Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

Luo Tianming: "..."

After all that work, all that stuff probably isn't even worth as much as that machine gun and air circulation system.

He felt he had been 'deceived'... Enraged, Luo Tianming immediately pulled out his 'Captain's Log' and wrote on it:

[Hey System! This isn't the treasure you were promised!]

【…】

The so-called 'miracle survivor' system seemed to appear a beat late in the morning, displaying the following text:

[Mission "Sunken Treasure" detected as complete; Recruitment Ticket x1 awarded]

Luo Tianming: "..."

Captain's Log: "..."

He angrily wrote in his journal: "Am I angry because you were slow to react?!"

[I mean—what the hell is this treasure you assigned me?! You know perfectly well that pearls on Europa are worthless, like children's marbles, what kind of treasure is this?!]

I don't care, you have to compensate me!

"..."

The captain's log was silent for a moment, then long passages of text began to appear:

[(Deep thought has been done, the unstable dimensional network band has been adjusted, time taken 0.0001 seconds) Holy crap, sensing the host's dissatisfaction, carefully reflecting on the situation...]

Luo Tianming: "..."

[The host points out the core problem with the concept of "treasure" in Mission 1: The Shipwreck Treasure: How should we define whether something is treasure?]

[Answer: Defined by the actual value of the item. For example, the host points out that 'marbles' are treasures to children, but worthless toys to adults. Similarly, 'pearls' are treasures to adults, but not as valuable as marbles to children.]

[After calm and careful consideration: It has been confirmed that the system's definition of 'treasure' differs from the host's, indicating a difference in understanding.]

[I sincerely apologize to the host for failing to clearly define the 'treasure' and need to make amends promptly to appease the host's anger.]

[Beep beep beep... The 'Business is Business' system has been automatically activated for the host. You can now exchange items for goods of corresponding value.]

Starting from the current time period, the back page of this log will refresh in increments of each current orbital calendar period (approximately 168 hours in the Earth calendar).

[Friendly reminder: This system reserves the right to interpret all exchange rate information. We wish you a pleasant experience.]

Luo Tianming: "..."

He stared in disbelief as he looked at the text that appeared.

It wasn't the words in the log that shocked me, but rather the feeling:

This system is like an 'artificial idiot'.

"..."

Forget about this malfunctioning system, let's see what good stuff this so-called 'business is all about' has to offer.

Luo Tianming flipped open the back of the logbook... Instantly, a colorful light appeared, causing him to close his eyes involuntarily.

In fact, he was truly blinded by the sheer number of items, because the item listed was a colorful voucher with the following clearly written on it:

[Yohar/Yoha 2 Type B Combat Robot] Special Recruitment Ticket (1/10)

Luo Tianming: "!"

He bit down hard on the inside of his mouth.

Chapter 11 Goods Connecting All Worlds

Yohar/Yoha No. 2 Type B, collectively known as '2B'... This is a popular character from the niche game NieR: Automata.

"..."

The reason it's considered 'niche' is because the gameplay is really not that great; its high price and poor content make it a showroom game that looks good but isn't fun.

She's considered 'popular' because few people can honestly say they haven't seen her: a stunning beauty with a large eye mask covering half her face, a cold, silver-haired, ascetic demeanor, a chubby, hairless figure with a mole on her lip, and wearing a high-cut, revealing dress.

"..."

Luo Tianming savored the metallic taste in his mouth, his face remaining grim.

The reason for his grim expression was simple—the price.

This special recruitment ticket costs 10 regular recruitment tickets, and that's only one-tenth of the fragments!!

A very simple calculation formula shows that at least 100 recruitment tickets are needed to summon 2B.

Luo Tianming currently only has 4 pieces of paper on his body...

It means: I met the best girl at the age when I needed to strive the most...

How can I possibly endure this? Working day and night, I can't even scrape together the down payment!

If I were young and accomplished, without inferiority complex, and knew what was precious...

"..."

Luo Tianming quickly turned off the song playing in his head, and, still dissatisfied, immediately took out his pen and wrote in his diary:

[System, get out here! Explain this price to me!]

"..."

After another two or three seconds of lag, the log again displayed a long string of text:

Dear customer, once sold, items are non-refundable, non-repairable, and non-exchangeable unless there is a quality issue.

[Shipping is not included for remote planes like 40k, Warcraft, and Forgotten Realms, dear~]

"..."

Why does this sound like a Taobao customer service representative?

After a while, he realized that the person he was talking to now was not the same person he had been talking to before.

So he rewrote in his journal: 【Who are you?】

This time the response was quite swift: "Hi, I'm your dedicated customer service representative for the 'Business in Business' system. We don't use the same logic as the other one."

How may I help you?

Luo Tianming: "..."

He didn't feel that changing the 'customer service' made them any easier to talk to. On the contrary, the use of seemingly respectful but actually sarcastic tones gave him the feeling that he had encountered a shrewd businessman.

