Chapter 23: Profit from the Difference
After crafting a Soul-Snatching Bell and packing it into her bag, Lin Huai checked the coffin. The time it needed to absorb Yin energy was almost up. Only then did she pull out her work permit to summon the Crematorium Site.
The last time she visited, she had completely purified the corpse’s resentment before burning it, which meant the resulting Yin energy crystals were incredibly tiny. This time, she made sure to leave a little extra resentment behind for Sister Hanba.
When Sister Hanba saw Lin Huai arrive so quickly with another delivery, she beamed with joy. Her mood soared even higher when Lin Huai handed over not just the body, but several pretty little dresses as gifts. In her excitement, she generously gave Lin Huai more than ten bone ash bricks for free.
Lin Huai guided the green jade coffin down from the hearse’s roof and handed the corpse inside to the furry zombies for cremation. As they worked, she weighed the ash bricks in her hands and decided it was time to talk business with the crematorium manager.
She had thought about this idea after her last visit. During the Newbie Protection Period, ash bricks didn’t have much practical use, so selling them wouldn’t have brought in much profit. However, with the protection period ending soon, it was the perfect time to start selling them early.
“Sister, where do you usually send these ash bricks to sell? What’s your wholesale price when shipping them out?”
Sister Hanba guided Lin Huai to a chair near the front counter so she could sit while waiting. Currently busy trying on one of the new dresses, the manager answered her honestly without hiding a thing.
“This stuff? Nobody comes looking to buy it. Only a few merchants from the Ghost Market drop by occasionally to stock up. I sell it to them for six underworld coins a piece.”
She sighed, brushing a hand down her dress. “Since they don’t sell well, I still have a huge stockpile sitting in the back room. If you want some, I can just give you a few hundred—it’s really no problem. Why even talk about money?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Little sister, talking about money over such a small thing hurts our friendship! Your sister isn’t hurting for change. As long as you keep me in your thoughts, I’m happy.”
Lin Huai smiled brightly and called out with genuine affection, “Sister, you really are the best sister I could ask for! I love you the most.”
She paused, then added, “But Sister, I don’t want to use them myself. I want to start a business selling ash bricks. Give me a good price, and I’ll help you clear out your stock.”
Sister Hanba finished pulling on a new dress and gave a beautiful, graceful twirl. Raising an eyebrow, she smiled. “Oh, so that’s your plan? Alright, if you can actually sell them, that works for me. Since it’s you, I’ll let you have them for three underworld coins each. How does that sound?”
Lin Huai’s eyes lit up. She nodded eagerly. “Sister, you are far too generous!”
Even as she said it, she put on a slightly troubled expression. She didn’t have a lot of cash right now—only about eight hundred underworld coins in total. “The problem is, Sister, I only have about eight hundred coins right now. At most, I can only buy two hundred up front, and I’m still not entirely sure how well the market will respond…”
Sister Hanba waved her hand, acting incredibly generous. “Don’t worry about it! Just take the goods. I’ll front you one hundred ash bricks to start. If you sell them, you can keep the profits. If you don’t, just consider them a gift from me.”
She leaned against the counter. “Or we can do it on credit. Honestly, I don’t go out of my way to sell these things. They’re just leftover byproducts from the furnace. If I can make a little extra cash off them, great. If I can’t, tossing them out doesn’t hurt me.”
Hearing that, Lin Huai quickly leaned in close to Sister Hanba and whispered, “Sister, does that mean the money you make from selling these things goes straight into your private pocket?”
Sister Hanba raised an eyebrow, gave her a knowing look, and nodded subtly.
Lin Huai understood immediately. Her eyes narrowed into a bright, foxy smile. “Then give me a large batch! I’ll sell them first, and we can settle the bill afterward using Yin energy crystals.”
Sister Hanba’s eyes widened with delight. She gave Lin Huai a huge thumbs-up. “Little sister, you are so sharp! You know all those warehouses full of ash bricks in the back? I’m not selling another piece to the Ghost Market merchants! I’m saving every single brick for you!”
Just as they finished their deal, the two furry zombies walked over carrying the refined crystals and ceramic pots from the fresh cremations. Sister Hanba looked down and let out a surprised, “Oh?”
“The Yin energy crystals from this corpse are quite large today,” she muttered.
