Chapter 891: High Consumption

Additionally, "V. Fanxiao's Tool of Crime" had a connection to He Pu, so for the time being he had no intention of swapping it out.

Another combination was "Elusive Screaming Chicken," "Friendly Handkerchief," and "See or Not See." These three items were E, D, and C-grade respectively, but they were rarely ever used, so Xu Huo chose to merge and upgrade them.

【Congratulations, player Passerby, on obtaining the C-grade item "Shared Positioning."】

【An item that can share the real-time location of a person or object. It only takes three seconds to mark a target, and it will accurately display the marked target's precise position within a two-thousand-meter range. Please note that this item can only be placed on a lens, and when using it, do not forget to tap the item to mark. Effective duration: seven days.】

Although it was still a C-grade item, its range of application was not limited to people, and it was more convenient to use. Not bad at all.

The second merged set of items was "Progress Bar Disappearance" and "Extreme Fatigue." After upgrading, he obtained a B-grade item:

【Heartfelt Discount: For buyers, the lower the merchant's price, the better. For players, the shorter the duration of an opponent's item, the better. Whether you are a buyer or a player, whether before the transaction or during it, bravely say "I want a discount" to others. The firmer your attitude, the higher the discount might be.】

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow slightly. This was quite a good item. Unlike the previous two, which had to be used in advance, "Heartfelt Discount" could still be used even after being trapped by another item. Shortening someone else's item duration was the same as extending your own life.

The only slight regret was that it could not affect characteristics.

Against characteristics, he also had items that could provide some defense and delay effects. Xu Huo took a look, and simply upgraded them together as well.

"Stuttering Malice" plus "Seeing is Believing" and "Two-Half Magic Trick," three C-grade items exchanged for one B-grade item:

【Thick Protective Coloration: Randomly immune to some characteristics. It's said that with good luck, it can be used more than ten times a day. As for exactly which characteristics it grants immunity to, players can try for themselves. However, please note the limits. Risking your life just to experiment with an item is a bit of a loss.】

Xu Huo calmly swiped the interface away.

With the three merge upgrades used up, he had obtained one positioning and tracking item and two defensive items respectively targeting items and characteristics. It could be considered a slight patch for his shortcomings in combat.

As for the selectable range for targeted item replacement, it was quite broad. Most items had a backup pool showing at least three items of the same type, though the price differences were somewhat large.

Worth mentioning was that the A-grade item "Life Core" had no backup items, and naturally neither did the Super Item "Three Seconds of a Life."

He roughly scanned through and finally selected several items to replace.

The first was "Universal Lubricant," which could remove substantial items of C-grade or below that touched the body. "Heartfelt Discount" mainly targeted the duration of item effects, while for items like chains or those that controlled the body, "Universal Lubricant" was more effective. Spending one million White Bills, he exchanged it for the same-category Special Item "Magic Escape."

Besides some B-grade and below items, "Magic Escape" could also disable some implant-type micro-devices, such as certain technological achievements specifically used to control players.

This was also an important reason why Xu Huo was willing to spend one million to exchange items. The venues of C-level dungeons might no longer be as relatively enclosed as D-level or E-level dungeons. Once the venue expanded, the probability of non-players intervening in dungeons would increase, and the methods and means targeting players would become endlessly varied. Ordinary items would find it hard to trap players with train tickets, but players were also human, and the human body was the greatest weakness.

The second was exchanging "Vital Point Kite" for "Balloon String," which could address both "people" and "objects," still a C-grade item.

The third was exchanging "Beautiful Rays" for the cutting ray "No Passage Here," whose length and width increased to ten meters and five meters and could last ten seconds.

The fourth was upgrading "Explosive Aesthetics" into the B-grade item "Little Mushroom Cloud," a spatial item valued at ten million White Bills. A one-cubic-millimeter spatial explosion, with a shockwave covering a radius of one thousand meters. The explosion would not produce special flames, and after detonating, a semi-transparent small mushroom would appear in the air. Cooldown time: 24 hours.

For items of the same grade, those that could be used unlimited times were priced a bit higher than those requiring long cooldowns. "Concentrated Air" as a defensive item was worth fifteen million, while "Little Mushroom Cloud" had a large kill range, and he added one D-grade item plus ten million White Bills to make up the difference.

Xu Huo browsed some more. After temporarily finding no items he favored, he bought a few more through the bounty platform.

"Vacuum Ring," C-grade. Can silence a one-meter-radius area centered on a person at any time.

"Born Anew," D-grade. Seven sets of faces, no repeats any day of the week.

"Everything Hand-Holdable," C-grade. Defensive gloves that one hundred percent conform to the hand shape. Can directly touch sharp objects or flames, and are not easily penetrated by pollutants.

Just the exchanges and purchases of these items had already cost nearly twenty-five million White Bills. His wallet had shrunk drastically, and the remaining money was not enough to buy a slightly better A-grade item. Feeling that was about enough, Xu Huo closed the item slot and switched to the Under-Dimension Hall.

Logging in with his three-star member account, the account name was the same as his player nickname. The browsable range was the entire E27 Wormhole Point board, as well as the open information of other E-grade wormhole points. However, this wormhole point also had range divisions. Player level matched account level, and the higher both were, the broader the range of information that could be browsed.

In practice, once you rose to C-grade you could go to other wormhole points to do dungeons, while checking information on other wormhole points required a B-rank player, or a two-star or above member account. This was equivalent to indirectly blocking some players' information channels.

Of course, this kind of blockade was not absolute. When posting information, one could freely choose the wormhole point and the district it belonged to. Naturally, there were also ways of writing that did not specify exact locations. Usually such portions would be automatically identified and categorized by the game. There was also a portion where players deliberately obscured key information.

Most information was public. A small portion required payment from the poster. It looked similar to the bounty platform, except the information was not as comprehensive as the bounty platform's, and of course it was cheaper.

Xu Huo entered the Advanced Player board.

The first thing he saw was news about the first few districts of the E27 Wormhole Point, such as

</path> Game Government movements, transfers and changes of important personnel, or important recruitment as well as public auctions and exchanges of rare high-grade items.

Then there were resource extraction and player employment, important festivals and grand events.

There were also bounties posted seeking Artificers or certain animals and plants, as well as information circulating from other wormhole points that was partly true and partly false.

The ones with relatively large followings were naturally some famous players. He spotted the Suitcase Man at a glance.