Keepsake

"Forget it. Compared to the other buyers, that guy's offer was at least reasonable," Du Zhizhang said as he draped an arm over Chang Ziteng's shoulder. Smiling at Xu Mo, he added, "Let's go check out the rest of the shard trading zones. Once we've exchanged for Huaxia currency, we'll take you to the Derivative Trading Zone to see some interesting stuff."

The L6 Green Special Shard Trading Zone was noticeably quieter than the bustling L4 and L5 zones. Although there were plenty of customers, the number of stalls was scarce—only a dozen or so—and most of the goods consisted of unactivated raw shards or regenerated shards. As for green shards with activated abilities, there were only four or five, each possessing laughably useless powers.

However, Xu Mo noticed several ability users who, unlike them, were not wearing the standard-issue numbered black cloaks. These individuals dressed flamboyantly—some wore long, flowing robes like martial artists from novels, while others donned tight black suits resembling futuristic warriors from the movies. Their masks were equally unique, each one reflecting a distinct personal style.

"Brother Du, those people… they must be the so-called senior members, right? They're easy to spot," Xu Mo asked.

Du Zhizhang nodded. "That's right. Each of these senior members has strengthened themselves with at least forty shards. Not only are they incredibly powerful, but many of them also lead their own exclusive organizations of Apocalyptic shard wielders. Unless you've been in the Alliance long enough to familiarize yourself with each senior member's temperament, it's best to avoid interacting with them outside of standard transactions. Anyone who's managed to reach senior membership is no pushover. If you offend them, someone like us—who has no backing—could be in serious trouble."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Following Du Zhizhang's advice, Xu Mo didn't pay much attention to the senior members. He merely glanced at them before shifting his gaze elsewhere.

After wandering through the L6 zone for about ten minutes, Xu Mo and his group arrived at the L7 Blue Intelligence Shard Trading Zone.

Due to the presence of various Apocalyptic Mirage shard-formed creatures being openly sold, the L7 zone resembled a miniature pet market. However, possibly due to the rarity of blue shards, there were no unactivated blue Apocalyptic Mirage shards for sale. The activated shard creatures on display numbered only about twenty, most of which took the form of Earth-native animals—mainly mammals, with a few birds and insects mixed in.

Clearly, the blue shard creatures available here were all leftovers, rejected multiple times. The majority had little to no combat ability, and their skills were mostly impractical—some were even less useful than the "Divine Beast Mode" of an alpaca. At best, they were mildly offensive pets.

That said, Xu Mo was surprised to find two anomalies in the L7 market—"Tenacious Pufferfish" and "Thunderlight Jellyfish."

The Tenacious Pufferfish was a black-skinned pufferfish the size of a fist, with round, cartoonishly large eyes. It had no offensive capability but possessed a special ability called "Self-Inflation," which allowed it to instantly expand its body size by several dozen times.

The Thunderlight Jellyfish was a translucent, meter-wide jellyfish with long, flowing tentacles. In the dark, it emitted a soft blue glow. Its special ability, "High-Voltage Discharge," enabled it to release a 500-volt electric shock through its numerous tendrils.

Despite the stark difference in their abilities, both shard creatures shared one major limitation—they were aquatic organisms and could only function properly in water. On land, the Tenacious Pufferfish was nothing more than a ball that could roll around, while the Thunderlight Jellyfish was even worse—just a limp, gelatinous blob.

No Apocalyptic shard wielder would willingly enter water to engage in battle, which was likely why both creatures were so undervalued. The Thunderlight Jellyfish, which had great growth potential, was priced at only 900 Fruit Coins, while the Tenacious Pufferfish was marked at an absurdly low 100 Fruit Coins.

Perhaps because of its round and adorable appearance—or simply because 100 Fruit Coins was pocket change—Xu Mo bought the Tenacious Pufferfish before leaving the L7 zone, keeping it as a memento of his first visit to the World Fruit Trade Alliance.

On the way to the L8 Electronics Trading Zone, Xu Mo fiddled with the little pufferfish in his hands. Suddenly, he asked Du Zhizhang about something that had been puzzling him.

"Brother Du, I've noticed that a lot of useless shards here are being sold at prices way lower than unactivated regenerated shards. Doesn't anyone try to buy up these cheap shards, transfer them all to one person, then kill that person to reset the shards back to their original state? Of course, I don't condone such actions."

"You've got sharp eyes. I didn't even think about this at first," Chang Ziteng interjected. He picked up the Tenacious Pufferfish from Xu Mo's hands, squeezing it a few times before explaining, "Didn't you notice how few people in the Alliance sell regenerated shards? There used to be a lot of scum who made a fortune by slaughtering innocent civilians just to reset shards. Their actions severely threatened the secrecy of the Alliance's existence. To counter this, the Alliance quickly established a rule—anyone who sells more than two regenerated shards within a month must undergo an official investigation. If they can't explain the source of the shards, they will be permanently expelled from the Alliance and have all their Fruit Coins confiscated. Because of this, very few people dare to engage in such practices anymore… but as for killing to steal shards for personal strength, well, that's still rampant. The Alliance has no effective way to control that."

Upon entering the L8 Electronics Trading Zone, the first thing Xu Mo saw was a massive station filled with hundreds of individual booths. Above the central front desk, a colossal display screen constantly refreshed with various pieces of information, making the place look like a large-scale internet café. Though the area was crowded, the only sounds were the faint clacking of keyboards and the occasional mouse click—far quieter than the previous trading zones.

Xu Mo followed Du Zhizhang and Chang Ziteng to an unoccupied booth and took a seat.

With practiced ease, Du Zhizhang inserted his membership card into a brandless all-in-one computer. Instantly, the desktop—adorned with an abstract multicolored fruit plate logo—switched to a white-background webpage displaying a welcome screen, with numerous tables of constantly refreshing data.

After Du Zhizhang gave him a brief rundown of the electronic trading page's functions, Xu Mo tried it himself at the neighboring booth, carefully browsing through the various listings.

As expected of the wealthy World Fruit Trade Alliance, the website's design was on par with major corporate trading platforms. In fact, since it dealt with a far smaller volume of information than traditional commerce sites, its interface was even more visually appealing and user-friendly. Anyone who could read would be able to navigate it proficiently within five minutes. For those still struggling, the site even offered an option to request a dedicated staff member for a personal tutorial—though, of course, this service came with a fee.

The website was divided into four main sections: Shard Purchase Requests, Shard Consignment Sales, Information Trading, and Other Transactions.

The Shard Purchase Requests section had the most listings, but most were low-price offers for unactivated raw shards or regenerated shards. Although many people browsed this section, few actual transactions took place.

The Shard Consignment Sales section, on the other hand, was a treasure trove. Similar to the purchase section, it was divided into six subcategories, but the items listed here were all rare and powerful high-quality shards. Xu Mo even spotted a few Tier-2 Apocalyptic Shards among the high-traffic listings. Since these were sold via auction, there was no fixed price, but even the lowest-priced Tier-2 Yellow Shard—which granted the ability to summon an Uzi submachine gun—had a starting bid of 10,000 Fruit Coins.

To Xu Mo, this price seemed ridiculous. If converted to Huaxia currency, that amount could probably buy an entire truckload of firearms—assuming he knew the right channels.