It’s precisely because of this that they were among the first to know the seemingly placid surface of the water was actually rising continuously.

Also for this reason, due to the nature of their work, their physical qualities were much stronger than those of the vast majority of martial artists of the same level, the strength not only being in their skin’s resistance to impact but also in their internal organs, bones, and fascia.

When Zachary heard Madeline speak of the current situation of those retrieval teams, and then considered where he had obtained the dark green mysterious core, he instantly understood the origin of the dark green mysterious core in Madeline’s hand.

"What excuses did they use to trick you when they sold that thing to you?"

Seeing Zachary’s face full of curiosity, Madeline, with an expression of not wishing to recall the past, flatly refused, "You’d better not ask about that. Anyway, I got duped, but according to what you said, they must still have plenty of those things on their hands."

"Yeah, in that underwater area, the amount of those mysterious ships is quite significant."

"So, what you’re saying is that they must still have quite a few dark green mysterious cores. The rarity of this item in the outside world is very likely..."

"... very likely a scheme to raise the price deliberately, just to fleece someone like you, who is an easy target."

After all, most people encountering a new type of mysterious core would want to try it out, to understand the core’s uses.

With that curiosity and the fact that these cores are almost impossible to find elsewhere, they can sell it to you at a very high price when you’re buying."

Listening to Zachary’s monologue after interrupting her, Madeline was once again filled with a sense of regret.

How had she even begun discussing this topic with Zachary? Not only had she given away a mysterious core for free, but she also had to endure Zachary’s mockery.

Watching Madeline’s continuously changing expressions, Zachary knew he might have said a bit too much, considering he had been given a mysterious core for free; no matter what, he should maintain Madeline’s dignity.

So at this point, Zachary quickly changed the subject, "Since you already know the actual situation with the dark green mysterious core, and you’ve also made contact with the retrieval teams, maybe you could help me collect some cores from them."

Hearing Zachary say this, Madeline wasn’t surprised. Having known him for so long, she had some understanding of Zachary.

In her view, although Zachary’s strength might not stand out on a national level, he should at least be in the first tier.

Just like buying electronics before a disaster, those who could afford to buy at launch would purchase the new product as soon as it was released, despite the high cost, because in their words, "the sooner you buy, the sooner you enjoy."

However, since electronic devices are slow to update and iterate, some would choose to wait, possibly for a year or two, until the prices of the models they’re interested in dropped to an acceptable level before making a purchase. This behavior was known as "buying late, enjoy the discount."

For most ordinary people, if there is no pressing need, there’s no need to buy electronics at launch; it’s better to wait until the manufacturers release a new model and then purchase the one they had their eyes on previously, as the cost-effectiveness then is the highest.

This is why many say, "buy early, enjoy immediately; buy late, enjoy discounts; those who wait never lose out."

However, for frontline members like Zachary, the situation was like pioneering in a game; although the high-level materials are scarce and thus expensive during the pioneering phase.

Even so, they must be willing to pay a premium because once they succeed in pioneering, they might receive returns ten or even a hundred times greater, which is the so-called high risk, high reward.

And unlike the virtual games, where a failed attempt at pioneering a new area meant you could simply start over, in real life, economic losses were the least of your concerns—if your life was at risk, it would be too late.

It’s like that classic line from the comedy sketches: "The most painful thing in life is dying before spending all your money."

Not to mention Zachary, no one wanted to be the so-called Treasure Delivery Boy, especially those members who were always on the front lines. They would use all of their resources just to slightly increase their strength, willing to pay a high price even for a minor improvement.

"I can try to bring the price down as much as possible, but what do you plan to trade with me? Let’s get this straight, you must provide physical goods. As long as it’s a physical item, even if the salvage team doesn’t want it, I can find a way to exchange it for something they need."

"You could give me Contribution Points too, but it’s only feasible for small transactions. In a large-scale trade, the devaluation is too much, and it’s not cost-effective."

Even if Ye Liuyun hadn’t said it, Zachary wouldn’t have offered him Contribution Points anyway; after all, his own points were about to go into the negative—how could he afford to give away any?

Hence, Zachary turned his attention back to the Storage space. Since he had cleared out almost all the common food supplies at Magic City’s base before coming here, he really didn’t have much in the way of best-selling ordinary food.

Granted, according to the production in the winter, it wouldn’t take many years to return to the former glory, but Zachary’s Cave wasn’t a plantation or breeding Cave. Although the abundant Spirit Energy inside could help plants and animals grow healthy and slightly faster, it still required time.

For this reason, Zachary could only shift his gaze to other items in the Storage space. He knew what was selling best at the moment in the space, but he wasn’t keen on trading with that.

They say life’s necessities are eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping, but with the progress of time, one more item has become indispensable in these four aspects of life.

This item, in dire situations, can be substituted or even forgone, but under normal circumstances, almost everyone uses it every day.

Unlike food, a person can die of thirst if they don’t drink water for three days or of hunger if they don’t eat for a week, making water and food essentials.

But no one has ever said you’d die without using paper for a certain length of time. When paper was expensive, people used all sorts of alternatives to save money.

However, over time, the price of paper gradually dropped, and it slowly became a daily necessity for everyone.

Now it was the same, because the advent of the flood catastrophe rendered the old Paper Factories obsolete. Now, Paper Factories only existed within the Water Bases built by the Imperial Court.

Although these bases had established Paper Factories, the flooding had made raw materials for papermaking scarce. Even though most bases grew bamboo as raw material, the output remained quite low.

Despite the scarcity of paper, because of the possibility of substitution, prices had remained steady within a certain range, and huge price swings were not common.

After all, if prices rose too high, everyone would use various substitutes, and if they fell, everyone would naturally buy. Precisely for this reason, Zachary was reluctant to trade with paper.

Beyond paper, Zachary checked the other items in the Storage space. Although there were many things stored, there weren’t many suitable for this transaction; those in abundance were not appropriate for trade.

If it were only for a small amount of Dark Green Trick Nucleus, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but Zachary wanted Ye Liuyun’s help to buy large quantities of Dark Green Trick Nucleus from the salvage teams; what was needed was something the other party liked and which also happened to be abundant in his Storage Equipment.

After much thought and several checks in the Storage space, Zachary finally confirmed that those ordinary supplies in the space were most likely unwanted by the other party.