Chapter 43: Upgraded Molotov
Joo Joowon quickly understood the purpose of those lights.
Once a seller listed an item, it would remain on the marketplace until the time limit expired without anyone purchasing it.
Although the trading market itself did not judge whether products were genuine or fake, every item still underwent a system scan before being listed.
Because of that, the system naturally possessed its own judgment regarding the quality of every object.
After all, ever since the game descended upon the world, everything across the globe had already become digitized.
All objects and living beings had transformed into strings of "data," each carrying their own quality ranks.
The fact that everything currently displayed gray quality was easy to understand as well.
Destructive power had never necessarily been linked directly to quality rank.
For example, firearms were heavily restricted items in the country, while bows could still be purchased relatively easily.
Yet in terms of killing power, a sixty pound bow was far deadlier than some tiny pistols that could not even kill a person properly.
The only remaining question now was whether darker gray light represented better quality or lighter gray light represented better quality.
After thinking about it for a moment, Joo Joowon focused his attention on the lighter colored glows.
Gray rank was followed above by white rank.
According to that logic, the lighter the gray became, the better the item’s quality should theoretically be.
Of course, this was still only speculation.
Until he actually used the Molotov himself, he could not confirm anything for certain.
Without an Appraisal skill, all he could do right now was rely on half guessing and half experimentation.
After locking onto several items with noticeably paler glows, Joo Joowon rubbed his eyes and checked their prices.
Anything requiring copper coins was immediately skipped.
He himself only possessed ten copper coins in total.
He was so poor that if a thief broke into his home, the thief would probably need to lend him money instead.
If he did not save the coins carefully, how could he possibly afford to spend them recklessly?
Among the remaining Molotov, Joo Joowon ultimately chose one seller who only requested rice in exchange.
The seller wanted 5kg of rice.
To Joo Joowon, the price was still fairly cheap.
Although homemade Molotov only cost a few yuan to create before the apocalypse, their usefulness during the apocalypse was completely different.
Once their reputation spread, they would likely become priceless commodities with no stable market value.
There was no point nitpicking over such details.
Besides, since he lacked an inventory system and only needed to feed himself and one cat, Joo Joowon’s food consumption was not especially large.
After scavenging entire apartment floors repeatedly, he no longer lacked rice at all.
Naturally, he did not care much about this level of consumption.
After completing the transaction, Joo Joowon purchased two additional Molotov cocktails as backups.
Then, while staring at the marketplace products, a sudden thought surfaced in his mind.
Could this ability identify scammers too?
After leaving the homemade weapons section, he randomly selected several other products to observe.
Soon, he realized he had been overthinking things.
Enhanced Cognition truly allowed him to observe an item’s quality grade, but that was all.
At present, almost every item on the marketplace was still gray quality anyway.
How much difference could there really be?
It had merely been a random idea to begin with.
Since it did not work, Joo Joowon did not care too much.
He closed the trading market, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and headed outside.
Dragging a zombie corpse he had previously killed into the stairwell, he quickly finished preparing everything.
Once ready, Joo Joowon soaked a piece of tissue paper, ignited it with a lighter, and hurled the Molotov cocktail toward the zombie corpse.
The glass bottle exploded instantly.
Tiny flames burst outward with a sharp whoosh.
Within moments, the zombie corpse was completely engulfed in fire.
Before the flames could fully spread across the zombie’s entire body, Joo Joowon immediately grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed continuously.
Only after quite some time did the flames finally die out.
Soon afterward, an unbearable stench slowly began spreading throughout the surrounding area.
Joo Joowon was very satisfied with the Molotov’s effectiveness.
Although it was a single use item, it was an excellent tool for escaping or blocking enemies during critical moments.
The only downside was the long preparation time before throwing it.
Because of that, it was more suitable in situations involving multiple people.
Otherwise, if he failed to hit the target, then throwing it would be no different from wasting it entirely.
After returning home, Joo Joowon opened the marketplace once again, planning to purchase several more as backups.
Since the Molotov were cheap to produce, the sellers usually crafted multiple copies at once before listing them.
However, each listing requested different items in exchange.
The moment he opened the page, Joo Joowon noticed a private message sent by the seller he had purchased from earlier.
[ TheMadScientist: Boss!!! ]
[ TheMadScientist: Boss Ashfall, I still have upgraded Molotov here! Double the effectiveness! Do you want them? ]
Joo Joowon was not surprised at all that the other party possessed upgraded Molotov.
As long as they had enough materials, these highly "criminal minded" players could create things far beyond ordinary imagination.
The increase in Mental Power had also made his memories significantly clearer than before.
After thinking briefly, he replied.
[ Ashfall: Made with phosphorus fertilizer? ]
Molotov created by mixing phosphorus fertilizer, petroleum jelly, plastic, and gasoline according to proper ratios indeed produced far stronger effects than those made using cheap lighter fluid.
However, obtaining the raw materials was much less convenient and far more expensive compared to the simpler version.
Even so, Joo Joowon still felt tempted.
After all, the effectiveness of this formula truly increased dramatically.
The experience required for future leveling was simply too enormous.
Because of that, he could not help beginning to consider more unconventional methods.
[ TheMadScientist: That’s right! Boss Ashfall, you actually know this stuff too? ]
Joo Joowon replied.
[ Ashfall: I know a little. What’s your price? ]
[ TheMadScientist: Sugar! Boss, I need sugar! ]
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