Chapter 235: Advanced Machine Tool, Exchange Complete
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Silence…
Utter silence…
The refugees who had been making noise this entire time fell dead silent upon hearing the words that came from the window.
Even the man standing outside the window seemed as if he had not regained his senses yet, staring dazedly at Su Mo’s face.
“30 catties?
“Excellent-quality seeds…?”
To Su Mo, this price was a mere drop in the ocean, but to these refugees who had always gone hungry ever since arriving in the wastelands…
This was nothing less than winning the top prize of 50 million in a lottery!
As long as they could bring the seeds back to the shelter and plant them, in three days, they would not have to worry about eating or drinking for the next one or two years!
“Yes, this design blueprint is worth 30 catties!”
Wow!
This time, when Su Mo repeated his words once more as he sat inside the shop, the refugees outside finally reacted.
The furor began!
Like a wave, the noise started from the innermost levels and spread all the way to the outermost fringes, then doubled back.
At this point, there was only one thing that everyone was chanting over and over again in a slightly dazed, unhinged manner…
“Thirty catties…”
“Thirty catties!”
“That’s thirty catties!”
This price was something entirely beyond everyone’s expectations. After Su Mo had established the contract in question, dividing it among seven people as per the man’s request, the man instantly became as alert as a cheetah on the hunt.
There would be many people who would rush forward to seize the seeds, and even fight desperately for them.
Twice in the ruins, even with warnings from the game, there were still plenty of people who had rushed forward to try and s.n.a.t.c.h the resources away, as if they had gone mad with despair.
Naturally, the fate of these individuals was incomparably wretched since they were immediately obliterated, but there were always people who wanted to challenge the system, thinking they would be lucky enough not to be dealt with by the game.
Still, it was fortunate that Su Mo was there in Ruin 001 to suppress things. Even if others cast covetous glances at the man and felt an inner urge to act rashly, they could only watch as he put the seeds in his storage s.p.a.ce, quickly das.h.i.+ng into his own little shop to leave.
His departure was brisk and decisive. He did not harbor even the slightest thought of exchanging some seeds with the rest for other items.
Under the current circ.u.mstances, seeds were a sustainable development treasure.
As long as they could grow food, they could bring it in when the next secret trading realm opened—that would be the most opportune time to trade.
The man was not foolish; neither were the others!
Before Su Mo could announce the items he would continue to purchase, everybody who had design blueprints swarmed forward like madmen.
“Almighty Su… I have a good blueprint, will you accept it!”
“Almighty Su, look at me, look at me! I have an excellent one—take mine!”
“Everybody get out of my way! Motherf*cker, I haven’t traded in my rare one yet!”
“…”
Compared to the last round, there were more than ten people who had come out to trade blueprints this time. Not only that, somebody in this group had an incomparably valuable rare-quality one.
Faced with the refugees outside the window who were already about to get into a brawl because they wished to trade, Su Mo did not say anything. Instead, with a mere thought, he immediately produced from his storage s.p.a.ce…
An M-1 Automatic Rifle!
At the sight of the rifle’s gleaming, pitch-black frame designed for maximum force of impact, coupled with Su Mo’s aloof face, the refugees who were on the verge of losing their heads instantly…
Came to their senses!
Having a gun pointed at them produced results that were countless times better in comparison with verbal prohibition. No matter how thick-headed an individual was, they would inevitably feel a tingle in their scalp when the muzzle of a gun was directed at them.
“Line up according to the quality, from high to low!”
Putting the rifle away and looking at the refugees, who were now as obedient as little chicks, Su Mo’s arctic expression dissipated, and he waved his hand, signaling for the person with the rare-quality design blueprint to come forward first.
The person who came up this time was a middle-aged woman with unprepossessing features. If not for a long knife scar on her chin, she would very likely instantly vanish when put into a crowd.
This middle-aged woman was naturally very a.s.sured in regards to this exchange. Following the example of the man who had previously made the exchange, she boldly pa.s.sed the design blueprint through the window, a trace of antic.i.p.ation on her face.
Once Su Mo had received the blueprint that she laid on the counter, he glanced at the design sketched on it, and a familiar sensation emerged.
As his gaze focused, the design blueprint’s properties slowly popped out.
[Small-medium thermal weapon laser manufacturing machine design blueprint (rare)]
[Description]: Advanced blueprint for a small thermal weapon laser manufacturing machine. Needs the pre-requisite items before it can undergo a cover manufacturing upgrade. After upgrading, the small-medium thermal weapon laser manufacturing machine will activate the medium thermal weapon manufacturing authorization and download the corresponding blueprint. After the corresponding materials are provided, a die can be manufactured with one click, and the grade will be fixed at good-quality.
[Medium blueprint currently in possession]: K2-Portable Anti-tank Launcher
[Limitation 1]: Needs a shelter level that reaches lv4
[Limitation 2]: Needs 500 Disaster Points
[Limitation 3]: The machine tool cannot be moved after being upgraded. Moving it will cause irreversible damage.
[Limitation 4]: The player must master basic mechanical knowledge. Only then will usage authorization be unlocked.
[Resale Value]: 500 Disaster Points
“As I expected, it’s a machine tool upgrade blueprint. As long as I can get an upgrade, the RPG can be produced in batches!”
After examining the appearance of the drawing depicted on the blueprint, Su Mo already had some speculations, but after he actually saw its properties, he found it hard to suppress a trace of excitement.
If the previous two design blueprints still stood a chance of being used by regular refugees, then in the entire world, only Su Mo alone could use this particular upgrade blueprint.
“A rare-quality advanced design blueprint—have all of you located the small thermal weapon machine tool manufacturing design needed to upgrade this?”
