Chapter 130: The Black Market
After the apocalypse, what use was morality compared to tangible benefits?
Even if everything being said about him was true, would defending ordinary people and upholding justice bring any advantages to oneself?
Building a good relationship with the so called "number one player" was a completely different story.
After figuring that out, Joo Joowon found that he didn’t particularly care about the other party’s motives.
[ @Ashfall ]: I’m currently looking for several pets, but I haven’t found anything satisfactory on the marketplace. Do you know anyone selling hunting dogs or similar breeds? Preferably juveniles or adolescents.
HighlyCultured thought about the rumors from his previous life and felt somewhat surprised.
So Ashfall had already decided on the future direction of his territory this early.
After thinking for a moment, HighlyCultured decided that since he had already become involved, a little more involvement wouldn’t make much difference.
After all, there was no point worrying about accumulating more debt when one was already in debt.
He had already been reborn once.
Surely that meant his fate was relatively sturdy.
At least in the short term, Ashfall probably wouldn’t manage to curse him to death.
[ @HighlyCultured ]: I don’t know anyone personally, but you can try entering negative page numbers in the marketplace search function. The black and white item icons there are products listed by players before they died. As long as the listing period hasn’t expired, those items can still be purchased, although the trading authority transfers to the system instead of the player. There’s also a reservation option there. After paying a deposit, the marketplace will hold the item for you indefinitely. Installment payments are possible too, although interest will be charged.
Joo Joowon blinked his eyes in surprise.
He genuinely hadn’t noticed that feature before.
The main reason was that there were simply too many items appearing on the marketplace every day.
Once he discovered that Enhanced Cognition allowed him to identify item quality, he stopped worrying about the marketplace being filled with poor quality goods.
Naturally, he never spent much effort studying its other functions.
The idea of entering negative page numbers had never even crossed his mind.
He truly hadn’t expected the system to make money from dead people as well.
Of course, part of that was his own preconceived assumptions.
He had unconsciously believed that the marketplace in the Age of Apocalypse would function exactly like marketplaces in ordinary games.
The possibility that it possessed entirely unique mechanics simply hadn’t occurred to him.
Thinking that way was admittedly somewhat arrogant and narrow minded.
One person could only think of so much.
Two people thinking together would always be more comprehensive.
Being a lone wolf really wasn’t as easy as people imagined.
Trying to consider every possible detail alone was exhausting.
[ @Ashfall ]: Thanks. I’ll take a look.
Every item listed on the marketplace had a time limit attached to it.
The maximum listing duration was forty eight hours.
Once the timer expired, the item would automatically disappear from the marketplace.
Listings did not remain there forever.
Because of that, the total number of items on the marketplace always remained within a certain range instead of increasing infinitely over time.
Joo Joowon casually entered a negative page number and began browsing.
This HighlyCultured player really seemed to be some kind of genius with an unusually flexible way of thinking.
How had he even come up with the idea of entering negative page numbers?
If this discovery were made public...
After thinking about it for a moment, Joo Joowon shook his head.
After all, he was not the one who had discovered it.
The right to reveal it belonged to the other party.
Since HighlyCultured had not mentioned it publicly, that probably meant he did not want to.
After all, players who enjoyed sharing their discoveries about the apocalypse game had already been posting their findings under Joo Joowon’s guides.
The gray and white product images looked strangely oppressive, almost as though he were flipping through an endless collection of memorial portraits.
Joo Joowon continued scrolling through them one by one until he finally found something that seemed suitable.
...
[ Mutated Dog Seeking Adoption!!! ]
[ Product Description ]: As shown in the picture, the dog has mutated. It can walk upright and breathe fire. It is a good dog and understands simple commands like shake hands, lie down, sit, and so on. I was injured by a zombie and have already been infected. Please, if there is anyone kind enough, take it in! I have no other requests. It is very obedient! It will definitely become your helper! It might be a little mischievous at first, but Kongi means no harm. It may have trouble accepting my disappearance at first, but it will get over it after some time. It has a bad memory. Eventually it will protect you wholeheartedly! All of my equipment and inheritance will go to you!
[ Note ]: This item is currently stored in the system warehouse. Its quality has been frozen since storage and will return to normal once retrieved. Time remaining before removal from listing: 23 hours 45 minutes 24 seconds.
...
Joo Joowon was honestly very tempted by this pet.
His only concern was that the original breed of this mutated dog was a Husky.
Not only that, it was an extremely standard looking Husky.
In Joo Joowon’s impression, almost everything the seller described seemed completely unrelated to that breed.
Even if the seller was telling the truth, the dog might not be useful immediately after purchase.
After all, it was obvious that it shared a deep bond with its original owner.
There was no guarantee it would obey Joo Joowon’s commands.
At the moment, he simply did not have the time or energy to slowly win over a dog’s trust.
Then again, animals were generally easier to fool than people.
If the dog had not personally witnessed its owner becoming a zombie, perhaps it could be deceived for a while.
The problem was that the chances of that were incredibly small.