Li Huailin didn't know at all that the girls were discussing about him, and were even planning to send their 'ace' to drag him into their guild. After finding out that drinking potions could reduce his HP, Li Huailin's mind was filled with only that.

Taking advantage of his movement speed boost, Li Huailin rushed back to the human capital, target: Potion Store. Though he had never went there before, it was easy to find it.

The Potion Store in the capital lay in the north of the city, in the business district. It is a three-story western style building. The first floor was where potions were being sold, but the amount sold was very limited, and they very expensive too. The second floor is a study area for alchemist, where alchemist could learn and train their alchemy skills. The third floor had alchemic labs which players could rent out for by paying a fee. It functions like an instance dungeon, where every room was a separate dimension, and it had many alchemic tools, making it convenient for more advanced alchemists.

The store manager on the first floor was a fifty year old male NPC who wore an intermediate alchemist uniform. He did look kind and amiable, but all the players who have done business here before know that he is a conniving businessman.

Li Huailin had jogged all the way to the entrance of the store, but before he could even enter, he was stopped by two players.

"Hey, are you planning to buy…" A player who was wearing the beginner's set had just begun talking, but Li Huailin immediately interrupted him.

"I'm busy, let's talk later!" Li Huailin didn't have time for these people now. He needed to buy his ticket to heaven!

"Hmm? You… are you… Brother Niubi?" After looking at Li Huailin's face and recalling for a while, the player suddenly exclaimed as such.

"What? Brother Niubi?"

Surrounding players heard the player's exclamation and their attention was immediately gathered. Since many people had seen the top post before, they quickly recognised Li Huailin too.

"It's really Brother Niubi!" A player said excitedly.

"Brother Niubi, you have the time to be here?"

"Wait! I got it! The store manager is going to get it!" A player said in realisation.

"Right! It's definitely like that! So Brother Niubi too thinks that the store is too blackhearted!"

"You're right, that shopkeeper is such a blackhearted businessman! A single 30 minute slight healing potion costs 5 silver! He is taking advantage of solo players not being able to raise their alchemy level!" A player said in grief.

Soon, the oppressed players all started chanting.

"Brother Niubi, beat that storekeeper to death! We support you!"

"En, rest a.s.sured, I will." Li Huailin signalled the crowd to calm down. "Please make some place for me."

The players immediately split apart and left a road for Li Huailin and switched on their recording function.

Li Huailin immediately saw the storekeeper upon entering the store. This NPC was unlike his warrior instructor who called him 'newbie', 'noob', etc. on first sight. Instead, he had on a professional business smile: "Dear player, what do you need from this store? Our store's potion are all of good quality and they go for a fair price too."

*PA!*

Wordlessly, Li Huailin just slapped the storekeeper's face.

[System Notice]: As you have attacked Potion Store's owner Mott Richey, friendliness level with Mott has increased by 20 points. You are now seen as a friend. As you have attacked a member of the Alchemist's Guild, friendliness level with the Alchemist's Guild has increased by 3. You are now seen as a friend.

"Your mouth is smiling but your eyes are not, who the h.e.l.l are you trying to scare?! Give me a better smile!" Li Huailin said tyrannically.

Mott, as expected, immediately put on an even friendlier smile.

"Dear customer, what do you need?"

"Wow! If Brother Niubi does something, it will definitely exceed your expectations! With just a slap, the owner is immediately made to obey him!"

Such was the exclamation of the peanut gallery.

Li Huailin finally looked at the catalog at this time. After browsing through it for a while, Li Huailin started frowning.

There really were many types of potion being sold here, but most of them were useless. For example, these:

Slight Strength Potion

Increase Strength by 10 points

Duration: 30 mins

Price: 5 Silver

Slight Agility Potion

Increase Agility by 10 points

Duration: 30 mins

Price: 5 silver

Such potion were completely useless to Li Huailin. Drinking them will only decrease his stats, and even worse, they reduced too little. If there were any potion that decreased (increased) Const.i.tution by 100 and last for 1 day, Li Huailin will immediately buy it.

The items at the back were all alchemy materials, so Li Huailin just ignored it. He was destined to be useless in secondary profession…

Finally, was the potion Li Huailin wanted, the normal HP potions. Two of them were relevant.

Slight HP Potion

Recover 20 HP every second

Duration: 5s

Price: 3 Silver

Medium HP Potion

Recover 35 Hp every second

Duration: 6s

Price: 10 Silver

"Why is it so expensive?!"

Li Huailin was shocked, to think HP potions were so expensive! Though he was not sure about item prices, he did at least know that average players had around 20-30 silver only. If they go bankrupt after just buying one or two potion, how do they continue playing the game? In fact, how do normal players even train?

