Renee Kane wasn't worried about being scammed. Trades within the game were regulated; if the goods didn't match their description, you could file a complaint directly. The game had its own verification methods and would punish any party confirmed to be in violation.
In any case, trading these items for crafting station fragments was a net gain. With a crafting station, she could create many items that only existed within the game.
Rumor had it that if you could get the materials and blueprints, you could even craft a nuke by hand!
But that was just a rumor from her past life. In any case, Renee Kane had never seen such a thing before she died, because the materials were incredibly difficult to acquire.
Besides the trade offers spammed in the chat lobby, the trading hall also had plenty of items listed for sale, but they were mostly low-value or common odds and ends.
Just as Renee Kane was about to close the game panel, a message suddenly appeared in the chat lobby, making her pause.
Miss Black Tights: "Any other closed beta players here? Let's team up. With our strength, we could easily rule this entire train car."
Plenty of people immediately jumped in to respond.
"Silly Billy! What do you think you're doing?"
"So tough? Send me 50 Life Value and prove it."
"Let me touch those black tights?"
...
Miss Black Tights seemed to have been provoked by the taunts, as she posted a screenshot directly into the chat lobby.
"Holy shit! How do you have so many supplies?!"
"Miss, I'll be your dog! Can you spare some food? I'm dying of heatstroke, so hungry and thirsty I feel like I'm about to kick the bucket."
"Isn't anyone curious what this 'closed beta' is? Did she get all these supplies because of it? That's not fair! Why her?! We should find her and split her supplies evenly!"
This caused a huge stir. At a time when everyone was struggling so desperately to survive, this "Miss" could display such a massive inventory, instantly drawing everyone's ire.
But this person wasn't the least bit intimidated.
She immediately posted a screenshot of a tracking item. "Keep yapping. I don't have much, just a ton of supplies and Life Value. To all you big talkers, just wait until I track you down. Then we'll see if I don't slaughter you all."
As soon as she said that, all the IDs that had been clamoring to find her and divide her supplies vanished. Only those trying to suck up to her remained.
"Miss, look at me! I'm not a closed beta player, but I've got plenty of muscle. I can help you conquer the world!"
"What is this person trying to do?"
"Isn't it obvious? She's recruiting. She wants to rule the other cars and be the queen."
"Give me a break. Based on that ID and the way she talks, I'll eat my hat if that's not a guy pretending to be a girl."
...
It had to be said, although this Miss Black Tights was arrogant, she definitely had the resources to back it up.
She had sent a gift packet directly into the chat, which contained some water, bread, and even two grilled sausages.
After that, the messages fawning over her flooded the chat, scrolling too fast to read, with everyone hoping she would send out more gift packets.
Renee Kane narrowed her eyes, certain she had never seen this ID in her past life.
During the Pyralis instance in her previous life, she had been lucky enough to find this cave and hole up early on. Though she was short on food and clothing, she managed to scrape by thanks to the chests she occasionally dug up.
Back then, no closed beta player would have so brazenly jumped out and made themselves a target. The instances were just too unpredictable.
Even with ample supplies, if you ran into a desperate player who got lucky and found a powerful weapon, you'd still be in trouble. You might even end up doing all the hard work just for someone else to reap the benefits.
By the time the second instance began in her past life, many players had already formed their own factions, leveraging weapons they had acquired early on.
They acted like petty tyrants, using their military might to attract followers, whom they then used to oppress and enslave the people in the lower-ranked cars.
'Is the appearance of this Miss Black Tights another butterfly effect of my rebirth?'
'But with such a high-profile style, how could this person have been content to remain silent in my past life?'
'Unless…'
Renee Kane suddenly recalled being hunted down in her past life.
Her pursuers had claimed they were only retaliating because she had provoked them. But Renee Kane had been putting all her energy into just staying alive; she wouldn't have had the time or inclination to provoke anyone.
'I thought it was just an excuse for them to attack me, but now that I think about it, perhaps Vincent Sherman was pulling the strings behind the scenes.'
'Could it be… that there's an item, or a Skill, that lets you impersonate someone else?'
After all, while the items in the game were random, you couldn't rule out the possibility of someone getting lucky and obtaining a game-breaking item right from the start.
The biggest difference between this life and the last wasn't just that she had stolen Vincent Sherman's spot in the closed beta, but that she had also killed him at the very beginning of the game.
And because Vincent Sherman was dead, the items that should have been his had now fallen into someone else's hands.
'So, is it possible that this so-called "Miss Black Tights" is actually just someone using an item or a Skill to impersonate the real person, directing all this animosity toward her?!'
At that thought, inspiration struck—Renee Kane finally remembered why the ID "Spinning Top" seemed so familiar!
In her past life, Renee Kane had been too busy struggling for survival to pay much attention to the group chat. She had only vaguely heard about a player who was loudly proclaiming in the main chat that they were a closed beta player and wanted to team up to conquer the instances.
The underlying message was clear: they intended to grow stronger by exploiting the players from the lowest-ranked cars who were already exhausted from trying to survive.
Such a statement naturally provoked public outrage. Not long after, someone posted a bloody screenshot confirming they had successfully killed that player.
That unlucky bastard's ID… was "Spinning Top"!
And after that incident, Vincent Sherman's faction had slowly begun to take shape.
Then, the number of people hunting Renee Kane began to increase.
Thinking back, Vincent Sherman had a huge amount of supplies in her past life. He had earned a lot of Life Value in the early days by trading them, and later, he had committed every dirty deed imaginable to exploit the lower-level players.
Yet he always managed to stay hidden, pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
Just like this "Miss Black Tights"!
Renee Kane also suspected that someone with an ID like that was more likely a man, but she was far more interested in the item that could be used for impersonation!
After all, she had a decent amount of supplies herself and wanted to trade them for more Life Value as a safety net.
But everyone was poor in the early stages of the game. Selling off too much at once would be too conspicuous, and Renee Kane had no desire to become public enemy number one.
Especially in this life, where she was determined to be a lone wolf and avoid getting caught in a vortex of lies and betrayals, it was even more important for her not to expose herself to everyone.
'This person is so brazenly building a faction, they must have a lot of good stuff on them. How can I get my hands on such a useful item…'
Renee Kane thought for a moment, then sent the player a friend request.
*
In a cave dozens of kilometers away from Renee Kane, a man covered in wounds was curled up pathetically on the ground, surrounded by several people.
A short man standing nearby spat in his direction. "Hmph. Some Grade-A car, closed beta player you are. In the end, you still have to get on your knees and be a dog for our Logan."