As Jiang Kai's figure disappeared into the Login Gate, Su Lanlan was fuming with anger.

She was only thinking of Jiang Kai's best interests, yet he didn't appreciate it at all and was so arrogant!

For Jiang Kai's reward, Nuannuan even questioned her, asking why his performance was so good, yet he received such a useless weapon.

Su Lanlan explained that it was because they valued him too much and wanted to recruit him into the military, so they deliberately gave him equipment with low cost-effectiveness. As long as he joined the military, he could immediately exchange it for any suitable weapon of the same level.

This time, when they went to recruit Lu Jun, the boss personally stepped in, giving Jiang Kai a lot of face.

But according to Lu Jun, before they even discussed exchanging weapons, Jiang Kai directly refused them.

This made Su Lanlan, who had always respected Wei Ying, feel some resentment towards Jiang Kai.

"Tch, I've never seen someone so arrogant, even betting with me? I'm afraid you'll lose even your pants!" Su Lanlan said fiercely.

"Nuannuan said this guy is nice, but I don't feel it at all!"

...

After a slight dizziness, when Jiang Kai's vision returned to normal, he found himself standing in the spacious teleportation plaza of the main city in the Eighteenth District.

Returning here, he no longer had Xia Tao to guide him, nor were his companions Yuan Zhu and Su Nuannuan by his side.

Watching the people coming and going around him, constantly disappearing or appearing in front of the Teleportation Array, Jiang Kai took a deep breath and stepped out of the teleportation area.

At a three-way intersection, Jiang Kai looked at the signpost.

The three paths ahead led to the Guild District, Trading District, and Adventure District.

After memorizing the location, Jiang Kai headed towards the Trading District first.

Upon entering the Trading District, Jiang Kai found that both sides of the road were lined with various shops.

Weapon shops, equipment points, treasure points, herb shops, auction houses, and even pet shops, general stores, utilities, inns, and restaurants—everything was available.

The Trading District had several times more people than the Login District. They wore various outfits and didn't carry weapons, likely storing them in card form, wandering between the shops.

Even soldiers didn't need to wear uniform professional attire during adventures, making it hard to judge their profession by their clothing.

However, Jiang Kai, wearing only a pair of shorts, stood out and attracted quite a few glances.

Of course, for these veteran players, new players joined every month, so Jiang Kai's presence wasn't surprising.

They were mainly sneaking glances at his physique...

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Feeling somewhat awkward, Jiang Kai quickly found an equipment shop nearby and slipped inside.

The shop was medium-sized, about thirty square meters, with two floors.

Inside, a few customers were inspecting the equipment displayed by the staff.

"Hey handsome, let me tell you, this jacket is made from the skin of a Ground Tiger, second-tier, ninth-grade quality, infused with tiger blood, adding 8 points to defense, 26 points to strength, 11 points to agility, and has a very powerful special effect."

"The price is very reasonable, only 7,000 Star Coins or 70,000 Alliance Coins."

"Miss, take a look at this skirt, woven from Eight-Eyed Spider Silk, extremely tough, adds 6 points to penetration defense. Look at the craftsmanship, the pattern, the style, only 19,000 Star Coins!"

Listening to the staff's quotes around him, Jiang Kai was taken aback.

Goodness, a single piece of equipment costs tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of Alliance Coins!

But the equipment here was actually second-tier!

Just then, a young woman approached Jiang Kai and smiled slightly at him, "Newcomer, congratulations on passing the trial. My name is Weiwei, and I'm happy to serve you. Is there anything you're looking for?"

Jiang Kai said, "Do you accept weapons here?"

"We do."

Jiang Kai breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, then I'd like to sell a few weapons and buy a set of clothes... something simple."

The woman smiled slightly, "Alright, please follow me."

She led Jiang Kai to the second floor.

It was only then that Jiang Kai noticed the second floor was divided into cubicles by screens.

The woman led Jiang Kai into one of the cubicles, and they sat across from each other at a long table.

"You can display the items you wish to sell," Weiwei said with a professional smile.

Jiang Kai took out the weapon cards he had confiscated from the stowaways and displayed them one by one.

