Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Preparations Before Entering the Game
After two consecutive trades, only three cards remained on the table: a two-star Earth Attribute card, a two-star Poison Attribute card, and a one-star Fire Attribute card.
As the number of cards dwindled, people grew anxious.
This was especially true for players whose attributes matched the three remaining cards.
But even players with mismatched attributes were eager to make a move.
Even if they couldn’t absorb the cards themselves, they could hold onto them and trade for cards they wanted in the future.
Soon, the one-star Fire Attribute card was traded away to a player for two one-star item cards.
Perry Yates put away the two item cards: an Identification Device and a pair of Protective Gloves.
Two two-star cards were left. People came up to trade, but Perry Yates wasn’t interested in what they offered, so she declined their deals.
Seeing that no one could offer anything she found interesting, Perry Yates simply packed up her stall.
The cards wouldn’t expire, after all. Perry Yates decided to just wait for the next offline trading meet.
Normally, these offline trading meets were held once a month. The timing wasn’t fixed, but it was almost always after all the players had returned from the survival game.
After all, not every player’s game time was the same.
The others saw this and understood that Perry Yates was done trading. Though disappointed, they knew it was because they didn’t have anything good enough to offer in exchange.
It seemed they would just have to wait for next time.
Many of them silently swore to themselves that the next time they entered the game, they would definitely bring back more powerful cards.
After the crowd had completely dispersed, Perry Yates didn’t leave right away. Instead, she decided to wander through the areas she hadn’t visited yet, hoping to find a good deal someone else might have overlooked.
As she walked, Perry Yates stopped in front of one particular stall.
Spiritual Ability Gun:
Converts the holder’s own energy into bullets and fires them.
She then glanced at the other items on the stall. Aside from that one card, everything else was just some wild fruit.
’But even for a White Card, with the Spiritual Ability Gun’s specs, it’s impossible that no one’s interested.’
"How much is this?"
Perry Yates said, pointing to the White Card.
Hearing her voice, the stall owner slowly lifted his head. With a hint of caution in his eyes, he said, "O-one million."
A million for a single White Card. Now Perry Yates finally understood why it was still here.
Because those who could afford it didn’t need it, and those who needed it couldn’t afford it.
"Fine, I’ll take it."
With a wave of her hand, a bag full of cash appeared on the stall.
Knowing she might need cash for the offline trading meet, she had withdrawn this money before coming. It was exactly one million—no more, no less.
"You should count it."
Perry Yates had only said it offhandedly, but she was dumbfounded when the stall owner pulled out a cash-counting machine. ’Talk about being prepared.’
Once the machine confirmed the amount was correct, Perry Yates took the card and left.
She browsed the remaining stalls, and only after confirming there was nothing else of interest did she finally leave.
Arriving home late that night, Perry Yates didn’t rest. She eagerly laid out all of her new acquisitions.
First up were the attributeless cards.
After performing an Ascension, Perry Yates noticed these cards seemed a little different from ordinary ones. To start, their appearance hadn’t changed in the way a normal card would, yet they weren’t completely unchanged either.
However, their strangeness didn’t stop her from fusing them.
After fusing the Sewing, Hunting, Combat, and Cooking cards, Perry Yates felt a vast amount of knowledge pour into her mind.
’Looks like that person wasn’t lying to me after all.’
Next were the three cards: X-ray vision, Instant Teleportation, and Invisibility.
Unlike the previous four cards, these latter three had usage limits. They were essentially Skills, and of course, using a Skill had a cost. It wasn’t like she had an infinite mana bar.
After fusing all the attributeless cards, Perry Yates fell back into her old routine: grilling meat at home and then Ascending cards.
Aside from one Skill Card, she had six item cards left: the Card Storage Device, Tent Shelter, Candy Box, Identification Device, Protective Gloves, and Spiritual Ability Gun.
Among them, she had upgraded the Card Storage Device and the Candy Box to four stars, while the rest all remained at the three-star level.
After Ascending the Card Storage Device to four stars, Perry Yates placed all her cards inside it.
The next moment, with a simple thought, the Card Storage Device vanished from her waist.
’Much safer this way,’ she thought.
She looked at the only card left to deal with: the Monster Book Card.
The card had already changed from its original white to yellow.
[Large amounts of flesh and blood will please the Sprite Sealed within.]
Reading the description, Perry Yates ultimately decided against Ascending the card any further.
With a few days left before the next game, Perry Yates used the time to prepare all her ingredients into ready-to-eat meals.
She had brought back a lot of food from the last game. Even after selling half of it, plenty was left over. But after so many days of consumption, her supply of meat and wild fruit was dwindling at a visible rate.
She had actually tried Ascending meat from Cerulea. While it worked, the result was still a bit inferior compared to the meat from inside the game.
Besides the food, there were also the three animal hides.
Freshly skinned hides required a multi-step process to be turned into daily necessities like clothes and bedrolls.
But Perry Yates obviously didn’t know how to do any of that, and the process was time-consuming.
Clearly, she couldn’t wait that long. So, she simply Ascended all three hides directly.
The effect of the Ascension was unexpectedly good. Not only did it save time, but the texture and quality were also taken to a whole new level.
Seeing this, Perry Yates couldn’t help but marvel, ’Ascension really is an all-purpose Skill.’
Now, it was her time to shine. Empowered by her Sewing Skill, she cut and stitched the hides, quickly fashioning the three pieces into a bedroll, a blanket, a rug, a cloak, and an outfit.
After finishing all that, she also went to a shopping mall. She bought plenty of comfortable sportswear, windbreakers, various kinds of shoes, and a large supply of underwear and socks. Anyone watching would have thought she was buying clothes wholesale.
But only Perry Yates knew just how miserable it was to go thirty days in the jungle without a change of clothes.
Besides clothes, she also went to a hair salon and had her long hair cut to shoulder length.
Having done all this, on the day the game was set to begin, she got dressed and quietly waited for it to start.
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