Lin Huai kept her mouth shut. The coffin had spent less time absorbing the resentment this time around, so naturally, the remaining energy formed larger crystals.
After inspecting them, Sister Hanba placed the two quail-egg-sized Yin crystals into the official safe.
She then logged the cremation into the counter’s system and transferred sixteen underworld coins directly to Lin Huai’s account.
Lin Huai immediately tried to refuse the payment. “Sister, you’ve already given me so many discounts and gifts. I can’t take money for dropping off these bodies.”
Sister Hanba waved her off firmly. “That won’t work. Whenever you deliver a body, the system records it. If I don’t transfer the payment to you, headquarters will launch an investigation on me. Business is business, and headquarters is incredibly strict about tracking every single transaction.”
She winked. “But that extra coin? That’s a special discount. The standard rate is five coins per corpse, but for three bodies, I gave you sixteen. As the station manager, I have enough authority to bend the rules that much.”
Sister Hanba’s immense physical strength clearly did not match her cleverness, or perhaps she just liked Lin Huai so much that she accidentally let slip a lot of sensitive information.
By combining these clues with what she remembered from her past life, Lin Huai now had a clear picture of how the highway stations operated.
These sites were not independent businesses. They were all controlled by a central “headquarters.” Any underworld coins or Yin energy crystals generated through official services had to be handed over to headquarters for the public account.
However, the extra Yin crystals Lin Huai had secretly used to bribe Sister Hanba earlier had gone straight into the manager’s private stash.
Realizing this, Lin Huai glanced at the heavy safe where Sister Hanba stored the official crystals and asked casually, “Sister, I have to ask… are you allowed to sell the Yin energy crystals in that safe?”
Sister Hanba blinked, looking genuinely surprised by the question. She scratched her head. “Let me check with headquarters. The collector comes by to pick up the crystals once a week, so I honestly don’t know if I’m allowed to sell them directly.”
Lin Huai stood patiently by the counter. After a short wait, Sister Hanba looked up from her terminal, her face glowing with excitement.
“Lin Lin, this is great news! Headquarters says I can sell them! The official price is eighty underworld coins per crystal!”
Lin Huai’s heart leaped. On the open trading market, the standard price for a Yin energy crystal was one hundred underworld coins. During shortages, the price could soar even higher, but it never dropped below that mark.
Yet buying them directly from the source cost only eighty coins!
Didn’t that mean she could become a wholesale supplier and pocket the difference?
Without another word, Lin Huai finalized a long-term trade agreement with Sister Hanba. Once she sold a massive batch of ash bricks and built up her capital, she would return to buy Yin crystals in bulk to resell to other players. When that happened, she would become the wealthiest crystal merchant in the game!
With the deal struck, Lin Huai left the crematorium and returned to the highway.
Meanwhile, back in the chat lobby, Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere and his gang had lost three key members in rapid succession, suffering a devastating blow. Both he and Snowy Mochi had gone completely silent.
For the rest of the players, it felt as though a dark cloud had finally lifted. The lobby was filled with cheerful chatter and celebration.
Thanks to the tip Lin Huai had shared earlier, many other players had found altars, changed their fortunes with a single lucky box, upgraded their vehicles, and were now happily celebrating with the group.
As she kept driving, Lin Huai opened the trading hall and listed her one hundred ash bricks for thirty underworld coins each. She then hopped into the public chat to post a screenshot showing the item’s stats.
[Ash Brick: Crafted from compressed bone ash. When crushed and sprinkled over the body, it grants the user invisibility from monsters for 10 minutes. A vital crafting material for making magical artifacts. Can also be used as a heavy brick to hit people over the head.]
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: I have 100 Ash Bricks for sale in the hall. First come, first served.
[Cute and Sparkling]: What an incredible item! Where did you even find this? Ten minutes of invisibility? Wouldn’t that make getting out of your car to grab supply boxes so much safer at night?
[Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar]: Big Boss, I want some! Please save a few for me!
[Dragon Emerging from the Sea]: I’ll take some too!
[Old Wang from Building Materials]: Order placed! See? Twenty years of being single has given me the fastest hands in the west!
[Fastest Hand at SF Express]: Boss! Boss, look at me! I want some too!
[Starving Blue Knight]: I hate all of you! How are your hands so fast?! I didn’t manage to grab a single one!
