Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Offline Trade Meet
With the government’s intervention, those players who had suddenly gained power—and were acting like they were the kings of the world—instantly settled down, reining themselves in considerably.
She skillfully opened a webpage and entered her player ID.
Before, since she wasn’t a player, she could only browse the public forums. Actually viewing game-related content required a player ID.
She clicked on the trending posts.
#WTB a two-star Water Element Card. Cash or Gold accepted!#
#WTB a two-star Safe House card. Open to all offers!#
#Buying all types of Elemental Cards, long-term!#
#WTB food with special effects. Open to all offers!#
The Survival Game was fraught with danger. Under the constant pressure of death, it was inevitable that players would need to trade resources.
Although the Survival Game Administration also facilitated sales and trades, their prices were often less favorable than what players desired. Over time, this gave rise to offline trade meets.
These events were more like black markets, where people preferred to barter or trade with Gold.
Most Card Hunters chose to come here after safely leaving the game.
The next offline trade meet was being held in Faelen in just one day.
Perry Yates looked at her five remaining Skill Cards. To ensure she could trade for the ones she wanted, she performed Ascension on all of them, raising them to two-star.
Once that was done, she packed her bags and booked a direct high-speed rail ticket to Faelen on her phone.
"Time to go!"
At five o’clock that evening, Perry Yates arrived in Faelen.
As a famous tourist hotspot, the moment she stepped off the train, she saw that the station was teeming with people.
Perry Yates found a random hotel for the night. The next day, she woke up early.
Since the offline trade meet was held at night, she wasn’t in a hurry.
First, she went to the Faelen branch of the Survival Game Administration and expressed her interest in purchasing cards.
After her player status was confirmed, Perry Yates was led into a room.
The Survival Game Administration in Faelen was clearly not as well-stocked as the one in Drenfall. Their card inventory was less than half of Drenfall’s, and most of what they had were just White Cards.
Perry Yates selected a few single-use Elemental Cards, spending less than a million.
After returning to the hotel, she performed Ascension on all of them, turning them into one-star cards.
With that finished, she quietly waited for night to fall.
...
That night, inside an abandoned factory complex.
From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a derelict factory, but inside, it was a whole other world.
At the factory entrance, two burly players were acting as bouncers, checking the identity of each person trying to enter.
Only players were allowed into the offline trade meet.
By the time Perry Yates arrived, a long line had already formed.
Everyone wore masks. This was to protect their own identities, as well as everyone else’s, and to prevent anyone from being recognized and targeted for a "dog-eat-dog" robbery after the meet.
After her identity was verified, Perry Yates entered the trade meet without a problem.
Inside the abandoned factory, a considerable crowd had already gathered.
Some players had picked a random spot to lay out and sell the items they’d brought back from the game.
Other players were wandering among the various stalls, searching for cards they needed.
Perry Yates, her face half-hidden by a Cat Face Mask, blended into the crowd, her eyes constantly scanning for the cards she wanted.
’A card’s level isn’t important to me. What matters is its ability—though that’s mainly true for item cards, of course.’
’As for Skill Cards... they’re rare enough as it is. Multi-attribute ones are even rarer, to say nothing of finding one that combines the Wood, Moon, and Sun attributes.’
’Why are all these cards so worthless?’
As Perry Yates moved from one stall to the next, her expression grew increasingly disappointed.
’They’re all useless cards.’
Just then, her gaze was suddenly drawn to a stall up ahead, which was surrounded by a dense crowd several layers deep.
She finally managed to squeeze her way in, only to discover that the stall was selling nothing but White Cards.
"Why are they all White Cards?"
someone in the crowd grumbled.
At this, the stall owner smiled, a cunning glint in her fox-like eyes.
She raised her voice and announced to the crowd, "Everyone, listen up! These aren’t White Cards. They’re attributeless Skill Cards! They have no attribute restrictions, so any player can absorb them."
"Attributeless Skill Cards? I’ve never heard of such a thing. You didn’t just make that up, did you?"
The stall owner didn’t get angry at the accusation. She simply replied at a leisurely pace, "Well, you’ll find out if they’re real once you buy one, won’t you?"
"One one-star Water Attribute card gets you one attributeless card. One two-star Water Attribute card gets you three."
"The cards are guaranteed. If there’s any problem or they’re not as advertised, I’ll give you ten in return for every fake one. Guaranteed."
Her words instantly caused a stir.
However, even though everyone was eyeing the attributeless Skill Cards greedily, no one was stepping forward to trade.
For one thing, no one had ever heard of these attributeless cards. What if they were fakes?
The stall owner had promised to compensate them tenfold, but who knew if she’d even be around to honor that?
For another, Skill Cards were rare to begin with, and this seller was specifically demanding Water Attribute ones.
While the other players were hesitating, Perry Yates had already started making her selections.
There were more than twenty attributeless Skill Cards laid out on the stall, each with a different Skill.
After careful consideration, Perry Yates finally selected Sewing, Hunting, Combat, Cooking, X-ray vision, Instant Teleportation, and Invisibility.
"I’ll take these."
Perry Yates’s voice cut through the noise, and the area instantly fell silent.
"Friend, did you hear my exchange rates? One card for a one-star Water Attribute, three cards for a two-star. You picked out seven cards. Don’t tell me you have seven one-star cards?"
Perry Yates shook her head. "I only have one one-star card. But I have two two-star cards."
As she spoke, Perry Yates placed three cards on the stall.
Two of the cards were the very same python and two-headed crocodile cards from before. The one-star card was one called Water Blade, which she had acquired just yesterday at the Faelen Survival Game Administration; it could fire off a blade of water when used.
Staring at the three cards, the stall owner’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
She looked them over again and again. After confirming they were real and that she wasn’t dreaming, an irrepressible smile spread across her face.
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