Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle

Tessa and the others immediately shared their current System Points…

Most of them had broken past the 40,000-point mark, with Tessa herself reaching close to 50,000 after converting their haul from the raid.

And yet… their inventories were still brimming with loot. They had various ores from treasure chests, oddities, jewelry, pieces of enchanted gear, and even zombie parts—most of it untested.

After some time, they gathered around in a loose circle within the room.

Everyone had their scanners out, and a growing pile of "strange-but-possibly-valuable" items sat in the center.

It was Jaxon who spoke up first.

"I bought this Lightning Talisman for only 10 Zombie Cores. It's weaker than Aya's creations, but they're decent. So I bought a lot of them… However, they're not good enough against Mid-Tier Zombies, but guess what? The scanner just gave me +30 Points for it."

Kael turned his head sharply. "Wait. So you're saying you turned 10 points into 30?"

Since 1 Zombie Core would give 1 System Point, then that was indeed a profit as he turned it to 30 instead.

It may not be a lot at first, but if Jaxon had a lot of them, he would profit a lot!

"Yep…" Jaxon nodded smugly. "That's a decent return. I only have a hundred pieces with me. Later, I'm going back to that stall to get more."

Lyra looked skeptical. "You're assuming it wasn't a one-time fluke. For all we know, it could've been a rare talisman or maybe its power. Just try a few dozen more."

"Hahaha… That's true." Jaxon chuckled. "But this means that any of our items that seemed not useful could be worth something."

Tessa snapped her fingers in excitement. "That reminds me! Remember that old music box I bought in Ivory Gear Shelter? It played like… four broken notes and then shut up forever."

"Yeah," Raze smirked. "We all told you it was haunted."

"Well, I bought it for 11 gold coins, which wasn't even a big deal. But when I scanned it just now? +24 Points!"

"Ohhh… So those small crafts can be worth that much?" Kael blinked. "I thought those junk would just be rejected."

"That's tried." Tessa replied, "The scanners didn't accept gold coins. But apparently, gold items with mechanisms are fair game."

"Interesting…" Jaxon murmured, rubbing his chin. "That means maybe gears, watches, or enchanted jewelry might hold hidden value, too."

Raze perked up and pulled out a broken compass. "This thing? Got it from a scavenger's backpack. Rusty and useless."

She then used her scanner to convert it to points.

[ Your Broken Compass has been valued at 50 Points. ]

"Ahh… It's high… Not bad," she shrugged. "Practically junk, and still got 50. It couldn't even be appraised properly."

Raze muttered since 50 Points was quite similar to an Uncommon Grade item.

Kael raised a brow. "Then what about this?" He pulled out a fragment of mana stone. "It doesn't have any mana anymore."

According to Shane, these mana stones that don't have any more mana within could just be destroyed or thrown into the pond.

It was quite useless unless they filled it again with mana, which could only happen naturally if it was near the source of Mana.

[ Your Empty Mana Stone has been valued at 2 Points. ]

"Ohh… It's still better than Zombie Core with 2 points. Hahaha…" Kael laughed as he saw the result.

Everyone leaned forward as they saw this happen.

"No way…" Jaxon said. "I thought broken mana stones were trash! I've thrown so many of them. Why would you keep them in your inventory anyway?"

"Well, now we know," Kael grinned. "Even cracked or dead items might still hold worth."

Then Lyra picked up a zombie's eye encased in a glass vial. "Anyone want to guess?"

They grimaced at the sight of the eye.

"20 Points?" Raze muttered.

"That's Lurker Zombie's Eye, right? Might be 50 or so." Kale muttered.

At this time, Lyra scanned the item.

[ Your Zombie Eye has been valued at 45 Points. ]

"Ohh… 45 Points!"

"Ew," Tessa muttered. "Why does the system even accept that?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to," Jaxon deadpanned.

They then laughed together as it had been some time since they had gathered like this.

Because of their status, they had actually been assigned to lead various teams within the Clan. This was to ensure that they remain capable even if the number of members increases.

Then, Kael shared his strange success.

