There were four neighboring forces surrounding the basin area.
From the Voices of the Wind that he had received previously, Su Mo had already received news from the three clans, which were the dwarves, Light Empire and the Ents.
However, the demon race was the only one that had always been covered by a veil of mystery.
Currently, Su Mo had arrived at the demon race’s main city of his own accord. It was almost like what would happen when one was playing a game and some restriction was lifted or unlocked.
This was the first time the system had sent him the Voices of the Wind from the demon race, and it was from the territory lord, whose whereabouts and appearance were known to no one too.
“The time for the baptism of the New World is coming soon. We must gather our strength as soon as possible. Otherwise, all hell will break loose and we will not be able to survive and will be drowned out by that terrifying sea of corpses!”
“In Freedom City, we must enforce reformation!”
The demon race had ever-changing appearances, so no one had ever seen the lord’s real appearance, and no one knew what kind of template he used or which foreign race he was disguised as.
No since the first day, when all the members of the demon race came to the New World and had seen the figure in the black robe, had anyone ever caught sight of the mysterious territory lord again. He had seemingly vanished from this world ever since.
He listened to the message repeatedly.
After listening to it countless times, Su Mo silently shook his head.
It was an extremely “neutral-sounding” voice that did not seem to possess any defining characteristics. It was difficult to tell what type of foreign race it was from, let alone if it was a male or female voice.
Su Mo also did not have any memory of hearing this voice.
It was almost like listening to a mechanically synthesized voice. Even though he had listened to it several times, Su Mo could not recall the specific details and characteristics of the voice without turning it on and listening to it again.
It was as if the voice belonged to the most ordinary person in a crowd. Even if they met and stared at each other for a long time, it would be difficult to remember what the other party looked like after they left.
“Sea of corpses…”
“It seems that the leader of the demon race is also aware of the terrifying consequences of the upcoming outbreak that will stem from the Superpower Suppressant, which explains why the city guard is so eager to regain control of the supply chain and pricing leverage.”
“Once the outbreak begins, if the officials are not in control of the supply chain, the merchants would have control of the supply, and the resulting sales and prices of various materials would soar to unimaginable heights…”
Su Mo’s thoughts began to drift as he gazed through the window in the room and stared at the moonlit night sky.
As time flew by, night had gradually descended over the land.
After a busy day, the mercenaries were fast asleep in their rooms; each of them dreaming a delightful dream.
Turner, whose feelings had gone through a roller coaster ride, was also fast asleep in his room.
Su Mo slept all the way until seven o’clock the next morning. In a daze, he slowly opened his eyes and stretched his arms out, and felt that the sheets were stained with sweat.
“Huh… huh…”
Without the aid of psychic energy water and the peace of mind from being in the basin area, in addition to being in dwarven form, Su Mo experienced an extremely long nightmare last night.
In his dream, the basin area and Freedom City were constantly at war, and often butted heads to seize benefits from each other.
As a spy and person-in-charge, Su Mo quickly led the people of the basin area to gain the upper hand by disrupting the other party’s communication channels and actions.
However, when the scene changed and the leader of the demon race appeared, Su Mo was stunned to discover that this person’s true identity was actually the long-lost…
Zhong Qingshu!
At this moment, Su Mo had been suddenly caught in a dilemma.
On one side was love, and on the other were his goals.
He had to choose between the woman he loved, and the expectations and hopes of the villagers of the basin area.
Faced with such a dramatic plot like this, it was fortunate that his well-oiled biological clock saved the day despite him being in an unfamiliar location and even more unfamiliar physical form.
Otherwise, if the dream had continued, it might have turned into some grandiose theater play, full of drama, plots and intrigue.
Su Mo did not rush; waiting around ten minutes for his mind to be fully awake before he slowly got up from the bed and leapt onto the ground below.
Then, as the door opened and fresh air poured into the room, a familiar feeling of energy filled his body.
“Tsk tsk, there’s definitely something hidden in the demon race’s main city. Although this buff is barely one-tenth as strong as the one from psychic energy water, it’s no mean feat to be able to supply such a great thing to the population of an entire city.”
A peculiar force repeatedly washed over the bodies of everyone in the city.
With each cycle, exhausted bodies would have their impurities washed away and be refilled with a burst of energy. It was almost like recharging a battery.
“Eh, Harl, you’re up early!”
As he walked over to the lobby, Turner, who was seated at the counter, was energetically examining the ledgers and clearing up some of the supplies that had been left behind during Alec’s panicked departure yesterday.
These would become part of the exchange’s initial start-up capital. Su Mo himself cheered up when he took a closer look at the details.
“No wonder Alec refused to give up on the exchange. These 12,000 points seem to have emptied out a lot of his savings.”
“However, even if you invest more than 10,000 points in an exchange, it’s just a drop in the bucket in the end.”
