33: Chapter 33 Falls Again

When the golden afterglow of the leaderboard gradually dissipated in the sky, the system announcement did not end.

[Region-wide System Important Announcement: Adjustment of Subsequent Survival Rules]

[The next regional comprehensive rating and settlement will begin in half a year.]

[Environmental Deterioration Notice: Effective immediately, the movement speed of the devouring black mist is permanently increased to 60 km/h! All aberration monsters in the airspace have all attributes increased by 30%!]

[Resource and Natural Disaster Adjustment: The greenhouse period has completely ended. The refresh probability of material rain and Floating Island will be significantly lowered. The frequency of extreme natural disasters, such as hurricanes, thunderstorms, and extreme cold, has increased by 200%!]

[We wish you all a long life in this sky of despair.]

Dead silence.

A moment later, the regional chat channel was like a gunpowder barrel being ignited, completely plunged into crazy wailing.

"The Black Mist is moving at 60 km/h?! My LV2 vehicle, which I spent all my savings to upgrade, only has a top speed of 45 km/h with the wind! Isn't this just waiting for death?!"

"Monsters buffed by 30%? Second-tier monsters were already hard to fight, and now they want to reduce the material rain? System, you might as well just strike me dead with lightning!"

"Sky Engine and God's Domain big shots, please take me in! I'm willing to be a dog, just let me on the ship!"

Despair spread like a plague among the 800,000 survivors.

The speed increase of the Black Mist meant that any vehicle with a speed lower than 60 km/h would lose its qualification to survive in this sky. To survive, there was only one path—upgrade to LV3 at all costs!

And this was exactly what Zhou An wanted.

"What are you panicking about? In the face of disaster, the one thing there is no shortage of is business opportunities."

Zhou An closed the noisy chat channel and opened his system warehouse.

After a few days of [Compound Interest] and frantic looting, his current family fortune could be called wealthier than a nation:

[Total stock of Tier 2 core materials: 834,000 units!]

[Total stock of Tier 3 core materials: 32,000 units!]

However, he needed to check the materials required for his own upgrade.

He took out the blueprint glowing with colored light from his space.

Clicking to view it, a long list of extremely harsh upgrade conditions popped up:

[Cloud Top Fortress LV4 Advancement Requirements List:]

[Tier 4 Titanium Armor Plate]: 20,000 units

[Tier 4 Nano Flame-retardant Composite Fiber]: 15,000 units

[Tier 4 Superconducting Liquid Gel]: 10,000 units

[Tier 4 Micro Nuclear Fusion Core]: 5,000 units

[Special Component 1: Heart of the Firmament (Curiosity)]: 0 / 3 pieces

[Special Component 2: Quantum Matrix Hub]: 0 / 1 set

"That's a total of 50,000 units of Tier 4 basic materials..." Zhou An stroked his chin.

According to the absolute 2:1 synthesis ratio of [Level Up!], 50,000 units of Tier 4 materials required 100,000 units of Tier 3 materials, or 200,000 units of Tier 2 materials.

With his current stock of over 800,000 Tier 2 materials, as long as he was willing, he could smash out these 50,000 units at any time!

"Basic materials are no pressure, the bottleneck is still these two special components."

Zhou An frowned slightly as he looked at the last two lines. Whether it was the [Heart of the Firmament] or the [Quantum Matrix Hub], the names alone suggested they weren't things easily obtained from opening blind boxes. It was highly likely he would have to go to those extremely dangerous ruins or kill high-tier boss monsters again.

Since the LV4 upgrade was temporarily stuck on the special components, Zhou An wasn't in a hurry. He put away the blueprint and opened the [Trading House] again.

At this moment, the style of the Trading House had completely changed.

As the Black Mist sped up to 60 km/h, the pressure of survival was like a knife held to everyone's throat. In order to upgrade to an LV3 vehicle capable of running over 80 km/h, survivors across the region were frantically dumping their Tier 2 materials, seeking to buy Tier 3 materials.

Zhou An glanced at the real-time exchange rate.

"Dumping 270 units of Tier 2 steel! Only looking to exchange for 100 units of Tier 3 steel! Help!"

"I'm selling everything I have for Tier 3 rubber! Ratio 2.7 to 1! I can add some water if it's not enough!"

"The exchange ratio of Tier 2 to Tier 3 has already soared to 2.7:1."

Zhou An leaned back in his leather seat.

He possessed an absolute synthesis rate of 2:1. This meant that as long as others used more than 2 units of Tier 2 materials to exchange for 1 unit of Tier 3 material, he would make a steady profit without loss. If the ratio was 2.7, for every 1 unit of Tier 3 material he traded, he could get 0.7 units of Tier 2 material difference for free.

"However, it's not enough."

Zhou An looked at the crazily scrolling trading information with deep eyes. 800,000 survivors—what a huge cake that was. When people face the threat of death, their bottom line can be lowered infinitely.

"Although it's impossible to recreate that heaven-defying 4:1 ratio from when we changed Tier 1 to Tier 2, because Tier 2 materials themselves have extremely high value."

Zhou An calculated in his heart, "But as the Black Mist gets closer, those people who hold a large amount of Tier 2 materials but can't gather enough Tier 3 materials will definitely get anxious."

"Let the bullets fly for a while longer."

