Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 31: Bargaining

Beneath the boat, Mao Qiping patiently waited in the floating ball for the customers to place orders, while the four people above deck gathered a little further away, considering their purchasing power.

These days, a mobile phone is all one needs to travel the world. Few people carry much cash anymore. Xu Wang had a total of 600 yuan on him, a fortunate outcome of re-visiting the airport yesterday. Discovering that cash could circulate within the “Owl”, he specifically withdrew it from the newly established communal account to have on hand for emergencies.

Little did he expect to “spend” so quickly.

“I have another 150 yuan.” Qian Ai handed over all his belongings—a 100 yuan and a 50 yuan note—into the captain’s hand. The 50 yuan was the change he got from yesterday’s airport visit.

“I only brought a hundred.” Kuang Jinxin also handed over his personal assets to the organization.

“Alright.” Xu Wang collected the money. “Let’s record this as the communal account owing you.”

Holding 850 yuan, Captain Xu naturally turned to the only silent Advisor Wu.

Wu Sheng shook his head succinctly. “I didn’t bring a single penny.”

Xu Wang was speechless. “After yesterday, you still didn’t bring money?!”

Wu Sheng looked utterly perplexed. “I brought you.”

A gentle breeze emerged from the dense fog, pleasantly caressing the face.

Qian Ai looked at the captain, who suddenly focused on counting the money with his head lowered, then at the still innocent-looking advisor, feeling something was off. He understood Wu Sheng’s implication—with you, the captain, holding the communal wallet, what need was there for me to bring money? But somehow, when translated to “inner speech”, it became words of a… tender sentiment?

Choosing Xu Wang as captain seemed right. Qian Ai suddenly felt a sense of relief, thinking if Wu Sheng had been chosen, communication would either be completely incomprehensible “logic” and “architecture” or unexpectedly a piece of “rustic love phrase”—too much pressure for a team member.

Xu Wang put the carefully recounted money into his pocket and spread out three lists. “We have 850 yuan. Let’s decide what information to buy.”

“A third-level content costs four hundred.” Qian Ai doubted their team’s purchasing power. “What about this daily level grinding and experience sharing—why is it market pricing? Is this selling seafood?!”

“We must inquire about the third level.” Xu Wang patted Qian Ai, trying to calm his excited companion, then turned to the others. “What about the rest?”

“The Endless Sea,” Kuang Jinxin suggested. “We need to clear up the immediate matters.”

Xu Wang considered, lightly tapping a few questions on the Endless Sea list. “How about…2, 4, 7?”

“Also this one.” Wu Sheng pushed the rules list forward, tapping his finger on the second item.

The team’s collective opinions culminated in—

[Rules]

2. Related to injuries and death. (100 yuan)

[Levels]

3. The third level’s content and clearance strategy. (400 yuan)

[Endless Sea]

2. What are the four lighthouses? (100 yuan)
3. Optimal strategies for the four sailing routes. (200 yuan/route, bundle price 700 yuan)
4. Optimal strategy for the four lighthouses. (200 yuan/route, bundle price 700 yuan)

Just as Xu Wang began to mentally calculate, Wu Sheng accurately provided the bundle price. “One thousand, and that’s only if we choose one strategy for each of the sailing routes and lighthouses.”

“Not enough money…” Kuang Jinxin muttered in distress.

“Yes.” Wu Sheng nodded. “We’ll have to cut something at least.”

“Then we’ll just have to cut this.” Qian Ai pointed to the item “What are the four lighthouses?” in the Endless Sea. “After all, we’re going to ask for strategies anyway; maybe we can deduce the final rewards from them?”

“Why cut anything!” Xu Wang rolled his eyes at his “unambitious” teammates, gathered the three sheets of paper, and walked over to the railing, shouting down, “Mao Qiping—”

The fog had completely obscured the sea beneath the ship, but soon enough, an enthusiastic response came through. “Here, here—”

As the response came, the telescopic pole slowly extended from the fog beyond the railing.

Xu Wang cooperatively rehung the three sheets. “We’ve made our choice. We want Rules 2 and 5, Levels 3 and 4, and Endless Sea 2, 4, and 7.”