Contribution points that were stored in the mark could be taken out and used at any time, but these resource materials and supplies that were gathered here had to be arranged and stored into a small warehouse on the right side of the hall until they could be sold or traded.
According to the purchase and selling prices of the top ten exchanges recorded yesterday, all the resources and materials here could be sold for over 10000 points, which greatly reduced the initial pressure on the exchange.
Could these things be traded for contribution points to repay the loan?
Su Mo chuckled and shook his head as he pushed open the door and looked at the number of “visitors” on the street corner, which had increased to four.
Those who were qualified to become the top ten exchanges did not only have to be tough, but also had to be observant and have sufficient intel!
It was obvious that four out of the ten exchanges had detected the potential threat in advance.
“Gather around, gather around. Regardless of whether we can sell goods today, let me set the scene as I want everyone here to know that our Fire Exchange will become part of the top ten!”
“Oh right, Iron One and Iron Two, come with me!”
Su Mo glanced at the other side of the street again at the poorly disguised “traders”, stopping briefly before he took large strides into the inner hall.
The two mercenaries followed behind him and entered the room as well.
“You two don’t have to join us for the meal later.”
“Here’s 200 contribution points, you guys can take it and get something to eat out there. Oh, and leave in a high-profile manner later.”
“During this time, you should…”
200 out of the 500 contribution points were taken out directly from the mark and given to the two cyborgs.
They were a little confused as they listened to Su Mo, but they still nodded affirmatively to indicate that they understood his words.
“During this process, you can do as you please, but remember to not expose the fact that we have a template.”
“Understood!”
Iron One and Iron Two nodded again, and then quickly left.
Every single member of the demon race was a wonderful actor.
When they were in the inner hall, their faces carried traces of confusion and subservience. However, the moment they left the room, their expressions quickly transformed to arrogance and disdain, as if they possessed an endless amount of confidence.
However, their confidence was different from Su Mo’s demeanor yesterday.
Their confidence was one that would be easy to dispel under pressure. Still, it would not be a big problem if they acted that way under normal circumstances.
He watched the two cyborgs exit the lobby under the close watch of the four “visitors”, who were anxiously standing on the corner of the street.
However, seeing that they were all rivals and competitors, when they saw that the other three did not move, they remained in position; maintaining a subtle balance.
Everyone let out a long sigh of relief once the two cyborgs disappeared at the end of the street.
However, unfortunately, before their sigh of relief even ended, a few other traders appeared on the promenade!
The time at which the top ten exchanges released the prices of the items was at eight-thirty in the morning, and the time taken for regular exchanges to get their hands on the prices was roughly between forty to fifty minutes.
After ensuring that there were no mistakes in the pricing information, most of the exchanges would choose to open at nine while some exchanges would opt to start trading at nine-thirty.
The nine hours of trading from nine o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the afternoon was sufficient for everyone to complete their trades.
Thus, not many people would be in a hurry to take action at this hour.
Nor would there be exchanges that would risk trading at this time given the fact that the prices of their items might plummet in just an hour or two.
Something weird was happening today!
When Su Mo pushed open the doors of Fire Exchange earlier at seven o’clock, everyone thought that the exchange had opened for business for the day. However, Su Mo did not understand the rules involved and had simply wanted to get some fresh air.
Later, when the two cyborgs left, they were confident in their own speculations, but when the traders appeared on the street, they were caught off guard.
Since the city was founded and started trading more than a month ago, no one had ever had any begun trading activities before the top ten exchanges had released the price list.
If the people here today could complete their trades in Fire Exchange at this time, it would signify…
A breakthrough!
“Damn, why are there people going over to Fire Exchange to buy things at this time? What’s going on?”
A voice rang out.
The four ‘visitors’ from the different exchanges were tense as they turned their heads and their faces darkened.
As an exchange that was on the same level, even if they were well-informed, they were not better than the other exchanges by much.
At that moment, representatives from three more exchanges had arrived and, like them, they were also from the top ten exchanges.
By current calculations, there were already seven exchanges represented here.
Seven out of the ten strongest exchanges throughout the entire Freedom City were here to spy on the user of the Level 3 auxiliary template, whose exchange had only been established for a day.
If word got out, not only would the common people fail to believe it, even Alec, who had just been kicked out, would call them “liars” too!
“What are you talking about, our exchanges’ price list hasn’t even been issued yet, so they won’t open yet…”
He frowned, and before this representative of the Sky Dome Exchange could even continue, his face was “smacked” and “slapped”.
In front of everyone’s eyes, six traders moved like they were in sync and walked straight into Fire Exchange without turning a corner.
From their open backpacks, not only did everyone see the storage device for the information template, but they also saw rare materials that were considered unusual in the market.
