Chapter 197: The High Risk Mall
Their structure was stable.
They were small in size yet packed with energy and their compatibility also appeared to be exceptionally high.
After all, Zombie Core continuously improved in quality as zombies increased in level.
Did that not perfectly match the way Domain Cores could also evolve by consuming resources?
It even eliminated the troublesome process of replacing the vessel that housed the Domain Core.
However, while creating a Domain Core might not be a secret for Lord type Bosses, Joo Joowon had absolutely no idea how it was actually done.
If only he had an existing example to study.
As long as he had a reference, Joo Joowon believed he would eventually discover something useful.
Even if he could not figure it out himself, he could always pay a price and have other players help research it.
He believed very few players would reject such an offer.
After thinking for a while, Joo Joowon found himself seriously considering finding a Lord type Boss, infiltrating its territory and observing its Domain Core from up close.
If he chose the right target, then there were still ways to achieve that goal without confronting a Boss head on.
Even so, the risk would still be extremely high.
If there were any other solution available, this definitely would not be the method to choose.
After all, Bosses were not fools.
They would certainly guard their Domain Cores carefully.
There was even a chance they carried them around at all times.
Rather than thinking about that, it would be better to simply kill more monsters.
Perhaps, against all odds, he really could earn enough money within thirty days.
Although the possibility was almost nonexistent.
When a territory was first established, it was the time when money was needed the most.
Joo Joowon was certain that after the Lord’s Manor had been built, there would still be countless other places where money would have to be spent.
Therefore, investing all of his funds into the Lord’s Manor alone was definitely not a wise choice.
A moment ago, Joo Joowon had still thought this quest would not be very difficult.
Now he no longer thought so.
He even began to suspect that the entire Lord system was not a feature players were actually meant to access at this stage.
Players did not need talent.
They did not need to comprehend cultivation techniques.
As long as they had enough experience points, they could raise their level as high as they wished.
When it came to the speed of growth, players would certainly surpass both NPCs and Bosses.
Therefore, if certain features of the Age of Apocalypse were shared between players and Bosses, they would naturally be opened to Bosses and NPCs first.
It was just like online games in the real world.
When a game had several different regional servers, it was almost impossible for every server to receive new content simultaneously.
The difference was that everything in ordinary games was fixed through programming.
Developers and programmers controlled everything behind the scenes.
No matter how much players caused trouble inside the game, they could never alter the game’s overall progression.
The Age of Apocalypse, however, was completely different.
Because it was driven by the instincts and actions of living beings, it possessed tremendous instability and unpredictability.
Perhaps that was exactly why Joo Joowon had managed to come into contact with features that were not yet intended to be available to players.
The Trial system was the path that allowed Elite monsters to advance into Lord monsters.
Under normal circumstances, players would probably first encounter the territories of Lord monsters, enter cities established by neutral Lords, and only gradually learn that players themselves could also build territories.
These were nothing more than guesses without any concrete evidence.
After thinking about it for a while, Joo Joowon let the matter go.
Once he confirmed that, with his current funds, there was absolutely no way he could afford a Lord’s Manor that satisfied him, he prepared to close the mall.
Instead of buying one here, it would be better to figure out whether he could find a Domain Core in the real world.
However, as Joo Joowon’s eyes drifted toward the page number displayed at the very bottom, a sudden idea flashed through his mind.
Since the Marketplace had a "dark side," then perhaps the Apocalypse Mall had one as well?
After all, judging from the way the Age of Apocalypse operated, it clearly wanted to make money from absolutely everything.
Maybe it really existed.
With that thought, Joo Joowon immediately entered a negative number into the page selection.
[ The Apocalypse Mall reminds you that you are about to enter a High Risk Zone. The Apocalypse Mall does not guarantee the credibility of any shops located within High Risk Zones. Are you sure you wish to ignore the risks and proceed anyway? ]
Joo Joowon: If there’s a risk, then this has to be the right place!
He immediately selected Confirm.
The page took an unusually long time to load.
It was almost as though it was reluctant to let him in.
Joo Joowon had assumed that, once inside, he would finally be free to browse the mall however he pleased.
Reality proved that he had been far too optimistic.
Even though it was a High Risk Zone, it was still attached to the Apocalypse Mall.
Anything that had originally been grayed out and inaccessible remained exactly the same.
He could still only browse the Lord’s Manor section.
To his surprise, the vast majority of the Lord’s Manor images displayed by the shops were exactly the same as those sold in the official Apocalypse Mall.
Even the promotional images were identical.
The only difference was that the prices had been slashed by half.
Some shops were even selling them for only one third of the official price.
It made Joo Joowon seriously question the quality of these imitation Lord’s Manors.
Once again, he applied the Nature tag, sorted everything by price from low to high and quickly skipped over every product whose image he had already seen in the official mall.