His three companions were stunned; they hadn’t chosen that many, had they?

“Alright—” Mao Qiping’s voice immediately rose, revealing the joy of “about to count money”.

In the midst of their confusion, the telescopic pole was retracted by its owner.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

In the mist, Mao Qiping confirmed that he had only received the papers—the very ones he had printed himself.

“We want Rules 2 and 5, Levels 3 and 4, and Endless Sea 2, 4, and 7—” Xu Wang repeated loudly after a brief silence.

Eventually, Mao Qiping’s voice came through, desperately trying to keep his cool. “I know, but you need to pay!”

“We don’t have enough money,” Xu Wang said.

Mao Qiping despaired. “Then why ask for so much—”

“Fate has brought us together. How about a friend price?” Xu Wang remained calm.

Silence lingered in the fog, probably as the amount was being calculated. After a while, Mao Qiping spoke again. “A total of 1,600*, I’ll give you a 10% discount, 1,440, and I’ll even round down the forty for you—1,400. Fair enough?”

*It should actually be 1,700 based on my calculations… I think the author added it wrong. However, I kept it as the author wrote it, as the portion that follows depends on this number.

Xu Wang: “How about half price—800. No need to round off.”

Mao Qiping: “…Goodbye!!!”

“Hey, hey, bargain, bargain. It’s just cutting and adding. Don’t get agitated.”

“You just made a slashing cut at me. What’s there to talk about!”

“It’s not that I want to slash you; we only have 800 on us. If you don’t believe me, come and search. If you find even 801, I’ll pay you ten times!”

“That won’t do either. Whatever money you have, that’s how much information you’ll get. I’ve been through winds and waves to earn this hard money; it’s not possible to half sell and half give away.”

He didn’t relent at all, but his tone was softer than before, meaning he was open to a heartfelt chat.

Xu Wang was silent for a while, then made up his mind. “How about this, I don’t need the [Report Card] and the contents of Level 4—deduct 100 from 1,400—then deduct 600, leaving 700. With 700 yuan, I’ll buy 2, 3, 2, 4, 7. Our poverty is our problem. We can’t let you suffer!”

Mao Qiping always felt something was off, and after calculating, he understood. “You’re deducting the original price from the discounted price I gave you?!”

The three teammates “auditing” didn’t speak but did the math. 1,600 yuan discounted to 1,400 yuan actually meant every item was discounted. Removing [Report Card] and Level 4 from 1,400 should be a discounted price of 700 yuan, but Xu Wang directly deducted 700 yuan from the discounted price, effectively wiping off a few more hundred yuan.

Captain, well played.

Captain Xu, affirmed by his team, was now staring wide-eyed, clutching his chest. Regardless of whether it was visible or not, his actions and voice were full of heartfelt pain. “I directly let go of two items with such sincerity, and you quibble over a couple of cents?!”

In bargaining, one must be soft when it’s time to be soft and hard when it’s time to be hard; this is the true path to mastery.

“Alright, alright.” Mao Qiping finally gave in. “Why is it only you guys and no one else today…”

Xu Wang showed a content smile. “That’s right, a thousand miles held by a thin thread*. We should all cherish this bond.”

*Idiom referring to a faint connection or relationship between people or things that are far apart. Often, it’s used to describe a predestined meeting or bond.

The telescoping rod came up again. “Give the money. One question, one settlement. That way, everyone’s reassured.”

“Oh right, we were just discussing,” Xu Wang steadied the telescoping rod. “What does this ‘market rate’ mean for your daily level grinding tips and experience sharing?”

“It means it depends on my mood.” Mao Qiping was obviously in a not-so-good mood. “You guys only have 700. What’s the use of asking so much?”

“I just found another hundred in the cockpit. Let’s exchange it for this question.”

“Didn’t you say that if I find even a cent more, you’ll pay me ten times?!”

“But you didn’t come up to search.”

“……”

“I assure you, this is all we have,” Xu Wang said as he folded the money into long strips and tied them to the telescoping rod. “No need for one question, one settlement. Since you give us a friend’s discount, we trust you as a friend. The full 800 is here. Take good care of it!”

