When Lu Anna took the report, she carefully glanced at the test values on it.
She discovered that the MCSS had fallen from its original 43 points to 40. (Reference immune value: 100)
Perplexed, she looked at Physician Cheng and asked,
“Mentor, hasn’t Mr. Long Ming’s MCSS value dropped? Shouldn’t his condition be worsening? Why did you tell him it was well under control?”
When Cheng Yue heard this, she let out a deep sigh, then said to Lu Anna,
“Of course I know his physical condition is worsening. Long Ming, as well as his father and grandfather, were all my patients. I watched them pass away right before my eyes. As for their family’s hereditary disease, I have never been able to find a good method of treatment. Long Ming has already spent a great deal of money trying to cure it. If I ask him to pay more for treatment, he won’t be able to afford it. We can only treat it conservatively. The reason I lied to him was because I hope he can maintain a good mood and not suffer so much psychological pressure. Perhaps that way, he might live a little longer.”
“I understand.”
Lu Anna nodded in response.
That afternoon.
At the subway entrance in the lower district.
Long Ming followed the dense crowd out. Looking at the familiar streets, his whole body relaxed.
Gurgle~
He immediately felt ravenously hungry. But that was normal. After all, he had been busy since getting up in the morning and hadn’t eaten a single bite.
Long Ming then walked toward a small shop by the street.
At that moment, a burly boss with a cigarette in his mouth saw Long Ming coming over and greeted him warmly.
“Well, isn’t this Long Ming? What would you like to eat?”
“Boss, give me a bowl of plain noodle soup.”
After saying this to Boss Zhao Ku, Long Ming sat down at one of the tables set up outside the shop.
“Sure!”
Zhao Ku smiled and walked into the shop.
In a good mood, Long Ming looked toward the bustling street in the distance. Today’s examination results were better than expected. Originally, he hadn’t held out much hope at all.
At that moment, he suddenly saw a long line forming in the distance, though he had no idea what it was for.
“Your noodles are ready. I added some chopped scallions for you. Eat while it’s hot!”
Zhao Ku carried over a bowl of plain noodle soup and placed it in front of Long Ming.
“Thanks. By the way, boss, what’s going on over there? Why is the line so long?”
Long Ming was also extremely curious.
“I don’t know either. Probably some internet-famous shop opening again, hiring a bunch of shills!”
“Oh, so that’s it. Isn’t that just scamming people?”
“Exactly. Those kinds of black-hearted shops and shills should all be arrested.”
Boss Zhao Ku joined in the complaints.
“Heh!”
Long Ming smiled, then lowered his head and began eating his noodles.
More than an hour later, Long Ming opened his door and walked inside while coughing.
He poured a cup of water and swallowed his medicine. Then he let out a long breath and walked over to sit down at his computer desk.
Long Ming controlled his game character and opened the auction marketplace. He was just about to list some equipment and items for sale when he saw the prices at which others were selling their equipment and items. His eyes instantly widened, and an incredulous expression appeared on his face.
In the short span of a single day, the prices of all equipment and items in the game had crashed by half.
Long Ming rubbed his eyes and looked at the computer screen again, hoping it was all just his imagination.
Unfortunately, reality was cruel. The virtual assets in the game had indeed suffered a bloodbath.
Long Ming took a deep breath and quickly calmed his surging emotions. Then he found a merchant he often worked with, Hei Pangzi, and sent him a video call.
Ring, ring~
The video call was soon connected, and a man with a round, plump face and two small mustaches appeared in the video.
“Yo, isn’t this Brother Long? What do you need me for?”
“Xiao Pang, the prices in Black Interstellar have collapsed.”
“I know!”
“What happened? They were fine when I checked this morning.”
“You don’t know?”
“I don’t. What exactly happened?”
“Didn’t you see the announcement? At noon, the Shanchengshan City Lord’s Manor officially announced that in order to rectify unhealthy gaming trends, the government has decided to open a game for the entire population. After everyone heard the news, they all started dumping their goods, so the prices in Black Interstellar crashed.”
“...”
When Long Ming heard Xiao Pang’s words, a bitter smile appeared on his face. He hadn’t expected that after going out for a medical checkup, the sky would come crashing down by the time he got back.
