According to Meng Yi's current understanding, the exterior of Paradise manifested as a gigantic multi-layered megacity, apparently paying homage to his old home, Hive City.
He looked up at the dome over Paradise Public Area, only to see nothing at all. The higher-level permission areas seemed not to exist.
Looking down, however, he could see everything clearly. Tier 1 Area, Tier 2 Area, Tier 3 Area, and Tier 4 Area were neatly arranged from bottom to top, all pressed beneath the Tier 5 Area where Meng Yi stood.
The boundary between "large" and "small" grew blurred at that moment. The bizarre, inverted, and chaotic scenery made people's thoughts fall into disarray.
The Instruction Manual mentioned that the higher the permission level of an area, the greater its quality and quantity would be.
Yet on the surface, the lower-permission areas, with their larger player populations, were the "larger" ones by conventional understanding.
"I've got a general idea of the Player Residential Area. The Comprehensive Leisure Area isn't very meaningful to me. I'll go check the prices in the Tier 5 Player Free Trade Zone first."
The Public Area was simply too vast. Relying on his legs alone, he wouldn't finish crossing it even by the year of the monkey.
The moment he thought of where he wanted to go, a Mist Vortex appeared in front of Meng Yi.
The information fed back by the Paradise Emblem told him that he could reach the place he envisioned simply by stepping into the mist.
"So that's how it works. It's the travel method those Tier 5 players used just now."
Holding his breath and focusing his mind, he stepped into the Mist Vortex.
The earth spun and the heavens whirled, the stars shifted and the constellations changed. In reality, nothing happened at all.
Through the Mist Vortex, Meng Yi arrived at the bustling Free Trade Zone.
It was far livelier than the Player Residential Area. A prosperous scene filled his eyes, and the players walking and stopping along the streets all had styles beyond anything ordinary mortals could imagine.
The Instruction Manual updated its information, and details about the Free Trade Zone flowed directly into Meng Yi's mind.
Broadly speaking, the Free Trade Zone could be divided into three categories.
First: the Commercial Street formed by players "wasting time" setting up street stalls.
Second: to save time, players could list their goods in Paradise's auction venue. The relevant facilities could be regarded as the "official Paradise auction house."
Third: players who urgently needed Paradise Coins and World Origin Crystals to strengthen themselves could sell unwanted goods to Paradise, giving rise to the "Pawn Shop."
At the Commercial Street, players only needed to pay a small amount of Paradise Coins as a venue fee. How much they sold depended entirely on their own ability, and they kept 100% of the proceeds.
At the Auction House, goods could be bought outright at a fixed price or put up for auction. The prices were generally not low, and Paradise took a small percentage as commission.
At the Pawn Shop, Paradise's buyback prices were neither high nor low, generally settling somewhere in the middle.
If players did not want to sell their possessions permanently, they could use the Pawn Shop as collateral for a loan. As long as they repaid the principal and a small amount of interest within a certain period, they could reclaim their items. Otherwise, the items would belong to Paradise.
"Oh, this is pretty humane."
As a newbie player who had reached the Tier 5 Area through Hidden Permission, Meng Yi had no problem declaring himself "the poorest person in Tier 5, bar none."
His only piece of equipment, Super Queen, was still watching the house.
He couldn't possibly sell his own blood, hide, or muscles as materials, could he? What if someone targeted him afterward?
The C-rated Overall Evaluation of Changsheng Type 3: Gene-sire probably wouldn't fetch much in an area where the average Overall Evaluation was B.
To be cautious, Meng Yi decided to check out the Commercial Street first. He would look at the Auction House later and skip the Pawn Shop entirely.
As he strolled along the Commercial Street, players with wildly different styles got along surprisingly well on both sides of the road.
"Godfather! Godmother! Grandpa! Grandma! Ancestors!"
"Please, take care of this child's business! Massive tearful sale!"
"My next dungeon is a Promotion Assessment! This child doesn't want to die!"
The unusually fresh and unconventional sales pitch caught Meng Yi's attention. He turned and walked toward the street stall where the voice had come from.
There were plenty of players gathered to watch the fun, and there was still plenty of room. Meng Yi easily squeezed into the crowd.
He saw a female player wearing a large white wizard's hat and a black gothic dress. Her dazzling golden hair was tied into twin tails, she stood less than one and a half meters tall, and her delicate face looked like a doll's. With her flat chest and androgynous appearance, she bent forward in defeat and pitifully held up a scroll from her stall while shouting her sales pitch.
"Come take a look! Freshly made Magic Side scrolls! Tear it open and release a portable, foolproof, nation-destroying forbidden spell strike!"
"Not 998! Not 648! Not 328! Not 198!"
"For only one B-Rank Source Crystal, plus 15,999 Paradise Coins, you can take it home!"
What the hell? Were Tier 5 players really this shameless?
Meng Yi's eye twitched faintly as he stood among the crowd, his gaze landing on the displayed item information.
[Name: Forbidden Spell Scroll · Bomb T.m.! Type: Magic Side · Disposable Consumable Effect: Gathers massive quantities of earth and fire elements to construct a meteor swarm of varying sizes, dealing both physical and magical damage over an area of 100,000 square kilometers. If unobstructed, the 6,000°C magical flames will not go out until every combustible object has been burned away. Creator: Player · Old Lady is a Magical Girl Overall Evaluation: B-]
Ignoring the name, which was full of questionable points, the forbidden spell scroll's effects were nothing to scoff at.
Stick Country had a territory of 100,000 square kilometers, while Sakura Country had a territory of 378,000 square kilometers.
The meteor swarm delivered physical impact and magical damage, followed by continuous burning from the flames.
It was enough to wipe out Stick Country in one shot, or let one-third of Little Sun relive the past of being "thoroughly cooked." Its nation-destroying rating was no exaggeration.
"You're a rotten toad playing with frogs—ugly as sin, but full of tricks!"
"It's only a B- scroll, yet you actually dare ask for a B-Source Crystal plus 16,000 Paradise Coins?"
Meng Yi's neighbor, Cthulhu Expert, waved his tentacles and started cursing without the slightest provocation. He seemed to have some grudge against Old Lady is a Magical Girl.
Cthulhu Expert's indescribable body instantly grew dozens of mouths.
"You worthless bastard! You little punk! I beat you up in the last dungeon, and you're still not satisfied?!"
"If you've got the guts, get in the arena! If I don't twist your XXX off, then I'll count it as your old X failing to install the parts properly!"
The Blonde Twin-tailed Gothic Loli flew into a rage. She sprang smoothly to her feet, planted both hands on her hips, and angrily rattled off an endless stream of insults. Her tiny mouth fired away without pause, and she held her own against Cthulhu Expert's dozens of mouths.
"Fight! If one of you doesn't die today, we'll look down on you two cowards from now on!"
"Who the hell are you calling a coward? Whoever's scared is a bastard's bastard!"
"Just do it! Old Xu, she's nothing but a skinny-armed, short-legged little brat. What the hell are you afraid of?"
The onlookers all began egging them on. The "local customs" of Evolution Paradise somehow seemed no less intense than the Warhammer Cesspool.
Standing silently among the crowd, Meng Yi looked completely out of place among the spectators.
Meng Yi asked, "Do you have any other goods?"
"Huh?"
The Blonde Twin-tailed Gothic Loli's ears twitched. Forgetting all about cursing out Cthulhu Expert, she swiftly picked up another scroll from the small table.
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