"The bone flute I found from the ruined city gave me 105 Points. It's interesting. Maybe it's something about residual spiritual energy."

Tessa whistled. "We need to make a list of weird items that are worth more than expected."

They quickly began listing some common items they could find that could be profitable.

Five stacks of old newspaper +7

1 kilo of golden grain +4

Blackroot Vine +5

Decorative Gold Knife +10

Safe Unknown Meat +8

Zombie Fang +5

"It's like treasure hunting," Tessa grinned. "Except half the treasure looks like garbage."

"Garbage with secrets," Jaxon said, holding up a twisted ring.

It just gave him 15 points.

Everyone continued with their tasks like they were opening a lottery ticket…

Indeed, it was like a game of discovery, speculation, and surprise windfalls.

***

While the group was still comparing random trash-to-treasure conversions, the atmosphere shifted subtly as a familiar figure entered the private room, Shane.

He was wearing his usual dark coat with a simple tactical vest…

"So, everyone's here…" Shane said as he walked in casually. Still, there was a glint in his eyes as he'd been listening to their entire conversation.

Apparently, he thought that there would only be the two of them in this room. He didn't know that Raze had also invited the rest of the group.

There was a hint of disappointment in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced with an expectant gaze.

Raze turned with a grin. "Took you long enough. You hoard more than all of us combined. You probably have a city's worth of weird crap in your inventory. Do you have a million points now?"

"Crap?" Shane echoed with mock offense. "I'll have you know some of those items are historic artifacts. And no, I don't have a million points yet."

"Sure," Tessa said with a snort. "Like that broken violin you bought from Miss Jillian's last concert?"

Jillian, the Famous Bard, was definitely a figure that everyone would always be a fan. Shane also liked her singing skills, and seeing her play instruments of all kinds was just incredible.

That was the time when he bought Jillian's violin, which was broken at the end of her performance.

"I'll have you know that the violin helped Jillian give about 200 Survivors around with buff. It had sentimental value…" As he said this, Raze looked at him weirdly…

Shane shot back, before holding it up and casually placing it on the scanner.

"Alright… I'll convert it."

[ Your Broken Violin has been valued at 140 Points. ]

"140 Points?!"

"…Wait, seriously?" Kael said, stepping forward. "That's more than some functioning weapons."

Raze narrowed her eyes. "You didn't know it was worth that much, did you?"

Shane just grinned and shrugged. "I had a hunch."

One by one, he began converting random items from his inventory, items they never even noticed he had.

Shane enjoyed this as well. After all, it felt like the burden of managing four Shelters had disappeared.

Soon, he pulled out an intricately carved glass orb with no magical signature.

It was just an upgraded light orb from Flasher Zombie.

[ Your Epic-Grade Light Orb has been valued at 520 Points. ]

Then, a wooden staff with a split tip, obviously unusable, was also scanned.

[ Your Damaged World Tree's Ritual Staff has been valued at 5,260 Points. ]

"Oopss." Shane paused as he realized that he had just converted the World Tree's branch into system points.

He had no intention of wasting the precious branch into points at all.

He could only hope that the World Tree wouldn't know about that.

'Well, I still have a few of them, so it shouldn't matter.' Shane mused.

"Okay, what even is that?" Lyra asked as she actually felt a strong power from the staff that Shane had just converted.

"Just a precious wood… I upgraded it to the limit, and it gave decent points." Shane said…

"Oh, wait—check this out," Shane said as he changed the topic. This time, he held what looked like a half-melted metal plate.

[ Your Corrupted Necrosteel Ingot has been valued at 150 Points. ]

"They're ingots dropped by Giant Zombies… You have to check your inventory if you have them. They're worth 150 points."

Shane said that the ingot was no longer as valuable as before because they already had a good method of refining steel.

"One hundred fifty points? Not bad… Still, not as valuable as Roan's vial of blood."

Raze chucked as the group looked at her…

"Hey! I want to see Roan… He's still fine, right? How much blood did you take this time?" Tessa suddenly said.

Raze's eyes widened as she heard this. "What the--! Do you think I'll suck him dry?!"