Pillar of Yita

”He looked up and saw Zi Feiyu shrug at him; when the latter had given him the communication ID for ’Lady Grey,’ it was obvious that the other party had gotten hold of his communication ID.”

”The expression on the other’s face was also very clear:”

”’I can only help you this much.’”

”’...’ Fang Hong couldn’t help but curse inwardly, as he had no way to hang up the communication—it would be too rude, and did he no longer want to negotiate with Tabopolis? With no other choice, he had to accept the communication request—”

”Just a moment later, a page of images slowly unfolded in his system, but what puzzled Fang Hong was that at first, it was pitch black, and then he heard a ’thud.’”

”Then he saw clearly that a girl had dropped a Great Sword on the ground and seemed to be looking for something—muttering as she searched, ’Where’s my Communication Crystal? Who knocked it over just now? I clearly saw it fall here...’”

”The image on the other side seemed to be in the Adventurers’ Guild too, but from a different angle; Fang Hong could even hear the rumbling of differential gears coming from the image.”

”And the girl with soft golden hair and a baby face, after searching on the ground for quite a while, seemed not to realize that she had already established contact with Fang Hong, until someone tapped her, and she exclaimed in surprise, ’Ah,’ as she unexpectedly looked at Fang Hong:”

”’Hey, how did you get in touch with me?’”

”’Sorry, sorry, someone knocked over my Communication Crystal just now.’”

”’Hello, I am Yugudola—right, you’re the little guy Red Leaf mentioned, right?’”

”’Ah, what was it... I remember now, Zi Feiyu told me you’re planning to buy Luo Yu and Gita?’”

”Fang Hong looked at this woman with a speechless face.”

”He had imagined many images of ’Lady Grey,’ including ominously shady, expressionless, not given to smiling, someone who looked very difficult to deal with, a tough businesswoman.”

”But he never expected to see such a sloppy girl who seemed a bit muddled and hadn’t even noticed that her communication page was opened, appearing on the screen.”

”And the community claimed that ’Lady Grey’ was twenty-four this year, but the girl on the screen looked even younger than him, didn’t she?”

”And what was this about buying?”

”Although he knew that there were transfer deals between guilds, not to mention the transfer season was over, and it seemed that trainees weren’t included, what was more crucial was, how could the other party start talking about this matter like it was human trafficking.”

”Fang Hong couldn’t help but look back at Gita and Luo Yu, but he saw that both had turned away, pretending not to catch his gaze.”

”He had no choice but to ask Zi Feiyu for help: ’Is this really ’Lady Grey’?’”

”The young Magic Guided Conductor replied succinctly and powerfully, nodding: ’Pretty much.’”

”’Pretty much’ what does that mean?”

”’Pretty much’ can be said?”

”Fang Hong was speechless.”

”Meanwhile, the girl had already picked up her sword and was quite natural: ’Little guy, as a good friend of Red Leaf, you should understand this principle, right? Our guilds may look glamorous on the surface, but actually, it’s not easy for everyone behind the scenes, and naturally, a lot of resources and manpower need to be invested in cultivating a talented trainee.’”

”’You must recognize the potential of Luo Yu and Gita, right?’”

”If Tianlan were here, he would definitely shake his head vigorously and then belittle his companions as worthless to facilitate later price negotiations.”

”But Fang Hong was still a bit too thin-skinned and could only nod along with the other party.”

”Seeing him nod, Yugudola’s eyes narrowed like a cat’s, ’How about I do the math for you?’”

”’First of all, the guild has to select some newcomers in the league competitions of the various cities, as well as spot potential seeds in various communities, which of course is a long process. It requires a lot of manpower, and this process can sometimes last up to three quarters in a year, and of course, the people deployed need to be paid salaries, you should understand that...’”

”’...then there’s the construction of the training camps, you also understand how solid Luo Yu’s and Gita’s knowledge and foundation of this world is, it certainly didn’t come from a gust of wind, we have many retired Chosen contributing to the newcomers, you can’t expect the older generation of Pioneers to eat vegetables and swallow chaff...’”

”’...then there’s the arrangement of the trainee status quotas, as well as the subsequent bidding for Chosen quotas and so on, assessment tasks, distribution of Daggers, coordination with Stargate Port, all of which require a large sum of money...’”

”’...plus we have some preliminary plans, after Luo Yu and Gita leave, we have to choose other people to take their place, and the losses involved are even greater...’”

”’All in all—’ Yugudola swept away her previous confusion, and suddenly looked extremely astute, rattling off a long list of items, some of which Fang Hong couldn’t even make out because she was speaking too fast.”

”But at least he heard the conclusion clearly:”

”’So by my calculations, Gita is roughly three million, six hundred and twenty-seven thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight yuan and eighty cents, and since everyone is equal, Mr. Luo Yu will also be priced the same. Since this is your first transaction with us, little guy, I’ll give you a 9.8% discount—’”

”Yugudola patted her sword and finally refrained from calculating the price down to the cent.”

”But Fang Hong’s mouth fell open, how much was it—hadn’t he heard wrong? The transfer fee for a trainee was over three million? As far as he could remember, this seemed to be a record-breaking high price since the Stargate Era.”

”And what kind of valuation method was this idea of equality?”

”...”