The sun hadn't risen yet, so the sky was still dark. Even so, thousands of people were bustling behind the teleportation gate, lined with countless shops, each about the size of a supermarket or even a small department store.
Nawa looked at the various shop signs as he followed Nui. There were shops buying monster meat, equipment, and various items. But Nawa's gaze was fixed on a large shop at the end of the hallway. It looked like a small factory.
Above, a large 3D hologram depicted Hanuman with his mouth open, filled with various monsters. Next to it, what appeared to be the shop's name was written as (Overall).
Nui walked over and patted Nawa on the shoulder, speaking in a friendly manner:
"How's it going, friend? This is our company's monster meat purchasing point. It's considered the largest monster meat purchasing point in the country, capable of handling over a thousand tons of monster meat a day!"
"Wow! Your company is that big, huh?" Nawa exclaimed, his eyebrows slightly raised.
Nui smiled slightly before continuing proudly:
"Big? What are you talking about?"
"This is just one of eight monster meat purchasing points scattered across ASEAN countries. But all of that pales in comparison to the most advanced monster meat processing plant in ASEAN, developed by our Overall Company."
As you know, monster meat is many times stronger than any living creature on Earth. Even though its durability is greatly reduced after a monster dies, it remains too tough and chewy to be used as food. Therefore, it's necessary to process the monster meat to make it suitable for consumption.
There are various processing methods, whether using heat or grinding to soften the meat. The choice depends on the type of monster meat and the player's skill. However, if done poorly, there's a high chance the quality of the meat can drop by more than half.
Of course, this doesn't just mean a worse taste; it also means that the stats the player should gain from eating monster meat may be lost.
For common or professional-grade monster meat, it's not so bad, but for Elder-grade monster meat and above, a 10% loss of stats is a significant problem. Fortunately, the player's equipment system has a monster meat processing function.
Players simply place the monster meat in their dimensional inventory. Activating this function allows you to process monster meat, making it tender and ready for cooking, while maintaining its 100% flavor and quality.
However, players often avoid this function because of its high cost. It's comparable to the price of processing the monster meat itself. Furthermore, the system deducts a certain amount of reputation points each time this function is used. The higher the monster level, the higher the reputation points required.
The high service fee is one issue, but reputation points are extremely valuable to players. Besides covering system service fees, many other important functions require reputation points to activate, such as monster meat processing, auctions, and even guild functions.
Therefore, players need to carefully consider their reputation point spending each time. No amount of money can buy back reputation points. The only way players can earn them is by completing system quests.
For this reason, players who lack monster meat processing skills and don't want to use the system's processing function will bring the hunted monster meat back to their local world to use modern machinery for processing, even if the quality isn't as good as using the system's equipment.
However, it can maintain over 90% of the meat quality, and the processing costs are many times lower than what the system charges, plus there's no reputational damage whatsoever.
Currently, there is intense competition and development in monster meat processing technology. Overall Company is considered to have the best monster meat processing technology in the ASEAN region, capable of processing monster meat below the Warlord level almost perfectly, maintaining over 98% of the meat quality after processing.
But this achievement pales in comparison to Overall Corporation's ability to process Warlord-level monster meat. Even maintaining only 90% of the processed quality, it's still a monumental accomplishment, as only a few leading countries in the world can process Warlord-level monsters.
Currently, no country is capable of processing monster meat of levels higher than Warlord.
Because of this, Overall Corporation has become a major monster meat trader, commanding respect even from the country's three largest guilds.
"Good morning, young master. How can I serve you today?" the branch manager asked politely upon seeing Nui enter.
"Listen, this is my friend. He's here to sell monster meat to us while I'm in a meeting. Please take care of him."
"Yes, young master," the manager replied seriously, bowing slightly.
"Thank you so much, friend. I can handle this myself. There's no need to trouble the manager," Nawa interjected, feeling considerate.
"You're still as considerate as ever. Listen carefully, friend. Our Overall Corporation usually only buys meat from members, and the application process can take days."
"I guess you don't want to waste that much time, do you?"
Nui explained briefly, but the truth he didn't tell Nawa was that those who sold monster meat to the Overall Company were either from major guilds or high-ranked players. It was rare for low-ranked players to sell meat directly to the Overall Company.
Nawa nodded slightly before agreeing. Even though Nawa disliked using connections, he couldn't waste that much time now. Before leaving, Nui arranged to meet Nawa again in two hours in front of The One Association for a meal and to catch up with old friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time.
After filling out the paperwork, Nawa followed the manager into the store. Inside, the building was divided into checkout lanes, like the checkout lines in a department store, with more than ten lanes.
The difference was that where the payment counters should have been, they were instead the monster meat purchasing area. The monster meat purchasing area resembled a giant kiosk. A conveyor belt led to another building.
"This way," the manager said, leading Nawa to the shortest line.
While waiting, Nawa scanned his surroundings, observing his surroundings. He noticed that most of the players in line were wearing dirty, shabby clothes. Even without the detection system, it was clear they were mediocre attire, only slightly better than the free guild uniforms Nawa used to wear.
Each player carried a backpack similar to those used by mountain climbers, but two to three times larger. At the purchasing point, they opened their bags, revealing large pieces of meat. Some were organs or internal parts of monsters.
After emptying their bags, they took out more monster meat from their dimensional storage. Nawa estimated that, judging by the size of the monster meat, these creatures, when alive, might be three to four times larger than African elephants.
