The setting sun descends westward, the twilight is as red as blood.
Inside a prosthetic body shop.
"Boss, aren’t there any new items?"
"Nope, that’s all we have in the shop. If you want anything else, you need to order online."
"You really should bring in more new stock, then business can thrive." Lu Xun advised earnestly.
"Ha? Are you teaching how to do business? The newly launched prosthetic bodies have limited production and haven’t gone through the test of ti and market. Custors also lack trust in the performance and quality of new products... Bah, what am I telling you all this for?"
The middle-aged man’s electronic eye squinted at this kid in front of him, pondering for two seconds, his tone becoming suspicious:
"You look familiar... Damn, I rember now! Aren’t you that annoying kid who touched everything without buying and wasted two whole hours of mine last ti?"
"You’ve got the wrong person." Lu Xun stepped back two paces, waving his hand.
"No mistake, it’s you!" The boss roared, pulling out a stick from behind the counter, "Stand still!"
"Ah, I bid farewell, I’ll co back next ti."
Lu Xun dashed out of the shop, running three blocks until he finally escaped from the miserly boss.
"Damn it, is it that hard to accumulate so trait points?"
His hands were in his pockets, wandering aimlessly along the street, muttering to himself.
Now there’s not even a civilian-grade prosthetic body to analyze, really miserable.
Buzz~ buzz~
Suddenly, several round sweeping robots were working by the roadside. Judging by their appearance, they seed to be the new model.
His eyes lit up, and he hurriedly stepped over to one of them, pressing it down.
Buzz buzz~
It struggled wildly, but was to no avail.
"Don’t move, I’m just giving you a check-up." Lu Xun reassured.
’Analyze!’
[Trait Points 25]
"..."
Lu Xun was montarily stunned, then sighed, letting go; this little at wasn’t even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.
After escaping the demonic grasp, the sweeping robot quickly ran off.
He stood up, watching it stagger away, his face revealing a sense of emptiness and boredom.
Must I go read books again, earning 20 points a day?
To progress from Lord Tier Six to Tier Seven, it requires a minimum of 180,000 trait points.
Tier Seven to Eight requires even more.
Then there’s Tier Nine, Peak Limit, and finally surpassing Lord to enter the next great realm.
To elevate one’s Life Level to King Level, one might need to accumulate a million trait points.
Hmm, slaying a hundred Dutch would suffice.
With Lu Xun’s current strength, if a hundred Dutch appeared before him, he could slay them all within a minute, accumulating a million in a minute.
But relying solely on "reading" would take a whopping 136 years!
From frugality to extravagance is easy, but from extravagance to frugality is hard.
Ever since he experienced the excitent of earning 23.5 Dutch at the Xu Family Mansion, he couldn’t be bothered with these mosquito-sized scraps anymore.
His mind was filled with thoughts of "wealth," "windfalls," and "loot drops."
But there’s nothing to do now.
He can’t possibly raid a museum again, can he?
Or ransack a military base’s armory?
Those are not proper paths, constantly risking oneself; sothing will happen eventually.
’I need to find a way to steadily obtain a large amount of trait points, not asking for much, just earning over ten thousand daily.’
’If earning three hundred thousand in a month, then advancing to King Level in three months, that’s acceptable too.’
Lu Xun furrowed his brows and began to frantically brainstorm for solutions.
"Let’s go, Lili, let’s take a stroll in the antique market." Suddenly, a female passerby beside him pulled her friend and ntioned the key term.
"Hey~ what are you doing? You, a girl, not interested in buying new clothes, but liking to ddle with those old and broken items." Her friend complained, "And they’re all fake goods made to look old with machines. Even if there’s real stuff, the prices are exorbitant... Altogether, the vendors are all swindlers."
"I’m not going to the street stalls, there are formal antique shops. Inside, there are plenty of beautiful jewelry and accessories, all excavated from ancient relics of other races, full of exotic charm."
"Jewelry? Hmm... alright, going for a look sounds okay."
The two girls left hand in hand.
Antique shop?
Ancient relics?
Lu Xun’s eyes suddenly sparkled with an idea in his mind.
That is to apply as an appraiser!
Many instrunts and equipnt in the world can be used to appraise antiques and remains.
But machines aren’t omnipotent.
They can only judge an item’s type, age, and value by comparing results from the database.
Yet the database information is slowly entered through human archaeological discoveries.
In archaeology, no matter how advanced the instrunts are, they are rely aids and can’t replace humans.
If the database doesn’t have the information, or the instrunts can’t appraise sothing, that’s when appraisers co into play.
Thus, the archaeology field has always been very popular.
An appraiser doesn’t need to go anywhere every day; they get plenty of opportunities to contact various novel and ancient artifacts just by sitting in the shop.
Although the salary can’t compare to the exorbitant profits of a black clinic, it’s still considerable.
A skilled appraiser can easily earn tens of thousands a month.
Lu Xun’s aim isn’t money, it’s trait points.
He has the All-Knowing Right Hand and has analyzed many books related to ancient artifacts, mastering a vast knowledge.
In the appraisal field, he considers himself second to none.
Whether it’s from the Shang Dynasty or last week, he can analyze it thoroughly!
The bigger and more famous the shop, the more trait points are earned.
The most impressive antique shops have collections comparable even to a museum!
But the only trouble is, they are a legitimate, legally operating company, not like Old Octopus’s shady clinic.
They surely wouldn’t want to hire an appraiser with an unknown background.
And the impressive appraisers are all knowledgeable archaeological giants, the older they get, the more skilled they beco.
