Chapter 173: Chapter 173: Hiring
Translator: 549690339
Just as Song Jian was about to turn and leave, he was suddenly stopped by someone.
“Big bro, how about we pay you 3,000 Doomsday Coins to help us get through the main quest?” A teenager who looked about 17 or 18, asked timidly.
Behind him stood three other teenagers of the same age. They seemed somewhat afraid of Song Jian, avoiding eye contact and looking uncertain. They appeared to be students.
“Five thousand, and I keep whatever the BOSS drops,” Song Jian said indifferently.
The teenager looked troubled and said, “Big bro, can you give us a moment? We need to discuss.”
The four teenagers huddled together for a moment before the one who stopped Song Jian first stepped forward and said, “Big bro, well give you 5,000 Doomsday Coins if you can hold off the level-10 elite BOSS. You can also keep whatever it drops!”
“Deal!” Song Jian agreed with a slight smile.
“Big bro, my name is Yan Bo. These are my classmates, although we’re not all in the same class. We are in the same grade though. He’s Kong Ning, he’s Ge Fan, and the youngest one is Fu Dong. We are all high school sophomores at Linhai High School…” Yan Bo seemed very happy as he introduced everyone’s background.
“When are you guys creating your Safe Houses?” Song Jian listened patiently for three minutes but eventually had to interrupt Yan Bo since he showed no sign of stopping.
“Right now. We’ve already picked a location not far from here. There’s a pedestrian street filled with shops. We chose a few of the largest ones, intending to create our Safe Houses together. We had doubts, but we didn’t expect to meet others with the same idea today. What a coincidence! We wanted to come and observe, learn from their experience, otherwise…”
“Alright, let’s go now. We’re short on time!” Song Jian wiped sweat from his forehead, finding Yan Bo very talkative. The other three classmates, on the other hand, seemed to be more reserved and quiet.
The pedestrian street they chose was just over a kilometer away from New Garden Residential Area in a straight line. Their three Safe Houses were all located in the middle of the street – one was a bakery, one a bubble tea shop, and the last one was a convenience store and fruit shop.
As Song Jian examined the buildings they had chosen, he couldn’t help but take a closer look at the four teenagers. The shops they had selected held potential to become special Safe Houses, just like Li Ke’er. He wondered if they might be able to create something similar to the Sunflower Bar.
“Big bro, our choice of location is good, right? They’re the largest shops on this pedestrian street.” Yan Bo looked incredibly smug.
“Do you have enough materials?” Song Jian asked hastily.
“Of course! We spent more than a month gathering materials. We barely leveled up at all but collected materials for twelve hours a day. It was even more tiring than studying. Look at my hands; I’ve got calluses…” Yan Bo showed his hands to Song Jian, revealing the thick layer of calluses on his knuckles.
Song Jian narrowed his eyes. Yan Bo might be chatty, but he was indeed persistent and tough. It was surprising to see he had gathered materials with his fists instead of using any tools.
“Alright, good. Let’s start building.” Song Jian glanced at Yan Bo and nodded.
“Okay, guys, let’s complete the main quest! I’ve been stuck in this game for over a month now and really want to get back to the real world. I wonder how worried my mom must be since I’ve been missing for more than a month…” Yan Bo sighed.
“Don’t worry. No matter how long you’ve been in the game, it’ll only be one night in the real world,” Song Jian assured him.
“Really? That’s great, you have no idea…”
“Let’s start building, time is of the essence,” Song Jian said, a bit helpless.
“Alright, alright, we’ll start now.”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-
Four green beams of light shot up into the sky almost simultaneously. Song Jian and Yan Bo were in a bakery, watching Yan Bo control the Safe House creation interface.
Soon, the original brick and stone structure of the bakery transformed into a small wooden house with a wooden fence surrounding it.
“If you have enough materials, upgrade the Safe House to level three directly!” Song Jian instructed from the side.
“But won’t upgrading it attract higher-level BOSSes?” Yan Bo turned to ask.
“It won’t be a problem as long as you don’t upgrade it to the level of a mansion,” Song Jian reassured him.
“Alright, we’ll listen to big bro!” Yan Bo immediately upgraded the Safe House to level three, and the surrounding wooden fence became a stone wall. He then set up traps and the Arrow Tower as well.
Song Jian glanced at the other three. They had all upgraded their Safe Houses to level three.
“No special buildings have appeared!” Song Jian frowned slightly. He had initially thought that these four would turn one of their chosen buildings into something like the Sunflower Bar, a special building. But it seemed that getting a special building was more difficult than he thought.
“Big bro, is this good enough?” Yan Bo turned to ask.
“Have you built all your defense structures? If there’s anything else you can build, build it all,” Song Jian instructed.
“I can hire a baker, but I have to pay him a salary. He can make bread!” Yan Bo suddenly said.
“I can hire a fruit seller who can sell various fruits!” Kong Ning suddenly chimed in.
“I can hire a bubble tea girl!”
“I can hire a convenience store owner!”
Song Jian looked startled. Wasn’t the hiring system only available after the Safe House was created? How could they hire before completing the task? Could it be related to their chosen locations?
“Wow, you can hire a girl? Hire her quickly and let us see! You’re so lucky. If I knew, I’d have picked the bubble tea shop too!” The other three looked on enviously. Hearing about a girl, the initially silent teenagers began to show excitement.
Before Song Jian could say anything, the four of them hired their respective NPCs at the same time.
A short, bald, chubby middle-aged man appeared next to Yan Bo.
“Hello, boss! My name is Pig, the baker. I’m glad to be at your service!” Pig greeted Yan Bo with a smile and a bow.
Song Jian glanced at the baker and noticed he was just an ordinary NPC, just like his butler, gardener, and carpenter.
“Hi, hi, just do whatever you can do for now.” Yan Bo wasn’t sure what to assign him yet, so he let him do his own thing.
“Boss, if I had an oven, wheat, and water – ideally some butter and malt sugar too – I could bake the best bread in the world!” Pig looked around the empty Safe House with a hint of helplessness.
“But 1 don’t have any of that right now, and I have to fend off these monsters. I won’t have time to find these things for you!” Yan Bo said, feeling helpless.
“Boss, do you have Doomsday Coins?” Pig asked cautiously, with a smile on his face.
