The Top Prop Wholesaler [Infinite]

[@] The Chief Researcher, But Back to Being a Freshman is now open for reading. Check out my author page, and please add it to your favorites! [@] Coming soon: My Whole Family Are All Strange NPCs. The blurb is at the end. Please add it to your favorites! Blurb: Wei Yao inherited her parents' prop shop, but business had been steadily declining as physical haunted houses fell out of favor. One day, she was pulled into a horror survival game world. She watched the other players pinch pennies when using props, browsed the System store's five-digit price tags, and then looked at her own single-digit balance. Wei Yao: "..." Damn it, I'm going to bring those prices down! In a game instance: A high-level player took out an A-rank prop and flaunted it, ignoring the new players' pleas as he left on his own. Wei Yao, who had been quietly observing and analyzing how it was made, sat down on the spot. She used roadside grass to weave ten of them in one go, then handed one to each person. New players: "! What's this, a knockoff?" Wei Yao glanced around. "Keep your voice down. Is this something to be proud of?!" Guided by the principle that all proletarian players should unite, Wei Yao turned her sights on the NPCs and set about fleecing them. In the game: While everyone else screamed in terror at the NPCs, she could only feel for the young NPC woman's tentacle and hold it close. "It must hurt so much when people keep chopping it off." The NPC was stunned. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought she had found a soulmate. The next second, however, Wei Yao dodged the woman's outstretched arms and pulled something rolled up from her pocket. She unfurled it and showed it off from every angle. "So come check out these inflatable tentacles! The texture is superb, almost indistinguishable from the real thing. They sway in the breeze, so no extra power is needed. Made with biodegradable materials, they're clean and eco-friendly, and won't pollute the game instance. Best of all, they'll spare you the trouble of getting your tentacles chopped off." "Not 9,998, not 998, just 98 System points, and an inflatable tentacle is yours to take home!" The young woman clicked furiously with her dozen or so hands and placed an order in no time. The NPC got high-quality tentacles, Wei Yao got System points, and the other players were spared attacks from real tentacles. Everyone had a bright future ahead of them. Later on, Wei Yao organized a players' guild. She was in charge of design, the factory handled production, and guild members sold the goods throughout the game instances. Professional players tested the game instances and recorded any shortcomings in the props to help with after-sales service. Players with a talent for acting pretended to be scared, improving the NPCs' shopping experience. Some high-level NPCs weren't satisfied with mass-produced goods, so Wei Yao thoughtfully offered high-priced custom orders, dedicated to meeting every customer's needs. In a game instance, a newly born little NPC gazed around with innocent wonder as it watched its many relatives bow and scrape before a human. It looked confused. "Who are you?" it asked. "Just an utterly unremarkable wholesaler," Wei Yao replied. She tenderly patted the little NPC's head. Another fresh crop of customers. Wonderful. [Boundary: The male lead is a plot device and a mere backdrop. Very little romance.] [Lighthearted wish-fulfillment fluff. You can set your brain aside and relax. There may be some plot holes.] My Whole Family Are All Strange NPCs Fang Yingqiu has Cotard's syndrome. Simply put, although she is alive, she firmly believes she is dead. Always an odd one out, she accidentally entered the game Frightful Life. This place was full of danger. Terrifying urban legends piled up to form countless little worlds that struck fear into everyone's hearts, forcing them to clear one game after another. Most players were barely scraping by, living in constant terror. When Fang Yingqiu first entered the game, she sniffed the air, heavy with the scent of death, and listened to the wails all around her announcing that the end was near. Then she turned and hugged the red wedding dress woman who had sprung out to scare her. How wonderful. It feels just like coming home. Seeing how attached the girl looked, the NPC, who had become a female ghost after losing her child, was left speechless: "...!!!" Help, my maternal instincts are going wild! In the game: Player A: "Aah! Watch out on your left! There's a thousand-year-old zombie climbing through the window!" Fang Yingqiu, taking a burial shroud that smelled of laundry detergent from the kindly zombie: "It's fine. Grandma's just worried I'll be cold." Player B: "There's a hanging ghost on the ceiling! Aah! Run downstairs!" Fang Yingqiu patted their shoulder reassuringly. "Don't be scared. My brother's just working out." Player C: "We ran into a starving ghost in this famine game instance. We're doomed! We're going to become his food, sob sob sob!" Right after that, the starving players watched helplessly as the starving ghost opened a lunchbox full of food. Fang Yingqiu: "Wow! Thanks, Dad!" The players: "???" The players: "!!!" Player D: "We're really going to die this time... It's bad enough that we're trapped with A-rank bosses and backed into a corner, but now the S-rank game instance's boss, the Red Wedding Dress, has wandered in too! She's screaming for someone to give her child back. She must be going berserk, sob sob sob!" Fang Yingqiu coughed softly twice. Player A: "Could it be..." Player B: "Would you happen to be..." Player C: "Could you possibly..." Fang Yingqiu: "Sorry. I'm the child she's talking about." Much later, in the real world: A friend looked at Zhong Feichen, who showed no fear inside the haunted house, and asked in confusion, "Weren't you terrified of ghosts?" How come you're so calm today? Zhong Feichen fell silent. "Because of my mother-in-law." Friend: "?" [An easygoing ray of sunshine who isn't afraid of anything x A man who's scared of ghosts but tries hard to smile calmly to impress his in-laws] Theme: Work hard wherever life takes you!