Zhou An poured himself a cup of warm psychic sweet spring water and watched the clouds rolling outside the window leisurely.

"When the ratio is around 3:1, even 2.9:1, that will be the time for me to enter the market again and harvest the entire region."

"Time is money, but in the sky, time is the best catalyst for fermenting panic."

In the next month or so, the [Cloud Top Fortress] maintained a cruising speed of 100 km/h, like an invisible ghost, hanging far behind the main force.

This month, the sky world completely turned into a Shura field.

Extreme thunderstorms and acid rain took turns baptizing them, and the Black Mist drove them from behind like the shadow of death. The pressure of survival forced the survivors to fight like mad dogs for every material blind box and every sinking Floating Island.

Zhou An spent this month extremely comfortably and fulfilling.

With the stealth field and powerful firepower, he would occasionally take Luo Ning to small Floating Islands that big guilds didn't care about to stock up, or go to the extremely high altitude to pick up scraps.

After many extremely dangerous real combat experiences on Floating Islands, Luo Ning's combat power became increasingly crazy and deadly.

As for Li Muzi, she was securely planting her garden on the first floor of the fortress, and the output of [blood crystal spirit wheat] and various strange berries was steadily increasing.

After eating.

Zhou An lay on the leather sofa and asked casually.

"What is the current exchange ratio?"

"Boss, I took a look just now, it's approaching 1:2.95."

Luo Ning, who was on the side, reported.

"That group of people is going crazy. The Black Mist is biting tighter and tighter, and many people's LV2 vehicles are about to be caught up."

"Still a little short." Zhou An tapped the table, "Wait for it to break 3, preferably to 3.1 or 3.2, that's when we open the floodgates."

...

Two days later.

With a sudden acceleration of the Black Mist, the panic across the region finally reached its peak.

Those casual players and small-to-medium guilds who usually held onto their Tier 2 materials and refused to let go finally realized that if they didn't upgrade to LV3 to increase their speed, they wouldn't even have the chance to use these materials.

Clearly, many people had already gathered the blueprints and special components, and only needed the final basic Tier 3 materials to fill the gap.

The regional Trading House instantly ushered in a blowout of purchase requests!

"Tier 3 steel! Tier 3 steel! I'll exchange 3.2 times the amount of Tier 2 steel! I beg some big shot to show mercy!"

"Selling everything! Exchanging for Tier 3 rubber at a 3.3 ratio! Help!"

"I'm offering 3.5 times the amount of Tier 2 composite materials for an equal amount of Tier 3! If I don't upgrade, my whole family will fall into the Black Mist!"

"It's time."

Zhou An, who had been staring at the panel, had a flash of brilliance in his eyes.

"Muzi, Luo Ning, go rest. The next 48 hours are my showtime."

"It's time to open the floodgates!"

First, 100,000 units of Tier 3 materials were instantly split by Zhou An into tens of thousands of orders and smashed into the trading market at a bloodthirsty ratio of 1:3.3!

The long-parched desert suddenly welcomed a rainstorm.

In just ten minutes, 100,000 units of Tier 3 materials were snatched up. And in Zhou An's warehouse, an extra 330,000 units of Tier 2 materials appeared instantly!

"Synthesize!"

Colored light flashed, and 330,000 Tier 2 materials turned into 165,000 units of Tier 3 materials.

100,000 turned into 165,000! A net profit of 65,000 units in one turn!

"Keep smashing!"

Zhou An was like a tireless machine, selling, absorbing, synthesizing, and selling again! The trick of stepping on one's left foot to reach the sky with the right was staged again.

For a full 48 hours, the price curve of the Trading House fluctuated violently like a roller coaster. All the liquid Tier 2 capital in the region was gathering towards that anonymous black hole at a terrifying speed.

And at this time, the regional public forum had already exploded.

"It's here again! That ghost manipulating the market prices is here again!"

"My god, how much Tier 3 material has been dumped? Hundreds of thousands? Or millions?! Did he rob a god's treasury?!"

"Damn it! It's this scale of massive procurement again! @Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, you guys did it last time, is it you guys making trouble again this time?!"

In the forum, the posts of the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce were almost blasted by angry casual and scalper players.

And the internal senior management of the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce was vomiting blood with anger at this moment.

Guild Leader Qian Wanguan roared angrily in the channel: "Check! Check for me! Who the hell is making trouble behind the scenes?! Last time, it was because we followed this ghost to resell Tier 1 materials that our material reserves were trapped by a large amount of low-level junk, and we only got 4th place in the scoring at the end of the month! This time he's actually coming to mess with the Tier 3 market again?!"

"If I find this bastard, I'll skin him alive!!"

However, Guild Leader Qian Wanguan's anger not only failed to attract sympathy but instead invited ruthless mockery from several other big guilds.

[Tianqing Guild Leader · City Lord Zhao Tianyu]: "Heh, weren't you quite happy when Guild Leader Qian usually monopolized the market and cut the leeks of casual players at high prices? What's wrong, now that you've been messed with and suffered a loss, you know how to bark?"

[Blood Blade Guild Leader · Dao Ba]: "Exactly, if your skills are inferior, just shut up. If you have the ability, your Four Seas Chamber of Commerce should also take out Tier 3 materials to smash the market."