Chapter 294: Subsequent Issues

Chapter 294: Subsequent Issues

Even though they were some small objects covered in dust, if they were things a witch would collect, they definitely had to be something good. At least, they were certainly good for ordinary people!

“This one is pretty nice, isn’t it?” Zheng Yichen took out a golden, gleaming wine glass, which was inlaid with many colorful gemstones. However, the craftsmen had clearly put effort into it. Although many luxurious gemstones were embedded, they did not make the cup look tacky. Instead, it showed a kind of quiet luxury that had depth. “What effect does it have?”

“This? Let me think for a moment.” Dan Marina tapped her cheek, thinking for a while. “I think this was the exclusive wine glass of the eldest princess of the Golden Sparrow Kingdom, which was destroyed over seven hundred years ago.”

“That’s it?”

“What else did you expect?” Dan Marina asked curiously.

“So this thing is just a wine glass? A good-looking one?”

“Otherwise? Did you want it to be the Holy Grail?”

“Whoa!? Does this world have a Holy Grail!?” If Dan Marina had not mentioned it, it would have been fine. But since she did, Zheng Yichen immediately had a new, bold idea. However, there was no chance to try it now. He would attempt it later when conditions were right!

“In the ones I know, there are sixteen or seventeen.”

“…” Something so widespread was clearly nothing special. Zheng Yichen immediately returned to his expressionless state. However, why did the other witches in the room suddenly look a bit strange? It seemed his reaction made them think he was a bit foolish? Did he miss something?

“So, are you planning to sell this as an antique?” Zheng Yichen shook the wine glass. To put it simply, it seemed like when Dan Marina was rummaging through her clutter, she accidentally brought it out. It fell on the floor, and she casually picked it up and tossed it onto the table.

“How about it? There are quite a few people in this world who love collecting things.” Dan Marina gently tapped the wine glass, her expression growing a bit puzzled. No one noticed, but she very naturally picked up the wine glass. Crooking a finger to the side, a bottle of wine landed on the table. “But, I think it might be nice to use this myself.”

“What about this?” Zheng Yichen picked up a badge. There was a whole pile of them. It had a pair of wings entwined with wind patterns. This was not something Dan Marina had taken out; it was something Annie had.

“A few hundred years ago? I think it was the royal family’s emblem of an Otherworld Kingdom.” Annie thought for a moment and said casually.

“Also destroyed?”

“Of course it was destroyed. Why else would I keep these things?” Annie gave Zheng Yichen a strange look. “I happened to pass by there at the time, so I picked some up casually. They don’t take up much space anyway.”

“…” Zheng Yichen looked at the many symbolic items on the table. There were several types of badges, several types of old coins, and even some seals, not to mention those strange animal statues. “Could these all be historical remnants of some destroyed countries? Are you guys trash pickers? How do you have so many?”

“Well, we’ve lived a long time. When you encounter situations like that, you get a bit nostalgic for your old hometown, even though it’s long gone.” Dan Marina shrugged. “So, since we came across them, we just picked up a few things. There aren’t that many; this is all I have.”

“Sounds like there are many stories behind them. In that case, why did you take them out?”

“Probably because I’m tired of the old and like the new. I haven’t touched these things for almost a few hundred years.” Dan Marina gave a small yawn and took out six new wine glasses one by one. With the new items for comparison, Zheng Yichen realized the wine glass that Dan Marina had initially taken out didn’t seem so simple after all. Compared to the other six wine glasses, the colors, sequence, patterns, and rules of the inlaid gemstones all seemed to have their own unique symbolism.

“Second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh princess?”

“Ah~ Come to think of it, the king of the Golden Sparrow Kingdom was quite unfortunate. All his children were princesses.”

Zheng Yichen nodded in agreement. That did feel quite unfortunate… especially for a king. In the end, he felt too lazy to ask about the origins of each item one by one. He simply explained some precautions regarding listing goods to the witches. “Anyway, remember to set up product details. Later, I plan to design a new trading section specifically for transactions.”

