Zachary stayed with his parents for two or three days, which might just be a common trait among all parents.

The first day their child returns home from a trip is like having a precious egg in the house, not only are there no restrictions, but the parents also treat them like a treasured jewel, holding them in the palm of their hands.

But after the child has been home for three days, the parents’ attitude towards them starts to change a little.

And when the child has been home for more than five days, there is a 180-degree shift in the parents’ attitude compared to when the child first returned; they find fault with everything the child does, and whatever the child does never seems to please them.

Now Zachary was facing exactly this situation, with his parents grumbling in the early morning about him sleeping in, ordering him around to do various chores at lunchtime, and at night complaining that he just stayed home all day, being a lazybones—in short, they found Zachary displeasing no matter what.

Of course, Zachary didn’t go out, but he wasn’t idle either; he first used the App to search for the names and birth dates of the survivors registered at the Magic City’s third base.

Zachary searched for his cousin’s three names, and perhaps because his cousin’s name was quite unique, there were no duplicates among the personnel, and then Zachary changed the search criteria to the date of birth.

This time the tablet displayed many names, and after eliminating different genders, Zachary checked them one by one, as the photos were all recent boarding shots, it would be easy to identify the cousin unless he had been disfigured or had plastic surgery.

Relieved to find no sign of his cousin, Zachary actually breathed a sigh of relief because not finding someone at this time could also be a comparatively good result, at least it could temporarily indicate that the cousin might still be alive.

During these days, besides holing up at home and looking for his cousin’s trails on the internet, Zachary was also waiting for Madeline’s results.

Although the storage space in the Storage Equipment that Zachary gave to Madeline wasn’t large, it was genuinely filled with various fruits containing Spirit Power, which, if put on the market and once their effects were understood, could definitely be sold for a high price.

Truth be told, Dark Green Mysterious Ships were indeed scarce in the outside world, but Zachary, who owned a submarine, knew that once you dived to a certain depth, the number of Dark Green Mysterious Ships in those waters was not much different from the number of Black Ghost Ships on the surface.

It might seem that only those salvage crews had the Dark Green Trick Nuclei, but as soon as Zachary disclosed the source of the Dark Green Trick Nuclei, some powerful Martial Artists would find it quite easy to dive and obtain them.

The reason why the Dark Green Trick Nuclei were extremely scarce on the market now was that others were unaware of the region where they appeared; the Dark Green Trick Nuclei that showed up on the market were occasionally sold by those salvage crews.

It’s like pre-disaster diamonds, which, despite their large annual production, appeared scarce in the market due to restrictions.

But once everyone knows the source of the Dark Green Trick Nucleus, even though they must venture deep underwater to encounter them, this will definitely not be an obstacle for those Martial Artists.

If Madeline was not aware of this, even if those salvage crews had already stockpiled a large number of Dark Green Trick Nuclei, they would still quote an exorbitant price during a trade with Madeline.

However, once they knew that Madeline was aware of the provenance of the Dark Green Trick Nuclei, they would be willing to sell some to relieve their current financial pressure, as long as Madeline could assure that these nuclei would not circulate in the market, thus continuing to hide their source.

Of course, such matters were always settled verbally, without putting anything in writing.

In fact, aside from some who wanted to make a quick buck, the majority of businessmen value their reputation, especially salvage teams like these; if they gain a bad reputation, it would be difficult for them to secure new business in the future.

After all, the people who can afford to hire salvage teams are likely to be looking for something quite important underwater; if they encounter an unscrupulous team, the team members have a thousand ways to conceal what they find.

That’s why many would rather pay a high price to hire well-reputed salvage teams than opt for low-cost teams with poor reputations.

Just as Dong Tianyu had guessed, Ye Liuyun eventually made an agreement with the salvage team.

Ye Liuyun was able to purchase Dark Green Mysterious Cores at a low price from the salvage team, but he had to guarantee that not only would he not disclose the source of the Dark Green Mysterious Cores, he also had to ensure that those provided by the salvage team would not enter the market.

The salvage team actually benefited a lot from this deal, even though the market price for Dark Green Mysterious Cores was very high, they were very clear about the actual value of these cores.

Although it was somewhat difficult to obtain Dark Green Mysterious Cores, they were also as common as Black Devil Cores.

So despite the large quantity of Dark Green Mysterious Cores piled up in the salvage team’s warehouse, making it seem like they were very wealthy.

But because all kinds of investments consumed a lot of capital, and they couldn’t borrow money from others—after all, just by seeing the occasional under-the-table sale of Dark Green Mysterious Cores, one would think they must be rich.

After all, they were all begging for food in the same place, and anyone who wanted to could trace the origins of the goods on the market.

Sometimes, the captains of the salvage teams would sit in front of the warehouse at home, looking at the large amount of Dark Green Mysterious Cores they had accumulated, and they actually felt somewhat helpless.

Now they were also in a difficult position, as freeing up the restrictions for free trade would allow them to sell all the Mysterious Cores, but only if they sold them off at low prices.

But if they really did that, how would they explain it to the people who had bought them at high prices before?

Keep in mind that the survivors who could spend a lot of money to buy Dark Green Mysterious Cores on the market had strong backgrounds; offending them would result in a joint attack by various forces within the base.

So no matter what, the later the price promotion was dragged on, the better. It was like CPUs once priced over two thousand, now gradually dropped to less than a thousand.

As long as the time was dragged out long enough, even if the big customers wanted to make trouble over this issue, they could also explain it with the idea of "early buyers enjoy early benefits; late buyers get a discount."

The captains of the salvage teams, originally worried about the abundance of Dark Green Mysterious Cores in the warehouse, saw their concerns vanish in an instant upon hearing that Ye Liuyun was planning to purchase a large amount of Dark Green Mysterious Cores.

However, even if Ye Liuyun’s visit this time was to alleviate their burden, in the business world, they definitely would not miss the opportunity to ask for a high price.

It was only after Ye Liuyun revealed the source of the Dark Green Mysterious Cores that the salvage team, originally steadfast in their refusal to lower the price, suddenly began whispering among themselves.

After some twists and turns, Ye Liuyun finally managed to purchase the Mysterious Cores at a low price, then immediately took out a few fruits for them to taste.

Once they finished eating the fruit and vaguely felt some improvement in their bodies, they were no longer stingy with the Dark Green Mysterious Cores and were willing to trade using a barter system.

As Ye Liuyun did not share the specific details, Dong Tianyu did not ask further; for Dong Tianyu, as long as he got what he wanted, the actual trading process was not important.

Dong Tianyu simply waved his hand, collecting those Dark Green Mysterious Cores into his Storage Space, and then topped up Ye Liuyun’s Storage Space with supplies.

Seeing the storage ring filled to the brim, Ye Liuyun was actually quite excited. It seemed that Dong Tianyu still wanted him to continue acquiring Mysterious Cores from other salvage teams.