Fire Exchange, which had been looked down on by everyone, had successfully secured a “major deal” that made others envious on its opening day!
“Outrageous, this is too outrageous! Are these people rushing to reincarnate or something? Why are they trading now?”
“It probably isn’t a postponed transaction either. I’ve never seen anyone trade at this time in Freedom City.”
“Silkworm gold, this is one of the best conductor materials. It’s such a waste for it to be sold to a small shop like this!”
“…”
The people who came to trade did not block the sight of the crowd at the corner.
Turner could not hold back his smile. To him, the six people looked like bearers of fortune, as they took out each item from their backpacks one by one.
They started from Level 1 materials, before slowly progressing in terms of rarity to Level 5 materials; from ordinary templates that radiated white light to rare templates whose purple brilliance startled the observers at first sight.
If the trade was successful, then the profits from these transactions would be enough for Fire Exchange’s daily turnover to exceed 95% of the other exchanges.
However, it was unfortunate that, even though there were a lot of good things, the liquidity of the exchange was insufficient.
They watched the seller communicate with Turner for a while, before finally shaking his head helplessly.
The crowd let out a sigh of relief as he took back the rare items and placed down the ordinary items to complete the transaction.
Just like before, before they could finish their deal, someone showed up at the corner of the street again!
“Damn, this is endless. Have they all gone insane?”
“There are even people bringing carts of goods over to trade. Do they have a screw loose?”
“Are they colluding with each other?”
“Tsk, watch what you’re saying!”
From the six people at the beginning, to the gradually increasing crowd; considering the news that they had obtained before, the people present were not fools.
They quickly guessed the true identity of these traders, and also guessed the final destination of these materials.
Unfortunately, this was simply a game of misdirection.
Under these circumstances, the meaning behind it was more than met the eye.
At 8.20 am, there were still ten minutes before the top ten exchanges would release the price list.
Nearly 20 minutes after the city’s gates opened, traders from outside the city had already begun to file into the city one after the other, intending to head toward their familiar exchanges.
However, surprisingly, as soon as they entered, they began to realize in awe that…
At this moment, it was incredibly lively inside Freedom City!
Additionally, the liveliness did not originate from the several major exchanges on the main street. Instead, the commotion seemed to be coming from one of the auxiliary streets.
As expected, crowd mentality once again influenced the passersby to join in on the fun to see what was going on.
As the waves of people poured in, they were led toward the auxiliary street.
Some people did not know what was going on, but were still interested in the situation and blindly followed the crowd.
When they finally squeezed their way into the auxiliary street, everyone was stunned when they saw it!
Even though it was only 8.20 am, there was already a crowd of people who wanted to trade queuing in front of the newly-opened Fire Exchange.
Most importantly, for the first time, the city guard even appointed a team to be in charge of maintaining order on the auxiliary street.
“Holy sh*t, what are they buying? Why is it so lively?”
“Oh, the price list hasn’t been announced yet, right? Why did trading here start so early? What’s going on?”
“It can’t be, what time is it? When did these people arrive to line up? Isn’t this outrageous?”
“Ouch, don’t push, don’t push me!”
Amidst the sea of people, tens of thousands of people flowed down this route to the point where the congestion was visible to the naked eye.
Fortunately, under the watchful eye of the city guards, these people did not dare to squeeze ahead and jump the queue.
In addition, due to Fire Exchange’s speedy service, many people left with smiling faces as soon as they entered, which allowed the crowd to continue moving at a relatively steady pace.
As this progressed, ten minutes flew by quickly, and it was finally 8.30 am.
Glancing at the line of people behind them, and the traders in front whose smiles never left their faces, everyone could only grit their teeth and endure the queue.
Soon, when it reached nine o’clock in the morning, when the ordinary exchanges would open for the day, the first trader from “outside the city” finally made their way into the front section of the queue.
At the same time, a piece of paper with a lingering scent of ink was handed to him.
“Huh, what is this?”
As he saw that there were still a handful of people queuing in front of the exchange, and was unaware of what they were doing, he took the piece of paper from the mercenaries and began to read it.
“Fire Exchange’s new store is now open for business, enter the exchange today and trade things, and you can enjoy a 2% discount…”
“For a one-time fee of 1000 contribution points, you can become a member of the exchange and enjoy a lifetime 5% discount…”
“For a one-time fee of 10000 contribution points, you can become a silver member of the exchange and enjoy a lifetime 7% discount…”
“For a one-time fee of 50000 contribution points, you can become a gold member of the exchange and enjoy…”
“A lifetime 12% discount!”
“On the opening day, as long as you enter the store, you can participate in the lucky draw. There are no empty prizes in the lucky draw. The smallest prize is a Latherleaf flower worth 1 contribution point, and the biggest prize is…”
“A rare purple template?”
“Holy sh*t!!! A rare template?”
