you people by not releasing chapters for a week! Hah! Take that!!

Just kidding...

Okay, on a serious note... I had 3 midterms last week. OH MAI GAD! THREE MIDTERMS? Yes, you got it right, I had THREE midterm exams last week, so you can say that I was VERY, VERY busy and was VERY ,VERY stressed out. I'm so sorry for going MIA for a week.

Also... I need help from you wonderful people! Please help me out by clicking the following link and hit the like button. It's for an assignment. And no, you won't be seeing me in the video xD

Link: https://youtu.be/rDNbnR_th0k