Translator: AnubisTL
"Guardian Lord," Chen Jiang said after a pause, "I need a complete statistical table of all Kindling City players' innate abilities. I'll only select a few individuals I need and won't touch your guards or soldiers."
"In fact, I don't even need combat-oriented abilities."
"This..." The human guardian hesitated, "In principle, this information is confidential and cannot be shared with anyone."
"Name your price."
"It's not about the price."
"Two three-star special buildings? Is that enough?"
"Deal."
The human guardian immediately pulled a black box from his robes and handed it to Chen Jiang, his expression grave and resolute. "The innate abilities of virtually all Kindling City players are stored here."
When Chen Jiang offered this price, the guardian knew the deal had to go through.
It wasn't just the allure of the offer that made him waver.
Rather, Chen Jiang's willingness to offer two three-star special buildings signaled his absolute determination to obtain the information.
In other words, when negotiation fails, the only remaining solution is force.
The guardian recalled the scene he had witnessed on the city walls that day, his lips twitching slightly. He remained silent, knowing Kindling City's military strength paled in comparison to Chen Jiang's. If the guardian of Kindling City were to replicate the events of that day, the city would be utterly destroyed.
Kindling City wouldn't last 24 hours.
In truth, the human guardian's information was already outdated.
His understanding of Chen Jiang's combat capabilities still lingered from the day he defended Kindling City.
If the human guardian had witnessed the destructive power of the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb and the crimson light pillar, he might have revised his assessment of Chen Jiang.
He wouldn't have dared to claim Kindling City could withstand Chen Jiang for 24 hours.
Let's count down:
3, 2, 1.
Kindling City was gone.
If they were lucky, some ruins might remain. If not, everything would be vaporized.
Of course, Kindling City was far larger than the mechanical race city, but that didn't matter. A few more blasts would suffice.
If one wasn't enough, ten would do.
After ten strikes, Kindling City could be renamed Ash City.
Chen Jiang glanced at the black box the human guardian had handed him, nodding in satisfaction. "Straightforward!"
Without further delay, he immediately exchanged 200,000 mutation points in the mutation shop for two Three-Star Random Special Buildings and handed them to the human guardian.
"See you tomorrow. I'll be back to claim some people."
Soon after, Chen Jiang had made a quick trip to Kindling City and returned with the black box.
He lay back in his chair, staring at the black box before him.
[ Item Name: Data Preservation Box (Sub-Version) ]
[ Item Star: Two-Star Item ]
[ Item Details: An unremarkable black box that wouldn't even be picked up if left on the street. ]
[ Item Effect: Can store vast amounts of data and project it into the air for easy access, review, and supplementation. ]
[ Item Restriction: While the Master Version can record, delete, and modify data, the Sub-Version can only read data. It cannot perform any operations such as deleting, recording, or modifying data. ]
[ Item Description: According to big data statistics, every man who backs up and stores important holidays like Qixi Festival, Valentine's Day, and anniversaries with his wife contributes to a merchant's annual windfall. ]
Upon activating the item, a screen immediately popped into the air, displaying numerous options:
[ Combat-Oriented Innate Abilities ]
[ Life-Oriented Innate Abilities ]
[ Support-Oriented Innate Abilities ]
[ Logistics-Oriented Innate Abilities ]
[ Special-Oriented Innate Abilities ]
"Hmm..."
Chen Jiang paused briefly, first glancing at the Special-Oriented Innate Abilities list. Given its specialized nature, it seemed most likely to align with his needs.
Soon, rows upon rows of innate abilities filled the screen, densely packed before him.
[ Talent Name: Nightwalker ]
[ Talent Effect: At sunrise, your vision will fail, but after sunset, your legs will gain extraordinary strength and agility. ]
"..."
Not bad, a dream talent for a professional thief.
Next.
[ Talent Name: Sour Plum Drink Spokesperson ]
[ Talent Effect: Each bottle of sour plum drink you consume increases your personal charm by one point, but each bottle also gives you diarrhea. ]
"..."
So, if you drink enough sour plum drink, you can become a universally beloved figure, a fragrant delicacy that everyone adores.
This talent seems perfect for politicians. Drink enough, and you'll get elected.
Too bad it's useless for me.
Next.
[ Talent Name: Sleepwalker ]
[ Talent Effect: You will become extremely drowsy, spending up to 22 hours a day in slumber. However, any item you grasp in your dreams can be brought into reality, including imagined items. You can only bring one item out per dream. ]
"This talent..."
Chen Jiang narrowed his eyes, studying the talent carefully for a moment before clicking his tongue. "It's quite powerful."
The only thing this talent requires practice in is learning to control one's dreams and hypnotizing oneself before sleep to maintain some awareness within the dream realm.
This was an innate ability related to items.
Unfortunately, it was still useless to him. He could only bring out one item at a time, which was utterly impractical, even if that item might be of a higher tier.