Lu Xun is just an underage high school student, they probably wouldn’t even bother giving him a chance to showcase his skills.
... But I have to try anyway, if there’s no opportunity, you create one.
What you think, you do.
It’s just past six in the evening, and soon they will close for the day.
Lu Xun directly flagged down a car on the road, heading to the largest antique market in Jinghai City.
.
.
Jinghai City, Zone 7.
This is where the largest antique market in the city is located.
The largest Antique Trading House in the city is also situated here.
Blessed Treasure Pavilion, Jinghai Branch.
This one shop alone monopolizes 60% of the transactions in the entire antique market.
But trading artifacts is just one of the many businesses of the Treasure Pavilion.
It is said that the company has significant backing, with its own relic archaeology team, and even a Pioneer Corps for rift exploration.
Although it’s just a branch, it’s still a giant in a small place like Jinghai City.
The subdivision building of the Trading House.
In an office, several executives are discussing a very important relic excavation project.
In the main seat sits a mature woman in a white cheongsam, her skin fair as snow, with beautiful features, a voluptuous chest, and graceful body curves.
Her every move exudes a refined and elegant aura.
... A kind of aristocratic deanor unique to noble families.
"Headquarters has urged us again; next month we need to head to that underwater relic, we must prepare quickly and not miss the ti," Ding Xuezhu said to the people in front of her.
Her words were gentle, her expression calm, exuding a dignified aura.
"Please rest assured, President Ding, all the connections have been smoothed out, and the embassy of the Human Federation stationed with the Naga Sea Race has sent a reply, granting archaeological permission," soone respectfully reported.
"The deep-sea submarine and various underwater operation equipnt are all prepared. Underwater exploration, blasting, welding, cutting, surveying, photography, engineering... and signal transmission, all equipnt is in place," another person added.
"What about safety?" Ding Xuezhu softly asked, "The risks of excavating underwater relics cannot be ignored."
"The dical team and rescue divers are all organized, the escort team is also ready with ten ’Jiao Dragon·Type 7’ underwater battle chas, and over a hundred elite warriors. We’re still missing so high-level team leaders, but they can be recruited in the next few days," a subordinate reported truthfully.
"Hmm, well done." Ding Xuezhu nodded with a smile.
"Uh... President Ding, but there’s a rather troubleso issue," a person said hesitantly after a mont, "We couldn’t recruit the ’Ancient Demon Race linguistic experts’ you ntioned."
"Hmm?" She blinked, "Couldn’t invite those old professors? I said to relax the terms if needed, didn’t you offer them more money?"
"The old professors are all unavailable, and they won’t co even with more money," the subordinate scratched his head, looking puzzled, "I increased the salary fivefold, but they’re still not interested, those old guys have such quirky temperants, very difficult to please."
This is the downside of having a private archaeological team; so archaeological giants aren’t available for hire just with money.
A daily salary of fifty million, and they still won’t budge... a daily salary!
There really are people in this world who can see money as dirt.
Only the official archaeological teams of the Human Federation can get those stubborn old n to co.
"Is that so... Hmm, understood." Ding Xuezhu pondered for a few seconds, then gently said to everyone, "I’ll go to headquarters and ask them to help with this... You all go ahead and prepare the other matters first."
"Yes, President Ding."
"We’ll take our leave now, please continue with your work."
The group stood up, left their seats, and exited the office.
Ding Xuezhu lowered her head, her chest pressing against the edge of the table, and continued her work.
Yet just as they left, the office door was knocked again.
"Co in."
With a creak, it was Manager Zhang who entered.
He took a few steps in, then stood respectfully, reporting:
"President Ding, there’s a peculiar custor on the first floor, you might need to see to it personally."
"Hmm? Tell ."
"He ca into the store twenty minutes ago, only touching, not buying, road the first floor, then picked out seven artifacts, claiming they were misrepresented, and said our store was false, drawing quite a crowd," Manager Zhang said.
Hearing this, Ding Xuezhu blinked and asked, "Was he right?"
If it’s a guy here to cause trouble, the store’s security will take care of it, and if they can’t, they can call the police and let the security officers handle it.
However, with Manager Zhang coming to her, it indicates this situation isn’t simple.
"Hmm, that custor is a very young handso guy. I thought he was just soone seeking fa, having learned a bit and daring to show off here.
With spectators around, to save face, I called out all four appraisers in the store to confront him, intending to embarrass him..."
He chuckled bitterly, "Turns out he overpowered all four, leaving them speechless, sincerely convinced, and acknowledging defeat... While the seven artifacts weren’t fake, there were indeed errors in assessnt, the product information didn’t match the reality."
Hmm?!
Ding Xuezhu’s eyes lit up.
Being an appraiser, just like with many major surgeries, there’s no 100% success rate.
No matter how skilled an appraiser is, mistakes can still happen.
She knows very well the skills of the four experts in the store.
While they each have their own fields of expertise, they are all well-respected archaeological experts.
Yet they were ’defeated’ in their professional fields by a young man?
The saying goes "Don’t challenge my livelihood with your hobby."
But he dares not only challenge, but smash their livelihoods.
"The four masters couldn’t beat him?" she confird once more.
"Hmm, they couldn’t rebut him and all admitted defeat."
"Very young?"
"... Younger than my son who’s still in college," Manager Zhang shrugged.
Now, Ding Xuezhu’s interest and curiosity were completely piqued, she slowly stood, her waist swaying, and walked towards the outside:
"Alright, well, no one visits the temple for no reason, I should go et this little guy and see what he’s really up to?"
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