Destiny Online: Halo Paladin

Chapter 8: Earned A Small Buck

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

As it was getting late in-game, Nocturne returned to the village.

When he got back to the village, he noticed the square was bright and lively, all kinds of noises could be heard.

“Wild boar meat, wolf meat, bear meat, all kinds of meat! Come and take a look for your cooking and quest needs!”

“A newly forged bronze dagger, there’s only one in the game now, come and have a look!”

“Large amounts of leather on sale! The most affordable price in the village!”

“Fish on sale! Fish on sale! This is a flash sale! I’m going to the tavern to play War Chess after this flash sale!”

…

Nocturne wandered around for a while and saw many other players selling crafting materials, only some of them were selling end products and some White equipment. No Green equipment was in sight.

A quick thought later, Nocturne also set up a stall at the square and put the Refined Dagger on sale. 

Right before he could advertise his dagger, a female player walked by his stall. The girl had a glance at the dagger and was surprised.

“Oh my god! A Green weapon!?”

“Where!? A Green weapon1?”

The girl’s voice attracted attention and more players gathered.

“Holy sh*t! It’s really a Green weapon! Damn…”

Some of them came to the stall after hearing what the girl said and when they saw the dagger, they were stunned.

“I thought weapons and armors only dropped from humanoid monsters! There are no humanoid monsters around the village, how did he get his hands on this dagger?”

“I bet he got it from opening boxes. Based on the current progression, the only way to get a Green weapon in the newbie village is through opening boxes in the wild.”

“Damn! I wish I was that lucky. I opened some boxes in the wild this morning but all I got is a pair of White boots.”

“I guess this is the first Green weapon in our newbie village.”

“Nope. Someone put a pair of Green boots on sale in the afternoon. I’m sure others have Green weapons and armors as well, it’s just that they did not put them on sale.”

More and more players gathered after hearing the news. Some of them started to calm down and wanted to negotiate with Nocturne.

“Hey man, how much is this?”

“I’m only setting up for 10 minutes. Whoever pays the highest will get the dagger. Cash only.”

Nocturne wanted cold hard cash in real life, not in-game currency. He was just a casual player, even if he got in-game currency for his dagger, he could not snowball the profits. Since he could not overtake other players anymore, he might as well sell the dagger for some real cash.

“300!”

“Damn! Rich bastard! How can you start with 300? That pair of shoes on sale this afternoon was sold for 300 only!”

“How can you compare a pair of boots to a weapon? Just you wait, the price will surely soar.”

As expected, the price was raised.

“500!”

“600!”

…

The price went up to 800 before it slowed down.

“Hey man, since no one is offering anymore, let’s make a deal.”

The player urged Nocturne to complete the deal quickly since there was a lull in the bidding.

“What’s the hurry? There’s still time for the bidding.” Nocturne was happy with the price but he decided to play it out, which made the other player anxious.

The duration was almost up after two minutes, so Nocturne decided to deal with the player who offered 800.

“1,000, I’m taking it.”

A cold voice came from outside the crowd. It sounded magnetic and had an indescribable charm.

A girl pushed herself out of the crowd and walked closer to Nocturne. She was wearing a tight leather suit, which complimented her voluptuous body. Her fair long legs were slender, her eyes were bright and her facial features were delicate. Together with her sharp brows and slight grin, she looked extremely valiant and energetic.

“Beitang Meng? The real nouveau riche has arrived!” Someone from the crowd recognized the girl.

Judging from the reaction from the crowd, the girl, Beitang Meng, should be a famous and wealthy player. However, Nocturne had never heard of her name before since he was a salaryman who worked endless overtime before this, he never really had any time to play games.

He was not familiar and did not pay attention to popular names in the game.

“What do you say?” Beitang Meng asked as she stood in front of Nocturne’s stall.

“No problem. Let’s trade.” Nocturne happily agreed to the offer since no one else beat her.

With the assistance of the game system, Nocturne completed a deal worth 950 with Beitang Meng. It could not be helped because the system took a 5% tax from every transaction made in the game. 

The game earned 50 bucks in less than a minute. If one would calculate the number of transactions in the game, the devs were earning a ton.

Beitang Meng left after she got the dagger. The crowd also dispersed after the dagger and beautiful lady left.

Nocturne kept his stall away and headed to the restaurant while humming a melody. He had a lot of eels and fish in his fish basket. If he cooked them and sold them to other players, he could earn a little more in-game currency.

