The other party went on a passionate rant that made quite a bit of sense.
[Lamplighter: Ah, yes, yes, yes!]
[Edward Jack: So, brother, if you don’t mind, let’s negotiate for a collaboration!]
[Lamplighter: Sign a contract directly?]
[Edward Jack: No, it’s not that simple, before the cooperation, we need to further confirm each other’s identity, strength, and some details to judge the final distribution of benefits... By the way, what’s the number of your fragment?]
The other party suddenly asked this question halfway through the conversation seemingly casually.
Mu You didn’t answer. The other party suddenly inquired about the fragment number, and it was likely they already knew the difference between valid and invalid fragments. They were discerning if he had any value...
[Lamplighter: What’s yours?] Mu You retorted.
[Edward Jack:... Alright, how about we take turns using the Lie Detection Sphere to state our own fragment numbers and sources?]
[Lamplighter: Agreed.]
[Edward Jack: I’ll start...My number is eight, and it was an accidental find in a fish’s belly during a fishing trip. The other collaborator’s number is seven, acquired from the last hit in a tower fight.]
[After Jack finished, there was no reaction from the Crystal Ball, proving that he was telling the truth.]
[You take the Crystal Ball, and you’re going to say...]
A text box popped up, and Mu You quickly typed: [I own the second fragment of the Dawn City Map, bought from a beaver.]
Of course, his words were not a problem, the Crystal Ball didn’t light up, and the opponent sent a stream of ellipsis. Mu You understood what he was implying: all three of them had invalid fragments, was there any point in forming an alliance?
[Lamplighter: What do you say, alliance or not?]
[Edward Jack: Don’t be hasty, brother! The other guy and I haven’t settled things yet. He is currently in Africa and can’t come over at once... How about this? Let’s each find other fragment holders, and when we find the fourth person, we can all discuss alliance details, okay?]
As expected, now the other party was reluctant to cooperate. With Mu You’s invalid fragment, it would be a loss for them to exchange two maps for one.
[Edward Jack: Add me to your friends, brother! Contact me anytime if there’s anything!]
He received a friend request from the other party. Mu You understood the implication: he was being considered as a ’reserve option.’ The alliance was on hold, and they will look for the next target first. If the next person they find possesses a valid fragment, he will definitely be excluded from the alliance.
Shaking his head, Mu You clicked on approve.
[Edward Jack has been added to your friends list.]
It didn’t matter if this guy used him as a reserve option, because as far as he was concerned, this guy was also his reserve option.
If he couldn’t snatch any fragment in the end, he would have to reluctantly seek cooperation with this person.
After adding him as a friend, the other party hastily left like he was afraid Mu You would cling to him.
After letting the guy go, Mu You turned to reassess the information at hand.
He had fragments ’five’ and ’two’ on hand, this pirate had ’seven’ and ’eight’, plus the three fragments in the hands of the Son of Heaven. There have been seven fragments confirmed so far, with just two unknown.
However, it seemed like the probability of ’one’ and ’nine’ being among the remaining two unknown fragments was quite low...
"Could it be that ’one’ and ’nine’ are both in the hands of the Son of Heaven..."
Mu You couldn’t help but consider this possibility.
If that was the case, the situation would become even more complicated, implying that he must confront the forces of the Son of Heaven at least once in the future in order to snatch a valid fragment.
"Let’s take one step at a time..." Mu You sighed quietly and put the matter aside for now.
The next morning, Mu You got up early.
Today was the official opening day of the shop.
After freshening up, Mu You went to check the backpack in the zoo. After confirming that all the animals were in good condition, he went to roll up the shutter door.
It was already seven in the morning and not yet opening time, but some tourists were already waiting outside. Little Ya and Lin Xue had arrived, fielding questions from visitors by the entrance.
Just as Mu You was about to go over and lend them a hand, a familiar voice called from behind.
Turning around, he found it was Zhang Yang, Liu Chen, and several familiar colleagues from the Department of Anomaly.
"Captain Zhang, why have you come?" Mu You was surprised. They were all dressed in their Department of Anomaly uniforms.
"Haha, it’s your grand opening today, considering how popular your videos are, I reckon you’re going to have a lot of visitors on the first day — somebody needs to help you maintain order," Zhang Yang laughed.
"We also took advantage of our positions to visit Mu Bro’s shop!" a woman in the team whispered covering her mouth, "It’s too difficult to buy tickets for your place, I tried for like two hours yesterday and couldn’t even get one!"
"Ahem, don’t go spreading rumors, we’re here on official duty."
Zhang Yang coughed, lifted his uniform shirt, and secretly showed Mu You something tucked inside: "We borrowed this from the branch in Lin City last night, to help you maintain order."
Mu You looked down, the Omniscient Crystal already showed the description of the item.
[Magic Shielding Device: Once activated, it blocks all spell casting within a certain range. It is effective on creatures below level 10.]