Chapter 39: Or Perhaps, a Wife
[Private Chat] Chu Feng: “……”
Lu Ming (Anonymous): “You can actually hold back on this? You should at least open the random roll.”
[Private Chat] Chu Feng: “After being baptized by Penguin Games for so many years, I’ve had enough of the ‘random’ mechanic. Let’s get straight to the point: are you buying or not?”
Penguin Games, huh? Lu Ming suddenly realized, and could immediately relate.
Lu Ming (Anonymous): “Name your price.”
[Private Chat] Chu Feng: “I won’t gouge you. The range is E to A, so let’s take the median and sell it as a C-grade skill book: eight pieces of steel-grade weaponry.”
The price was actually quite reasonable; it seemed he had done his research. However, the upper hand was on Lu Ming’s side.
Lu Ming (Anonymous): “Four pieces.”
Chu Feng: “……Friend, forget it. Can I call you ‘Brother’? Don’t mess with me, Big Brother. Cutting the price in half right at the start? This isn’t a clothing store. This item is extremely rare. To open this chest, one of our team members was seriously injured. Seven pieces is the absolute minimum.”
Lu Ming (Anonymous): “I sympathize deeply with your team’s losses, but that has nothing to do with the trade. This item relies on luck and RNG. Since you are offloading the risk of a low-roll onto me, I certainly can’t pay the value you think it’s worth. What if I open an E-grade mastery skill I’ve already learned? Wouldn’t I be losing out? How about this: I’ll take one more step back, five pieces.”
Chu Feng: “Big Brother.”
Lu Ming (Anonymous): “That’s the most I can do. I’ll let you specify the weapon types at most, but if you push for more, this deal is off.”
To Lu Ming, eight or ten steel-grade weapons meant nothing—that was only two hundred specialized crystals. What he wanted to convey was an attitude—a strong, dominant attitude. Steel-grade weapons were currently under his monopoly. Since it was a monopoly, he was being merciful by not price-gouging; after all, this wasn’t a trade he had sought out.
Chu Feng remained silent for a long while, likely struggling with the decision. After a moment, he replied with a simple, “Deal.”
Lu Ming didn’t dawdle. He got straight to the point: “What types do you need? Straight blades, moon blades, broad-blade heavy sabers, long swords, broad-blade heavy swords, or daggers?”
Chu Feng: “Three straight blades, one broad-blade heavy saber, and one broad-blade heavy sword.”
Lu Ming: “Wait a moment.”
He opened the trading house, listed five bottles of drinking water, and at a lightning-fast speed, swapped them for four arbitrary blades and one fruit knife. He spent 100 specialized crystals to sublimate the blades into the styles Chu Feng requested, then clicked on Chu Feng to initiate the trade.
The trade window opened, and Lu Ming placed the five steel-grade weapons into the slots. Chu Feng placed the colorful, randomly generated skill book on his side.
The trade was completed in an instant, and the skill book fell into Lu Ming’s hands. He didn’t use it right away, choosing to message Chu Feng instead.
Lu Ming (Anonymous): “Come back to me next time you have something good.”
However, there was no response for a long time. Lu Ming wasn’t annoyed; he knew Chu Feng was probably genuinely feeling the sting. But what kind of business doesn't aim for profit? His steel-grade weapons might seem easy to come by, but if not for his bug-like sublimation ability, who else could produce them? Besides, after only two trades, it was far too early to talk about friendship.
That said, Chu Feng’s team clearly had strength. They were capable of attacking a large-scale location like a stadium, which had a high probability of housing groups of mutants, and they were capable of scavenging supply crates. Such clients should be courted when possible—a carrot-and-stick approach was appropriate.
Lu Ming (Anonymous): “Fine, I’ll give you priority notification for steel-grade ranged weapons.”
Chu Feng: “Ranged weapons? Steel-grade?! Priority notification? What does that mean?”
Lu Ming chuckled. As expected, this kid probably wasn’t very old; he was very easy to handle.
Lu Ming (Anonymous): “It means that once I obtain that batch of steel-grade ranged weapons, I will notify you first. Then, I’ll list what I need, and if you have those items, I’ll prioritize trading with you.”
Chu Feng: “Obtain?! Wait! Does Big Brother mean you already have a path to get these steel-grade ranged weapons?! Holy crap! Is that for real?!”
Lu Ming’s smile turned even more wicked. More than just having a path, the path was provided by Chu Feng himself.
Lu Ming: “What benefit would I get from lying to you? That’s all for now, I need to check on my child.”
After saying this, Lu Ming lifted the blanket. Just a moment ago, he felt the egg in his arms twitch.
Was it an illusion?
Chu Feng: “Child? Big Brother, you have a child? Did you bring them over during the transfer?”
Lu Ming: “Oh, or maybe it’s my wife.”
Chu Feng: “???”
Lu Ming: “Enough talk, I need to focus on forging mastery. We’ll chat later.”
Having said that, Lu Ming closed the chat box, looked at the broad-blade heavy saber he had listed, and searched the message board for the keyword “Forging Mastery.”
He had hoped for a surprise, but unfortunately, all that came up were useless posts discussing forging mastery. Thousands of threads had been built up, wasting his time.
Forget it. He might as well open the random skill book. If he got lucky and happened to roll Forging Mastery, wouldn’t the problem be solved?
On the other end, Chu Feng, who had finished the trade, remained rooted to the spot with a head full of question marks. His expression was as complicated as it could possibly be. What kind of insane talk was that? The child might be his wife?! What the hell?! The apocalypse might cause people to lose their moral compass, but it was only the first day, for God’s sake! What kind of person was this!
Back on Lu Ming’s side, he picked up the random skill book.
[Notification: “Random Skill Book” detected. Would you like to use it immediately? Upon use, you will randomly obtain one skill from the “E-A” grade pool.]
Lu Ming was about to select “Yes.”
His heart skipped a beat. Come to think of it, the first time he used a random skill book, he had been so carried away by getting a supply crate that he forgot about his sublimation ability, resulting in a huge loss.
Now, because his mind was wandering too much, he had almost fallen into the same trap twice.
From now on, no matter what it was, he had to remember to sublimate it. Even if the cost was high, he had to try, otherwise, he would be wasting the raw material.
“No.”
Rejecting the prompt, Lu Ming silently chanted for ultimate sublimation.
[Notification: Please select the sublimation tier.]
“Tier Two.”
[Notification: Sublimating “Random Skill Book” requires 200 “Specialized Crystals.” Do you wish to consume 200 Specialized Crystals to sublimate the “Random Skill Book” into a “Random Skill Book”?]
Hm?
A “Random Skill Book” sublimated into a “Random Skill Book”? And the cost was only 200 specialized crystals?
So cheap? Was there a problem?
Lu Ming checked three times to be sure he hadn’t misread it, then tapped on the tag of the sublimated skill book. The information panel immediately popped up.
[Random Skill Book] (Special Item)
Description: Upon use, you will randomly obtain one skill from the “C-A” grade pool.
…
So that was it.
The question was instantly resolved.
It turned out that the sublimation didn’t raise the upper limit of the random skill book, but rather the lower limit.
Getting rid of the E and D grades for 200 crystals was a massive profit no matter how you looked at it!
However, this made Lu Ming realize even more the preciousness of S-grade skills and items.
He flipped through the book and looked at the pathetic 40 specialized crystals in his inventory. Well, he couldn’t open the random skill book yet, either.
He tossed the skill book into his spatial bag and began to focus on incubating the egg. He would occasionally stroke the fuzz on the shell or sniff the fragrance emanating from it. He felt like he was petting a cat—he could do this all day.