Pleasure!

Enjoyment!

To do things that couldn’t be done in the real world.

There was no need to mention things like buying a house and car, or having women on both arms. They’d played with these things so much that there was no sense of novelty since long ago.

What did they want in such a realistic world?

To travel the world with a sword in hand, enjoy heroism like singing, and no one daring to disobey their orders.

However, after entering the game, they found that this world was overly realistic, and after losing the powerful ability to dump money, they weren’t much better than ordinary players. Even with a large amount of money in the real world, they still couldn’t find a place to spend it.

What?

Eat, drink, and party?

How could this world compare to the real world in terms of pleasure!

Only by playing with magic, practicing swordsmanship, and commanding the world could their interests be piqued.

The problem was that most of the people who came into the game were very smart and were considered to be the elites of society. Even if the rich kids were outstanding, they still only had one brain. The connections that rich kids were intensely proud of also couldn’t be used here.

It was still the same even if they invested money to build a guild.

After all, the truly elite players were almost always the type that could take on ten people alone.

The likes of Roland and Schuck could even take on dozens of average players without a problem.

Moreover, it was very difficult to recruit elite-level players.

In reality, there might also be various reasons why the average players would temporarily bow their heads to the dignitaries, accompanying them at every opportunity and playing along, but which one of them wasn’t holding back in their hearts, waiting for the opportunity to stand out on top? Inside the game, this pride would be completely released: did the second-generation rich have power in-game? Can you still start a guild? It’s not any worse than relying on an NPC, and no one wants to spoil you or lick your boot stinky boots.

In short, the game experience of the rich wasn’t bad—after all, they had money—but it wasn’t great either.

They couldn’t call the shots or receive all kinds of adulations like in previous games.

Now that Roland had posted that he could help with enchanting, they took a look at the enchantment effects, which were all quite practical, especially auto-repair listed near the end, triggering their covetous eyes

What did players fear the most in this realistic world?

Dying and losing experience?

No, the damage to equipment of the finest quality.

The finest equipment got through great difficulty, or obtained from quests, if robbed, could still be retrieved somehow, but if broken, the owners could only really cry to death.

This was why auto-repair was something that almost everyone wanted.

Playing the game up till now, the rich naturally had one or two superb pieces of equipment.

But at a glance at the crafting fee Roland offered, most people were dumbfounded.

No one said that Roland was lacking in conscience or anything, because from the material estimates Roland gave, the total cost of these enchantments was around one hundred gold coins, and with the crafting fee, it was around one hundred and twenty gold coins. High-cost materials would have high processing fees; after all, the cost of the failed item had to be taken into account.

This wasn’t a price the average person could afford, but the rich could.

Was the best equipment worth so much?

It was!

Again, in a certain turn-based game with Journey to the West as its theme, it was easy to auction off a piece of top-quality equipment for a million yuan.

What if it was this game instead?

A realistic game?

Besides, the enchantment effects Roland offered could turn a lesser fine quality item into a truly fine quality item, and truly fine quality items into epic items.

There was a reason why it was expensive.

The rich were average in other abilities, but they knew how to spend their money.

Roland’s forum account had already rejected the vast majority of people’s private messages, so Roland said the rules after his post.

“Bring your own materials, meet me at Delpon. Enchanting up to three pieces of equipment a week, first come first serve.”

A monopoly business could be that arrogant.

Hollevin was a small country on the edge of the world, probably about the same status as Myanmar, with little resources, no transportation (geographic benefits), and no technological capabilities (magic).

In such a small country, there were no real technological (magic) talents.

Roland, on the other hand, was the tip-top magic talent of this small country.

The strongest and only one.

In all of Hollevin, only Roland knew how to do it.

Of course, the Fareins Kingdom, the Desert Kingdom, Froststar Kingdom, and other super large countries also had talents that were more exceptional than Roland.

But the question was… could you get a meeting with them?

In this feudalistic setting where merchants were only a little bit more powerful than ordinary people and small aristocrats were able to raid huge merchants, no matter how rich you were, if you didn’t have status or a referral, they wouldn’t even glance at you twice.

This was true of the nobles of small countries, not to mention the high-level Mages of large countries, who were on par with the great nobles, and many high-level Mages, who were themselves of great noble backgrounds, were even prouder.

They would rather not earn your twenty gold coins than be belittled by people of the same class who would say that they actually bent over backward for the money of a yokel.

