Three days had passed since the alliance pact under the cover of darkness was signed...
Paldia, once nothing more than a lonely starter city, had now become the busiest minor economic hub on the server. In front of the “Used Gear Shop at the City’s Edge,” Players lined up in a long queue to sell junk items and ore materials. But this time, Sean was no longer sitting behind the counter alone.
He had used the “Anomaly Code Extraction” skill obtained from deleting the Game Master’s data to create a cloned NPC puppet merchant body. It would temporarily handle buying monster materials and smelting basic C-rank items in his place, allowing the first branch to continue operating automatically!
As for Sean’s real body... he was now sitting aboard a massive iron-armored merchant wagon, part of the “Singto Thong Kham Caravan” heading toward the capital city of Arkadia!
“This is pretty exciting...” Lumiel, seated beside him in a new magic robe, said as she gazed out the wagon window. “Normally, in most games, NPCs are restricted to their original areas. Almost no NPC would pack their bags and travel between cities alongside Players like this.”
“For me... this game’s original rules died the day the Log Out button disappeared,” Sean replied in an even voice, raising a leather notebook to check the list of accumulated materials.
“Exactly...” Lumiel sighed softly. “But going to the capital city of Arkadia this time won’t be easy. It’s the territory of the ‘Mangkon Fa Guild,’ the number-one guild on the server. They control entry to and exit from the capital and tightly monopolize the high-tier item market. If they find out that a merchant capable of smelting B- and A-rank items on his own—someone like you, Sean—has opened a shop there... a guild war is bound to break out.”
“A monopoly?” Sean smirked, a cold light flashing in his eyes. “The tighter their monopoly, the more absurdly expensive items in the capital will be... And that is exactly the perfect opportunity for the black market to turn a profit.”
Rrrrrrrrrumble—!
Suddenly! The ground beneath the wagon began shaking violently!
The horses let out terrified neighs as the merchant wagon screeched to a sudden halt, sending potion bottles and baggage inside tumbling to the floor.
“What’s going on?!” Sing Lek, driving the horses and leading the convoy from the front, shouted as he drew a pair of B-rank axes and readied himself.
“Captain! Monsters are ambushing us!” a member of the Singto Thong Kham Guild shouted in panic. “No... not ordinary monsters! It’s a ‘Route Guardian Boss’!”
Sean and Lumiel hurried down from the wagon. Before them lay an old road through a dim valley. Blocking the path stood a gigantic five-meter-tall beast. It resembled a gorilla, but its entire body was covered in stone armor carved with red runes. Its vivid red eyes glinted with fury.
[Route Guardian Boss: Ancient Stone-Armored Gorgon (Lv. 25)] [HP: 150,000 / 150,000] [Special Status: 50% Physical Attack Immunity]
“Level 25?!” Sing Lek’s face went pale. The Players in the caravan were only Level 12 to 15 on average. Fighting a Level 25 boss with such high Defense was nothing short of suicide!
“Fall back, now! The merchant wagons definitely can’t withstand a hit from that thing!” Sing Lek ordered tensely.
HOOOOOOOWL!
The stone-armored gorilla giant let out a thunderous roar. It pounded its chest, creating a shockwave, then drew back a stone fist the size of a house and charged straight at the wagon Sean had just stepped down from, intending to smash it into dust!
“Dodge, Sean!” Lumiel raised her staff, preparing to cast lightning magic and draw its attention.
But... Sean didn’t retreat even an inch. He calmly stepped forward and summoned the item inventory System.
Flash—!
The A-rank “Forged Admin Judgment Shield,” smelted from GM-04’s code, appeared in Sean’s left hand. A powerful silver-violet aura burst outward, colliding with the Level 25 boss’s killing intent and making its stone fist halt for a brief moment!
“A high-grade Level 25 boss...” Sean studied the beast before him with the gaze of a merchant who had just found ‘premium materials.’ “The ancient stone armor covering your body... If I smelt it together with the remaining admin code, I should be able to make an excellent A-rank armor set.”
“Sing Lek! Lumiel!” Sean called in a calm yet powerful voice. “Buy me ten seconds... I’ll show you how a Dark Merchant takes down a boss!”
The moment Sean finished speaking, the purple-black Dark Merchant Forge erupted with energy, spreading across the entire valley! Sean’s hunt for A-rank materials had begun!