26: Chapter 26 Market Crash

Soon, the meal was ready, complete with a few meat dishes.

Luo Ning was already sitting obediently at the dining table.

"Eat up, and taste the power of this epic-grade crop."

As soon as Zhou An finished speaking, Luo Ning impatiently scooped up a large spoonful of the spirit rice porridge and put it into her mouth.

"Ooh—!"

Luo Ning's eyes instantly went round.

There was no need to chew at all; the spirit rice porridge melted the moment it entered her mouth, turning into an extremely warm current that slid straight down her throat and into her stomach.

Following that, this warm current exploded and spread, surging through her entire body!

"It's so delicious! Boss!"

Luo Ning was almost moved to tears, burying her head and devouring the food like a storm sweeping through the clouds.

Zhou An also ate several large bowls, clearly feeling his strength and muscle density rising gently.

This experience of getting stronger just by eating was truly addictive.

After having her fill, Luo Ning puffed out her round little belly, slumped on the soft leather sofa like a well-fed cat, and boredly opened the system chat panel.

Zhou An also held a cup of tea, leaning to the side as he opened the forum.

Glancing casually at the number of survivors in the top right corner, Zhou An's gaze tightened slightly.

[Current regional survivors: 812,450 / 5,000,000]

"Only eight hundred thousand left..."

Zhou An sighed softly.

The double reshuffling of the second wave of floating islands and monster enhancements was truly too cruel; out of a base of five million, eight out of ten were already gone.

But these eight hundred thousand plus people were definitely the elites left behind after the great waves washed away the sand.

At this moment, the regional chat channel and the Trading House were completely flooded with news about the resale of tier-1 materials; the entire market felt as if it had just experienced a nuclear explosion.

"Four Seas Chamber of Commerce is awesome! I sold my last 30,000 wood to them at the high price of 1:1.7! Made a killing!"

"Me too! I sold them everything down to my underwear! Now I'm holding a huge amount of tier-2 metal, and my sense of security is off the charts!"

"Something's not right... How much tier-1 material has the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce collected in these past few days? I feel like they've cleared out all the trash in the entire region!"

"According to insiders from the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, their president went all out this time, buying and trading; it's estimated they've swallowed up eight to nine million units of tier-1 materials!"

Seeing this number, Zhou An couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, muttering to himself: "Eight to nine million units? The Four Seas Chamber of Commerce is truly wealthy. At current prices, to buy up this much stock, they must have had to shell out at least four to five million units of tier-2 metal to settle the bill!"

Even for a large guild with tens of thousands of people, four to five million units of tier-2 metal would definitely be a foundational loss that would hurt their vitality.

"Could it be that someone in the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce also awakened a talent similar to my [Level Up!]?"

A flash of realization crossed Zhou An's mind.

The game's base was huge; it wouldn't be strange for one monster talent capable of fusing low-level materials to appear among several million people.

The Four Seas Chamber of Commerce was most likely trying to rely on this talent to monopolize the region's tier-1 materials, then synthesize them into tier-2 or even tier-3 materials to dominate the upcoming market.

"But, so what?"

Zhou An took a sip of tea, not taking it to heart at all.

Even after the consumption of these past few days, his warehouse still had over 500,000 units of tier-2 materials lying safely inside!

And he had the golden Hextech [Compound Interest] as a safety net!

"It increases by 1% automatically every day... That means, right now, if I do nothing at all, the moment I open my eyes, there will be over 5,000 more units of tier-2 materials in the warehouse."

Zhou An rubbed his chin, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

The region-wide LV2 upgrade wave was nearing its end, and the eight hundred thousand plus survivors had basically phased out their tier-1 vehicles.

According to the game's pacing, the next round would inevitably be an even more brutal LV3 upgrade wave! By then, tier-3 materials would definitely become an exorbitantly priced hard currency.

"Should I keep my 500,000 tier-2 materials to earn interest? Or should I just synthesize all of them into 250,000 tier-3 materials at a 2:1 ratio and use the tier-3 materials to earn interest?"

"If I keep the 500,000 tier-2 materials, the daily interest is 5,000 units of tier-2 materials."

"If I synthesize 250,000 tier-3 materials, the daily interest is 2,500 units of tier-3 materials."

"In terms of value, 2,500 tier-3 materials, reverse-calculated using my synthesis ratio, are exactly equivalent to 5,000 tier-2 materials. The absolute value generated every day is exactly the same!"

A sharp glint flashed in Zhou An's eyes, and he made his decision.

"Absolutely do not synthesize now!"

"Since the interest value generated is the same, liquidity is king! Tier-2 materials are currently the absolute hard currency of the region; by holding onto them, I can buy blueprints and rare items from ordinary players at any time. If I synthesize everything into tier-3 materials, the exchange ratio isn't stable yet, market volatility will be relatively high, and I might suffer a loss."

"Furthermore, system synthesis is one-way: tier-2 can be upgraded to tier-3, but tier-3 cannot be downgraded back to tier-2. By keeping the base stock of tier-2 materials, I can synthesize tier-3s to hit the high-end market at any time, or I can go on a crazy shopping spree in the tier-2 market."

Having figured this out, Zhou An leaned back comfortably on the sofa.

"Boss, what are you looking at that's making you smile so deviously?" Luo Ning poked her head over.

"Watching the leeks grow strong."

Just as Zhou An was planning his future market layout, the long-silent private message channel suddenly flickered.

[Private Chat]

Li Muzi: "Great God Zhou! Are you there? Are you there? I've managed to catalyze another batch of new goods; do you still need them?"

Seeing this name, Zhou An's eyes lit up.

Zhou An: "I'm here. What goods do you have this time? Give me a number."

Li Muzi: "I worked overtime this time! I managed to get 10,000 ordinary wheat seeds. Do you... think you can take them?"

"10,000?"

Zhou An quickly calculated in his mind.

Following the harsh 10:1 synthesis ratio of [Level Up!] for seeds, 10,000 ordinary wheat seeds would end up synthesizing exactly 10 epic-grade (purple) [blood crystal spirit wheat]! Adding the previous 3, that would be 13, which could produce over ten jin of spirit rice every day—completely achieving spirit rice freedom!

Zhou An: "I'll take them all. You still want fuel, right? Name your price."

Li Muzi: "Boss understands me! This time... this time I want a bit more fuel, about... 30 units, is that okay?"

The person on the other end was clearly a bit nervous; after all, in the current market, seeds were still absolutely niche items.

Zhou An: "Why do you suddenly need so much fuel? Did you use up your previous 10 units?"

Zhou An was a bit puzzled.

According to normal vehicle consumption, 10 units of fuel should be enough to run for thousands of kilometers, which should last a long time for a solo player.

Li Muzi: "Great God Zhou, you don't know! The high-altitude environment has been getting increasingly harsh these past few days! Strong winds blow from time to time, and to maintain balance, the vehicle's fuel consumption rate has directly doubled or tripled! Plus, after the second wave of floating islands refreshed, those big guilds were speeding at full throttle to grab the islands. To avoid them, I've practically pushed the accelerator through the floor!"