Chapter 157: The Idea of Sorrow

"Yeah, I never thought that guy would be so lucky. Heaven must be blind," said the long-haired youth, looking resentful.

"Oh, then let's go take a look together," Martis said with considerable interest. He had heard his teacher talk about bone-based components long ago. It was said that the person who made them was an elderly man—could that old man have come to the Nine Cities as well? Due to extreme scarcity, bone-based components were extremely rare within the Association, and many people had only heard the name without ever seeing the actual item. Martis was one of them.

Looking at the dark green mecha pad made of bone right in front of him, Martis observed it closely with keen interest. Beside him, Meng Shilei was proudly boasting to Yue Ren about how quick his eyes and hands had been the other day, snapping up this pricey bone-based component at lightning speed.

Interesting! As someone who minored in metal smelting, Martis had an exceptional understanding of other materials as well. The bone-based mecha pad before him had a peculiar texture and superb workmanship. He secretly used the micro-detector on his body to test it, and to his shock, he discovered that its hardness surpassed ordinary ultra-strong alloys, while its toughness was three times that of iron alloys!

Was this really made from bone? Since when had the bodies of these mutated creatures become so formidable? Martis was inwardly astonished.

Comparing the pros and cons of metal components versus bone components in his mind, Martis grew increasingly curious about the bone-based components and the old man capable of making them.

No matter where he went, Ye Chong always felt that a few people were trailing far behind him. However, with Mu's help, every word they spoke was crystal clear to Ye Chong. These people had been sent by the Association to protect him, but at the same time, they were also tasked with keeping him under surveillance.

Ye Chong felt extremely uncomfortable, yet he had to endure it while pretending to be completely oblivious.

Having nothing to do all day, Ye Chong began wandering around Jiukai City, searching for small shops like Tiansue Sand. There were many eccentric people and strange things here, such as potions that could instantly turn metal into liquid. Ye Chong was extremely interested in such things. However, every single one of these items was high-point merchandise; even with Ye Chong's considerable wealth in points, he could not afford such frantic spending.

Left with no choice, he had to increase his production of bone-based mecha components just to sustain his purchasing for a while. Mu was also quite surprised that Jiukai City harbored so many eccentric individuals.

After purchasing a pile of bizarre items whose names he could not even pronounce, Ye Chong finally quieted down. Listening to the conversations of the few people trailing behind him every day turned out to be quite an interesting pastime. Not only were there many internal secrets of the Association, but also a tremendous amount of resentment directed at Ye Chong for running around everywhere!

Moreover, roaming all over Jiukai City these past few days not only allowed Ye Chong to acquire many peculiar items, but also gave him a deeper familiarity with the entire city.

For instance, the sources of bone materials on the market.

Most of the bone materials on the market were provided by mechapilots, including pilots from the Association and some stranded ones. The mutation cycle of biological creatures was getting shorter and shorter; their bodies were becoming stronger and harder to hunt down. The skeletons of these mutated creatures were the main source of bone materials on the market. For the pilots, these skeletons were merely byproducts, as their primary source of points came from the commissions earned by completing Association missions.

Unlike mutated organisms, some newly discovered pristine planets harbored various novel native life forms. The skeletons of these native creatures were the darlings of all apothecaries, as they implied the emergence of a new medicinal ingredient. Such skeletal materials were extremely expensive on the market and were fiercely contested commodities. Pristine planets were fraught with unpredictable dangers, and the pilots dispatched on missions there were invariably cautious. However, if they managed to return successfully, the hefty mission rewards were enough to make anyone green with envy, and the spoils of war were equally valuable. Therefore, despite the extremely high risks, a large number of pilots still participated. The Association was extremely proactive in such exploratory activities, since it also meant the potential discovery of new minerals, new species, and new resources.

Mu proposed a method that could allow Ye Chong to obtain higher-quality bone materials. According to Mu, this method was devised by Shang, and he was merely acting as the mouthpiece. Mu repeated Shang's original words: "We must achieve maximum benefit with minimal value!" This reminded Ye Chong that Shang was an unadulterated miser.

Still, he was quite curious about Shang's method.

Just as everyone was beginning to grow accustomed to waiting daily for the bone-based mecha components crafted by this mysterious person, a procurement notice once again made the bone components the center of everyone's conversation!

The mysterious person suddenly announced that starting today, he would no longer sell bone-based mecha components. However, if anyone could provide him with rare bone materials not commonly found on the market, they would have a chance to receive bone-based mecha components as a gift.

As soon as this brief procurement notice was published, it instantly became the hottest topic in Jiukai City.

