Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 725 - 336. Ignoring the facts

Chapter 725: 336. Ignoring the facts

[Based on your "Charm," you received the following information:]

[Item Name]: Gloom Destruction (Damaged)

[Category]: Public Facilities/Equipment Tools

[Quality]: "Social Institution"

[Attributes]:

This institution contains consciousness and requires ’Society’ corruption level to reach 100% to awaken.

[Energy Cycle (Damaged)]:

The Gloom Lantern notices the absorption of energy. While holding the institution, every release of three different types of spells will randomly return the mana points consumed by one of those spells.

Damaged: Limited to seven times per day.

[Source Energy Release (Damaged)]:

During combat, the Gloom Lantern continually absorbs the mana points released by you. Once the progress reaches 100%, it will release immediately. Lasts for three seconds, causing 15,000+ 6% of the target’s current health points in magic damage. During the release of thermal impact, the institution will enter cooldown.

Cooldown Time: 15 seconds.

Damaged: It will permanently be scrapped after five consecutive releases.

[Introduction]:

"[Ruin Flame Society] Satan Jima, a typical Lurker-type society. Its citizens aren’t particularly good at direct combat but rely on the Mysterious ’Ruin Flame’ to implant the idea of ’Society’ into the hearts of mortals. Then, it manipulates mortals as its pawns, reviving repeatedly and achieving near-immortality."

"The predecessor of ’Society’ was civilization. Somehow, everything it owned, whether tangible (such as land, farmlands, factory facilities, research institutes, armies, and population) or abstract (technology, faith, culture, history), became completely fused into one giant and terrifying monster. It can self-repair by devouring civilizations to enhance itself."

"This power hasn’t been blessed by the Starry Abyss and is on the verge of shattering. You need to proceed with extreme caution and preferably avoid using it."

Length: 16 inches

Net Weight: 2.2 kilograms

Material: Stomach mucosa cells of the Ruin Flame Society (immune to corrosion damage)

"A piece of junk that’s about to shatter. Are you really going to buy it?"

————————————

"So, how about it? Looks pretty good, right!"

The tree person laughed heartily and patted the lantern:

"I’m Harlowe, and I have a knack for picking up trash—cough—clearing battlefields. Those regular hunters don’t dare go to the ’Society’ battlefields, but I dare. They don’t dare to pick up fallen institutions, but I dare! This is top-notch fresh junk—err, institution. Do you want a piece? Held by a Senator."

"Hmm..."

Li Aozi rubbed his chin.

"Let me think about it..."

In reality, he had no intention of buying this junk. He just wanted to mess with the guy.

"I feel like this one is pretty good too."

Li Aozi said as he picked up the previous pink snowball, pretending to be ’curious’ and said,

"Can you introduce this to me?"

[Performing a ’Lie’ action...]

[Specialty · "Unilateral Action" Activated!]

[Charm] Check succeeded, the other party believed your lie.

"Oh—this thing?"

Harlowe’s eyes lit up and he immediately said enthusiastically,

"This is a good item! An institution of the [Dream Medicine Society], named Dream Snow. It can make any creature indulge in a beautiful and gentle snowy scene, unable to extricate themselves while rapidly aging in reality."

Keep lying.

Li Aozi remained expressionless, listening with great interest but inwardly full of contempt.

[In the previous life, Harlowe the big swindler roamed the third layer of the Starry Abyss, always selling items that could soon be found for cheaper elsewhere.]

Harlowe, as a swindler, was different from the regular merchant who gouged prices.

This tree person never sold fakes, purely making profit off information asymmetry.

He was the kind of person who would open a specialty hospital in front of a top-tier hospital or sell prefab dishes at a welfare cafeteria. Just a few steps away, you could find cheaper items.

That’s how Harlowe made his money.

But if Harlowe only made money off information asymmetry, with a profit margin peaking at over 900%, that would be one thing.

The key is, he also monopolized!

