Buying items really came down to luck.
Something you wanted might have been sitting on someone's stall yesterday, failing to sell despite repeated price cuts, but by the time you went back the next day, the seller had already packed up and left. Just like that, you missed out on the item you had been longing for.
Zuo Cheng'an made a full circuit of the market. Along the way, he saw a green storage waist pouch priced at a whopping 430 points. The pouch was only two palms across, yet it could hold a ring-pommel saber over a meter long, with room for another five kilograms of miscellaneous supplies!
Its total mass would not even change!
Generally, ordinary food, water, clothing, and the like could not be brought into instances, but they could if stored inside an item.
With a storage item, he would have a guaranteed supply of essentials for future survival instances. It would also give him more options when choosing an instance.
If Zuo Cheng'an sold his Swift Rat Dagger, he could just barely afford it.
But besides a container for Ketchup, Zuo Cheng'an also wanted a slightly longer weapon. It did not matter if its stats were poor, as long as it was sturdy.
So after a moment's hesitation, Zuo Cheng'an gave up on buying the storage pouch.
He returned to the stall with the insulated cup, figuring he would buy it if he could bargain the price down a little further. If not, he would come back tomorrow or the day after to try his luck, or simply ask Yu Le and the other children to keep an eye out. He was in no hurry to enter an instance anyway. He could spend these two days slowly stockpiling Ketchup so he would not run short later.
When it came to something that could save his life, no stockpile was too big.
The stallholder still remembered Zuo Cheng'an and called out from a distance, "Hey, young man! Still want it? You can take it for 160."
"120."
The stallholder wavered for a moment before finally nodding in agreement.
He had already earned quite a few points from his sales, enough to coast for three weeks. Clearing out his stock early was a good thing, too. Things were about to change in the safe zone, and many instances with long game durations were closing in batches. He had to prepare early.
After transferring 120 points, Zuo Cheng'an had only 220 left.
With one of his main goals for this trip accomplished, Zuo Cheng'an no longer felt any urgency. He strolled leisurely through the market as though out shopping, intending to see if he could find a long-bladed weapon he liked at a suitable price.
At the same time, he examined everything with the Eye of Truth, hoping he might stumble upon an incredible bargain on a casual shopping trip, just like a novel's protagonist.
Of course, that was never going to happen.
The game had already helpfully labeled every item with its name, uses, and limitations.
At most, Zuo Cheng'an could see more details and identify the instance an item originally came from.
"Huh?"
Zuo Cheng'an had almost walked past, but he backed up a few steps.
At the stall he had just passed sat an unremarkable length of rusty iron wrapped in bandages. Although its panel listed it as a white item,
it had actually originated in a level-seven instance!!
A level-seven instance! No one in Safe Zone 7 could clear one yet. Only established safe zones like Safe Zones 1 and 2, with their long histories and abundance of talented people, had anyone who could clear them, right?
How did a level-seven instance produce white-quality items?
[u0026· #*: From the instance "7-015 God-Making." Damage sustained (98.66%)]
So it was damaged. No wonder it had become white-quality equipment. The information that it came from a level-seven instance had caught Zuo Cheng'an's attention, but what concerned him even more was its name.
[u0026· #*]
More garbled characters, and two of them were ones he had seen before.
One was the ## in the message at the Ladder Tower, and the other was the ** in the message from the Ladder boss, Red-Eyes.
As for "u0026" and "·," he had not encountered them yet.
Zuo Cheng'an wanted it, but he could not seem too eager, or the seller could easily jack up the price. So the first thing he picked up was an item in the corner of the stall that looked just like a roadside stone.
"This looks interesting. How much?"
This stallholder made no attempt to conceal himself. In fact, he was almost excessively ostentatious, openly wearing a jacket that marked him as a member of the Waves Chasing Guild, as though he wanted to write "I'm with the Waves Chasing Guild" across his face and announce it to the world.
"The Little Flying Stone? Take it for 130."
"130? That's a little steep. It only has one way to attack. It's not worth that much."
The stallholder knew that, too, and did not argue. "But it has unlimited uses. That alone puts it over a hundred. It also returns automatically. Use it well, and it can be surprisingly effective."
He was right. Items with limited uses generally cost only a few dozen points. Only items with unlimited uses qualified for prices above a hundred.
Healing items were about the only exception to that rule. Things like strength candy and shadow-concealment spray could not compare at all.
Zuo Cheng'an chatted intermittently with the stallholder, touching the items on the stall one by one to check their information. He picked out a few that interested him and casually asked their prices, including the item with the garbled name.
The stallholder was not surprised that Zuo Cheng'an had singled out the item with the garbled name to ask about it.
Over the course of the day, its shabby appearance had already drawn plenty of attention.
"That one? 120. I don't know which instance it came from either. It was just in the bag when I bought my stock. Its stats looked average, so I put it up for sale."
It was actually ten points cheaper than the Little Flying Stone.
[u0026·#*] [Category: Weapon] [Effect: Can inflict damage. Attack +3] [Restriction: Very heavy. You might get beaten up if you try selling it as scrap iron.] [Description: If you ever find yourself at the end of your rope and pass a recycling depot, you can make a decision that would disgrace your ancestors.]
A weapon that added three attack points, with white quality and a poor appearance.
But it had unlimited uses, so 120 was not particularly expensive. Still, it seemed no one wanted to spend points on an ugly item that was barely useful.
For the same price, they could easily buy a better-looking weapon of the same quality.
One that even looked brand-new!
The stallholder scratched his head, looking embarrassed as well. "It is a little overpriced, but look how unusual it is. Its name is a bunch of gibberish, and it's incredibly heavy. At least as heavy as three buckets of water."
"Being unusual won't put food on the table, will it?"
After that offhand complaint, Zuo Cheng'an seemed to lose interest. He did not mention the garbled-name item again and instead focused on bargaining over the Little Flying Stone.
Partway through, as though something had occurred to him, he took the Swift Rat Dagger out of his game backpack and asked how much the stallholder would pay for it.
"From what you said earlier, you buy stock in bulk elsewhere to resell. How much would this item be worth?"
"I'd pay eighty. I have to make a little profit, after all."
Zuo Cheng'an suddenly said, "I'll give you this dagger plus another hundred points for the Little Flying Stone and that item with the garbled name. Help you clear out your stock."
The bandages around the garbled iron fragment's handle were yellowed with age and covered in a thin layer of dust. Only the end of the handle was a little cleaner, where people often touched it to check the item's stats.
The stallholder did not answer immediately, rapidly calculating in his head. A decent-looking dagger he could resell, plus a hundred points in cash,
in exchange for an item with low attack and only one attack method, along with a useless item that had been sitting on his stall for half a month and might remain there indefinitely.
That seemed pretty good?
"Well? Deal or not? If not, I'm leaving."
Before you continue