Chapter 161: The Pack and the Appraisal Mirror

Endless Paradise

He arrived alone at the Trading Market. With only 416 Points on hand, he truly could not buy anything good. However, he had another resource that could be used as currency: his nearly 2,000 hours of Community Time.

Community Time, just like Points, was hard currency, but relatively speaking, its value was slightly lower.

The vast majority of Players who would exchange Points for Community Time were those who had already given up. They found the Scripts too terrifying and did not want to face them at all, so they traded everything they could for more time.

These were usually newcomers with only a hundred or two Points on them, sometimes even less. To convert all his time into Points, Bai Mu estimated he would have to find dozens of such rookies, which would be both troublesome and a waste of time.

Furthermore, he found those people quite pitiful. This behavior was merely drinking poison to quench a thirst—a slow death. Instead of using Points to improve themselves, they exchanged them for Community Time, which trickled away hour by hour. In the end, they would inevitably realize they had nothing left to trade and would be ruthlessly thrown into the next Script by Paradise with absolutely nothing.

If they were lucky enough to be queued into a team Script, they might encounter a formidable teammate who could carry them to a clear, allowing them to scrape by for a few more days. If their luck was poor, they would die in the Script immediately.

However, rather than calling such people unlucky, it was more accurate to say they had succumbed to their own fear.

Returning to the matter at hand, the veteran Players willing to trade items for Community Time were generally those trying to offload gear that had become obsolete for their current stage. Since such items were hard to sell normally, they hoped to exchange them for Community Time to buy themselves a bit more rest. Bai Mu's current Community Time was roughly equivalent to 5,000 Points. However, sellers of high-quality items rarely accepted Community Time as payment, because it held no purchasing power in the Script Shop.

Bai Mu strolled through the market, mainly hoping to score a bargain.

What he lacked most at the moment was backpack-type items. Since he had acquired a bunch of things in the Abandoned City of Doppelgangers, his inventory was currently bloated. If he could not expand his inventory slots before entering a Script, he would have to selectively abandon certain items and leave them in the warehouse. He could not afford to keep his inventory completely full; otherwise, if he found something he absolutely needed to pick up, he would be forced to throw his own items away inside the Script. That feeling would be absolutely agonizing.

Wandering around the free Trading Market, he actually managed to find someone selling a backpack-type item and accepting Community Time as payment.

[Name: Desert Merchant's Pack]

[Type: Special Equipment]

[Quality: Rare]

[Effect: When equipped, increases inventory by 10 empty slots.]

[Remarks: Besides money, desert merchants will only put fresh water and toasted naan into their personal packs. Sometimes, those are more precious than money.] It was a rough, pale yellow duffel bag priced at 400 hours of Community Time—an inflated cost. This thing's effect was far inferior to the travel bag Bai Mu had drawn earlier. Not only did it offer half the number of slots, but it also had to be actively equipped to function.

Yet, after doing a full lap, Bai Mu had only found this one person willing to accept Community Time for a spatial item. The utility of such tools was quite solid, and they generally fetched high prices at the auction house.

Looking at the Player wearing a turban, Bai Mu guessed that the man had used this pack for a long time. He must have recently acquired a larger-capacity backpack that also needed to be equipped, which was why he put this old pack up for sale.

If he missed this opportunity, he might not find another. Taking a small loss on the price was acceptable when weighed against his immediate needs.

It all came back to the old saying: money that could not be spent was just waste paper. Therefore, Bai Mu went ahead and bought the Desert Merchant's Pack.

He instantly gained 10 empty slots, making his previously crowded inventory much more spacious.

After the transaction, the D-grade Player named Lonely Swordsman, who sported the title "Kills Without Blinking" above his head, revealed a satisfied smile. "I've got another useless trinket here. Do you want it?" Lonely Swordsman pulled out a single lens. "You can have it for just seven or eight hours of Community Time. Nobody wants this thing when I list it in the auction house, and I have no use for it myself. If it catches your eye, just take it along."

[Name: Severely Damaged Appraisal Mirror]

[Type: Special Item]

[Quality: Common]

[Effect: Can appraise items and equipment, but due to severe damage, the information obtained is minuscule.]

[Remarks: Those cracks are engraved with the time it has weathered. It once traveled far and wide with a famous merchant, but now it is shattered, and no one remembers its past.]

It looked like a magnifying glass with a lens framed by copper wire. However, the glass was covered in numerous ice-like cracks. It felt as though a slightly firmer grip would shatter the lens into a pile of slag on the floor.

Although it was a special item, its severe damage meant it did not even reach the Rare grade.

Lonely Swordsman said, "If you can find a way to fix this thing, you'll definitely make a massive profit."

"So, are you tempted? Look, the price isn't expensive anyway. You've already spent 400 hours, so why not spend a little more time and buy this too? What if you find a way to repair it in the future? Wouldn't you be getting a Rare-grade item for practically nothing?"

Lonely Swordsman was quite good at pitching his wares, possessing the flair of a top-tier salesman.

However, Bai Mu knew that buying this gadget mostly meant buying a piece of trash. After all, Players possessed an innate appraisal ability; they could glean information just by glancing at many items. Furthermore, items obtained from Script settlements or the shop always came with detailed descriptions, completely negating the need for an appraisal function. Even if he did manage to fix it, there was no guarantee it would actually be useful.

If it were truly useful, Lonely Swordsman would not be so eager to get rid of it, let alone sell it at the price of a mere add-on. Nevertheless, Bai Mu conveniently used some time to purchase the Appraisal Mirror. The cost was indeed basically free for him. And just in case, what if he really did manage to repair the lens one day?

Everyone harbored a bit of a gold-panning mindset, and Bai Mu was no exception. Since he could afford it, he simply bought it to leave himself with no regrets.

"Nice, brother, quite generous!" Lonely Swordsman gave a thumbs-up. "I love making friends with people like you. Let's add each other as friends. If I get any good stuff in the future, I'll save it for you."

Thus, Bai Mu gained another friend, successfully pushing his total number of friends past the grand milestone of five. Truly a cause for celebration.

Having sold the items he wanted to offload, Lonely Swordsman left the market. Bai Mu wandered around a bit more, but unable to find anything else of interest, he returned to his room.

He brought out the "Left-Behind Diary" to ponder over it. In three days, he still had to tackle a Script with Great Northern Wilderness and the others. If he queued into this one now and ended up delayed, it would be problematic.

He wondered if he should wait until after clearing the Haunted Manor to tackle it, but he also felt that wasting these three days of Community Time was a bit of a shame. If only he could know roughly how long this Script would take to clear. If it was less than three days, he would definitely jump right in.

Personally, he felt that Adventure Scripts generally had short durations. Dave's backyard only took half an hour, and Lucy's Wish took less than a day—to be precise, less than twenty-four hours.

At that moment, he remembered the Appraisal Mirror and figured he might be able to glean some useful intel. He held the gadget up to the Left-Behind Diary and actually managed to illuminate some additional information.

[Expected duration of this Script: 1 to 3 hours.]

It really was a brief Script. With a maximum of three hours, he didn't have to worry about missing his appointment.

'Sometimes, trash can be put to good use after all,' Bai Mu mused inwardly.

So, after a quick sorting of his backpack, he brought his newly acquired equipment and used the admission ticket.

"Do you wish to use the special item: [Left-Behind Diary]?"

[Player usage of a special item detected. Commencing teleportation.]

[You are currently participating in: Single-Player Mode (Adventure).]

[Script Name: Desperate Survival]

[Current Script Threat Rating: D-grade.]

[The Script introduction will now be played for you.]