Chapter 173: Chapter 173
“Your Gluttonous Body’s devoured version of the Entropy Scythe.”
The Trader seemed completely indifferent to how shocked Jiang Ye was.
After returning the Tier-4 Gluttonous Body Glyph Pattern Ability to the 4444 Administrator Replica, he spoke casually.
Jiang Ye’s 4444 Administrator Replica gave it a brief test, and was faintly shocked inside.
Because this devoured version of the Entropy Scythe was far stronger than he’d imagined.
The key was—it felt incredibly natural in his hands.
It was as if that invisible scythe had truly become a part of his body.
Like that “sword-body unity” state from cultivation novels.
So he’d experienced “man-axe unity” before.
But now, he could clearly feel—
His sense of unity with the Entropy Scythe was even stronger than with the Giant Axe!
He even had a momentary illusion that he’d mastered a game-breaking spatial ability…
As if with a single wave of his hand, he could tear open space.
He could punch through the very space this Trader had conjured, which resembled the Administrator PK Arena.
Back when the Light-Type Replica had tried to smash through the Secret Graveyard’s barrier under 4444, it had taken who knows how many strikes with the Entropy Scythe.
But now, it felt like he could shatter that barrier with just one light tap!
Jiang Ye thought, if he had really followed that eccentric Eerie Nurturer’s advice and used all kinds of Stellar-Tier or even Eternal-Tier items to devour the Entropy Scythe...
It probably wouldn’t have worked this well.
The Trader’s method of helping someone upgrade their Glyph Pattern Ability worked even better!
Of course, the biggest deal was—
The Entropy Scythe had originally been a limited-time item!
Even if devoured, it would only become a pseudo-Tier-4 ability, with the risk of losing the devouring effect anytime and dropping back to Tier-3.
But Jiang Ye could clearly feel—he had truly advanced to Tier-4 Gluttonous Body!
The Entropy Scythe had seemingly turned from a time-limited item into something he now permanently owned!
Did the Trader really create an Entropy Scythe out of thin air?!
Jiang Ye was once again shaken!
At this moment, the Trader’s casual “Alright, show me”...
Jiang Ye had a vague feeling—it meant he wanted him to demonstrate the Entropy Scythe on him…?
“Uh, can I test it on you?”
The Trader still had that indifferent attitude: “Up to you.”
So, the 4444 Administrator Replica casually waved toward the Trader.
A streak of dark light sliced through the air.
It moved incredibly fast, packed with immense momentum and power.
But the next second, the Trader calmly lifted his hand.
That dark light froze right in front of him!
He seemed to casually catch it with his bare hand, toyed with it for a moment, and then let it slice through a single black finger condensed from his robe.
Then he praised Jiang Ye: “Not bad at all.”
Jiang Ye thought: Not bad, my a**?!
I chopped off one of your fingers and that’s “not bad”?!
Whatever, as long as you’re happy! ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novelFɪre.net
Besides, he really could feel the strength of the devoured version of the Entropy Scythe.
And the best part—it felt like he got it for free.
No pain, no price paid.
Jiang Ye, satisfied, retrieved the Entropy Scythe, which could now shrink or expand at will like a giant axe.
Just for fun, he shrank it down and stuffed it into his ear :)
The Trader seemed to enjoy that too and smiled:
“I agreed to both of your requests.”
“I’ll come find you tomorrow at noon sharp to trade the Reincarnation Key.”
As he spoke, he clearly looked like he was about to leave.
Jiang Ye caught the cue and hurriedly called out, “Hey! Wait!”
The Trader paused: “What? You trying to add more conditions?”
Though he still sounded casual, like it didn’t matter—
Jiang Ye faintly sensed danger.
Like if he tried to push it any further, the Trader wouldn’t indulge him anymore.
But Jiang Ye hadn’t planned to press further. He quickly explained:
“No more conditions. I just wanted to make a proper trade with you—you know, the kind where I exchange Survival Points for items.”
A proper trade—this was the Trader’s official function.
