Trade

Based on your overall evaluation and the Secret Realm Master's attitude, your Secret Realm reward is as follows. Please make a choice within one minute, or the Secret Realm Master will forcibly choose one at random.

A. Grant your body additional pollution (after purification by the Maiden of the Forest).

B. A random blessing from the Maiden of the Forest (below Tier 1).

C. Grant one of your items additional pollution.

D. Open the Secret Realm Shop and purchase a specific target (overall evaluation/authority insufficient; unavailable).

What should I pick?

"Ah, I know this one. At times like this, you pick whichever option has the most comments—cough, cough—the standard answer is: if you don't know which of four options to choose, pick C!"

It was only a low-tier Secret Realm reward, so Lu PingAn chose casually.

"I heard enchanted items are pretty valuable. Don't miss the chance if you get one."

The instant he made his choice, Lu PingAn was kicked straight out of the Secret Realm.

A pale yellow glow flashed through his backpack before finally settling on the Gardener Shovel from his portable gardener's three-piece set.

When the glow faded, it was still an ordinary-looking black Gardener Shovel.

Since he had never had a chance to use it, the 12.9 price tag was still attached.

But Lu PingAn noticed that when people saw the light moving through his bag, their gazes turned toward him.

Most were envious. The intentions behind a few of those looks were harder to say.

He fell silent for a moment. It seemed he had made a profit.

"...Make way."

There was a heavy flow of people at the entrance and exit, and he quickly vanished into the crowd, successfully finding Lei Shui Yun in front of Zhao Ying's stall.

"Why are you red?"

The first thing she said upon seeing him left Lu PingAn stunned.

He lowered his head to look at his wrist. The warning light, glowing red to the point of purple, showed that this "reward" was far too burdensome for a Tier 0 newcomer.

Lu PingAn calmly took off his wristband and tossed it into his backpack, then pulled out the Gardener Shovel he had just acquired.

"Do you want it? I just got it."

Yes, Lu PingAn intended to sell it.

Even if ordinary Professionals obtained a Pollution Item, they would usually need to find someone with rule-type abilities to appraise it, which took both time and money.

But with just one glance, Lu PingAn had decided to give it up.

Rebirth Gardener Shovel (Black Iron Low Rank Cursed Item)

Function: Rebirth (Black Iron Low Rank), slightly increases the survival rate of planted objects.

Curse: Lifebane (Black Iron Low Rank). You must use it to kill one weak living creature every day (insects or larger), or Rebirth cannot be activated.

Honestly, killing one living thing a day was nothing much. He could just get some small animals, and it should be fine.

But considering his own ability, Lu PingAn felt that this "Rebirth" might be more useful to other Gardeners.

Lu PingAn explained the shovel's effects in a few words, instantly drawing a crowd of Gardener-type Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters. He could not be bothered to look elsewhere for buyers.

"Five hundred."

"Five hundred and fifty! My work this year would be for nothing!"

"Seven hundred! Don't compete with me! I have to submit my graduation thesis next month!"

Their bids were unexpectedly conservative, making Lu PingAn hesitate over whether to sell it after all.

"We're not bidding with cash. It's Forest Coin, the Credit Coin accepted by all forces under the Maiden of the Forest. If you convert it to money, adding two zeroes would be a conservative estimate."

Holy crap, this trash shovel could sell for seventy thousand?!

Only then did Lu PingAn understand why people said Cursed Items were so valuable.

There was a limit to how much pollution a human body could endure. To gain further strength, one could only seek polluted "external objects."

"Senior Brother, Senior Brother Lu, your luck is incredible! The odds of getting a Cursed Item, especially a Life-type one, are absolutely below one in a thousand! You have to give me a cut, meow!"

Cat Cat's face was full of envy, and her eyes practically turned into gold coins.

"Sure, sure. Once I exchange the money—why does your expression look so strange?"

Cat Cat lowered her head, unwilling to speak. She felt exhausted and wanted to cry.

