Zhou Jie's Shock

Chen Yuan noticed the other party had spotted him at a glance, guessing he had been waiting at the entrance the whole time, so he said, "Apologies, I should have arrived earlier, but I suddenly ran into a pack of Tiger Mastiff Dogs on the way and was delayed. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"No worries at all, I haven't been waiting long." By now, Zhou Jie had completely shed his earlier nervousness, because he had noticed the many materials hanging off the outside of Chen Yuan's backpack, several of which he recognized immediately—they were precious parts from Beast General level monsters.

My premonition was right, this young man really is a powerhouse. As the thought flashed through his mind, the smile on Zhou Jie's face became even more sincere. Hearing Chen Yuan mention the pack of monsters, he immediately said with concern, "You ran into Tiger Mastiff Dogs? Those are notorious pack monsters. You weren't injured, were you?"

Chen Yuan shook his head: "I'm fine, just delayed a bit."

After a pause, he continued: "I told you on the phone this morning that I have a batch of monster materials to sell."

"Yes, sir. The VIP room has already been prepared for you, so you can rest for a while first." Zhou Jie took out a VIP membership card, handed it to Chen Yuan, and smiled, "I have already prepared the equipment for appraising the materials. Once you have rested, we can conduct the appraisal in person."

Chen Yuan nodded. Indeed, having lived in the wild for over a month, he was covered in grime.

However, thinking that the other party had already waited for him all morning, he felt it wouldn't be right to keep him waiting any longer, so he intended to finish his business before resting.

He hadn't expected Zhou Jie to be so thoughtful as to have a room ready for him in advance. Chen Yuan couldn't help but sigh; perhaps this was why Zhou Jie was able to hold the position of North District Manager.

"Then wait for me a little longer; we'll start the appraisal in an hour," Chen Yuan said.

"No problem," Zhou Jie smiled.

Chen Yuan then carried his large bag of materials into the rest area and used the address on the card to find the VIP room.

Unexpectedly, the so-called VIP room was actually a two-story detached villa.

Chen Yuan felt touched by the thoughtful service, pushed the door open, and walked inside. He first placed the backpack full of materials on the living room floor, then headed straight for the bathroom.

A rack by the bathroom door was hung with a wide variety of clothing, clearly prepared with great care.

Although Chen Yuan understood this was done to win his favor for the sake of future transactions, he did feel a sense of comfort at such attentive arrangements.

Chen Yuan entered the bathroom, spent half an hour cleaning himself thoroughly, dried off, and picked out a white casual outfit from the rack to change into.

Afterward, he called Zhou Jie to signal that he could come over to conduct the transaction.

Less than a minute later, a knock sounded at the door. Chen Yuan opened it to see Zhou Jie standing there with a black briefcase in his hand.

"You're fast," Chen Yuan said. "Come in, the items are in the living room."

"I'm staying right next door," Zhou Jie explained with a smile.

The two went to the living room, and Chen Yuan opened his oversized backpack, taking the items out one by one and laying them on the floor.

"Shall I begin?" Zhou Jie had already opened his black briefcase and taken out a set of testing instruments.

Seeing Chen Yuan nod, Zhou Jie held a scanner and began carefully scanning the materials on the floor. Meanwhile, the screen of a laptop-like device nearby began to display various data about the materials.

As time ticked by, the number of monster materials Zhou Jie appraised grew, and his shock deepened.

He discovered that among the hundred-plus items before him, not a single one was Beast Soldier level, nor were there even any Low-level Beast General materials.

The hundred-plus items in front of him were all at least Mid-level Beast General, with quite a few belonging to High-level Beast Generals.

Just how many monsters did this guest hunt? They're all Beast Generals, and all at least Mid-level. Zhou Jie was secretly alarmed. Could it be that because his backpack couldn't hold any more, he threw away everything below Mid-level?

One had to realize that the other party had only been in the Wilderness Zone for a month, and as a solo hunter at that.

