Chapter 155: First Pot of Gold?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the pharmaceutical section of listed items for sale, Ye Chong finally found skeletons in the list. The long list offered skeletons in great variety, and Ye Chong brightened up at that. He was relieved to find that it was possible to find skeletons after all. For a skeleton carver, nothing would be more scary than not having any skeleton materials! Besides, the skeletons for sale were abundant in numbers and types, and that was a surprise to Ye Chong!
"Why are these skeletons in the pharmaceutical section?" Ye Chong could not understand. He could see no relation between skeletons and pharmacy.
"There is a branch in pharmacy that uses flora, fauna and mineral ores as ingredients to produce medicine or for treatment. Animal skeletons are a very important part of it. From the trade volume, this branch must be quite popular here! Of course, I will have to investigate further to understand the details, what I have just said was only a probable deduction!" Mu replied.
"There’s a branch like this?" Ye Chong was surprised.
"Yes. It’s inherited from the past, and grew systematic over time. However, it’s still not a very well known branch, since these treatments are usually effective against strange conditions. My database has little information on this!" Mu said.
Most of the skeletons were from mutant life forms. They came in all shapes and colors, but the points for each of them was very different from Ye Chong’s expectations. For some skeletons that looked average for Ye Chong, were priced ridiculously high. Some skeletons with good properties were, however, priced very low, and even as Ye Chong read on he regretted not having a single point to spend on them!
He realized then that this was the pharmaceutical section, and he should be about the only skeleton carver in the whole of Nine Gates. His valuation of the skeletons must be different from theirs. That was alright, since it could be advantageous for him. He could use fewer points to buy some excellent skeletons, thus reducing the cost.
With some understanding of the market, Ye Chong began to consider the ways he could earn enough points to buy skeletons.
How could he earn his first pot of gold? Ye Chong frowned in contemplation.
"My database has many special formulae for alloys, you can exchange them for Nine Gates points!" Mu suggested.
"No!" This suggestion was immediately rejected by Ye Chong! Ye Chong understood that these formulae were far more valuable than a full skeleton mech, and could potentially make the Sanctuary even stronger! Based on the current situation, the Sanctuary was now his enemy, and improving the strength of his enemy using his information for short term benefits was something Ye Chong would never allow.
Even if he wanted to exchange them for points, Ye Chong would rather get them from the detainees, and not the Sanctuary.
Ye Chong walked into Blue Sandstone for the second time. The middle aged man saw Ye Chong and was surprised, but quickly greeted him, "Young man, why are you not preparing for your trials? Still wandering around?" He was still mocking Ye Chong on the inside for being a candidate at such a young age.
"Yes, the trial’s changed!" Ye Chong looked straight towards the Eden-IV model, and spoke without turning, "That Eden has a problem!"
"Problem?" Ye Chong’s off tangent remark caught the middle aged storekeeper off guard, and found himself moving towards the Eden as he said, "What problem?" His expression was one of disbelief. While he was not entirely satisfied with that Eden, he was still skeptical of how this boy could point out a problem.
"Eden-IV’s special feature is its stability, while its weakness is its lack of speed. You want to improve its automotive capabilities, so you added the horizontal stabilizer while also simplifying its main body. But that greatly reduces the stability of this mech! Besides, most importantly is, the mech’s defenses will be sharply reduced!" Ye Chong spoke without expression.
"Eh!" Ye Chong spoke the truth, and the middle aged storekeeper was a little startled . "You make sense, I guess! But I can’t do much about it, Eden can’t use any other engine model, so I could only do what I did!"
That was true. Eden’s engine was incompatible with other models. This also resulted in Eden being mostly abandoned by mech modification enthusiasts, and rarely would anyone choose the mech for modifications. That was why Ye Chong first noticed the Eden model displayed here.
"There is a solution, but it’s quite complicated!" Ye Chong said. He had studied this problem before at Aurora, and even asked for advice from the elders there, and finally came up with a solution. Ye Chong was quite intelligent in this aspect.
