Under equal power levels, attacks in the form of lightning or fire possess a much greater deterrent effect than other types.
Just as it was now, one strike of lightning was all it took to make everyone a lot more cooperative, allowing the trade to proceed normally.
Soon, the first person with the capital to trade stepped forward. He was a tall, burly man carrying a Sky Piercer Halberd on his back.
“Wanna swap for this?” the man asked bluntly, pulling out an item without any beating around the bush.
Mo Shao glanced at the object in his hand, and her eyes instantly lit up. She agreed immediately. “I can trade one machine for that.”
It was a card. The back featured a golden magic circle in the center, with a sun at the very core and a moon in the upper-left corner.
The front depicted a twin-tailed girl with her eyes closed, her dress formed from a cluster of flowers. Below her was the inscription: [THE FLOWER]!
It was none other than the Clow Card “The Flower” from Cardcaptor Sakura!
...
To most people, it was a rather useless Clow Card.
After all, this thing just produced flowers, and the flowers it created didn’t last forever. It had little use in daily life.
Furthermore, ordinary people didn’t possess a vast amount of mana like Sakura, allowing them to squander it at will during battle. It was essentially useless for combat as well.
But this item wasn’t entirely without merit—it never said it could only produce ordinary flowers. It could manifest any existing flower one could clearly visualize!
Of course, it required the appearance of a flower from reality, not one based on anime or game aesthetics. That wouldn’t work.
Since the apocalypse had arrived, various flowers with special properties were everywhere, and Mo Shao had seen plenty of them in her past life!
For instance, from the direction of the Plants vs. Zombies Phantom Realms in the west, there were Sunflowers, Chompers, Planterns, and Marigolds.
Hmm... looking at it that way, there weren’t actually many flowers among that generation of plants. No wonder he was willing to trade it away.
But it didn’t matter! Mo Shao had seen countless flowers in the Skyscreen Retrospectives during her previous life!
There were tons of flowers in Plants vs. Zombies 2 alone! She could still make use of them now!
As for the amount of mana required, that was even less of a problem—as a Magical Girl who moonlighted as a Witch, she happened to be the type with abundant mana!
More importantly, this card could be combined with the wood element in the Jewel of Life, enhancing its effectiveness even further!
Simply creating the flowers first and then using the wood element to catalyze them was much easier than creating plants from scratch using wood energy alone!
After all, it was the difference between specialization and generalization.
...
“Deal.” The burly man was very honest, making no attempt to haggle. The transaction concluded simply right then and there.
The man stepped forward and grabbed the Theme Gacha Machine with one hand. With a shift of his body, he hoisted it onto his back, carrying it as easily as if it were a water bottle.
It was unclear what he had Dead-bound, but Mo Shao could see that the Sky Piercer Halberd on his back was just the version from Soul Knight.
It was a green-tier weapon, so it probably wasn't his Dead-bound item.
Mo Shao considered this trade a win. A Clow Card was genuinely a good item, whereas the Theme Gacha Machine was just a duplicate for her.
Hmm... the other party likely felt he had won too.
Given that he carried a polearm, he clearly wasn't a magic user. The Clow Card was useless to him.
As for why a melee fighter would want a Theme Gacha Machine?
It was likely for his team. Compared to the Flower Clow Card, an infinite supply of firearms provided a much greater boost to a group.
However, aside from this first man who seized the initiative to complete a blunt transaction before the other major powers arrived...
Mo Shao felt a bit of a headache looking at the remaining traders who were gradually gathering with significant "wealth" and "bargaining chips."
A total of four faction types remained until the end. More accurately, there were four types of factions, though the actual number of individual groups was higher than four.
...
The first faction type was the official Chinese government.
Although there were no large-scale military forces in the city, basic police and paramilitary forces still existed, and they held quite a few firearms.
In fact, their elite combat power was relatively high. After all, the first stage for apocalypse survivors was to Dead-bind an object to their body.
The better one's physical condition, the higher the probability of completing a Dead-binding with Honkai energy, and naturally, the higher their chance of survival.
She estimated it wouldn't be long before they hoped to take control of Seven Hills City.
...
The second faction type consisted of construction workers.
Their physical constitutions were equally strong, and construction sites were filled with heavy machinery. They could find various weapons quite easily.
Furthermore, most workers were already familiar with each other, making it natural for them to band together.
Consequently, they had survived until now, though they were much more scattered, mostly grouped by their respective construction sites.
...
The third faction type was the city's students, mixed with a few faculty members.
As a student group, they naturally shared a common identity, and young people’s bodies were indeed quite good.
"Good" didn't refer to numerical stats but rather to potential; therefore, they were more likely to complete a Dead-binding.
Young people or those who exercised regularly held an advantage in this regard. The most unfortunate were those who were no longer young and never exercised.
Similar to the construction workers, the student factions were quite fragmented, with most consisting of a single school as one faction.
By the way, the people from Huipu High School who had been with her earlier were mixed in among them, though they certainly weren't here to buy anything.
After all, they still had nine machines. They were likely just checking the market rates to prepare for their own future sales.
There was no way they would keep all nine; that would be far too conspicuous and would inevitably draw trouble. However, they hadn't breathed a word about it yet, which was wise.
If they let the news leak, everyone would realize how many Theme Gacha Machines there were, and Mo Shao wouldn't be able to sell hers for a good price.
...
The fourth faction type was purely a collection of various small groups with different origins. Categorizing them individually was too much trouble, so they were lumped together.
Neighborhood groups, companies... all sorts of messy things.
Among them, however, one faction led by a woman caught Mo Shao's attention slightly—she was a Transformer.
She had blue hair and blue eyes, wearing a military cap, a long scarf, a battle skirt that covered her thighs, and slim-fit, over-the-knee high-heeled boots. She even carried a rapier...
She was Esdeath from Akame ga Kill!, possessing the Imperial Arm "Demon's Extract." She was a frost user.
Her strength was formidable, but unfortunately, her personality didn't suit Mo Shao's group.
Of course, among the many people present, she wasn't the only Transformer; this one was just more prominent.
And there was indeed a Transformer who deserved Mo Shao's attention.
Aris. Not the classic blonde Alice, but the student from Blue Archive.
Yes, the little girl with black hair and blue eyes from the "Holy Crap! A Box!" meme was Aris.
Her personality was perfect for Mo Shao's side. She carried the laser cannon [Sword of Light], had great combat power, and could develop toward the technology path in the future.
Mo Shao could lead her in that direction, since she had walked that path in her past life.
The team she wanted to build was an elite squad with a limited number of members, so it was best if each person's role didn't overlap.
More importantly, Aris seemed to be alone, and her connection to those around her was very weak.
She was perfect for recruiting... but how should she go about it?
Rate on N.U.
