Chapter 157: Shang’s Idea Sequel ~Brain Blast~ (1/2)

Chapter 157: Shang’s Idea Sequel ~Brain Blast~

Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation

”Well yeah… Never expected that prick to be this lucky. The lady luck always smiles at dorks I guess.” The long haired young man seemed dissatisfied.

”Alright, we shall go and have a look together,” replied Maltese with little bit of interest. He had already heard about the skeleton parts from his teacher way back before, but as far as he remembered, the craftsman was known to be an elderly… Did that old man amble his way here? The Nine Gates City? The parts notorious for their limitation in stocks, it was an unaccustomed sight to see them among the insiders of the Sanctuary, where most of them had only heard of the names at most, they had hardly seen the actual object before. And Maltese was one of them.

”Hm?”

Maltese viewed the tainted green plate carefully with growing interests. ”That day was a cloudy day, I, Monkslay got my steed to the market and snap! I took this fine plate! And…” Monkslay at the side was proudly presenting his experience throughout the mundane purchase process of this skeleton parts at a beheading price.

Hm, interesting! Maltese with a Metallurgy minor did have some insights regarding the potential of other kinds of materials. This skeleton plate for example, it had a very strange texture and the crafting was well done. Maltese sneaked it over a scanner from his pocket… What… To his horror, the hardness was identified to be much higher than the usual enhanced alloys in the market, while its durability was thrice of titanium.

This is made out of only bones? When did the bodies of these mutated lifeforms become this tough? Maltese’s surprise erupted.

As he compared the pros and cons between metallic parts and skeleton parts, he became more intrigued. Fiddling the plates, his curiosity, his attention had gone over skeleton parts and the elderly who crafted these.

…

Hmph…

Ye Chong noticed that wherever he went, there had to be two or three people tailing him from far away. They were dubious in his eyes but under the aid of Mu’s intelligence, the conversation they had as well as their identity had been distinguished. Those were the guardsmen sent by the Sanctuary to protect Ye Chong, but they also shouldered the duty to watch him.

Ye Chong who had nothing better to do decided to start loitering in Nine Gates City, trying to find that very pearl in the sea like the Blue Sandstone. There were strange people from all walks of life, weird things from all categories of mall. Like this reagent which rapidly promoted the melting process of metals, it intrigued Ye Chong greatly along with the other magical things. These things were not ”magical” without a price however. They often came with a terrifying price tag. That number of digits on the tag of points required… even for someone who would be considered as half a millionaire like Ye Chong with the points in hand could not keep up with these insane purchases.

So Ye Chong had no other choice than to increase the production of skeleton parts daily to maintain his purchases for the moment. Mu at the same time also seemed to be rather astonished by the number of bizarre-looking people in Nine Gates City.

After the continuous purchases Ye Chong made on these weird items with weird names he could not even mention because they were so weird, he finally stopped. With Mu’s assistance he managed to eavesdrop the entire conversation exchanged among the men behind him, it was entertaining he must say. Their conversation not only encompassed the secrets and rumors within the Sanctuary, but also the scorching spite towards Ye Chong’s leisure yet tiresome wandering.

Thanks to the leisure yet tiresome wandering however, Ye Chong was allowed to lay his hands on a variety of peculiar items while learning the city better.

For instance, the source of bones in the market. Yes that would be valuable information to Ye Chong the skeleton artisan.

Apparently the bones in the market were supplied by the pilots in bulks, including those from the Sanctuary and those who got detained. The mutation process among the biological lifeforms had become significantly briefer over the time, as their physique strengthened and their survivability improved, making them harder to capture, harder to kill. The skeletons from these lifeforms were the main source of bones in the market. They were treated as the byproduct of the pilots’ hunting however, since the main income of points did not come from selling these skeletons, rather it came from the wages rewarded by the Sanctuary for completing the tasks of hunting the lifeforms.

Unlike the mutated lifeforms, the outlandish primary creatures discovered on some of the primeval planets had been taken to the spotlight, as their bones were the latest darling to the chemists. Since these bones alone had already defined a new possible combination of chemical formulation. Skeletons of such kind were extremely costly in the market and similar to the skeleton parts. They often disappeared the moment they were registered online. These primeval planets were uncultivated and obviously dangerous as well. It was as if venturing into the abyssal unknown to the pilots who headed there cautiously for their missions. Still, if the pilots made it back home, pouches of sparkling points would be awaiting them. High amount of points would be credited to the account, which was something for people to envy along with the valuable loots from the run. Thus, in spite of the hassle and the risk, the participation was active as ever. The Sanctuary also was greatly motivated, considering how the expedition program could bring them potentials of discovering new species, new resources… or the best, new type of ores.

”Ye.” Mu had something in mind, a way that allowed Ye Chong to obtain more bones of premium quality, though the idea was from Shang apparently. It was just that Mu acted as the channel to reiterate his plan word by word, ”We shall minimize the cost to achieve maximum profit!” And that was when Ye Chong remembered the fact that Shang was also a true lunatic over economy…

Despite that, Shang’s idea piqued his interests.

Days lapsed and right when everyone started getting used to camping before the trading market to hurriedly throw their points over the newly-from-the-oven skeleton parts by the mysterious crafter, a request popped up. And no doubt skeleton parts became the center of attention once again.

The crafter stated, ”I would no longer offer my works for sales, instead, if any pilot could provide me bones that are hardly seen in the market, the pilot could get a skeleton part from me for free.”

Concisely the message was written yet impulsive the message was to people in Nine Gates City. It had transformed into the hottest topic the moment it was submitted to the announcements.

All the pilots who had obtained the parts from official purchases before were glad in dark, as handling points was much easier than digging out a piece of skeleton that would be considered ”rare” to a master craftsman; while those pilots who had yet acquired the parts were in anguish figuring out a way to get some juicy bones to trade.