"Cousin, are you sure his name is Ling Yue?"
Mo Yu replied almost instantly.
"Yes."
Mo Yu sent a shocked emoji. "If he's using his real name, he should be the Young Clan Leader of our Feather Tribe."
"He'd already started handling military affairs before entering the game. I heard he began gathering his former troops as soon as he entered this survival game. He probably has around a thousand people under him now."
"If we weren't divided into zones, he could easily gather tens of thousands with a single command."
Su Ye finally understood.
The Survival Road was divided into zones as well. They were currently in the C13 Zone, which had a total of one million people.
No wonder this guy named Ling Yue could throw so much money around. His background was impressive indeed.
He was the Young Clan Leader and commanded troops, with over a thousand people he could order to gather supplies for him. Ordinary solo players couldn't possibly match the speed at which he accumulated resources.
Su Ye immediately switched back to his chat with Ling Yue.
"I currently have 113 hand crossbows and 5,000 bolts. Are you sure you want them all?" Su Ye replied.
Ling Yue soon sent a response.
"Not enough."
"I know you must have a workbench and blueprints. I'd like you to prioritize supplying me with at least five hundred hand crossbows and twenty thousand bolts."
"Since this is a bulk purchase, I'd like a discount."
Su Ye had thought the other man really wouldn't haggle, but even with a discount, he could still make a fortune.
He had to admit that Ling Yue was loaded. The man had handed him a huge order right off the bat.
"Sure."
Su Ye said, "But that will take a lot of time and materials. The wood and iron are easy enough to get, but the most important core part for making a hand crossbow is the Simple Trigger Component."
"I don't have any of those either. If you can supply the trigger components, I can give you a lower price. However many Simple Trigger Components you have, that's how many hand crossbows I can make for you."
After he sent the message, Ling Yue went silent for a while.
Su Ye wasn't in a hurry. He knew the man must be taking stock of his subordinates' supplies or weighing the pros and cons.
About five minutes later, Ling Yue finally sent a message.
"I currently have 415 Simple Trigger Components in total. If I find more later, I'll keep supplying them to you."
"For now, help me turn all 415 of these trigger components into hand crossbows."
Su Ye's eyes lit up. As expected of the Feather Tribe's Young Clan Leader, he had managed to scrape together so many core components.
"No problem. Deal." Su Ye agreed without hesitation.
Then the two began an intense tug-of-war over the price in their private chat.
Ling Yue might have been rich, but he wasn't a fool. Every little bit mattered in a bulk deal like this.
Su Ye, meanwhile, knew all too well how lucrative a monopoly could be. He refused to give an inch on his advantage as the only person currently able to mass-produce ranged weapons.
After a full ten minutes of haggling, they finally settled on a price for the deal.
528 hand crossbows, plus twenty thousand bolts!
Ling Yue would pay Su Ye 2,300 units of fuel, 4,000 units of iron, 3,000 units of wood, 50 liters of purified water, 70 units of assorted food, and 800 units each of basic materials such as plastic, rubber, and glass.
An ordinary solo player could never come up with so many resources. Only someone like Ling Yue, who had gathered a large number of players under him, could afford it.
Once they agreed on the price, Ling Yue first bought the 113 finished hand crossbows and 5,000 bolts Su Ye had on hand, paying the corresponding proportion of supplies. He also transferred 415 Simple Trigger Components in the trade.
[Trade successful!]
As the system notification sounded, Su Ye smiled at the massive pile of supplies in the trade window.
"What a profit! Being an arms dealer really pays!"
Su Ye took a deep breath, forcing down his excitement.
He didn't rush to withdraw the supplies. His Storage Ring and pickup truck couldn't possibly hold them all.
As long as he didn't withdraw them, they could remain in the trade window for three days anyway.
With these supplies, he could not only fulfill the rest of Ling Yue's order without a hitch, but more importantly, he could finally upgrade his vehicle.
"Workbench, activate!"
Su Ye put all 415 trigger components into the workbench, along with the required wood and iron, and set it to automatically mass-produce hand crossbows and bolts.
The workbench immediately gave a low hum and began working at full tilt, its progress bar rapidly filling.
Su Ye turned his attention to his level-one pickup truck.
[Player has sufficient upgrade materials. Upgrade level-one vehicle (Battered Pickup)?]
"Yes!" Su Ye confirmed without hesitation.
[Please select an upgrade path:] [1. Heavy Assault Vehicle (Emphasizes defense and ramming; slower speed)] [2. Speedster (Emphasizes speed and agility; weaker defense)] [3. All-Terrain Vehicle (Balanced attributes; adapts to various terrains)]
Su Ye thought for a moment.
In a road survival game, overly specialized builds often died the fastest.
He actually wanted to choose option three, the All-Terrain Vehicle. But considering that he still needed to take first place in distance traveled within the seven-day beginner period, he ultimately chose option two, the Speedster.
I have the Gray Fog Medal anyway. Monsters won't actively attack me during the beginner period.
As for after the beginner period, with this many resources, I can upgrade quickly as soon as I get another functional module.
With that thought, Su Ye made his decision. "I choose option two, the Speedster."
[Selection successful.] [Special item detected: Energy-Saving Module. Incorporate it into this upgrade?]
"Incorporate it!"
[Beginning upgrade...]
In an instant, a dazzling pillar of white light descended from the sky, completely enveloping the pickup truck.
Standing outside the pillar, Su Ye could clearly hear the harsh grinding of metal rearranging itself and gears meshing within.
Unit after unit of iron, plastic, and rubber flew out of his storage, turning into streaks of light that merged into the pillar.
He checked the time. The upgrade would take five minutes to complete.
Su Ye didn't waste that time. He returned to his private messages. Since the Feather Tribe's Young Clan Leader had contacted him, the other four tribes should have sent representatives to approach him as well.
Sure enough, after briefly scrolling through the list flashing with countless unread messages, he picked out the representatives of the other four tribes.
These four were just like Ling Yue. Right from the start, they wanted to buy out his stock, asking for huge quantities-at least several hundred crossbows each.
Naturally, Su Ye welcomed them all and sent the same reply to all four.
"You can buy them, but you must supply your own Simple Trigger Components. As for the price, I believe in fair dealing for everyone, young or old, with clearly listed prices..."
Su Ye sent the four of them the prices he had negotiated with Ling Yue.
Not long after he sent the messages, their replies began popping up with a series of chimes.
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