The Blind Box Needed Intelligence to Back It Up
"Suddenly having free time always makes me feel a little uneasy!"
In the cafeteria, Mang Ke poked at the bacon on his plate with his fork and said rather lazily.
Feng Xue gulped down the porridge before saying:
"I hope you won't regret saying that later."
"What?" Upon hearing this, Mang Ke immediately perked up, looking at Feng Xue with curious eyes. Feng Xue simply shrugged and said:
"Why do you think this kind of gambling-related event has a week-long break? It's not a holiday for you."
"No, I think a week is already too short, after all, both the mech and the pilot need rest." Mang Ke shook his head, but Feng Xue sighed:
"Apart from teams like us who are eager to advance to higher-level competitions, most pilots play one or two matches every one or two weeks. We're playing one or two matches a day to accumulate enough points this quarter. But this one-week break every month applies to all participating teams!"
"So, what's the purpose of this break?" Mang Ke stuffed the last piece of bacon into her mouth. She was now extremely interested in every detail of the project, not to mention the news sent from her homeland last night that the Iron Armor Steel Fist project had been approved.
"Of course..."
"Of course, we'll have you upgrade your mechs!"
Old Li, who suddenly appeared, interrupted and clapped his hands vigorously, saying:
"Have you finished eating? If you have, let's get going."
"Where are we going?" Mang Ke asked blankly. Old Li gave Feng Xue a strange look, then explained:
"Of course we went shopping! I thought this guy had told you about it!"
"Shopping?" Mang Ke's mind raced over the two words before he remembered what Feng Xue had told him. He didn't finish his breakfast and quickly got up, saying:
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
The convoy of trucks pulling huge cargo boxes sped along the highways that had been specially reinforced to withstand heavy loads. That's the good thing about industrial towns; even if tanks were on the road, they wouldn't put any pressure on the highways. A large number of heavy trucks gathered after leaving the city, Mang Ke could occasionally see a few familiar faces, mostly figures he had seen on posters in the arena.
"With so many people, won't there be enough to go around?" Looking at the scene that was practically a truck expo, Mang Ke said with a hint of worry. Old Li, with his hand on the window and one hand on the steering wheel, gave a seasoned look and said:
"How could that be? How many machines do you think are scrapped every day on this land?"
As they were talking, the truck the three of them were riding in suddenly lurched, and then a huge Garbage Dump appeared at the edge of their field of vision.
"Arrive!"
Old Li stopped the car, told the truck drivers behind him to move their vehicles to the waiting area, and continued on with Feng Xue and Mang Ke.
"There's half of the Silver Knight's body?" Before taking more than a few steps, Mang Ke's eyes lit up as he looked at a wrecked machine that was only about a third of its original size. Feng Xue immediately reached out and stopped Mang Ke, who was about to rush forward, saying:
"That's junk, the stuff that everyone else has rejected. If you want these things, just have someone come and pick them up. This isn't the kind of stuff we're after this time."
"Huh? There are even better ones?" Mang Ke slightly surprised, but soon she saw many guests who were out of place in this Garbage Mountain. Among them, she could even see a few figures in military uniforms. They were standing or sitting, talking or daydreaming, but none of them showed any impatience.
Before them lay a massive port almost entirely composed of various twisted mecha parts.
"Although this port is not a military port, it does have a military background in a certain sense. However, there's no need to worry too much. These people are generally here for some unfamiliar components, mainly to study the performance and characteristics of other countries' mechs, which is not the same as our purpose."
Old Li noticed that Mang Ke was looking at the guests in military uniforms, and immediately explained in a low voice.
Although it was unexpected that there would be a port in the Garbage Dump, Mang Ke was no stranger to this river.
Or rather, anyone who has studied geography on this land will know about the Black Water River, which is known as the world's largest canal.
With its large water volume, wide channels, and deep water levels, it is an excellent vessel for river transport. It is said that the God of Canals of the Bailin Country, "Black Water," became a god because he designed and led the excavation of this canal.
As time went by, the sound of ship horns grew louder as massive cargo ships carrying containers of all sizes sailed into the port.
A man in a suit, holding a wooden mallet, stepped onto a platform with a crane in the background. As a yellow shipping container appeared behind him, he banged his mallet loudly and shouted:
"We're all old friends, so I won't waste any more words. We're selling the whole case, highest bidder wins! The first item comes from the Postica Battlefield, starting at 100,000, with each bid increment no less than 5,000. Anyone want to bid?"
"120,000!"
"12w5k!"
"This is an auction? But we don't even know what's in the boxes!" Mang Ke frowned. She thought she was here to choose goods, but it turned out to be a blind box opening?
"After all, we're all in this business. Even if we don't need the good parts, we won't leave them for others. Compared to that, opening blind boxes is the best option, and it's not entirely based on luck."
Seeing that Old Li had already joined the bidding, Feng Xue began to Mang Ke Ke--
"Look at those shipping containers. You can roughly tell the main source of the parts by their colors. The blue containers come from Ideal Country, the yellow ones from Budali, and the green ones are from Bailin. Of course, there are definitely some other loose parts mixed in, but the Main Body is definitely the same..."
"What? White? Never mind the white ones, they're Bailang stuff. Although they're rare, they're basically made of biological materials and have no compatibility whatsoever. Unless you're planning to make a purely biological mecha, they're completely useless."
"Secondly, there's the battlefield. The bidder is from Tica in Persia. The territorial disputes there have a long history, but the two sides are just two small countries under the jurisdiction of Budali. Their technology is average, and everyone is basically after the materials, so the price is relatively low."
"But if it's the battlefield of the Third Island Chain in Kame Country, it's mostly the main combat aircraft of White Forest and Ideal Country, then their value will be much higher!"
"But there's a lot of room for error here, isn't there?" Mang Ke had no liking for this kind of gambling, but Feng Xue blinked and said:
"This is already pretty good; at least everyone has gained something. If you want even more, you'd have to personally lead a team to the front lines to buy up goods, but that requires your own shipping channels and customs personnel. Otherwise, even if you get some good stuff, there's no guarantee you'll be able to bring it back."
As Feng Xue was speaking, the auctioneer on the stage suddenly said:
"The next item in our collection comes from the Qiong'er Battlefield, starting at 5 million!"
"What the hell? Didn't you say the battlefield determines the price? I remember Jongar was a religious dispute, how could there be such a high price?" Mang Ke stared wide-eyed at Feng Xue with an expression that said, "Were you just kidding me?"
Feng Xue sighed:
"That's where intelligence comes in. At the beginning of this month, Budali supplied a batch of new mechs to Jongar, so, you understand..."
A long-awaited recommendation... oh no, I mean, a suggestion, because there are always those who won't believe in such things...
My pet has an upgrade panel.
A story about a cute pet opening a shop, featuring a beast-taming element, and a cat tearing apart a mecha!