After so negotiation and haggling, Li Aozi purchased two pieces of ordinary jewelry from Dmitry.
"Mid to low-quality equipnt always has the largest market," Li Aozi mused as he donned the tungsten steel ring and bone porcelain pendant.
In "Starry Abyss," the quality of equipnt was categorized as:
Crude and Low-Quality—high failure rate, poor comfort, ugly appearance, very low ergonomics.
Ordinary and Durable—tolerable failure rate, can withstand regular environntal wear and tear and still function properly, low ergonomics.
Exquisite Craftsmanship—extrely low failure rate, can still function well under harsh environnts, high ergonomics, aesthetically pleasing.
Flawless Perfection—no operational faults, maintains excellent and stable efficacy under all kinds of harsh environnts, perfect ergonomics, exquisite beauty, no flaws.
Supernatural Excellence—able to continuously optimize itself according to the environnt during use, as long as it isn’t completely destroyed, it can always perform optimally, adapting to the user’s habits.
Heirloom Masterpiece—capable of accumulating past experiences and mories, continuously self-enhancing, difficult to be completely destroyed, able to pass on accumulated experience and style to the next user.
Mythical Creation—possesses autonomous consciousness and powerful intelligence, virtually indestructible, will autonomously choose a suitable host and can instantly transfer its abilities and experiences, mutually enhancing.
However, in reality, since there were different types of equipnt, excessively pursuing quality wasn’t always practical.
A mythical creation screw might not be as practically effective as a crude and low-quality double-barreled shotgun.
When it ca to actual combat, players found that sturdy and durable equipnt was the most cost-effective.
For one-on-one combat, it was a different story; players would pile on mythical gear as much as they could, even wishing to replace their brains with mythical creations.
There were also so special tiers of equipnt, like Miracle Arms and Social Institutions, but based on Li Aozi’s experience, only the four Precision System factions of the "Demonborn Frawork" pursued such specialized equipnt.
The Sovereign System had very low dependency on equipnt. On one hand, all attributes other than "Charm" were relatively low, and on the other hand, the convenience of Arcane Energy determined this.
Therefore, in Li Aozi’s view, jewelry equipnt without resource requirents was easily monopolizable. For Sovereign System players, jewelry, which inherently had a "luxury" nature, psychologically predisposed them to expect high prices.
Li Aozi only needed to monitor the forum to observe market trends and public opinion, and then use the strategy of low-profit and high-sales volu to quickly capture the market.
Speaking of the player forum—Li Aozi would take a peek whenever he had so ti, trying to blend in as a player and chat casually.
However, just as he attempted to post, the forum showed that his account status was abnormal—Li Aozi opened his account hopage, and there in bold red text was the ssage:
"Due to violation of laws and regulations, your account has been permanently banned."
"What did I do wrong to get permanently banned—what, is dinsion-hopping illegal now?"
Li Aozi was both amused and annoyed; he still wanted to check what was happening with his official account.
Well, no more need for investigation, he was now non-existent.
However, it wasn’t entirely a loss. Li Aozi found that while his account was banned, he could still download attached files from forum posts and open various video links.
Although he couldn’t post, his ability to gather information wasn’t diminished. Li Aozi soon discovered sothing mysterious.
"Why aren’t the tis in the two worlds synchronized?"
Based on the posting frequency and ti stamps of the players, one day passed on the Azure Star side, but not much ti had passed on their side.
Roughly speaking, thirty natural days in the ga world equated to just one day on the player forum.
This was clearly different from his past experience as a player.
"As a player, I rember that the timing of various events was synchronized."
Li Aozi pondered for a mont, and for a split second, he even thought of the conspiracy theory that "Starry Abyss was designed to explore electronic colonies."
Had he really crossed into the ga and beco a clump of data, or was this a real living world from the start?
Could it be that governnts had discovered an electronic world and were tricking players into invading and occupying it through ga portals...? That sounded way too far-fetched!
Li Aozi found it hard to hold onto this guess.
Ever since the advent of the optical brain, the real world had already resolved most conflicts. Although the wealth gap wasn’t eliminated, people could still live peacefully and contentedly in the virtual world.
There were no more significant conflicts in the real world, and technology was highly advanced, making war unlikely, let alone mobilizing half of society’s resources and population to invade an electronic world—it just didn’t make sense, they weren’t lacking resources.
Li Aozi shook his head, deciding to set this question aside for now.
Now that he was an NPC template, he needed to cherish his one life.
"Only now realizing life’s preciousness, isn’t it a bit too late?"
Li Aozi chuckled at himself and turned back to continue chatting with Dmitry’s family.
There weren’t many craftsn in the Outer World who mastered the art of spirit infusion, and even fewer who were literate.
