Chapter 42: Summary of Earnings

Time passed, and as more and more alien races entered the market, the goods Song Chi had acquired with over two thousand strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin were completely sold out.

He sold a basic genetic optimization potion—which cost one strand of Rank-Zero floating continent origin per unit—for five strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin.

As for the tungsten-gold spears and tungsten-gold shields, which cost one strand of Rank-Zero floating continent origin for twenty pieces, he sold only five pieces for the same amount.

A set of basic civilian powered exoskeleton, valued at 200,000 credit points (twenty strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin), was sold by him for one hundred strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin.

With these prices multiplying several times over, the funds in Song Chi's hands quickly broke through the 8,000-strand mark of Rank-Zero floating continent origin, bringing him massive profits.

What made him even happier was that among these supplies, with a total value exceeding 8,000 strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin, there were over 100 strands of Rank-First floating continent origin. Combined with the 32 strands he already possessed, this was already enough for him to continue reinforcing the "Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator" component several times.

And it did not end there. Transactions in the free trading zone were still ongoing, and every minute he could extract a certain amount of transaction tax.

Song Chi estimated that by the time this trading convention completely concluded, the funds in his possession would likely exceed ten thousand strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin.

In addition to this, he continuously purchased supplies with huge price differentials, planning to sell them subsequently in the black market to make a small extra profit.

The only regret was that even though he constantly monitored every stall in the trading area, he could not find another piece of Star Sea rare treasure.

He did not dwell on this too much. After all, the current level of the market was only Lv. 9, and only Rank-Zero Star Sea alien races could enter the market through the deployed spatial gates, while the probability of Rank-Zero creatures obtaining Star Sea rare treasures was extremely minuscule to begin with.

Having figured this out, he stopped deliberately searching for Star Sea rare treasures. Once the market level was upgraded in the future, the probability of rare treasures appearing would increase significantly.

A few hours later, half an hour before the market trading session was about to officially end, Song Chi tentatively set up a stall of his own and displayed a quantity exceeding two thousand strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin upon it.

Such a lavish move quickly attracted the gazes of many surrounding alien races, and within a few minutes, over a hundred alien beings had gathered around his stall.

Just as these alien creatures were wondering what Song Chi intended to trade for with these strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin, a sign written in the Star Sea Common Language that Song Chi pulled out immediately provoked a wave of murmurs.

"Trading for Rank-First floating continent origin. Eleven strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin for one strand of Rank-First floating continent origin."

Upon learning that he wanted to trade for Rank-First floating continent origin, the surrounding aliens immediately dispersed by more than half.

Rank-First floating continent origin was far scarcer than Rank-Zero floating continent origin. Most of the aliens present did not even have any in their own possession, so how could they talk about trading?

Song Chi was naturally not surprised. Instead, seeing that dozens of figures still remained without leaving, a trace of joy flashed across the depths of his eyes.

Although the exchange ratio between Rank-First and Rank-Zero floating continent origin in the market had always been 1:10, his offered ratio of 1:11 was slightly disadvantageous to him. However, compared to the 1:14 or 1:15 ratios offered by the Morning Star Principality, this ratio was still acceptable. As long as some alien race was willing to trade, he would definitely not lose out.

Soon, an unidentified alien stepped forward to inquire.

"1:11 is still a bit low. If you can offer 12 strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin for 1 strand of Rank-First floating continent origin, I can trade 10 strands with you."

Hearing this, Song Chi firmly shook his head.

At a 1:12 ratio, although he wouldn't necessarily suffer a loss, he was busy running around and had to make some profit, right? Was he supposed to work for free?

The price of Rank-First floating continent origin on the black market was unstable; 1:14 was indeed the average trading ratio, but who could guarantee that his goods wouldn't happen to be suppressed to 1:12 when he shipped them?

Seeing him refuse to budge at all, a few more aliens chose to leave. In the end, fewer than twenty remained in front of the stall. Yet Song Chi was already satisfied; among these nearly twenty aliens, surely not all of them would fail to complete a transaction in the end.

Besides, this was just a flash of inspiration for an attempt, and it required no cost. Even if not a single one of them traded with him, it was no big deal.

The final result was much better than Song Chi had anticipated. Out of eighteen aliens, twelve successfully traded with him, and one of them even traded 100 strands with him in a single transaction.

When the trading convention officially concluded, the total funds in Song Chi's hands exceeded 11,000 strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin, and among these, the quantity of Rank-First floating continent origin reached as high as 302 strands.

As for the remaining miscellaneous supplies—excluding the six deep-water clam pearls, the mermaid's tear, and the crystallization of mercury, adamantine, and life nuclei which he would need for subsequent enhancements—the total value of the other usable supplies still exceeded 5,000 strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin.

As for this batch of supplies, Song Chi only planned to keep around 2,000 strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin. Based on the current number of spatial gate deployments in the All-Heavens Market, the number of aliens that could enter during each market opening was limited. He estimated that keeping 2,000 strands for stocking up was roughly enough; keeping any more was useless because the market scale was only this large each time, and buying too much stock would likely mean failing to sell it all.

As for the remaining Rank-Zero floating continent origin valued at over 3,000 strands, he planned to use all of it to reinforce the Heavenly Dome.

Two days after the market trading session, Song Chi made several trips to the black market, converting that batch of supplies worth over 3,000 strands of Rank-Zero floating continent origin entirely into Rank-Zero floating continent origin, crystallization of mercury, adamantine, and other starship reinforcement resources, before retreating back into the market.

All-Heavens Market, Free Trading Zone.

The Heavenly Dome had already been summoned. Having prepared for two days prior, Song Chi did not hesitate and directly initiated a new round of starship reinforcement.

The first component to be reinforced was naturally the currently highest-quality component on the Heavenly Dome: the [Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator]. This orange epic-quality energy shield had performed exceptionally well during the previous battle against the Rank-Peak Gold-Devouring Vine, which further solidified Song Chi's determination to continue reinforcing it.

Currently, the level of the [Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator] was Lv. 10. Further reinforcement required 20 strands of Rank-First floating continent origin plus 20 tons of crystallization of mercury, and in addition, 5,000 psionic points had to be provided at once.

The Rank-First floating continent origin and crystallization of mercury were fine, as Song Chi had already prepared them, but the simplest psionic points had now become a problem.

Currently, the standard psionic engine on the Heavenly Dome had been reinforced to Lv. 14, but the accompanying psionic pool capacity was barely 5,000 points. Reinforcing the dark matter energy shield generator to Lv. 11 would not be a problem, but subsequent reinforcements would fail to meet the psionic point requirement.

Helplessly, Song Chi had to spend an extra sum of resources to directly reinforce the psionic engine to Lv. 19.

Fortunately, the psionic engine was merely a standard colorless component, and Rank-First reinforcement only required Rank-Zero floating continent origin and Rank-Zero life nuclei.

Psionic Engine Lv. 19
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 10/s (Psionic Points)
Power Supply: 118/s (Psionic Points)
Post-Overload Buffer: 20 minutes
Psionic Pool: 9,000 points (can store 9,000 psionic points)
Requirement for Upgrading: Has reached the component reinforcement limit, unable to be reinforced further