In secret, nobles were shameless and could do anything, but on the surface, their reputation in their class—the reputation of their status at stake—could never be broken.

This was their confidence in staying lofty.

After posting, Roland got off the forum, and then he just waited for the rich to send money and practice materials over.

Then, he started to delve into magic sword creation and auto-repair technique.

Especially with auto-repair, he touched a threshold, but the success rate was still not high.

That ethereal, esoteric feeling didn’t occur very often.

The study went on into the night again.

A flock of rather round, smooth-furred fat bats flew in through the window and appeared as a mature woman in a black dress.

She walked over to Roland and said grudgingly, “I also want powerful magic equipment.”

Roland looked at her and said, “Andonara is my woman, Vivian is pretty much the same, but you… are just an employee. Besides, I don’t know you very well.”

“I can be your woman too…”

Swish!

A blue sword flew in from outside and swept right past Christina’s ear, pinning it to the back wall.

A woman suddenly appeared at the window, blue flames slowly fading, bright gold braids swaying in the night air.

“I knew you’d come here, get out of there, bother Roland again and I’ll break your teeth,” said Andonara with a bewitching smirk.

Christina, shaken, walked to the window dejectedly and left as a colony of bats.

Andonara softly said to Roland, “If this slut bothers you again in the future, you can just beat her up. I have no problem with that.”

Roland smiled and didn’t say anything.

Andonara gave Roland one more flying kiss, and with a gesture of the hand, rolled the weapon pinned to the wall back into her hand with her long braids, and jumped down from the window.

A dozen meters high, whooshing to the ground—perfectly fine—just the sound of landing was a little loud. A certain pair of parts of the body appeared to bounce a little, undulating up and down, the frequency of which was very eye-catching.

Roland didn’t take this little episode seriously.

Although Andonara appeared to be vicious, Roland was actually aware that the friendship between Andonara and Christina was so good that it was almost lesbian-like.

The following days were quiet. Roland did magic experiments every day, went to the magic school when he had time, and caught up teaching the children’s ideological education at the same time.

The students who graduated from the magic school didn’t have to be very strong, but at least their views had to be proper.

Saplings go crooked if not tended to.

A child’s views were the easiest to skew and the easiest to correct.

If they weren’t caught now, it would be hard to catch later.

But Roland only taught them to be self-reliant, to be merciful, and so on. As for more advanced ideas, Roland dared not say.

It hadn’t even been two months since the Sisilia tragedy, and he wasn’t stupid.

He was afraid he’d harm the little ones if he spoke rashly.

The study of magic was dry and dull, and sometimes when he got bored, he’d go to Andonara or Vivian, to talk about how to make jelly and how he should eat it[1].

This was great for passing the time.

This leisurely life lasted for thirteen days, and then the first rich bankroller came.

He brought four players with him to the Magic Tower, and a few of them directly emptied all the materials in their Backpacks and then placed three large chests filled with gold coins in front of Roland very seriously and politely, and in a somewhat uneasy tone, said, “Almighty Roland, I want to enchant ten pieces of equipment, is that okay?”

There was no cliche plot of a nouveau riche flaunting money loftily.

Nor was there any farce with a condescending idiot.

This tycoon even showed a bit of humility.

Roland invited him to sit down and said smilingly, “You’re the first to come, of course.”

Upon hearing this, the tycoon was finally relieved and said, “Great, Almighty Roland, you can call me Douglas.”

“Don’t call me almighty, I can’t bear to be called that, it feels weird.” Roland waved his hand vigorously. “Ten pieces of equipment may take a bit longer, you’ll have to wait a month in Delpon. Of course, you can go do your things and come back to pick them up after a month, how about it?”

“I’ll just wait for a month in Delpon.” Douglas laughed happily; “By the way, Almi—Roland, I heard that you also know the enchantment for magic power regeneration?”

“I do.” Roland nodded. He looked at the way Douglas was dressed and saw that Douglas was also a Mage. “But this enchantment takes a lot of time too, and just enchanting one piece of equipment doesn’t have much effect. You have to make a full set of equipment and make a magical link to have a noticeable effect—it’s time-consuming.”

