My Computer Leads to an Instance Dungeon-Chapter 31: A Big Client? A Collector?
Fang Zhen opened his WeChat conversation with Tang Xiaojuan.
"You there?"
"Hey, are you there?"
"Hey, hey, hey, are you there? I need to talk to you about something."
"Did you see this? Message me back."
"Voice Call: Canceled"
"Voice Call: Canceled"
"Video Call: Canceled"
"Please, I’m begging you, just reply to my message!"
"It’s urgent, please get back to me!"
"Video Call: Canceled"
Fang Zhen opened the chat and saw this stream of messages.
He was amused.
’What’s all this? Tang Xiaojuan... we’re not that close, are we? We just did one deal for that Gold Pendant. What could have happened that she’s sending me so many messages?’
Fang Zhen thought.
He had a feeling something was up, so he typed a single word back: "Here."
Less than ten seconds later, Tang Xiaojuan immediately sent him a voice call request.
Fang Zhen accepted.
"Where have you been? I’ve been sending you voice messages all morning, and you didn’t reply to a single one," Tang Xiaojuan said, her tone tinged with a hint of complaint.
Fang Zhen chuckled to himself. ’What’s our relationship? The way she’s acting, you’d think I was a boyfriend ignoring her messages. It’s almost flirty.’
Fang Zhen ignored her emotional tone and cut straight to the chase. "What’s up?"
"I wanted to ask you something. That Gold Pendant you sold to our shop last time—do you have any more? Or anything similar, like a matching gold set?" Tang Xiaojuan asked.
Fang Zhen’s intuition immediately told him something was going on.
"Why are you asking?" Fang Zhen shot back.
"Just tell me if you have them or not," Tang Xiaojuan said.
"Heh." Fang Zhen chuckled and said nothing.
Hearing no response from Fang Zhen, Tang Xiaojuan held out for a moment before she finally broke.
"Alright, alright, I’ll be honest with you. Someone has taken a fancy to that Gold Pendant of yours," Tang Xiaojuan said.
"Oh? Not just any regular customer, I take it," Fang Zhen said. "What’s the story?"
"Huh? How did you know the customer wasn’t ordinary?" Tang Xiaojuan was a little surprised.
"If it were a normal customer, you wouldn’t be reacting like this," Fang Zhen said. "Spit it out. Who’s interested in the Gold Pendant?"
"Sigh, you’re sharp. I couldn’t hide it from you," Tang Xiaojuan said with a light sigh. "After you sold me that Gold Pendant, I was originally planning to log it and then melt it down for raw Gold. But it looked so unique that I decided to put it in our consignment area for a day before melting it."
"By sheer coincidence, a very important customer happened to wander into our shop. He saw the Gold Pendant and was very interested, asking me where it came from."
"I couldn’t answer his questions, so I just said you had put it up for consignment."
"The customer was also very interested in you. He asked if I had your contact information because he wants to meet you. He also said that if you have any other similar items, he’s willing to pay to acquire them."
Fang Zhen was a little surprised, but on second thought, it wasn’t that surprising.
The Gold Pendant did have a unique design. Most people might not care for it, but perhaps some would find it especially appealing.
"This customer you’re talking about—what does he do? What’s his background?" Fang Zhen asked, remaining cautious and vigilant.
"I don’t know his identity myself—he’s an older gentleman—but I know he’s someone very important," Tang Xiaojuan said. "I’ve seen our big boss from Yu Le having dinner with him. Our boss was with him the whole time, practically waiting on him hand and foot, all smiles and toasts. Incredibly deferential. Our boss is worth over a billion, so for him to be that eager to please, the guest’s status must be extraordinary."
"Oh," Fang Zhen responded.
Fang Zhen guessed that the customer Tang Xiaojuan mentioned was likely a collector of sorts, someone with refined taste.
To a gold shop manager like Tang Xiaojuan, the Gold Pendant was just ordinary Gold. But in the eyes of a connoisseur, its value could be much higher.
