Chapter 112: Chapter 104: The Cowardly Phoenix Mountain and 2 Salted Fish

“Ha… Achoo!”

Phoenix Mountain rubbed his nose, wiped away the snot from the sneeze, opened his sleepy eyes, and pushed away the long-haired white cat lying on his chest with its butt facing his face.

“Ahhh~~”

Sitting up and yawning, Phoenix Mountain muttered to himself, “What’s wrong with this cat? The cats I raised before also liked to face their butts toward people…”

He rubbed his temples and patted his face, trying to wake himself up a bit.

“Still have to explore today, better hurry up… Huh? Why do I have so many private messages?”

Opening the private chat interface, over twenty strangers he had never seen before were sending him messages, mostly repeating the same sentence: Are you awake?

In just a few seconds, the number of private messages kept increasing, leaving Phoenix Mountain even more puzzled.

“Didn’t I turn on the stranger restriction?”

A glance at the system prompts, oh boy!

“What is wrong with these people? I listed an iron ingot at two iron ingots in the trading hall, and they actually bought it?”

What kind of operation is this?

Too many fools, not enough scammers?

Are they here to knock me off my feet?

“Something’s wrong, it’s not my fault if they bought the wrong thing, I’m not giving refunds anyway,” Phoenix Mountain muttered, casually adding these people to his blocklist, not paying much attention.

The number of iron ingots bought was not large; it was the leftover material from yesterday’s trade with Luo Aiman that he put in the trading hall, separated to avoid mixing up the numbers.

He originally intended to find a chance to annoy Li Zheng later, but it was all bought out today.

“Strange things happen every year, especially this year.” Phoenix Mountain got up from the ground, brushed off the white hair on his body, stretched, and prepared to leave.

Just then, his system interface began to flood with screen notifications, all @mentions.

“What the… Again?” Phoenix Mountain’s eyes widened, now he was getting PTSD from seeing screen floods, his heart fluttering at the sight.

“It’s never-ending, is it?!”

Phoenix Mountain, furious, opened the regional channel, ready to post a message cursing people, but found the group @mentioning him were lined up, sending identical messages.

“@Phoenix Mountain, big boss! Newbie begging for a pocket watch!”

“…”

All were asking for pocket watches, Phoenix Mountain didn’t rush to reply; after lurking a while, he figured out what was going on.

“That Li guy, I just took a nap, and he’s already retaliated!” Phoenix Mountain was so angry he gritted his teeth.

[There’s a trade in the trading hall specifying you.]

[There’s a trade in the trading hall specifying you…]

…

Three consecutive trade notifications specifying him, Phoenix Mountain turned to open the trading hall, immediately noticing several items sent by Yan Guang.

[Bull Whip]

[Bull Treasure] x2

Seller’s message: Mountain Treasure, specially reserved for you, for some nourishment.

This time Phoenix Mountain was utterly dumbfounded, opened the regional chat and started cursing.

Phoenix Mountain: “@Yan Guang, are you sick? Who the hell needs to eat that stuff? Take it back to wherever you got it from! I don’t want it!”

Yan Guang’s reply was mixed among a slew of purchase requests: “Can’t send it back, this stuff was given away for free by Li Zheng, I specifically asked for a set to nourish you, stop being ungrateful!”

“Damn! It’s Li Zheng again!”

Seeing the name, Phoenix Mountain was so furious he could bite someone.

Opened the private chat, removed Li Zheng from the blocklist, and sent a message: “Are you sick in the head?”

…

Li Zheng finished drawing the lottery, with the scenery changing before him, appearing again in the grassland room.

Before he could take in the view, Phoenix Mountain’s private message popped up.

“Oh, the kid actually woke up. He’s timing it to coincide with the Flame Flower!” Li Zheng opened the private message, almost questioning his life.

Where did I provoke him this time?

This isn’t right!

I haven’t even dealt with the morning screen flood that annoyed me, and you dare to curse?

Really think you can just walk all over me?

Li Zheng: “If you’re ill, seek treatment, Xiao Siyuan is a doctor, I suggest letting him perform a craniotomy to sort out your brain.”

Quick comeback, needed to vent some anger anyway!

Li Zheng held a dried salted fish in his hand, angry beyond measure.

You say you’re a lucky European, but why is the luck from you so skewed?

[Pasi Meow’s Salted Fish, Gold Level, Weapon/Firearm]

Description: It looks like a salted fish, but it is actually a perfectly disguised firearm weapon.

Personally modified by Pasi Meow, very salty, very hard, and very sturdy.