“Can you help me make a set, I can pay a lot of gold coins…” at this point, Douglas suddenly panicked, he even waved his hand repeatedly. “I’m sorry, it’s not my intention to dump money on you, but I don’t know what to do if I don’t give you a lot of money… ah, what the hell am I talking about? In short, Almighty Roland, I don’t mean any ill intent, you have to trust me.”

Roland looked at the other with some surprise—was this one of his admirers?

He thought about it, smiled, and said, “Can we talk about magic regeneration for the equipment a month from now? For now, I’ll help you enchant your equipment, and if you trust me, you can leave the equipment you want to enchant in the Magic Tower.”

This was obviously not a problem.

Douglas took out ten pieces of equipment from his Backpack and placed them in front of Roland.

Weapons, armors, wrist guards, earrings, rings, two of each.

Roland couldn’t help but whistle inwardly as his gaze swept past the details of these items.

They were all top-quality equipment, and even having held an epic weapon like the Hero’s sword, he felt that the equipment in front of him was quite good.

A magnate was a magnate as expected, and the natural skill of dumping money could indeed, to a great extent, change one’s fate.

This was a full set of equipment for a Warrior, and the chosen attribute effects were all quite effective for Warriors.

If Roland’s full set of enchantments were used, every single piece of equipment could become pseudo-epic-level, and with ten pieces combined, even the Hero’s sword would pale in comparison.

For the price of this set of equipment, Roland estimated that each piece was at least fifty gold coins if Roland’s enchanting costs and material costs were added.

All the money, converted to RMB, could probably buy a flat in a prosperous part of a first-tier city.

Even though Roland had recently spent a lot of money, looking at the equipment and the magic materials in front of him, Roland really still felt that these people spent money inhumanely.

After giving his equipment to Roland, Douglas said, “Almighty Roland, why don’t I treat you to dinner, and we’ll chat?”

Douglas seemed a little nervous.

Roland thought for a moment, shook his head, and said, “Time is short, I’ll help you enchant your equipment first.”

“All right, sorry to trouble you.”

Douglas sighed, but wasn’t that disappointed, then left with the four players who hadn’t spoken.

After stepping out of the Magic Tower and walking for a while, a player finally couldn’t help but speak: “This Roland is too arrogant. Boss, you invited him to dinner. He didn’t accept, but now he doesn’t even keep us for a night at his manor, doesn’t he have any manners and courtesy?”

“He was unwilling to eat with us because he wants to start enchanting my equipment right away, it’s professionalism,” Douglas said indifferently. “As for not inviting us to stay at his home… there’s that beautiful queen in his house, and which normal man wouldn’t want to get intimate with her. If it were me, I wouldn’t want any other man to live in the house. Would you?”

The player became speechless, and after a while, he scratched his head and said, “Makes sense!”

Douglas looked at the sky; it was noon. He said, “Let’s go buy a small manor to live in first. We might have to stay here permanently later. I’m a Mage after all, and I have to follow Roland if I want to become stronger. Char and Ebony Tower, you two go and get this done.”

“No problem.” The two players immediately left the group.

Douglas looked around and picked a random pub that looked well decorated to sit down and get something to eat.

Roland put all of these people’s equipment into his Backpack and then asked Vivian to send someone to collect and store all of the magic materials in the Magic Tower’s storage.

Then he began enchantment.

He could freely experiment with magic now that there were plenty of magic materials at his disposal.

There was nothing more blessed than this.

Douglas had finished his lunch and was sitting down when Char and Ebony Tower returned.

Char said, “Boss, the small manor has been purchased, but there are some troubles we need to take care of.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The previous owner of that small manor is a merchant, and because he was too greedy, he was set up by some small noble and sucked dry of his assets, and even the manor was about to be lost. If we live there now, it might earn the resentment and hostility of that small noble, and he seems to have lots of ideas about this small manor. But in all of Delpon, this small manor is the only one for sale.”

“As long as we Golden Sons do things uprightly, no one will dare trouble us.” Douglas was somewhat curious. “Has that little noble gotten his head caught in the door before?”

Char hesitated for a moment and said, “I heard that this little noble has some connections with Roland.”

Douglas was beside himself with laughter. “Impossible! Roland’s personality, don’t we players know well? He’s just a magic shut-in with normal views, he wouldn’t incite the small noble to do something so despicable. Not to mention, a manor is only worth so much—not even thirty gold coins. It’s not even worth three to four days of Roland’s crafting fees, so is it necessary?”

[1] Not literally