"Haha, young man, don’t go around boasting, it’s not a good habit!" The middle aged storekeeper was unfazed. He did not imagine the serious looking young man before him to be careless with words, and this lowered his opinion of the young man. The middle aged storekeeper may only be the owner of a small store, but he was a candidate who passed a Level Three Trial. Once, he was famous throughout the Five Galaxies, and his cautious attitude was already deeply ingrained in him. That was why he disliked the young man’s boasting.
"Oh, if you want to know, I’ll sell it to you for 10 points!" Ye Chong finally revealed his true intention. In reality, Ye Chong believed that selling his solution for 10 points was an undersell. If he was not urgently in need for points, he would never have sold the solution. It was not that the solution was actually worth more, but anyone would appreciate more of the solution that they worked hard to come up with themselves, and Ye Chong was no exception.
The middle aged storekeeper frowned and said, "If you have an improved solution, I’ll give you more than 10 points, I’ll offer you 20! Young man, you’re still a boy, don’t learn to exaggerate!"
Ye Chong knew that his age was always keeping him from gaining another person’s confidence. Ye Chong was already used to it, and knew just how to change their attitudes.
"If you add a wedge shaped box inside the mech, use Farmier’s dual return circuitry for the photon circuit, reduce the thickness of the mech’s inner frame by half …" Ye Chong began talking.
As Ye Chong’s clear voice continued on, the middle aged storekeeper’s expression transformed from outright dismissal to one of focus. His eyes shone brighter and brighter, reflecting rays of fervor!
When Ye Chong walked out of Blue Sandstone, the wristband already registered 20 points in his account. The middle aged storekeeper had even send him off respectfully to the door.
Ye Chong chose to sell this solution after much consideration. Eden series mechs may be advanced level mechs in the Five Galaxies, but it was just an average mech in the Orbits, and not comparable at all to the Sanctuary’s various mechs. Even the market in the Orbits offered mechs more advanced than Eden. While his solution was elegant, it was only suited for a small range of problems. It was only applicable for Eden series mechs, and did not involve anything foundational. This was why Ye Chong chose to trade it for points.
Back in his room, all the mineral ores that Ye Chong bought earlier were sent to his room. Each item was sealed in metal boxes of different sizes. It was impossible to know what was inside each of them. There was a number on each of the boxes, used to verify the items.
He opened all the metallic boxes and took out the mineral ores. Everything was there, looking exactly as they were displayed as holographic images on the item trade list. Of course, these treasures were passed to Mu for processing, for Ye Chong had his own job to do.
After a long time, Ye Chong finally chose a Leave Muncher’s shin bone and a Red Toad’s exo-shell, all adding to just two points.
Of course, besides the skeletons, Ye Chong still needed to buy materials for the strengthening chemicals. They were unexpectedly more expensive than the skeletons, and Ye Chong used seven points on them.
Soon, all the skeletons and strengthening chemical ingredients that Ye Chong bought were delivered to his room.
Since Ye Chong did not have any processing machinery, he had to work manually. Fortunately, his foundation was solid, and the two parts that he was planning to make were quite simple.
When he was done making the two parts, it was already the second day! One was a round mech padding in murky green, while another was a mech’s inner ring in white, overlaid with a vivid red natural pattern of lines, a beautiful thing. These two parts were simple to make, with a short processing time and a wide range of applications. Almost any mech could make use of them.
Ye Chong looked at his products, satisfied, and added them to the item trade list!
When Ye Chong opened up the item list in the mech parts section, the long list of items surprised Ye Chong greatly. The list was too long!
Mech modification technicians and mech assemblers were always popular occupations, and many in the Five Galaxies worked in these two fields. Whether it was mech modification or assembling, they had to deal with mech parts. Besides, there was the routine mech maintenance and reparation. These were the reasons for the large demand in mech parts in Nine Gates and high trading activity in mech parts.
Ye Chong grew doubtful. Could his two products manage a small ripple in this vast ocean of mech parts?