If it were a team, there would usually be someone specifically responsible for scouting monsters, making them much more efficient than an individual.

But even a fully armed War General level squad would struggle to hunt so many monsters in a month, as people need to rest.

It couldn't be that he didn't sleep and just killed from dawn till dusk, could it? As this thought crossed his mind, Zhou Jie immediately chuckled, thinking how impossible that was.

A Martial Artist isn't made of iron; they can't fight for twenty-four hours straight and always need to rest.

Secretly shaking his head, Zhou Jie pushed aside his distracting thoughts and focused on the testing.

An hour later.

"Sir, aside from the ones you asked not to count, all other monster materials have been tallied."

"You have a total of 178 types of materials: 130 are Mid-level Beast General materials, and 48 are High-level Beast General materials."

Zhou Jie calculated the total based on the list on the screen, then looked up and said: "After calculation, the total purchase price for this batch of Mid-level Beast General materials is 3.093 billion, and the High-level Beast General materials total 4.376 billion, for a combined total of 7.469 billion."

"I'll round it up to 7.5 billion for the whole batch, how about that?" Zhou Jie looked at Chen Yuan with a smile.

Chen Yuan carefully reviewed the quote provided, calculated it mentally, and suddenly spoke up: "Isn't that a bit low? I recall that materials from Mid-level Beast General monsters, even the lowest ones, are worth over ten million."

"Yet your list shows quite a few materials below that figure."

"Sir, it's like this." Zhou Jie's expression remained unchanged; he wasn't flustered in the slightest and continued to explain with a smile, "I don't know where you got your data, but that information is definitely outdated."

"The ten million minimum for Mid-level Beast General materials you mentioned was the market rate twenty years ago."

Zhou Jie explained: "Nowadays, due to frequent trade between Earth and extraterrestrial planets, many materials are actually not in short supply."

"We at the HR Alliance don't acquire these monster materials to craft equipment, but rather as a specialty of Earth to be sold to other planets."

"Therefore, the current market for monster materials isn't based on their inherent quality, but on their rarity."

"The rarer the material, the higher our purchase price; conversely, materials from common monsters, even if they are of higher quality, have lower purchase prices."

"Of course, there is a limit to how low they go." Zhou Jie added with a smile, "The market is the same all over the world now. Compared to the rates you mentioned, the average purchase price for War General level monster materials has dropped by about 50%."

"If we're talking about Beast Soldier level, the drop is as high as over 70%."

"Commander Rank is slightly rarer, so the price can still be maintained at about 70%-80% of what it used to be."

"As for Overlord Level Monsters, the prices haven't dropped; if anything, they've gone even higher."

As he spoke, Zhou Jie sent Chen Yuan a website link displaying the approximate acquisition prices for various materials: "This is our internal procurement site. You can compare it yourself to see just how much of a discount I'm giving you."

Chen Yuan opened the site on his Communication Watch and took a look. The domain was indeed that of the HR Alliance. After comparing the material acquisition prices listed on the site, he realized that Zhou Jie hadn't lied to him.

If he had sold his materials at the prices listed on the site, he would have been lucky to get 7 billion.

It could only be said that Zhou Jie likely had his own private sales channels, which was why he dared to acquire them at prices higher than the market rate.

With that, Chen Yuan nodded: "I have no issues. Let's go with this."

"Very well. Shall I transfer the funds to you, or would you prefer an anonymous bank card?" Zhou Jie asked.

"No rush." Chen Yuan pointed to the final batch of Monster materials: "Appraise those first and see how much they're worth."

"Right, just appraise the scales and the horns; you don't need to worry about the other two."

"Understood." Zhou Jie nodded, then walked over with the detector.

In truth, he had been curious just moments ago about what kind of material required a separate appraisal.

As the detector finished its scan, Zhou Jie looked at the content on the screen and immediately gasped, his face filled with shock.

"Over... Overlord Level?"