Chapter 103: Gryphon?

“Wait! Wait!” The booth owner became anxious and quickly leapt out from behind. He halted before Chen Xiaolian. “Don’t just leave! How can one just leave due to one disagreeable word when making transactions? What is your offer price then?”

“I do not like to make offers, you do it,” Chen Xiaolian said indifferently. “However, if you are being dishonest, then I have no time to waste here.”

The booth owner gritted his teeth and hesitated for a moment. “Five points each!”

Chen Xiaolian quietly regarded the booth owner and maintained his silence.

“You! Don’t be too greedy!” The booth owner was somewhat furious. He pointed at Chen Xiaolian and clenched his teeth. “It is just a Demon Soldier Fragment! It is but one of the low-levelled materials from Hell Type instance dungeons! Back then, the price for this item was only three or four points each! Recently though, the demand for it suddenly increased, causing the market price to become chaotic. My offer price is a high one!”

Chen Xiaolian was startled… demand for it suddenly increased, high price…

Seeing Chen Xiaolian maintain his silence, the booth owner forcefully stamped his foot. “Fine! I will let you butcher me once! Eight points each! Any more than that is not possible for me!”

Price of eight points…

Chen Xiaolian calculated; the Demon Soldier Fragments within his system box was enough for him to buy a Standard Edition Sentinel Mech!

Chen Xiaolian hesitated for a moment. “How many do you want?”

“Three… two hundred,” The booth owner snorted. “I do not have that many points with me. Do you have 200?”

Chen Xiaolian suddenly laughed out, and deliberately did so openly. “I have 200. However… I am not lacking in points.”

“You… are you jerking me?” The booth owner clenched his fists and appeared very incensed. It appeared that he was a hot-tempered person. If this were not Zero City, he would probably have attacked Chen Xiaolian.

“I am not jerking you,” Chen Xiaolian disregarded the booth owner’s fists. Chen Xiaolian was already familiar with Zero City’s rules; he believed that this fellow would not dare to start a fight here. “You can use items to make the exchange. I do not just want points.”

“… You have taken a fancy to the Black Widow,” The booth owner exhaled.

“Yes, the Black Widow. I will not swindle you. According to the market price, Black Widow amounts to 1,500 points. You can add 100 points and I will give you 200 Demon Soldier Fragments,” Chen Xiaolian gave a soft smile. “I believe this transaction is very fair.”

“Fair your sister!” The booth owner became furious. “That is not the Black Widow’s price! Last year, the Black Widow was sold in the market for 2,000 points!”

“Oh, so it is 2,000 points eh?” Chen Xiaolian coldly replied. “Then, why did you offer to sell it for 5,000 points?”

“…” The booth owner was tongue-tied and he hesitated for a while. “I…”

“If you want to swindle others, then you should feel for yourself the feeling of being swindled,” Chen Xiaolian shrugged his shoulders. “Besides, I was not swindling you. The price of 1,500 points for a Black Widow is considered consistent with the market price.”

“…”

The owner booth hesitated and Chen Xiaolian laughed. “I have no time to waste with you. If you are not willing, so be it. I am not in a hurry to buy a pet.”

After saying that, he raised his leg and moved away. After taking his second step, the booth owner suddenly stamped his foot. “Wait!”

Chen Xiaolian turned around.

The booth owner spat out brutally. “You are a vicious one! This senior is in urgent need of those Demon Soldier Fragments! I will just have to let you butcher me again! Black Widow for 1,500 points!”

Pausing, he suddenly continued. “However, I will not give you the 100 points. I will give you something else. How about it?”

Chen Xiaolian was not too concerned and he asked with indifference. “Something else?”

“I have some goods with me that my guild members asked me to sell off. These are some rare goods. I guarantee that you won’t find them anywhere else.”

“It is something you are forced to take out, right?” Chen Xiaolian sneered. “Very well, let me have a look. I am curious to see what you would label as a treasure.”

At any rate, Chen Xiaolian was not too concerned with the remaining 100 points. He felt that he should check things out before anything else.

“Of course it is a good item!” The booth owner supplied. “In an Egyptian instance dungeon, my guild acquired some rare pet souls. However… they are all cubs. Although their level is not very high, you can try to nurture them.”