After tying the last 50 yuan note, Xu Wang gently shook the telescoping rod.

The telescoping rod slowly retracted, quiet for a long time—so long that one might wonder if he took the money and ran away. Mao Qiping’s voice slowly came through the mist—

“Here, the injury is real. Death…”

The deal was made.

800 yuan bought 1,000 yuan worth of information, plus an extra piece of “market rate” info, leaving a budget of 50 yuan unspent.

Wu Sheng, Kuang Jinxin, and Qian Ai looked at each other, filled with emotion.

Coming up and demanding more to earn a discount, then making a bold cut, collapsing the other party’s psychological price point, then retracting two questions as a concession, showing a business-like flexibility, and finally attaching a hundred more with an additional question, not giving the other party time to think or breathe, capturing the other party’s heart with the sincerity and generosity of full payment.

Their captain was truly a dragon among men.

“Is death real too?” Xu Wang hadn’t had time to savor the joy of bargaining when Mao Qiping’s information weighed on his heart.

“It should be said that the sensation of death at that moment is real, so real that you wouldn’t want to experience it a second time.”

“But death itself is nonexistent. If there’s any danger of death, the ‘Owl’ will bounce people back to reality, right?”

“Right,” Mao Qiping acknowledged the term the “Owl”. Obviously, it was a mainstream term. “Not just death, but serious injuries too. As long as it’s determined that there’s a risk of serious injury or even death, the ‘Owl’ will send people back to reality. I call this the ‘activation of the protective mechanism’.”

Wu Sheng interrupted, “What kind of injuries are retained, and what kind trigger the protective mechanism? Is there a clear boundary?”

Mao Qiping replied, “There isn’t, but based on the information I’ve collected, superficial injuries and normal fractures seem to be retained. I haven’t seen anything more serious, so my understanding is that injuries that don’t significantly affect mobility are recognized.”

“Even fractures don’t affect mobility?” Qian Ai doubted the Owl’s perception of injury severity compared to human society.

“It’s not bad,” Mao Qiping said. “Fractures just mean wearing a plaster cast or using crutches. I’ve even seen teams pushing wheelchairs; they whizz around, as swift as the wind!”

“……” Qian Ai wasn’t concerned about the injured. He just wanted to interview the mood of the teammates pushing the wheelchair.

“What about suicide?” Wu Sheng suddenly asked. “Will it also bounce you back to reality?”

Mao Qiping was silent for a moment before answering, “Yes.”

Wu Sheng frowned, his expression like he’d found a bug in a program. “If that’s the case, then people who don’t want to stay here could just jump into the sea every day and be back home in the blink of an eye.”

“Anything you can think of someone has already thought of.” The mist covered Mao Qiping’s expression, but they could hear the bitterness in his voice. “Death also requires courage. Here, you won’t immediately bounce back to reality if you fall into the sea. Instead, you’ll gradually lose warmth in the water, sink, suffocate, and only after you’ve experienced the brink of death from start to finish will you be sent back to reality. This kind of experience, once is enough—not many are willing to try it a second time.”

Mao Qiping’s description, laced with the despair of someone who has experienced such a death, made it clear he didn’t wish to revisit it.

Xu Wang remembered his own bear encounter.

It was his first day entering the “Owl”, unclear about even the basic directions and treating the whole experience as a dream. So when the bear pounced, he wasn’t too scared, perhaps because it happened so quickly that even now he hardly trembles at the memory. But he remembered the pain from that moment—one that he would never forget. Just thinking about the wound would make his shoulder slightly ache.

“There will always be those whose ‘desire to return home’ surpasses their ‘fear of death’.” Wu Sheng understood Mao Qiping’s emotional statement, but he preferred to start from a rational perspective. “The pain effect is marginally diminishing. A person might be afraid after dying once, but it’s different after ten times. Even if the inflicted damage is objectively the same, the subjective pain diminishes each time.”

“Commonly known as, becoming numb.” Xu Wang hurriedly explained to the person below, so they wouldn’t get confused by their teammate’s words.