How could this newcomer, who did not even know such common knowledge, already seem so strong and earn so much more than she did?!

They had clearly entered together. She had clearly said she would look after him before they went in. Yet her wristband had not even changed color, and despite praying when she came out, she had gotten nothing at all.

"...No one exchanges divine coins for money. For Professionals, they're far more useful than cash. Take your high-quality Rebirth shovel, for example. Once it falls into a Gardener's hands, it will probably only ever be traded with Forest Coin afterward."

Lu PingAn fell silent. He was not surprised by the value of the Credit Coin issued by the Gods Church. If Professionals only used it to trade high-end goods, then of course it was hard currency. But...

"...Doesn't that mean these Gods Churches, in a sense, have the right to issue their own currency? What happens to the country's financial sovereignty?"

Clearly, such a huge question was not something to study right now.

After giving it some thought, Lu PingAn made his decision.

"Seven hundred Credit Coins? I can accept that, but exchange two hundred of them for cash. Could you give me a purchase catalog for Credit Coins? I need to think about what I want to buy before deciding. Can I contact you afterward?"

After receiving an affirmative answer, the transaction was quickly completed.

That fourth-year Senior Brother was quite straightforward. He directly transferred the money by bank card, and Lu PingAn hoped his graduation thesis would pass smoothly.

He even stated outright that he had gotten a slight bargain this time. At a trade fair, it might sell for over a thousand Credit Coins.

"It's worth that much? Isn't it only a Black Iron Low Rank Cursed Item? That seems like the lowest grade."

"Cursed Items aren't judged purely by rank. Their function is the first priority, and the attached cost is the second."

After finding a classmate with rule-type abilities to inspect the goods, that Senior Brother was delighted and chatted a little more.

It turned out this Black Iron Cursed Item was so valuable mainly because "Rebirth" was an extremely useful low-tier curse, while its cost was fairly low.

"Actually, the main thing is that the chance of obtaining a Cursed Item is already very low. Then it has to be attached to a Gardener's tool, and it has to be a useful curse like 'Rebirth,' with a low negative cost as well..."

Killing once a day was not considered a high cost? Lu PingAn became curious about the costs of other Cursed Items.

But he also knew that not asking questions and not prying into other people's privacy were Unspoken Rules in the secret keeper profession.

"I see. A low-probability event?"

"Yes. This is the legendary luck of newcomers. Every now and then, a newcomer enters a Secret Realm for the first time and gets a treasure that veterans cannot obtain even after years of trying."

That Senior Brother's face was full of envy at Lu PingAn's overnight fortune.

He had gritted his teeth and bought the shovel, making this year's work practically pointless, but he had still come out ahead—and now he even owed this newcomer a favor.

But Lu PingAn was thinking that this might not simply be beginner's luck. Rather, after an unfamiliar guest pleased the "shop owner," the other party had given him bait meant to say, Come again next time.

"Oh, right. I have some other loot here."

Since the transaction had gone pleasantly, Lu PingAn directly dumped out a pile of "junk," all gifts from the four wolves.

But this time, the result disappointed him somewhat.

"Altogether, it might be worth a little over ten thousand. I'm not very good at appraising prices. You can go to the shops over there; they specialize in buying these things. They deal in large volumes, so you won't have to worry about any trouble afterward."

Miss Zhao, who was handling the transaction, smiled politely, but her meaning was clear: We don't buy junk.

Lu PingAn was not upset. He put everything away and prepared to leave, but before going, he gave Senior Apprentice Li, with whom he had made a pleasant deal, a BUFF.

"No charge. Give it a try."

He had three slots a day, so he should not waste them.

The moment he walked away, Lu PingAn made a transfer through his phone, and then a call came in.

"It's me. Did you receive the twenty thousand? Don't worry, it's not a scam. I said I'm doing well. Don't worry, Dad is fine."

Saying he was doing well was not as convincing as sending money directly.

Lu PingAn smiled, talked, and walked.