“Oh? A new idea?”

“Well, since the self-pickup zone has already been established, how can we not make a group of shopaholics?” Zheng Yichen said. This was also premeditated!

Although battles were common, who would choose to fight and kill all the time for no reason? While the Magic Weapon Summoning Book’s biggest Mana income still came from the Magic Arms, the Mana income from the Forum had also started accumulating now. Basically, both combat and idle time for entertainment were being utilized.

What about the rest… How could one overlook consumption? Not only that, Zheng Yichen planned to launch even more features in the future based on the Magic Weapon Summoning Book! Initially, no one had thought that a summoning book for combat would unconsciously develop in multiple directions. By the time they became aware of the issue, most people had already accepted the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. Realizing such a problem now was too late!

What good did realizing do? Once people had adapted to and accepted the convenience of the features he introduced for a while, if someone tried to forcibly stop them, most people would not accept it. After Zheng Yichen designed the trading section, the Magic Weapon Summoning Book’s Mana income might not surge instantly, but it would have strong staying power, just like the Forum!

Only after Magic Weapon Summoners had mostly adapted to this trading function would the section truly begin to show its strength.

“Shopaholics?” Annie was a bit puzzled by the term Zheng Yichen used. “I do know of a cult that chops off hands and replaces them with rough weapons.”

“I also know about an Orc clan with a similar style…” Zheng Yichen rolled his eyes. “It’s just a metaphor. Let me put it this way: it’s when you can’t control your buying desire. After a crazy shopping spree, you look at your expense list and feel a conflicted sense of ‘if I buy again, I’ll chop off my hand.’ But then, when a new event or product appears next time, you still can’t resist…”

“Huh? Even some of the mindless nobles I know wouldn’t do such a thing, right?” Dan Marina propped her chin on her hand and asked. What Zheng Yichen described was like some kind of magic spell; could it really happen?

“Hmph, simply going shopping for items can overwhelm a person, not to mention the more convenient Online Shopping!” Zheng Yichen gave a light hum. “At least when you go shopping in person, you can effectively see how much you’ve bought, which gives you a kind of warning effect. It lets you know you’ve bought enough today and need to stop.”

“But with Online Shopping, before you get the items in hand, everything is calculated by numbers. The visual comparison effect is much worse than directly comparing physical objects. Faced with a long list of products you can see at a glance, without needing to go from store to store, it’s easy to accidentally drain your wallet if you’re not careful!”

“… You should go play in the Abyss.” After listening to Zheng Yichen’s explanation, Annie looked at him deeply and said. Without his explanation, she still couldn’t quite understand. But now that Zheng Yichen had explained thoroughly, even using the Image Retention Spell to create corresponding image examples, she could more or less feel the addictive power of this kind of trading model.

“Why would I go there for no reason?” Zheng Yichen was very clear about his own limitations. Everything he said was purely based on what he saw standing on the shoulders of Giants. Without that foundation, he would never have thought of these things. So here… extra deep thanks to his homeland, Earth!

Watching Zheng Yichen leave, Annie stretched her small body slightly and couldn’t help but glance at Dan Marina. “Hmm~ That Confidentiality Contract you came up with is good.”

Confidentiality Contracts were also divided into levels. Dan Marina’s was an exceptionally strong contract that even she herself would be unwilling to violate. Using it merely for confidentiality could be considered a waste. But now, Annie felt it was truly good. If not for the existence of this contract, she wouldn’t be able to participate in this conversation at all.

Trust? That needed time and interaction to build. Even though they had known each other’s names and identities before, knowing was one thing; it wasn’t deep understanding. Some had even never met face to face. Witches who had lived long were not the type to simply believe what others said. Even if they heard in communication circles that a certain witch had a good personality, good character, loved helping others, etc., when they actually met and needed interaction, they wouldn’t have extra goodwill just because of such statements. At most, it would start from zero.

If it was based on a bad reputation, it would simply start in the negative.