“Rare pet souls?” Chen Xiaolian frowned. “What is it?”

“Gryphons!” The booth owner deliberately raised his chin. “How about it? You have heard of it, right?”

Chen Xiaolian was stunned.

Gryphon… he had not seen this pet before. However, while he was on the plane to Japan, he had discussed with the two veterans, Lun Tai and Bei Tai. Through them, he learnt about many things.

He seemed to recall hearing about this pet:

Gryphon: This pet was under the [B] Class category. However, majority of people agree that it holds the best price to performance ratio!

The reason being that it has an [A] Class Growth Capacity. Most importantly, it was a flying pet. Whenever the need arose, it could be mounted by either Awakened ones or Players!

It has the combined function of both pet and mount!

“However, there is a very minor problem with my Gryphon that I need to explain to you,” The booth owner hesitated for a moment. “A [B] Class pet is something that you should have surveyed for in the market. The price is around 300 points. Although mine is cheap, there is a very minor problem. It is… broken.”

“Broken?” Chen Xiaolian knitted his eyebrows.

“En,” The booth owner replied ambiguously. “This was an unexpected acquisition from the instance dungeon. However, the system states that it is still possible to adopt a broken pet soul as a pet. There will only be some issues with probability. In other words… a successful activation means that it will become your pet. A failed activation…”

“A failed activation means I get nothing, right?” Chen Xiaolian sneered.

“… Yes,” The booth owner replied with a low voice.

Truthfully, he was not being honest.

The so-called unexpected acquisition from what instance dungeon was all lies.

Truth was his guild and another Awakened were involved in some shady business in the last instance dungeon. Then, his guild had killed off the other Awakened who specialized in pet summoning skills. It was rather similar to the big-breasted woman from Da Vinci’s Wind Slasher Guild.

Killing others while committing shady business was no different that killing others to plunder their items. How could the booth owner come clean about that?

After the Awakened died, he dropped several items. Amongst them was a bunch of pet souls.

Unfortunately, due to the intense battle, the pet souls were broken.

Broken pet souls will have its activation rate reduced… To put it bluntly, it would depend on luck.

The booth owner and his companions had tried to activate two pet souls. In the end, they failed and got nothing.

They dared not try out the rest and decided to peddle them in the market. Perhaps they could swindle others.

“You are making quite a favourable deal,” Chen Xiaolian replied with disdain. “If it was possible to activate, why didn’t you sell it after activation? Hmph…”

“That is why it is so cheap,” The booth owner shook his head. “It is a Gryphon soul. Even though it is broken, there is a possibility of activating it to become a Gryphon. That thing is worth 300 points. I am only charging you 100 points for that, what do you think?”

“There is nothing to it!” Chen Xiaolian shook his head. “I am not interested.”

“That…” The booth owner rolled his eyes. Although he was wearing a mask to hide his expression, Chen Xiaolian could sense his change in expression. The booth owner then sighed. “How about this… I will give you two Gryphon souls! With two souls, the activation probability would be much higher, right?  If the first fails, the second should succeed, right?”

“Do you take me for a fool?” Chen Xiaolian burst out in laughter. “If that could succeed, would you not have done so?”

“I am not opening it because I do not need a [B] Class pet. Besides, if I had opened it myself, the price would become 300 points. If you want to buy cheap items, you must take the risk. Gains only come when there are risks involved. Am I wrong?

“The souls I sell to you can certainly be opened. If you do not trust me, you can ask around the marketplace. Those who are in the pet trade understand this rationale. There are even people who specialize in selling broken pet souls! Whether you can open it or not would depend on your luck.”

Chen Xiaolian deliberated and abruptly said. “Two is not enough.”

“… Don’t be so greedy!” The booth owner was enraged. “That is 100 points for two [B] Class pet souls! Are you still not satisfied?”

“Those are broken pet souls,” Chen Xiaolian replied with indifference. “Our transaction is based on resources. If you are willing, then that is good. If you are not willing, then so be it. After all, I am not begging you to make a trade.”

