Chapter 580: Same-Sex Repulsion
"Players are people too, and people naturally need to live and have fun." The old man opened the glass cabinet and took out a keychain with a hanging plate. "Look at this—use it anytime, anywhere. Place it on any surface, and it has sterilizing functions, ensuring a clean and hygienic meal even out in the wild."
"And this makeup mirror—it can provide different hairstyle and makeup combinations every day without repeating, letting you live each day with dignity."
"A hook that works anytime, anywhere. It can hang on any hard object and has great load-bearing capacity. Not only can you hang clothes on it, but if you want to hang yourself, that's no problem either."
After introducing several life-type items, the old man picked up a sticker printed with musical notes. "This one lets you dance to music. No matter how hard life gets, you can't go without dancing."
"Other items include a voice changer, a loudspeaker, a smile-keeping clip, a badminton racket that can hit ten thousand times, a die that never lands on one, a collapsible life-sized human model..."
"All this stuff is useless," Sima Xiao'er said. "Only someone with a screw loose would buy these items!"
Xu Huo, the one with the "screw loose," picked up the voice changer. Besides mimicking human voices, it could also translate a person's current emotions into corresponding animal sounds.
"An entertainment item isn't worth two hundred thousand white notes. Give me a discount." He bargained with the boss under Sima Xiao'er's horrified gaze.
The old man turned and took a button from the cabinet beside him. "I can give you a discount on this one. A sound recorder—it can identify and replicate any sound captured while worn: insect chirps, footsteps, wind sounds. It has only one flaw: every time you press the play button, the sound it replicates is random."
"A defective product?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow and signaled Sima Xiao'er to put the ore away. "Let's check out other shops."
"Young man, don't be so impatient. If the price isn't right, we can negotiate," the old man quickly said.
"Shop around," Xu Huo said with a smile. "Besides, since you say this ore is so good, it can't be sold so cheaply."
Seeing that they were really about to leave, the old man relented. "Alright, alright, I'll add a few more thousand. This is the highest price I can offer. Consider it a good start to business. You won't get this high a price anywhere else."
While the old man was introducing the items, Xu Huo had already checked the value of A-grade ore through his game panel. Ore of decent quality was roughly around this price. Since ore is used to make many things in the game, like weapons and items, there was a fair amount of ore trading on the game channels. He narrowed his search based on the price the old man offered and found several types of A-grade ore that looked similar to his.
Without professional tools, it was hard to tell if they were the same ore, but at least they looked similar on the surface.
In the end, he chose a D-grade needle item called "Same-Sex Repulsion."
[Same-Sex Repulsion: A highly gender-conscious item. It can determine whether a person is male or female based on appearance, body type, clothing, voice, and other factors. If the target is the same gender as the user, it will force the target to maintain a safe distance of at least three meters from the user (the exact distance depends on the target's strength). The player only needs to pin it to their clothing. However, please note that it is not an intelligent machine, so there may be judgment errors. Do not dress as the opposite sex to test its limits, or you will only reap disappointment.]
"I didn't make any profit this time," the old man said, shaking his head as he held the ore.
"How can you profit every time in business? Otherwise, there'd be no next time," Xu Huo said with a smile as he put away the item.
The old man waved his hand. "Next time you have ore, feel free to bring it here."
After leaving the toy shop, Sima Xiao'er whispered, "Brother Xu, did we get ripped off?"
"This price is about right." Xu Huo glanced back at the shop. The old man's willingness to compromise likely meant he still stood to gain, but in the end, it was just an ordinary piece of ore. Unless the old man could find Clown City from a single stone.
Now, the stones in the underground nest of Clown City might have become a new resource, but it was unclear if there were still stones like the Nuwa Stone.
He didn't seek answers to this question through the game platform. From the information he had gathered, the Game Government couldn't monopolize all mineral resources. In other words, the Game Government also searched for suitable ores in various game zones. It wasn't omniscient and omnipotent, and there was even suspicion of resource plundering.
Therefore, Xu Huo didn't intend to leak any information about the Nuwa Stone through any channels.
"So stones can make money too. Looks like I'll have to pay more attention in future instances. Maybe I can dig up something and earn some extra cash," Sima Xiao'er joked, then asked, "Are we going to other shops?"
"No." Xu Huo searched online for videos and pictures of other shops, mostly taken by onlookers. They basically showed the shop interiors, and the people filming were usually complaining about the high prices and the shop owners' strange temperaments.
"If these are mostly items, why are people willing to pay but the owners refuse to sell?" Sima Xiao'er was puzzled. "I don't believe they're really not short on money."
"Maybe it has something to do with the game," Xu Huo said.
Zone 014 hadn't fully integrated into the game, yet Artificers had come to open shops, and quite a few at that. They probably came through the Game Government's channels. Collecting ore and being reluctant to sell items easily might be related to Game Government regulations.
"Didn't the Special Defense Department come to buy items?"
"Someone went to ask, but I don't know how it turned out," Sima Xiao'er said. "Even if the Special Defense Department bought good items, they wouldn't give them to me. Not telling me is normal."
Xu Huo was short on money now. If the Special Defense Department could buy items, he might be able to get them through them.
With that in mind, he sent a text to Team Leader Wu, then found a nearby hotel and checked into a room with a view of the "Old Master Handcraft Shop."
Not long after, Huang Junjie called again to apologize. They had already learned the full story of Bao Jiali's incident. Xu Huo had killed several players from the First Association, and while they were angry, after the anger subsided, they chose to let the matter drop.
The First Association didn't have that strong a sense of unity. Other players didn't want to stick their necks out either, though they felt Xu Huo's actions were a bit harsh and underestimated the First Association.
Clearly, no one took his warning seriously. Hundreds of players—what was a single D-grade player?
"Why are you apologizing to me? It's over." Xu Huo hung up after speaking.
"It's one thing not to clash with the Special Defense Department, but can any random player just walk all over the First Association?" the newly appointed vice president said, full of anger.
Huang Junjie put down the phone, still uneasy. "Xu Huo is unfathomable. He wouldn't speak without reason. If he's already in Yang City, could he really be coming for us?"
(Chapter End)