For a talent like Dmitry to be in such a remote spot, it was hard not to suspect he might have offended so big shot and was worried about enemies seeking revenge.
Li Aozi didn’t ask about these matters as he knew Dmitry’s true identity: this old man was a Longevity Breed.
The dominant species of intelligent beings on Azure Star was the New Generation Homo sapiens, but if one could see Dmitry’s panel, they would find that his species was [A1 Kordan Type Cosmic Human Race].
A1 Kordan, B2 Mayan, C3 Luca were the three most common evolutionary trends for carbon-based humans in the cosmos.
A1 Kordan humans were known for their longevity and innate awakening of Arcane Energy, living up to seven to eight hundred years was no big deal;
B2 Mayan humans were particularly adept at trade and mathematics, had a smaller population compared to the other two, and were known as the universe’s second-hand dealers;
C3 Luca Type humans were quite special, possessing great combat potential and adaptability.
Dmitry belonged to the successful evolution, becoming an A1 Kordan Type Cosmic Human.
Despite his low level, he truly had lived for over 200 years, being an old fox.
Pursuing the thoughts of such long-lived breeds made no sense; they might just be thinking daily about how to die with dignity.
After chatting for a while, Li Aozi suddenly changed the topic and asked:
"Old Dmitry, do you know Chen Siqi?"
"Are you talking about Doctor Chen? It’s said she ca from Mingji before—I don’t quite believe it. Mingji is a place that eats people without spitting out their bones. Personally, I think she escaped from Frost Plated." Dmitry mumbled on.
Qiu Ran asked sowhat awkwardly, "Mingji Humanity... has such a bad reputation?"
"In the northern Outer World, everyone knows the ruthless and terrifying nature of Mingji."
Kachina, holding a child, seriously told them:
"You must be careful, Mingji Humanity transforms living people into killing machines. They capture people with potential for Arcane Energy everywhere, claiming they are infected with the disease, then conducting all sorts of experints on them."
"Those doctors would draw blood from the infected, extract their bone marrow, slice their brains into sections, and place them between glass plates, repeatedly comparing them with ordinary people," Dmitry said in a deep voice.
"And that’s not the worst of it. People say the Four Nations have always cooperated with Mingji, aiming to develop super soldiers and clones adapted to Outer World environnts, eventually bringing the flas of war to us."
Kachina’s words were filled with anger and hatred:
"The Four Nations have taken everything from us, enjoyed the sunlight we have never even seen, why are they still not satisfied! The Four Nations are all beastly, bastard vampires. If it weren’t for the persecution by the Four Nations, especially the hounds of the Fourth Rule, Xirich would have lived a happy life in Frost Plated..."
"In Frost Plated?" Li Aozi was surprised.
Kachina’s face showed a mix of recollection and sadness. She spoke softly:
"Xirich, my husband. He used to run a small business in Frost Plated, was an honest and upright man. One day, he was falsely accused by an employee of assaulting a female staff mber."
She paused and continued:
"It was a setup. Xirich was a devout believer, maintaining his chastity until he t . The female employee maliciously accused him for the sake of property."
"Xirich gallantly forgave her at first, then hired a lawyer, gathered evidence, and tried to defend his reputation, proving his innocence."
"But it was no use."
"No matter how he proved his innocence, before the court session, his shop was sealed shut, the Fourth Rule agents severely injured him and repeatedly tortured him with cold water and electric shocks, intending to bring public prosecution against him. Before the prosecutor even submitted evidence, the judge sentenced him to life imprisonnt and confiscated his property."
"He was a tough man. Facing unfair judgnt, he sought the black market, implanted combat prosthetics, killed seven agents and a judge, then drove across the border into the Outer World."
Kachina held Xirich, her words filled with pride.
"This is my husband, Xirich Xiao’s father."
Li Aozi nodded and sighed:
"No one is born great, but he undoubtedly died a legend."
"Xiao will always be our beloved, but back to the topic—seeing Doctor Chen’s resentnt towards the Four Nations, I believe she has no connection with Mingji."
Dmitry pondered and said:
"I don’t know much about her. She ca to the Sikkim Settlent in the past two years, has good dical skills but is sowhat difficult to get along with. I once bought penicillin from her, and she directly threw it in my face and told to get lost."
"Dad, that was because you caught her changing her underwear," Kachina grumbled, "Doctor Chen is very kind. Xirich’s diphtheria was cured by her."
"Maybe..." Dmitry hesitated, "She was changing her underwear? I only saw a piece of alloy equipnt..."
Two years ago.
Li Aozi slightly nodded.
The black market rchant Zexi had ntioned to him that it aligned with the outbreak of the ZX—102 incident and Head Nurse Nodley’s transformation.
Sure enough, after he received this information, the progress of the "Not to be Rembered" task advanced to 34%.
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