Chapter 49: Suppressing Bandits at Ebony Command

The Tycoon carefully stowed away the Wolf King’s Fang and continued swaggering through the marketplace. Along the road, countless players hawked their wares with loud cries: “Come, come, top-quality Yili fruit, restores twenty points of stamina!” “Rare fragrant wood, enhances concentration, excellent for skill cultivation—boosts focused training speed by five percent. Don’t miss out!” Each vendor hoped desperately that the Tycoon would notice their goods and pay a handsome price.

The Tycoon was only visiting the Novice Village for leisure, so he would not pass up the chance to buy such inexpensive items. With Little Bai’s persistent urging, he soon purchased a large pile of miscellaneous goods—mostly snacks and toys. According to the Tycoon himself, these were for his young son’s amusement. Unable to carry so much, he had his coachman take everything back to the carriage.

Little Bai did a mental calculation: aside from the Wolf King’s Fang, these trifles alone cost nearly four to five hundred copper coins. He was stunned by the Tycoon’s extravagant spending.

As they walked, Little Bai suddenly spotted a piece of pure ebony, dark brown in color, lying on a player’s stall. His heart gave a jolt—this was undoubtedly a rare game artifact. With the current level of player craftsmanship, there was no way anyone could create such a high-quality wooden item. How could someone possibly be selling this?

He forgot about the Tycoon for the moment, hurried over to the stall, picked up the token, and examined it. Players could freely inspect items at stalls, but could not use or take them until the transaction was complete.

While looking over the token, Little Bai asked the vendor, “What’s this item used for?”

The player, seeing Little Bai’s interest, replied quickly, “Boss Bai, you want this wooden token? Let me trade it to you so you can check its attributes.”

After the trade, Little Bai received the token and saw its detailed information:

Level One Bandit Suppression Ebony Token: Usable at level ten and above, single-use quest consumable. Can be obtained from county offices throughout the Han Empire.

1. Eliminate bandits, no restriction on bandit type. Progress: 0/10.
2. Upon completion, submit the token to any county office or higher authority in the Han Empire for a small reward of currency and prestige.

Little Bai’s heart raced—it was a quest token that granted prestige.

“Did you get this by completing a quest, or did you buy it from someone else?” he asked.

The player grinned proudly. “I got it from the Bandit Chief.”

“The Bandit Chief?” Little Bai was puzzled. The Bandit Chief had only ever appeared near Novice Village once, during the raid for grain. But that chief escaped alive—how could he have dropped such a token?

“Yes, Boss Bai, remember when the bandits attacked the village not long ago?” the player explained in detail. “All the players in the village were fighting against a dozen bandits. I was there, too, but I was low-level and couldn’t even scratch the chief. So I kept using my ‘Light-Fingered’ skill on him, and to my surprise, I managed to steal this token.…” He laughed sheepishly. “It’s a personal trophy, so I kept it. I hoped to sell it for a good price, but even though many have asked after it, no one has bought it.”

Little Bai suddenly understood. “So you stole it from the Bandit Chief! Since it was stolen, it’s yours—no need to share the spoils. But what’s this ‘Light-Fingered’ skill?”

“‘Light-Fingered’ is a basic theft skill. When I first entered the game, I met a wandering NPC and helped him by keeping watch while he stole something. Afterwards, he taught me this skill. Normally, it’s hard to use—other players notice easily if I try it on them. When I stole from the Bandit Chief, I only dared because so many players were attacking him at the same time.”

Little Bai nodded and asked the player to try using ‘Light-Fingered’ on him.

The player agreed and brushed past Little Bai.

A notification immediately sounded: “Ding! Player ‘Thousand Hands’ attempted to steal from you—steal failed. You lost zero items. For the next minute, you can take retaliatory action.”

The theft failed. Thousand Hands shrugged helplessly. “See? It’s not easy to use. I don’t dare try it on other players, for fear of retaliation. But there aren’t any humanoid monsters around for me to practice on, so my skill level won’t rise.”

Little Bai asked Thousand Hands to show his skill data.

Light-Fingered: Basic theft technique. Failure rate: ninety percent. Novice level, proficiency: forty-seven out of one thousand (proficiency increases only on successful thefts). Skill cooldown: ten minutes.

Little Bai smiled slightly. The skill was somewhat awkward but still better than having no skills at all. He himself had none yet.

For example, with this bandit token: without ‘Light-Fingered,’ ordinary players would only have a chance to get it by killing the Bandit Chief, which was extremely difficult… Wait—Little Bai suddenly realized something odd. Why would the Bandit Chief carry a bandit suppression token? Suppress himself? How strange.

Ordinary players didn’t want to buy this token—not because of the price, but because defeating humanoid bandit NPCs was extremely challenging, and the rewards were meager. If it weren’t for the promise of a bit of “prestige,” Little Bai wouldn’t have considered purchasing it either.

“How much?” he asked.

“I originally priced it at thirty copper, but no one bought it. Since you want it, Boss Bai, I’ll give you a thirty percent discount,” Thousand Hands said with a grin. Better to sell it cheaply than let it rot in his inventory.

The price was reasonable, so Little Bai paid twenty-one copper coins without haggling and purchased the Bandit Suppression Ebony Token.

He thought to himself: If people are already selling quest items, I should remind Li Third and the four elders—Sword Tyrant and Autumn Water included—to keep an eye on the marketplace for all sorts of items. If any prestige items appear, we must try to buy them, lest they slip away to other villages. As for other useful quest items, as long as the price isn’t outrageous, we’ll have to spare no expense and sweep them all up.