Chapter 150: The Updated Exchange

Only upon hearing Xi Yan’s words did the man seem somewhat reassured.
After finishing his meal, the man wiped his mouth, rubbed his hands against his clothes, and looked up at Xi Yan with a wide, beaming smile, saying, "Mister, you are a good man!"
With those words, the man turned and left without looking back. Yet, as he departed, a sachet slipped from him. Seeing the sachet hit the ground, Xi Yan wanted to open his mouth to call the man back, but in the brief instant it took him to raise his head, the man had already vanished.
Xi Yan had no choice but to take a few steps forward and pick up the sachet from the ground.
The moment his fingers brushed against the sachet, the system's voice suddenly echoed beside him.
"Congratulations, player Xi Yan, on gaining favor with a hidden NPC and triggering a random drop reward."
NPC? Reward?
Staring at the sachet in his hand, Xi Yan's head was filled with a multitude of question marks.
This instance dungeon was truly the strangest one he had encountered in all this time; it actually explicitly designated NPCs within its bounds.
Most NPCs in other dungeons seemed completely unaware that they were NPCs, and they didn't even seem to understand what the term meant—much like Ah Yuan back then.
Thinking of Ah Yuan, his mind drifted to Ah Yuan's mysterious origins. Ah Yuan should have been a human, yet it remained unknown what kind of events he had experienced, as well as his own background.
Xi Yan remembered the keeper he had met in the maze dungeon who had mentioned his father. Could it be that he wasn't an orphan after all? If he wasn't an orphan, then why had his father abandoned him and his younger sister?
Xi Yan shook his head with a sigh and lowered his gaze to the sachet in his hand.
Since the system had already stated that this was a dropped reward, he might as well open it up and see what was inside.
Xi Yan unfastened the sachet. An exaggerated burst of golden light flashed across his eyes, so dazzling that it made him instinctively squeeze them shut. When the radiance faded and he was able to open his eyes again, he discovered that inside the sachet lay a translucent core crystal.
"This drop is certainly rather generous..." Gazing at the core crystal in his palm, Xi Yan felt at a loss for words.
Although this item might not necessarily hold immense utility for him personally, it was nevertheless an extremely rare treasure.
As he looked at the core crystal, an idea suddenly struck Xi Yan, prompting him to immediately open his control panel.
The updated control panel made it much easier to locate the entrance to each section. Xi Yan tapped on the "Trading Post."
Ever since the control panel had been updated, he hadn't bothered to check the "Trading Post." Opening it now, he discovered that it only required a one-touch search to find corresponding items, completely abandoning the categorized layout of the past.
The current "Trading Post" featured only two sections:
For Sale, and Purchase.
Xi Yan clicked on "For Sale" without hesitation, and the familiar system voice promptly rang out.
"Please enter the item you wish to sell."
"Um... a core crystal..."
"Please place your item on the tray to your left. The system will appraise the grade of your item."
Accompanied by the system's voice, a tray manifested to Xi Yan's left. It was quite peculiar, as it had materialized entirely out of thin air.
Nonetheless, Xi Yan placed the core crystal in his hand upon it.
"Appraised by the system, your core crystal belongs to the advanced tier. The auction interface is about to be initiated for you. Do you confirm?"
"Oh, is there such a thing as an auction now? Could this be what the system meant earlier when it said higher-grade core crystals require communication with the buyer?"
Xi Yan immediately selected "Yes."
Immediately afterward, a translucent blue dialogue box appeared before his eyes. Inside the box was a black silhouette, accompanied by a button labeled "Virtual Voice."
Such a technological scene made Xi Yan feel for a fleeting second that societal order still existed, and that he was merely dreaming at this moment.
"Communicating with the buyer, please wait..."
However, the system's voice shattered his train of thoughts. Xi Yan emitted a self-deprecating, cold chuckle, thinking to himself: *If only this really were a dream...*
"How much are you selling this core crystal in your hand for?"
Another person's voice suddenly emerged from the pale blue dialogue box before him, and the black silhouette within the box shifted slightly.
Xi Yan guessed that the black silhouette was likely some form of pixelated mosaic designed to conceal the other party's true appearance. As for this virtual voice... it was presumably a device used to alter one's vocal tones.
Xi Yan tapped the virtual voice option to test it out.
"What price are you willing to offer?" Xi Yan asked.
He asked this because he had no earthly idea how much a core crystal like this could fetch.
Aside from this one, he possessed another core crystal gifted to him by Lin Ye, though he was reluctant to use that one, especially since he still had no idea who had given it to him in the first place.
"This..."
The other party hesitated for a moment before replying, "You must be well aware that the minimum market value for this type of core crystal is 500,000 points, while the highest recorded transaction barely reaches five million. How about one million from me? Although this core crystal can sell for a lot of points, not everyone has five million points lying around, right?"
One million one hundred thousand points?!
Xi Yan froze on the spot. Was this thing actually worth that many points?
Although he knew the item was exceptionally rare and had numerous uses, he hadn't expected it to command such an astronomical price...
Seeing that Xi Yan remained silent for a long time, the buyer assumed he was unwilling and spoke up once more.
"I'll add another 100,000 to make it 1.1 million. If you don't agree, I'll move on to look at other sellers."
"Agreed!!" Xi Yan hastily replied, refusing to let a meal already served to his mouth fly away.
"Very well, then it's a deal at 1.1 million points."
"It's a deal!"
The dialogue box in front of Xi Yan vanished, replaced once more by the system prompt echoing around him.
"The buyer wishes to purchase your item for 1.1 million points. Do you agree?"
"Yes!" Xi Yan immediately clicked the "Yes" button before him.
"Transaction complete. Your points will be deposited into your account shortly. Your item is currently being delivered to the buyer..."
After uttering those words, the system's voice faded away, and the dark night fell silent once again.
Although only Xi Yan could hear the system's voice just moments ago, the sudden return to quietude still left him feeling slightly unaccustomed.
"1.1 million?..." Xi Yan pinched himself to verify whether this was truly a dream.
"Ouch, that actually hurts..." Xi Yan drew in a sharp breath, then immediately opened his account balance, only to discover that his balance had indeed increased by a cool 1.1 million points.
"I'm a rich man now!" Even with the points staring back at him from his account, Xi Yan found it somewhat hard to believe. This was merely a minor reward dropped at random within an instance dungeon, yet it had sold for 1.1 million points!
This made Xi Yan suddenly feel as though earning points in the Land of Survival wasn't quite as difficult as he had imagined.
Not only that, but at this moment, he also felt that Qing Yan's previous "lavish" spending behavior didn't seem quite so outrageous after all.