Mountain Patrol Command Flag

"Auntie, I really don't need it." Su Mu pushed the card back. "I can earn my own money."

"Earn what? You've only just awakened. What can you earn?" His aunt gave him a reproachful look and pushed the card back toward him. "Hear me out. If you'd been good for nothing, I wouldn't have told you a word about this money. I'd have saved it to find you a wife someday. But you've never given me cause to worry. I've seen how hard you've worked to make us proud at school all these years. If I keep the money, it'll just sit there in savings. Giving it to you puts it where the blade meets the grindstone. You're a dungeon master and an adult now. This money should be yours to use."

Su Mu opened his mouth, still wanting to say something.

But his aunt held out a finger and tapped the card. "Still, even though I'm giving you the money, I have to approve any large transactions. I'll get an alert for every expense over twenty thousand. If you dare waste it, just wait till I get back and deal with you."

Su Mu gave a helpless smile. "I definitely won't."

"All right, hurry up and eat."

His aunt picked up another helping of food with her chopsticks and put it on his plate, then finally began eating herself. "After you eat, go back to your room and consolidate your soul power. Your cousin made a point of telling me before that you need to meditate every day to consolidate it. She said it's especially important—the foundation for pulling ahead of others in the long run. Don't brush it off as a hassle. It'll determine how far you can go."

Su Mu nodded. "I know. My cousin mentioned it to me before, too. She said they don't teach it systematically until university, and told me to start taking it seriously ahead of time."

"Good." His aunt ate quickly, seemingly with plenty of work still waiting for her. "I can always trust you to handle things. You've only just awakened, so you must have a lot to keep you busy, right? Your cousin shut herself in her room and tinkered with things for several days back then."

Su Mu smiled but didn't answer.

After the meal, Su Mu helped clear away the dishes and chopsticks, then returned to his room.

The room was small, with a single bed against the wall and a desk beside it. Several dungeon theory textbooks and an old portable terminal were piled on the desk.

The curtains were drawn, and a faint trace of sunlight slipped through a gap, casting a thin line of light across the ceiling.

Su Mu didn't rush to meditate.

He sat on the edge of the bed, opened his phone, and logged into the official professional marketplace app.

He had completed real-name verification long ago, so he went straight to the marketplace homepage.

At the top of the page were several rotating promotional banners, all advertising Awakening Season sales from major corporations: "20% off beginner resource packs for a limited time," "popular creature cards back in stock," and so on.

Below them were the product categories: creature cards, equipment cards, skill books, material packs, terrain cards, rule cards, auxiliary cards...

Su Mu went straight into the "equipment cards" category.

He had a clear idea of what he wanted.

He was already level six and still had fifty points of soul power unused.

Since he was going to use the hundred thousand his aunt had given him, the sooner he spent it and turned it into strength, the better the investment.

Creature cards were naturally the most direct way to boost combat power.

The problem was that good monster cards were too expensive. It was Awakening Season, especially, and almost all popular monster cards of E-rank and above were selling at a premium.

As for F-rank cannon-fodder monsters, buying them and putting them in a dungeon would only waste soul power and do next to nothing for his current combat power.

More importantly, bringing out a creature card's true strength required a series of steps, including matching it with terrain, naming it, and concept anchoring.

Every step burned soul power.

With his current reserves, he simply didn't have enough to raise a second monster card.

So the most cost-effective investment now was to get Little Drill Wind some equipment.

Little Drill Wind was already strong in his own right; what he lacked was the boost from equipment. Besides, equipment cost far less soul power to concept-anchor than creature cards. An F-rank piece of equipment with a name and setting suited to its theme could often produce effects far beyond its rank.

He typed a weapon suited to Little Drill Wind into the search bar: command flag.

Command flag equipment wasn't a mainstream weapon type. Popular equipment such as swords, sabers, and spears were the market's favorites.

Command flags were "conceptual equipment," useful only within particular themes and tactical systems. As a result, their prices had never climbed very high.

Su Mu hit search, and a whole page of command flag equipment cards appeared on the screen.

He didn't choose any of the E-rank or D-rank command flags that routinely cost hundreds of thousands. He limited the filter to F-rank.

He didn't need to look at the attributes. The small numerical bonuses on F-rank equipment meant nothing to him. All he wanted was a vessel for the concept of a "command flag."