After a moment of silence, Su Mo lifted his head and looked at the middle-aged woman.
Based on his previous experiences with opening chests, boxes, and the like, things like this would definitely appear with the pre-requisite items. A high-quality advanced item would not show up sans anything else.
Upon hearing Su Mo’s question, the middle-aged woman hesitated, then produced another design blueprint.
This blueprint’s quality was not high—it was only good—but what it depicted was indeed a small machine tool design.
“Okay, since you have a complete advanced blueprint, I’ll take both of these for a price of…
“20 catties of excellent-quality seeds!”
If he merely possessed the machine tool but no blueprint, then if by some chance he encountered disaster someday, and the machine tool was destroyed, the shelter’s development would immediately come to a standstill.
Now that he had a complete design blueprint, the shelter’s disaster resistance had undoubtedly taken an imperceptibly small stride forward.
After the middle-aged woman had taken the 20 catties of seeds and slunk back to her own room with an overjoyed expression, the remaining exchanges sped up.
A total of nine design blueprints were in the possession of those who remained.
There were a total of three excellent-quality blueprints for a conveyor belt, a lockbox, and a gravel road, respectively.
There were a total of six good-quality blueprints, which were for a flash bomb, a silencer, tempered gla.s.s, a Delicious series—iron wok, a Delicious series—iron skillet, and a light strip, respectively.
After the previous rare and epic-quality blueprints, the excellent and good-quality ones had lost their initial value.
At a price of three catties of seeds for excellent-quality and half a catty for good-quality, the design blueprint trading concluded swiftly.
Following this, in the same manner of acquisition as before, the materials purchasing segment that all the ordinary refugees looked forward to kicked off.
First up were the five rare earth elements that the furnace needed—cerium, praseodymium, samarium, lutetium, and erbium.
Last time, Su Mo had bought quite a lot of cerium and praseodymium. This time, when he called out what he wanted to purchase, two people walked out holding samarium and erbium.
‘Just as I expected, how could collecting these rare earth elements on one’s own be as effective as nearly a thousand people collecting them?
‘As long as I communicate what I need in the Regional Channel, everyone will spontaneously help me collect it.’
With satisfaction, Su Mo happily bought both these rare earth elements.
At the moment, the only remaining rare earth element that the furnace needed was lutetium!
Furthermore, lutetium was also the most expensive element in the system’s creations—2000 survival points could only be exchanged for one gram.
‘If it’s 2000, then so be it. I’ve collected enough of the other elements now. I need to get the furnace done earlier—only then can I continue development on the materials!’
While he purchased other materials, Su Mo was planning the base’s development in his mind.
As for copper and iron, as usual, he bought everything in unlimited quant.i.ties.
Once construction started in earnest, these most basic supplies would become the rarest supplies instead.
Since he would always lack for them, he would always buy them!
At the price of 20 seeds for one unit of iron, most refugees came forward with several hundred to a thousand units and walked away with one or two catties of seeds in one go.
Copper was a little more expensive—30 seeds for one unit—but he still bought plenty of it.
Four hours could be considered a long time, yet it could also be a short duration. When everyone had traded a round and emptied anything of value in their inventory, the countdown timer at the very top of the world only showed half an hour remaining.
Having a bonus hundred cubic s.p.a.ces helped save the refugees a lot of effort when they were moving the basic materials out, but after their excitement, the exhaustion that stemmed from the bottom of their hearts was real.
Most of the refugees had not yet left the lush, green Hope mainland.
Just lying on these gra.s.s plains or hopping into the flowing stream and feeling the water flowing around them seemed to lessen the exhaustion in their bodies.
Compared to the frequent outer s.p.a.ce Star Wars simulation in the other ruins or the one-day trip to the oil pot in the 18th layer of h.e.l.l, although the two places Su Mo chose were not outstanding, they were still the best comfort for the souls of these refugees who had been ensconced in this Doomsday wasteland for a month.
Lying here, they did not have to think about anything, and their safety was very much guaranteed—it was peaceful as if they had returned to Earth.
Rememberances of those ordinary, good old days of going to work and school gradually surfaced from deep within their memories.
“This is so nice. There’s no telling when a new Huaxia can be established on the wasteland!”
“That’s a long way off. It’s only been how many days, and I’ve practically almost forgotten what life was like on Earth. It’s like it’s a false memory. It’s not real at all when compared with the wasteland.”
“I’ve already nearly forgotten the feeling of waking up in the morning, going downstairs, and having a bowl of pepper soup.”
“It also feels like it’s been ages since I’ve heard those morning fitness cla.s.ses that I hated so much back in the day!”
“We have Su Mo and the official shelters. As long as we can keep going one day at a time and survive, we’ll definitely be able to see Su Mo establish a shelter for humans!”
“Yeah, in just this one month, our lives have been getting better day by day. We can definitely hold on until then!”
“Anyway, if Almighty Su’s shelter needs people, I’ll certainly be the first to go. It’s fine even if I have to work 18 hours a day!”
“…”
As they conversed, there were no conflicts of interest, and everybody let down their guards. It was as if they had returned to a society with laws and inst.i.tutions.
Looking forward to the future and being able to work hard for it was also the reason such advanced animals like humans were able to be at the top of the food chain.
Watching the peace outside, Su Mo—who had finished making an inventory of all his supplies as he sat in his little shop—also displayed the faintest hint of a smile.
The humans wanted to unite and establish a Neo-Confucian great community, forging ahead or retreating together and indomitably returning to Earth.
Toppling the defenses of these heartless black market businesses was…
Only the first step!