Chapter 89: The Black-hearted Swindler

Honesty-for-All was in a hurry, because he had already confirmed that the batch of bullets Chen Hao had sold him were reloads. His rush to find Chen Hao wasn’t to demand an explanation, but rather to seek a deeper partnership. He had always assumed that the bullets Chen Hao sold him were bought from the Patrol Battalion, which meant it would be a one-off deal. But if Chen Hao could keep reloading bullets, the business could continue indefinitely, bringing him a steady stream of profits.

Reloaded bullets would naturally be cheaper than factory-made ones, and Honesty-for-All saw room for negotiation. If he could knock a few coppers off each bullet, his own profit would increase significantly.

Selling reloaded bullets to scam players would earn him countless curses, but Honesty-for-All didn’t care at all. Once, in a cultivation game, he’d passed off python bones as dragon bones and swindled countless players; even though he was name-called daily on the forums, it didn’t bother him in the slightest. Compared to that, selling reloaded bullets was child’s play.

The game “War” had a massive player base, and bullets were always in short supply. Players who got scammed wouldn’t buy a second time, but there would always be new gullible ones, wouldn’t there?

After selling out his entire stock, people kept coming to Honesty-for-All’s stall asking if he had more bullets. Having customers but no goods, he felt as if shining silver dollars were slipping away before his eyes. Every half hour, he sent a carrier pigeon message to Chen Hao. After five or six attempts and nearly giving up hope, a pigeon finally landed at his stall.

He took the note from the pigeon’s leg and saw it was a reply from Chen Baxian. Overjoyed, he packed up his stall and ran out of the market at top speed, finding Chen Hao in an alley.

Chen Hao had thought that selling reloaded bullets would be a short-lived venture, and that Honesty-for-All, once he learned the truth, would come to settle accounts. That was why he’d reloaded every last bullet casing and sold them all at once. To his surprise, when Honesty-for-All sent his second pigeon, he wanted to keep working together and continue selling reloads.

Chen Hao could only sigh that he had overestimated the man’s scruples—Honesty-for-All would do anything for money. But that was fine; since Honesty-for-All was willing to bear the infamy and keep selling bullets, he would never lack a market for his reloads.

“Brother Baxian, those reloaded bullets you sold me—did you buy them, or did you make them yourself?” Honesty-for-All looked at Chen Hao with eager anticipation.

“I made them myself,” Chen Hao replied with a smile. “Reloaded bullets don’t look much different from factory ones, but they do damage the gun and can jam more easily. I made a batch to test the market.”

Since Honesty-for-All already knew he was selling reloads, he must also know their drawbacks, so Chen Hao saw no need to hide anything. As he expected, Honesty-for-All seemed not to hear the disadvantages at all. His eyes lit up as he said, “We’re just selling bullets, so as long as they look the part, that’s good enough. Brother, how many bullets can you reload in a day?”

“If I have enough spent casings, I can do around 2,000 a day.”

Chen Hao needed time every day to practice knife techniques with Wang Wu and study academics, so he had only five or six hours a day for reloading bullets. Reloading was considered a life skill, and repeatedly performing the task consumed satiety. If he reloaded 6,000 in one day like last time, he’d have no energy left for anything else.

Honesty-for-All did a quick calculation. If he could sell 2,000 bullets a day, and earn 3 coppers profit on each, he could make a steady 60 silver dollars daily. If Chen Hao still sold to him at 18 coppers each, his profit would only be 20 dollars—a poor deal for such a bad reputation. His bottom line was that the price per bullet had to be under 15 coppers.

Rubbing his hands together, Honesty-for-All said, “Brother, reloads just don’t sell as well as factory bullets. I plan to sell them at 18 coppers each. Can you give me a better wholesale price?”

“Sixteen coppers each.”

The cost to reload a bullet was just a few coppers, so selling at sixteen each would already give Chen Hao a handsome profit, while still leaving Honesty-for-All some margin.

With a bitter expression, Honesty-for-All said, “Brother, reloads just aren’t as good as factory bullets. I’ll get a bad name among the players, and my other business will suffer. How about fourteen coppers each?”

“Fifteen coppers. If you won’t take it, I’ll find someone else to work with.” With that, Chen Hao made as if to leave. Right now, he was the only one who could reload bullets; if Honesty-for-All didn’t agree, he would just look for another partner. The initiative was in his hands, and he was sure Honesty-for-All would give in.

“Hey, don’t go, brother! Fifteen coppers each it is.” After stopping Chen Hao, Honesty-for-All rubbed his hands and said, “By the way, brother, you’re using smokeless powder for your reloads. If you used black powder, the cost would be much lower, right? How about you sell me black powder reloads for fourteen coppers each?”

Even Chen Hao felt it was a bit much to scam players with smokeless powder reloads, yet Honesty-for-All wanted to use black powder, making Chen Hao realize how naïve he was. He tested, “Black powder bullets are very hard on the barrel. They’ll leave it blackened, you know?”

Honesty-for-All waved his hand dismissively. “Doesn’t matter! We’re not the ones using them. As long as we can sell them, that’s all that counts. Think about it, brother: smokeless reloads jam the gun, so after getting duped once, players won’t fall for it again. Why not use black powder and make a bigger profit? Scam as many as we can.”

Using black powder would cut the cost by two coppers per bullet. Even selling at fourteen coppers to Honesty-for-All, Chen Hao would make one more copper per bullet. Since Honesty-for-All didn’t care about his reputation, neither did he. So he nodded. “Fine. But you have to supply me with spent casings. I should be able to buy them for one copper each?”

“No problem,” Honesty-for-All agreed cheerfully. “I’ll offer a deal: twenty spent casings for one bullet. Plenty of players will go for it.”

Chen Hao needed an NPC to lure out Liu Ziyuan’s mistress, and had originally planned to set up Honesty-for-All, but now that Honesty-for-All was handling bullet sales, he’d have to come up with another plan. After making the deal, he prepared to visit Li Pisen. Halfway there, he received a message from Fair-Skinned Fiend, saying they’d run into trouble leveling up.

All six members of Fair-Skinned Fiend’s party were now above level ten, and their teamwork was improving. They’d cleared several special leveling points similar to traditional game dungeons. Each special leveling point at the same level came in A, B, and C difficulties; the harder the challenge, the more experience and better loot to be gained.

After clearing a level 10 B-difficulty dungeon, the group was riding high and decided to challenge an A-difficulty dungeon at level 12. Their task was to eliminate the bandits at Toad Rock. The bandits were only level 12, but Toad Rock was easy to defend and hard to attack. They failed to get past the first stage and lost three members right away.

(P.S. Thanks to Love0 for the 1,888 silver tip! Seems you’re an old reader. Sometimes, seeing this kind of support makes it easier to find confidence when things need to be understood. I had to work overtime on a file yesterday, so your update vote was wasted, but I’ll do my best to keep up with three chapters a day this week.)