Chapter 24: Arms Dealing

Even if the craftsmanship is crude, as long as it has a form and a function that qualifies it as a bow, it can be upgraded through Ultimate Sublimation. At the second-tier level, it would at least be somewhat useful.

Uh...

Just as he was getting excited, his enthusiasm came to an abrupt halt. Lu Ming suddenly recalled a fundamental issue: archery. That’s right, without superb marksmanship, what use is there in failing to hit a larval core from eighty meters away? Furthermore, the manufacturing of arrows was also a problem. It seemed to be an impossible idea.

Looking back at the factory, Lu Ming felt a bit frustrated. A massive treasure trove lay right before his eyes, yet he had no effective way to infiltrate it. It was infuriating. Did he really have to go back and wait until he reached the level of a Primary Warrior before trying again with his bare hands? He couldn't afford to be impatient, and there were drawbacks to that plan—it wasn't just about people; the main issue was that if those four cocoons hatched simultaneously, not even a god could enter this place.

With his thoughts blocked, Lu Ming simply opened his information panel, hoping to find a solution within his skill combinations. He didn't expect that as soon as he opened it, his gaze would naturally drift toward the Trading House. Initially, he hadn't been familiar with the environmental structure of the Jialan Apocalypse. Now, half a day had passed, and there were certainly many people taking action. Even if the trading market wasn't fully open, it definitely wouldn't be devoid of goods.

Try his luck!

Opening the Trading House, he found that the product list was no longer empty, with the total number of pages reaching over a hundred thousand.

Over a hundred thousand?!

Was development really this fast? Lu Ming was quite surprised, but after glancing at the hundreds of items on the first page, he immediately felt relieved. People were throwing everything on there: stones, stools, moldy bed sheets, expired drinks, even beds. He flipped through a few pages; it was far too chaotic, mostly people just joining in for the fun of it. Fortunately, there was a precise item category filter on the side. Lu Ming scanned it and caught sight of the words "Skill Books."

So, these things could indeed be sold.

He clicked on "Skill Books." A page expanded, and a lonely, plain-looking book lay there.

[Common Military Combat Arts] (E-Grade): After learning, one masters basic military combat techniques. Exchange target: 100 bottles of 500ml purified water.

"Good grief," he muttered. "An E-grade skill for 100 bottles of water? Is this book diamond-encrusted? Why don't you just go rob someone?!"

For this piece of junk, three bottles of water would be the absolute limit, and that would only be if it were in his hands—he could use it as a base and rely on sublimation to advance it to a higher level. To anyone else, they wouldn't even trade half a bottle for it. It was just military combat arts; useful for self-defense against humans, but trying to fight mutant creatures with it was just asking for death!

Staring fixedly at the empty Skill Book page, Lu Ming remained silent. It seemed he had overthought it; at this stage, only two types of people could obtain skill books.

Either they were "lucky dogs" with heaven-defying luck, like Pang Xiaolong, the owner of the Master Key, or they were strong individuals capable of moving freely to conquer areas. If those "lucky dogs" obtained a skill and didn't learn it, they certainly wouldn't sell it now. For one, they lacked the deep financial background to list it at a proper price. Secondly, the Great Displacement had only been going on for half a day; it was far from the point where people were starving or dying of thirst, so they wouldn't sell high-level items cheaply just to survive.

Therefore, to buy what he needed, he had to understand the market and know what people were currently lacking most. Without a doubt, it was confidence and courage. What is confidence and courage in the apocalypse? Weapons. Weapons are confidence and courage! As long as one possessed a large number of weapons, even if the person trading them didn't intend to use them, they could acquire them for resale to obtain the resources they needed.

Lu Ming quickly found the weapons section. Upon opening it, he saw a decent variety of samples. There were knives, spears, swords, and halberds, but most were unsharpened or simply props. He guessed that people in various regions had stumbled upon places where these items were stored. After checking the prices of a few items, he roughly understood the value range. The lowest were five bottles of water or ten portions of food. The highest, such as sharpened weapons, were around double that in exchange value.

