Black Market

Cheng Shuili walked slowly through the crowded passageway, her gaze sweeping over one stall after another.

The way trade was conducted here was completely different from the Trading Post. There was no system notarization and no clear pricing. Every stall owner used a hoarse voice to whisper about bone-chilling goods.

“Fresh eyeballs, can see through illusions... three hundred game coins a pair...”

“Cursed bullets, guaranteed to draw blood upon firing... only twenty game coins...”

“Selling memories! Three days of satisfying memories! Best for feeding to your pets...”

At a certain corner, three tattered humans were tied up at a stall.

When the stall owner saw Cheng Shuili stop, he immediately lowered his voice with a mysterious air: “Want to buy a slave? An absolutely loyal slave, very cheap. Only one thousand game coins, and he can do anything for you...”

Cheng Shuili’s pupils constricted slightly. As she frowned and prepared to leave, a commotion suddenly broke out at the neighboring stall.

A player was grabbing the beastman stall owner by the collar, roaring: “You motherfucker, this isn’t a healing potion at all! My brother started growing mushrooms after drinking it!”

The beastman stall owner let out a cackling laugh: “I said it could heal wounds; I didn’t say what you’d turn into after it was healed... Is this my fault? You should blame your brother for having bad luck.”

Just as the enraged player was about to throw a punch, a “click” of a weapon being chambered suddenly rang out from the darkness.

Before anyone could react, a bullet had already pierced the player’s brow.

After the corpse hit the ground, three guards wearing night-vision goggles emerged from the shadows and silently dragged the body away.

“That’s the seventh one.” A beastman nearby muttered quietly. Seeing Cheng Shuili look over, he grinned and smiled at her, though it was unclear if it was a threat or a reminder: “Be careful, oh.”

It was too bizarre.

Cheng Shuili remained silent for a moment before returning the way she came to find the old beastman at the entrance.

The old man seemed to have known she would return; before she even got close, he said: “Now it will be ten game coins.”

Cheng Shuili paused for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle and readily completed the transaction.

The other party was clearly secure in the knowledge that they were backed by power, and Cheng Shuili did indeed need a guide; there was no difference between ten game coins and five.

“Respected human miss, now, I am your guide. Let’s set some rules first...” The old beastman stood up silently, turned to pull a filthy cloak from a corner, and carefully wrapped it around himself like the other shopkeepers, leaving only his eyes exposed. “Don’t touch things randomly, leave immediately when you hear the bell, and once you choose the market, you can no longer go to the garbage mountain to scavenge. You still have a chance to choose now.”

Cheng Shuili crossed her arms. “Is that all a ten-game-coin guide can do? You should have introduced what the market and the garbage mountain do first, and then let the guest choose.”

The old beastman’s dark, bright eyes lingered on Cheng Shuili for a moment, and he whispered: “I have been taught.”

“The garbage mountain is where you can find food, materials, and even some special artifacts. But the more precious an item is, the less likely it is to be discarded. The garbage mountain is called a garbage mountain precisely because it contains almost nothing but garbage.”

“As for the market you speak of, that is the black market. Everything in the black market is free, and everything can be sold. Whether you stumble or strike it rich depends entirely on your own ability.”

Cheng Shuili nodded.

If that was the case, the garbage mountain should be able to yield quite a lot of supplies, but wasn’t completing the daily mileage just another way of scavenging for supplies?

She had scavenged too many supplies, but she had never seen a black market!

To the black market it was!

Cheng Shuili turned her steps, decisively choosing her direction.

The guide didn’t seem surprised, silently following behind Cheng Shuili to introduce the place. “The black market isn’t open every time.”

“There are no clear rules for when the black market opens; it seems to depend entirely on the mood of the bell ringer. One bell rings to open the market, and three bells ring to close it. Just as I said, everything is sold here.”

“The bell ringer?”

Cheng Shuili was a bit curious. Was it a human?

“Yes. Very few people know this title, but you should know his other name.”

Another name? She knew it? Cheng Shuili signaled with her gaze for the guide to hurry up and speak.

The guide didn’t keep her in suspense. “His other name is the Rat King. He is the only king of the entire underground industry.”

Cheng Shuili actually did know him.

The Rat King... that old man really had quite a wide range of business operations.

Cheng Shuili had originally thought this black market was particularly mysterious, but now that she knew whose industry it was, she suddenly felt it was just so-so.

The guide raised a hand to point at a stall. Cheng Shuili remembered that stall owner; he was the one selling “fresh eyeballs,” claiming they could see through illusions.

“What he sells are just the eyes of ordinary monsters. You might not have seen them, but those are eyeballs taken from a monster covered in eyes. Adding any random title to them is enough to fool quite a few humans like you.”

Cheng Shuili hadn’t believed it anyway.

Compared to these, she was more curious about where the slaves came from.

The two soon walked to the stall selling slaves, and the guide explained everything to Cheng Shuili in detail. “These slaves are all humans like you.”

“Either they are lost souls from dungeons, or they are failures who didn’t complete their mileage and had their vehicles confiscated. Before death, they are given one chance to choose: accept death, or become a slave who can barely survive?”

The guide paused, his tone carrying a trace of obvious contempt. “These people clearly chose the latter.”

“But unfortunately, becoming a slave is a fate worse than death.”

Cheng Shuili could understand that sentiment.

What precious chance to live?

The system always despised the weak and praised the brave; claiming it gave a chance to survive was actually just another form of torture for the weak.

“Can I buy a slave?”

The guide didn’t seem to expect her to ask that, and his gaze toward Cheng Shuili was filled with three parts amazement.

“Ordinary humans find it hard to accept this matter. Miss, you are a remarkable human.”

She would just take that as a compliment.

“You can, of course, purchase one, provided you have enough game coins.”

Cheng Shuili nodded and asked again: “What is the difference between a slave and a servant?”

The guide shook his head. “In essence, there is none. It’s just that slaves are absolutely loyal, while servants have the possibility of betrayal.”

So that was the only difference.

Cheng Shuili’s gaze searched the stall, where strange and peculiar items were particularly eye-catching.

But if one ignored the various functions the stall owners bragged about, they were essentially just ordinary human organs or expired potions.

Cheng Shuili felt a bit disappointed.

The guide led her around, explaining almost everything at every stall.

Finally, at a stall selling totems, Cheng Shuili lingered for a while.

Everything else was something she had never seen before, and she had no way to judge their authenticity, so naturally, she had no urge to purchase them.

But as for this totem thing...

Cheng Shuili happened to have one in her possession.

What she had her eye on was one whose appearance and material looked exactly like the Totem of Undying, only the patterns on it were slightly different.