Everyone who had previously acquired bone-based mecha components secretly rejoiced in their hearts, while those who hadn't frantically wracked their brains trying to figure out how to get their hands on those rare bone materials.

On the very first day the procurement notice was released, Ye Chong received only three pieces of bone material, but one of them was of exceptional quality and top-tier texture. Ye Chong did not hesitate to use Jiukai City's trading system to send a set of bone-based component assemblies to that person.

Little did he expect the demonstration effect to be immense; within a mere hour, almost everyone in the entire Jiukai City knew that someone had acquired a set of bone-based mecha components!

On the second day, when Ye Chong arrived at the designated room to receive items, he stood before mountains of metal crates, dumbfounded and petrified. This expression lasted for a full ten seconds!

Good grief! Were these people out of their minds? They were just bone-based mecha components—did they have to overreact to this extent?

It took Ye Chong a full day just to screen through some of the high-quality bone materials. To his lamentable dismay, there were over thirty pieces of bone material with decent appearance and texture that he had filtered out, which meant he would also need to send out a matching number of component sets.

Wasn't this going to kill him? Ye Chong felt a splitting headache. He had only crafted a little over sixty components in total, and half of them were gone just like that. What was he going to do in the future? With no other choice, Ye Chong had to work through the night, hoping to churn out as many as possible.

On the third night, with bloodshot, straining eyes, Ye Chong hurried over to the room where he received goods. From last night until now, Ye Chong hadn't closed his eyes, pouring all his effort into crafting bone components. Yet despite his utmost efforts, he had only managed to produce thirty of the most common bone components, and even these thirty were merely semi-finished products. After all, making bone components was extremely time-consuming.

Before he even reached the room, Ye Chong was completely dumbfounded!

The entire corridor outside his room was completely jammed with metal crates containing bone materials, stretching on in what seemed like an endless procession! Automated delivery drones were constantly weaving through them, dropping off metal crates one after another. What was worse, he doubted whether those huge metal crates could even squeeze through such a narrow corridor.

With so many metal crates, how much bone material must be inside, and how many bone components would that require? Ye Chong felt like crying without tears; he had the sudden impulse to just faint right then and there! That damned Shang and his rotten ideas!

The first thing Ye Chong did was immediately take down the procurement notice. Thus, the people of Jiukai City discovered that this mysterious creator of bone components had actually stopped on the third day after posting the notice. For a time, all sorts of speculations arose.

However, Ye Chong had no time to entertain these speculations. He still had too many bone components to finish. It was safe to say he would likely have to dedicate all his time leading up to the Level 4 examination to this task!

The turn of events completely exceeded Ye Chong's expectations. The three portions of bone material on the first day were merely cautious probes by a few interested parties. It was the first time such an unfair procurement notice had appeared in Jiukai City, so the vast majority of people adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

Encouraged by the success of that single person on the first day, many people acted as if they had been stimulated, beginning to frantically hunt for rare bone materials. Thus, almost overnight, the point value of bone materials on the market skyrocketed!

The third day was the masterpiece of the Association. Without a doubt, the Association was the party possessing the most resources in all of Jiukai City. The Association itself had a very high demand for bone components, and since this opportunity presented itself, they naturally would not let it slip away. Old Man Ge—that was Ye Chong's master—had always maintained a lukewarm attitude toward the Association. Although almost all of his finished products circulated only within the Association, the shortage remained severe.

The Association had spent the first two days gathering rare bone materials, and on the third day, they produced the vast majority of them in one fell swoop. In their view, keeping these bone materials sitting around was completely useless anyway, so they might as well trade them for bone components. They possessed considerable experience in using bone components and were well aware of their exceptional qualities. To cooperate with this operation, the Association even cleared out the entire floor where Ye Chong's room was located, strictly forbidding anyone other than Ye Chong from entering or exiting. Their intentions could truly be called painstaking!

Yet, given all this, the weight of Ye Chong's task can well be imagined.

Martis had also sent a portion of bone material to Ye Chong—a portion he had scraped together through untold hardships from his instructor! Although he held the title of a mechapilot, he belonged roughly to the non-combat personnel and naturally lacked battle spoils like bone materials. Coincidentally, learning that his instructor possessed a very peculiar biological skeleton, he ran over and nagged his instructor relentlessly. He drove his instructor nearly mad until the latter finally handed over that set of skeletons to get rid of him.

Inside the room, Ye Chong forced his bloodshot eyes wide open as he frantically crafted bone components, while repeating curses and grievances against Shang in his mind a countless number of times!