Chapter 11 Soul Fraud
Lao Wu sighed and said earnestly, "I don't want to see an A-level stone beast in my lifetime."
Qi Huan was a little depressed. He understood what Old Fifth Brother meant. If an A-level stone beast appeared, it would mean that there would be no safe place to live on the waste planet.
The two-headed python was of C grade, and a stone beast of this grade was rarely seen for two months. It was a rare big business for the Wan family's small unloading shop. Wan Lao Er was busy greeting the two and even brought up some bright red lychees.
The lychees here are as big as plums, and the cores are yellowish. Qi Huan is not sure whether the taste is exactly the same, after all, he can't afford it now. These things are placed in the fresh-keeping cabinet of the food store in the front yard, and a small box of two costs twenty silver coins.
Lao Wu did not disappoint Wan Lao Er and successfully dissected out a C-level beast core the size of an egg.
"Thank you for your hard work." Wan Laoer came over and patted Laowu on the shoulder, his face full of excitement.
To dismantle the stone beast, the hunting team wants the beast core, beast tusks and beast bones. The most important of these is the beast core, because it is equivalent to high-level energy stones of the same level and can be absorbed directly. Beast tusks and beast bones need to be refined before they can be absorbed and used.
The remaining skin and meat are equivalent to the leftovers of the ore, and the refining yield is relatively low. Most hunting teams usually find it troublesome to bring them back, and will generously give them to the unloading site as an extra "tip".
The unloading fee of the stone beasts is 20% for the unloading customer, and the rest goes to the unloading yard, which means that Lao Wu should earn 1,000 silver coins for this order. If it were in the past, Qi Huan might think that Lao Wu got too little, but now that he has seen the details of the debts owed by the human restaurant, he can guess that it will take a lot of investment to open an unloading yard, and it is unknown how many years it will take to pay it back. Moreover, there are not many such opportunities. Lao Wu can accept it, which means that the market price is this.
Qi Huan himself was prepared for not getting any money, after all, the unpacking part was basically done by Lao Wu, and he was just "learning" from the side and helping out.
It was already past eight o'clock when he finished this big order. Qi Huan looked hesitantly at the long-faced beast that he had cut into two-thirds before. He hadn't even finished one today. It was estimated that he might not even make 10 silver coins.
"Don't look at it anymore. Take a break for half a day tomorrow morning, and do the rest in the afternoon." Wan Laoer patted Qi Huan generously, "I'll give you 80 silver coins today as a reward for your hard work in helping to get the stone beast."
Qi Huan was a little surprised. He didn't expect that he could also get a share of the money from the stone beast.
Lao Wu also had a smile on his face. Seeing Qi Huan was confused, he explained, "The beast core cut out today can reach Grade C, so they gave an extra reward of 500 silver coins."
"If we take that beast core to the command hall and sell it to the base, it can fetch at least six figures." Wan Laoer's tone was filled with undisguised excitement.
"Is the bigger the beast core, the better?" Qi Huan had an idea and thought of the beast core that was stuffed into his stomach last night, so he asked them.
"Size is one thing, but the key is color. The darker the color, the more expensive it is. If you have time, you can go and look at the purchase announcement in the Tongling Hall. There are all kinds of grades and prices on display."
Qi Huan used 60 silver coins to pay off his debt and only received 20 silver coins. He picked out two pieces of meat for the little one at home, bought a bag of green wheat flour, and went to the discount counter to pick out two boxes of tofu and a box of fruit whose skin had lost water and was slightly wilted.
He was so greedy when he saw the two members of the hunting team eating fruit in the afternoon, but unfortunately he was short of money, so he could only buy some of this to satisfy his craving.
Before leaving, another restaurant sent a portion of salt-baked clams, and Qi Huan shared two. He also understood why the nutritional status of the Wan family seemed to be slightly better than that of other aboriginals in the base, and they could have a snack from time to time to supplement. The original owner was fatter than Quan Hai, probably because he could have a snack from time to time in the restaurant.
There were two hunting teams fighting on the road, supposedly for animal cores. Thirty or forty red security robots rushed over, flashing their bright high beams. They were stuck on the periphery like idiots, blocking half of the street. Qi Huan had to take a long detour. When he got home and opened the door, a gray-black shadow was squatting at the door waiting for him hungrily.
Looking at the soft and sticky shadow that looked like a little dumpling, Qi Huan felt inexplicably moved. For the time being, he and the little guy could be considered to be dependent on each other, right?
"I'm sorry. I had to work overtime today." Qi Huan explained apologetically and ran to the kitchen to fry some animal meat for it.
His own dinner was easy to solve. He just took out some leftover braised pork bones from yesterday and stewed them with tofu. It was quick and delicious.
After making dinner, Qi Huan opened his personal terminal and ate the meal while reading the acquisition page of the command hall that Wan Laoer mentioned.
This command hall is the official online service hall of the base. It not only handles various internal applications for base employees, but also provides services such as buying, selling, leasing, withdrawing cash, and issuing paid tasks for hunting teams.
The first page of the acquisition page is the energy stone section. Qi Huan flipped through it and roughly understood the classification.
Energy stones are divided into low, medium and high grades.
The ones below E-level are considered low-grade, costing 600 silver coins each. For example, ordinary airships and household robots use E-level energy stones. The kitchen utensils and washing machines in his kitchen use F-level energy stones, costing 50 silver coins each. The lowest grade is G-level energy stones, costing 3 silver coins each.
The selling price will be increased to 1.1 times the purchase price, which means that for the same energy stone, you can get 100 silver coins if you sell it to the base, but if you want to buy it back, you will have to spend 110 silver coins.
