The smell was peculiar, a mix of freshly printed low-quality books and a faint aroma of tea.
Jiang Ye twitched his nose like a dog, moving towards the source of the strong scent.
It grew stronger!
It drew closer!
Finally, about a hundred meters away, Jiang Ye zeroed in on a large rock.
The rock was about the size of a car tire, entirely brown-black, with a pitted surface, resembling a giant date cake.
Jiang Ye frowned, examining the rock several times, but couldn't identify what kind of ore it was.
He leaned closer to the rock's surface and sniffed carefully.
The strange smell seemed to emanate from within the stone.
Real ore, inside the rock.
He needed to break it open to see.
With no tools at hand, Jiang Ye picked up a fist-sized stone from nearby. With a roar, he slammed it against the large rock.
The rock's hardness was beyond imagination. After more than ten strikes, his hand went numb, and not even a corner chipped off.
"Damn it, it's so hard!" Jiang Ye couldn't help but curse.
If he had a pickaxe, he could probably break it open in one go. But he didn't.
After a moment of thought, he suddenly thought of a method.
He bent down and squatted, channeling his qi to his dantian!
Jiang Ye used all his strength to lift the heavy, large rock.
Then, he walked towards a cliff ahead.
The cliff wasn't very high, only about the height of a few floors.
Jiang Ye stood firmly at the cliff's edge and let go. The rock plummeted straight down.
*Crack!*
With a crisp sound, the rock shattered at the base of the cliff, breaking into four pieces!
Jiang Ye rejoiced. He ran down the gentle slope behind the cliff and circled to where the rock had fallen.
Following the peculiar scent, he quickly found the ore that had fallen and shattered among a pile of rocks at the cliff's base.
The moment he saw it clearly, he was stunned:
Inside the brown-black rock, several pieces of vibrant, magnificent green were revealed. They looked quite mysterious in the sunlight.
If he wasn't mistaken, this green inside the rock was top-grade emerald!
Emerald, a type of beryl, is often mistaken for jade. Strictly speaking, it's a misunderstanding, but that wasn't important. What mattered was that this stuff was extremely expensive!
Good quality emeralds could make gold look like dirt in terms of market value!
Jade and agate, when faced with emerald, could only respectfully call it "Grandma"!
Moreover, the exposed emerald at the rock's fracture was already the size of an egg. The emeralds inside the rock might be even more! The content was incredibly rare!
He had struck it rich!
Jiang Ye was overjoyed, panting heavily as he carried all four pieces of emerald-containing ore back to the base.
Then, he ran back to where he had found the ore.
He thought there might be an emerald vein nearby?
But after searching the vicinity for several laps, constantly inhaling and sniffing, his nose almost bled, yet he couldn't detect any trace of emerald scent.
It seemed only the single ore he had found was valuable.
The sky gradually darkened, and night was descending.
Jiang Ye pondered for a moment, drew a large circle on the ground with a stone, marked the center with an 'X', and turned back to the base.
He closed the hatch and locked it.
After drinking a few sips of water, a fierce hunger struck.
Since landing on this planet, he hadn't truly eaten his fill.
He had found treasure, so he should sell it for some food!
He opened the chat channel. Messages were flooding in, with various trades happening enthusiastically:
Li Bai: Selling a revolver, comes with twenty bullets, large caliber, essential for fatherhood! Siblings with food and water, please contact me, I'm starving and thirsty!
You Love Me I Love You: Anyone want bubble tea? 500.
Guiyang Peng Yuyan: Selling ten spicy crawfish, please offer your price.
Toilet Paper Teacher: I want a full set of farming tools. I have a katana, anyone want to trade?
Qiu Hua Meng Meng: I drew a shotgun, but I don't know how to use it. I'm so hungry. Does anyone have food to trade?
Jiang Ye stared at the messages, dumbfounded.
The items people were trading were too diverse and numerous, they had everything.
They must have all been drawn from the lottery, indicating a very rich variety of prizes.
After a moment of thought, Jiang Ye also sent a message:
Selling four pieces of emerald ore, ample content, good quality! Grand opening special, losing money to gain customers, you win if you get it, seeking food and water!
His message immediately attracted attention.
After all, others were selling tools, food, and weapons.
Selling ore was something no one had seen before.
Long-legged Zhao Mengmeng: Awesome! Emerald! I really want a small piece of emerald for a necklace, but I don't have food to trade.
Seeking Big Brother's Carry: Whoa, mined ore on the first day, and it's emeralds? Big brother is amazing! But I can't afford it, can we add friends?
Caoxian Citizen: Strong! Pouring a cup of cappuccino for Big Brother Jiang Ye! My guess is that Big Brother Jiang Ye's reward was mining tools, right?
