A good time to remember the injured dog analogy...If you were to encounter an injured dog and attempted to approach it to help, the dog would be very aggressive towards you because it feels hurt and vulnerable and is trying to fight for its life.
People are the same. When someone treats you like garbage always remember it has nothing to do with you. They are hurt or broken on the inside and its a fight response they are projecting outward. You should simply feel sorry for someone who is so broken that they are resorting to talking shit to someone in a 24 year old online video game. The sad reality is for a lot of people on here P99/EQ is the only thing they have in life.
As someone else pointed out more than likely this was someone that was trying to farm a bunch of silk for themselves and instead of being good at the game they trade to prey on a newer plan. Unfortunately this is engrained in P99 culture all the way up to the end game where guilds try to gatekeep from eachother.
Now that we have that out of the way a few helpful things for you:
- East Commonlands is the zone players go to buy/sell from each other there is a tunnel there where most player to player trading is done.
- There is a guild called dial-a-port. Taking the boat is pretty rough (takes forever). If you really enjoy the ride go for it but if you're trying to get someone else in the world and want to get there more easily type "/w all dial". Its customary to tip 1pp per level of your character for a port but often times they will give rides to newer players for free.
- When using sneak you can con an NPC to see if its working or not (C key or right click by default) the mob should change from your default faction to indifferently when sneaking successfully. Also remember that sneak only works if you're not in the mobs view so be careful. After you con the mob and determine you are indifferent to them, walking directly infront of them will still trigger agro as the sneak no longer works in their line of sight.