Chapter 179: Credit Loans

A smile appeared on Ming Mu’s handsome face, the corners of his lips curving up. “Mm, of course. But what about the reward? We don’t have anything valuable on us right now.”

Pei Yu crossed his arms and leaned in, glancing at the mission board to check the latest updates from Earth Village. “That’s easy! Aren’t you an apothecary? Just use potions as payment. What they need most are potions—if you can offer a Light Potion, not just S-rank, even SSS-rank ability users would be scrambling to take the job.”

After a few days away, Pei Yu noticed that most of the villagers’ activities hadn’t changed much, but there were noticeably more requests for sweet Green Jelly Stones.

Are Green Jelly Stones really that popular now? Pei Yu wondered, while Ming Mu mentally sorted through the finished potions he had on hand.

He didn’t have any Light Potions, only the ones he’d made before. But after seeing the potions in the Earth Village pharmacy workshop yesterday, he felt like everything he’d made was defective, utterly inferior to the village’s products.

Would the villagers of Earth Village even want his potions?

Take that Red Potion in the pharmacy, for example—completely free of impurities, able to stabilize anyone’s health no matter what ailment they had. Just one bottle could save a life. Could his stamina recovery potion do that?

Obviously not.

It was like comparing heaven and earth.

A stamina recovery potion that could fetch thousands of energy coins outside probably wouldn’t even sell for a single spirit coin here in Earth Village.

Sigh!

Using these as payment? Ha, what a joke. No S-rank ability user would accept that.

Ming Mu felt both love and hate for Earth Village—it had shattered his former pride, but also gave him greater hope for what potions could be.

Frustrated, he rummaged through his spatial pouch, but couldn’t find a single potion worthy of being used as payment.

Ming Xiao noticed and asked gently, concern on his refined face, “Can’t find anything suitable?”

Ming Mu drooped his head, his handsome face falling. “Yeah, compared to the village’s potions, mine are all defective.”

Ming Xiao lowered his gaze, the shadow of his lashes falling on his pale eyelids. “Then… we’ll go ourselves. I’ve already taken a Light Potion, so the dark matter in my body won’t flare up for a while. Besides, I kind of miss the brothers from Longteng.”

Ming Mu’s expression turned serious and he objected firmly, “No, you can’t go. You’re only doing better here in Earth Village. Outside, the dark matter is thick, and as a light ability user, you’re even more affected by it—it’ll harm your health. I won’t let you go out again. At worst, we’ll just let Longteng down. With your condition, you can’t enter Senmu Marsh anyway. I’ll talk to Village Chief Yun about postponing my work. I’ll go. I’ll do it.”

“But…”

Ming Xiao hesitated, frowning. His brother had little connection to Longteng and was only here because of him. Besides, Senmu Marsh was notoriously dangerous—the most perilous place on the exile planet. The berserk beasts and mutants inside were even fiercer than those in the infected northern zone; people lost their lives there all the time.

If his brother were a fighter, he wouldn’t worry, but Ming Mu was a lab rat who’d spent years in research, with zero combat experience—even if he was S-rank. He really couldn’t bear to let him go alone.

Neither brother was willing to let the other take the risk, and neither could convince the other.

Just then, Pei Yu, who’d finally snapped out of his thoughts, scratched his chin and suggested, “Why don’t you just take out a loan? The mission hall has a credit loan service. As long as you can pay it back later, it’s fine.”

Both brothers paused, surprise lighting up their faces. “You can take out a loan? Can we use actual items as collateral? Like, if I promise a Light Potion as payment, can the mission hall give the potion to the mission-taker first, and I’ll pay it back once I make one?”

Pei Yu scratched his head awkwardly. “Uh, I’m not sure about that. Why don’t you ask yourself?”

“Ask who?”

“The intelligent service desk, of course.”

Pei Yu led the brothers to the contract service counter.

“We’d like to apply for a credit loan,” Pei Yu said, knocking on the marble counter and clearing his throat.

The next moment, a blue light screen appeared above them, followed by a mechanical voice like the system prompts.

[Confirmed. Please state the loan amount.]

The words appeared on the screen as well.

Ming Mu’s eyes lit up. Without waiting for Pei Yu, he explained his idea from earlier.

The mechanical voice paused for three seconds, then replied: [Confirmed. To prevent system loopholes, the mission hall will purchase Light Potions from the pharmacy workshop using spirit coins and provide them to the mission completer. The player only needs to repay the spirit coins used to purchase the Light Potion, or provide a Light Potion as repayment. The repayment period is three days after the mission is completed. If repaid within three days, only a 10 spirit coin fee is charged. After three days, a 3% daily interest will be applied. Please repay promptly—the sooner, the better.]

[If repayment is in goods, the same interest applies. The system only accepts spirit coins for interest payments.]

“Whoa—that’s a rip-off! The interest is so high!” Pei Yu sucked in a breath, mentally calculating that if they were late by thirty days, the interest would be enough to buy another Light Potion.

But Ming Mu, full of confidence, agreed without hesitation. “Alright, let’s do it. We’ll take out a loan for two Light Potions and recruit two S-rank ability users to take our place in the hunt.”

Ming Xiao didn’t object, only lowering his eyes as he considered how he could earn spirit coins to help with the interest if his brother couldn’t repay it. He’d been weak for years and had to rely on his brother, but now that he was recovering, he needed to do something—he couldn’t just keep depending on him.

So Ming Mu quickly signed the credit loan contract with the system AI, then immediately posted a mission in the hall:

[Mission: Recruit two S-rank or higher ability users to act as external support for Longteng and participate in the Senmu Marsh Hunting Tournament in Chaos City, regardless of outcome. Reward: one Light Potion per person upon completion.]

After reviewing the posting rules, Ming Xiao, eager to get results quickly, even had Ming Mu pay 100 spirit coins to pin the post and broadcast it across the entire Earth Village.

Time was of the essence—Village Chief Yun and the others would be leaving for Chaos City soon, so they had to get the word out and recruit people as quickly as possible."