PFRG: Chapter 24

Chi Ting stopped and walked into the only slave-selling store in the city.

The moment he entered the store, he saw the neatly arranged rows of iron cages inside.

Listening to the square-faced man’s introduction before wasn’t enough to truly understand the indentured slave system in the city. It was only now that he could feel that the residents of the ancient city of Aleran really hated these descendants of the demons. The mere appearance of them being chained up and locked in an iron cage seemed to have regarded the indentured slaves as commodities without any dignity.

The indentured slaves imprisoned in the iron cages heard the movement and looked back. The cold and dull eyes gathered on his body in unison, and even Chi Ting felt that the temperature inside the store seemed to be a whole lot colder than outside the store.

These slaves in the store lobby were obviously only for display. After seeing the sign with the words ‘Customers, please enter’ that was hanging on the door directly opposite him, Chi Ting only paused for a moment before walking straight over.

This was until he arrived at the door. A figure suddenly flashed in front of him. A short and fat man appeared before him.

He was slightly stunned when he saw Chi Ting. Then he shook hands very actively. “Dear explorer, welcome to the ancient city of Aleran. I am Chaplin, the owner of the contract station. I am happy to serve you. Sorry, there was some trouble in the store just now. Please forgive me for being a bit neglectful. If there is any contract slave you like in the store, please feel free to tell me. I will complete all the contract signing process for you here.”

Hearing the words ‘some trouble’, Chi Ting inexplicably felt that his guess seemed a bit closer to being correct. His gaze slowly swept over the iron cages in the store. “So far, I don’t seem to have found a particularly eye-catching slave. Looking at the signs here, there should be other options?”

“Of course. There are just some lowly slaves outside here. It is normal to look down on them.”

The store owner Chaplin rubbed his hands with a smile. Then he made a gesture of invitation. “Please follow me to walk around inside. My store is the designated slave station in the city, and all of the explorers’ slaves come from us. In this store, I guarantee that we have a complete range of styles that will definitely satisfy all your preferences. You will find everything you can think about. Just look around, and you will find something that suits you.”

Chi Ting followed the store owner in an unhurried manner. He listened to this endless advertising while nodding in a perfunctory manner from time to time.

It couldn’t be seen before coming in, but there was something else inside the small store.

Compared to the low-level slaves who were treated brutally in the iron cage outside, the inner hall of this contract station used exquisite display cases similar to glass.

The middle and high-grade slaves were displayed one by one. Under the surrounding spotlights, they looked like carefully crafted handicrafts waiting for their owners to take them away.

But no matter whether it was the outer hall or inner hall, all the slaves had the same characteristics. They looked cold and dull from the inside out, but they actually had strong hostility to everything in this ancient city.

In this ancient city, the descendants of the so-called demons and the descendants of the warriors seemed destined for eternal hostility.

Chi Ting walked all the way and looked around. He soon saw that the store hung an explanatory sign on the outside of each display cage in a friendly manner. It gave a detailed introduction to the abilities possessed by each slave to make it easy to choose.

The station’s owner, Chaplin, was indeed very enthusiastic. Facing this new explorer, he didn’t forget to sell the slave every time he passed one.

In stark contrast to this enthusiasm was the obvious resentful expressions of the slaves in the glass booth when they looked at Chaplin. However, Chaplin had obviously become accustomed to it. He never changed the raised curve of his mouth during the process of serving Chi Ting.

Chi Ting walked very quickly, glancing at every booth to be certain it wasn’t the one he was looking for. He walked past without looking closely, not paying the slightest attention to the so-called introduction.

In the blink of an eye, he had already seen many slaves in a row.

The station owner, Chaplin, was quite patient. He had a smile on his face as he prepared to lead Chi Ting to the next row of display cabinets. Then he saw a clerk running over in a hurry. “Station owner, it isn’t good—! Come and take a look—!”

Chaplin frowned and scolded him, “What are you doing in a panic? Don’t you see there is a guest here?”

The clerk seemed quite overwhelmed. “If it wasn’t for the fact that there is really no way, I wouldn’t have bothered you at this time. It is just that the new slave… we can’t deal with him at all!”

A new slave?

Chi Ting quickly caught the key point. Before Chaplin could scold him again, he spoke first. “Your contracted slaves here will be updated?”

“Ah… yes yes yes. That’s right.” Chaplin’s mind returned, and he smiled apologetically. “In order to ensure that all explorers can better enjoy the service, we have always updated this place very quickly. However, we will sometimes encounter one or two stubborn ones. For example, this time. It is a bit troublesome. I’m really sorry for disturbing your selection.”

“It’s okay. It doesn’t bother me at all.” Chi Ting waved his hand and smiled slightly. “I personally like stubborn people. It is much more interesting than the overly docile. The new slave you just talked about. Station owner, would you mind taking me over to see it?”