If he had the chance, he'd like to meet the player who possessed this ability.
[ Talent Name: Symbiont ]
[ Talent Effect: You can choose any object or person as your symbiotic partner. As long as this object or person remains alive, you will not die, provided you maintain physical contact with them. ]
[ However, if your symbiotic partner is destroyed, you will also perish. ]
Chen Jiang glanced at the ability with a slightly strange expression. He could guess with his eyes closed what the player's symbiotic partner must be.
Having just arrived in this world, where death lurked around every corner, the player would naturally choose their symbiotic partner immediately. Moreover, physical contact was required to lock in the symbiotic bond.
This player had undoubtedly chosen the planet beneath their feet.
But the information Chen Jiang had obtained in Central Control Room 1024 indicated that the planet's remaining lifespan was less than a century.
This meant the player's lifespan was also limited to less than a century.
However, for a human, that hardly seemed to make much difference.
He had even perfectly survived the most dangerous three months.
Next, he turned his attention to the next innate ability.
[ Talent Name: Scavenger ]
[ Talent Effect: You have a high chance of discovering unclaimed one-star items in remote corners of the wilderness. ]
This ability was close to what he wanted, but the problem remained: the quantity was too small.
Even if he worked himself to death every day and found three or four hundred one-star items, it would be a drop in the bucket, utterly insufficient for his needs.
Chen Jiang sighed softly, feeling a pang of nostalgia for the days when he had a computer on Blue Star.
There were millions of players' innate abilities listed here.
If he had to sift through them all manually, it would take forever.
With a computer, he could simply apply a few filters and quickly narrow down the information he needed.
In the next moment, Chen Jiang's eyes suddenly lit up with a flash of inspiration. He narrowed his eyes, pondering silently.
He might not have a computer himself, but others did.
The users on the forums surely had computers, or even more advanced information processing devices.
He just needed to find a way to get them to process the information for him.
But he'd have to approach it differently.
Instead of directly asking for help, he could sell personal innate abilities, letting buyers filter out the important ones themselves.
The only concern now was whether revealing the human players' innate abilities would later expose them to some kind of disaster.
After a moment's thought, Chen Jiang realized that such information leaks wouldn't pose any danger to human players after the Ten Thousand Races Arena concluded.
After all, what seemed like a closely guarded secret to them was already common knowledge outside.
With this realization, Chen Jiang pulled out his tablet, opened the Nicholas Star System Forum, and quickly typed out a post:
Title: "Selling 2 million bundles of personal innate abilities—name your price!"
Content:
"Buyers, please submit your bids, specifying the price for each ability, and send them to me."
"Contact me if you can handle all 2 million bundles!"
Mimicking the tone of other forum users, he posted the message.
Virtually all innate abilities acquired from the Ten Thousand Races Arena were sold in bulk to Channels.
While most abilities fetched little money when sold in bulk, some niche talents, like one that allowed a cripple to walk normally, rarely found individual buyers.
Selling a single innate ability to a wealthy merchant could fetch a decent price.
Selling to high-ranking officials or influential figures could command exorbitant prices or even secure valuable favors.
However, this process required a significant investment of time.
Thus, the entire supply chain operated as follows: The backers of the Ten Thousand Races Arena first collected all the innate abilities, then packaged them into bulk lots for sale to Channels capable of handling large quantities. This allowed them to quickly recoup their capital while simultaneously establishing new Ten Thousand Races Arenas, keeping the financial cycle in motion.
These Channels then distributed the innate abilities to Dealers.
The Dealers further divided the abilities among Distributors.
The Distributors, in turn, allocated the abilities to planetary managers on each world. These managers categorized the abilities and stocked them in specialized shops dedicated to selling innate abilities.
This multi-tiered process allowed numerous intermediaries to profit handsomely.
Naturally, the final retail price of all the innate abilities combined far exceeded the initial bulk sale price to the Channels.
But this was unavoidable, given the specialized expertise required at each stage.
As this post appeared on the Nicholas Star System Forum...
The post quickly caught the attention of many.
A man lounging in a hot spring gazed thoughtfully at the newly surfaced thread. "Only two million innate abilities?"
"This is a complete collapse."
"Have there been any reports of Ten Thousand Races Arenas collapsing recently?"
"I haven't heard anything."
Normally, after a Ten Thousand Races Arena concludes, there should be far more than just two million player innate abilities.
Such a low number could only mean a few things:
Either the fighting was exceptionally brutal, resulting in massive casualties.
Or the remaining players at the arena's end were exceptionally strong, leading to a brutal suppression that left only a handful alive.
Regardless of the reason, it was clearly a collapse.
Chen Jiang, meanwhile, stared anxiously at the thread. A minute passed without a single reply.
"..."
Sighing in resignation, Chen Jiang set the tablet aside and prepared to head to the mutation shop to spend his remaining mutation points.
But just then, the tablet chimed with a notification.
Ding-dong.
(End of the Chapter)
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