Chapter 20: The Discovery of the Street Stall Area
As time went on, the number of creatures in the Ruins Market increased more and more, quickly reaching several hundreds. Under the deterrence of ten First Rank Fire Peony Soldier Figurines, these creatures of different races were exceptionally well-behaved. Several hours had passed, and not a single one had caused any trouble, which somewhat surprised Song Chi.
In just a short time, the goods he had bought wholesale yesterday had all been sold out, each at least tripling his selling price, which truly earned him a handsome profit.
Yet, beyond the joy, Song Chi also felt a sigh in his heart.
His initial capital had indeed been too little, meaning that even with the several times markup, the materials only earned him just under a thousand threads of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin. It was not too little by any means, but it definitely wasn't too much either.
Fortunately, the transactions in the free stall area continued unabated, and the simple transaction tax also allowed Song Chi to earn quite a bit more.
With funds of over a thousand threads of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, Song Chi felt confident and, donning the guise of a trader, blended into the stall area.
Of course, the phrase "a thousand threads of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin" was just a figure of speech; it didn't mean that he had more than a thousand threads of Floating Land Origin in his hands. In fact, what he had more of now were Life Cores, but based on the exchange rate in the Torch Human Civilization's domain, their total value exceeded that of a thousand threads of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin.
Resources like Floating Land Origin are typically used as currency only by Starry Sea Civilizations of Intermediate level or higher. For the lower civilizations, the Life Core is the hard currency.
...
The stall area wasn't large, and an area of 10mx10m seemed exceedingly crowded for the count of over several hundred intelligent Starry Sea beings.
Seeing this, Song Chi spent 150 threads of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin to upgrade the Ruins Market from lv0 to lv5.
In the midst of the puzzled expressions of hundreds of intelligent beings, the Zhu Tian Ruins Market began to rapidly expand, quickly growing from a size of 100mx100m to 300mx300m.
At the same time, the size of the stall area also increased from a meager 10mx10m to a 30mx30m, and although it was still crowded, it was much better than before.
Name: Zhu Tian Ruins Market
Ruins Market Master: Song Chi
Level: lv5
Size: 300mX300m
Basic Configuration: 24 vacant shops, 1 stall area of 30mx30m, 1 inn with 30 guest rooms, 1 lv0 All-Attributes Cultivation Room (efficiency doubled when cultivating Spectral Energy), 1 lv0 Spectral Energy Protection Formation, 1 lv0 Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform.
Additional Configuration: None (0/4)
Feature: Averting Misfortune (able to move freely in the void, mysteriously avoiding natural disasters)
UpRank Requirement: 60 threads of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), Ruins Market transaction volume to reach 600 threads of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank)
Note: An inconspicuous little Ruins Market located in the dark side of Shattered Starry Sea appears to allow only First Rank and below creatures to enter, but it has good potential.
Looking at the Ruins Market attribute panel that only he could see before him, Song Chi's brows slightly furrowed.
Even the additional configuration slots increased by two when the Ruins Market level was raised to lv5, but the All-Attributes Cultivation Room, the Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform, and the Spectral Energy Protection Array remained unchanged. Clearly, if he wanted to enhance these features later, it would evidently require additional resources.
Receiving this news did not improve his mood.
The only consolation for him was the Ruins Market's once-a-month opening, which was still quite lucrative. As long as he had enough initial capital and the location of the Spatial Gate deployment was also decent, the income would be quite stable.
After upgrading the Ruins Market, Song Chi began to browse the various stalls, trying to see if he could pick up any bargains.
The prices of items around the Shattered Starry Sea varied greatly; maybe some cheap goods in the hands of other Alien Races were extremely scarce resources in the Torch Human Civilization's domain.
His gaze swept over the stalls, and Song Chi kept shaking his head.
"A ton of Refined Iron Ore, asking for twenty Zero Rank Life Cores, that's twice as expensive as the market price outside. Even dogs would shake their heads at this."
"Two tons of Mithril Ore, asking for eight First Rank Life Cores, this is actually cheaper than the market price, but without a distribution channel, going through the black market would actually result in a loss, so that won't do."
...
Several minutes later, Song Chi paused, stopping in front of a small stall set up by a Minotaur.
His gaze seemed to drift, but he was constantly watching a palm-sized black sphere out of the corner of his eye.
[Strange Object: Refined Gold Ore]
[Quality: White]
[Evolvable into: 1｛Gold Moon Scimitar｝,2｛Goldrock Shield｝,3｛Goldrock Ship Armor｝]
[Note: A fine piece among the white strange objects.]
This unremarkable black spherical object turned out to be a white strange object.
When he first found it, Song Chi was extremely excited. His earlier mention of finding a bargain was about looking to sift through for some goods with a price difference; he hadn't even thought about strange objects, and completely did not expect to come across such a big surprise.
It's known that every Starry Sea oddity is extremely precious, requiring a very long time to be nurtured. Even the lowest-ranked white oddities are no exception.
Pretending to browse the other items on the stall, Song Chi eventually picked up the black sphere casually.
"What is this?"
Hearing his question, the Minotaur stall owner scratched his head in embarrassment. He had acquired the stone after killing a warrior from a rival tribe and had never been able to figure out exactly what kind of ore it was, only that it was extraordinarily hard, and even the best blacksmith in his tribe could not refine it.
"If you want it, take it for 100 Zero Rank Life Cores. The ore is of very high quality, and once forged into a weapon, its destructive power would be absolutely astonishing."
Song Chi frowned and started bargaining.
"Not even knowing what kind of metal ore it is, 100 Zero Rank Life Cores is too high. How about we cut it in half, to 50 cores?"
Agreeing directly would raise suspicion, only through several rounds of haggling could he avoid raising doubts.
In the end, Song Chi bought the white strange object for 75 Zero Rank Life Cores.
Looking at the Refined Gold Ore in his hand, his face remained unchanged, but he was already smiling inside.
As its name suggests, Refined Gold Ore is essentially a kind of ore. However, Refined Gold Ore is the essence gathered from an entire large vein of Refined Gold, and its value far exceeds that of ordinary Refined Gold Ore.
From its attributes panel, it was clear that as a Metal Attribute oddity, it could not only be transformed into the armor of the Torch Warship but also into a weapon and shield for individual use.
With this acquisition, Song Chi got a taste for more and started appearing more frequently around various stalls, although he did not find a second Starry Sea oddity.
On the way, he did purchase several batches of supplies seldom seen in the strongholds of Torch Civilization, which could still make him a profit of over a hundred strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin if he later sold them through the black market—better than nothing.
As time ticked by, and as the time for this Ruins Market to be open had already passed by more than half, Song Chi's expression began to look a bit troubled.
He remembered clearly that he had set a Spatial Gate to be deployed within a Mechanical Race's domain, which had been recorded by Torchlight Humanity, but up to now, no Mechanical Race beings had entered the market, which disappointed him.