novelhk Page 438
Page 438
"you you……"
The moss crab, its pincers partially broken, angrily pointed at the three-legged fish lying indifferently by the lake. Its other pincers creaked and groaned. After a long while, it angrily tossed down a handful of shrimp coins, picked up a black fruit from the stall, and strutted sideways, muttering under its breath:
"Our data collection team is really unlucky to have encountered a rear support like yours!"
"The situation at the rear is like this: the data collection team only needs to be responsible for scanning the maps, while we back-end personnel have to consider many other things."
The three-legged fish chuckled, pocketed the shrimp coins, and called out to the mossy crab that had already walked away:
"Our offer will stand the test of time!"
Seeing the moss crab raise its middle finger with its broken pincers, the three-legged fish laughed, shook its head, reached into the lake with both hands, pulled out another black bone-regenerating fruit, placed it on its stall, then submerged half its body in the lake water, yawning and calling out:
"Bone-Growing Fruit, clearance sale! Once this batch is sold out, there won't be another one!"
Suddenly, three pairs of sturdy iron boots appeared in front of it.
The three-legged fish raised its head, looked at the three human knights (one large and two small), paused for a moment, and then asked:
"You...you also want to buy Bone-Growing Fruit?"
Jennifer fiddled with a hundred-dollar shrimp coin in her hand, flicked it with her thumb, caught it, and watched the three-legged fish's eyes follow the coin's movement. A smile played on her lips as she said:
Want some shrimp coins?
"..."
The three-legged fish sized up the three knights, rose slightly from the lake, straightened up, and asked:
"What do you want? We three-legged fish can get you anything."
"It seems you are capable of making decisions."
Jennifer smiled slightly, then snapped her hand open, letting the hundred-yuan shrimp coins roll from the pad of her index finger to the pad of her little finger. She then closed her hand again and said:
“I’ve already squatted down and observed. Although you’re not very close to where the three-legged fish gather, the distribution of the three-legged fish stalls seems to revolve around you. The three-legged fish that go up the slope to buy fish will subconsciously pass by you first to greet you.”
"...What do you mean by this?" The three-legged fish's arms bulged slightly as he spoke with a cold and stern expression:
"If there's nothing else, please don't disturb me while I'm doing my business."
Jennifer raised an eyebrow, casually picked up a shrimp coin, and said:
"Although other stalls also have raw bone fruit, the mossy crab doesn't try to ask other stall owners for a discount. If it's not a hard and fast rule, then the pricing power must be in your hands."
Without waiting for the three-legged fish to reply, she tossed out the shrimp coins in her hand.
"Hey!"
The three-legged fish's eyes widened, and it quickly propped itself up, reaching out its hands to catch the shrimp coin.
However, before it could even touch the fallen shrimp coin, it saw an iron boot easily catch it, and then with a flick of its toe, kick the shrimp coin back into its hand.
"Want to play a guessing game?"
Jennifer smiled and flicked the shrimp coin she had just kicked back into her hand, watching the three-legged fish stumble back into the lake, and said:
"The front features a statue of the king, and the back features a statue of an ancient tree. If you guess correctly, this shrimp coin with a face value of one hundred is yours."
The three-legged fish rubbed its hands together, somewhat intrigued, and asked:
"What if I guess wrong?"
“If you guessed wrong, then answer one question for me.” Jennifer showed me a few shrimp coins in her hand and said:
"How about it? A risk-free and highly profitable business."
"Such a small matter?" The three-legged fish burst into laughter. "You outsiders really underestimate me. Come on, I'm going to empty your shrimp coins today!"
"That's ambitious, but unfortunately, my gaming skills are so good that even Lazi has to give way."
Jennifer shrugged, flicked a shrimp coin without warning, let it spin rapidly in the air for a second, then slapped it onto the back of her hand. She crouched down slightly and asked with a smile:
"Pro or con?"
"..."
The three-legged fish's breath hitched. In that split second, it hadn't even realized what the human knight was doing. It had just heard the coin-flicking sound when it saw her cover her hand.
Such skillful technique, he's a master!
However... as the water controller of the moss tribe, the three-legged fish can see every detail clearly in the dark water and will not miss even a single valuable thing. Its eyesight is not to be underestimated!
"Correct!" Although somewhat uncertain, the three-legged fish shouted loudly.
"Then I'll guess the opposite."
Jennifer gently removed her covered hand, revealing a shrimp coin with an ancient tree facing upwards on the back of her hand.
"That's a pity." She twirled the shrimp coin and said with a smile:
"First question, what is the Bone-Growing Fruit?"
"Is that all?" The three-legged fish breathed a sigh of relief and muttered, "I thought they were here to investigate whether I had evaded taxes on behalf of the king..."
