Chapter 4: Too Fake!

[You sold all the materials from the dungeon and earned 1,200 gold.]
[The entrance fee for the Wild Wolf Forest dungeon is 3,000 gold, which means you effectively lose 1,800 gold each time you enter.]
[However, since the dungeon ticket operates through a loan system, it appears that you are losing a lot on the surface, but in reality, you are effectively making a pure profit of 1,200 gold.]
[After all, you never planned to repay it.]
[Thus, you began a routine of entering the Wild Wolf Forest dungeon once a day.]
[After ten days of intense battles, you grew increasingly familiar with the elite wild wolves.]
[Finally, after numerous attempts, you managed to kill an elite wild wolf without taking a single scratch.]
[This significantly boosted your dungeon income, raising your earnings from 1,200 gold per run to 1,400 gold.]
[Seven days later, by selling dungeon materials, you finally saved enough to buy a basic Divine Gift Crystal.]
[Since the Divine Gift Crystal is crucial to your level progression, you treated the purchase with great care.]
[Given your recent experiences, you had little trust in this crazy world where organ loans and soul loans were laid bare, so you made a meticulous plan for your purchase.]
[After extensive inquiries and searching through online forums, you learned that the Clear Breeze Guild offered the fairest prices and had the lowest negative reviews among many marketplaces and guilds.]
[However, upon visiting the Clear Breeze Guild, you found that the label at the counter read "Basic Divine Gift Crystal," but what they actually sold was a fragment with only half the potency.]
[You were speechless but also relieved you hadn’t bought it online directly; otherwise, you would have fallen into a trap.]
[You despised the Clear Breeze Guild for their deceitful practice of selling fragments as genuine items and were dumbfounded by their blatant exploitation.]
[Such underhanded tactics were farcical.]
[Any seasoned professional could easily tell they were selling fragments, not authentic crystals.]
[In such a situation, only a fool could be tricked into buying from them.]
[As for the Clear Breeze Guild’s high praise on the forums and the many repeat buyers, you suspected these were all planted reviews.]
[Too fake!]
[Who happily pays full price for a defective product?]
[But you understood the merchants’ tricks—without shills, how could they deceive customers?]
[Determined not to fall for it, you conducted a thorough investigation and finally discovered that only the Dream Cloud Market sold genuine Basic Divine Gift Crystals.]
[Your purchase at the Dream Cloud Guild went smoothly, except that before buying, they made you sign a purchase agreement.]
[This agreement was straightforward: once you left Dream Cloud Guild, they bore no responsibility for the items sold.]
[In this insane world, you found such an agreement quite normal.]
[But when you returned home and prepared to refine and absorb the Basic Divine Gift Crystal, the unexpected happened.]
[The crystal in your hand slowly transformed right before your eyes into a fragment with only one-third potency.]
[This left you utterly dumbfounded.]
Lin Xia: “?”
What the hell?
Is this even possible?
It was genuine when I bought it, but turned defective when I tried to use it? Isn’t that just bullying honest people?
Especially with that purchase agreement—it seemed the Dream Cloud Guild had planned all this!
“So, the Dream Cloud Guild used some special item to disguise fragments as Basic Divine Gift Crystals,” Lin Xia thought.
“Which means the Clear Breeze Guild’s high forum ratings and many repeat professional buyers aren’t entirely fake.”
“In this world where things are so rotten, as long as a seller has a shred of conscience or isn’t completely heartless, they’re considered top-notch!”
“A half-potency fragment offers one-sixth more experience than a mere shard!”
“So, it’s no surprise the Clear Breeze Guild’s reviews are so impressive.”
Sighing, Lin Xia couldn’t help but lament.
In this cursed world, these heartless capitalists deserve to be hung from the street lamps.
[Realizing you’re no match for the bigger forces, you had no choice but to accept the defective Divine Gift Crystals and absorb them.]
[At the same time, you resolved that once you saved enough money again, you would buy Divine Gift Crystal fragments from the Clear Breeze Guild to upgrade.]
[Indeed, following the crowd to buy things might not bring surprises, but it usually means fewer disasters.]
[As for your earlier remark that only fools would buy from the Clear Breeze Guild, your experience with Dream Cloud Guild made you admit that your head had indeed been clouded—you had been the fool.]
[Therefore, buying from the Clear Breeze Guild was reasonable.]
[That night, you absorbed a Divine Gift Crystal fragment, increasing your experience by two-thirds.]
[Half a month later, you again saved enough for another Divine Gift Crystal purchase; this time, without hesitation, you bought a crystal fragment from the Clear Breeze Guild.]
[You absorbed the crystal fragment.]
[You leveled up.]
[At level 2, your physical attributes greatly improved.]
[Consequently, your efficiency in clearing the Wild Wolf Forest dungeon increased dramatically.]
[The elite wolf packs that once posed a strong threat and repeatedly tried to ambush you were now swiftly dispatched.]
[To exact revenge for their humiliating assaults, before killing each elite wolf, you would stab their rear mercilessly with your greatsword, letting them face death howling in agony.]
[Sending your enemies off in the very manner they most hated.]
[Thinking about it, you felt rather kind-hearted.]
[As you pushed forward, an unexpected event occurred: amidst the distant, wavering wolf howls, the intelligent gaze of the elite wolves suddenly sharpened.]
[In the unseen depths, it seemed a pack leader was directing the wolves’ attacks.]
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