Chaplin couldn’t help his mouth dropping open. “Huh?”

He had opened the store for so long and received countless explorers. In the past, being well-behaved and docile was often the most important standard for customers. Therefore, the slaves were often trained and tamed before being put on display. This was the first time he had seen an explorer who liked a stubborn one.

Chaplin felt overwhelmed just talking about the new slave.

He thought about how this guest taking this ancestor away would really save him a lot of trouble. Therefore, he immediately didn’t hesitate. His eyes lit up in hope. “I don’t mind! Of course, I don’t mind. If you want, I will bring you there to take a look. Come here, please…”

Chi Ting glanced at the clerk’s tortured and miserable appearance. Out of concern for the future of the store, he cleared his throat in a low voice. “Go faster.”

……

Just as Chi Ting was following Chaplin to see the new slave, several new groups of viewers poured into his live stream room.

No one noticed that the number of people had unknowingly gone straight to the 20,000 mark. The barrage was still hotly discussing it. Then before they knew it, the main topic had gone somewhat astray.

[What? I heard that God Qiu came to see this live stream room? Isn’t this still a newcomer from the 13th World?]

[Is this endgame instance difficult? Are there any spoilers? How long has it been since the start? The death ratio looks a bit high!]

[Signing a contract? What is this master-servant relationship? It is quite fun to play.]

[The number of people is already 23/50? This endgame seems a bit fierce.]

[It has been a long time since God Shen watched the live stream of an instance. The loss of Brother Eight really had a great impact on the Seven Seas team. I heard they are planning to find new members. It seems to be true.]

[Don’t you know? This Chi Ting awakened an exclusive companion prop in the first instance. Qiu Ji probably came for this.]

[You people, you came as soon as you heard God Qiu was here? Who says that the Seven Seas team can’t do it? I think their popularity is still very explosive!]

There was a lively conversation here. Then the sudden system message that popped up made the barrage covering the screen suddenly clear up.

[Note: It is detected that the number of online viewers in Chi Ting’s live stream room has reached 20,000. This live stream room will soon be converted to paid viewing mode.]

Since discovering that Qiu Ji was in this live stream room, the number of online viewers had soared. Everyone hadn’t expected it to enter the paid mode so early, but they weren’t surprised to receive the notification.

The audience in the live stream room was gossiping happily and instinctively preparing to spend a few more points. Once the next message popped up, they almost pressed the button to confirm it before stopping.

Was this a hallucination?

[The current charging fee: 5,000 points per minute.]

[The paid viewing mode is about to open. The countdown is 10, 9, 8, 7…]

???

What was this? How many points per minute?

Players who doubted their eyes rubbed it vigorously. They looked at it several times to confirm that they were indeed not mistaken.

The players: “……”

What was this charge?

Were they crazy or was Chi Ting crazy?

In the Sanctuary, the coffee that Qiu Ji just brought to his mouth to drink was almost spat out.

5,000 points per minute? The charging standard of the live stream room could be adjusted independently, but among the many friends he knew, the highest fee was only 1,000 points per minute.

This newcomer called Chi Ting really dared to do things!

Qiu Ji coughed again and again before finally catching his breath. His gaze fell on the charging reminder, and his expression was very complicated for a while.

5,000 per minute wasn’t something that Qiu Ji looked down on. After all, the clearance video of high-end instances started in the tens of millions. However, if he really wanted to spend so many points on a newcomer, he always felt that he was stupid and had too much money.

Even for a moment, Qiu Ji wondered if Chi Ting knew he was there and deliberately adjusted it to such an outrageous charging standard.

The rules of this instance directly limited the personal skills and exclusive item effects that he wanted to see most. Now, even the charging fee had the aura of taking advantage of others…

Qiu Ji was silent for a long time before he finally clicked the ‘confirm’ option.

Forget it, it was indeed very difficult to find a replacement for Old Eight. What else could he do? Take a look first.

At almost the same time that Qiu Ji confirmed the paid viewing, a voice came out of the live stream room that had lit up again.

“Then I want him.”

On the screen, Chi Ting seemed to point nonchalantly, apparently finally choosing the slave that satisfied him.

He just didn’t know why but from the perspective of Qiu Ji, a paying viewer, the slave wasn’t shown. The camera completely focused on Chi Ting’s body.

The feeling was very similar to the blocking of low-fee live stream room players when they came to high-fee live room content.

Qiu Ji vaguely felt that something was wrong. However, he was originally here to observe Chi Ting. He didn’t think much about it and continued to look.

In the instance, as soon as Chi Ting finished saying this, he felt the grateful eyes from the station owner Chaplin and the store clerks. It was as if they were looking at their savior.

