Chapter 62: The Debate About Sleep

Mu Bai quickly closed the news page and checked the price fluctuations of silver.

In the chart, the line representing the silver price had suddenly begun to skyrocket two days ago, nearly doubling by now.

In raw numbers, it might not seem like much, but from a financial perspective, it was terrifying.

One had to realize…

In the history of silver futures trading, the fastest recorded surge took half a year to approach a fivefold increase, and that was under conditions without a margin system and with malicious market manipulation!

The market capacity for silver is limited and liquidity is tight; simple futures trading wouldn’t cause such massive price swings.

It was highly likely that a group of people was buying in a concentrated manner or acquiring physical silver through various channels.

The only group Mu Bai could think of… was Players!

In a single ten-thousand-person Chat Room, there were four of them plus Scarface—five people total—qualified to enter the Reward Station.

Converting that ratio, there were at least six figures’ worth of such people out there.

A significant portion of this group already knew the importance of silver and would buy it at any cost!

Checking the prices further back, signs of this price movement had appeared as early as a week ago, though it wasn’t obvious then.

The surge over the last two days was so frightening that it completely overshadowed the previous anomalies.

‘I’m afraid Players have been entering this Blue Star Reward Station since then!’

Mu Bai’s heart felt slightly heavy as she continued to check the gold price.

Silver was vital to them—in the short term, perhaps even more so than gold because the required quantity was much larger—but the value of gold in the future would certainly be higher than silver.

This had nothing to do with market prices; the currency of Blue Star couldn’t be taken onto the Train, but if it could be converted into resources, gold was definitely a more stable store of value than silver.

To Mu Bai’s relief, the gold price hadn’t changed much.

The massive shift in silver seemed to have had a slight impact on gold, but not much; it was within an understandable range.

It seemed most Players on Blue Star didn’t realize the importance of gold yet.

Or rather… some had guessed it but were limited by regulations and economic capacity, making it impossible to buy in bulk like they did with silver.

As for robbing banks or gold shops…

escape was impossible.

If one wanted to hold out until the Train appeared, a confrontation with the police was inevitable.

It would be “fun” if someone accidentally got shot; only gamblers would do that.

“Yuan, do you have a way to get a large amount of gold and silver?”

Mu Bai struck upon an idea.

A Train Upgrade required several kilograms of gold and dozens of kilograms of silver at every turn, which certainly counted as a “large amount” in modern society.

Although Ye Yuan’s family was indeed powerful, considering regulatory factors, Mu Bai didn’t hold much hope and only asked in passing.

If it didn’t work, she could only buy a small amount within the legal limits.

“Purchasing more than ten kilograms of gold will definitely trigger monitoring by official agencies. I don’t have a suitable reason for a bulk purchase; even if I have the money, the seller wouldn’t dare sell it…”

Ye Yuan shook her head.

Common knowledge: profiting from large-scale gold trading is illegal.

As for personal collection…

exceeding ten kilograms would also look suspicious.

Silver would have been fine before, but with the market in its current state, getting hold of physical stock was also difficult.

Mu Bai sighed softly; it was as she expected.

At that moment, Mo Cha suddenly spoke up.

“My family has channels. I can probably get several dozen kilograms, but we need to time the withdrawal carefully, otherwise it might be a bit troublesome.”

“What channels?”

Mu Bai was stunned.

She had guessed Mo Cha’s background was unusual—otherwise, she couldn’t have raised a girl with such an aura—but she hadn’t expected it to be this unusual.

Mo Cha actually had a way to get precious metals that even Ye Yuan couldn’t secure.

“Industrial-use non-ferrous metals,” Mo Cha said, without elaborating.

Mu Bai understood immediately upon hearing that.

‘Good heavens, an outlaw!’

Such things were indeed easier to get if you had the “inside track.”

Thinking about how her usually law-abiding self was about to do something like this with her teammates, Mu Bai felt a small thrill of excitement.

“Do we need to make any preparations?”

Mu Bai inquired.

“What preparations?”

Mo Cha tilted her head, her expression a literal question mark.

“I mean… for doing something like this, is there a plan? Or do we need to schedule the timing in advance?”

Mu Bai blinked.

“That won’t be necessary. I’ll just have someone bring the items to a designated spot in three days. We’ll wait for the Train at that location.”

“Which location…?”

“Anywhere is fine. Aren’t we short on construction materials? We can just find an abandoned construction site. What do you think?”

Mo Cha smiled.

“Oh, I see. I think that’s a great idea!”

Mu Bai’s eyes sparkled.

Mo Cha’s line of thinking was excellent; she hadn’t realized this strategy existed.

In a Trial Station, the Train would only stop for a very short time, perhaps a few minutes.

Although this station explicitly stated a three-day stay, it also said the Train would only come to pick up Players after three days.

Mu Bai didn’t think the Train would stay for even a tenth of that time once it arrived, but even a few minutes was enough to transport several hundred kilograms of construction materials using her [Portable Space].

For some reason, hearing that they didn’t need to cosplay as the “Now You See Me” heist crew made Mu Bai feel a tiny bit disappointed.

It wasn’t every day you got to do something so interesting without risking your life.

Ye Yuan’s deep blue eyes dimmed slightly.

***

Having taken a nap on the Train, none of the four were very sleepy.

They played on their phones and chatted until the early hours of the morning before preparing for bed.

“Mu Bai will stay with me in my bedroom. You two can stay in the guest rooms. Whether you sleep separately or together is fine; there are plenty of bedrooms,” Ye Yuan arranged.

“Eh?”

Mu Bai was a bit dazed.

‘How come it’s fine for the others to sleep separately, but when it’s my turn, it’s defaulted to sleeping together?’

“What, are you unwilling?”

Ye Yuan’s brow furrowed slightly.

“No… it’s fine.”

Mu Bai didn’t really mind.

Living alone had its perks—she could stay up as late as she wanted and sleep in whatever position she liked without affecting anyone else.

As for sleeping with someone else, Mu Bai had grown used to it.

Hugging someone to sleep was indeed very comfortable; a real person was even more fragrant and soft than a body pillow, and warm too.

Besides, she didn’t exactly need “private space for takeoff.”

Ever since the Dark Flame Dragon left her, Mu Bai hadn’t had those kinds of desires.

As for “attempting to mine”…

Mu Bai felt she hadn’t fallen to that level yet.

“How about we all sleep together? Like a school trip sleepover to build our friendship~”

Mo Cha suggested.

Tang Shifu’s face was a question mark.

Mu Bai thought about it and felt something wasn’t quite right.

Before she could respond, someone rejected it on her behalf.

“No,” Ye Yuan’s voice was slightly cold.

“Why not?”

Mo Cha looked puzzled.

“I’ve already gotten used to sleeping with Mu Bai. I won’t be able to sleep if there are other people… What do you think?”

Halfway through her explanation, Ye Yuan saw that Mu Bai didn’t look like she wanted to agree, so she turned to ask her.

“Um… actually, I’m not used to too many people either,” Mu Bai said, her face flushing slightly.

‘What kind of phrasing is that? “Not used to too many people in bed?” Why does that sound so suggestive?’

She mainly couldn’t handle so many beautiful girls sleeping with her.

Close contact during the day was fine, but sleeping was just a bit too intimate.

Tang Shifu abstained, and with two votes against, Mo Cha could only drop the subject.