The Sudden Surge in Numbers and Li Wei's Little Business

Chapter 31: The Sudden Surge in Numbers and Li Wei's Little Business

Shadow Street was just as it had always been, with its dim streetlights and cobblestone roads. It just seemed to have grown quite a bit since Li Wei's first visit.

With a dejected look, Li Wei walked along the stone road. A few minutes earlier, he had left that secret room in a fit of annoyance and come to Shadow Street. The reason for his irritation was that magic notebook.

He had thought he could learn some awesome magic from it, only to discover that it contained nothing but insights into magic training and meditation tips. Li Wei had read it from cover to cover three times, confirming this tragic truth.

At that moment, he had wanted to tear the notebook to shreds, but reason had prevailed. Even if it didn't teach him any advanced magic, the experiences recorded inside were still a rare treasure. He would keep it and read it slowly another time. Unfortunately, Li Wei had already run out of patience to study it carefully. Otherwise, he would have realized that the notebook was far more precious than actual magic.

A few minutes later, he reached the bustling market. As soon as he entered, Li Wei stood frozen at the entrance for more than ten seconds.

Was this really Shadow Street?

The plaza was larger than two soccer fields, and it looked to be packed with more than ten thousand people. It was no less bustling than a large trade fair in the real world—possibly even more so. There were several times as many stalls as before, and Li Wei even spotted a few buildings nearby that looked like shops.

What on earth was going on?

When had Shadow Street gotten so crowded? The people all looked like newcomers, but there were far too many of them. Li Wei picked out a young man at random and used Eye of Perception.

"Number: 28963. Human. Strength: 4. Agility: 4. Mental Strength: 3. Stamina: 3. Skills: Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat. Overall Rating: F1-Rank!"

A bona fide newbie!

Li Wei picked out another man, this one seemingly strong and middle-aged. After looking him over, he was just as disappointed.

"Number: 56361. Human. Strength: 5. Agility: 3. Mental Strength: 2. Stamina: 5. Overall Rating: F1-Rank!"

An F1-Rank rating was the standard for almost everyone on their first visit to Shadow Street. Clearly, these people hadn't earned high scores in their Initial Trial missions. Some of them didn't even have any skills.

What puzzled Li Wei was their numbers. They were already in the five digits. He remembered that a week ago, his own number, 1987, had marked him as a fresh-faced newbie. So many people had arrived in just one week.

After wandering around the market for a while, Li Wei confirmed what he had suspected: Shadow Street had sped up the rate at which it accepted people from the real world. These newcomers must have received Yellow Paper, signed it, and then somehow ended up here.

Li Wei was still carrying that "green" Centaur Battle Axe on his back. The newcomers soon noticed him. In their eyes, he saw every kind of human emotion: envy, admiration, jealousy, and hatred.

What he found most unbearable was the way a few stunning young women looked at him, their eyes full of flirtation. Li Wei was sure that if he wanted to, he could have them whenever he pleased.

That was the advantage of being a veteran!

Ignoring the newcomers, Li Wei continued browsing the market. He wanted to find all the manuals for the later stages of Innate Skill. He had calculated that if he trained Innate Skill to the seventh level, its maximum, he would gain a total of 18 Strength, 12 Agility, 12 Stamina, and 180 internal energy. By then, his rating would surely climb to the C-Rank threshold.

Then he would be just like Zheng Yutong. Thinking of her, Li Wei wondered whether she had completed her mission yet. He had killed Sand, so he figured he had helped her indirectly.

After one round of browsing, Li Wei regretfully discovered that nothing for sale in the market was above D-Rank. Even the C-Rank items he had seen a few days ago had disappeared. Perhaps the increase in population had prompted sellers to stockpile supplies so they could make a killing later.

The C-Rank martial art Innate Skill was clearly among those items. With no other option, Li Wei began looking around to see what else was on offer. After all, he had the unbelievably powerful Art of Stacking. Stack a few ordinary items once, and he could turn a chicken into a phoenix.

Li Wei stopped in front of a fairly large stall.

This stall was practically a small armory!

It displayed all kinds of pistols and rifles, as well as piles of ammunition. Li Wei even spotted an RPG launcher. He had seen these on TV and in the news before, in war-torn Arab countries where arms dealers sold weapons from street stalls like this. Now that he was seeing it in person, Shadow Street was every bit as well-stocked.

Thinking of his Stacking skill, Li Wei crouched down. The newcomers nearby, whose numbers were all above 30,000, had been about to make a few rude remarks. But when they saw the Centaur Battle Axe on his back glowing green, they sensibly shut their mouths.

Good grief, he was a veteran!

Even as newcomers, they knew that veterans who had completed several missions far outclassed newbies in both attributes and equipment. Once, a large group of newcomers had gotten carried away and tried to rob a veteran whose number was over 1,000. They had all been brutally killed. Ever since, "Don't mess with a veteran whose number is lower than yours" had become the newcomers' lifesaving motto.

"Hey, brother, what can I get you? I can't speak for anything else, but when it comes to firearms, you won't find a better-stocked shop anywhere on Shadow Street. And my prices are fair!"

