Reincarnated as a bamboo rat, it begins its extreme survival struggle.

Chapter 140 Massive Amount of Gold Coins

"Mr. Ning, this is our final offer."

It was Director Angie who negotiated with Bell. After all, as a trap master, his mind was more efficient than the other big, burly guys, and his personality was more peaceful.

After several rounds of negotiations with Bell, the Hunter's Guild gave its final offer: 1,500 gold coins per Fire-Chewing Hyena cub to Bell.

This price is below market price. According to Wim's description, if these fire-chewing hyenas were put into the new market in the east of the city, the price of each fire-chewing hyena should be able to be increased to two thousand gold coins.

Don't underestimate the price difference of 500 gold coins. If you calculate it together with the six fire-chewing hyenas, Bell will lose 3,000 gold coins in income.

What can you do with three thousand gold coins? You can buy three-quarters of the mithril that Bell used before, or customize a set of high-level magical protective gear, or recruit a team of twenty experienced adventurers from the Adventurers' Guild to undertake dangerous missions.

The Hunter's Guild knew their offer wasn't high enough, so in addition to paying in gold, they promised Bell that they could recruit a high-ranking adventurer from the Hunter's Guild to assist him in an adventure, thus offsetting the price difference.

Bell agreed to the plan. He knew that the Hunter's Guild was not as wealthy as the Agricultural Guild. The main purpose of this trip was to find a good owner for the Fire-Chewing Hyena.

Apart from the fire-chewing hyena that followed the young hero, the other fire-chewing hyenas all followed wealthy people with extensive breeding experience, and Bell was quite satisfied with this result.

"Mr. Ning, please keep this voucher safe. Once you sign this voucher, you can come to our Hunter Guild to exchange it for a support package."

Before leaving, Bell received a black crystal card and a roll of paper with a peculiar texture.

The Black Crystal Card is similar to a debit card in this world, issued by a joint bank that spans multiple cities. Holding a Black Crystal Card allows you to exchange it for cash in any city with a joint bank. Only those who have deposited 1,000 gold coins can obtain this level of card.

One thousand gold coins have extremely strong purchasing power; being able to take out one thousand gold coins in cash at once is equivalent to being a millionaire in this world.

Being able to take out a thousand gold coins at once is completely different from having assets of a thousand gold coins.

Some adventurers, having painstakingly accumulated their equipment over most of their lives, might have gathered enough to be worth nearly a thousand gold coins, but it's difficult to convert it directly into cash.

Take, for example, the fine wines in the warehouse of the old brewer Sabir. Their combined value could easily reach five or six thousand gold coins, but it's impossible for this old guy to get a thousand gold coins at once. It takes time to convert fixed assets into a large sum of cash.

This is why the Hunter's Guild didn't throw out a large sum of cash all at once, but instead used a combination of cash and promises to purchase the fire-chewing hyenas under Bell's command.

Installment payments are rare in this world. After all, many adventurers who come to trade are risking their lives. If they had to pay in installments, they might die on their next adventure.

They always require full payment for their transactions, and then process them as quickly as possible.

They converted that money into real-time combat power.

The promise made by the Hunter's Guild can be considered a different kind of barter, and this promise is engraved on the contract, with the Hunter's Guild as the contracting party.

A written contract is very binding and people are used to using it; once a contract is breached, the consequences are severe.

Because the origin of the contract is the little-known power of the devil, the contract is a discipline that demon scholars developed from the ancient devil contracts. Over time, it eventually became a way of binding people together.

The contract provided by the Hunter's Guild is incomplete; the Hunter's Guild has already signed it, but Bell has not yet done so.

This means that Bell can pass on this contract to someone else, granting them the authority to mobilize the best members of the Hunter's Guild once.

Of course, the preconditions for transferring or reselling contracts are very strict. After all, the Hunter's Guild wouldn't cheat itself. They would also set restrictions in the preconditions of the contracts to prevent unsigned contracts from falling into the hands of hostile forces.

After all, contracts derived from demonology inherit the cruelty of demonology, and the price of breaking a contract is very high.

In Bell's contract, if either party violates the contract, five hundred years of their lifespan will be forcibly deducted.

If Bale defaults, his lifespan will be drained, and he will die on the spot.

If the Hunter Guild breaches the contract, they won't fare any better. The contract is with the Azure Star City Hunter Guild, and the high-ranking members in Azure Star City are all listed in the guild's register. If they breach the contract, these high-ranking members will have a portion of their lifespan taken away.

"Speaking of which, this contract has a lot of preconditions, and the tasks that can be performed also have a lot of prerequisites, but in any case, there is still sincerity."

Bell tossed the Black Crystal Card and the Contract into his inventory and remarked with a sigh.

The contract prevents members of the Hunter's Guild from undertaking certain death missions or causing trouble, but the power that the contract can mobilize is worth nearly 10,000 gold coins on the market.

If Bell wanted, he could use the contract right now to summon twenty high-level beast tamers to attack the [White Bone City] deep in the bamboo forest.

Twenty high-level beast tamers, along with their respective pets, combined with their own combat strength, Bell was willing to bet that this combined force could even take down enemies of the level of the [Aberrant Zombies] in the Bone Spire.