The items on this stall were mostly subpar goods discarded by higher-ranking hunters, slightly repaired, and then sold at sky-high prices.

If you tried to bypass the middleman and purchase directly from higher-level hunters—Harlowe had already anticipated this. He bought up 90% of the junk, then sent out some minions to buy the remaining percentage and sell it at a ’fair price’ below his.

The higher-level hunters thought that the institution market was competitively fair.

But in reality, it was a monopoly.

The players hated Harlowe to the core. For players, it’s not fear of high prices; they could grind it out.

They feared the painstaking efforts and frugality to buy a graphics card, then surfing the net later to find something cheaper and that the price was even dropping.

After a while, you suddenly discover that what you have is something that’s been pre-loved by a mining boss!

[Thinking about it, Harlowe should just be starting out... and indeed, his strength is at Zeta Rank (6), really just starting out.]

Li Aozi secretly smiled warmly.

[So you also have days like these, swindler tree person.]

Harlowe saw that Li Aozi was still pondering, thinking he was tempted, and immediately pressed the advantage, saying,

"This is a valuable item, you should bring out something high-value to trade—"

[Canyue] Activated

Lower-dimensional processing.

Plop.

Li Aozi’s wrist gently shook, and the pink snowball suddenly disappeared.

Li Aozi looked at Harlowe, full of suspicion,

"You call this a ’Social Institution’?"

Harlowe’s mind went blank.

After so many years, hunters had always been naive, never doubting his introductions.

Li Aozi held his empty palm, staring strangely at Harlowe,

"Why did it disappear with a gentle shake?"

Before Harlowe could explain, Li Aozi immediately clenched his fist and shouted, "Damn! Swindler! Law enforcement, come here, there’s a swindler!"

At the moment he clenched his fist, the Dream Snow on his palm was already transferred to the Autonomous Space-Time Belt.

"Wait, wait! Shh—buddy, don’t make such a fuss, you didn’t lose anything, don’t ruin my reputation."

"What are you saying? Are my rights not violated, so I don’t need to protect them?"

Li Aozi, indignant, called for law enforcement again. He even deliberately lifted his head, revealing his handsome face,

"Law enforcement officers—"

"Ahem, it was my fault for not checking closely enough. No worries, you can look at other items."

Newly launched Harlowe’s psychological quality and coping skills were still immature. He panicked when threatened by Li Aozi, quickly backed down, and smiled apologetically,

"No worries, buddy, I have plenty of other goods; you can take a look at each one..."

Though he lost a subpar institution, as long as he could sell one, he was still making a profit.

Li Aozi pretended to skeptically glance at him,

"Really? Hmm, since you’re so sincere, I’ll give it another try."

He said while lifting a blue short sword,

"This is Arthur’s Blade. Once thrown, it will fly back to your hand, very useful—"

[Canyue] Activated!

Before Harlowe could finish speaking, Li Aozi gestured with both hands empty.

"... What’s going on?" Harlowe was confused.

"Hey, what do you mean?"

Li Aozi grabbed Harlowe’s roots fiercely, glaring into his eyes and shouted,

"You call this quality control? It vanished as soon as I took it; what is this? Are you trying to deceive me? Where did you put the institution?"

Harlowe panicked. At Zeta rank, Li Aozi’s silver badge on his chest was obviously not at the same level as Harlowe’s purple copper,

"Calm down—I’m the one who suffered the loss..."

"What did you say? I can see from your proficient actions that this isn’t your first time committing such a crime. I originally wanted to end it this way and tolerate it, but within a minute, my mind was spinning around with ’Do I have to wait until something happens to say something?’—If you’re not a deceiver, why not defend yourself? Enough! Why are you shouting so loud? You disgusting tree, getting harassed by vegetarians every time you go out!"

"Please listen to me, sir, you’ve misunderstood—"

Li Aozi grabbed Harlowe’s neck and shouted loudly,

"I don’t want to hear your explanation! For the sake of argument, even if my rights haven’t been violated, can’t I still claim them?"