Chapter Forty: Skill Upgrade

After exchanging a few casual words with Yan Yizhen, perhaps due to today’s ten-million-dollar order, her attitude toward Qin Jing had noticeably shifted, showing a warmth that hadn’t been there before. This was only natural; Qin Jing wouldn’t look down on her for such a small thing. If Yan Yizhen knew he had made a fortune and still remained indifferent, that would have been strange indeed.

“When do you have time? You should return to the university. I plan to publicize your story and start a Green Recycling Club on campus, offering a few free positions for students from disadvantaged families. That way, we can expand our enterprise as well.”

“In two or three days. Things are a bit tight for me lately.”

“That’s fine, I’ll wait for you.”

With that, Yan Yizhen led the second-generation heirs away, bidding farewell.

Qin Jing hadn’t lied; the next few days would be busy. As for Yan Yizhen as a partner, he had his own considerations. Zhang Wei and the others now hung their heads, clearly aware of the new reality. At this moment, Qin Jing needed to confirm that Yan Yizhen could be a dependable collaborator. Her proposal to establish the Green Recycling Club at school looked promising, but it required many things—connections among campus personnel, social skills, and so forth—none of which Qin Jing possessed. If Yan Yizhen could accomplish it within three days, without doubt, she would be a qualified partner, filling the gaps in Qin Jing’s own abilities.

He shook his head, clearing away the tangled thoughts, then walked to the entrance and shut the door firmly.

Now was the time to tally his gains.

Seated before the mirror, he saw the number in the lower right corner had reached 1120.

He had previously unlocked three skills, spending 900 G points, and after today’s major transaction, his G points had once again surpassed a thousand.

Without hesitation, Qin Jing chose to activate the skill “Recycling Map.”

As the skill lit up, he saw a 3D virtual map appear in the mirror, centered on his recycling shop. The terrain within ten meters was rendered in crisp detail.

This sight stirred something in Qin Jing’s heart. The next moment, he zoomed in on the map and “saw” the situation around him.

Across the street, the owner of the incense shop was peering curiously at the recycling store, muttering, “So many people at Xiao Qin’s place today—tsk, business is good. If only some would come over here. What a pity…”

Next door, Old Song had closed his shop. He was rubbing his hands together, circling an electric rice cooker, murmuring expectantly, “This rice smells amazing. It was worth trading a small yellow croaker for it. Judging by Qin Jing’s popularity, maybe there’s something special about it. I mustn’t let anyone else know I have this rice.”

No one was foolish; Old Song had an inkling of what happened in Qin Jing’s shop today. So he had his own suspicions.

Qin Jing smiled quietly at this scene, but didn’t pay it much mind. From what he knew, as spiritual energy on Earth revived, more ordinary people could sense that legendary aura and encounter all sorts of uncanny, extraordinary phenomena. Old Song had run an antique shop for years; he might well have a stroke of luck in this area. A little mental preparation wouldn’t hurt.

What truly caught Qin Jing’s attention were the red dots appearing on the recycling map—or, more accurately, not all of them were red.

Each person on the map was shown as a moving red dot. When Qin Jing focused on a dot, he could obtain some information, such as a name and a brief identity description.

Name: Song Lao Yi. Identity: Neighbor, potential customer.

That was Old Song’s brief profile.

Apart from red dots, there were gray dots. Each gray dot represented a recyclable secondhand item. What amused Qin Jing was that, within the ten-meter radius centered on himself, there were only a handful of recyclable items in his own shop—less than ten, in fact. In contrast, Old Song’s shop was packed with gray dots, each standing for a secondhand item.

Tiles from the Qianlong era, silver dollars from the Republic period, Ming dynasty furniture, and more. For the first time, Qin Jing discovered that Old Song was actually a hidden tycoon.

The gray dots themselves weren’t noteworthy, being ordinary secondhand items. What caught Qin Jing’s eye was a dazzling, sun-like orange dot within his shop.

That was the “Supermodel Crystal.” Qin Jing had always been wary of it, and appraising it required a thousand G points, so he had left it alone. Now, seeing it again, he realized: with his current financial power, perhaps he could appraise the Supermodel Crystal directly?

But then he reconsidered. The Supermodel Crystal was Jessica Tio’s path to cultivation, and its extraordinary nature was clear—the brilliant orange glow proved it. Yet with a thousand G points, why not invest in GDP, to create a greater snowball effect?

Perhaps, when his G points accumulate to a massive scale and can’t be further increased in the short term, Qin Jing would consider appraising the Supermodel Crystal.

He then took out some of his current supernatural items from the recycling space.

The Tio Gem was a bright purple dot, though clearly not as high in rank as the Supermodel Crystal.

The Spirit Valley and Spirit Spring shone much dimmer, with only a faint green glow, while the Locking Device in the shop emitted a relatively bright blue light.

From this, it could be deduced: on the recycling map, the higher the value of an item, the brighter its light and the more distinct its color. Ranked from lowest to highest value, the colors were: gray, white, green, blue, purple, orange.

These were the basic functions of the “Recycling Map.” After some initial exploration, Qin Jing felt that with this map, he could actively go out and collect recyclables, and it could roughly sense nearby humans, serving as an early warning.

After activating the recycling map, Qin Jing had 820 G points left. All the sub-skills under Sales Mastery and Recycling Mastery were already unlocked.

“Next, let me see just how powerful the next tier of skills will be.”

With excitement and anticipation, Qin Jing spent another 400 G points to upgrade “Sales Mastery.”

In the next instant, his vision blurred, and the words before him changed.

Sales—Expert Level.

No longer a string of characters, the entire sales skill now appeared in pale blue. Only when Qin Jing focused his attention could he see the words “Expert Level.”

Beneath Expert Level Sales were four sub-skills:

Customer List (blue), Sales Scheduling (blue), Individual Sales Strategy, and Powerful Sales Advertising.