The medium level is D to A. Starting from D, each level of energy stone will be divided into four quality levels: A, B, C, and D, and priced by weight. For example, for a D-level beast core, A is 7,000 silver coins per 100 grams, and D is 4,000 silver coins per 100 grams.
The price difference for C-grade beast cores is even greater, with D-grade cores costing 50,000 silver coins per 100 grams, while C-grade cores have skyrocketed by 10,000 silver coins to 60,000. The one that Lao Wu unearthed today is estimated to weigh more than 200 grams. If sold to the base, he would make at least 20,000 more silver coins than a D-grade core.
Grade B is ten times more expensive, with Grade D costing 500,000 silver coins per 100 grams. As for Grade A, it is simply astronomical in price, with the lowest Grade D starting at 5 million per gram.
Qi Huan clicked on the C-level page, looked through the sample photos of each level, scooped a spoonful of tofu into his mouth, and then froze while biting the spoon.
According to the comparison of the photos, the beast core left by the silver-haired young man yesterday is likely to be Grade B, one level higher than the one left by Old Five! 70,000 silver coins per 100 grams!
Qi Huan bit the spoon and ran to the second floor with a bang, scaring the kitten upstairs so much that its tail stood on end.
After taking out the beast core and confirming it, it was indeed very similar to the Grade B one in the photo. Although it was only about 40 grams, it would cost nearly 30,000 yuan.
Qi Huan walked around the second floor twice, thinking again and again, and finally found a small iron box to put the beast core in, and carefully put it into the drawer on the top shelf of the cabinet with green buttons. There was no other way. Although this small building was very shabby, it was still safer than carrying it with you. It would be best if the silver-haired young man could show up again soon and take the beast core away quickly, so that he wouldn't have to keep it with him and worry about it.
He went back downstairs to continue eating. Just as he was thinking about checking something else, a message suddenly popped up on his personal terminal that was connected to the command hall interface: [Your death release has expired].
What the hell is a death release? Qi Huan quickly clicked on it and found that it was a programmed notice, which informed him that the team agreement he signed with the Falcon Squad half a month ago expired today, and the attached death release was invalid at the same time.
He had some impression of the Falcon Team. The original owner had recently received an income of 100,000 silver coins, which was paid by this team.
After searching the base announcement according to the keywords, Qi Huan felt that he seemed to know the cause of the original owner's death.
Under normal circumstances, NPCs like them would only be active in the base. However, some hunting teams might pay to hire people to go to the hunting area for their own safety or other needs, and the most popular ones were maintenance workers and guides.
If both parties agree, they will need to sign a team agreement, which will specify the dates of stay in the hunting area, specific service content and remuneration, etc.
The original owner was probably short of money due to bad business some time ago, so he signed an eight-day team-accompanying agreement with the Falcon Squad, responsible for cooking for the Falcon Squad members in the hunting area. The 100,000 silver coins were an advance payment, and there was still a balance of 100,000.
Because the hunting area is extremely dangerous, the base stipulates that all NPCs who sign the team-accompanying agreement must sign a death waiver. If any accident, including death, occurs in the hunting area, the base will not bear any responsibility.
At the same time, the base will also require the hunting team to pay a deposit. If something really happens to the 'NPC', the balance will be paid to the second payee specified in the agreement, and the deposit will be considered as compensation from the hunting team to the base.
Then, this hunting team called Falcon encountered some unknown stone beast and all of them died in the hunting area, and the original owner’s balance was also lost.
What bad luck! Qi Huan couldn't help but sigh for the original owner. Then he thought about himself who encountered the explosion. He didn't know who was more unlucky and felt a little upset for a moment.
After clearing the dishes, he opened the box of fruit and washed it, ready to enjoy his after-meal fruit and change his mood with delicious food. In the past, there were at least three or four kinds of fruit at home every day, but he had never eaten them since he came here.
The fruit Qi Huan bought is called Shanhong fruit. It looks only the size of a blueberry and is coral red in color.
After washing it and before draining it, he couldn't wait to pick one up and put it in his mouth.
An overwhelming sour taste exploded in his mouth and rushed straight to the top of his head. Qi Huan instantly felt that his skull was cracked by the sour taste.
Soul fraud! What is a shanhong fruit? Isn’t this just a mini version of a seedless hawthorn?
The little bit of sleepiness that had been creeping up on his eyelids was wiped out by the sourness. Anyway, he could sleep in tomorrow and didn't have to get up early, so Qi Huan decided to boil some sugar and make mini candied haws to bring to the people at the unloading yard as snacks.
The most critical step in making candied haws is the temperature of boiling sugar. This depends purely on experience. Using quantitative parameters and indicators is useless. Qi Huan had failed here before. He followed someone else's secret recipe, which said that sugar would not stick to teeth if the temperature reached above 160 degrees. However, sugar at 170 degrees still stuck to teeth.
Later, after making it more often, I could judge it by the color of the sugar and the state of the bubbles, and I became more adept at it.
He pierced the box of fruits with toothpicks, three at a time, and made a full plate.
The next morning, Qi Huan was sleeping soundly when someone smashed the door downstairs again.
It was still dark outside the window. It was only five o'clock at most. He wasn't going to come and ask for breakfast like last time, was he? Could you please respect other people's business hours? Qi Huan wailed in his heart. With two messy hairs sticking up, he went to open the door. All the way, he was thinking about how to tactfully reject this business. He had to be friendly, but firm in his stance! After working hard for several days, he decided to sleep in today!
He opened the door sleepily, and found Quan Hai, who was dressed neatly, standing at the door.
"Another stone beast came in?" Qi Huan shuddered and woke up from his sleep.
"No," Quan Hai shook his head, revealing a large backpack half empty on his back, "I just received news that a garbage ship arrived this morning. Didn't you say last time that you wanted to go along and take a look?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
