Chapter 489: Chapter 307: Merchant, Shopping (Part 2)
In a crude laboratory, Calia, whom he hadn’t seen in several days, had dark circles under her eyes. Sensing Mr. Lamp God’s gaze, she hurriedly explained, "After he was infected with the Crystal Disease, he skipped the physical crystallization stage and went directly into Soul Crystalization. He had a high fever for seven days and was on the brink of death at one point, but on the eighth day, his fever miraculously broke, and his condition gradually stabilized.
By that point, his Soul had completely crystalized. However, unlike other patients, he didn’t die. Instead, he adapted to the crystalized Soul. After his fever subsided, he showed no signs of discomfort. On the contrary, his appetite increased dramatically, and he’s in high spirits, consistent with someone recovering from a serious illness. I performed a detailed physical examination and confirmed he’s perfectly healthy now. Aside from the state of his Soul, he’s no different from an ordinary person.
And after his Soul Crystalization, he awakened an Extraordinary Ability. It’s a useless one, though—he only gets handsome when no one is around."
’What kind of ridiculous ability is that...’ Zhou Chen silently retorted. ’Then again, an ability this bizarre... well, it’s not the first I’ve seen. There are plenty of abilities stranger than this one.’
"The Ability itself is useless, but his resistance to Abyssal Contamination and mental corruption is terrifyingly high," Calia continued. "I used some Artifacts to test him. He’s only six years old and hasn’t even gone through his Extraordinary Development Stage, yet his resistance to Abyssal Contamination and mental corruption is five times higher than a normal Ascender of the same tier. As he grows and gets stronger, this resistance is sure to increase."
Calia’s voice trembled. What did five times the resistance even mean? You could throw him into the Abyss without a protective suit. He could stroll casually through places most people would avoid at all costs. If he continued to grow, he could probably remain unharmed even in a torrent of Curses, right?severely
If there were more people like him, the difficulty of exploring the Abyss would be drastically reduced. We might not even need to fear the contamination and corrosion from the Abyss ever again.
"This is the effect Fallen Paradise wanted. Protect him. It would be best to hand him over to the Star Association," the Lamp God’s distant voice echoed in Calia’s mind.
"I will get him safely into the hands of the Star Association," Calia promised with a nod. She had a faint premonition that this could very well be an "evolution" that would change the course of human history!
·
After disconnecting the mental link, Zhou Chen’s consciousness returned to his North Carolina Clone, and he began to ponder the matter of Soul Crystalization.
From the information available, Soul Crystalization actually seemed to be a good thing, greatly increasing one’s resistance to Abyssal Contamination and mental corruption. If it could be proven safe, it would be a monumental discovery.
But Zhou Chen felt it wasn’t that simple. There was no other reason for his suspicion, except for the fact that this was something Fallen Paradise had come up with.
He wasn’t an expert, though, so he couldn’t figure out what the catch might be. Better to let the Star Association deal with that headache.
Zhou Chen looked at his Prayer System Panel. After the Salvation Army conquered Bear City and the Seventh Military District, his Prayer points had skyrocketed, now soaring to 21,815. Most of these points came from brainwashed "temp workers" who had been granted the Prayer System and were forced to hand over all the points they collected.
After a moment of contemplation, Zhou Chen decided on his next move: collect Gold Coins and have Xing Wu trade with the Merchant.
He was actually quite worried the Merchant would suddenly attempt an Advancement. Whether it succeeded or not, future business would be off the table. The Merchant had quite a few treasures on him, and this was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss.
After packing up and saying a quick goodbye to the Plague Doctor, Zhou Chen left the camp and headed for the cities occupied by the Salvation Army to start harvesting Traders.
·
「Twelve hours later.」
Zhou Chen drove a fully-loaded truck back to the camp. The Plague Doctor and the others rushed over when they heard the news, their faces a mask of stunned disbelief when they saw the truck.
"This thing... it’s not all... is it?" Ted asked, shocked.
"You guessed it. Every last one."
Zhou Chen opened the cargo hold, and a dazzling golden light instantly flared out. A mountain of shimmering Gold Coins glittered so brightly it was hard to keep one’s eyes open.