Although Long Ming had graduated from an advanced academy, because his physical condition was extremely poor, he was simply unable to handle a regular job.
Fortunately, he was highly talented in both studying and gaming. Therefore, Long Ming had been making money through part-time tutoring and playing games.
Originally, relying on these two sources of income, he could barely maintain his life and buy the medicine he needed afterward.
However, because he had recently been coughing nonstop, even speaking had become extremely difficult. As a result, he could only quit the rather well-paid tutoring job and rely solely on gaming. He had never expected that the game would also run into problems.
At that moment, Xiao Pang chuckled and asked Long Ming,
“Brother Long, how much stock do you still have?”
“I’ll send you a screenshot.”
Long Ming took a screenshot of his inventory and sent it to Xiao Pang.
“Wow, this much equipment, items, and game currency? You really can hoard!”
Xiao Pang glanced at the screenshot, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
“It’s all right.”
“What a pity. If only you’d sold it this morning. The market’s collapsed now.”
“It’s too late to say that.”
“How about this? If you’re willing, I can buy all this from you at twenty percent of the original price.”
“Twenty percent?”
The corner of Long Ming’s mouth twitched slightly as he looked at Xiao Pang. This guy was ruthless.
“Don’t think it’s too little. The prices in the auction marketplace have already fallen to fifty percent, and they’re still dropping fast. With so much stockpiled, it’ll be very hard for you to sell. By then, it might not be worth a single coin.”
“Then why are you still willing to buy it at twenty percent?”
“Have you ever heard the saying, fortune is found in danger? Although Shanchengshan has released a game, who knows whether it’ll be fun or not? Maybe it’ll still be the same money-grubbing garbage as before, and when that happens, won’t people come back? Forget it, no point talking about that. Just tell me whether you’re selling or not.”
Xiao Pang said this with great smugness.
“I’m selling!”
Long Ming did not hesitate in the slightest and decisively cut his losses in time.
Although what Xiao Pang said was not wrong, he couldn’t afford to gamble. Besides, everyone was running off to play the official game. What was the point of him clinging to this one? With his abilities, he could still make a living in the new game.
“Good. Then I’ll calculate how much it comes to. Altogether it’s 20,950. I’ll round it up to 21,000.”
“Fine. Transfer the money to my card, and I’ll trade everything to you.”
“No problem. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve worked together.”
Xiao Pang’s face was practically blooming with smiles.
He felt that he was simply a commercial genius and would soon make a fortune.
“Good.”
Long Ming then ended the video call and proceeded with the trade.
A moment later, Long Ming had cleared out all the assets in his game account. Looking at the empty account, he felt somewhat dazed for a while.
Buzz~
At that moment, Long Ming’s phone vibrated, and a message popped up.
“Dear Mr. Long Ming, your bank card ending in 421 has received 21,000. Total balance: 32,150.”
Long Ming looked at the balance in the text message and quickly adjusted his mindset. Then he exited the game interface, opened his browser, and searched for information about Shanchengshan’s newly released game.
Civilization Paradise, an epoch-making masterpiece, uses the latest virtual reality technology to let you experience breathtaking wonders as if you were truly there.
Long Ming looked at the official introduction and was also left somewhat stunned by the hype.
For a moment, he even began to wonder whether Shanchengshan was fooling them. Did they really have such advanced technology? Had he sold his game assets too early?
However, Long Ming had no choice now. He could only believe it.
At that moment, he noticed that this game required the virtual helmet or virtual game capsule officially released by Shanchengshan.
Among them, the virtual helmet was priced at 20,000 Shan coins, while the virtual game capsule was priced at 2,000,000 Shan coins. They would go on sale at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. At the same time, these devices would only be sold offline, and the servers would open three days later.
Long Ming immediately searched for sales locations in the lower district. In the end, he discovered that there were only a few sales points in the lower district, but one of them was very close to him.
Seeing this, Long Ming shut down his computer, walked to the corner, picked up a small stool, and left.
He prepared to head to the nearest sales point to line up. Although sales would not begin until tomorrow morning, if he waited until then to go buy one, there was a good chance he would not get anything.
Therefore, Long Ming planned to take his small stool and line up overnight. When it came to speculation and reselling, he was a professional.