Miner No. 5 Comprehensive Model

"Sir, I work for the boss too. The previous purchasing plan was set by the boss, so there was nothing I could do. But a major client like you is different. I can personally offer you a better price—how about a 5% concession?" As the Baxia shopkeeper offered the 5% concession, his facial muscles twitched. Clearly, this concession was causing him great pain.

"Shopkeeper, you're the boss, aren't you? You can just decide on a 5% concession yourself?" Kerry had no intention of letting this profiteer off so easily. He planned to slam him with every extra jab he could—jab him to death.

"...Our boss learned today that the Tortoise Clan had opened a shop too, so he just issued an order to offer concessions... I can't keep making this up. Sir, tell me, what will it take for you to sell them to me?" The profiteering Baxia shopkeeper had still tried to bluff.

When he realized that his claim of personally deciding the concession contradicted the boss's order from today, he simply gave up. He was already prepared to be fleeced, though he had no idea how much profit he would have left in the end.

"A 10% concession, and I'll sell to you. To be honest, I have more goods. You'd better think it over carefully." Since the other party had backed down, Kerry naturally intended to fleece him hard.

Old Baxia refused without even thinking, immediately counteroffering. "Sir, I can't do business at a loss. Purple Poison Jellyfish have very low profit margins. Five percent is already the limit. If I concede any more, I won't be able to survive. How about I add two Marrow Cleansing Fruits?" Old Baxia put on a pitiful expression.

"An 8% concession, plus five Marrow Cleansing Fruits."

"A 5% concession, plus three Marrow Cleansing Fruits."

"Goodbye." Kerry turned to leave, but he did not close the video feed on the trading terminal.

"Wait, you win! Come back quickly." Shopkeeper Baxia anxiously called Kerry back, then said again, "A 6% concession and five Marrow Cleansing Fruits. Sell to me from now on. The Marrow Cleansing Fruits count as compensation for before. Is that acceptable? Give me a straight answer—I really have no profit left."

Kerry could tell that this profiteering Baxia had truly reached his bottom line. If he pressed any harder, there really would be no deal. So he put on a reluctant expression and began appraising this batch of goods. In the end, after pricing the jellyfish according to size and quality, the total came to 5,480 Points.

"Sir, let's round it off. 5,400 Points, plus the 6% concession, comes to 5,724. Let's round it down and make the deal at 5,700." Old Baxia wore the expression of an honest and loyal man as he calculated the final price for Kerry.

"You calculated it wrong. Rounded off, it should be exactly 6,000 Points. Let's make the deal." There was no such thing as the most shameless, only someone even more shameless. The moment Kerry heard that the other party had such a method of rounding off numbers, he had wanted to curse. But if you can round numbers, so can I. Kerry also put on an expression of righteous loyalty, as though the other side had made a fortune. They would see who was better at rounding.

"No, sir, is that what you call rounding? You're taking my life!" Only now did Old Baxia realize what kind of opponent he had provoked. Compared to the shamelessness of the man before him, he himself was practically a model merchant, a benevolent businessman.

Half an hour later, after haggling with the penny-pinching Old Baxia until his lips were nearly worn out, Kerry finally won the rounding contest by a narrow margin, settling on a price of 5,810.

Leaving aside how Old Baxia would never play rounding games with Kerry again, Kerry now returned to the stall hall with more than 8,000 Points and five Marrow Cleansing Fruits, carrying himself like a newly rich tycoon.

Earlier, he had wanted to exchange some Points for gold coins to develop his territory. Now, he did not merely want gold coins for development—he also wanted to buy things that could either improve his own strength or bolster the strength of his territory.

Having already browsed more than half the stalls during the day, Kerry planned to visit every remaining stall before deciding what to buy. He headed toward the robot-selling stall where he had appeared when he came online.

The stall owner was a half-human, half-machine creature. This time, Kerry clearly saw the indifference in his eyes. Even though Kerry had already crouched at his stall to examine the goods, the owner showed no intention of introducing them. Had he turned his brain into a machine too? Kerry maliciously speculated.

This stall sold various civilian and commercial robots. Like the other stalls and online shops, it had no military combat robots.

Kerry had previously asked some stall owners why no one traded weapons in the Dimensional Exchange. The answer he received was that the Dimensional Exchange explicitly prohibited all weapon transactions, mainly to prevent the military balance of the various dimensions from being disrupted.

That did not mean military equipment could not be sold at all. It simply had to be heavily stripped down before it could be traded, so few people dealt in it. Take Gundam robots, for example: once all weapon systems were removed, they were nothing more than giant robots. At most, they were faster and had stronger armor. Who would buy something like that?

There were very few civilian models at the stall, only two: a cleaning robot and a medical-care robot. The medical-care robot was somewhat useful to Kerry.

Then there were numerous commercial robots, roughly divided into engineering, mining, manufacturing, and maintenance types. There were both small and large models. The larger the machine, the greater its power and the higher its price.

There were many engineering robots. What caught Kerry's eye was a small comprehensive municipal engineering robot, capable of repairing roads, bridges, and houses. Its drawback was its low power and poor efficiency as a single unit. Then there were mining robots. The large ones were enormous, while the small ones were only about the size of robotic dogs. All of them had strong specialized functions. Some were dedicated to mining and could extract tens of thousands of cubic meters of minerals per day, while others specialized in prospecting. The best ones could scan an entire planet.

Kerry had no need for one that could scan an entire planet. He only needed one that could survey the waters around his territory. He had wanted to buy a robot ever since learning that there were minerals in the sea but no one was mining them. Kerry was quite interested in Miner No. 5 Comprehensive Model. Its functions were neither the strongest nor the most outstanding, but it was very suitable for Kerry's current territory.

Miner No. 5 Comprehensive Model: An older mining robot model, waterproof, collision-resistant, and dustproof, suitable for all kinds of mining terrain, including the seabed and outer space. The comprehensive model includes mining-area guard functions, basic smelting functions, and basic prospecting functions for gold, silver, copper, and iron. Although its mining capability is inferior to Miner No. 5's specialized mining model, it has the advantages of high AI, additional riot-control equipment, and excellent smelting and prospecting capabilities. Price: 5,000 Points per unit. Evaluation: Mining capability is average, but it is an essential robot for mining areas. Equipped with a riot shield, riot-control Electric Baton, riot-control capture net, rubber riot-control gun, Basic Smelting Backpack, and mineral prospecting scanner.

For Kerry, aside from its somewhat high price, it was practically a robot designed for his territory. Guard duty, smelting, and prospecting were all things he urgently needed. None of them could be lacking if he wanted to develop, especially the rubber riot-control gun among the guard equipment. It was not considered a weapon, yet it still possessed some killing power. Although Kerry had already decided to buy a Miner No. 5 Comprehensive Model, half the stalls still remained unexplored. Thinking that there might be something even better ahead, he followed his original plan, left the stall, and headed toward the next one.