The booth owner gritted his teeth and stomped his foot again. “I have a total of eight broken Gryphon souls! However, 100 points will not do! Make your offer! I will give it all to you! How about… give me some more Demon Soldier Fragments! How many more fragments do you have?”

Seeing the other party finally exposing his tail, Chen Xiaolian smiled.

Chen Xiaolian deliberated: He has 456 fragments.

However… he suddenly did not want to sell away all of the fragments!

He had obtained information from the booth owner that the demand for it had suddenly increased! This led to the Demon Soldier Fragment, a Hell Type material becoming very scarce.

Chen Xiaolian felt that it was better to play it safe. It would be for the best to keep some with him.

“I have a total of 256 fragments,” Chen Xiaolian replied indifferently. “I will give it all to you. In return, you will give me the Black Widow and the eight broken Gryphon souls. En… give me some pet food as well.”

The booth owner nearly coughed out blood.

The earlier transaction was 200 fragments for a Black Widow. Chen Xiaolian then added 56 more fragments, which has a maximum value of around 500 points.

500 points in exchange for eight Gryphon souls… even though they were broken, their market price meant that the booth owner was suffering a huge loss.

Unfortunately…

The Demon Soldier Fragments were something that he urgently required!

“Deal! I will gift you a bag of Black Widow pet food!”

“Five bags,” Chen Xiaolian added softly.

“… Are you specifically here to swindle me? I will give it to you!” The booth owner stomped his foot.

Soon, they both reached the Services Office. There, they acquired a contract from the counter. After signing the contract, they handed it to the Services Office’s A.I. for safekeeping.

Then, they proceeded to exchange items.

Chen Xiaolian produced the 256 Demon Soldier Fragments while the booth owner took out a Black Widow soul and eight Gryphon souls.

Chen Xiaolian received a system prompt stating that the other party had gifted him the goods.

Chen Xiaolian quickly checked the system.

There was no problem with the Black Widow soul. The system prompt there was similar to the one on his Black Widow soul.

The one thing that made Chen Xiaolian intrigued was the eight Gryphon souls.

The system prompt clearly stated: It has a certain probability of activation.

It has a certain probability of activation?

Chen Xiaolian suddenly recalled the online games that he used to play and the equipment with various characteristics and probabilities.

However, Chen Xiaolian did not intend to activate these eight Gryphon souls to become pets.

He did not even use the Black Widow for himself! Not to mention this is a [B] Class Gryphon.

He has a different purpose in mind for these broken Gryphon souls.

As for the Black Widows, he was of the opinion of… giving one to both Qiao Qiao and Soo Soo.

The two sisters still do not have a pet.

As for Roddy… that fellow’s brain was stuffed full of machines and mechs. Chen Xiaolian felt that he would have to let Roddy go with a technological type of build in the future.

Chen Xiaolian had inquired about it in the market today. Not all pets were of the biological type like cats, dogs, tigers, lions or insects.

There were machine types of pets as well!

Xia Xiaolei on the other hand… Chen Xiaolian designated him as a logistic treasure!

With the Heavenly defying Haggling skill, he was expected to help the guild earn points!

Do not belittle Chen Xiaolian for making only one transaction after circling the flea market for nearly two hours. Truthfully, he had been spending most of his time asking around about the market price for many items.

Additionally, he also acquired some information.

That black hearted booth owner was not wrong. After deliberately asking around, Chen Xiaolian obtained some information regarding Hell Type materials.

Throughout the flea market, there were around seven to eight different people requesting to buy Hell Type materials. These people were requesting to buy it everywhere.

Nonetheless, these Hell Type materials were too rare within the marketplace

Most importantly, Chen Xiaolian obtained another piece of information. During this time’s opening for Zero City, the shops set up by the top guilds within the southern business district had all their Hell Type materials taken off the shelves!

This meant that those top guilds were hoarding Hell Type materials!

After finding out about this, Chen Xiaolian felt a twinge of regret.

He regretted being too hasty in selling off those Demon Soldier Fragments.

After pondering about it though, his system box still has 200 fragments. Additionally… there was still one of the 72 Demons, Amon’s soul!

That was a premium high-grade material!