Several passersby, without trading, offered their admiration to Jiang Ye.
Seeking Big Brother's Carry actually sent Jiang Ye a friend request. Jiang Ye didn't think much of it and accepted.
Adding friends doesn't cost anything, and it might be useful later.
"Hello, big brother! Goodbye, big brother!" the other party messaged, greeting him politely.
Jiang Ye perfunctorily replied with a smile.
Next, Jiang Ye opened Zhao Mengmeng's private chat window and typed:
"Beautiful lady, my emeralds are huge, more than enough for a necklace, even a bracelet! What do you have? We can discuss the price!"
This Zhao Mengmeng showed strong interest in emeralds, a potential customer, and Jiang Ye wanted to try and rip her off.
However, after sending the message, he waited for a long time, but Zhao Mengmeng didn't reply.
Jiang Ye frowned, wondering what was going on.
Did she sense he was trying to extort her?
That shouldn't be the case.
He switched back to the chat and looked for the next target.
He opened Cao County Citizen's dialog box and sent him a private message:
"Friend, want some top-quality emeralds?"
Caoxian Citizen replied instantly:
"I only have cappuccinos here. I can trade one cup. Deal?"
Jiang Ye was taken aback.
They actually had cappuccinos!
It seemed acceptable, quenching thirst and providing calories. He could have a cup first.
However, he had to inflate the price.
After a moment of thought, Jiang Ye smiled slyly and quickly sent a message:
"This is emerald! One of the four great precious gemstones! Many people can't wear one in their lifetime!
Do you think this is just a gemstone? No! It's luxury, it's nobility, it's awesomeness, it's a symbol of status!
Think about it, in the future, when you meet another beautiful female colony officer, if you have a gemstone to propose to her, she will be yours! But if you don't, you can only watch her walk away with someone else!
To be honest, to mine this ore, I accidentally chopped off one of my toes and almost lost my life!
You want to trade it for a cup of cappuccino? My dear sir, don't you think that's a bit unfair?
Seeing that we have a connection, I won't be greedy. A fixed price: twenty cups of cappuccino, and I'll give you the largest piece of emerald ore at a rock-bottom price!"
Jiang Ye typed rapidly, promoting his wares with a flurry of messages.
The keyboard was a knife, each stroke a critical hit!
He directly increased the price twentyfold!
Caoxian Citizen, perhaps stunned by the barrage of sales pitches, took a while to respond, weakly replying:
"Big brother, I feel like what you're saying makes a lot of sense, but I only have 10 cups of cappuccino left in total. If you want 20 cups, I really can't afford it!"
Jiang Ye immediately showed a sly smile.
"Little brother, you've fallen for it!"
"No problem, I support installment payments. You can pay for ten cups first, and then pay the rest when you have it later," Jiang Ye said.
"Okay! Thank you, big brother! Let's trade!" Caoxian Citizen was very excited.
Jiang Ye picked up a piece of emerald ore, placed it in the trading box under his seat, and closed the lid.
A flash of light passed.
The ore in the trading box disappeared.
In its place were ten cups of cappuccino!
They were in plastic cups similar to milk tea, sealed, with paper straws on the rim.
Each cup was not small, about 800ml.
Jiang Ye immediately opened one and drank it all with the straw.
His hunger was significantly relieved.
After drinking, he didn't throw away the plastic cup, placing it aside in case it was useful later.
The first piece of emerald ore was sold, and three pieces remained.
Jiang Ye returned to the chat channel, intending to continue promoting.
But to his surprise, after this short while, many people in the chat channel were still discussing the emerald ore.
And the atmosphere had completely changed!
Wang Xiao Shou: Heh, elsewhere, this thing is worth a bit of money, but now it's just a barren planet. What use are gems here?
Wrap Up My Little Quilt: Exactly. The most important thing right now is to survive. Gems are just for looking at, they're useless!
Big Brain: No way, no way? There are actually fools buying useless stones?
Expert: Emerald ore? Ore is something found hundreds or thousands of meters underground. You can dig it out on the very first day? If this Jiang Ye can really sell emeralds, I'll sell blood diamonds the size of my head tomorrow!
Seven or eight people were repeatedly mocking Jiang Ye's act of selling emerald ore, their tone becoming more and more impolite.
The most direct ones even called him Jiang the Liar.
Jiang Ye frowned.
Why did so many people suddenly appear to disrupt his business?
If they don't want to buy, fine, why are they stirring up trouble?
This is my small business, honest and fair, voluntary trade. What did I do to offend you all?
Their attitude is so arrogant!