Pasi Meow and Icarus are known as the two peculiar figures in the assassin world.

It excels at disguising and infiltrating, killing enemies from close range.

It has a younger brother, Spa Meow.

This salted fish once contributed to a legendary feat by Pasi Meow.

Old Pu’s review: What bad intentions can a little kitty have?

It just likes small dried fish, that’s all.]

“Gold Level Broken Salted Fish…” Li Zheng paused, and another salted fish appeared in his hand. The last one was a carp; this time it turned into seafood–belt fish.

“Damn, two at once!”

[Spa Meow’s Belt Fish, Gold Level, Weapon/Firearm

Description: Spa Meow greatly admires its brother, and after studying Pasi Meow’s Salted Fish Spear, it modded this Daiyu Spear for sniping.

Old Pu’s review: Sometimes even little kitties can have mischievous thoughts too.

Those who snipe with silencers are all old coins!]

Phoenix Mountain: “Ugh! Shameless old crook, gifting a set of bullwhips to a female player while barking madly here, never have I seen such a brazen person!”

“Soga!”

Li Zheng got it; Phoenix Mountain was scared by Yan Guang.

But what does that have to do with me?

I’m just giving out some things that might be useful to others, to prevent wasting good stuff, am I not correct for being frugal?

But instead, you, Mr. Phoenix, not only got up early to post vile trade information, but now you dare to involve your anger with me?

Hah!

Naive!

Too naive!

Li Zheng sneered as he tossed out the capsule home, went inside to take a photo of the maturing Flame Flower, and sent it with a message.

“[Flame Flower] Don’t want it anymore?”

In no time, a new message from Phoenix Mountain arrived: “Bro, I’m just afraid you’d be bored, trying to entertain you a bit! Be magnanimous, just treat me like a fart and let it go, okay?”

“Heh heh.”

Li Zheng only sent these two brief words, but it frightened Phoenix Mountain, fearing that Li Zheng might block him, quickly pleading: “Bro, dearest bro, little brother sincerely knows his mistake!”

As usual, Phoenix Mountain’s speed at surrendering was top-notch, immediately acknowledging Li Zheng as his big bro, as if he wasn’t the one being arrogant and cursing just moments ago.

What do you call this?

This is called bravely admitting one’s wrongdoing, stubbornly unrepentant, daring again next time!

Actually, Li Zheng roughly guessed why Phoenix Mountain was sickening him early in the morning.

Probably because yesterday he slackened off, at the time just had others trade the materials to him, and the notification drove him insane.

But you can’t blame me for that either.

The batch of materials was too large; passing them through me would’ve been so troublesome!

Trading directly to Phoenix Mountain wasn’t more convenient!

“However, fundamentally speaking, whether it’s the pocket watch making plan or today’s two salted fish, the ultimate beneficiary is myself…” Li Zheng felt a bit guilty thinking it over.

Phoenix Mountain received such a large quantity of materials without pocketing anything, worked diligently overnight to produce the items.

Isn’t it just a morning of slight revenge, venting a bit?

It doesn’t sting or itch; letting him have some fun, why not?

Thinking over, Li Zheng decided to help Phoenix Mountain, as repayment for crafting the pocket watch and hastening his blood material collection favor.

“Don’t you just want to level up your Fire Gene Ability to full level?

In fact, these two Flame Flowers of mine are but a drop in the bucket for you now.

So let me point you to a bright road.”

Looking at the three nearing maturity Flame Flowers (he could only give two to Phoenix Mountain, agreed upon during previous trade.), wisdom shone in Li Zheng’s eyes.

“Those players craving pocket watches, let them trade in with Fire Element development tools.”

“Fire Element development tools for exchange? Right! Why didn’t I think of that?” Phoenix Mountain slapped his leg, silently cursing himself for being groggy with sleep, missing such a good opportunity.

“Phew, luckily I was ruthless enough to use up two trade opportunities buying up all Valok’s Eyes, otherwise materials would be insufficient!”

Without replying further to Li Zheng’s message, Phoenix Mountain eagerly rushed to the area hall to set trade terms.

Li Zheng peeked at the screen for a moment, seeing everything going smoothly, he let the matter drop.

[Behind this door are some materials, some equipment.

Old Pu knows what you’re looking for, so highly advises you to choose this spot.]

“Heh, if I hadn’t checked the scant value of items behind other doors, I’d almost believe it.”

Li Zheng’s lips curved downwards, swiping a card to open the door.

Day five, room five.

This is a secure material room, the very center holding a computer familiar to Li Zheng.