The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

[Announcement: New Feature Released]

【I. Guild System (Details can be viewed on the login panel after 12:00 AM today)】

[II. Individual Arena (Details can be viewed on the login panel after 12:00 AM today)]

[III. Cable-Exclusive Dungeon: "Ash City" (Details can be viewed on the login panel after 12:00)]

The announcement has ended. Su Mu glanced at the system time... It was 10:47 AM, and he would see the details in less than an hour and a half.

But the public channels have already been overwhelmed.

"One hundred cables merged?! That means there are over 20,000 people on our line?!"

"I only care about one thing... out of more than 20,000 people, will any of them switch to a guild on our line?"

"Guild system...will it allow cross-cable group formation from now on?"

"Isn't this just an online game? Dungeons, guilds, arenas... are we even playing a game?"

"Ash City instance? Isn't that where we just escaped from? Do we have to go back in?"

Too many people died in Ash City... those soldiers are still there...

That last sentence noticeably slowed down the spamming speed in the channel for a moment.

But soon, new topics emerged.

"If it were a game, the rewards would definitely be plentiful, right? Dungeon drops, arena rankings, guild benefits..."

"I'm only level four now. I need to level up as soon as the dungeons open. If I don't keep going now, I'll fall behind."

"An exchange! Can you see the exchange? It allows cross-world trading!"

Su Mu turned off the public channel and turned his attention to the newly appeared "World Exchange" panel. A brand new interface unfolded before him, clean and neat, divided into two main sections: "Lifestyle" and "Combat".

The living area was filled with various items for daily life: food, water, clothing, furniture, and even some luxuries. Su Mu's gaze swept over the list of luxuries... a game console, 1200 World Coins; a high-fidelity stereo, 800 World Coins; an exquisite leather sofa, 1500 World Coins. A simple, one-day supply of compressed food cost only one World Coin. In other words, if one was frugal, the daily cost of living would only be one World Coin.

But Su Mu doesn't have a single one right now.

He switched to the combat zone. The selection here was significantly greater... standard equipment, ammunition, materials. But at the top, a line of gray text indicated: Current access level... Level 1. Items requiring Level 2 or higher access cannot be viewed.

Level 1 access allows the purchase of standard weaponry: pistols, rifles, and submachine guns, with prices ranging from 50 to 150 World Coins. Ammunition fluctuates between 0.5 and 2 World Coins. Even more outrageous, Su Mu saw missiles... tactical missiles, priced at 1.2 million World Coins each, with a note stating "Requires Level 2 access to purchase."

"Missile..." Su Mu stared at the words, his Adam's apple bobbing. The missile blueprint he obtained at the military base, if it could be made, might not be any worse. But the materials were incredibly expensive.

He continued scrolling down and found a materials section. Iron ingots, glass essence, alloy blocks, crystal chips... all these things were there, and the prices weren't outrageous. But after searching the entire Level 1 access list, he didn't see any blueprints.

"The drawings should be under level two access control."

There are three ways to obtain Level 2 access: accumulate 100,000 World Coins in trading volume on the exchange; rank in the top three in the cable esports competition; or directly purchase access for 20,000 World Coins. The last line of the Level 2 access description also states "or hold 500 Mystic Crystals".

Su Mu's gaze lingered on that line of text for two seconds.

Strange crystals. Strange crystals again.

The exchange doesn't sell Ghost Crystals, but advanced blueprints, materials, and equipment are often linked to them. He remembered that the cable car upgrade blueprint required two hundred Ghost Crystals, while five hundred Ghost Crystals in the exchange could directly unlock level two access.

"This is the real hard currency." Su Mu firmly engraved this information in his mind.

He opened the "Recycle" interface. The system allowed him to recycle the items in his possession at 80% of the selling price. Su Mu took out the pile of messy materials in his hands and tried them out... a few graphics cards, chips, and odds and ends from an old mobile phone... The recycling system gave him a very good offer.

He thought for a moment, then sorted out the ordinary materials he had previously looted from the military base, along with the low-level monster materials that he considered unimportant, and threw them all into the recycling bin.

The system calculated the total price: 63,200 World Coins.

Su Mu looked at the number and raised an eyebrow slightly. It was more than he had expected. He didn't rush to confirm, but instead first opened the material list for the missile blueprints.

Tactical Missile Launcher (Lv1 Blue)

Materials required: 50 iron ingots, 20 high-strength glass essences, 30 ghost crystals, 10 alloy blocks, 5 chip crystals, 2 motors, 1 TNT, and 1 black aluminum powder.

He glanced again at the prices of the materials on the exchange. Iron ingots and glass essence were cheap, chips and motors were slightly more expensive, and TNT and black aluminum powder, being specialty materials, were more than three times more expensive. He quickly calculated in his head that buying the complete set of materials would cost approximately 50,000 World Coins.

"More than 50,000..." He glanced at the 63,000 World Coins in the recycling column, hesitated for two seconds, and then clicked confirm.

Sixty-three thousand World Coins arrived in his account. He immediately opened the transaction list, added all the materials needed for the missile blueprint to his shopping cart with one click, and checked out... fifty-three thousand were deducted, leaving him with a little over ten thousand in his account.

The moment the purchase was confirmed, all the materials appeared neatly on the ground at his feet, piled up into a small mountain. Su Mu squatted down, sorted the materials one by one, then opened the crafting interface and placed the missile launcher blueprints on it.

[Materials detected. Begin production? Estimated time: 6 hours.]

"Six hours." Su Mu glanced at the time; it was just before 11 a.m., and it should be finished around 5 p.m. He clicked confirm. The progress bar on the production interface started flashing...0%.

There is still a lot to be done.

Su Mu opened the cable car upgrade panel and selected to install new weapon attachments. The Ice Staff and the Fire Staff... two purple Lv12 staffs... were installed at the front and rear ends of the cable car respectively. A system notification popped up: