My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely!

Chapter 261: Learning Center, The Black Marketeer’s “Revelry”!

“Mermaid queen!

“Only requires fifty thousand points and one psychic energy crystal to upgrade!

“80% and above favor of aquatic species, 100% favor of the mermaid clan!”

Among the three upgrade options, Su Mo’s eyes fell upon the eye-catching third option.

Setting aside any mention of the six new abilities derived from this upgrade option first, this bug level ability alone—favor—was extremely incredible!

Unfortunately…

“If it was just fifty thousand points, that would be fine, but it requires a psychic energy crystal—that’s way too expensive!”

Survival points could be earned again, and the upgrade options could also be slowly increased, but once psychic energy crystals ran out, one never knew how long the waiting period would be for the next one.

“I’ll try the reversion first. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll have to think of other ways. I can’t just splurge survival points on this.”

He had gained only 900 points yesterday, and now he had to spend another 2800 points—that was equivalent to negative growth.

Although Su Mo had twenty thousand survival points now, when he saw 2800 of his survival points vanish, he still felt a trace of regret.

Fortunately, the transformation of the turtle armor on the ground rapidly caught Su Mo’s attention.

The mermaid’s blessing that initially took up only about 10% expanded all of a sudden like an inflated ball after receiving a boost from the system’s green light.

The area was only this large; what should he do if he wanted to make it stronger?

He would take it back, of course!

The way Su Mo saw it, the system’s green light was like the mermaids’ support. Before the lion people knew it, they had been “stabbed” in the back by the mermaids who held the advantage.

By the time the lion people realized this, the mermaids had already seized 30% of the territory, and the lion people’s domination was completely destroyed.

As the old saying went, two tigers could not share the same mountain.

When the lion people’s dark green color reacted, both of them “scuffled” together immediately. Both struggled to gain the upper hand; one side would have the advantage for a while, but then the other party would take the upper hand.

After around five minutes, when the mermaids finally took half the territory, the system gave them their final boost.

This boost allowed the mermaids to advance with a small offense maneuver. The initial 10% of the territory was expanded in the end to 65% or so, which turned the tables.

Furthermore, between both these territories, an area taking up about 5% formed.

In this area, the two blessings miraculously integrated. They appeared to be fighting with each other, yet it also seemed as if they were intermingling.

“Good gracious, I just noticed that the mermaid’s blessing is more powerful than the wind of the lion tribe!”

It was something new, seeing the magical power of “blessings” fighting with each other.

However, what Su Mo was most concerned about was the outcome of the reversion that had cost him 2800 points.

He gathered his focus. After the scanning that took half a second, a pale blue panel popped up with the new properties of the mermaid’s blessings.

[Extraordinary Properties]: Ocean affinity (lv 1)—growth potential (two and a half stars)

[Extraordinary Origin]: Comes from a real mermaid clan blessing ritual. During the blessing process, hints of a second reversion were triggered to a small degree. The Mermaid Priestess of the mermaid clan personally hosted the reversion ritual.

[Extraordinary Ability 1]: Waterproof (when the shelter is completely submerged under the sea, by default no water can come into the shelter. Furthermore, the seawater will not cause water corrosion on the outer layer of the shelter—can be upgraded to increase this waterproof ability)

[Extraordinary Ability 2]: Breathing (after receiving the highest blessing that the mermaid clan bestows upon foreign races, oxygen will circulate on its own in the shelter—can be upgraded to increase the rate of circulation)

[Extraordinary Ability 3]: Goodwill (the shelter and its respective players naturally gain the favor of marine creatures)

[Comment]: According to legend, this is the best blessing the mermaid clan offers to foreign races in the sincere hope that they will be able to live peacefully in the ocean

“Great!”

“This is exactly what I anticipated. The waterproof capacity has increased, and it even added breathing as a special property.

“As for goodwill… could it be the talisman’s doing?”

Retrieving the talisman from his storage space, Su Mo looked at it curiously. Currently, it had been recharged to 70% since the last time he had used it.

At this rate, he would be able to use it again after ten days or so.

Furthermore, the flood simulation on the talisman had become waves beating against the reefs. It looked incredibly mysterious.

Su Mo tried placing the talisman near the core. Sadly, this time, the talisman and the mermaid’s blessing were inert. There were no “chemical reactions” between them like the last time.

