A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 318: Chapter 253: Egg of Fantasy_1

Although he was speechless, Duanmu Huai had no choice but to accept Baddy’s “generous gift”. Well, no matter what, as Baddy said, set everything else aside, this thing was indeed pretty handy.

However, just as Duanmu Huai returned to his warship, he received a communication from the Guardian civilization.

The content of the message surprised Duanmu Huai.

It was the nomadic traders who had once again arrived at the Guardian civilization. This time, with the previous cautionary tale of the Cabal civilization in mind, they planned to actively open up the interstellar market. They hoped to maintain a long-term trade relationship with the nomadic traders. However, nomadic traders weren’t that easy to persuade, after all, the Guardians were the local big shots. If they wanted to cheat him out of his profits, he was helpless. Therefore, the final agreement between the two sides was to have a third party as a witness.

As the Guardians did not know anyone else, they had to find the Tribunal.

As for the nomadic traders… they were a familiar face.

“Long time no see, sir.”

“Oh, it’s you, Daddaniel.”

Seeing the refined middle-aged man with a mustache in front of him, Duanmu Huai was somewhat surprised. He had met this nomadic trader before. When Duanmu Huai was on his way to visit the Guardian civilization, he encountered Daddaniel who was being attacked by star pirates. Duanmu Huai saved him and sold him the pirate warship he had obtained incidentally.

What a surprise…

“You’re still running this route, isn’t border trade not making money?”

Duanmu Huai knew quite well about the power map of Star Ocean Online. From the Novice’s Village to the Guardian civilization’s territory, though it’s not remote per se, it was definitely impoverished. Simply put, it was like the poor mountainous areas within a country, where hardly any merchants would choose to open up –– merchants were no pioneer Knights; they needed customers who could repay immediately, not leeks who needed careful nurturing.

Even if leeks grow fast, it’s still quite a nuisance to plant.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ƝοѵǤο.ᴄο

“Haha, as you’ve said, but I think the Guardian civilization does have potential. If you are willing to vouch for it…”

“You trust me that much? Aren’t you afraid that I might be plotting with them to con you?”

This kind of thing wasn’t uncommon in the interstellar world. With the Human Empire destroyed, there was never a unified order in the galaxies. Civilizations that entered the galaxy early might have their own set of standards, but doing business in remote galaxies and unknown civilizations was pretty much like trading with cannibalistic tribes in the Amazon jungle. If one came back alive, that was already fortunate. At worst, one might end up being roasted.

“Your willingness to sell me a warship shows that you are a generous person. I don’t think you are a scheming villain. Ah, thanks to you, that warship really brought me a lot of benefits…”

“Alright, quit the small talk.”

Seeing that the person on the other side of the screen appeared to be ready to spend a lot of time buttering him up, Duanmu Huai waved his hand and interrupted him.

“You can trade with them, but it must be a legal trade… don’t try anything underhanded with me either.”

Daddaniel was worried about being swindled, and Duanmu Huai was equally distrustful of these nomadic traders. In fact, he knew a lot of them had joined the forces of Chaos. They even used the power of the Evil God of Chaos to corrupt other civilizations under the guise of trade. Especially those low-level interstellar civilizations, it was incredibly easy to be corrupted. Duanmu Huai had seen many planets and civilizations being corrupted by these Chaos traders in the game.

“Give me a list of your goods, let me take a look at what you have.”

As a Judge, Duanmu Huai also needed to scrutinize these traders’ methods.

Soon, a list of items was transmitted to Duanmu Huai’s screen. He sat in his chair and began to peruse the list that was displayed before him.

There were common interstellar drinks and alcohol, a few slaves, some industrial raw materials and construction equipment… It seems that he’s not doing so well.

After a quick scan of the list, Duanmu Huai had some understanding of Daddaniel’s situation. From this comprehensive looking list, he could tell that this nomadic trader was… not making much money.

It was like a small shop in a village, selling anything from drinks to hardware, like a department store. And it definitely had nothing to do with its range of products. It was simply because it was the only shop in the entire village where people could buy anything they need…

Of course, as of now, Duanmu Huai hadn’t found any corrupted goods. But considering Daddaniel’s financial situation, he could easily be corrupted – he needed to remind the High Tower Council about it, so they didn’t get cheated.

“Hmm?”

However, just then, a system prompt appeared before Duanmu Huai’s eyes. He looked closer and brightened immediately.

“Egg of Fantasy––500000 Experience”

This thing really exists?

When he saw this item, Duanmu Huai immediately became excited.

The so-called Egg of Fantasy couldn’t strictly be considered a legendary Divine Artifact or such. In fact, it was just an item that most players had –– as an online game, Star Ocean Online would naturally host various cross-promotions occasionally, and Egg of Fantasy was an item that allowed you to participate.

According to the rules of the game, during the promotion, players could purchase the Egg of Fantasy, which would allow them to dream of experiencing life in another world in the form of a dream. Players would enter a copy of that world’s map, complete tasks, earn points, and then exchange these points for experience and items like mounts.