He sorted them by price, from lowest to highest.

The cheapest card cost only eight thousand, but it had no actual flag, just a bare pole, and was marked "damaged." The second cost twelve thousand and had a torn flag. The third cost fifteen thousand and had no design on its flag.

Su Mu skipped straight to the middle of the price range.

A command flag card costing twenty thousand caught his attention.

[Equipment card: Mountain Patrol Command Flag]

[Rank: F]

[Level: 5]

[Attributes: attack +15, speed +5]

[Effect: increases the holder's movement speed by 3%]

[Note: yellow flag made of ordinary material. It appears to have been used by some kind of mountain patrol. The flag is blank and may be inscribed or painted as desired.]

Su Mu's gaze lingered for a moment on the words "mountain patrol."

This was the one.

He clicked purchase.

After the order went through, a notification popped up:

[Current delivery method: local pickup]

[Due to high delivery demand during Awakening Season, estimated arrival at the pickup point is tomorrow. You may also select the "automatic pickup" service.]

Su Mu thought it over and chose the West City Gate Professional Service Hall near the city wall as the pickup point.

Next, he typed another keyword into the marketplace search bar: forced exit.

More than a dozen results appeared. He filtered them to the "lair use only" category and sorted them by price, lowest to highest. The cheapest was listed at thirty-eight thousand, but its note said "normal difficulty only." The second cost forty-five thousand and was restricted to hard difficulty or below. The third cost fifty thousand and was marked "usable on all difficulties; can force the user out of a dungeon in an emergency; cooldown: twenty-four hours."

Su Mu clicked the third one.

[Item card: Forced Escape Scroll]

[Rank: D]

[Effect: while in a lair dungeon, the user may activate this item upon judging the situation to be beyond recovery. Immediately exits the dungeon space and returns the user to the entrance. All experience, materials, and dropped items acquired are retained upon exit. Progress in an incomplete wave is not retained. Cooldown: 24 hours.]

[Note: a lifesaving item for lairs. All wilderness dungeon masters are advised to carry one. During Awakening Season, new users receive a national subsidy on their first purchase and need only pay 10% themselves.]

It cost fifty thousand, but after the subsidy, he only had to pay five thousand.

Su Mu ordered it without hesitation.

This thing could save his life at a critical moment. In a lair, if he found he couldn't defeat the enemy, a forced exit was his final safety net. For someone like him who often ran dungeons above his level, especially, Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit had their limits no matter how strong they were. If something unexpected happened, having this scroll in hand meant he wouldn't lose his life, at least.

What was more, his first purchase after awakening as a dungeon master came with a national subsidy, so he only had to pay ten percent of the price. Five thousand for a life was an excellent deal, practically a must-buy.

After placing the order, he checked the pickup options and again chose the pickup point at the West City Gate Professional Service Hall.

Once he had finished his purchases, Su Mu checked the time. It was a little after two in the afternoon.

He had already run three dungeons today-normal, hard, and nightmare—and had no attempts left, so he could only wait until tomorrow. At his current level, the experience he would gain from running the trial dungeon tomorrow would drop sharply.

Besides, there was still plenty of time left today. Rather than stay home, he might as well head outside the city.

He needed to farm monsters.

Most importantly, Little Drill Wind's development had already reached the limit of its current stage. To improve him further, Su Mu would have to either replace his base creature material with a better one or bring out Sun Wukong.

And to bring out Sun Wukong, he needed to use Years Like a Blade extensively.

Using the soul skill consumed momentum points.

And momentum points could only be obtained by killing wilderness monsters.

Su Mu stood up, opened his door, and walked out.

His aunt was in the living room mending the gray-green lining of a piece of protective equipment. Hearing him, she looked up.

"Auntie, I bought an equipment card and a Forced Exit Scroll," Su Mu said. "Seventy thousand. I've already placed the orders."

The needle in his aunt's hand paused for a moment, then she resumed sewing. "All right, as long as you know what you're doing. But you've only just awakened, and there are plenty of things you'll need to spend money on. Just don't buy things recklessly."

"Mm. I'd like to go outside the city and get some practice in a little while," Su Mu said.

His aunt's hands stopped. She turned to look at him, her brows drawing together slightly.

"Outside the city? You only awakened today. Isn't that a bit hasty?"

"I'll stay near the city wall. I won't go deep."