“Looks like its energy has to be fully charged to trigger any special effects…”

Su Mo looked at the breathing frequency for both the talisman and the mermaid’s blessing—they were both in sync with each other. He then turned his attention to the one and a half cores that had now grown bigger.

At a thought from Su Mo, both of the items disappeared into the underground shelter simultaneously.

In this apocalyptic world, being able to upgrade was a plain, simple pleasure.

Su Mo opened the iron gate of the first floor again and looked at the scattered refugees who were relocating to Iron Rock Mountain. He stretched long and luxuriously.

Humans were strange.

When a person was alone, the moment they saw members of their own kind, they would be eager to move over and live together.

However, once that person actually moved in, they would keep their guard up, afraid that the others would steal their “benefits”. They would mount all kinds of defenses to protect themselves as well.

In particular, when the other party was more powerful, this strange mentality would become even worse.

This was the case for the refugees of the Candlelight village who were currently relocating here

.

Previously, when Su Mo had gone to their village, he could always see lingering respect on the faces of the refugees every time he saw them.

However, now that they had left their “hometown” and relocated to Su Mo’s area, he could see a hint of fear in their eyes toward someone higher in rank.

They were afraid—afraid that Su Mo, in his current position, would misappropriate their benefits.

They were afraid Su Mo would use them as human shields and send them to their deaths in this apocalyptic wasteland with just a command.

Rebelling against the management of the Candlelight shelter was easy. If worse came to worst, everyone could mutiny and leave together to establish a new shelter.

However, they had come to Su Mo’s territory, not of their own volition but due to circumstances; they were essentially trapped here for now!

“Human beings are always extraordinarily careful before making any decisions—these poor souls as well. It looks like no one has the courage to move everything they possess over here yet.

“However, maintaining a proper distance like this is good for them, and for me too!

“I’ll just have to wait until father gets here. Then I can work with him to truly try and win the allegiance of these people!”

Su Mo was confident that he would be able to gain this sort of respect and admiration from the refugees.

He needed to be able to provide them with a sense of security, but not get involved directly, and keep things at this level. He would need to rely on giving Chen Shen instructions to maintain things as they were now.

To win over the hearts and minds of the refugees was far too troublesome and tiring for Su Mo at present…

There was no need for that either!

Su Mo stroked Oreo’s head. She was lying down beside him as he sat in front of the shelter entrance. It was as if he had transformed into a statue of a “guardian deity”.

By just sitting down like this, he was able to give every refugee who migrated here a complete sense of security.

However, once his days in the wasteland became busy, he would be engrossed in his work.

At the edge of the horizon, Moore was on his way back, driving Earth Tiger. The mission of storing all the food supplies into the warehouse was officially in full swing.

Sacks of sweet-scented wheat were unloaded from the car and transported in the refugees’ storage space for storing in the warehouse according to plan.

There were translucent jade-white cabbages and thick red carrots, together with sacks of soybeans that had not yet been dried, all laid out in front of the shelter’s entrance.

As the breeze blew, the fragrant scents would waft up!

As the owner of the base, Su Mo naturally did not get involved with such trivial matters. He merely gave occasional, brief instructions about where to place things and lazily rocked in his deck chair.

In the eyes of the refugees, Su Mo behaving in such a manner made his poweful “aura” stand out even more.

However, they had no idea that at present, Su Mo had called up the game panel with his mind and was rapidly looking through the sudden changes in the price of materials now.

By this time it was around four in the afternoon—the most sleepy and anxious hour for all human beings.

The price of materials in the market had reached a critical value. If prices increased again, the market could not hold so many shares, all of which would depreciate and could not be sold again at their original value.

If prices decreased, it would be a bottomless pit, and prices would drop until no one would even bother to inquire about them.

Therefore, a subtle equilibrium had been achieved. The sellers were not in a hurry, and the buyers had stopped buying too. Everyone was waiting for the market’s next move.

Just a little nudge and the market could either soar high or plummet drastically.

For instance, if Su Mo began rapidly purchasing items at this time, it would be “good news” in the trading market.

Most people who were still selling at a lower price would cancel their orders immediately and observe Su Mo’s next move.

If he continued to purchase, then everyone would increase the prices. The dealers would be like sharks. Once they smelled blood, they would pounce on their prey and embark on a buying spree of materials from these ordinary refugees.

As long as Su Mo still needed all these materials, he would become an easy target, enabling these dealers to take advantage of him.

Of course, if the dealers miscalculated, there was no need for Su Mo to continue purchasing.