In the end, it was no different from ordinary online game promotional events.

But because of this, Duanmu Huai was surprised.

After all, in a game, it’s okay to host a crossover event and claim it for players to experience another world.

But how do you host a crossover event in real life?

After all, a lot of the crossovers involve famous IPs.

However, now that Duanmu Huai has traveled to this world, is there really something like that for sale?

So, there really are crossover events?

Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai immediately began to salivate. Ignoring the rewards and exclusive items from the crossover events for now, the real point was to actually get to visit those famous IP worlds…wait, could it be that in this world, these famous IP worlds do exist in some form?

But really, what’s going on?

Truth be told, Duanmu Huai still couldn’t figure out why he was able to cross over, or what kind of existence could have facilitated his transposition. While he could blame it on his lack of attention when signing the agreement, how could a mere ordinary game company allow him to cross over to an isekai?

Hmm… Could it be like in certain sci-fi films, where he hasn’t actually crossed over, but rather his consciousness has been transported into a virtual world?

Nevermind, let’s not ponder too much.

Duanmu Huai shook his head. Since he wasn’t getting anywhere with his thoughts, he decided to stop stirring up trouble. Whether this was a virtual world or reality, he was living here now. Whether it was real or fake, surviving was the most important thing. After all, he had some free time recently. If he could take the time to complete a crossover event, wouldn’t that be nice?

Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai reached out, lightly tapped the screen, and in the next moment, there was a flash of bright light. Then, an egg-shaped object that looked crystal clear, as if it were carved out of crystal, suddenly appeared out of thin air and landed in Duanmu Huai’s hand.

Surprisingly, it really does work.

After playing with the Egg of Fantasy in his hand for a moment, Duanmu Huai put it away and reconnected with Datanir.

“No problem. Next, you can negotiate with the High Tower Council, but no tricks. I’m only warning you once, understood?”

“Yes, I understand, sir.”

Hearing Duanmu Huai’s warning, Datanir instantly became stern. In fact, what he feared the most was powerful, unpredictable forces like Duanmu Huai. This meant that he couldn’t find a way to bargain with Duanmu. Even if he harassed him to the point of provoking Duanmu, Duanmu could kill him and run off, and no one could stop him. Not to mention that Datanir himself didn’t hold a high status within his family and was known as a bit of a rogue merchant. He was making efforts to raise his standing in the family through the Tribunal, so he certainly didn’t want to provoke any unnecessary trouble.

After exchanging a few words with both parties, Duanmu Huai ended the communication and returned to his room.

“Ogis, I need to rest for a while. If there’s any trouble, call me immediately.”

“Yes, Master.”

Hearing Duanmu Huai’s command, Ogis replied and buried her head back into her book, while Duanmu Huai sat on his bed, fiddling with the Egg of Fantasy. A line of information soon appeared before Duanmu Huai’s eyes.

[The crossover mission has been activated]

[Crossover Map – Biohazard]

Ah… it’s Resident Evil…

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai instantly understood. As a seasoned gamer who had been playing Star Ocean Online for quite some time, he knew this was the game’s first crossover mission map, which was quite popular at the time. After all, the Bio series was a big IP, and the player levels at that time were generally not high, so as a beginner’s crossover mission, it was well-received indeed.

Of course, each crossover mission had its own unique rewards. Among the exchange contents of the Bio series, apart from experience, what was most valuable for players was the virus antibody.

Well, that’s logical. After all, however much they had a game crossover, they couldn’t allow you to bring the T-Virus and G-Virus back into this world, right? If that were the case, players wouldn’t know whether to consider themselves Judges or followers of the God of Plague.

Of course, the player with the highest points on the leaderboard would also receive a random reward, supposedly including the Blacklight Virus that could replicate others… Well, this is only a rumor. Some said they saw it in the game package, but in reality, no player ever got their hands on the Blacklight Virus after the event ended. Probably… it was just a troll’s post.

Actually, even if the Blacklight Virus did exist, no player would dare to use it. That virus belonged to the domain of the God of Plague. If you actively turned into the Blacklight Virus, it would be like giving a free meal to the God of Plague. No player would be foolish enough to transform themselves into a virus collective. If it wasn’t handled properly, they could be given a loving hug by the God of Plague – which would make them wish they were dead.

Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai stretched out his hand and opened the leaderboards to find… nothing.

Well, that’s normal, it seems no other players have crossed over to this world.

It felt somewhat lonely.

Feeling a sense of melancholy, Duanmu Huai directly raised the difficulty to the highest level. His attributes were now equivalent to a level 60 player, and Biohazard’s instanced dungeon was capped at level 40. Although player equipment was prohibited in crossover instances for balance purposes, most players could still strut around this world just relying on their attributes.

Duanmu Huai remembered that in the game, he used to gather a bunch of NPCs with his maxed-out Charm stat and then charge into the enemy lines together.

But now…

Looking at his own face, Duanmu Huai silently shrugged.

Seems like there’s no hope for that. He could only rely on himself now.