76: Chapter 76, 10 books

"And the Ideal Grain Seeds! That stuff is even rarer than a strange object! Who would be willing to trade it for information of unknown authenticity?"

"This is basically just not wanting to trade with us at all!"

The crowd was noisy, filled with complaints.

There were very few The Convoys capable of paying this price.

Even if they could, no one was willing to trade.

It was just a piece of information, not the strange object itself; if they were scammed, they wouldn't even have a place to cry.

Captain Ma Shangwu watched the reaction of this group and sneered in his heart.

He had never expected these people to be able to bring anything out.

Setting this price was just to send them all away so he could search for books in peace.

He couldn't be bothered to pay any more attention to this group, turning around to pretend to look at the bookshelves.

In reality, his eyes were fixed on the survivors who were moving the golden books.

He was incredibly anxious, terrified that the strange object would be carried away by someone.

The group of The Convoy captains was also anxious.

They couldn't bring out anything to trade for the information, but they were reluctant to leave.

If the strange object was really here, they would never have another chance if they missed it.

If it wasn't here, they would have loaded up a bunch of useless books, wasting precious space.

The crowd huddled together, whispering to each other, pacing around in anxiety.

Just then, a short captain's eyes lit up, and he came up with an idea.

"Everyone! Everyone! Quiet down! I have a solution!" he shouted loudly.

Everyone quieted down and looked at him.

"Isn't Captain Ma Shangwu afraid that we will empty out all the books?"

"We don't want to just waste time here either; what if Captain Ma Shangwu is misleading us, just trying to make us waste our time here?"

The short man said, "We can talk to him! We don't need his specific information, just confirmation of whether the strange object is in this Jiangdong Library."

"If it is, each The Convoy will only take ten books out. All the remaining books will belong to the Human Alliance!"

"Whether or not we can find the strange object will depend on our own ability! That should be acceptable, right?"

Once these words were spoken, everyone's eyes lit up.

"Good idea!"

"Right! Let's do that! We'll only take ten, and give them the rest!"

"Captain Ma Shangwu won't have anything to say to that, right?"

In fact, Captain Ma Shangwu had been listening closely the whole time.

Hearing this idea, he was almost overjoyed.

Exactly what I wanted!

There are so many books in the Jiangdong Library; if each The Convoy takes ten, it only adds up to a few hundred.

The remaining hundreds of thousands all belong to him.

The strange object is most likely still among the remaining books.

This deal is a guaranteed profit with no loss!

But on the surface, he still pretended to be hesitant, furrowing his brows and pondering for a long time.

Everyone watched him nervously, afraid he wouldn't agree.

After a long while, Captain Ma Shangwu finally nodded "reluctantly."

"Fine. Considering that we have all fought against the anomalies together, I will agree to it," he said.

"I'll say this upfront: each The Convoy can only take ten books, not one more. If anyone dares to take more, don't blame me for being impolite."

"The specific information is that the strange object will indeed manifest near the Jiangdong Library. As for exactly where, I don't know either; it all depends on your own luck."

Hearing the first half, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But upon hearing the second half, they all regretted it so much their guts turned green.

"Damn it! So the strange object really is here!"

"If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have wasted breath on him; it would have been better to just empty this place out!"

"What's the use of saying that now? It's already good that Captain Ma Shangwu agreed to let us take ten. If we really provoke him, we won't be able to get a single one."

"Do you really think you could carry away all the books right under his nose?"

"Exactly, he is a Sequence Five, and has two Sequence Fours helping him; even combined, we can't beat them."

Although everyone regretted it in their hearts, they didn't dare to say anything more.

Their strength was inferior, so they just had to accept it.

Captain Ma Shangwu looked at the expressions of the crowd and felt extremely smug.

He cleared his throat and spoke again: "Also, all the books you have already moved must be returned. Starting from now, everyone gets ten."

At this, the crowd refused.

"Why should we!"

"We didn't know the strange object was here just now, the books we moved were just taken at random!"

"Exactly! What kind of logic is it to ask for things back?"

"We won't hand them over! If you're capable, come and take them yourself!"

Everyone stiffened their necks, confronting Captain Ma Shangwu.

No one was willing to give up what they had already gotten their hands on.

Captain Ma Shangwu's face darkened again.

He also knew that this was a bit unreasonable.

If he really tried to take them by force, it would definitely incite public anger.

Although he could win in a fight, there was no need to fall out with all the The Convoys right now.

He snorted coldly and stopped mentioning this matter.

"Fine, we'll let the previous ones go. From now on, each The Convoy will line up to go in, one team at a time, and can only take ten books."

"Now, everyone go outside and wait! Get in line!"

Seeing him back down, the crowd stopped making a scene.

They led their people out of the library one after another and formed a long line at the entrance.

Captain Ma Shangwu had the Human Alliance Transcendent guard the entrance, checking each person one by one to prevent anyone from taking more.

Just then, Captain Liu Ruyan walked over with Zhou Che and Ruan Xiaoxiao.

"Captain Ma Shangwu." Captain Liu Ruyan spoke, her tone flat.

Captain Ma Shangwu saw her, and his expression softened quite a bit.

At the last meeting, Captain Liu Ruyan had given him face, and he remembered this favor.

"Captain Liu, are you here to trade for a qualification too?" Captain Ma Shangwu asked.

"Yes." Captain Liu Ruyan nodded. "Our The Convoy doesn't have any extra strange objects, nor do we have Ideal Grain Seeds. Would you consider trading for these Transcendent materials?"

As she spoke, she took a few strange object materials from her backpack and handed them over.

These were things she had previously traded for using wraith cold crystals; although they weren't top-tier materials, they were quite rare.

Captain Ma Shangwu looked at the materials in her hand and nodded.

"That works. Given our history from last time, I'll give you a qualification."

He knew clearly that the Dawn Convoy had twelve Transcendent, and their strength was not weak.

Doing Captain Liu Ruyan a favor wouldn't hurt.

"Many thanks, Captain Ma Shangwu."

Captain Liu Ruyan put away the materials and led Zhou Che and Ruan Xiaoxiao to the back of the line to wait.

Zhou Che looked at the long line ahead and curled his lip.

"This Captain Ma Shangwu really knows how to calculate. Using empty hands to play the white wolf, he's grabbed all the books in the entire library with just a few words."

"He has the strength for it." Captain Liu Ruyan said softly. "With a Sequence Five right here, who dares to defy him?"

Ruan Xiaoxiao asked curiously: "Mr. Zhou, do you think that strange object will really be inside these books?"

Zhou Che shook his head: "It's hard to say. Captain Ma Shangwu also said it would manifest near the library, not necessarily inside it."

"But since we're here, we might as well try our luck. With ten books, we can always pick a few that look like the real deal."

In truth, he didn't hold much hope.

How could a top-ten strange object be so easy to find?

If it were really that simple, it would have been taken by the Human Alliance long ago.

But joining in the fun, what if they get super lucky?

One must have dreams; what if they come true?

The line moved slowly forward, one The Convoy after another going in.

When everyone came out, they were holding ten golden books in their hands, their faces full of anticipation and nervousness.

They all hoped that the books in their hands were that top-ten ranked strange object.