If the Almighty Su were not even buying such materials, then they would become useless. Once the first small dealer could not handle the pressure any longer, he would rapidly bring down the whole trading market like an avalanche.

This manner of using information to control the market was exactly the same as Earth’s financial trading market. It was the most powerful method that financial predators capitalized on.

Now, what Su Mo was going to do was spread the news and intervene from another angle, forcing these unscrupulous dealers into liquidation!

He greeted the refugees; beside him, he set down some of the wheat that had not yet been stored away. Then, he randomly called up the market panel and sorted the iron prices from high to low.

Currently, the highest price on the market was 1 unit of wheat in exchange for 1.5 units of iron.

The lowest price was a ratio of 1.2. If this could exceed 1, some of the small dealers would definitely get anxious and start dumping, causing the big dealers to have a run of awful luck.

Therefore, on the purchase page, once they saw any price that exceeded 1, the big dealers would buy in quickly to make sure that the market would not crash due to ordinary retailers busy cutting their losses short.

This was the last stubborn stand of the big dealers, which was also the best time for Su Mo to make his move.

“The price is very stable without any supervision. It looks like playing these suckers in the wasteland will be great fun.

“From the looks of it, none of you learned your lesson during the last round of trade in the seed market. It’s not even been that long, and you’re already up to your old tricks again!

“Let me teach you all some of the wasteland’s norms then!”

He shot a cold glance at the several “familiar” names listed first in the trading market and their arrogant, aggressive manner of speech during purchasing.

Su Mo gave a cold chuckle and took action decisively by immediately purchasing iron that was on the list of the top ten highest prices.

Wow! Almost a hundred units of iron appeared in front of the Underground Shelter instantly, and a hundred and fifty units of wheat disappeared at the same time as well.

The top ten listings had all been snapped up. Naturally, this was big news to the people who were anxiously paying attention to the market prices.

There were even people discussing it on the World Channel.

“Oh, sh*t, someone bought iron at a high price. Don’t tell me it’s the dealers again. Why don’t these stupid dealers just die already!”

“Exactly, buying so much iron—can you eat it or drink it?”

“Originally one unit of iron could be exchanged for one unit of grain, it’s a price acknowledged by everyone. In the end, these dealers still want to mess around, f*ck!”

“I’m still waiting for the price to drop so I can buy some to build my ship, please don’t go up!”

“The price is already so low, and you’re still not buying? What are you waiting for? If you’re waiting to grab some overlooked bargain, then go do it in hell!”

“People are buying iron in large quantities with a ratio of 3 units, hurry up and put it on the list if you want to sell!”

“Oh sh*t, three units, what the hell is going on???”

“The iron on the market’s top ten price list was bought by Su Mo. It’s Su Mo who’s buying in large quantities!”

“F*ck, the Almighty Su is buying materials???”

When this first piece of news broke, it was as if Su Mo—seated in front of the Underground Shelter’s entrance—had fanned into being an invisible price whirlwind.

Hundreds of thousands of orders for the 1.2 ratios of iron were canceled in a second. Even the 1.5 ratio orders were fast vanishing.

It only took less than a minute for the iron panel to become totally empty. Even the other raw materials panels were starting to empty as well.

It was like Su Mo was buying in large quantities and had snapped up all the materials sold in the market.

However, a good thing like this did not last long. After one or two minutes of brewing, the material prices began to appear in the market once again.

The ordinary refugees who were still waiting for the price to tank suddenly realized that…

Iron prices had surged to 3 units of wheat in exchange for 1 unit of iron!

Copper prices had increased significantly from the original 1.8 units to 5 units!

The ordinary retailers who had been reluctantly selling were shocked to realize that the iron originally being sold for a 1 unit ratio was now going for 2.5, 2.8 and all of them would be bought by the dealers.

Was… was it Chinese New Year again?

Su Mo looked at the large quantities of food supplies appearing on the ground, then turned his gaze to the iron that he previously thought would become worthless, watching it swiftly vanish.

In this vast wasteland, every refugee who had labored so hard to mine these materials was utterly shocked.

However, when Su Mo called up the World Channel to watch for a while, everyone was lowering their slightly stooped bodies, just like when the disaster had come.

With the heavens as a witness, any ordinary refugees who had sold their materials at high prices were all kneeling devoutly!

Once again, they chanted Su Mo’s name.

At this moment, the Almighty Su was truly a God!

A bona fide “Prosperity God”!