Luo Tianming once again picked up his pen and wrote:

What's with the price of this colored recruitment ticket fragment? Why is it so expensive?

"..."

Log: [Dear customer, our prices are calculated reasonably to ensure we extract every last bit of value from our users.]

Luo Tianming: 'A swindler!'

He cursed under his breath, then wrote:

[How exactly were these prices determined? How can one recruitment ticket summon a character, while a special 2B recruitment ticket costs 100 recruitment tickets?]

The diary entry reads at length:

【Dear~ This is because you get what you pay for. For example, your first summon used the special summon ticket we gave you, which is why you were able to summon a character suitable for the Security Officer position in one go.】

[If you try using one regular recruitment ticket (laughs), I can't guarantee what character you'll summon~ Of course, a refund is out of the question (laughs).]

[By the way: one special recruitment ticket requires one regular recruitment ticket to exchange for, but the 'Yohar II Type B' special designated recruitment ticket you mentioned earlier is guaranteed to recruit the character you want.]

[Scarcity drives up value, and stock is running low... We suggest you use your available resources to buy as soon as possible, because—once 168 hours have passed, all current stock will be gone.]

Luo Tianming: "..."

[Check your fixed assets: You own one rare red coral and six special-material pearls. Do you want to exchange these for 11 recruitment tickets?]

Upon hearing this news, his eyes lit up instantly: "You mean, all those things I have can now be exchanged for recruitment vouchers?!"

Log: [Yes, dear, but please don't treat this place like a 'junk dump'. We don't take everything. Those junk machines in your collection that even a Level 1 civilization can't touch, you should keep them for your own use (laughs)~]

Luo Tianming: "..."

It seems that the other party will only recycle things that interest them, such as that red coral... something that has grown for at least several thousand years, which they would consider a treasure.

What about the others?

Keep in mind that there are definitely more than just this one red coral in Europa's ocean; if there were more corals, wouldn't that mean more recruitment tickets...?

If I really had a hundred recruitment tickets, wouldn't it be amazing to recruit 2B as my crew member?!

A pleasurable bulge gradually rose in my crotch, a feeling of pleasure...

Without even thinking, he immediately shouted:

"Exchange!"

Suddenly, he had 11 more recruitment tickets in his hand. Adding them to the recruitment tickets he had obtained from previous missions, he now had a total of 15 recruitment tickets.

"..."

However, despite his excitement, he did not immediately exchange the recruitment tickets in his hand for fragments of special designated recruitment tickets.

Because Luo Tianming knew very well that a one-tenth of the recruitment ticket fragments were useless.

If he's only missing this one fragment, then he has to exchange for it no matter what.

But now there's only one fragment...

Moreover, his submarine business is just beginning and he is currently short of manpower, so he should not waste his precious recruitment vouchers at this time.

To survive in Europa's ocean, one must live frugally. A momentary urge to indulge in sex must not interfere with grand plans for the future, otherwise the entire submarine risks being destroyed.

He planned to exchange one recruitment voucher for a special recruitment voucher, and then recruit another crew member after the submarine found the next station.

This would solve the problem of insufficient manpower for submarines.

Secondly—if you can get some more tasks at the next station, there might be a chance to exchange for this 2B fragment.

Anyway, as long as he's still alive, there will be many more 168-hour periods in the future, and one day he'll collect them all... provided he's not too old to get out of bed.

Having made up his mind, he first redeemed one special recruitment voucher.

His current information was displayed on the back of the journal:

[Remaining Assets: Recruitment Tickets x5]

Okay, thank you for your patronage!

Are you satisfied with your dedicated customer service representative? If so, please rate the service 'five stars'!

A small box even appeared in the log, meaning he was asked to draw stars on it to rate it.

Luo Tianming: "..."

He picked up his pen, about to write a 'one-star' rating on the logbook, when suddenly a chill ran down his spine.

"..."

He drew five stars in a row before the sudden chill subsided.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, the oxygen mask alarm sounded again—warning him that the remaining oxygen was nearing the warning line.

Chapter 12 Algae Climbing

Oxygen levels nearing the warning threshold are not good news... It means Luo Tianming's oxygen supply is about to run out for the return journey to the submarine.

He wasted too much energy and time on the so-called 'treasure' and almost ignored his own life and death... How is this any different from those who are still fighting each other on the E1 level before they die?

"—!"

Having figured this out, the remaining items on E1 could no longer mislead Luo Tianming's judgment. He decisively turned and left, heading towards the food warehouse he had come from.

Dengdengdeng-

Luo Tianming's magnetic shoe soles help him stand more steadily on the floor, but the noise also allows his footsteps to travel more than ten meters.

"..."

In the pitch-black environment, the monotonous and extremely resonant clattering sounded like a lullaby.

The bland electronic sound from the headphones constantly collected all the sounds around him... In his drowsy state, an unusually low frequency woke Luo Tianming up.