"Players are people too, and people naturally need to live and have entertainment." The old man opened the glass cabinet and took out a keychain with a small plate hanging from it. "Look at this, take it and use it anytime. Place it on any flat surface and it has sterilizing functions, ensuring you can eat cleanly and hygienically even in the wilderness."

"And this makeup mirror, it can provide different hair accessory and makeup combinations every day without repeating, letting you live respectably each and every day."

"The anywhere hook, it can hang on any hard object, and its load-bearing capacity is excellent. Usually, it's not just for hanging clothes; you could even hang yourself on it if you wanted."

After introducing a few daily life items, the old man picked up a sticker with a musical note drawn on it. "This can make you dance upon hearing music. No matter how hard life gets, you can't be without dance."

"Others include a voice modulator, a megaphone, a smile-holding clip, a badminton shuttlecock that can be hit ten thousand times, dice that will never roll a one, a shrinkable realistic human model..."

"So, none of your stuff is actually useful," Sima Xiao Er said. "Only someone with a screw loose would buy these items!"

The "screw-loose" Xu Huo picked up the voice modulator. Besides being able to mimic human voices, it could also translate a person's current emotions into the corresponding animal sounds.

"A single entertainment item isn't worth two hundred thousand White Bills. Give me a discount." He haggled with the boss under Sima Xiao Er's horrified gaze.

The old man turned and took a button from a nearby cabinet. "I can give you a bit of a discount on this one. A sound recorder. It can identify and replicate any sound captured during the wearing period—insect chirps, footsteps, the sound of wind blowing. It only has one flaw: the sound it replicates each time you press the play button is random."

"A defective product?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, signaling Sima Xiao Er to put away the ore. "Let's go look at other shops."

"Young man, don't be so impatient. If the price isn't right, we can talk again," the old man hurriedly said.

"Compare three shops before buying," Xu Huo said with a smile. "Besides, since you said this ore is so good, of course I can't sell it so cheaply."

Seeing they were really about to leave, the old man finally relented. "Alright, alright, I'll add a few more thousand for you. This is already the highest price I can offer, just to get the first sale of the day. You absolutely won't get a price this high anywhere else."

While the old man was introducing the items earlier, Xu Huo had checked the value of A-grade ore through the game panel. Good quality ore was roughly around this price. In the game, ore is used for crafting many things like weapons and items, so there's a lot of ore trading on game channels. He narrowed the search range based on the price the old man gave and found several types of A-grade ore that resembled his piece.

Without professional tools, it's difficult to determine if it's exactly the same type of ore, but at least they looked similar on the surface.

In the end, he chose a D-grade needle item called "Like Repels Like."

[Like Repels Like: An item with a strong sense of gender consciousness. It can judge whether someone is male or female from multiple angles such as appearance, physique, clothing, and voice. If the target is the same gender as the item user, it will force the target and the user to maintain a safe distance of at least three meters or more (specific distance depends on the target's strength). The player only needs to pin it on their clothes. However, please note, it is not an intelligent machine, so there is a possibility of misjudgment. Please do not dress as the opposite sex to test its limits, or you will only reap heartbreak.]

"I didn't get the better end of the deal this time at all," the old man said, shaking his head while holding the ore.

"How can you get the better deal every time in business? Otherwise, where would the next deal come from?" Xu Huo said with a smile as he put away the item.

The old man waved his hand. "Next time you have ore, just bring it over."

After leaving the toy shop, Sima Xiao Er whispered, "Brother Xu, did we get the short end of the stick?"

"This price is about right," Xu Huo said, glancing back into the shop. The old man was willing to compromise, most likely because there was profit to be made. But in the end, it was just a piece of ordinary ore. Unless the old man could use a single stone to locate Clown City.

Those stones in the underground nest of Clown City might have already become a new resource now. It's just unknown if there are any stones like the Nüwa Stone.

He didn't search for answers to this question on the game platform. From the information he found earlier, it seems the Game Government cannot monopolize all mineral resources. In other words, the Game Government also searches for suitable ore in various Game Partitions. It is not omniscient and omnipotent, and there's even suspicion of resource plundering.

Therefore, Xu Huo does not intend to leak any information related to the Nüwa Stone on any channel.

"Stones can be sold for money too. Looks like I should pay more attention when I enter dungeons in the future. Maybe I can get something out and earn some extra cash on the side," Sima Xiao Er joked, then added, "Are we going to other shops?"

"No," Xu Huo said. He had searched online and found some videos and pictures of other shops, taken by onlookers. They mostly showed the shop interiors, and the people filming were mostly complaining about the high prices of the goods and the shop owners' strange temperaments.

"If these are all items, why are people willing to pay for them but the owners unwilling to sell?" Sima Xiao Er was puzzled. "I don't believe they genuinely don't need the money."

"Maybe it's related to the game," Xu Huo said.

Zone 014 hasn't fully integrated into the game, yet Artificers have come to open shops, and quite a few at once. They probably came through Game Government channels. Collecting ore and being unwilling to easily sell items might involve Game Government regulations, which is hard to say.

"Didn't the Special Defense Department come to buy items?"

"Someone went to inquire. I don't know how it ended," Sima Xiao Er said. "Even if the Special Defense Department bought good items, they wouldn't give them to me to use. It's normal they didn't tell me."

Xu Huo is short on money now. If the Special Defense Department could make purchases, he might be able to go through them.

Thinking of this, he sent a text message to Team Leader Wu, then found a nearby hotel and checked into a room with a view of the "Master Craftsman's Handicraft Shop."

Not long after, Huang Junjie called again to apologize. They had learned the whole story about Bao Jiali's incident. They weren't not angry that Xu Huo killed several players from the First Association, but after their anger subsided, they still chose to minimize the matter.

The First Association doesn't have that strong of a collective sense yet. The other players also don't want to forcefully take the lead, they just feel Xu Huo's methods were a bit ruthless and that he might be looking down on the First Association.

Clearly, no one took his warning seriously. Among hundreds of players, what does one D-level player amount to?

"Why apologize to me? The matter is settled," Xu Huo said and hung up the phone.

"If we can't afford to clash with the Special Defense Department, fine, but can just any player step on the First Association's head?" The newly appointed vice president was full of rage.

Huang Junjie put down the phone, still uneasy. "Xu Huo is an inscrutable person. He doesn't speak without reason. He said he would come to Yang City, could he really be coming for us?"