"Join the club? What club? An organization for the end-of-day shard users?" Xu Mo was slightly surprised. He had suspected that after the appearance of the end-of-day shards, some small groups of ability users might emerge, but he hadn't expected to come into contact with one so quickly.
The man, seemingly afraid that Xu Mo wouldn't believe him, hurriedly took out a card from his pocket—something like a VIP card. The card, with a colorful background, had eight black Chinese characters printed on it: World Fruit Trade Alliance.
Uh... What a ridiculous name...
Now Xu Mo actually began to believe them. Such a stupid name could only belong to an organization that's not just dealing in fruits unless the company wanted to go bankrupt.
"Sorry, but I'm not interested in joining any organization right now," Xu Mo said, releasing the woman and lowering his gun. He wasn't a bloodthirsty man; since they didn't have any malicious intent, there was no need for him to kill them.
No matter how strong Xu Mo's abilities were at this moment, deep down, he still saw himself as an ordinary person. For him, strength was merely for self-defense, not to gain anything.
"Thank you for trusting us." The man sighed with relief when Xu Mo didn't pursue the matter, then cautiously helped the woman, only to be brushed off by her.
"Get lost, I can walk by myself!" The woman picked up her war hammer from the ground, returned it to the shard space, and stood up, limping as she supported her waist with one hand.
"Haha, forgive her. My girlfriend's always been like this. Little brother, don't mind her," the man said with an awkward laugh, trying to help again. This time, the woman just shot him a glare, but let him support her.
From a distance, a sharp police siren could be heard. Whether it was due to the gunshots or not, the three of them didn't want to linger. They quickly crossed through a small path in the People's Park and climbed over the back wall to exit the park.
Although the man had a somewhat masochistic tendency, he was quite hospitable. Once they left the park, he immediately invited Xu Mo to grab something to eat, claiming it was to make up for his earlier rash actions. Xu Mo, wanting to learn more about the end-of-day shards and related organizations, readily accepted the invitation.
They ended up at a somewhat secluded café. After entering, they found a corner booth with a partition and ordered a pot of flower tea and a few plates of dried fruit. They sat down separately.
The man took the initiative, filling three cups with tea and offering one to Xu Mo. "I really am sorry about what happened earlier. It was all because my girlfriend got a bit carried away... Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Du Zhizhang, and this beautiful lady next to me is my girlfriend, Chang Zitong."
"Get lost! When did I agree to be your girlfriend? If it weren't for us growing up together, I wouldn't even give you a chance!" The woman, Chang Zitong, huffed and turned her head away.
Xu Mo chuckled awkwardly and pretended not to notice, continuing to drink his tea... One's "bloated" and the other's "stomach hurts," if these two don't get together, then God's truly blind.
"Hehe... So, Brother Du and Sister Chang , what do you two do for work?" Xu Mo asked with a faint smile.
"We work as salespeople at a company that sells cultural supplies. Every day we're hustling to push products, but we can't make much money off other people's faces... To be honest, with this situation, who knows when we'll be able to buy our own house in the city?" Du Zhizhang said with a pitying expression. He glanced at Chang Zitong, who didn't respond, and his face brightened as he eagerly asked, "Little brother, what about you?"
"Xu Mo, I'm a student at Shang Shan City's First High School."
Since they had already seen his true face, there was no point in hiding his identity. It was better to be honest.
"Wow, I didn't expect you to have such strength at such a young age. You probably have six or seven end-of-day shards, right?" Chang Zitong asked. Unlike the talkative Du Zhizhang, Chang Zitong seemed more focused on Xu Mo's abilities, like a martial arts enthusiast.
Afraid Xu Mo might misunderstand, Du Zhizhang quickly explained, "Zitong's family used to run a martial arts school. She's been unbeatable in our neighborhood since she was a kid, so losing to you might have made her a little disappointed…"
"Oh, no problem. Six or seven shards... something like that," Xu Mo vaguely replied. He wasn't about to reveal too much about his life-saving shards so easily.
"That's impressive… I only have two shards myself. One is a red shard that enhances brain capacity; the other is a blue shard with the ability 'visual projection,' which can create two moving images or six fixed images in the enemy's eyes, but only for the target—no one else can see them. Zitong has more shards—three red shards, two muscle-enhancement shards, and one body-strengthening shard. She also has a yellow shard with a weapon, the 'Earthshatter' war hammer. That's about it."
Du Zhizhang was quite open about their shards. In truth, their shard count was quite low, and they didn't have any hidden cards.
But for regular people, having that many shards was still impressive. Xu Mo knew how hard it was to collect just one shard in the real world.
Xu Mo chatted with them for a while about the end-of-day shards and learned that their ability to collect them came down to incredible luck.
On the day the end-of-day aurora appeared, Du Zhizhang was cooking at home when he accidentally cut his hand. He then coincidentally found a shard that had fallen on the windowsill, becoming one of the first lucky people to discover the effects of the shards. Excited, Du Zhizhang told his childhood friend, Chang Zitong, about it, and the two of them started collecting shards while running business errands in the city.
Because they had started early, their collection was quite smooth in the first week. However, after the government began official purchases, their shard collection slowed down.
Compared to Xu Mo's grueling fight to get his twelve shards, Du Zhizhang and Chang Zitong's collection process seemed almost like a main character's journey. Xu Mo couldn't help but feel like he wanted to vomit blood from jealousy.
"So... Du Ge, Chang Jie, what exactly is this 'World Fruit Trade Alliance' you mentioned? And what's with the commission for introducing members?" Xu Mo finished his tea and finally asked his biggest question.
"Hehe, to be honest, the World Fruit Trade Alliance can't really be considered an end-of-day shard user organization…" Du Zhizhang pushed the card with the World Fruit Trade Alliance logo in front of Xu Mo. "The World Fruit Trade Alliance is more like an underground black market. It doesn't have any official rules or goals to strive for. It's just a place where end-of-day shard users can exchange and trade shards. It also provides valuable intelligence and offers rewards for rare shards... Since the alliance's existence is based on enough end-of-day shard users, it established this rule: anyone who successfully trades at least one shard in the alliance through an introduction will earn a red shard as commission."
Xu Mo was stunned for a moment. He had expected the World Fruit Trade Alliance to be some sort of underground organization, but he didn't expect it to be a black market and task hub, much like a mercenary guild in fantasy novels.
But he had to admit, this kind of organization was more fitting for the complexities of the real world. At least in this neutral trade guild format, no shard users would oppose it. Even the government would probably turn a blind eye to such places, as it helped them control the shards.
The creator of this organization was truly a genius...