Downloading thousands of images of different architectural styles from original art websites and crudely cropping and stitching them together would roughly approximate the look of Tattered Street.
Shrouded in a gray robe and wearing an evil ghost mask, Gray Rain was like Liu Laolao touring the Grand View Garden, occasionally exclaiming in amazement.
Next to the holy and solemn church stood a sinister Gothic castle. Next to the towering modern skyscraper was a Japanese castle tower.
The witch herb shop that sold dried bats and toad eyes faced a near-future clinic that could treat most diseases with genetic technology.
The streets were bustling with people rubbing shoulders with one another.
Green-skinned orc businessmen in suits, half-mechanical monks chanting sutras, witches with laser swords at their waists, Masked Riders riding on chocobos...
It was like a procession of a hundred ghosts, making one wonder if they had arrived at a cosplay convention. Read complete version only at Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
Most of them were players donning personal disguises to conceal their real identities and relieve psychological stress.
There were also a few who genuinely transformed their race, voluntarily becoming vampires, half-beasts, dragonfolk, or alien races such as spirit sucking monsters, flame demons, or witches.
Li Cheng, wearing a gas mask and donning a navy "Justice" cape, tugged at Gray Rain’s sleeve, signaling her to keep up—she had been fiddling with a so-called "dragon egg" at a pet stall by the roadside.
What was called a dragon egg would only hatch a mutated salamander that could breathe fire if it ever did hatch.
It was quite reminiscent of the scammy vibe of a primary school’s nearby shop selling "Crystal Babies."
Gray Rain hurried forward and asked curiously, "How many people are there on Tattered Street?"
"It’s roughly 270,000 players globally," Li Cheng explained casually, "not many choose to live here permanently. Most are contract workers without player qualifications."
National machines, pharmaceutical giants, military-industrial complexes, tech companies, and transnational banks crowded to set up offices on Tattered Street, making this place even more expensive than New York Manhattan in the real world. A seemingly plain storefront here could potentially rake in annual revenues comparable to a public company.
To reduce labor costs, stores employed smart settlement systems, or purchased robot employees, goblin staff, or synthetic humans from organizations like the Demon Scientist Alliance, Thousand Throats Beast Guild, or Gen-Sys Company.
Goblin employees didn’t have player qualifications, couldn’t leave the killing field, and couldn’t survive outside Tattered Street, making them very useful.
Of course, to ensure staff morale, large corporations would entice goblin staff with promises like "Become free again after ten years of service."
Li Cheng was here on a mission. He led Gray Rain through the winding alleys, finally arriving at a modern building marked with the "Treasure Pavilion" logo.
Due to the complexity of the killing field, it was difficult for a single enterprise to monopolize all business, so they often formed business groups to enter the killing field and explore the market.
Treasure Pavilion was no exception, backed by several multinational companies, mainly dealing in auctions but also in pawn, lending, and leasing.
Li Cheng declined the enthusiastic greeting from the handsome men and beautiful women at the reception, choosing instead to operate on the self-service terminal. He placed seventy pages of [Suicide Notebook] into the slot, and the machine (also a killing field item) took the paper, read its special effects, and uploaded the information to the internal network.
Treasure Pavilion had partnerships with various guilds, and excellent items like [Suicide Notebook] would be detected by web crawling programs of the guilds as soon as they went online and be quickly purchased at a high price.
Each blank page of the Suicide Notebook sold for 50 Game Coins, totaling 3500 Game Coins. It was a much-needed replenishment for Li Cheng.
Moreover, once other players finished drawing on the paper, that page would gradually turn to ash. If not used for a long time, it would also expire, but Li Cheng’s [Suicide Notebooks] would grow new pages and could be reused and sold multiple times.
After taking care of the sale, Li Cheng didn’t rush to leave; instead, he and Gray Rain sat on a bench and continued to browse the Treasure Pavilion’s catalog of items for sale on a tablet computer.
After much selection, he finally set his sights on three pieces of equipment.
One was a Sea Shark Type Single Soldier Mechanical Exoskeleton produced by the Special Affairs Bureau (actually manufactured by the Northern Industrial Group), which resembled the open-design Power Armor in the movie "Edge of Tomorrow,"
Equipped with high-density solid-state batteries, active phased array radar, electronic jamming system, strength enhancement system, infrared targeting, rocket backpack, and most importantly, a modular mechanical arm on the shoulder, along with a high-precision fire control system.
