Buying Weapons, The Competition Begins

Yang Fan opened the marketplace and searched for the word "weapons."

"F-Grade Weapon: spear, price: Faith Points.

F-Grade Weapon: hammer, price: Faith Points.

F-Grade Weapon: Clear Breeze Sword, price: Faith Points.

..."

Looking at the weapon prices, Yang Fan frowned slightly. "They're a little too expensive."

A single weapon cost over ten thousand Faith Points, not to mention armor and helmets.

Those were only F-Grade weapons. To arm one believer from head to toe would cost thirty to forty thousand Faith Points.

His Divine Kingdom's army now numbered fifty thousand. If they were all equipped like that, wouldn't it cost around two billion?

"No wonder Gods of the War School need to recruit so many Subordinate Gods. Weapons alone cost an astronomical amount." Yang Fan sighed.

With his current finances, he simply wasn't qualified to buy graded weapons on a large scale. Besides, ordinary soldiers did not deserve them.

"The prices are too high. Help me search for ordinary weapons. I need to equip Mortals on a large scale, preferably iron ones. The total price for fifty thousand sets needs to be under one million." Yang Fan continued searching through the Artificial Lifeform.

"Filtering merchants. Recommended best option: Black Iron Mercenary Corps store.

Two hundred thousand sets of ordinary iron weapons, price: four million Faith Points.

The merchant is currently online. You may ask whether they are willing to sell separately."

Yang Fan opened the chat window and typed, "Boss, I want to buy fifty thousand sets. Is that possible?"

"One million Faith Points. Trade anytime." The other party replied instantly.

"Can it be any cheaper? I'm still a senior high school student."

"Small business. No bargaining."

At that moment, on a distant planet, a man sat before a workbench smoking a pipe. He spat and muttered, "Another one trying to play the pity card. I've worked customer service for so many years that this nonsense has practically callused my ears. Poor people always make the most demands. I still need to find a way to improve my products' competitiveness and make money off rich people."

"Is there really no discount?" It was Yang Fan's first time making such a large purchase, so he still wanted to bargain a little.

"No." The other party refused decisively. After doing business for so long, his resolve had long since become firm. How could he change the price so easily?

"I come from a single-parent family, and I still have two younger sisters to support. I really have no choice..."

"Stop... I sent you a link. Any lower, and I won't be able to explain it."

Yang Fan looked at the link that popped up. Fifty thousand sets of ordinary iron weapons cost eight hundred thousand.

"This... was negotiating business really that easy?" Yang Fan was a little stunned. Afraid that the other party would change his mind, he hurriedly transferred the Faith Points.

"Transaction successful."

The other party took two deep drags of his pipe, his eyes somewhat melancholy.

Just then, his door was pushed open, and two little heads poked in.

"Daddy, Brother said to come eat." His twin daughters called out at the same time.

"Got it. How were your classes today? Did your teacher give you little red flowers as rewards?" The man stood up, holding one daughter in each arm as he spoke gently.

"Yes! We recited a report on biodiversity research in front of the whole class today, and the teacher gave each of us one."

"My girls are so good!"

Having finished purchasing weapons for the ordinary soldiers, Yang Fan planned to equip each of the six First-Order Lifeforms with a complete set of F-Grade weapons.

He found another private store and typed into the chat box, "Boss, can it be a little cheaper? My parents died when I was young, and I raised ten younger sisters all by myself. I really don't have any extra Faith Points."

"Get lost."

"The other party has closed the chat window." A system notification came from Taotao Network.

"..."

Yang Fan felt as though a flock of crows had flown over his head.

In the end, he spent nearly another two hundred thousand Faith Points before buying six complete sets of First-Order weapons.

His liquid funds were nearly depleted once more.

After investing all these resources into his Divine Kingdom, Yang Fan stretched and went to bed early.

He had done everything he could. He only hoped that he would stand out tomorrow and secure investment from those bosses.

Early the next morning, Yang Fan got up and headed to school.

This assessment would not take place in the Virtual World. All teachers and students in the senior year had to gather at Yang County No. 1 High School.

Three months had passed since Awakening Day, and Yang Fan once again stepped through the gates of Yang County No. 1 High School.

The school field was bustling. There were more than two thousand students in the senior year. Even though most belonged to the Logistics School, they still had to attend according to the rules.

"I heard Principal Hong Bing will show up today. He's a Third-Order God, a major figure people rarely get to see."

"I heard from my elders that today's assessment site is a Divine Kingdom that the principal captured when he fought Foreign-Race Gods in his youth. To train young people, that Divine Kingdom is specially used to raise Demonic Beasts of various ranks, and its coordinates are then made public for student assessments."

"Really? Are the Divine Kingdoms of those foreign races the same as ours?"

"More or less. It's just that their believers are different. We're the Human Race, so our believers are humans. Those foreign races have all kinds of Demonic Beasts, undead, demons, and monsters. Anyway, they're strange and varied."

"Handsome guy, you know so much."

"Not really. My grandpa is a Demigod and a chatterbox, so I've heard more stories."

Yang Fan arrived at his position and curiously looked around.

Since First-Order Lifeforms had appeared in his Divine Kingdom, Yang Fan could feel that his senses had become much sharper.

His Class Seven had the weakest presence. Li Shuhao, the strongest among them, gave off an aura like a blazing furnace. Calling the other students sparks would already be flattering them.

As for Senior Year Class One standing in the center, even from far away, Yang Fan could sense the terrifying aura they radiated.

"Luo Bing, the Luo Family prodigy with B-Grade talent. Has she already reached such a level in only three months?" Yang Fan gazed at her back from afar.

There was clearly no change in temperature, yet an invisible chill pricked his eyes painfully.

Her strength was likely several orders of magnitude beyond his. With terrifying talent and the Luo Family's full support, if he was running forward on foot, then she was driving a sports car.

Yang Fan took a deep breath, lowered his gaze, and tried not to draw attention to himself.

"Brother Yang, how are your preparations?" Li Shuhao greeted him.

"Not bad."

"After this assessment, if you want to change your development direction, my previous offer still stands."

During the previous Prosperity assessment, Yang Fan had impressed him, but Li Shuhao still did not think highly of Yang Fan's chosen Divine Kingdom path.

Without talent in combat and without family investment, how much could his believers' strength possibly change in just three months?

"Thank you." Yang Fan nodded gratefully. He knew Li Shuhao meant no harm.

Wang Zhenyu, the other genius of Class Seven, was unusually quiet at the moment. He kept taking deep breaths, clearly very nervous.

"Brother Yang, after the exam, come eat at my place. We haven't heard from you in so long, so we need to catch up," Zhang Pang said as he came over and slung an arm around Yang Fan's shoulders.

"We'll see. I've prepared for today for a long time. I still want to get investment from those major families."

"Pfft, give it a rest. Who would invest in us Logistics School types? My believers only know how to farm. When the exam starts, I'm planning to send a thousand believers around the testing ground. The moment they spot a First-Order Demonic Beast, they'll retreat immediately.

Exams like this take ten days to half a month every year. I can't be bothered wasting time at school." Zhang Pang rolled his eyes.