19: Chapter 19 Market Manipulation

【Alloy Power fishing rod】

This thing was created by using an 【Item Upgrade Scroll (good)】 on a normal fishing rod.

That scroll was an unexpected surprise from the first time he opened a stone treasure chest.

"Since a stone treasure chest can yield this, even if the probability is low, given the massive base of Survivor, the total stock must be substantial."

Li Taiping's eyes gradually deepened.

For the vast majority of Survivor right now, a scroll that can't be eaten or drunk and only upgrades a single item is far less practical than a large quantity of ship conversion materials.

Even a good grade alloy fishing rod is, for these Survivor, still a gamble with a high chance of failure.

Most people's goal is simply to convert their raft into a ship, get it moving, and survive by staying away from the black tide.

Instead of crazily betting their lives on the slim chance of obtaining high-quality items.

After all, they are captains elected by democracy; their crew members are waiting for them to be rescued, so they dare not easily gamble with their lives.

They are far from being as monstrous and bug-like as he is with the 【Bullseye】 trait.

And this is the information gap.

It is also the root cause of the wealth gap.

Li Taiping tapped his finger in the void, opening the 【trading post】.

The vast majority of people are looking to buy food and water, or even ship upgrade materials like shells and pearls, and what they list are mostly basic materials.

He took a deep breath and mentally connected to his storage.

The next second, a "financial storm" capable of being recorded in the history of the survival game erupted silently.

【Transaction Initiator: Anonymous】

【Item: Mineral Water (500ml) × 100】 — Demand: 【Item Upgrade Scroll (good) × 1】

【Transaction Initiator: Anonymous】

【Item: sulfur (normal) × 100】 — Demand: 【Alloy Power fishing rod (good/durability 30+) × 1】

...

Ten orders.

One hundred orders.

Five hundred orders!

Over a thousand orders!

Li Taiping's fingers danced as if playing a piano tile game, moving so fast they left afterimages.

Relying on the "unlimited stalls" privilege granted by the VIP Black Card, he listed over a thousand trading orders in just a few minutes!

Each order contained one hundred units of basic resources!

At the beginning of the crossing, this was simply an astronomical figure, a strategic reserve capable of driving any Survivor team crazy!

Such seemingly endless trading orders instantly impacted the trading market, once again causing heated discussion in the chat channel!

【Regional Chat Channel:】

"What the hell?! Am I seeing things? Look at the trading post quickly!!"

"Damn! Did the system bug out? Why did hundreds of pages of material orders suddenly appear?"

"All starting at 100 units? Was the survival game system hacked?"

"Do you think this could be a trade request from some big shot?"

"Could it be that rank one guy named Li Taiping? After all, he's the only one in the whole region with a Tier 2 ship right now!"

"You're overthinking it! This is hundreds of trade orders! Who could have such a massive resource reserve and still have unlimited stalls? It must be a system bug!"

"The person above is right, this is absolutely impossible to achieve with individual strength!"

"Right! If that rank one guy posted this, I'll livestream myself eating poop while doing a handstand!"

"Not necessarily, the transaction initiator is Anonymous. Don't you remember that trade order from a while ago for the black card was also from a big shot named Anonymous?"

"Heh, you smart aleck above, is every Anonymous in the world the same person? Interesting."

"By the way, is this good grade upgrade scroll really that valuable? That's one hundred units of upgrade materials! I'm afraid someone could directly promote to a Tier 2 ship and catch up to rank one in one go!"

"Too bad I don't have one. If I did, I would definitely trade it. After all, no matter how precious or powerful such an item is, it's not as urgent as prioritizing ship promotion to get away from the black tide!"

...

Watching the constantly scrolling messages, Li Taiping raised an eyebrow.

Someone guessed it was me?

That won't do.

His eyes rolled, and a plan formed in his mind.

"Since you all want to guess, I'll play along with you."

Li Taiping chuckled and tapped his finger again.

This time, he did not choose Anonymous.

【Transaction Initiator: Li Taiping】

【Item: Shell × 10, Tough Vine × 10, Coral Stone × 10...】 — Demand: 【normal fishing rod (durability 20+) × 1】

Only ten orders.

This was also the theoretical limit of stalls a normal Survivor could have.

As these ten orders with the golden ID prefix appeared on the front page of the trading post, the chat channel exploded instantly, and the trend shifted abruptly!

"Look! rank one Li Taiping has made a move!"

"He posted trade orders too! But he's collecting... fishing rods?"

"Hahaha, I told you! That Anonymous big shot is definitely not Li Taiping! Look, Li Taiping only has ten stalls, while that Anonymous one has over a thousand! They are not even on the same magnitude!"

"Scared me to death, I actually thought Li Taiping was cheating. Now it seems he's just a slightly stronger normal person."

"But why is he collecting fishing rods? And trading them for basic resources?"

At this moment, a smart aleck jumped out to analyze:

"Got it! Li Taiping is desperate! Look, that Anonymous big shot is collecting upgrade scrolls, and Li Taiping definitely wants a piece of the pie too. But he doesn't have any scrolls, so he can only madly collect fishing rods, wanting to rely on quantity to gamble on the probability of fishing out treasure chests to get scrolls!"

"The guy above is awesome! The logic loop is closed!"

"So that's it! rank one is in an arms race with that mysterious big shot!"

"Laugh to death, is Li Taiping going all in? Trading so many resources for broken fishing rods is just gambler mentality!"

"I happen to have a fishing rod that's about to break, just right to trade for some food. Let that idiot rank one go gamble! Hope he only fishes up zombies!"

"Plus one! I'm trading mine too, guaranteed profit!"

Watching the comments on the screen from people who thought they saw through everything, Li Taiping couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Smart aleck? Heh, what a great assist."

This was the effect he wanted.

Using a seemingly reasonable "gambler" persona to perfectly cover up the truth that he possessed unlimited stalls and unlimited resources.

In everyone's eyes, that "Anonymous" who owned hundreds of stalls was some mysterious top-tier player organization or a system bug.

Or perhaps some kind of violent apparatus.

Yet they didn't know this was just a play directed by Li Taiping himself.

As for Anonymous, that was just a protective camouflage before he possessed overwhelming strength.

...