“Of course, such people exist. I met one when I was tackling the second level; he came up and detonated a bomb, throwing us all out. He said he just wanted to try if suicide worked. If it did, he could say goodbye to this hellish place for good…”

“What happened then?” Xu Wang felt there was more to the story.

“Later, I met his team again in this Endless Sea, but he wasn’t with them. I thought they had disbanded and reformed, but the other three said that after the tenth suicide, only they were bounced back to reality.”

“Did that person stay in the ‘Owl’?”

“No, he disappeared, nowhere to be found—neither here nor in reality.”

“……”

“Why didn’t the other three disappear?” Wu Sheng asked. “Strictly speaking, they also committed suicide ten times.”

“No,” Mao Qiping said. “The first time that person committed suicide, he was in a team with others and got kicked out before partnering with these three, so technically, the other three only committed suicide nine times.”

Kuang Jinxin was sweating for those three. “They definitely wouldn’t dare try for the tenth time…”

“I couldn’t understand at first. Death is death. How could this place distinguish between accident and suicide? But the longer I stayed, the more I understood.” Mao Qiping’s sigh carried a hint of mockery. “The ‘Owl’, it’s watching us in our heads.”

A gust of sea breeze unexpectedly dispersed a small patch of fog between the ships, as if the wind came specifically for this fog, to allow a momentary gaze between the people above and below.

Xu Wang and Mao Qiping’s eyes met, both startled. The latter’s eyes still held unhidden sorrow and bitterness.

The “swindler” below wasn’t as indifferent as he appeared. His so-called go-with-the-flow attitude was more of a resigned acceptance.

“What about the third level?” Xu Wang pretended not to notice the other’s unusual demeanor, asking naturally. “We understand about injuries and deaths now, but what exactly is the third level about? I can’t wait any longer!”

Mao Qiping paused, then smoothly transitioned. “Zombies¹. The third level is fighting zombies.”

That took Xu Wang aback.

Beside him, Qian Ai, taking advantage of the brief visibility, stretched out his arm and hopped in place twice. “Are these the zombies¹ wearing Qing Dynasty clothes?”

¹They are using the term Jiangshi, which is known as a Chinese hopping vampire.

Mao Qiping was speechless. He raised his hand and gestured up and down, mimicking “two claws digging out his heart”. At the same time, he clicked his upper and lower teeth twice. “This kind of zombie, from Plants vs Zombies!”

“Oh.” Qian Ai was disappointed, feeling all the Hong Kong zombie films from the 80s he’d watched were useless. “You could’ve just said undead*.”

*Clarity: The term they were previously using was Jiangshi (僵尸) which specifically refers to a Chinese zombie (vampire). The term [sangshi] (丧尸) is what is used for what we commonly refer to as “zombies”. To avoid confusion, I’m using undead here, but note it specifically refers to zombies (not the undead as a whole).

“Fine, undead then.” As always, the customer is always right. “Once inside, you’ll receive a vaccine and random weapons. Successfully delivering the vaccine to the city center hospital will mean you’ve cleared the level.”

“The environment after entering the city?” Qian Ai asked.

Mao Qiping replied, “Half city, half ruins.”

Kuang Jinxin was amazed by Qian Ai’s calm and clear questioning. This wasn’t the insecure Qian Ai he knew.

Zombies—just the thought of it made his scalp tingle. “Qian Ge, aren’t you scared?”

“What’s there to be scared of?” Qian Ai said. “This stuff isn’t like ghosts, which vary in appearance and skills, coming at you in all sorts of terrifying ways. Against zombies, just make sure not to get bitten; the rest is just like fighting.”

“Plus, their movements are very slow.” Wu Sheng was even calmer than Qian Ai. “As long as we start running and break out a bloody path, if we have the stamina, they’ll never catch up to us.”

“Right, right!” Qian Ai nodded vigorously. “I was just about to say that.”

The fog rose again, and Mao Qiping’s face gradually blurred.

But his voice was clear. “Uh, you might have some misconceptions about the zombies in the third level. Their speed isn’t slow…”

Wu Sheng frowned. “They can run?”

“Every one of them is the Usain Bolt* of the zombie world,” Mao Qiping said.

*A Jamaican retired sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time.

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