Naturally, he didn’t refuse. In fact, he generously said:
“Normally, with your privilege identity, your exchange list would be quite limited.”
“But since you agreed to trade the Reincarnation Key, I’ll expand your access list a bit.”
“Also, for this round of trades, you get a 20% discount.”
As he spoke, he waved a hand.
A light screen appeared in front of Jiang Ye.
It displayed a dazzling array of items.
Offensive items, support items, special items, eerie items…
All sorts—seemingly everything imaginable!
But Jiang Ye noticed that some of the items were also available in the Rookie King and Administrator trade zones.
And in those zones, the prices were cheaper than what the Trader offered.
The Trader seemed to pick up on his thoughts and casually explained:
“The trade zones available to Administrator-type privilege identities are like secondhand markets.”
“But what I provide is the official flagship store.”
“Many of those items in the trade zone were bought from me, then dumped when they weren’t needed anymore, or scavenged after killing someone. That’s why they’re sold cheap.”
“For average items, yeah, buying from the trade zone is more cost-effective than exchanging with me.”
“But you need to think this through—”
“In the Doomsday Apartment, what you don’t know will always outnumber what you do know.”
“Those secondhand items with unclear origins might very well have been tampered with.”
“Whereas the official products I offer, due to my own privilege identity, are guaranteed to be untampered with.”
“And some special items can’t be found in the secondhand market at all—they’re only available through me.”
Jiang Ye could understand all that.
He also noticed that the cheaper items in the trade zone really were just ordinary goods.
As for things like Attribute Fruit and Skill Scrolls, which everyone needed, the prices weren’t actually lower in the trade zone.
Since the Trader was giving him a 20% discount,
buying Attribute Fruit and Skill Scrolls here was actually a good deal.
Besides, Jiang Ye was already calculating—
A lot of the loot he’d collected from corpses but had no use for could be tossed into the trade zone and turned into Survival Points.
Thinking of this, he suddenly asked the Trader:
“You don’t accept secondhand items on your end?”
The Trader replied bluntly: “Secondhand stuff? I don’t buy or sell it—I have standards.”
Fine, you're so impressive, so refined, your standards are sky-high.
Jiang Ye scrolled for a bit. At first, he was planning to pick out a few Golden-Tier Attribute Fruits.
But after doing some quick math, he quickly realized the issue—
A single Golden-Tier Attribute Fruit cost 10 Survival Points.
Even with a 20% discount, that was still 8 Survival Points.
And it only gave +10 to an Attribute.
But when Jiang Ye used Survival Points to create Replicas—
Even the average ones, like Replica No. 1, had 1.2 in Stamina and 2.4 in Energy.
That’s 3.6 total Attribute points.
Not to mention, Replicas also came with Abilities and Skills.
Plus, they could keep improving by consuming all the Silver-Tier and lower Attribute Fruits (+19.5), and by leveling up (+20).
In other words, creating a Replica could yield almost 40 Attribute points on average.
One costs 8 Survival Points for 10 Attribute points;
The other costs 1 Survival Point for 40 Attribute points!
The gap between them…
Under these circumstances, there was no point in exchanging for Golden-Tier Attribute Fruits!
Creating Replicas was way more efficient!
And when he compared the price of every item in the list against the cost of creating one Replica per 1 Survival Point…
He realized that spending Survival Points on anything else was a complete loss!
At the very least, everything was far worse than creating Replicas.
With this clear value comparison, Jiang Ye instantly felt—
Every Survival Point item lost its appeal!
Even the weakest of his Replicas was better than any Survival Point item!
With that thought, the entire exchange list was suddenly meaningless to him.
Survival Point items simply weren’t worth it.
But there was still something he urgently needed.
There were too many items in the exchange list, and it was hard to sort through.
So Jiang Ye directly asked the Trader:
“By the way, do you have any item here that can help me solidify an S-tier skill from trial version to permanent?”
While Jiang Ye already knew the Trader was nearly omniscient,
he didn’t expect the guy would immediately respond with:
“Oh, you’re talking about your S-tier skill Soul Link—you want to convert it from a trial version to permanent, right?”