Chapter 276 - First Encounter, Dream Seed!
Chapter 276: First Encounter, Dream Seed!
In Darkness Port.
At the bottom of the flight of stairs in the center were two Black Wind guards maintaining order and collecting the entrance fees.
Strangely, Darkness Port was known for its lawless state, yet people lined up in a neat fashion to pay one coin each. Be it the famous and important figures or some small fry, everyone paid up a Black Wind coin and quietly walked into Darkness Port via the stairs.
Of course, one could spend an extra 5 Black Wind coins to buy a Darkness Guidebook before going in. The pile of Darkness Guidebooks was placed on the table beside the Black Wind guards, so anyone who paid could take a copy for themselves.
Tang Ling remembered what the fat leader of the caravan had told him, so he paid for a total of 8 Black Wind coins when their turn was up as the entrance fee for the three of them plus one Darkness Guidebook.
In order to steer away from the hidden rules or taboos of Darkness Port, Tang Ling passed his huge backpack to Ro Li. Under Ro Li’s protesting gaze, he opened the guidebook and read it as he walked forward.
The contents of the guidebook were simple. Other than the overall map of the port city and a brief introduction of several areas in Darkness Port, the rules that everyone had to follow were also written down.
It was true that there were no laws in Darkness Port; it was a free land but there were still basic rules one had to follow. However, since Darkness Port was known for its lawless state, these rules written in the guidebook were not mandatory. As long as one had enough Black Sea coins or could punch hard enough, everything could be sorted out.
Tang Ling simply flipped through the guidebook before carefully reading the contents.
Darkness Port was divided into three major areas: the deck area, the cabin area, and the island.
The deck area, as its name suggested, was the deck of the Darkness Ship. It was the residential area and major commercial district for the locals.
The cabin area covered the huge cabin below the deck area. To go into the cabin area, one required a certain identity or status and the introduction for the cabin area was brief with only three words to be exact: military, cultivation, battle ring.
“Does that mean that Darkness Port has its own military power? Are there troops stationed in the cabins? The battle ring is understandable because it would be strange if a lawless land like Darkness Port didn’t have an underground battle ring. But what’s with the cultivation then?” Tang Ling furrowed his brows slightly. He had no idea what the connection between the cabin area and cultivating was since the guidebook did not elaborate on that.
Other than the deck and the cabin, there were also the Darkness Islands, or in simpler terms, the island area.
The requirement to get into the island area was to qualify as a glory sailor. No nameless fishermen were allowed in there. In order to attain that prestigious status, one would have to get at least five stars worth of Darkness value to exchange for an elementary Darkness Badge.
The requirement was not that harsh since the island area was considered a dangerous place. Without a certain level of strength, spending a night there would make one wet his pants. Those without an elementary Darkness Badge could not even get past the Dark Chain Bridge.
Tang Ling scratched his head when he read the requirements. Darkness value? Five stars worth? A Darkness Badge?
He might have only briefly flipped through the guidebook, but he was sure the guidebook mentioned nothing about those requirements.
“What a brush off!” Tang Ling pouted. He still did not know what the value of five Black Wind coins was, so he was unable to evaluate the value of this Darkness Guidebook. Was it expensive or cheap?
Regardless of the value, would it be fine for the author to write this guidebook in such a mocking tone? The perfunctory sense of the contents was brazen and assaulting!
Despite his complaints, Tang Ling carried on to the next page. The basic rules about Darkness Port were written there.
The first rule was about the currency. It was simple and rough. The only currency acknowledged by the officials that was accepted in Darkness Port was the currency distributed by the port city. Using currencies from other factions in Darkness Port was considered illegal. Once caught, all the other currencies would be confiscated and the offender would be expelled from Darkness Port. As a result, the offender would be put on a blacklist and could never set foot in Darkness Port again for the rest of his life.
If anyone had any objections towards this rule, it would cost 100,000 Black Sea coins to remove the name from the blacklist. Other than that, the Hell Ledge Challenge welcomed any challenger.
“What’s the Hell Ledge Challenge?” Tang Ling raised a brow. He was getting fed up with how brief the descriptions were. Could the guidebook not be more specific about the things that it was supposed to introduce?
As for the second rule, it was even more brazen. It was about the conversion of currency in Darkness Port.
Since Darkness Port only allowed its own currency on its premises, after entering the city, there was only one currency conversion center to provide convenient conversion services to visitors.
The conversion rate of the conversion center varied depending on the type of currency and market price. Other than the True Capital coin, which could be traded for the Darkness Port currency at a 2:1 ratio, the rate of other currencies might change over time. The highest rate could reach 5:1 and the lowest could reach 1000:1. As for currencies that yielded a conversion rate below 1000:1, they would not be accepted.
