Chapter 22: Building a Merchant Ship

“Ding! The transaction was successful, +1200 copper coins!”

“Ding! The transaction was successful, +1000 copper coins!”

Soon, Ye Jun had sold all his remaining weapons.

Now, he was the only forger in the world, and weapons were in short supply.

The weapons and equipment in the in-game store were all too expensive, and many people who didn’t manage to grab Ye Jun’s equipment stomped their feet and wished they had an extra pair of hands.

Many people had left messages for Ye Jun, asking him to notify them first the next time he forged equipment.

Ye Jun had made a lot of money this time.

Forging equipment was a really good source of income.

Unfortunately, there was too little ore.

‘But maybe I can get other players to collect ores for me!’

Ye Jun suddenly thought of this.

Anyway, this was a game, and the ores were in the wild with no gathering requirements or restrictions.

With so many players around the world, there was no way that no other player had not encountered ores.

He was sure that as long as he paid a sufficient price, someone would be happy to mine ores.

After all, there were countless players in online games during the peacetimes who were passionate about mining, gathering, and such classes.

Not to mention the fact that in this survival game, it would be a joy to be able to trade minerals for supplies.

Ye Jun put up a post with this in mind.

“Bulk purchase of metal ores. Copper ore, 10 coins apiece. Other kinds are negotiable.”

Ten pieces of copper ore could be refined into one copper ingot, which could be exchanged for 100 copper coins. But when forged into a weapon, it could be sold for a high price of 1,000 copper coins.

That was a tenfold difference in price!

As expected, no matter the era, the weapons industry was extremely profitable.

As soon as the post went up, many people immediately replied.

“10 copper coins for an ore? Wouldn’t 1 ore buy a loaf of bread!”

“I wonder how much metal can be extracted from a single piece of ore? But I think Almighty Ye must be making a profit from the price difference!”

“Does that need to be said? If Almighty Ye isn’t making money, you think he’ll work for you? What are you thinking!”

“I seem to have a type of iron ore here, but I don’t know if it will be worth anything!”

“I think I’m going to be rich. I was chased by a wolf last time and fled to a valley, and in a hurry, I picked up a few pieces of silver ore to smash the wolf. Now, I still have a few pieces in my hand, but I don’t know how to use them. Can Almighty Ye… make an offer?”

“Hitting the wolf with silver—indeed, money can solve all problems…”

…

Ye Jun casually browsed through the thread and happened to see this player who claimed to have picked up silver ore, catching his attention. He immediately contacted the other party and said, “The silver ore you mentioned, can you show it to me?”

The other party didn’t expect Ye Jun to contact him personally, knowing that now Ye Jun was a world celebrity, countless players were trying to get in touch with Ye Jun constantly.

The player called Jia Congming was excited and surprisingly sent a silver ore straight over.

“Player Jia Congming (Wilderness Mode) has presented you with a silver ore, please check it!”

Ye Jun saw the properties of the silver ore.

“Silver Ore: an ore containing silver that can be refined to a certain amount.”

He didn’t know how much silver could be extracted from a piece of silver ore, either, as that was something that could only be known after it was smelted and refined.

Fearing that the other party was in a rush, Ye Jun said, “How many silver ores do you have left? I’ll give you 20 copper coins apiece; I’ll take them all!”

The reason why Ye Jun offered 20 copper coins a piece was because he was thinking that since copper ore was 10 copper coins apiece, the price of silver ore had to be a bit higher.

Jia Congming was taken aback.

‘Is this thing even worth that much?’

‘Is it really made of silver?’

Jia Congming suddenly became shrewd and asked, “Almighty Ye, how much silver can be extracted from this piece of ore?”

Ye Jun guessed what the other party was thinking; Jia Congming felt that Ye Jun was too quick to make an offer so he felt he was on the losing end of the deal.

This was the nature of people. If Ye Jun had been less hasty just now and lowered the price, the other party might have sold immediately and would have thanked Ye Jun.

Ye Jun was still calm, as he smiled lightly and said, “A good quality silver ore, a hundred kilograms of it can refine into 10 grams of silver. This silver ore of yours is only ten kilograms, it can refine 1 gram of silver, which is only worth 20 copper coins.”

“Then wouldn’t you not be able to make money?” Jia Congming was a bit unconvinced. “That’s not right! Almighty Ye, a piece of copper ore is 10 copper coins, so it’s a bit hard to believe that silver is only twice the price of copper.”

“It’s different. The copper ore extracted is not ordinary copper. I can take it to make weapons, so the price I acquire it at is naturally a bit higher.”

Ye Jun said, “Silver can’t create weapons, and I can only refine it, at most making a labor fee. I also hope that the silver content of the ore produced by the game is a bit higher, so maybe I can earn a few more copper coins for the price difference! Otherwise, I’d be suffering a loss!”

Jia Congming wasn’t entirely convinced. He secretly went and posted anonymously, asking to know how much silver could be refined from a hundred kilograms of silver ore.

There was no shortage of experts in this world, and someone soon replied to Jia Congming’s question.

“Industrial quality silver ore, 100-120g/t. In other words, a hundred kilograms of silver ore will be refined into 10 to 12 grams of silver.”

Jia Congming, who wasn’t good at math, calculated that even if his silver ore was of the best quality, a single piece of silver ore would only refine 1.2 grams of silver, which was worth 24 copper coins.

“Almighty Ye is indeed a generous person!” exclaimed Jia Congming inwardly, and after some more bargaining, he finally set the price of silver ore at 22 copper coins per ore.

Jia Congming thought that in this way Ye Jun would only earn 2 copper coins per piece of silver ore, which wasn’t much, but it was only right to let him earn a little bit for the labor of someone as famous as Almighty Ye.

Except, unbeknownst to him, and unbeknownst to the other players, the game produced extremely high-quality ores.

For example, ten pieces of copper ore would be refined into one copper ingot, which was worth 100 copper coins.

Ye Jun reckoned that the quality of silver ore produced by the game would also be similar.

Ye Jun guessed well, and when he smelted the ten silver ores and refined them, he obtained a silver ingot the size of a baby’s fist.

“Refined successfully, +1 silver ingot, worth 100 silver coins.”

“Ja Congming, you think you’re not losing money, but you don’t know that I’m making a bloody profit!”

Ye Jun couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

220 copper coins turned into 100 silver coins.

Close to 50 times the windfall!

It was quite a worthy deal.

Moreover, according to Jia Congming, that valley had quite a lot of silver ores, at least hundreds of them.

It was a lot more profitable than working himself to death to forge weapons.

True to the adage that the weapons industry was low capital and huge profits, while making money itself was no capital and huge profits.

One wouldn’t make money as fast as making money itself.

‘I’m rich, I’m rich!’

Ye Jun was in an extraordinarily happy mood and couldn’t resist buying a bunch of food, fruit, snacks, and soda at the in-game store to celebrate.

It was a bit expensive, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the many silver coins.

With so much money, Ye Jun could finally start buying materials and building a merchant ship.