The second item was a Bat Wing Heavy Armored Motorcycle produced by the Demon Scientist Alliance, modified from the real-world Suzuki Hayabusa. With the turbocharged engine and aerodynamic diverter, it could reach speeds over 400 kilometers per hour despite its bulletproof armor weight.
The third item is the Avenger Cannon from Prometheus Company.
The prototype of this gadget is the 30mm caliber GAU-8 Avenger cannon produced by General Electric Company, which weighs 280 kilograms by itself. Including the ammunition loading system and the drum, the weight can reach 1.8 tons.
The original version of the Avenger cannon, with a recoil force of 4.6 tons, could only be mounted on the A-10 Warthog attack aircraft. It can fire 4,000 high-explosive incendiary and armor-piercing incendiary rounds per minute, capable of destroying enemy tanks and armored vehicles like opening a tin can.
Prometheus Company made extensive modifications to the cannon to reduce its weight and recoil, so it could barely be mounted on ground vehicles.
Among the three pieces of equipment, the Sea Shark Type Single Soldier Exoskeleton and Avenger Cannon do not contain Extraordinary Elements, so their prices are relatively low.
The Bat Wing Heavy Armored Motorcycle uses black magic technology and is considered a fine-quality item by the killing field system, hence it is priced relatively higher.
In total, the cost was 3,510 Game Coins.
As of now, Li Cheng’s player panel is—
[Life-Sacrificing Gambler·Ant]
[Lv11, Experience Bar 60/1100]
[Strength: 10](Beyond human)
[Agility: 10](Beyond human)
[Intelligence: 9](Genius)
[Constitution: 9](Human limit) (New Human: +1)
[Perception: 8](Top hunter level)
[Charm: 5](Ordinary) (Barbecue Lover: -1 Charm)
[Equipment Column: Assembly Puppet, Holographic Bone Corridor, Bat Hook Claw Gun, 170 Straight Blade, Nuclear Energy Lighter, Thunder Horn*2, ]
[Backpack: Suicide Notebook, Insect Lord’s Divine Calamity Crystal, Achili Toy Factory Key③, Healing Gel*6, Eyes Communication Headset, Emergency Escape Card, Electronic Pet Egg, Micro Life Potion*1, Sea Shark Type Single Soldier Exoskeleton, Bat Wing Heavy Armored Motorcycle Drone, Avenger Cannon, Daoist robe with special aesthetic]
[Skill Bar: Fog Concealment Skill, Multi-threaded Brain Domain Method, Experience Playing Method, Instant Thunder, Death Curse Torrent (Temporary), Bloodthirsty Fury (Temporary), Cutting Hemorrhage (Temporary), Feathered Gliding (Temporary), Misleading Slander (Temporary)]
[Game Currency: 3249]
[Spiritual Power Value: 425]
[Sanity Value: 360](Barbecue Lover: +120 Sanity limit)
Li Cheng closed his tablet and was about to leave when he inadvertently saw an item on the list of sold goods that looked very familiar.
It was a palm-sized, long, hollow stone with a spatial structure faintly resembling the number 5 inside.
Isn’t this the [Achili Toy Factory Key]?
Li Cheng raised an eyebrow, as there was a number three key lying in his backpack, obtained from the [Alien Species Out of Control] mission, marked by the killing field as an exceptional item. It is said that once you collect all seven keys, you can open the toy factory situated in the killing field and take control of its privileges.
Li Cheng clicked on the screen and found out that this item was named [Blind Box Item] in the Treasure Pavilion.
In the killing field game, there would occasionally appear some sealed props whose name, special effects, quality, etc., were all obscured. To unseal them, one would have to find the killing field system or private unsealing masters and appraisers.
As a logistic profession, appraisers charged extremely high fees for each service.
Some players who could not afford it would hang the blind box items on the auction house to see if there would be a destined person (or rather, sucker) willing to pay money to purchase them.
The original owner of the hollow stone clearly did not know the real value of the item. The starting bid was set at only 500 Game Coins, and as soon as it was listed, it was bought by a mysterious buyer with a buy-it-now price of 9,000 Game Coins.
The whole event occurred half a month ago, and Li Cheng had no regrets, just a slightly furrowed brow and a thoughtful look.
According to the note on the factory keys, the keys are supposed to attract each other...