"Ding! God's Salvation: Help Rupud escape his impoverished conditions and peacefully associate with the residents of Seaside City.
"Mission Time Limit: 3 days.
"Mission Reward: Rupud's sublime belief, Level + 3, 1 recipe for 'Constitution-Boosting Potion'."
"Mission?" Meng Jingtian's eyes brightened and his expression calmed down.
In real life, if someone started calling him God all the time, he would have felt embarrassed, but the appearance of a mission made him regain his senses. After all, this was a game, and this was just an NPC.
It was all because this game was too real!
He immediately took the mission and said to Rupud while acting like a god, "The gods have not forgotten you. I have come to save you. But first, you should explain in detail your dire straits!"
"Great God, I was originally a respected alchemist of Durand City, but after ending up in this place, I didn't speak the same language as the locals, and they had their own alchemists. I wasn't able to sell my potions, so I've only been able to eke out a living in the slums," Rupud tearfully implored.
Meng Jingtian nodded in understanding. So that's what was going on! He was a player, and the system came with a translator that let him understand the words of all NPCs that he could talk with. But the native NPCs of Seaside City did not have this ability.
To Rupud, a stranger stranded in a strange land with no 'foreigners' able to understand him, it truly was a very miserable situation.
Meng Jingtian pondered how he could have Rupud escape this predicament. It was just a question of money!
As for having him get on friendly terms with the residents of Seaside City, the only difficulty was the difference in language.
After organizing his thoughts, Meng Jingtian said to Rupud, "If you want the acknowledgment of others, you first need to leave. You can't remain in this shack. Why don't you try selling your potions again?"
"But, Great God, I've already tried many times! No one needs my potions, and they don't understand my words." Rupud dejectedly shook his head.
"Do you have any potions with you? I'll go with you to sell them. If the price is right, it can definitely be sold!" Meng Jingtian advised with a confident smile.
There were quite a few players in Seaside City, and potions were often a necessary item in games. Even if Seaside City had a drugstore, that didn't necessarily mean his potions were no good.
If that wasn't enough, then it was time for a price war!
Persuaded by Meng Jingtian, Rupud dubiously took out some of the potions he had saved.
Blood-Restoring Potion: Instantly restore 500 HP.
Blue-Restoring Potion: Recover 50+ MP/second.
These ordinary, basic medicines were nothing unusual, but two blue potions drew Meng Jingtian's attention.
Constitution Potion: Permanently boost Constitution by 5 points. Only effective on first use.
Strength Potion: Permanently boost Strength by 5 points. Only effective on first use.
At present, all the players in the game were getting one free stat point for each level gained. If they took these potions, they would have ten additional stat points that other players wouldn't!
"If Great God likes them, please, take them!" Rupud had good eyes and immediately offered the potions for free.
Meng Jingtian didn't refuse. He took the potions and immediately used them, after which he dragged Rupud around and began to advertise.
But this was the slums, and there weren't a lot of players around, so the effects weren't very good.
Thus, Meng Jingtian grabbed the two blue potions and put the descriptions of the two potions into the city's chat channel.
"Holy shit! A divine potion! Two gold coins for one? Where do I get one?"
"Holy shit, are there already players making potions?"
"You again! This fellow is cheating! He must have found some loophole in the system! Let's report him!"
The chat channel instantly exploded. Bai Wensheng, who had just finished smoothly clearing the instance, saw who had sent the message and instantly exploded in rage.
Customer support still hadn't sent him a reply, and he still had the 'God Forsaken' debuff! This very debuff had almost caused his team to be wiped out.
The messages were coming in so quickly that Meng Jingtian didn't even get a chance to see Bai Wensheng's angry message calling for players to report him. He was focused completely on reposting his advertisement.
Five minutes later, a team of players who were decently equipped rushed over.
"You're the player selling potions?" the leader of the group, a player called Luo Yang, asked. He was wearing a light green robe and wielding a tigerheaded saber, clearly not the equipment given to new players.
Behind him were several other decently-equipped players. At the very least, they had already gotten rid of the new-player equipment.
"Right. What are you buying?" Meng Jingtian asked, pointing at the potions on the stall next to him.
Rupud was delighted to see that there were actually customers, but he rarely interacted with others and had an eccentric personality, so he just stood on the side and watched as Meng Jingtian sold his potions.
"Was Brother born as a potion maker? If you're interested, why not join our Beacon Guild?" Luo Yang didn't immediately answer, instead inviting Meng Jingtian to his guild.
"I'm sorry; I currently don't have plans to enter a guild."
"Our guild offers a good salary and a lot of girls. If Brother can provide a steady supply of these stat potions, we can give you five thousand alliance coins each month. What about it?" Luo Yang didn't give up and smoothly began to try to persuade Meng Jingtian.
Meng Jingtian rolled his eyes and rudely replied, "Buy if you're buying, but if you're not, don't get in the way of my business!"
He had been a loner in 'Grand Desolation', and there had been quite a few times where he had been hunted down by a guild for offending one of its members. He had nothing but bad impressions about these guilds.
But because people were fighting over limited resources, guilds also had many limitations on ordinary members, and there were always rules to follow. Meng Jingtian's personality wasn't a good fit for that environment.
Since they were playing games, they should do what they wanted. Regardless of the benefits, he had no desire to bind himself to the rules of a guild.
"Shopkeep! Two potions!" As Luo Yang was going green in the face and about to make another offer, a black-clothed swordsman wearing a veiled hat took out four gold coins and threw them at Meng Jingtian.
This man's ID was Hua Tianyu, and he was also clearly a player. His equipment seemed much better than Luo Yang's, and his behavior was much more straightforward, causing Meng Jingtian to take a second look at him.
This man seemed like an expert, but who could he be?
Meng Jingtian passed over two blue potions, and the man immediately took them and left.
"Brother…" Luo Yang wanted to continue the negotiations. After all, a player who could make these blue potions at so early a stage in the game was certain to be the number one potion maker in the future, someone worth bringing over.
But more and more players were coming over, and as they started buying from Meng Jingtian, they squeezed out Luo Yang and his group of non-buying players.
Ten minutes later, the little stall Meng Jingtian and Rupud had set up was surrounded by a vast crowd of people. A few moments later, the potions were sold out.
Meng Jingtian clapped his hands and loudly announced, "My apologies! Today's potions have been sold out. But in the future, this place will offer basic potions essential for leveling up. Good friends, please keep an eye out!"