Crucially, there were actual successful transactions. Clearly, his deduction was correct. He felt even more convinced that "durability" was the most successful setting in the apocalypse. Especially for those at the level of Advanced Warriors or even Limit Soldiers, the consumption of weapons would absolutely increase exponentially. They had resources, opportunities, and infinite possibilities. If he could sell stronger weapons and demand various specialized skill books in return, there would inevitably be people who couldn't resist the temptation and would trade for them.

As for whether selling weapons would accelerate the growth of others, he wasn't worried at all. They would never be faster than him anyway. Besides, by selling weapons, he could improve the resource-gathering efficiency of others. Once the collective level rose, their purchasing power would naturally increase. Then, he could buy higher-level base items, manufacture superior weapons, and exchange them for higher-level skill books to arm himself—wouldn't that be a case of sitting back and reaping the rewards?

Thinking of this, Lu Ming leapt up to the second floor of the staff dormitory. He had already explored it with his Eye of Truth; aside from some expired food, there was no danger. Now, leaning against the wall with the window closed, he decided to use the Trading House to accumulate the combat power needed to break through the factory.

He searched for tools. Hundreds of pages of kitchen knives, fruit knives, axes, and more appeared one after another. The prices were not worth looking at—they were all overpriced.

But that wasn't a big problem. Tools sat between weapons and supplies, belonging to the most awkward category. In terms of combat, their lethality was limited and couldn't create a "must-kill" situation. In terms of logistics, they couldn't be eaten and offered no guarantee of survival. Therefore, many people listed them just to try their luck, but when a real buyer appeared, it would be a different story.

Lu Ming clicked to consign an item, threw in one bottle of 500ml purified water, set the exchange item to "bladed tools," and finished listing it.

[Notification: Your consignment of "Farmer's Three Fists Purified Water" in the Trading House has been successfully traded. You obtained a "Pig-Slaughtering Knife."]

Instant sale! It was that real. What satisfied Lu Ming even more was that the Trading House implemented privacy protection for both buyers and sellers, keeping both parties anonymous. This meant that no matter how outrageous the items he listed, he wouldn't be targeted. Although he wasn't afraid, he would find it annoying—like flies and mosquitoes.

Keep listing! This time, Lu Ming put up 9 bottles in a row. It was the same result; they were sold out in the blink of an eye. Along with the Pig-Slaughtering Knife he had just traded for, ten blades now lay quietly in the Trading House's product warehouse. Among them were four kitchen knives, three fruit knives, and two pig-slaughtering knives.

He took them out one by one and placed them on the floor, starting to upgrade them individually. To hoard the goods and stay ahead of the market, Lu Ming didn't show the slightest stinginess; he performed a second-tier sublimation on all ten blades. The kitchen knives were all upgraded to Fine Steel Straight Blades, and the pig-slaughtering knives were upgraded to Fine Steel Madao (long-handled sabers). It wasn't that he looked down on others, but the audience for wide-bladed heavy knives was too small. First of all, it lost the female market, significantly narrowing the consumer base, which was not ideal.

What surprised Lu Ming was that the upgrade path for the fruit knives wasn't limited to knives, but also included swords. The results were Fine Steel Longswords, Wide-Bladed Heavy Swords, and Fine Steel Daggers. The Wide-Bladed Heavy Sword was incredibly cool; if he didn't already have a heavy blade and specialized in blade arts, he would definitely have kept one.

After upgrading both fruit knives into Fine Steel Longswords, Lu Ming began listing the items on the Trading House. All fine-steel-grade weapons were listed for barter, with the exchange target being various specialized skill books, with a note that he could customize weapon types for archery skills.

Once the listings were done, Lu Ming stared straight at the Trading House interface, a strong sense of anticipation erupting in his eyes. Ten second-tier sublimated fine-steel weapons, costing a total of 200 Specialized Crystals—if he couldn't see results quickly, it would be a loss. Fortunately, as long as the trade was completed and he obtained a long-range kill method to break through the factory gate, what awaited him was at least 4,000 Specialized Crystals and a Level 3 Supply Box. That return on investment... would be at least twenty-fold!