For a moment, he was very curious about what this man had done. He raised his eyes to glance around the exhibition area.

In fact, the first time he saw Yue Ren, it was enough for Chi Ting to feel the different treatment between him and other slaves.

During the time he walked along this way, the slaves Chi Ting saw were either tied up in iron cages or imprisoned in display cases. They were like objects at the disposal of others. Only Yue Ren’s side was different. He had a luxurious exhibition area that was 40-50 square meters. In addition, when Chi Ting stopped here, he saw the other person sitting on a seat with freshly picked fruits in front of him. Yue Ren’s demeanor and the trembling of the store assistants accompanying him made him look like he was a gentleman who was invited over to eat and live well.

At this time, he saw Chi Ting and smiled slightly as he looked through the glass wall of the exhibition area. This made the NPCs at the scene tremble fiercely.

Chi Ting: “……”

It was really worthy of being an instance tyrant. No matter what the identity of character he was assigned in any instance, his evil power was still undiminished.

“Come, come, we will take care of the formalities for you!”

It could be seen that the station owner really wanted to see away the plague god that was Yue Ren. The moment Chi Ting spoke, he was afraid Chi Ting would regret it and completed the series of signing processes with lightning speed. Finally, he brought over a special collar of unknown material with admiration. “This is the last step. You just need to be able to… put this on him.”

Chaplin said while glancing in Yue Ren’s direction with a thumping heart. Then he cleared his throat. “This step needs to be completed by you personally. We won’t accompany you to enter. But rest assured, you just need to put this collar on him. After that, he will unconditionally obey all your commands.”

Chi Ting had seen this collar before. The slave of the man with the square face also wore one around his neck. The only difference was that after special treatment, it had the word ‘Ting’ from his name engraved on it.

His fingertips repeatedly stroked the unidentifiable material. Chi Ting glanced at Yue Ren with some hesitation. He felt that based on his understanding of this person, it would probably be difficult to force him to do something he was unwilling to do.

Such a look caused their eyes to meet.

Yue Ren raised an eyebrow slightly and opened his mouth silently. ‘Come.’

Okay, since Yue Ren wanted him to come.

Chi Ting ruffled his long hair casually and stepped forward. He walked in through the side door of the exhibition area.

The moment he walked in, he saw the clerk behind him eagerly closing the door. It was as if he was afraid something would happen and let the person inside run away.

He didn’t feel much when he was outside. But after entering this confined space, Chi Ting realized that the feeling of oppression was more suffocating than expected. Moreover, this was an exhibition area that was 40-50 square meters. He could imagine that the display cases and iron cages outside would only make people feel more collapsed.

Chi Ting walked to Yue Ren and stood still.

He considered these words for a long time before finally accepting the reality that he wasn’t suitable for persuading others. He directly placed the collar in front of the other person. “Wear it?”

As he spoke, Chi Ting always paid attention to the reaction of Chi Ting. In this empty environment that was very suitable for hand-to-hand combat, he even thought about the possibility of using force directly for a moment.

In just a short moment, he already wanted to get out of here. It was estimated that Yue Ren must’ve exhausted all his patience waiting for him until now.

In a situation where violent incidents could occur at any time, quick action was always the best choice.

Chi Ting was waiting for an answer when he saw Yue Ren, who was sitting down, lean slightly closer to him. “Okay.”

“Ohh, okay… Then don’t blame me for not being polite…” Chi Ting continued very naturally. He was about to try to make a move when he realized. “You just agreed?”

“Of course. If I don’t want to arouse suspicion, this is the best way. After all, in this city, this is the way to survive as a slave. I’m not an unreasonable person. I understand these truths.”

Yue Ren saw Chi Ting’s series of reactions with his own eyes. He even glanced meaningfully at Chi Ting’s fist that the other person had secretly clenched. The corners of his mouth, which had been lowered just now because of his displeasure, finally curved up a bit. “In order to take the overall situation into consideration, I have been waiting for you here for a long time. My ‘master’, fortunately, you didn’t come too late. At the very least, you found me before my patience was completely exhausted.”

He raised his head slightly and looked at Chi Ting. “So now, put it on for me.”

Chi Ting stopped. If he lowered his eyes at this angle, he could clearly see the sexy and smooth neck curve displayed by Yue Ren in front of him.

Despite the posture, there wasn’t the lowliness and humility of signing a contract and committing himself to slavery. Instead, he seemed to be waiting for a grand and magnificent ceremony.

After being slightly stunned, Chi Ting reached out and put the collar imprinted with the ancient city’s emblem on Yue Ren’s neck.

Under the focus of the scattered lights, the newly engraved ‘Ting’ on it reflected a faint shimmer.

This man’s body temperature was really cold.

Chi Ting thought silently in his heart as his fingertips brushed over Yue Ren’s skin.