The woman used her watch to scan each weapon.

"A total of ten, all ordinary weapons without a grade. I'll give you a quote: 800 Star Coins for all ten, which is 8,000 Alliance Coins."

Su Nuannuan had checked, and the price of a Skinning Dagger was 900 Alliance Coins, so the price for ten weapons was about 9,000.

The shop still needed to make a little profit, so it wasn't too unreasonable.

"900!" Jiang Kai said firmly.

The woman smiled slightly, "Handsome, we can't take them for 900. We have to make money too, right? Labor, venue rental, all cost money."

"Actually, the Eighteenth District has a rule: for items sold by newcomers below level 20, whether the deal goes through or not, we can't refuse, and the price must be transparent and reasonable. It's a way to take care of newcomers in the Eighteenth District. Otherwise, we wouldn't want to take these things."

"Because there's not much profit in them."

Although her words weren't pleasant, given the business being conducted downstairs, she was speaking the truth.

Jiang Kai found the woman to be honest and didn't hesitate any longer, "Alright, do you have clothes I can wear? No attributes needed."

"We do! Our shop is near the Teleportation Array, so every month, newcomers come to buy clothes. We've prepared some ordinary clothes without attributes."

The woman swiped her watch, projecting images of four or five sets of clothes, including tops, pants, and shoes, slowly rotating, with the price of each set marked below.

Jiang Kai glanced over them; even these clothes without attributes cost two to three hundred Star Coins, which equated to two to three thousand Alliance Coins.

This amount of money was already a significant sum for Jiang Kai's family.

"Oh, by the way, we also have basic professional outfits, but they're more expensive. Would you like to see them?" the woman reminded him.

"No need, I'll choose from these," Jiang Kai said, pointing to a light gray tracksuit. "This one."

He usually preferred a sporty style, and since he needed to fight in this outfit, it had to be loose.

"Alright, do you need any attribute equipment?"

"No," Jiang Kai replied succinctly.

This set of clothes cost 280 Star Coins. Jiang Kai earned 800 from selling, so he ended up with a profit of 520 Star Coins.

As he left the shop, Jiang Kai was already wearing the new outfit.

Though not outstanding on the street, it was certainly better than being bare.

"A set of clothes without attributes costs over two thousand. Clothes here are more expensive than in reality," Jiang Kai shook his head, but then he thought of something and showed a hint of anticipation. "But if I can gather some materials, they won't be cheap either!"

After leaving the Trading District, Jiang Kai headed towards the Guild District.

As soon as he reached the Guild District, he noticed many eyes on him.

Following their gaze, he saw the word "Basalt" embroidered on their clothes. Some leaned against pillars, looking at him with a smirk, as if waiting for him to make a fool of himself.

Jiang Kai squinted slightly. It seemed Huang Da and his group had already made their move.

At this point, harboring any thoughts of joining a guild would only lead to humiliation.

With this in mind, Jiang Kai turned around and headed straight for the Adventure District.

Seeing Jiang Kai leave directly, the people watching him were a bit surprised. Some quickly ran deeper into the Guild District, possibly to report the situation.

The so-called Adventure District was actually a place for players to make their final preparations for adventures.

Here, many people had already changed into battle gear and attribute armor, and some were holding various weapons.

At least a few thousand people were gathered here, some waiting for teammates to arrive, some team leaders urging members to check their equipment and supplies, and some teams studying maps and discussing enthusiastically.

However, among the thousands of people and hundreds of teams, not a single team was recruiting new members.

In the Calling, hunting was extremely dangerous, and death was so real that, generally, no one would entrust their life and death to a stranger.

Notably, Jiang Kai still keenly spotted members of the Black Tortoise Guild among the crowd.

"They're really everywhere!" Jiang Kai squinted slightly, recalling the female instructor's words.

Are you ready to solo the Ghost Star?

It seemed she hadn't lied to him.

Thinking of this, Jiang Kai's eyes burned with intensity.

"Solo, huh? Bring it on!"

Passing by the teams preparing, Jiang Kai, alone, walked through the south gate of the main city in the Eighteenth District!

[Author's Note]: Fourth update