Chapter 97

Su Jing sat behind the control panel, her fingertips lightly gliding across the pale blue system panel. The "Number One Store Under Heaven" icon in the center of the screen glowed with a soft green light.

This is the trading function that she unlocked after completing the dungeon. Now it is finally going to be officially used. She can put the excess ore on the market to exchange for the resources she needs, and also indirectly support the shelter of the Chinese nation.

"First, organize the types of minerals to be put on the shelves and make sure that the purpose of each type is clearly labeled."

Su Jing murmured to herself, clicked on the "Product Management" section of the panel, and the page instantly jumped to the "Add Product" interface, with the ore inventory list in her personal space popping up next to it.

Her gaze swept across the list, her fingertips selecting the ores she wanted to list:

- Gold Crystal Ore: 95% purity, 3280 kg in stock, labeled for use as "driving the core of cyber equipment, strengthening cultivation tools, and making high-hardness weapons", 500 kg planned to be listed (sufficient for personal use);

- Silver crystal ore: 90% purity, 8550 kg in stock, intended for "making conductive components, upgrading circuit systems, and improving equipment sensitivity", 1000 kg planned for release;

- Manganese crystal ore: 88% purity, 6820 kg in stock, labeled for use as "enhancing metal hardness, making defensive armor parts, and repairing mechanical interfaces", 800 kg planned to be put on the shelves;

- Hematite: 80% purity, 60,000 kg in stock, intended for "refining high-purity iron ingots, making basic tools, and reinforcing building structures", 10,000 kg planned for sale;

- Iron ore: 92% purity, 24,550 kg in stock, labeled as "high-efficiency heating (combustion efficiency = 3 × anthracite), no harmful gases, suitable for long-term use in shelters", 5,000 kg planned to be put on the market.

For each type of ore selected, Su Jing would carefully check the inventory and the quantity listed to ensure that she had enough reserved for her own use. For example, she needed to keep the gold crystals to enhance her laser gun and make defensive parts, so she only listed 500 kilograms.

Stock up on more iron ore, since heating is a necessity in the apocalypse, and the shelters in China will definitely need it.

Next was pricing. Su Jing entered "100 points/1 jin" in the "Unit Price Settings" field and checked "Uniform unit price for all products"—whether it was rare gold crystal or abundant hematite, all products would be listed at this price.

She knew that a uniform price would avoid unnecessary disputes and make it easier for small and medium-sized shelters to accept, since not every place could afford to spend a lot of points to buy scarce minerals, so a uniform price would be fairer.

"The most important thing is the trading rules." Su Jing switched to the "Rule Settings" section, her fingers rapidly typing on the keyboard, and the rules she had set popped up one by one on the screen:

1. Identity Restriction: Only participants who have been "verified with real names" are allowed to trade. Users of the "Chinese Flower Kingdom" (identified by light blue in the system) can choose "100 points/1 jin" or "exchange for equivalent materials". The materials must meet the requirements of "long-term storage and no risk of spoilage" (such as food, compressed biscuits, common medicines, unexpired fuel, etc.).

2. Rules for users from non-Chinese countries: Users identified by red (United States), gold (European Union), or other colors other than light blue are only eligible for "resource exchange," with an exchange rate of "10 pounds of resources for 1 pound of ore." The resources must be "scarce resources" (such as high-purity medical alcohol, antibiotics, cyber equipment parts, etc.). Gold, silver, and other precious metals are not accepted (they have low practicality in a post-apocalyptic environment, are prone to causing competition, and are difficult to assess their true value).

3. Purchase Limit: The maximum purchase quantity for a single user ID is 100 kg per transaction, and the cumulative purchase quantity per month shall not exceed 500 kg, in order to prevent malicious hoarding that would prevent other users from purchasing;

4. Transaction process: After placing an order, users must first submit a "material list/points voucher". After Su Jing confirms that the materials are compliant and the quantity is sufficient, the two-way transfer of "ore-materials" will be completed through the system space to avoid fraud.

After setting the rules, Su Jing checked them carefully to make sure there were no omissions. She remembered the robbery by Jack's team in the previous dungeon and the greed of users from other countries for ores in the global channel, so she set a strict exchange ratio for users from non-Chinese countries.

Many shelters in China are still struggling with heating and equipment. Relaxed rules could help them access resources more quickly, which is also a personal consideration for her as a Chinese citizen.

"Confirm listing." Su Jing clicked the "Submit" button in the lower right corner of the screen, and the system immediately popped up a light green notification: [Product successfully listed! There are currently 5 products for sale in the store. The transaction rules have been synchronized to the store homepage, and you can check the order status in real time].

At the same time, in her personal space, the listed ores are automatically placed in the "trading reserve area," separated from the portion for personal use, to avoid confusion.

The housekeeping robot "Chef 1" walked over with a cup of hot jujube tea. The screen displayed the villa's real-time status: "Indoor temperature 22.3℃, heating stove has sufficient coal (can last for 10 hours), outdoor temperature -62℃, wind force 8, no abnormalities in monitoring, infrared alarm detection range 5 meters, no outsiders approaching."

Su Jing took the jujube tea; the warmth of the cup seeped through her fingertips, dispelling the fatigue from sitting for so long. She took a sip, the sweet but not cloying jujube aroma spreading in her mouth, before her gaze returned to the system panel.

Inquiry messages have started popping up in the store's backend:

- Light blue "China user 892": "Boss, can gold crystals be used to power the generator? Our shelter's generator is almost out of fuel. Can we exchange it for rice? We need about 50 kilograms."

- Light blue "User 347 from China": "Can iron ore really be used as coal? We're almost out of coal and want to exchange it for 100 kilograms. Can we use compressed biscuits instead?"

- Red "US User 568": "How much is gold? I have 100 grams of gold, how much can I get for it? In the previous instance, people from your China used gold to trade, why don't you accept that here?"

Su Jing did not reply immediately, but marked the messages as "pending" - she was waiting for a more suitable order, especially Jin Jing. 50 kilograms was exactly the maximum single sales volume she planned, and rice was an important food reserve, more practical than points.

As for messages from US users, she simply ignored them. The rules clearly state that gold is not accepted, and further explanation would only be a waste of time.

She leaned back in her chair, gazing out the window—snowflakes were still falling heavily, the snow in the yard was already knee-deep, the black moat's ice surface gleamed with a cold, hard sheen, and the occasional crack of snapping branches from the distant woods only amplified the deep mountain's silence. Su Jing let out a soft sigh, a sense of anticipation rising within her—she knew that such rules and prices would surely attract many shelters from China to trade, and the food and medicine she needed would soon be available through these transactions, ensuring the villa's supplies would become increasingly plentiful.

Just then, a light blue private chat notification popped up on the system panel. The sender was "Old Zhou, a user from the Flower Country". The message was simple: "Hello boss, I am Old Zhou, the person in charge of the East City Shelter. I saw that you put up gold crystals and would like to exchange them for 50 kilograms of drive generators. Can you exchange them for 1,000 kilograms of rice and 500 kilograms of flour?"