When he arrived at the restaurant, he noticed several players and an NPC, which seemed to be the waiter. The owner of the restaurant was nowhere to be found.

He walked to the waiter and asked, “Hey, where’s the owner?”

“Oh the owner? He’s asleep. You can just tell me what you need.”

‘The NPCs in this game need to sleep? Speaking of details…’

“Okay then, I want to rent your kitchen.”

“Okay. Please go in through that door.” The waiter pointed at the door on the right.

“Thank you.”

Nocturne walked over, opened the door and found a spacious room behind it. The kitchen was fully equipped with every kind of cooking utensil and seasoning, but he must pay to use the seasonings. The fee would be calculated at the end of the session, similar to how one checked out of a hotel.

He opened his bag for the recipes and decided to use them. After he tapped on the recipe, a video tutorial similar to the fishing guide appeared and each recipe had its own video tutorial.

Nocturne went through all the tutorials carefully.

He did not have the ingredients for Juicy Pork Cutlet, so he skipped it; he did not have enough mastery to cook Stewed Eel Tofu, so he could not cook it.

He was quite familiar with Fried Small Fish though because it was the snacks he had when he was younger. His mother always prepared the snack for him when he was at home but when he grew older, his mother stopped making them.

The process was quite simple, Nocturne had even made them back when he was younger.

“Okay, let’s start with five of them. It should be quick.”

First of all, he had to descale and remove the organs and gills from the fish; dry the fish, marinate it with salt, ginger and a little alcohol.

The marination process usually took a longer time but when he put all the fish into the bowl and wanted to prepare the oil, the system told him the marination process was done. 

It seemed like the game simplified a certain process of cooking. It was understandable too because normal cooking would be tiring and players might not find it interesting.

Then, Nocturne heated the oil and dipped the marinated fish into the flour.

“Hmmm, something is missing. Oh right, chili powder! No wonder it feels weird. The recipe didn’t mention chili but as a man from the northern region, spicy is the way to go!”

He added chilli powder, pepper and Szechuan pepper powder, he also added some soy sauce to give the fish a better coloring. He mixed the mixture well and then checked on the oil.

The oil was nicely heated up. He then dimmed down the fire and started his frying.

He put the fish into the oil and started frying. He had to keep the fish apart with chopsticks while frying so it would not end up in a clump. 

The fish were fried to a dark golden color, it was the best he could do because he added soy sauce, it could not be as bright.

He took them out and the dish was done.

“Cooked Fried Small Fish. Acquired: Fried Small Fish (Chili Flavour) x 5.”

“Acquired 3 Mastery Points in Culinary.”

“Hmm, the system is quite kind to add the flavour in.”

He picked one up with his chopsticks, blew it and gave it a taste. 

“Hmm, not bad, it tastes just like what I remember. I haven’t made this for a long time, I guess I still got it.”

Nocturne then fried all the fish he had in his bag.

There were a total of 62 fish and he was able to acquire 24 mastery points after the cooking.

Then, he learned Recipe: Stewed Eel Tofu.

The tutorial for the Stewed Eel Tofu was similar to carp tofu that he used to make but the ingredient was changed to eel instead.

He followed the tutorial and cooked all the eel except for 20 eels, which he needed to submit for his quest. He also added extra seasoning according to his own taste. This time, he added pickled chili and gave the dish a spicy sour flavour.

After cooking, Nocturne checked out of the kitchen and set up a stall in the square again.

He listed down the price for the fish before putting it on sale. He also kept a portion for himself.

After setting up, he sat back and started surfing the forum again.

A while later, a middle-aged man stopped by his stall.

“Hey man, why is there a suffix behind your dish?”

“Oh, I added my own seasoning. I’m used to cooking things with a little spice, what is life with some kicks, right?”

“Nice! I like myself some spice too! Let me have a taste!”

The middle-aged man praised him after tasting one. “You can really cook, it tastes great!”

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The middle-aged man bought 10 pieces of fried fish from Nocturne.

After the man left, Nocturne looked around and suddenly noticed a familiar figure walking to him.

“Isn’t she Beitang Meng? The one who bought my dagger just now?”

Beitang Meng walked by and had a glance at the fried fish. When she saw the suffix in the dish, she stopped and bought a piece for testing.

Nocturne watched her blow the fish before giving it a delicate bite. She slowly chewed everything and she looked like she enjoyed it. After that, she did not say a word but bought all the fish from Nocturne.