It thought for a moment and said:
"The Bone-Growing Fruit is a magical potion used to repair shells. It's of little use to us three-legged fish, but it's very important to the shrimp and crab tribes. It comes from an extremely complex body of water near the tribe, and only we three-legged fish know how to collect it."
"very good."
Jennifer nodded, flicked her thumb, sending the shrimp coin in her hand flying in a vertical zigzag line before landing it on the back of her hand. She smiled and asked:
"Pro or con?"
The three-legged fish stared intently at Jennifer's covered hand, the image of the shrimp coins spinning rapidly in the air slowly surfacing in its mind. It took a deep breath and called out firmly:
"opposite!"
Jennifer raised an eyebrow, held out her hand, and casually lifted the cover.
The image of the Moss King, with his long, trailing beard, appeared in the dim light of the night market.
Jennifer smugly hummed, glancing at the three-legged fish pounding the ground in frustration, and said with a smirk:
"The second question is, what happened during the harvesting of the Bone-Growing Fruit?"
……
……
"I wonder what that scumbag's purpose was..."
Latis glanced at Snyder, whose arm he was holding to prevent her from being pushed away, and saw her looking at the goods on the stall with sparkling eyes. He couldn't help but smile and said:
"I just exchanged 100 shrimp coins. Buy whatever you want."
"Eh……"
Snyder looked up at Latis, blinked, and obediently shook his head with a smile:
"Sir, I'm just looking around out of curiosity; there's nothing I want to buy."
"It's alright, don't mention it."
Latis shook his head, not bothering to persuade the overly sensible girl any further. After all, he already knew her personality a little better. Compared to girls like Leafa and Gita who had experienced a good environment in the Church of Light, Snyder was still habitually self-restrained. But there was nothing wrong with that; she just didn't seem very lively.
"Captain, why don't we go back and ask that mantis shrimp?" Holnet said, grabbing the back of his cloak and glancing at the surrounding monsters.
"I think the number of monsters has decreased a lot. It's possible that they're planning to rest because it's almost closing time."
"Is it too little?"
Latis stared at the still-crowded market, momentarily stunned. Seeing Holnet nod firmly, he couldn't help but mutter to himself:
"He clearly doesn't seem to have a very good memory... Could it be that he's only good at one subject? Or is he a master in the field of dynamic vision?"
"What does that mean?" Holnet tapped his chin, thought for a moment, and then, as if trying to save face, awkwardly explained:
"Although I can't remember names, I'm still very perceptive of monsters' movements. For example, the stall owner of the mantis shrimp stall behind us was hiding under the claws of a moss crab."
"what?"
Latis glanced back subtly, only to see countless ingredients.
He swallowed calmly, and said without changing his expression:
“I saw it, Holnett. What do you think its purpose is?”
"I thought so."
Holnett followed Latis, calmly continuing forward as he spoke:
“We just asked two or three stall owners, and they all had some complaints about that mantis shrimp. In their eyes, the mantis shrimp stall owner seemed to have nothing but wandering around in the wild.”
"But as far as we know, the wilderness of the Moss Tribe is very dangerous for these ordinary shrimp and crab monsters. Even without the interference of the Will of Light, there are many plants and ball monsters that attack them. So the assessment that they are just doing nothing in the wilderness is completely unfounded."
She stroked the short spear hanging at her waist and whispered:
"It must have a firm purpose to be willing to take all sorts of risks to keep moving around in the wild. As for this purpose, I think it is very likely related to the Demon King."
“The Demon King?” Latis stroked his chin, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, “Speaking of which, it does seem a bit off when we mention the Demon King, but I still can’t quite make out the shrimp’s expression; they look too much like food.”
"……food?"
Holnett, who had never been to the seaside or eaten proper sea shrimp before, widened his eyes slightly, hesitated for a moment, and then said with a sudden realization:
"Captain's vitality is so strong, so it's because he's been eating monsters..."
“Not really!”
Latis couldn't help but take a deep breath and shake his head.
Hearing the monsters chattering in his ears, Latis turned around and glanced in the direction he had come from. Then he looked at Snyder, who was staring intently at the goods on the stall. After thinking for a moment, he bent down and picked out a few trinkets, giving one to Snyder and one to Holnet.
"Master, I can't accept this..."
"Captain, I don't usually wear these unnecessary decorations..."
"Ugh, you two are such a hassle."
Latis sighed, returned the trinket, and replaced it with two glasses of sweet algae juice, which he handed to the two of them.
He ignored the two people examining the sweet algae juice and looked directly in the direction of the mantis shrimp stall owner. After a moment of contemplation, he smiled and said:
"Let's go back and find that scumbag stall owner."
……