So, how did the conversion center determine the value of the currency? The guidebook did not provide any solid standards. All it had was a vague description: “The world changes every day. There is no eternal power and no perpetually weak. We will try our best to provide the best price according to the economy of the world and how things shift.’
It sounded irresponsible. Tang Ling straightaway ignored the phrase ‘try our best’ because it was obviously a lie. It seemed like only True Capital coins yielded a constant price, but even so, it had to be traded at a discounted rate of 2:1 here. Tang Ling could not help but chuckle and brush it off his mind.
The second rule was not much of a problem to him since he dealt mostly in goods and believed that Darkness Port would pay a fair price for goods. Otherwise, there would not be this many caravans coming here to trade daily.
Tang Ling was a person who observed and analyzed the situation.
In short, the second rule barely had anything to do with him, but he could not hold back his curiosity when he saw the reminder at the end of the second rule.
‘Dear visitors, you may disagree with the currency conversion rate of our center and make us follow your rate instead. The Hell Ledge Challenge welcomes you!’
“What in the world is the Hell Ledge Challenge?” The first two rules mentioned the same challenge. He had a feeling that anyone who could achieve great results in this challenge could basically bend Darkness Port to its knees. How could Tang Ling be not curious about it?
However, he had no answers even if his curiosity killed him, so he continued on to the third rule.
The third rule was the residency permit of Darkness Port. In short, only the deck area had a residency permit, and other than the commercial district, there were seven different categories of residential levels in the deck area.
The cost of daily living expenses varied depending on the different residency levels. The cheapest, which was the lowest level, would cost at least 10 Black Wind coins a day; The most expensive, which was the highest residency level, level 7, cost a hefty 2 Black Sea coins a day.
Of course, this rule only applied to the common residence of Darkness Port, and the fees would change for visitors accordingly.
Up until this point, Tang Ling suddenly felt pressure. There were three of them. Even if they stayed at the cheapest and lowest level, it would cost them at least 30 Black Wind coins every day, excluding other expenses.
For the time being, he only had 4 Black Sea coins and around 400 plus Black Wind coins left, plus some materials that he could trade. The numbers might seem a lot when added up, but how much would his materials and resources be worth? If he traded them all away, how long would the money last them? Tang Ling had no idea at all.
He did not know how costly it was to live in Darkness Port. What was the range for the basic daily living expenses? For example, how much would a basic Level 4 drinking water cost here? What about their meals and daily expenses?
Frowning, Tang Ling continued reading the rules. The rules after the first three were a lot more trivial like how certain access was needed to enter a particular area or having limited rights in trading, and so on.
In conclusion, every rule in Darkness Port revolved around power and money. It was as realistic as it could be with no sympathy and no so-called humane justice. Laws would not work in such a place.
Tang Ling felt frustrated as he went on. He looked up and took a deep breath to soothe the frustration in his heart. He came to Darkness Port for Zero but had no clue about where to find the man.
However, time was not on his side. According to Su Siao, he must find Zero before December. Otherwise, he would have to wait for a whole year. It was now less than two weeks until December.
Tang Ling originally planned to visit the black market for some news. He was not nervous since he knew money could help him solve a lot of problems. However, now, with the brother and sister accompanying him who wished to settle down in Darkness Port, he felt a strong pressure on his back. Would he get enough money to buy information on the black market? How much would this information cost him?
Nevertheless, he still had to find Zero!
What if Zero is at some prestigious place that requires more money than power to enter?
With that thought in mind, his calm mind could not help but feel a sense of urgency.
Just then, a certain part of his arm started to heat up.
Why’s my arm heating up? He quickly discarded the messy thoughts and calmed himself down. The part of his arm which was heating up was actually the mark of the Dream Seed!
He shoved the guidebook to Ro Li beside him and scanned his arm quickly and subtly. There was no countdown timer on the mark, which meant that it was not the time for entry to the Dream Domain.
What’s this? Tang Ling looked away, acting like he was sizing up the area, but the moment that he looked up, he sensed a sharp gaze landing on him. The origin of the intense gaze was further ahead on the stairs that the three of them were walking on.
Upon a closer look, he spotted a man lying down on the path near the deck. The man appeared lazy and seemed to be sunbathing.
Waves of people walked past him, ignoring his existence and he did not bother about the people either.
He is sunbathing here but no one is telling him to go away?
Darkness Port might seem like a lawless land, but after Tang Ling read the guidebook, he knew the saying only applied to the powerful. Without money and power, rules and restraints were everywhere.
No common resident of Darkness Port could simply lie down on the sure path into the city brazenly and have nothing befall him.
More importantly, this man was a Dream Seed!