's potions were indeed deathly expensive. Unlike other games where people could drink potions like water, there were many restrictions on potions in

. People usually only drunk potions when trying to clear instance dungeons. Who the h.e.l.l drinks potion during normal training when it is so expensive! Healers not being able to kill mob fast but still popular in parties, this was the reason.

Obviously, such common sense was nonexistent in Li Huailin. Upon seeing the price, he was livid and slammed the table, "The players were right! You are a (long chain of curse words I'm lazy to type) merchant! The lowest of the low!"

Hearing Li Huailin's words, Mott's face immediately changed.

"How can you insult me like that?! The prices are set by the Alchemist Guild. It is the same everywhere."

[System Notice]: As you have insulted Potion Store's owner Mott Richley, friendliness level with Mott Richley has increased by 5 points. You are now seen as a friend.

"How dare you try to talk back! Don't blame me for doing this then!"

Li Huailin then rolled up his right sleeve, and used his left hand to hold up the storekeeper's collar.

*PA!*

With a full power slap, Mott Richley's teeth was slapped out of his gum, and it even caused a critical 86 damage.

[System Notice]: As you have attacked Potion Store's owner Mott Richley, friendliness level with Mott Richley increased by 15 points. You are now respected. As you have attacked a member of the Alchemist's Guild, friendliness level with the Alchemist Guild increased by 5 points. You are now seen as a friend.

"Good lad, don't hit me anymore!" Mott said with blood dripping from his mouth. "From now on, you will receive a 10% discount in our store!"

The players behind who witnessed this scene couldn't hold back from exclaming.

"So the price really can be reduced!"  

"What? Only 10%?! Do you think I am a beggar?!" Even if there was a 10% discount, he still had to pay 9 silver! What was the difference? As such, another slap ensued.

This time, Li Huailin didn't stop anymore. Left right, left right, 'pa pa pa' sounds resounded in the store, and the owner whose level wasn't that high in the first place now had a face as swollen as the full moon. More of his teeth dropped out, and his face was as terrifying as the KO'ed face in the old Street Fighters games.

Mott had already started wors.h.i.+pping Li Huailin already, and even the friendliness level with the Alchemist Guild had risen to 20 points. It wouldn't rise above 20 no matter what, so that probably meant the worth of this guild member was only to this level.

"How much. Tell me after thinking carefully." Li Huailin said overbearingly with Mott still in his hands.

"Spare my life, hero…!" Mott said while puking blood, "Though I am greatly indebted to you, the highest discount I am allowed to give you is 20%! I really cannot reduce it any further!"

"What?! 20%?! Do you take me as a beggar?!"

The veins on Li Huailin's temple were throbbing, and he immediately started slapping Mott again.

"I spent so much energy slapping you, and you only give me a 20% discount? Is my slap such a cheap thing? Don't you know people queue up to be slapped by me? The queue is long enough to encircle Earth twice! Now I am taking the initiative to slap you, and you still charge me money?"

"But hero, I really can only give you a 20% discount!"

"Calm down, Brother Niubi, calm down. If you continue on, he will really die!"

The players at the side were happy to see the unscrupulous merchant being punished at first, but he really was being treated too badly, to the point the players started pitying the storekeeper.

"Calm down? For what? I will slap him to death today!" Li Huailin said angrily.

A player at the side gave his deduction.

"Brother Niubi, he won't give a lower discount no matter what probably due to the rules set by the system. Or else, he would have given in long ago."

"En. What you said makes sense."

Li Huailin said after calming down and thinking about it.

"But 8 silver? How can I afford it?"

"Brother Niubi, you want to buy HP potions? Why not say that earlier?" A player said excitedly.

"Huh? You have them?"

"Geez, the owner really got slapped for nothing…" The player said sympathetically, "Brother Niubi, one of my guild member is practicing his alchemy at the third floor, so we are selling his products here to recoup the material cost. You want Medium HP Potions right? One for 4 silver. This is the market price. You can ask around, and it will still be the same."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Li Huailin said, dazed.

The two players who tried to stop Li Huailin at first walked out.

"Actually, we stopped you wanting to say that… We were tasked by the guild to handle all these products. Selling them through the auction at 4 silver will incur an additional processing fee, that's why our guild asked us to do the sale manually here. 4 silver is really the lowest price, the materials are worth exactly this much."

Li Huailin: "……"

Li Huailin turned back to Mott who was still puking blood and pat his shoulders.

"My apologies, I tried to buy from the wrong person today. You've worked hard today…"

Saquacon (Translator)

Saquacon (PR)