Zuo Lin'an carefully sized up the newcomer. The man wore a set of brownish-gray casual clothes and had a gentle smile on his face. He looked a bit chubby, giving off the vibe of a harmless, good-natured fellow.
However, anyone sent out to negotiate business certainly wouldn't be simple.
“Come, have a seat.”
“Sure, thank you.”
Soon, the three of them sat down. Feng Xingyun and Xuan Jiu stood to the side, curiously observing this stranger.
The man opened his bag and pulled out a laptop.
“My name is Cheng Qing. It is a pleasure to meet you both. Please guide me well.”
Before Zuo Lin'an could speak, Xu Youyou suddenly blurted out, “Are you an ancient person?”
Cheng Qing froze for a moment.
“Ah, my apologies. I was recently working part-time as an NPC in a dungeon with an ancient setting. I might not be able to drop this manner of speaking in the short term. Please bear with me.”
Zuo Lin'an waved his hand.
“No worries.”
He just hadn't expected members of the construction team to take on part-time gigs as dungeon NPCs.
Cheng Qing didn't waste any more time and looked at Zuo Lin'an.
“Is it this gentleman who requires our construction team's services?”
Zuo Lin'an nodded.
“Yes.”
Cheng Qing opened his laptop and began typing on the keyboard.
“Excellent. In that case, please give me a general idea of your requirements, as well as some details about the interior of your dungeon, such as the terrain.”
Zuo Lin'an thought for a moment, then began giving a highly detailed description of the old manor he envisioned, including various details and the terrain of his dungeon.
“How is it? What's the rough estimate of the cost?”
Cheng Qing smiled. “Very well, please give me a moment to calculate it.”
About two minutes later, he provided a figure.
“Based on your requirements, Mr. Zuo, the current estimate is twenty-five million.”
Zuo Lin'an frowned.
“Isn't that a bit expensive?”
His requirements weren't actually that extensive.
It was just an old manor that could house two brothers, a butler, and at most twenty players.
He didn't need too many rooms. If there were many players, they could allocate rooms among themselves, sleeping two, three, or even five to a room.
This meant the house didn't need to be massive. Moreover, his requirement was for an old manor, not a brand-new one.
Even with all that, it still cost twenty-five million?
Cheng Qing maintained his gentle smile.
“I'm sure you both know that this place is incredibly far from the city. Transporting building materials all the way here is a major expense in itself.”
“I can tell you honestly that a third of that twenty-five million is just the transportation cost.”
“Then there's the terrain of your dungeon, Mr. Zuo. You mentioned wanting to build the manor on a mountain, which is inherently difficult.”
“We'll need a lot of construction machinery, and transporting that machinery accounts for another portion of the cost.”
“Next are the design blueprints and the architectural details we need to pay attention to.”
“After all, you want an ancient-style manor that looks at least a century old. During construction, we have to meticulously distress the materials to make them look old.”
“At the same time, we have to ensure the safety and structural integrity of the manor. We can't actually build you a structurally unsafe hazard just to make it look old.”
“On top of that, there are other things like the water source and the mountain stairs. You did mention wanting to build a path connecting the manor to the edge of the white mist.”
“Building stairs all the way from the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain is no simple task.”
“When you add all these factors together, twenty-five million is truly a very fair and honest quote.”
Zuo Lin'an rubbed his chin, thinking it over carefully.
Hearing it laid out like that, it did indeed sound quite complicated.
“What if I pay with Contribution points? How much would it be then?”
The smile on Cheng Qing's face instantly became much warmer.
“Oh, Contribution points?”
“If you're paying with Contribution points, we'll calculate it at double the value, so one Contribution point is worth two million.”
“For twenty-five million, we can call it twelve Contribution points, rounding down the remainder for you.”
Zuo Lin'an wanted to bargain, but Cheng Qing's next words instantly shut down any thoughts of haggling.
“This price is already our construction team's most sincere offer. I doubt anyone else could give you a better price than this.”
“Furthermore, we will cover subsequent maintenance work for a full year.”
“It's free of charge, but... only for minor, non-human-inflicted damage. If it's destroyed through violence by players, we will definitely have to charge for repairs.”
“Of course, as an established client by then, we'll certainly give you a discount.”
Zuo Lin'an suddenly realized that the buildings in his dungeon could indeed be destroyed by players.
Take this Wuxia World, for example. With so many martial arts experts, any fight between them would cause visible damage to the buildings and the surrounding environment.
Some could even shatter boulders and split mountains.
After all, back at Lingyang First High School, he had seen Feng Xingyun send over a dozen people flying with just a casual sweep of his hand.
He had every reason to believe that if all the Xiantian Rank experts in the school had fought with everything they had, they could have leveled the entire campus.
Zuo Lin'an couldn't help but feel a bit worried. If he encountered even more powerful worlds in the future, would a casual wave of a hand level an entire mountain peak?
Whatever.
It was too early to worry about that.
Besides, even if he did encounter such a world, the supernatural world would surely put some restrictions in place. Otherwise, wouldn't everything descend into chaos?
While Zuo Lin'an was lost in thought, Xu Youyou suddenly handed over his phone.
Zuo Lin'an glanced at it subconsciously and saw that the screen displayed their chat group with Bai Yuan and the other two.
It turned out Xu Youyou had just asked the other two in the group about the construction team's pricing.
【Bai Yuan: A construction team contacted through the system's mall would never dare to overcharge a dungeon boss. Rest assured.】
【Song Yangxia: They serve dungeon bosses, and these clients are more ruthless than the last. If they dare offend one, they won't even know how they died.】
【Bai Yuan: And even if it's discovered later, if only a few ordinary people die...】
【Bai Yuan: The higher-ups wouldn't actually execute a dungeon boss over such a minor matter. At most, they'd deduct some Contribution points and ground them in their own dungeon.】
Zuo Lin'an suddenly realized.
Right, he had almost forgotten that he was a dungeon boss now.
To ordinary people, they were terrifying specters. Why would those ordinary people risk offending them just to make a bit of money?
“Alright, twelve Contribution points then. Do I need to pay a deposit?”
Cheng Qing had naturally noticed Zuo Lin'an looking at Xu Youyou's phone just now, but he acted as if he hadn't seen a thing.
“Yes, Mr. Zuo. You'll need to pay a thirty percent deposit first. You can pay the remainder once the project is completed.”
Rate on N.U.