"However, for now, I'll leave the task of exploring the bamboo forest to me alone."

As they left the Hunter's Guild, it was already late at night. The false identity of 'Ning' had not yet attracted much attention; at least, many ordinary people were unaware of Ning's true identity.

This disguise is currently circulating within a small circle. Perhaps tonight, some taverns will have information brokers sharing news about this mysterious outsider named 'Ning'.

Of course, these things have little to do with Bell anymore.

Now that he has a large sum of money, Bell plans to go to the new market in the east of the city, which only serves mid- to high-level professionals, to see what good things it has.

However, this time Bell cannot go to see it as Ning, nor can he go to see it immediately tomorrow morning.

Because Edu needs to go to school.

The teaching schedule at music conservatories is quite flexible, and is generally arranged according to the availability of teachers.

Edu has no classes these two days, so he can be Bale's tool, wandering around and broadening his horizons. But Edu has a full schedule of classes tomorrow!

"Let's go, let's leave the city and switch our identities back to normal."

Yesterday I was saying in the group chat that I'd write more, and this afternoon I won a beta test qualification for Valorant! Isn't that a coincidence? (*^▽)

Chapter 141 The Encirclement of the Shadow Thieves

It's not easy to make Ning disappear from Cangxing City now. After being active in the Agriculture Guild and the Hunter Guild twice, even though Bell kept a low profile, Ning, who came to trade with a lot of good stuff, has already attracted a lot of attention.

In order to make Ning's identity disappear from the city smoothly, Bell gave the outside world the excuse that he was going to explore the City of Bones deep in the bamboo forest, which was also in line with his character.

Few people left the city in the darkness of night, and soon only Edu remained walking on the main road.

The moonlight stretched his shadow long, but Bell hesitated to release the control of his old rat suit, maintaining a state of harmony with Edu.

"Edu, we're being watched, and the people here don't mean any harm..."

"what?!"

According to Bell's mental perception, at least a dozen pairs of eyes were fixed on him, making him feel like he had thorns in his back.

These gazes were very subtle, and it was only thanks to Bell's strong mental power that he was able to detect them.

"What do we do now, Mr. Bell? Are we going to have to fight...?"

The sudden situation described by Bell made Edu's heart tighten. When Bell took over his body, his consciousness did not disappear, but rather he entered a state similar to being half-asleep.

This unexpected situation caused Edu's emotions to fluctuate wildly. He was afraid of being drawn into the battle, after all, Edu was just a child and his fighting ability was very weak.

"Don't rush. I'll teach you a mantra. If you have to fight in a desperate situation, you don't need to be afraid with me here."

After offering a soft word of comfort, Bell shared a long passage of mantra with Edu using his mental power.

At the same time, he controlled Edu's body to stand in the middle of the road, calling out to the shadow in his heart.

'Can shadows mark the guys who are following us?'

With a thought, a tiny black mouse peeked out from Edu's shadow, glanced around, and then disappeared into the shadows in an instant.

In an instant, a thin shadowy line flew out from beneath Edu's feet, flashing in a circle within thirty meters of him before several figures slowly emerged from the surrounding tree shadows and rock formations.

"Your Excellency is truly adept at discovering and interrupting our pursuit."

There were four figures in total, all dressed in black leather bodysuits, making them appear as mere human outlines, much like the Black guy from Detective Conan (the unrevealed image of a criminal suspect).

The appearance of these four people made Bell frown. He quickly scanned them with [Information Insight] and, sure enough, these guys came from the Thieves Guild.

[Mysterious Man in Black]

Race: human

grade:

Health:

Mental strength:

magic:

Skills: [Shadow Stalking], [Weakness Strike], [Shadow Blade]

Class: Shadow Thief, Basic Dagger Skill

All four have the same profession: Shadow Thief, a specialization of the Thief class, whose abilities are largely tied to shadows.

They certainly possess many thief-related skills, but only three can be certified by [Information Insight], which is related to their mastery of those skills.

Just like how Bell didn't use [Fire-Loving Wisdom] to devour so many human corpses, the minor class skills he gained weren't...

This is considered one of Bell's skills.

The higher the proficiency and mastery of a skill, the better the effect of its execution, and the more likely it is to be certified by [Information Insight].

"I don't recall ever having any dealings with thieves, so what are you guys planning to do by following me like this?"

"Don't be nervous, buddy. Our purpose is simple: we're just here to make a fortune."

The lead shadow thief waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to be nervous, but at the same time, the three shadow thieves behind him had already drawn their daggers, and the threat was all too obvious.

These guys followed Bell all the way out of Azure Star City; it certainly wasn't a rash decision, they must have come prepared.

"I've never been good at fighting alone, nor do I like hunting powerful creatures, since the risks are too high."

The Shadow Thief pulled something that looked like a monocular telescope from his chest pocket; it was a high-level magical artifact that he relied on for survival.

This item has a simple function: it can penetrate most magical concealment effects and directly reveal the target's life energy intensity.

It's pretty useless, really. It can only be used to judge the approximate combat strength of an enemy, and it's not very effective on human adventurers because the intensity of human life energy is not as strongly correlated as that of monsters.