Apocalypse: I Can See the HP Bar, Killing Monsters Drops Loot - Chapter 328:
Chapter 328: Chapter 160 Zombies Have Become Stronger Again_2
Unfortunately, even after browsing through all the stalls, Wang Tao didn’t find any suitable weapons.
As for those so-called exquisite knives and precious swords, Wang Tao felt they were probably not as tough as Jiang Shixue herself. They might be considered weapons to others, but for Jiang Shixue, they would likely be a hindrance.
However, it wasn’t a complete loss—Wang Tao did find something quite unexpected at the last stall.
“They’re actually selling Crystal Cores?”
Seeing Wang Tao’s surprise, the stall owner immediately beamed and said:
“Buddy, take a look. Do you like any? The prices are cheap, fair to both young and old! Each Crystal Core represents an Ability User, guaranteed that you won’t be cheated or take a loss!”
Seeing the vendor’s enthusiastic demeanor, Wang Tao might’ve thought these were fake Crystal Cores, but the Attributes clearly stated they were Level 1 Crystal Cores!
At that moment, someone nearby, perhaps wanting to do Wang Tao a favor, spoke up:
“Brother, think it over carefully. These are all White Crystal Cores, and military sources say that these have the lowest success rate of fusion! But that’s not the main point—the main point is that no one knows what Abilities these few Crystal Cores possess! As everyone knows, these Abilities all have side effects, who knows what sort of side effects these have… Even if you manage to successfully fuse, what if it’s an Ability that’s weak, but has strong side effects? You’ll regret it to death…”
“Scram, scram, scram!”
The Crystal Core vendor immediately waved his hands in disdain, but he didn’t get too upset. After all, this was common knowledge, and Wang Tao surely knew it as well. It was just inappropriate to say it out loud…
Upon hearing this, Wang Tao paused and had a sudden realization.
He had subconsciously overlooked one thing—only he could see the Attributes of a Crystal Core, while others could not.
Back at Shuize Base, when the base folks obtained Crystal Cores, they would let him have a look to check their Attributes.
The Crystal Cores the base folks used were also handpicked by Wang Tao, so there were no cases of excessively strong side effects or utterly useless Abilities.
But without Wang Tao, the result would be drastically different. They would have to go through a slow process of experimentation to learn about the Abilities and side effects of these Crystal Cores.
Moreover, there were varying success rates even for the same Crystal Core, which made it quite a hassle to learn the specifics of a certain type of Crystal Core.
The vendor Wang Tao was speaking to was likely in such a situation.
Here, six Crystal Cores were on display, all White Crystal Cores, which meant they had a 20% success rate.
If one of these six Crystal Cores succeeded, it would be a win, but if none did? A huge loss!
This was the reason why no one wanted the few Crystal Cores he displayed—the fusion success rate was too low, and nobody knew the specific Abilities and side effects of the Crystal Cores.
Of course, there was another crucial point—his asking price was high, requiring a lot of food to exchange for a Crystal Core.
If the price were lower, naturally, there would be takers willing to take a risk. But with his high price, it wasn’t worth the risk anymore.
“What do you think? Bro, want to try buying a couple? I can tell you must be an Ability User, right? Since you have experience with successful fusion before, your success rate is bound to be much higher!”
Obviously spouting nonsense, the stall owner just chattered away. Wang Tao didn’t care and asked curiously:
“How do you have so many Crystal Cores in your possession?”
The man wasn’t an Ability User and didn’t seem capable of collecting so many Crystal Cores.
“Hey! Eldest Lu is my cousin!”
The vendor scratched his head somewhat embarrassingly.
Wang Tao immediately understood; that made sense.
“I’ll take all six of these Crystal Cores.”
“Huh?” Hearing Wang Tao’s words, the vendor froze for a moment, then frowned slightly, “Buddy, forgive me for being blunt, but do you have that much food? It looks like you haven’t brought that much.”
“I don’t have the food, but I have this. Is this enough?”
Wang Tao took out the Red Crystal Core he had obtained from killing the Rush zombie today.
Not only the vendor, who was Eldest Lu’s cousin, but all the people around were stunned as well.
“…You’re not kidding, right? Are you sure you want to use this Red Rush Crystal Core to exchange for these six White Crystal Cores?”
The vendor was full of disbelief.
It was a Red Crystal Core, and one whose function he knew, since their base had a person with the Rush Ability!
The value of this Crystal Core was far beyond the others!
“Just tell me, will you exchange it or not?”
“Yes!”
As soon as he was sure Wang Tao wasn’t joking, the stall owner immediately nodded in agreement.
So, Wang Tao traded away the Red Rush Crystal Core for six trash White Crystal Cores.
This exchange immediately drew the attention of many, and many people, envious and jealous, were already congratulating the vendor for becoming an Ability User. Wang Tao didn’t linger any longer; after confirming there wasn’t anything else worth his attention here, he left.
He traded for these six Crystal Cores because they were two “Omnipotent” Crystal Cores, two “Self-healing” Crystal Cores, and two “Precision Shooting” Crystal Cores!
Omnipotent, Self-healing, and Precision Shooting were all relatively rare, and thus it was a huge win for him since he could perform Synthetic fusion.
This incident also served as a reminder for Wang Tao that if he had the chance to go to more populated Survivor Bases in the future, he may have the opportunity to pick up unrecognized Crystal Cores for a bargain.
Of course, thinking about such things was still premature. On his journey so far, Fish Bay Camp was the largest Survivor Base he had encountered, and it would be rather difficult to come across a larger Survivor Base…