’Perhaps this is a good opportunity to sell my Gold war spoils?’
’My Golden Holy Chalice, Holy Plate, and Gold Coins would just be sold as regular Gold to a jewelry shop. But if I sell them to a knowledgeable collector, I could get a premium for them as Gold artifacts.’
’Besides, Xiahai is very safe. It’s highly unlikely I’ll run into any danger.’
Having thought it through, Fang Zhen said, "Alright."
"Tell him to set a time. I’m busy lately, so the sooner the better. If he’s free tomorrow or the day after, that would be best. We can meet and have a chat."
"Got it!" Tang Xiaojuan replied. "I’ll hang up now. I’ll send you a WeChat message once everything is arranged."
"Mm."
Fang Zhen hung up.
About two minutes later, a message from Tang Xiaojuan came through.
"It’s all set. Tomorrow at 10:30 AM, in a private room on the second floor of the Qingfengxiang Tea House. I’ll send you the address."
After sending the message, Tang Xiaojuan shared the tea house’s location.
Fang Zhen sent back an "OK" hand gesture emoji.
Tang Xiaojuan replied with several smiley face emojis.
"Heh, a pretty sharp woman," Fang Zhen chuckled.
He could see right through her. Initially, Tang Xiaojuan must have thought there was money to be made and tried to act as a middleman to earn a cut, but that didn’t work out. Undeterred, she shifted to facilitating communication between the two parties. Her goal now was to earn goodwill, hoping that both the important customer and Fang Zhen would owe her a favor, thereby increasing her social capital.
Fang Zhen wasn’t particularly bothered by it. The fact that she thought to do this just proved she was a smart woman. It was just business, after all.
However, the "important client" Tang Xiaojuan mentioned had piqued Fang Zhen’s interest. He wondered what kind of person he would be.
Having settled the matter, Fang Zhen didn’t waste any more energy on it.
He casually ordered some beef brisket hot pot for delivery and reflected on his shortcomings in the dungeon while he waited.
’I still lack a reliable ranged weapon.’
’I thought the slingshot would be good for pulling monsters and dealing effective damage, but in practice, that wasn’t the case.’
’It can pull monsters, sure, but the damage is pathetic. The slingshot has strong kinetic energy within seven meters, but beyond that, the damage drops off sharply.’
Fang Zhen felt the titanium alloy slingshot just couldn’t meet his needs.
He had some experience with close-quarters combat from his dungeon runs, so he wasn’t afraid of a melee fight.
However, from a safety standpoint, being able to take down enemies from tens of meters away was definitely safer than fighting up close.
’Don’t tell me I actually have to find an archery range and practice archery?’ Fang Zhen wondered.
As he thought about it, he idly opened his phone and searched for posts about archery, looking for inspiration.
After scrolling through a few pages, he came across a thread on an archery forum where people were arguing.
Fang Zhen skimmed a few comments and saw a user with the ID ’LV-Dior Luxury Goods Recycling - Old Zhang’ constantly hyping up something called a "dual-use slingbow."
"I’m telling you, you guys are just ignorant. Who still plays with such primitive equipment these days?"
"Let me tell you, slingshots and regular bows are way too primitive. The dual-use slingbow I’m talking about, once you tune it right, is dead accurate with mechanical sights at thirty, fifty, even seventy meters! The power is insane, too. It can shatter a bottle at seventy meters!"
"What era are we in? You’re still playing with bows like some caveman. Isn’t that embarrassing?"
That ’LV-Dior Luxury Goods Recycling - Old Zhang’ user was hyping it up to the high heavens in the thread. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
Fang Zhen had no interest in arguing over stats, but the "dual-use slingbow" mentioned in the post caught his attention.
’A dual-use slingbow? Never heard of it. What is that?’
Fang Zhen opened the Jingmao app on his phone and typed "dual-use slingbow" into the search bar.
