Gradius Crystal Option

Gradius was a side-scrolling shooter and a spin-off of Gradius.

In the game, players could control a ship and shoot enemies. After destroying them, they could obtain upgrade components and strengthen the ship according to the number of components they currently held.

Acceleration, side missiles, sonic attack components, laser attack components, Crystal Options, and shields—the number of components consumed by these six ship enhancement modes increased from one to six.

Among them, the Crystal Option had the strongest functionality. It could perfectly replicate all of the compatible ship's attack capabilities, firing speed, power, missiles, firing components, and everything else.

Of course, in Cheng Tian's eyes, the original's perfect replication effect was already valuable enough to be sent to an auction house. Since this thing had appeared at a street stall, it had most likely been heavily weakened or restricted in use.

At the same time, he was even more curious whether this thing was exclusive to vehicles or whether people could use it too.

Crystal Support Unit Replica: Fine Blue/Lv1, Support Unit. Equipment requirement: Agility + Spirit greater than 25.

A mass-produced version manufactured using the support-unit technology of the Gradius Britannia, usable without a vehicle.

You must have more than 50% of your MP remaining before you can inject MP and activate the support unit. Once activated, the support unit will remain suspended beside you, assisting in combat by replicating the forms of your ranged attacks—

The support unit can only replicate E-rank skills/talents and the ranged attacks of green-quality or lower weapons and equipment.

The power of replicated attacks will be reduced to 25% of the original.

Each replicated attack will consume an equal amount of the user's internal MP.

The support unit consumes 1 MP every second it operates.

When its MP is depleted, it will enter standby mode for 60 minutes.

The support unit can block at most two attacks. Once shattered, it can only return to space for repairs.

Your Agility affects the support unit's floating movement speed, while your Spirit affects its maximum MP storage.

Price: 12,000 Heaven's Chosen Coins

Cheng Tian's first reaction was that, as a replica, this thing had indeed been brutally nerfed. His second reaction was: What the hell, why is it so expensive?!

As Cheng Tian held the Crystal Support Unit Replica, the Deadpool mask on his face made a matching frown of distress. He made no attempt to hide his reaction.

"Are you new, kid?"

The stall owner, who had just been listlessly browsing space news behind the stall, suddenly spoke. Only then did Cheng Tian shift his gaze over to him.

Actually, stall owners did not need to remain present twenty-four hours a day. They could simply set a price and leave to do something else. Many of the nearby stall owners were absent as well; customers could just pay for anything they liked. Space had rules, after all. So if a stall owner was still present under such circumstances, it meant that either he had nothing better to do or was willing to bargain with customers.

As for the man's appearance and outfit... Why did he look so much like Van Helsing?

Cheng Tian, who had completely forgotten that he himself was dressed in a cowboy-Deadpool style, raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. How could you tell?"

Faced with the question, Cheng Tian's straightforward admission instead left the stall owner stunned. The man then suddenly lost interest, sighing as he flopped back into the gaming chair behind him.

These days, openly admitting that you were a beginner was practically the same as broadcasting to the world, I'm easy prey. But beginners also meant there was not much profit to be squeezed from them. At least Old Van had no interest in joining the Hyenas surrounding the plaza.

Old Van knew that he had marked up the price excessively, but even with bargaining, the Crystal Support Unit Replica was not something a beginner could afford.

How should he put it? This thing was too expensive for beginners while providing no especially obvious boost in combat power. But for veterans, it also required considerable investment and enhancement before it could show its full potential. If they had equivalent resources, directly buying a better ranged weapon or simply obtaining a new skill was clearly the better choice.

Yet Old Van was reluctant to sell it cheaply, so he was staying here to see whether he could run into some sucker.

"It wasn't hard. I saw you wandering around earlier. Any beginner with even a little social awareness would collect information that way."

Old Van did not say much more. Having already decided that Cheng Tian could not afford to buy anything, he still did not go so far as to ignore him outright.

"To be honest, it's too expensive."

Cheng Tian did not dwell on that point. Instead, he turned the question back to the mass-produced Crystal Support Unit Replica.

Yes, he really was tempted.

At first glance, the Crystal Support Unit Replica was indeed stuck in an awkward position where it was too tasteless to consume yet too good to discard.

Its massive MP consumption made it difficult for newcomers to afford using, while its restriction to replicating low-level skills and equipment also limited its usefulness for veterans.

But Cheng Tian was different.

The MP consumption could easily be made up for with his newly acquired additional skill, Soul Salvation. As for skill replication, although Cheng Tian's first formal skill was the B-rank Hundred Demons' Night Parade, he also had the green-equipment Polymorph Staff and the template loading granted by his Game Expert talent!

The unranked template skills brought by template loading might be able to bypass the restrictions and satisfy the Crystal Support Unit Replica's attack-replication conditions.

"I know I marked it too high. But even if I cut the price in half and held a huge sale, could you afford it?"

Old Van was not deliberately mocking him. He was merely using this to tell Cheng Tian not to aim too high.

Normally, for a pure beginner player to survive their first trial and obtain a little over a thousand or around two thousand coins already counted as excellent. And that was assuming they had not slacked off too much during the team's mainline mission.

However, after Old Van finished speaking, he saw Cheng Tian pull up his status panel on the spot. After clicking his tongue, Cheng Tian turned around and decisively left.

As he walked, he muttered,

"Even if I sell this thing, I'd still be eight hundred short... Forget it."

Cheng Tian figured that since the other man had never truly intended to sell it to him at half price, there was no point wasting time. He might as well go look at other things.

Most of us Chinese people believed in keeping our wealth private. Cheng Tian generally followed that principle too, but at that very moment, he was in Chosen Evolution Space, and his mindset had completely switched to the flashy mode he used when playing games: If I don't show off, how will anyone know I'm awesome? Investing money in myself now will double my future returns!

So he had muttered that deliberately.

Although he did not know how much an ordinary beginner player should obtain from a first beginner trial, he knew one thing for certain: he was definitely among the cream of the crop of beginner players!

Sure enough, when Old Van heard that, his eyes widened as he stared at Cheng's departing back. He shot up from his reclining chair.

"Only eight hundred short? You made five thousand from your beginner trial!? Are you kidding me?!"

Old Van's completely unrestrained shout instantly attracted the attention of many nearby stall owners and customers. After understanding what he meant, they all focused their attention on Cheng Tian as well.

No one could resist gossip, and this was gossip about a beginner making a whopping five thousand coins from their first trial—something anyone with even the slightest knowledge of Chosen Evolution Space would find utterly absurd.

Cheng Tian, now at the center of the gossip, stopped walking and turned back to Old Van's stall... or rather, to the area beside it. He directly applied for stall privileges, then, under the astonished gazes of the gossiping players, placed a complete set of Knight Armor on display.

Then he heard a nearly unanimous collective gasp from all around him—

Holy crap! Did that come from Demon Village!?