Given their immense size, they were likely at least professional-level monsters. Even Rank C players wouldn't dare underestimate them; hunting them would require high-grade artifacts. But the clothes these people were wearing were just ordinary.
It seemed that the people selling monster meat here were player laborers who worked transporting meat for hunting teams, Nawa thought to himself.
After a while, it was Nawa's turn.
"Sir, please place the monster meat you want to sell here,"
The manager said to Nawa politely, causing those around him to turn and look at Nawa with interest. It was well known how arrogant this manager was. Unless you were a high-ranked player, it was rare for him to come down and talk to you. But now, he was welcoming and acting especially respectful to someone.
"Is he a high-ranked player? The manager is showering him with such deference," a man nearby remarked.
"Are you blind? That outfit he's wearing is just a linen set. Even laborers wouldn't wear something like that. I bet he's a newbie who accidentally found a giant monster egg and is selling it."
"That's right. Something like that is worth at least ten million baht. No wonder the manager is giving him such a warm welcome."
Giant monster eggs or larvae can be found in monsters of Elder rank and above. Although the eggs or larvae provide significantly fewer stats than adult monsters, their much smaller size means they can be consumed in 1-2 days, whereas you could eat an adult monster every day for 3 months and still not finish it.
After all the calculations, the stat benefits from eating a monster egg or larva are many times higher than eating an adult monster of the same type. This is why they command such a high price. If an entire Elder-rank monster costs 1 million baht, the eggs or larvae… Its price could reach 10-20 million baht.
But monster eggs or larvae of Elder-level monsters and above are extremely rare. The larval stage of a monster is very short, and when a monster lays eggs or protects its offspring, it becomes many times more ferocious and stronger. Even high-ranked players can't handle Elder-level monsters in that situation.
The surrounding working-class players and employees of the Overall Company all stared at Nawa with envy, thinking he was the lucky one to have found a giant monster egg. But when Nawa took the monster meat out of his dimensional storage, their expectant expressions instantly turned to astonishment.
"That's...a common-level monster, isn't it?"
"Why would the manager personally oversee something so ordinary? Could he be the descendant of a high-ranking official?"
"What kind of high-ranking official would wear such shabby clothes? I bet this manager has ulterior motives with this young man. Look at his face; he's good-looking enough to be a model."
People speculated about Nawa's identity in various ways. Most of the feedback was negative. Nawa didn't bother to explain anything; his mind was focused on appraising the carcass of the Snail Sheep in front of him.
"How much is it selling for?" Nawa asked.
The employee looked at the appraisal screen before answering politely.
"This is the meat of a common, adult Snail Sheep. Normally, the purchase price is 40 copper coins, but since the wool has been removed, the price is 29 copper coins."
Hearing this, Nawa smiled with satisfaction. Although it was slightly less than the system's appraisal on the player's device, it was more than double the purchase price at other shops.
"Then I'll sell all of this," Nawa said, extending his hand into the air.
Suddenly, dozens of Snail Sheep carcasses gushed out of thin air, piling up higher than Nawa's head.
"W-what is this?" the manager exclaimed in astonishment. Not only the manager, but also the employees and players nearby widened their eyes in disbelief at what they were seeing.
"Is something wrong?"
"Or is there a limit on the amount we'll buy here?" Nawa asked, frowning slightly with worry. He'd gotten a satisfactory price; it would be a shame if there were a limit on the amount he could sell.
"N-n-no, it's not like that. Although the Snail Shell is a common monster, its meat is still in high demand, especially its wool, which is considered a top-tier commodity. Even if you had ten times more, we'd still gladly buy it all. I just haven't seen anyone with such a large dimensional storage space before."
The manager estimated that Nawa's dimensional storage was likely a Level 4 storage, with a capacity 20 times greater than before.
Upgrading to this level required paying the system 500 gold coins, or more than 500 million baht. Such a huge sum of money was unattainable even for high-ranked players. In Thailand, only about 10 Rank A players or the descendants of the five wealthiest families in the country could possibly afford to upgrade their storage to this level.
"How much is all this monster meat worth?" Nawa deliberately changed the subject. He didn't want to lie, and he didn't want to reveal the size of his dimensional storage.
"I apologize, but due to the large quantity of monster meat, we need some time to verify. However, if everything goes as planned, it should be around 15 silver coins."
The manager spoke, bowing to Nava more politely than usual. He thought to himself that Nava must be from a very wealthy family.
After a short while, the manager informed him of the price of all the monster meat: 15 silver coins and 39 copper coins. As soon as Nava agreed, the employee brought out energy crystals and handed them to him.
Trading behind the teleportation gate is commonly done using energy crystals. This is because players who have just emerged from The Oneness are often unaware of news from the world. Trading with world currency could lead to errors due to currency fluctuations. It's also convenient if players want to return to The Oneness.
Nawa looked at the pile of energy crystals with delight. Combined with the energy crystals in his dimensional storage, Nava now had more than 20 silver coins worth of energy crystals, or more than two hundred thousand baht.
Even though this amount wasn't enough to pay off his loan... It came from the Playforclash company, but it was enough to improve her mother and younger brother's living conditions to some extent. And that was another reason, besides the Rank A murderer, for Nawa returning to Earth after being in The Oneness for only a few days.
After leaving the butcher shop, Nava went straight to the energy crystal trading point to exchange a quantity of energy crystals for cash to give to her mother and younger brother.