The arms dealer looked like a Taliban terrorist, dressed in a similar fashion. An Arab headscarf covered his head, and his dark face was framed by a thick, curly beard. He picked up an AK47 rifle and expertly worked the bolt. The thrilling clack of metal rang out.

"How about it? This one's only 150 points, and I'll throw in 120 rounds of ammunition. With this, you can handle any mission. Hahaha!"

Li Wei was at a loss for words. The rifle might be fine against ordinary people, but in a mission, it probably wouldn't cut it against a few monsters rated above D-Rank. The stall owner, who looked like a terrorist, certainly wasn't afraid of getting carried away.

And 150 points was a bit steep. But after seeing several newcomers nearby spend their hard-earned points on these weapons, Li Wei understood why the prices were so high.

Then Li Wei suddenly had an idea—a brilliant idea for making a fortune!

"Give me three AK47 rifles, two M4A1 rifles, three Desert Eagle pistols, and 300 rounds of various ammunition..." At Li Wei's words, the Arab's face broke into a broad smile.

Carrying a big bundle of weapons, Li Wei left the stall. He was going to use the firearms he had bought for just under 1,000 points to conduct an experiment. If it worked, he would become the richest person on all of Shadow Street.

He found an empty corner and began using Art of Stacking on the weapons.

Before making his purchases, Li Wei had discovered that outside the world of a story, Art of Stacking couldn't be used to stack items without limit. This was probably Shadow Street's way of restricting the skill. It made sense. If he could stack things infinitely, he could buy ten thousand rounds of ammunition and stack them into something capable of killing anything in one shot.

The AK47 rifles could be stacked up to three times. The M4A1 rifles could only be stacked twice, while the Desert Eagle pistols could be stacked three times. As for the ammunition, it could only be stacked five times.

That wasn't all. Stacking also came with a chance of failure. The success rate for gray, low-quality items was 75%. For ordinary, white-quality items, it was 50%. The higher an item's quality, the lower its success rate.

Li Wei thought to himself that, fortunately, these firearms were only gray-quality junk, so their success rate was still pretty high.

With a 75% success rate, Li Wei managed to stack everything successfully. Once he was done stacking the weapons and ammunition, he checked their attributes.

[Piercing Rifle of Agility], green quality, attack 9–11, Agility +2, item level 11, moderate rate of fire, bullets fired had a piercing effect.

[Cannon Barrel of Strength], green quality, attack 10–15, Strength +3, item level 11, moderate rate of fire.

They were the weapons created by stacking the M3A1 and AK47 rifles, respectively. Their effects were quite impressive. They still weren't good enough for Li Wei, but to anyone else, they were rare treasures.

As for the three Desert Eagles he had stacked, Li Wei was positively beaming.

[Infinite Desert Eagle], green quality, attack 11–15, infinite ammunition, item level 10, moderate rate of fire.

Infinite ammunition!

That one attribute alone would make people fight over it. Just imagine: in a mission, everyone else ran out of ammunition, but you could keep firing your weapon without end. What would that look like?

As for the remaining ammunition, Li Wei didn't find any special attributes. It just dealt three times the damage of ordinary bullets.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Li Wei slumped to the ground. Every time he used Art of Stacking, it felt like he had run a kilometer. Even though his stamina was already three times that of an ordinary person, it was still exhausting.

Next, it was time to sell these "super weapons," which had never appeared on the market before. Li Wei took a black cloth from inside his clothes and covered his face. He understood the saying about how possessing a treasure could bring disaster.

Li Wei chose a spot that wasn't too conspicuous and took out the stacked firearms. The weapons looked completely different after being stacked, so he didn't need to worry about anyone figuring out where they came from. But they all shared one feature: a hazy green glow. That alone made their quality clearly superior to the items being sold by everyone else.

He didn't call out or wait. Almost the instant Li Wei laid out his goods, a crowd gathered around his stall. There was no need to worry about anyone trying to rob him here, so Li Wei let them inspect the weapons' attributes without concern.

"My god, they're green-quality items, and they even have bonus attributes! Boss, how much for these?" exclaimed someone with the number 2145. He was clearly a veteran by now, but even he was stunned by what Li Wei had brought out.

"They're just a few green-quality items. I'll get a few dozen of my own tomorrow and play around with them!" No need to ask—anyone who said something like that was a brand-new newbie. Having only gone through the Initial Trial, they had no idea how difficult it was to get even a single white-quality weapon, let alone a green-quality one.

Since the Initial Trial could be stopped at any time, most newcomers chose to quit when they faced difficulties or danger. Some even stopped their missions as soon as they entered the initial trial's setting. They had grown used to the easy life in the real world and clearly weren't ready for the horrors of Shadow Street.

Li Wei shook his head and ignored those "greenhorns." He simply closed his eyes to rest, a stark contrast to the sellers around him who were all shouting to attract customers.

But though there were plenty of greenhorns, there were also plenty of people who knew what they were looking at!

"Hey, brother, these are fine goods! I'm a serious buyer. What do you say? Name your price!" A deep voice rang out, and Li Wei slowly opened his eyes.