Li Zhengyang flipped through two pages of the marketplace before exiting.
He couldn't afford it.
An Eighth-Rank Heavenly Origin Fruit cost twenty million, while an SS-Rank heavy shield cost ten million.
His pockets were cleaner than his face right now. Forget twenty million—even two thousand yuan had to be carefully counted on his fingers.
"Finished looking?"
Zhao Yi had been waiting beside him.
"Finished."
Li Zhengyang closed the interface. "Let's go collect my weapon first."
Zhao Yi led him toward the Equipment Department, his mouth never stopping along the way.
"The Army-Breaker Bureau's equipment is genuinely good, but it's also genuinely expensive. Most of the things you saw in that marketplace are exclusive goods you can't buy anywhere else."
"The problem is that those old geezers in the forging team are all greedy as hell. Weapons of the same rank cost thirty percent more internally than on the outside black market."
Zhao Yi shook his head, sounding somewhat helpless.
"But then again, there's a reason they cost so much. The things they forge are damn sturdy."
"Last time outside the wall, I ran into a Seventh-Rank Armored Beast. My blade struck it dozens of times without even chipping. If it had been A-Rank gear from outside, it would've been scrapped after ten hits."
Li Zhengyang listened without replying.
The Equipment Department's forge was located on the western side of the base, in a separate building with exterior walls made from special heat-resistant alloy.
Before they even got close, they could hear the dull pounding of hammers from within.
The door stood open.
Heat waves rolled through the interior, where several massive furnaces were operating.
At a workstation near the entrance, a burly bare-chested man was using tongs to hold a glowing-red piece of alloy as he hammered it.
The muscles