CH 50.1

At 9 in the morning sharp, Bai Jing and a group of Stone Gamblers arrived at the Gu Conglomerate’s Underground Warehouse to pick out rough stones.

Along the way, he drew more and more intense attention than before. Almost everyone was stealing glances at this refined looking teenager.

Ever since he solved the top grade imperial green glass jadeite, ‘Gu Yun’ vanished from the public view.

Normally, he who would participate in a betting war every couple of days, no longer appeared on the stage.

Even his Star Realm account only issued some fan raffle benefits occasionally, never uploading photos or updates.

People speculated that the teenager, having solved a very rare top grade imperial green glass jadeite, had been at the pinnacle of his career.

So to retire at the height of fame and success seemed like a wise move.

In the future, whenever people mentioned his name, they would remember the teenager’s highlight moment of solving the top grade jadeite, leaving behind the reputation of a genius Stone Gambler.

However if he continued participating in betting wars and happened to solve a subpar or lower grade jadeite, his glory would immediately vanish.

That was the disparity.

After the previous betting war, people’s expectations for Gu Yun had skyrocketed to the peak, so unless he kept making miracles, it would be tough to generate anticipation again.

Last time it was imperial green glass. Next time, even if he solved a glutinous or icy jadeite, it might not excite people.

And if it was jadeite of the luminous green variety or of the bean variety, what awaited him would be thorough disappointment.

So, what would he choose under these circumstances?

Hence Gu Yun’s actions seemed quite reasonable.

After all, the last betting war had reached the top in terms of quantity and quality. How could he surpass himself?

Could he increase the stakes threefold in one go?

A 60% rate of betting increase was something only advanced Stone Gamblers could pull off.

Bai Jing, feeling the gazes of those around him, remained composed, showing no concern.

Be it participating in betting wars or the virtual mecha matches, he had always been in the public eye and seemed to have gradually gotten used to it.

After some inspections, everyone stepped into the rough stone area.

This time Bai Jing chose rough stones from Zone C, priced at 100,000 starcoins.

If he chose something pricier, he would most likely find it difficult to find an opponent on Proxima Star as the place was mostly populated by low level Stone Gamblers.

With the arrival of a new month, all the rough stones on the stone platform had been replaced with the latest batch.

Bai Jing, separated by two rows from the other Stone Gamblers, started selecting rough stones.

Since his mental power had risen to the S level recently, the limit of his sense perception ability had also increased. Now, he could not only just find three rise in bet rough stones, he could even find five if he wanted.

But that would be too exaggerated. His target was three.

Perhaps it was his illusion, but Bai Jing felt that there were a lot more people in Zone C than there usually was. Usually, it was Zone D that was the crowded one.

He observed each rough stone carefully, and since he was quick, found one that seemed promising in about two to three minutes.

Just as he was about to probe it with his sense perception ability, a Stone Gambler with a silver level 2 badge on his chest walked over, stopped about a meter away from him then showed no signs of leaving.

Feeling the man’s proximity, Bai Jing frowned uncomfortably.

When picking rough stones, it was a common understanding among Stone Gamblers not to interfere with each other.

So with so many rough stones around, why did he have to crowd him?

Pretending to examine the rough stone, Bai Jing quickly delved his sense perception ability into the rough stone and found that all the flesh of the jadeite had been ‘eaten away’ by ringworms and was covered with dense black dots of ringworms, looking as if countless tiny needles had pierced the flesh of the jadeite.

After probing it, Bai Jing straightened up as quickly as possible, distanced himself from the Stone Gambler, then went to pick among the next row of rough stones.

After he left, the level 2 Stone Gambler quickly stepped forward and examined the rough stone Bai Jing had just probed carefully. In the end, he placed the rough stone with yellow salt sand skin into his shopping cart.

Seeing this, a cold light flashed across Bai Jing’s beautiful teal colored eyes, but then disappeared just as quickly.

Because he had to check a lot of rough stones, Bai Jing was incredibly fast. Basically, once he’d looked over the rough stones, he would have already had his thoughts about them.

Besides, the rough stones this time were a new batch that had just been added to the warehouse and hadn’t been picked through much, so the probability of finding jadeite was relatively higher.

He picked out almost thirty rough stones from the over hundred he had looked at, then probed each one with his sense perception ability.

Just as he placed a rough stone with elephant skin in his shopping cart, the same Stone Gambler returned.

Bai Jing glanced at him coldly, his gaze devoid of warmth, as if looking at a dead object.

Immediately, the man felt a bone chilling cold, his teeth starting to chatter unconsciously.

He hadn’t expected the delicate looking teenager to have such a strong aura!

However he still gritted his teeth against the pressure and insisted on standing next to ‘Gu Yun’.

Bai Jing’s eyes narrowed slightly.

According to the rules of picking rough stones, this man wasn’t breaking any.

After all, he wasn’t speaking or grabbing rough stones forcefully.

On the contrary, if he were to speak first in order to stop him, it would be seen as initiating verbal communication, which would be considered breaking the rules.

But this man was really annoying. He was significantly slowing down his speed of selecting rough stones.

Not only this level 2 Stone Gambler, Bai Jing had also noticed that several other Stone Gamblers around seemed to be on the prowl.

Was it because he had gained some fame, so they wanted to follow him and reap benefits?

If they stayed at a distance, he didn’t mind.

However, the moment they approached him, whether it was his sense perception ability or the sense of crisis brought from the post apocalyptic world, they would react involuntarily.

This would distract him.

Since they had ignored his warnings, then—

Bai Jing pretended to examine a white sandpaper rough stone carefully while directing his sense perception ability into two rough stones he had selected next to it.

This white sandpaper skin rough stone had two grey white python like bands on its surface, something that usually meant it had a high chance of producing luminous jadeite. Moreover, there were several groups of intertwined, ribbon like pine flower patterns on it.

At first glance, it seemed promising.

However, at the bottom of the rough stone were dark green locks and cracks that almost blended in with the color of the pine flower patterns.

Unless one had excellent vision, they wouldn’t be able to see this.

Bai Jing had used his sense perception ability to examine this rough stone and found, as he had observed, that the jadeite was concentrated only in the lower half where the pine flower patterns were dense, and that it was all fragmented jadeite.

Feeling eyes from all around on him, he bent over to study the rough stone for a while, frowned gently, pretended to be indecisive, then eventually left the rough stone behind.

As he was leaving, he looked back at it ‘reluctantly’, his gaze lingering on its number for a few seconds before he moved forward.

To the others, this suggested:

Gu Yun was generally interested in this rough stone but wanted to make a comparison first, however if he couldn’t find a better one, he would come back for it.

Gu Yun’s standards were seriously too high.

They weren’t aiming for top quality jadeite. They were fine with anything as long as they could make a profit.

Within half a minute of Bai Jing leaving, three people quickly moved in that direction.

In the end, it was the level 2 Stone Gambler who was closest that took the white sandpaper rough stone.

After taking the rough stone, he instinctively looked at Gu Yun, whose eyes were filled with a hint of anger and frustration, his gaze as sharp as a blade’s. He shifted his eyes away hurriedly, but the corner of his lips curved in satisfaction.

In just an hour, he had ‘snatched’ two rough stones from Gu Yun’s hands. Feeling satisfied, he pushed his shopping cart to the next row of stone platforms and didn’t continue to bother Bai Jing.

The other Stone Gamblers didn’t dare to be as blatant, and combined with the chill in Bai Jing’s gaze that swept over them, they trembled and didn’t dare to act out.