The Game Merchant Who Started from the Ninja World

Chapter 40: Merit Points

[Repair the Novice Village Wall], [Stockpile Materials], [Explore the Death Soul Mountain Range]...

"These are all exclusive missions issued to support the hunt for the Wraith Sorceress."

"To repair the wall, players need to collect various rocks and lumber from the Corrupted Zone, as well as materials dropped by defeated monsters."

"To explore the Death Soul Mountain Range, players must venture into the Wraith Sorceress's territory, uncover intel, and dispel the fog of war."

"There are no reward points for completing these tasks. The rewards are Reincarnation Jars of various levels."

Fang Yi smiled and explained, "Upgrading the wall myself costs 500,000 reward points. But by outsourcing the work to those gambling-addict players, I can lure them into gathering materials just for a chance to open a few jars. The total payout costs me only 50,000 points."

The silver-haired loli looked worried. "But if the Wraith Sorceress attacks and you keep squeezing the players like this, won't they rebel?"

A similar event had once happened in a tech-based world.

They were besieged by a Tier 4 Corruption Source—a Fallen Angel—and its corrupted horde. That world's choice to exploit players led to its collapse into a lawless apocalypse. Even their strongest mecha champions eventually turned against them.

The consequences had been catastrophic.

Fang Yi chuckled. "I'm not holding a knife to their throats. How is that exploitation?"

"Everything they're doing is voluntary. If anything, they should be thanking us!"

Behind the screen,

Tsunade stood at the edge of the village wall, submitting materials at the [Wall Repair Task Site].

She opened her inventory. Inside were stacks of materials she'd gathered while hunting Wraiths—picked up casually without spending extra time.

Of course, there were rarer materials too: Soul Crystals dropped by Wraith Captains, Wraith-infused leather, iron ingots, and more.

All of it came from elite monsters with extremely low drop rates.

Selling it all to the shop would earn her around 800 reward points.

"Selling to the shop only gives the minimum return—such a waste," she thought.

She wasn't about to sell her materials to the game system. Everyone knew the system's buy prices were the lowest.

She could sell them to merchant players in the Novice Village for about 1,500 reward points.

Merchant players had weak combat abilities. Even if they were high-level and decked out in full white gear, they couldn't take down monsters of equal level.

So they gave up fighting altogether.

Instead, they roamed around, buying materials and equipment at low prices and reselling them to players in need.

"But even selling to merchants doesn't yield much profit."

After thinking it through,

Tsunade dumped all her materials into the wall repair terminal.

A golden light shone.

The materials vanished. A panel popped up.

[Submitted Materials]: Wraith Leather (Low) ×15, Wraith Iron Ingot (Low) ×20, Soul Crystal (Mid) ×8, Wraith Rock (Low) ×99...

Merit Points Acquired: 5,654

Tsunade muttered to herself, "A Level 1 Equipment Jar costs 100 merit. But what I really want is the Skill Jar—it's 1,000 merit, so I can buy five."

After thinking it through, she exchanged for five Skill Jars.

She was a Level 13 Priest, wearing a full Level 10 blue-grade [Wraith Cavalier Set] from the Ruined Castle dungeon—strong defense, bonus strength.

She didn't lack gear. What she needed now was skill experience.

Take her Level 10 class skill [Holy Light Cross].

To upgrade it to Level 2, aside from reward points, she needed 500 skill EXP.

That meant using it 500 times.

Even ignoring the time, the mana potion costs alone were hefty.

Experience capsules were sold in the shop—but they were outrageously expensive. No sane player would buy them.

Tsunade clenched her fists and stared anxiously at the jars. "A Skill Jar has a 20% chance of containing an experience capsule. I refuse to believe I won't get one!"

At first, she had hesitated to invest so many points into skill upgrades.

Many players had felt the same. Skill upgrades were just too costly—especially for high-quality ones.

But eventually, everyone gave in,

even bankrupting themselves just to level up.

They had no choice.

The benefits were too tempting to resist.

The same skill,

[Holy Light Cross Lv.1], had only slightly better healing than basic medical ninjutsu. But at Lv.2, its healing was three times stronger than the Mystic Palm Technique.

It was like Wood Release.

Under the backing of Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki, an Iwagakure player had purchased the ultra-expensive Wood Release skill from the shop.

The result? Underwhelming.

At Lv.1, Wood Release couldn't stop a war or match the legend of Hashirama Senju.

It could barely build a wooden house—chūnin level at best.

Ōnoki, furious, forced the player to upgrade it to Lv.5—and then…

The once-feeble Wood Release exploded in power.

It still didn't reach Hashirama's level, but it could easily grow a small forest in seconds.

Behind the screen,

the silver-haired loli asked, "Master, merit points and reward points are both currencies. Why go through the trouble?"

"They're totally different!"

Fang Yi smiled. "Reward points are unbound. You can buy anything with them."

"Merit points can't be traded. They can only be used at task sites to buy jars. And they expire every 30 days—you can't hoard them."

The loli blinked in confusion. "You're telling me—

they're restricted, non-transferable, with a time limit…

and players still use valuable materials that could've earned reward points just to get them?"

"Of course! Because they're cheap!"

Fang Yi answered proudly.

Since the last update, gear and scroll drop rates had increased—

making Reincarnation Jars in the shop harder to sell.

Most players would rather grind than buy expensive random jars.

But the jars from merit points?

They were bargains—especially when compared to shop jars.

It was like buying at 70% off.

The catch? You couldn't use reward points—you needed to do [Repair the Wall] or [Explore the Mountain Range] to earn merit.

The expiration issue was easy to solve. Just spend them all before the deadline.

And if you didn't?

Well, that wasn't the merchant's fault.

Just like those "I have read and agreed" boxes before entering the game—if you don't read them, that's on you.

Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.

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