"There are over eight thousand here. Added to what we already saved up, it should be more than ten thousand. We can get a lot of good stuff from the Merchant with this," Zhou Chen said.
He had read the confidential intelligence reports. The Merchant sold a "Law" for five thousand Gold Coins, while a rare Extraordinary Ability or Extraordinary Artifact went for one thousand. Ten thousand Gold Coins could really buy a lot of treasures.
Of course, to be fair, the Merchant’s prices weren’t cheap. Zhou Chen had just caught a lucky break to get his hands on so many Gold Coins.
Normally, forget five thousand Gold Coins; you’d be lucky to collect even five hundred. The Merchant’s Traders were few and far between. Some cities only had one to three, and some had none at all. It was nothing like the current situation in North Carolina, where a single city had dozens of Traders, and you could run into one just by taking a stroll down the street.
"Xing Wu, we’ll have to trouble you to make another trip."
The Plague Doctor looked toward Xing Wu, who was walking over. After the Return Ball was secured by the Star Association, he and the old man had tacitly ceased their struggle and gone their separate ways.
When Xing Wu saw the sheer quantity of Gold Coins, a hint of surprise crossed his face before he nodded. "Leave it to me."
He knew how to find the Merchant—or rather, how to make the Merchant come to him.
He just had to find a safe transaction point, crush a Gold Coin, and the Merchant would be able to sense it. Whether the Merchant actually showed up, however, was pure luck.
Xing Wu was, of course, equipped with a Storage Artifact. He stored the ten-thousand-plus Gold Coins, reported to the Salvation Army’s leader, and then vanished on the spot.
Some ten minutes later, under the cover of darkness, Xing Wu arrived at the Great Rift of North Carolina. After scouting the surroundings and confirming he was alone, he took out a Gold Coin, crushed it, and began to wait in silence.
Half an hour passed. There was no sign of the Merchant.
He crushed another Gold Coin. Still nothing.
Finally, just as Xing Wu crushed the tenth Gold Coin, a plump figure slowly materialized from the void.
The Merchant wore an expensive suit, a gold-rimmed monocle over his right eye, and a silk half-top hat. He had a thick, upturned mustache, and his appearance alone screamed, ’This guy is a merchant.’
He looked at Xing Wu, tweaked his mustache, and said with an enthusiastic smile, "If I recall correctly, you’re Xing Wu of the Salvation Army."
"I am."
"You wish to make a trade with me?" the Merchant asked with a smile. "How many Gold Coins did you bring?"
"Not many. Just over ten thousand."
"...How many?!" The Merchant lost his composure for a moment, asking again in disbelief.
"Just over ten thousand," Xing Wu replied calmly.
The Merchant’s expression immediately turned strange, as if he’d seen a ghost, but he quickly figured it out. ’The Gold Coins must have come from the cities conquered by the Salvation Army.’
"Come on, then. We have three minutes to trade before the Star Association finds us."
The Merchant pulled a Golden Treasure Chest from out of nowhere. As he opened it, an item menu appeared directly in front of Xing Wu.
[Tier Four Rule: Fire]
[Tier Four Rule: Water]
[Tier Four Rule: Judgment]
[Tier Four Rule: Twist]
[Tier Four Rule...]
Xing Wu froze, utterly shaken. ’An entire page of just Tier Four Rules!’
’Just how many Tier Four Uncrowned had the Merchant harvested?’
’And with all these Abilities, just how powerful was the Merchant himself?’
·
Back at the camp, a resting Zhou Chen looked at his Prayer System Panel.
[Prayer Points: 4399]
That was right. He had burned through twenty thousand Prayer Points to create loaded Gold Coins.
Even so, all told, he had only managed to create sixty of these loaded Gold Coins, and he had no idea if they would actually work when the time came.
As for whether the Merchant would notice... Zhou Chen was fairly certain he wouldn’t. After all, the Prayer he had made was for "loading them in a way the Merchant wouldn’t detect."
’So, all I can do now is wait for good news.’
’Hopefully, the Merchant’s Advancement will come with a big surprise for him.’
As for why Zhou Chen was doing this, the reason was simple: he had once nearly died at the hands of Fallen Paradise.
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