CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER 2: A GODLIKE BEGINNING (PART 2)

"Stop flattering me. I won’t deduct even a penny for you." Luo Qi rolled her eyes at Lin Qi, raised her mechanical prosthetic hand, and pointed outside the Martial Arts Hall at the parked old car. "I’ve transported all the goods there, threw in ten Alloy Shovels for you, three Composite Longbows with nine Black Steel Arrows. These weapons are high-end goods made from A5-grade alloy, the kind that even the young masters of would-be Martial Artists use from time to time. Altogether, it’s 15,000 Bits. Are you planning to pay in installments or settle it all at once?"

"15,000 Bits, so cheap? I heard that the rent in the city is going up soon?" Lin Qi looked at Luo Qi in surprise. "And isn’t your sister just starting high school, right at the time for intensive courses? Selling to me so cheaply, you’re earning quite a bit less this month. Did you recently receive a big order or something?"

Making weapons takes quite some time; as an employee of a weapons shop, Luo Qi makes about five or six a month, earning purely some handcrafting fees. The cost of A5-grade alloy is very high, and three A5-grade weapons at 15,000 Bits are almost at cost price.

In a high-martial world, money is extremely hard to earn, often not enough to cover expenses. Good jobs generally require martial artist apprentices, and ordinary people with official statuses earn about 2000 Bits a month.

Luo Qi, being a Mechanician, fares slightly better, but it’s still limited, and if she can earn an extra five to six hundred, that’s good. Living in the suburbs, monthly rent takes up half of Luo Qi’s income, and the cost of making three weapons is equivalent to half a month’s salary gone.

As for attending high school in this world, the cost is not low. Tuition alone for a semester is 6,000 Bits, and with the various nutritional costs required for training Qi and Blood, it’s hard for an ordinary person to afford it, let alone just one person.

"Lately, rents in our area are indeed going up a bit, and it’s not just us, all races are the same. The Half-Scale Race somehow had several Genius Martial Artists appear, and their status in Chasing Light City has risen significantly. With less rent for the Half-Scale Race, naturally, the rent for other races has to go up too." When Luo Qi spoke about Martial Artists, her gaze showed envy.

Becoming a Martial Artist is not easy, and trying to achieve it before the age of 25 is even harder. Among their Human Race, it’s been almost twenty years since a Genius Martial Artist has appeared.

After a moment of sighing, Luo Qi looked at Lin Qi and said, "Don’t worry about my situation. I’m a Mechanician, after all, so I don’t lack your money. How many installments do you plan to pay? I suggest a ten-year installment plan. Although the interest is higher, at least you can afford it monthly."

"No, I’ll settle it all at once." Lin Qi reached into his clothes and pulled out eighteen crisp, white bills, each worth a thousand Bits.

"You really took that step." Luo Qi looked at the bills in her hand and then at Lin Qi with a somewhat complicated look. "Which gang? How much did you borrow?"

"The Gorilla Gang over at the warehouse in the suburbs." Lin Qi did not hide anything from Luo Qi. "Borrowed thirty thousand, pay back sixty thousand in two months."

On the first day of arriving in this world, Lin Qi was thinking about how to become a Martial Artist. But on the way to the Chasing Light City’s downtown, he encountered two high school students from the Martial Arts Class. Those two were sparring under a bridge, leading to its collapse, which caused many passersby to suffer severe injuries, including him.

Luo Qi was also on the bridge at that time. Before falling, he pushed Luo Qi, preventing her from falling off the bridge. Out of gratitude, Luo Qi took him to the hospital despite his severe injuries.

As an unregistered vagabond, Chasing Light City pays no mind to him, nor did they provide any compensation. With no money on him, Luo Qi fronted two thousand Bits and helped him with another thousand so he wouldn’t starve. Although the hospital healed his injuries, he owed ten thousand Bits to the hospital, to be repaid in four installments with no interest, equivalent to 2,500 per month.

For an unregistered vagabond living in Chasing Light City, repaying 2,500 Bits a month is almost impossible. Vagabonds do under-the-table jobs, and even a day’s meal won’t exceed five Bits. Forget earning 2,500 Bits; earning a fraction would be fortunate.

As for wanting to become a Martial Artist, just one basic Training Technique sold at the city library costs several thousand Bits. Not to mention the fact that self-training is ineffective without professional guidance, whose fees are several times the cost of the Training Technique itself, making it completely out of reach for someone like him as an unregistered person.

"You borrowed so much. You’re not planning to do that kind of work, are you?"

"Yes."

"You’re crazy! You’re gambling with your life!"

"To make money, you always have to gamble on something. I think I have a good chance with farming."

During these days since arriving in the high-martial world, Lin Qi has understood how difficult it is to survive as an unregistered vagabond. To make a fortune in Chasing Light City, there are only two paths.

One is to become a test subject for major companies, and the other is farming.

Even for a true Martial Artist, the wilderness of the high-martial world is fraught with danger. Yet cities have limited space and massive populations, so food is never in abundance, especially foods that enhance Blood Qi, which are even rarer.

Ordinary people seeking to become Martial Artists must expend considerable energy in Qi and Blood training, and regular food simply can’t meet the demand. Fortunately, the high-martial world has advanced technology that has produced many special plants, including one known as Blood Essence Rice.