39 Spending Spree

The demon flood had left just as quickly as it had come, like a dutiful express deliveryman. It had left nothing behind but love and warmth.

 Fortunately, Origin Crystals, the common currency of the new era, were much tougher than Tang Yu had expected. The unstoppable destructive power of the cannon and arrow towers had left the Origin Crystals unscathed. In fact, the utter obliteration of the demonized beast corpses had made gathering Origin Crystals much easier.

 This really wasn't all that bad… like hell!

 He was still in pain from all those lost materials. Not only could they have been used to make equipment, more importantly, he was about to go to Lindong. Such a big shelter had to have a market, right? Tang Yu was anxious to make some money.

 Some of the stronger demonized beasts were still rather intact. Tang Yu ordered these materials gathered while he began to take measure of the profits and losses from this battle.

 The demonized beasts had brought so many Origin Crystals that he had definitely made a profit, but it wasn't as though he had paid nothing.

 Putting aside the other building materials, the defensive buildings had cost him two thousand Origin Crystals alone. Not only that, the defensive buildings consumed energy while attacking.

 Where did this energy come from? From Origin Crystals, of course! Tang Yu had stored some Origin Crystals in the castle's small storehouse, and these were used to fuel the defensive buildings. Otherwise, he wouldn't have waited for so long to build them.

 Tang Yu recalled that there was a building called an 'energy atrium' that became available once he reached a Level 3 domain. This building could absorb free Origin Energy from the air to fuel defensive buildings. Until he built this building, these defensive buildings would continue to devour his crystals.

 In any case, he had made a profit, and he was in a good mood. With the addition of the Origin Crystals he had gotten from the Origin Crystal vein, he had a significant stockpile that he would have to find a good way to use up before he left for Lindong.

 The survivors were also in a good mood.

 It was relief from surviving a disaster.

 The gate reopened, and some of the bolder survivors walked out to inspect the demonized beast corpses from up close.

 "Oh my god, they're huge! And such a large demonized beast is dead!"

 Ordinary survivors never had a chance to get this close to demonized beasts. One of them prodded the body and realized that they really were quite tough.

 Such terrifying demonized beasts had attacked, but the shelter had successfully handled them—a shelter with less than one hundred people.

 Who would believe a battle record like this? Although this was mostly due to Chief Tang, this was no problem. These were all things that they could brag about!

 In the past, many ordinary survivors would just sit around and wait for death, but things were different now. So long as they worked hard each day, they would eat well, and they also now knew that the shelter was so capable that not even a demon flood could do anything to it. In this apocalyptic world, was there any place safer than this besides a large shelter?

 The survivors unwittingly began to develop a sense of belonging to the shelter, sincerely feeling lucky that they were able to come here.

 …

 Once the demon flood was over, Tang Yu didn't waste time. Leaving outside matters to Chen Haiping and Roger, he went alone to the clearing behind the castle that he used for constructing system buildings.

 Of the four core buildings, he had built the tavern, workshop, and market. All that was left was the research lab.

 Tang Yu had Number One and Number Two bring over resources until he finally fulfilled the building requirement.

 "Constructing the research lab costs 1,000 units of Origin Crystal, 100 units of Wood, 300 units of Stone, and 300 units of Iron."

 Just like the last few times, a three-storey building quickly formed in front of Tang Yu.

 Walking inside…

 The research lab contained a variety of research equipment. Tang Yu looked around and recognized very few of them. It was only the beakers, like the kind he had used in high school, that he had some impression of… Perhaps it only had a passing resemblance. Anyway, they were all cups. 

 None of this was important. What was important was the research lab's abilities.

 As an important utility building, the research lab had an irreplaceable role.

 Researching blueprints, enhancing blueprints, modifying blueprints… all of these were abilities of the research lab. Theoretically, so long as one had enough knowledge and Origin Crystals, the research lab could research all the blueprints that were available.

 But that was something for far in the future.

 Currently, the research lab was at a low level, and Tang Yu wasn't prepared to invest that many Origin Crystals into it. His primary desire was to modify blueprints.

 For instance, the basic sword was a blueprint that the workshop had come with. This was very lacking in that kind and caring touch. What if someone wanted to use a saber or some other weapon?!

 Blueprint modification was the ability to modify the sword blueprint into a saber blueprint. Of course, the level wouldn't change, and it would still be a basic item with a single rune. This just made things more adaptable.

 This was not all. A sword blueprint used iron as its basic material, but when modifying the blueprint, one could add materials from demonized beasts, like their claws or bones. While the blueprint level would not change, better materials naturally meant that better weapons could be produced.

