After reaching level eight, Ma Jun's inventory expanded by another seven slots.
What had originally been a ten-slot inventory had now become seventeen slots.
For Ma Jun, inventory expansion upon leveling up was extremely important.
To many players, the Horror Game was hell—a death sentence hanging over their heads.
But to Ma Jun, it was a massive treasure vault.
Opportunities outweighed risks.
He knew very clearly where many hidden items were located.
This time alone, he had brought out 35 portions of [Charcoal-Grilled Dragonfish] and 6 portions of [Exotic Fragrant Pork Chops].
That was a total of 41 epic-grade items!
If not for inventory limits, he could have brought out dozens more.
Those extra seven slots were crucial.
They nearly doubled his carrying capacity.
After checking his haul, Ma Jun was extremely satisfied.
Looking around, he realized he was in an empty room—this was likely the private room assigned to him within the Horror Game.
The room could only be described as bare.
There wasn't even a bed.
"This is way too shabby. Not even worthy of a rental room, right?"
Ma Jun browsed the system interface and quickly realized that the game was thoroughly steeped in profiteering.
Even furniture had to be purchased.
Fortunately, during the instance he had been directly rewarded with ten Purple Crystals.
He checked the exchange rate—ten Purple Crystals were equivalent to 10,000 gold coins.
After browsing the store, Ma Jun couldn't help but sigh in satisfaction.
This purchasing power was pretty impressive!
Within the room, players could freely buy furniture and decorations in any style they liked.
Luxurious furniture that would be astronomically expensive outside could be bought here for just a small amount of gold.
Gem-encrusted furnishings, advanced smart-home systems, even hundred-thousand-value huanghuali furniture—everything could be obtained for just one or two gold coins.
What was truly expensive, however, were functional room upgrades.
For example, storage rooms for hoarding items, or training rooms for cultivation.
A basic storage chest provided fifty slots and cost 500 gold coins.
Upgrading it once only added ten more slots—but cost 1,000 gold coins.
Further upgrades doubled the cost each time.
Extremely ruthless.
But this was something that couldn't be skipped—especially for Ma Jun.
Every time he entered an instance, he was guaranteed to bring back massive quantities of items. Without a large warehouse, how was he supposed to store them?
This money had to be spent.
So he spent 1,500 gold coins and upgraded the storage chest to 60 slots.
That would last him for quite a while.
Next came the training room.
Training rooms allowed players to choose a different time flow compared to the outside world.
In the Horror Game, time flowed at a 3:1 ratio compared to the real world—three days in-game equaled one day in reality.
Rest areas followed the same ratio.
But inside training rooms, time flow could be exchanged.
For example, a training room priced at 30,000 gold coins could slow time by another factor.
That meant spending six days in the training room would only consume one day in the real world.
This 30,000-gold training room had a usage limit of one month.
Training there for a full month would only cost five real-world days.
Ma Jun immediately judged—this was absolutely worth it.
In the Horror Game, players could obtain all kinds of skills and techniques. Using a training room would double the efficiency.
Unfortunately, he couldn't afford it yet.
After purchasing the storage chest, he had 8,500 gold coins left.
He planned to buy some additional items to properly gear himself up.
Besides the 30,000-gold training room, there were cheaper options.
For example, a 5,000-gold training room slowed time by 20%.
Not great, but better than nothing.
Ma Jun didn't rush to buy it.
He didn't have much cash on hand—but he had inventory.
Forty-one epic-grade items.
How much money would those sell for?
In the Horror Game, there were two trading systems.
One was the official trading house, accessible to all players—fast and convenient, but it charged a commission.
Sellers had to pay a 5% transaction fee.
The other was player-to-player free trade, with no commission and cheaper prices.
The downside was that items weren't neatly categorized—you had to browse manually.
In simple terms: one was an online store, the other a physical marketplace.
The online store was slightly more expensive.
Right now, Ma Jun could only choose one.
He had just completed an instance and was still under newbie protection. Before clearing three instances, players were not allowed to leave their private rooms.
In the Horror Game, danger didn't come only from instances.
Malice from other players was just as deadly.
Players who hadn't passed the protection period couldn't freely interact with others.
So Ma Jun didn't hesitate—he opened the Trading House directly.
Ding!
The trading interface unfolded before his eyes, with dazzling categories of items that nearly made him dizzy.
He quickly filtered by quality, selecting Epic Grade, then narrowed the category to Consumable Buff Items.
This immediately reduced the number of listings and made things much clearer.
He casually flipped through a few pages, the smile on his face growing wider.
"Epic-grade buff items are actually worth this much?!"
"Isn't this basically striking it rich?!"
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