“Of course. I don’t do meaningless things for no reason. Now, don’t you think it was worth it?” Dan Marina smiled, flipping open the Magic Weapon Summoning Book in front of her. Currently, the trading section Zheng Yichen described had not yet been designed. So, the use of the Pick-up Zone now basically involved negotiating first, then exchanging money and goods simultaneously. The method of payment and delivery was simple.

After confirming a transaction, both parties in the trade would get a pick-up code. This transaction code was what both parties used to pick up goods or money. As for during the transaction, both parties could see the video of the storage area to confirm authenticity. After all, when Irene made Magic Crystals, Zheng Yichen had suggested a few things. Besides the Barrier structure inherent in the Magic Crystals, there were some other auxiliary functions.

Among them, an appraisal function existed. However, the items appraised were things like currency. For more valuable items, Zheng Yichen had additional designs for later. For now, since it was just testing, this was sufficient.

During the transaction process, once both parties had confirmed the goods and money, the stored items would be locked. After that, only the pick-up code could retrieve them. Moreover, the pick-up code was bound to the trader’s ID. Even if others knew the code, they couldn’t take the items!

As for returns? Forget it. That might work on Earth, but in the Otherworld, Zheng Yichen really hadn’t seen many stores with so-called return policies!

After the transaction ended, everything else was each party’s own business.

With the lesson from the advertisement spots, some far-sighted merchants began making relative preparations. The phrase “test version” was too full of anticipation. Some merchants even speculated that the Creator might soon make a new, big move. This was a rare opportunity!

Both this novel trading method and the pick-up method had great prospects. Perhaps high-end items, due to the need to confirm authenticity, might not develop well, but low-end items had immense potential. Especially with some methods of verifying authenticity during transactions. For example, if the goods locked in the Pick-up Zone were in large quantities, during the appraisal, a tiny portion would be extracted and sent to the trader to confirm authenticity.

This extraction was completely random, minimizing the possibility of forgery. Also, by that time, the items in the Pick-up Zone were already locked, completely avoiding the possibility of substitution. If fake goods were truly discovered, the transaction could simply be cancelled!

Therefore, it was very suitable for low-end products. What? Look down on trading low-end products? Regarding merchants with such thoughts, their peers would say: you’d better look down on it quickly. Low-end products might seem to have thin profits, but that’s only on the surface. Don’t ignore the aspect of large quantities!

As for the subsequent impact this trading model might bring? Huh? Many people said they would be delighted. After all, this trading method had already let quite a few see the possibility of tax evasion.

“Hmm… So many drawbacks.” Zheng Yichen looked at the information constantly fed back on the Forum, muttering while propping his chin, gently scratching his head. For the section, he planned to copy Earth’s X-Bao. However, many aspects would be simplified. The Otherworld didn’t have as rich elements as Earth’s. Simplifying it would be enough to last a long time. Making it too complex probably wouldn’t suit the Otherworld people either. Simple and straightforward was the way to go.

But there was indeed a series of subsequent impacts that needed attention. If the Magic Weapon Summoning Book was something that no one could do without, Zheng Yichen could ignore these impacts. The key was, it hadn’t reached that level yet!

Don’t forget, the Otherworld also had taxes! Especially for those Merchant Guilds, taxes accounted for a significant portion of many countries’ income. If they all used the transaction and pick-up method, no longer considered goods transportation, and ignored crossing Tariffs, then many countries would suffer huge losses. One could imagine how those countries whose interests were harmed would later denounce the Creator…

Indeed, denounce. They couldn’t find him. Besides that, what else could they do… Boycott! The power of most countries joining forces was not small. So, regarding taxes, Zheng Yichen was also a bit helpless. Pulling one hair moves the whole body. Carelessness could lead to a comprehensive boycott. Those countries making a fuss would be quite troublesome… It wasn’t that he didn’t have a concept of countries now; it was because of his identity. One must know that the Otherworld was also primarily composed of countries. There were many big and small countries. Without Tariffs or other taxes, basically all these countries would be affected…