 Tang Yu first modified a saber blueprint, and then he designed a runeless blank shield blueprint and blueprints for guns and bullets. With blueprints, he could use the workshop to produce them in batches.

 Once he was done with the research lab, he didn't build anymore, instead heading to the market.

 He didn't build any more system buildings not because he didn't need them, but because he was… afraid.

 In order to head to the Lindong Shelter, he needed to get the Town Portal Scroll. This thing should have had a very high chance of popping up in the early stages of the game, but he had yet to come upon one. For this purpose, he had upgraded the market to Level 2 last night, doubling the slots in the counter from ten to twenty. But after several refreshes, he had still not found the Town Portal Scroll.

 Each refresh cost five hundred units of Origin Crystal, and though he was a big boss with more than ten thousand, after spending a few times, he didn't care to continue. He was no longer spending just crystals, but spending his life…

 Tang Yu felt like his luck yesterday had been bad, but as he had both gotten rid of the woodworms in the shelter and dealt with a demon flood today, he decided that his luck had to be pretty good today. Once he got the Town Portal Scroll and made a few more preparations, he would be able to start his journey to Lindong.

 He glanced at the products that had appeared on the daily refresh. The prices were all rather high. If the prices were too high, he couldn't buy them. There were so many zeros behind the numbers that he felt that he couldn't even look at them until he was a true big boss with a hundred million Origin Crystals. Otherwise, both his heart and eyes would ache.

 He couldn't take that pain.

 Whoosh!

 Starting from the first slot, the items began to refresh.

 Medium-grade Wood Resource Pack (500 Units), Price: 49 Origin Crystals.

 Remaining: 5

 Feilian1 (Weapon) Blueprint, Price: 3000 Origin Crystals.

 Remaining: 1

 …

 …

 Otherworldly Fruit, Price: 100 Origin Crystals.

 Remarks: An extremely tasty fruit.

 Remaining: 50.

 Skill Rune Stone (Burn the Heavens and Boil the Seas), Price: 1,000,000 Units of High-Purity Origin Crystal.

 Remaining: 1

 …

 As expected, the first refresh was devoid of any Town Portal Scroll. There were some decent things here, like the Feilian weapon blueprint… When it came to blueprints, if he had been rolling in Origin Crystals, Tang Yu would have bought as many as he could get his hands on. He wouldn't lose out from buying them, they would keep their value, and could even use them in the research lab to create new blueprints.

 Alas, he was anything but rolling in Origin Crystals.

 As for some things like the otherworldly fruits, Tang Yu could only say that more and more bizarre products had begun appearing in the market after he leveled it up, but their quality was also much better. That skill rune stone, for example… this was the first skill rune stone he had seen in the market, but Tang Yu very coolly ignored it.

 One million? And high-purity Origin Crystals?

 He couldn't even scrounge up one million, let alone whatever these high-purity Origin Crystals were. He had never even heard of something like this!

 His first refresh had been a complete wash. Tang Yu took in a deep breath. "Don't panic, don't panic. Even something that costs one million has popped up. Perhaps I'm still lucky. I should be able to summon a few Town Portal Scrolls!"

 …

 Several minutes later, Tang Yu was pale and panting for breath, beads of sweat rolling down his face.

 He couldn't even remember how many times he had refreshed, but those Town Portal Scrolls had refused to appear. Was it because Town Portal Scrolls were of such low value that only those with bad luck could get them?

 Even more infuriating was that in his many refreshes, he had been able to find quite a few nice things. These items had good prices and were incredibly useful to him at his current stage. To put it bluntly, the temptation had been too great, and… his hand had slipped.

 After refreshing so many times and buying quite a few items, he had spent more than half of his Origin Crystals in the space of a few minutes.

 This was even worse than browsing Taobao!

 But at least on Taobao, he could buy what he wanted. As for this awful market? It was always enticing him with valuable items, but if this went on, he'd be in the poorhouse long before he got a Town Portal Scroll.

 This was no good!

 Tang Yu returned to the castle, took a bath, changed clothes, and burned… some paper. He couldn't find any incense, so he had to use rolled-up paper in its place.

 He returned to the market.

 "Three Purities, Lord Buddha, Goddess of Luck, Master of Fortune, Senior White… no matter who you are, please give me the power to pull a Town Portal Scroll!"

 Tang Yu closed his eyes, and then he opened them again.

 He brought two fingers together into a sword.

 Whoosh!

 Starting from the first slot, a white light passed over, and the items available changed.

 High-grade demonized beast bone.

 Spring water, infused with powerful vitality.

 Basic knowledge describing how to use Origin Power.

 An energy beam gun blueprint.

 A scroll that increased summoning chances…

 All of them were superb products!

 Tang Yu realized to his sorrow that it was once more time to pay up.