[Message: "Treasure map fragment 1/2, trade for 2 kerosene lamps!"]
[Ethan: "If it were a complete treasure map, I could consider it. Only half... at most I can give you one kerosene lamp. Anyway, without the other half, a treasure map = trash."]
[Kerosene Lamp -1, Treasure Map Fragment +1]
[Shady Merchant Trait +2]
[System Notice: Shady Merchant Trait maxed, automatically awakened passive skill 'Fool You Into Limping']
'What the hell kind of god-tier skill is this?'
When Ethan saw this "Fool You Into Limping" skill, he even thought he'd read it wrong.
But after rubbing his eyes, he realized he hadn't misread it. It really was the "Fool You Into Limping" skill.
[Fool You Into Limping: Shady Merchant passive skill. Once the other party falls into your verbal trap, they will unconditionally choose to believe you. Even if they occasionally feel suspicious, they will still easily fall into the trap because of the sweet bait.]
[PS: To increase the success rate of this passive skill, remember to give the other party a bit of sweetness.]
'Holy crap!'
"If this skill was put back in my original world, then it'd definitely be the number one skill of a pyramid scheme boss, right?"
"Am I really that much of a Shady Merchant?"
"Well, whatever."
Anyone who doesn't take advantage of a good deal is an idiot.
Since the system is giving gifts, Ethan has no reason not to take them.
———
[Message: "My lord wants to buy your kerosene lamp blueprint. Name your price!"]
[Ethan: "Really? Then I want 100 civilians, 1000 Advanced stone, 1000 Advanced wood, and 1000 spirit stones!"]
[Message: "You're not sincerely trying to trade at all!"]
[Ethan: "Isn't that obvious? You want to snatch my monopoly business. Do you really think I'd sell? Are you here just to joke around?"]
[Message: "My lord said that if you want to sincerely trade, we can sit down and talk. Everyone can cooperate and make the business bigger and stronger. What do you think? My lord not only has civilians under him, he also has a hundred troops serving him. It's definitely faster than you mining ores yourself."]
[Ethan: "How are we supposed to sit down and talk? I don't even know where you are, and this map is huge?"]
[Message: "New lord feature. Lords can mutually locate regional players. If you agree to my lord's cooperation terms, I can first show my attitude by directly surrendering and becoming your regional player. Then we can locate each other. How about that?"]
Ethan never expected that [Lord Exclusive] would actually have such a feature.
Most likely, it exists so regional players can quickly reach the lord's location to avoid certain dangers.
Or to gather together to resist some powerful existence.
For example, a Red Dragon.
According to the world chat, there were regional lords who relied on gathering a large number of players to jointly repel monsters.
And that requires a positioning and gathering function.
But this is limited to players within the same region.
After all, now that regional elimination matches have started, from a certain perspective, the regional players and Ethan, the regional lord, are in a share-the-glory, share-the-loss relationship.
Of course, what Ethan really didn't expect was that the person leaving messages could pull off such a sneaky move.
Directly joining his territory, becoming his regional player, and then locating him.
'Isn't this just infiltrating the enemy ranks?'
'Do they think I am stupid?'
[Ethan: "You keep talking about showing sincerity, but I've never seen anything less sincere than this! If you want to cooperate with me, then at least show some of your lord's strength, right? How many Advanced materials and spirit stones does he have? Send them to me to take a look. I promise I won't tap trade, just looking!"]
[Reply: "Wait a moment, I'll go apply!"]
[Ethan: "OK!"]
———
[Zone 1]
"Reporting, General," The deputy general found General Shakun and said, "The enemy's mindset has already wavered and has initially fallen into our trap. But the enemy wants us to display some strength, otherwise he won't agree to cooperate."
General Shakun lightly tapped the armrest of his chair with his fingers. After a long while, he said, "He's doubting our strength?"
"Most likely!"
The deputy slightly bowed and said, "I suggest that the general first show part of our strength, so the enemy clearly understands what we're capable of."
"Once he sees our strength, he'll naturally grow greedy."
"When the time comes and he falls into our trap, won't he just be at our mercy."
Shakun pondered for a moment.
At this time, the deputy hurried forward and lit a hand-rolled cigarette for General Shakun. This tobacco naturally came from wild grass they had discovered in the forest.
After being dried by female workers, it was rolled into cigarettes for the general to smoke.
The general has a particularly heavy smoking habit.
Every time he thinks about strategy, he needs a large amount of cigarettes to keep his mind sharp.
Especially when they first entered the Mist World, when the general couldn't smoke, his temper was so violent that strangers weren't allowed anywhere near him. Some people were even directly executed just for making him frown.
The deputy had no choice but to specially assign a squad of scouts. After paying a considerable price, they finally found wild tobacco leaves.
Only then did the general's violent temper finally ease a lot.
Puff! Puff!
After taking several drags of the cigarette, General Shakun finally spoke, "If we display our strength, and the trade request we send gets confirmed by the other party, wouldn't we be the ones taking the loss?"
"There's an old saying in Dragon Nation: if you can't bear to part with the bait, you won't catch the wolf," The deputy said, "General, I think we can first show part of our gunpowder."
"Anyway, we have plenty of it. Even if he really gets greedy and takes our gunpowder, the loss won't be big for us."
"And we can also see that guy's true nature."
"If he is just pretending, then naturally we'll need to change our strategy."
"Sacrificing a bit of supplies to probe the enemy isn't a bad deal."
"And if the enemy doesn't embezzle our materials and is merely trying to confirm whether we're qualified to cooperate, then we're the ones who profit."
"As soon as he exposes his location, we can immediately find him."
"When that happens..."
"Wouldn't all his things become ours?"
"Makes sense!"
Hearing this, Shakun nodded repeatedly.
Anyway, they had already discovered a gunpowder mine, and also an active volcano that could produce sulfur ore in large quantities.
These things only require sending people to dig them out. They're not worth much at all. Using them as bait to hook a big fish, even if they really got scammed, it wouldn't hurt.
———
After Ethan finished crafting 50 kerosene lamps and handed them back to the city ruins,
He finally received a reply from that lord who wanted to scam a location.
Message: "My lord has agreed to your request."
[The other party sent a trade request: gunpowder 1000, exchange for Wood 1]
"Reject Trade."
Ethan decisively chose to reject the trade and asked in return, ["This is all your lord owns? Isn't that a bit too poor?"]
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