While Xu Feng was busy inside the dungeon, Scorched Caverns, outside of the dungeon, was filled with numerous players.
"Is it true that Gentle Wind is tackling the Hell Mode difficulty currently?" Herald Fist roared at a nearby player on the scene and enquired.
"Y-Yes, Gentle Wind made the announcement and something occurred when she entered the dungeon. The entrance blinked bright red three times." The unlucky player quickly explained the situation, unwilling to become a target for Herald Fist.
"Damn it," Herald Fist clenched his fist angrily. "How is she so confident?"
"I think she might have stocked up a lot of the new potions that were listed in the Auction Market." Ardent Lance suddenly said, opening his Auction Market.
"So far, there have been 10 batches sold in the Auction Market and the buyers always chose the buyout option. We only managed to buy 3 of the 10 batches sold, meaning there are 7 batches sold to unknown buyers." He explained.
"Fuck, if it weren't for those useless bastards that can't even buy the silver coins fast enough in the Exchange of Currency interface, would we have lacked the funds to buy them all out?" Herald Fist was frustrated, feeling overly annoyed by the situation.
He had lots of real-world currency, but he couldn't even purchase in-game currency fast enough thanks to other players' swift fingers.
'Are these all single players?' He wondered silently, having believed that was the only way they could train their fingers to be that fast. 'I've treated those useless bastards too well and they are now enjoying life. I'll need to punish them later on.'
Just as Herald Fist was thinking of punishing his incompetent subordinates, Ardent Lance suddenly exclaimed in shock. "Boss, someone is selling silver coins in batches again, but the asking price is too much."
"Too much?" Herald Fist held a disdainful expression. With his wealth, how could the asking price be too much?
Checking on the Exchange of Currency himself, Herald Fist nearly choked on his own saliva.
"What kind of greedy bastard is this?" He shouted in a disbelief tone, scratching his head.
The anonymous person was selling each silver coin for 15,500 dollars whereas a batch of 5 silver coins for 75,000 dollars,
The prices previously were merely 1 silver coin for 1,500 dollars and 5 silver coins for 6,500 dollars. Yet the current asking rate was multiplied times higher than it.
"W-We're not forced to buy it, boss." Ardent Lance swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said. "Let this anonymous person suffer the consequences for asking such an exorbitant price. I doubt anyone would buy his silver coins."
SLAP!
Astonished, Ardent Lance didn't know why he was slapped by Herald Fist.
"Fool, if I don't buy it, and others buy it for the potions. Then what am I supposed to do? Buy it all!" Herald Fist exclaimed loudly.
"I, Herald Fist, am not short of money!" He announced, making sure everyone present was able to hear him clearly.
"Understood, boss!" Ardent Lance nodded his head and quickly purchased the silver coins, albeit with a slight heartache. This was money that he couldn't even earn with his current salary, yet this anonymous person managed to earn it in one go.
"They're all purchased, boss—" Ardent Lance reported, but halted himself when he saw a new batch of silver coins instantly listed up again. "Um, boss, there's another new batch…"
"..."
Silence, Herald Fist didn't know how much money he was going to burn this time to prevent others from having an advantage.
"Buy them all and then camp on the Auction Market. We'll start doing the Hell Mode Difficulty once we gather enough potions!" Gritting his teeth, Herald Fist was prepared to lose a lot of money.
After all, everything would be worth it once he snatched the First Clear Achievement of Hell Mode difficulty. Not even for a second did he believe that Gentle Wind would be capable of such a feat.
'Gentle Wind is clearly making a risky bet, and she's going to pay the price dearly once she fails miserably.' He thought to himself.
As Herald Fist was standing ferociously by the entrance, seemingly terrorizing the others that no one was allowed to enter the dungeon, back in the dungeon, Xu Feng suddenly halted his movement.
"What's the matter, Lin Feng?" Gentle Wind quickly asked, her tone somewhat cautious. Every time Xu Feng made a pause, it meant something unusual occurred.
"Oh nothing, I was just surprised by something." Xu Feng laughed it off and subtly turned off the system notification temporarily regarding players purchasing his coins and potions.
'What a jackpot. Some idiotic rich folks really purchased them in bulk. It was indeed nice to have Gentle Wind make the announcement and cause the others to get a sense of pressure.' He exclaimed inwardly, feeling blissful to have trapped such a filthy rich idiot.
Originally, he planned on delaying the dungeon for as long as possible within the potion's duration because he wanted others to actually purchase his listed items.
But now that a rich fool had done it in advance, Xu Feng no longer needed to delay it.
What was the point of bulk buying if the first clear achievement was already taken?
There was only one of them, so even if others decided to redo it, there would be zero achievement given to them. In other words, once a guild or adventure team obtained the first clear achievement of any difficulty, it would be useless to attempt it.
"Are you sure there's nothing wrong?" Gentle Wind raised an eyebrow in concern.
Nodding his head, Xu Feng said, "Yeah, there's nothing wrong and I have a feeling we're going to have a smooth route ahead of us."
"Smooth route?"
"Mhmm, I think we might encounter the boss and avoid most of the fighting."
"I-Is that so?" Although stunned by his remark, Gentle Wind didn't plan on being negative either. It would indeed be a good thing if they were going to have a smooth route after all.