77 Tiger and Leopard Counselors
No sooner had he finished speaking than Black Tiger suddenly snapped awake, instantly regretting his words. He wasn’t selling the weapons they produced—how else would he feed himself? Without selling weapons, where would he find enough money to buy the healing potions from White Village? The reason players from Tiger-Leopard Village had higher levels than those from other villages was precisely because they had access to ample healing potions for leveling up.
However, selling weapons cheaply was absolutely out of the question.
This severe shortage of copper coins was entirely orchestrated by White Village deliberately to instigate panic and cause prices to plummet. Once White Village restored normal circulation, all prices would naturally rise again. White Village’s financial strength was not yet invincible, so they would never sustain such self-damaging manipulations for long, as it would slow down village development. This covert struggle couldn’t last forever. They had to hold firm and never sell weapons at a loss. As soon as White Village made concessions and agreed to trade at high prices, he could dominate Longyou and rule over Xiliang with his own weapons and White Village’s healing potions.
With these thoughts, Black Tiger hurriedly called out to the merchants who were about to leave. “Hey, wait—I'm still selling weapons, but absolutely no cheap sales. At most… I’ll lower the price by 10% from the original. How about that? Hey, don’t leave!”
“30% of the original price? No way, forget it, we’re leaving. Do you think it’s easy for us to earn copper coins? We’d lose everything! We won’t deal in your weapons anymore; we’ll go into the healing potion business instead.” A small group of merchants promptly left.
The rest of the merchants remained, holding out hope, thinking maybe Black Tiger wouldn’t last and might make a huge concession. The profits from weapons were actually quite substantial… as long as the purchase price stayed low.
Unfortunately, Black Tiger insisted on only a 10% discount and refused to sell cheaply no matter what.
Just then, a player from Tiger-Leopard Village hurried in with news. Black Tiger’s face brightened as he followed the player out of the hall into a side room in the courtyard, entering alone.
Inside the side room was a slender-looking player waiting for Black Tiger.
As soon as Black Tiger saw him, he hurriedly asked, “Second brother, how’s the situation?”
The slender player smiled. “Don’t worry, big brother. Since I dared to have you break ties with White Village, I’ve already anticipated all of White Village’s countermoves. They’re bound to retaliate. Stirring the trade market was just a common trick. Now medicine prices are plummeting rapidly. When they drop to 2 or 3 copper coins per dose, we can buy up large quantities easily. I don’t believe White Village can hold out more than 3 to 5 days. Once the storm passes and the market normalizes, we’ll throw out the medicine again to earn the spread. Hehe.”
Black Tiger frowned. “How can I be at ease? All 1,000 copper coins we’ve gathered in Tiger-Leopard Village are in your hands, Tian Leopard. If that money can’t quickly turn into profit, I won’t even be able to pay tomorrow’s wages for the NPC farm workers.”
Tian Leopard smiled. “Big brother, do you not trust my methods and vision? Even if we don’t make money, we won’t lose it either.”
Black Tiger nodded.
The reason the village was called Tiger-Leopard Village instead of Black Tiger Village was simple: Black Tiger co-founded the village with Tian Leopard. Although Black Tiger was the village chief, most of the village’s development strategies came from Tian Leopard, the strategist. Tian Leopard liked to stay behind the scenes, never appearing in public, and almost no one outside knew he was the village’s second core. He was also the only person Black Tiger trusted enough to entrust with important tasks. As for people like Shen Biao, they were at most sent on errands.
The two were talking when Tian Leopard suddenly received an offline message and immediately frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Black Tiger asked nervously.
“White Village has tightened control on medicine prices. They’ve raised it back up to 4 copper coins per dose.” Tian Leopard bit his lip and said bitterly, “They’re really fast! I just sent people to collect over a hundred doses. At 4 copper coins, there’s no point in reselling.”
Black Tiger shook his head. “They’re not fools. Tian Leopard, handle it as you see fit. Just don’t lose money. If it doesn’t work out, stop immediately. I’ll go calm the merchants.”
After receiving Tian Leopard’s personal assurance, Black Tiger left the side room and returned to the administrative hall to chat with the merchants.
The stalemate continued for more than an hour; everyone’s patience was wearing thin.
Suddenly, Shen Biao rushed in, shouting loudly, “Big brother! Something bad’s happened! There’s trouble!”
The merchant players in the hall were instantly alert. Good—trouble meant opportunity! The bigger the trouble, the easier it would be to close the deal.
Black Tiger was angry and cursed silently: Idiot, why can’t you tell me quietly? You had to make it public, letting these sly merchants exploit the chaos! But seeing Shen Biao so flustered was rare, so he swallowed his anger and demanded, “What kind of trouble?”
Shen Biao looked frantic. “Bandits—horse bandits!”
Horse bandits!
Black Tiger exhaled in relief but scolded coldly, “No discipline at all. Didn’t you see I’m discussing matters with friends? Why panic? If they come to attack the village, take the brothers, grab your weapons, and fight! Didn’t I already have you prepare for this?”
Then he paused. “Wait, it’s only February 23rd—two days before harvest. Why would bandits come now?”
Shen Biao grimaced. “How would I know? But these bandits aren’t a small group—I heard they’re a bandit gang of over 150 riders. They’ve already killed nearly a thousand players along the way. They’ve been raiding player villages, demanding stored grain. Some village chiefs, confident in their strength, refused, and the bandits nearly destroyed their villages. Eventually, those chiefs had to surrender all their grain. Now the bandit gang is moving toward our area… they’ll arrive within a day or two.”
The merchants in the hall couldn’t sit still and jumped up, shouting, “Black Tiger, are your weapons ready or not? Say the word and we’ll buy immediately!” “Take it or leave it: 50 copper coins each for +3 weapons.”
Black Tiger was stunned, still reeling from the shocking news.
“If you won’t do it, fine. You won’t accept losses, but we’re not afraid to take risks!” “Waste of our time.” The merchants ran outside. “Quick, we’re going to White Village to deal in medicine. Don’t waste time!” “Making money is priority—don’t block my way!”
Black Tiger felt dizzy and slumped into his seat.
Shen Biao hurried over to support him, anxiously asking, “Big brother, don’t scare me like that. What’s wrong with you?”
Several players from Tiger-Leopard Village also rushed forward.
Black Tiger recovered and looked around the now empty hall, only a few of their own villagers left. He said gloomily, “Man proposes, but heaven disposes. The arrival of the bandits has completely disrupted our original plans.”
Black Tiger knew well that the core of Tiger-Leopard Village’s rise was weapon sales. Without buyers, no matter how brilliant Tian Leopard’s strategies were, they were useless.
“You, go to White Village immediately and apologize… no, I should go myself.”
Shen Biao looked puzzled. “But don’t we still have healing potions? Why apologize to White Village?”
“Our reserves of healing potions are just enough for leveling up. After dealing with those damned bandits, there won’t be a single dose left. Do you expect us to buy potions on the market with copper coins? If you have money, I don’t! Let’s go—prepare the horses!”
Tiger-Leopard Village and White Village were over six miles apart in a straight line, more than ten miles by road. Fortunately, they had established a courier route to White Village, making horse travel much faster than walking. Black Tiger led Shen Biao and over ten others, mounted the courier horses, and hurried toward White Village.
Along the way, some players who had already received the news panicked, running toward the nearest villages to hide from the bandits. Meanwhile, those unaware of the danger continued joyfully killing monsters and leveling up, unaware of how soon death might come.