Lin Shen's estimate was just about right: the item was over three meters but under four in length, and it felt great to hold. Swinging it a couple of times, he was surprised at how well it handled, indeed resembling a spear with a peculiar design. Unexpectedly, it wasn't very heavy at all, weighing only about fifteen pounds, which was astonishingly light.
For the average person, swinging something that weighed fifteen pounds would be quite strenuous, but luckily, Lin Shen had consistently used Base Mutation Fluid to strengthen himself. Although he had not undergone Base Mutation, his strength was not something average humans could match, so swinging it posed no problem for him.
"Cang, let me borrow this thing," Lin Shen said, looking at Cang Yun.
"Sure, just sign and take it," Cang Yun replied surprisingly breezily.
"You're really just letting me take it?" Lin Shen asked in disbelief, needing confirmation once more. After all, this was a half-Crystal Base material, quite valuable.
Cang Yun chuckled, "Our base doesn't even have the equipment to smelt this kind of material. It's useless for you to take it, and you'll have to bring it back eventually."
"Alright, then I'm taking it," Lin Shen said after signing his name and borrowing the item.
On the way back, Lin Shen still pondered whether to visit the Qi and Wang families' warehouses but ultimately couldn't find a suitable excuse. They were unlikely to allow someone from the Lin Family into their storage.
"Having such a find is already a stroke of incredible luck. I wonder what kind of Fire Seed it can bring me?" Lin Shen wished he could rush home right away and lie in bed hugging it for a sleep.
Passing by his family's shop, he noticed a crowd gathered around an open space next to Qi Tianfu's Lottery Egg Shop, curious about what they were doing.
Lin Shen didn't want to meddle and intended to hurry home, but then he saw Qi Tianfu amidst the crowd, cursing and looking extremely annoyed.
"What's going on over there?" Lin Shen asked Zhao Li, who was standing in the doorway of their shop, craning her neck to see the commotion.
"Lin, someone set up a ring toss booth next to the lottery egg shop and has snatched a lot of Qi Fatty's business. He's about to explode in anger," Zhao Li said with a laugh.
"Ring toss?" Lin Shen was slightly surprised.
He was, of course, aware of the street game ring toss; find a spot, lay out various prizes, and people pay to throw plastic rings from a line marked by the vendor. If the ring landed around a prize, they could take it.
This kind of street game was not unusual, with many fairs featuring it, and some vendors even used Base Mutation Eggs as prizes. None of this was surprising to Lin Shen.
What really surprised Lin Shen was that someone dared to set up a booth right next to Qi Tianfu's shop, and the vendor must have been quite bold.
Strangely, with Qi Tianfu's typically brazen disposition, he hadn't smashed the other's stall.
Moreover, how could a simple ring toss booth attract so many people? It wasn't as if no one had played ring toss before.
Curious, Lin Shen placed the Base Variant Creature's corpse into storage and then went outside to squeeze through the crowd for a look.
What he saw next truly surprised him.
It was indeed a ring toss booth, but there was only one prize.
A person sat on a chair, a Base Mutation Egg balanced on top of their head—the sole prize of this ring toss game.
Many people who bought plastic rings stood outside the rope the vendor had drawn, extending their arms to throw rings at the egg on top of the person's head, hoping to loop it.
At least seven or eight people were continuously throwing rings, and despite the distance being only four or five meters, not a single one managed to land a ring on the Base Mutation Egg atop the person's head.
After one man had used all his rings, he immediately took out more money, deposited it into a box provided by the vendor, and nonchalantly grabbed more rings to keep playing.
Lin Shen saw that the box was labeled ten yuan per ring, which was not cheap.
The reason so many people were willing to spend money to play was that the Base Mutation Egg sitting above the shopkeeper's head was an Alloy Base Mutation Egg.
Even an Alloy Base Mutation Egg with less desirable attributes could sell for a five-figure sum, so naturally, this little expense was nothing in comparison.
Among those continuously throwing rings was Qi Tianfu, muttering curses under his breath as he threw, yet he never managed to land one, always missing by just a bit.
What truly astonished Lin Shen wasn't this, but the fact that the shopkeeper sitting beneath the Base Mutation Egg was none other than Wei Wufu, who had made a very noticeable appearance at the recruitment meeting.
For an Alloy Mutator, earning a bit of money should be easy. Just hunting some steel creatures would be less risky and more profitable than running this small stall.
Furthermore, by simply joining any power faction, he could easily make a five-figure sum each month.
Yet here he was, running a street stall, and Lin Shen wondered what he was thinking.
Qi Tianfu, who didn't attend the recruitment meeting, obviously did not recognize Wei Wufu and kept on casting rings while swearing.
If he knew that Wei Wufu was an Alloy Mutator, he'd probably behave more graciously.
The more Lin Shen watched, the stranger he found it. Tossing rings did have its difficulty.
It wasn't easy to throw a twenty-centimeter diameter ring onto a target from four or five meters away, but it wasn't too hard either.
Precision is not greatly affected by strength. It's one part practice—after extensive repetition, one becomes more skilled and more accurate—and one part innate talent.
For a short-distance ring toss like this, one doesn't need exceptional precision; a bit of practice, a few more tries, and one could hit the target by chance.
However, as Lin Shen stood there for a short while, those people had thrown at least a hundred rings and not a single one landed by chance, always missing by just a bit.
Qi Tianfu alone had thrown at least twenty rings in this short time, with some even hitting the Base Mutation Egg before bouncing off, infuriating him to the point where he smashed his rings onto the ground.
When Lin Yin used to take Lin Shen to the market, Lin Shen often spent money at the ring toss stalls but rarely won.
Later, he had his second brother buy him some rings, and after practicing non-stop at home, he soon could land eight or nine out of ten.
When he next went to the market, the stall owner was almost in tears.
After mastering the game, Lin Shen found it less interesting and rarely played afterward.
As a veteran himself, Lin Shen watched for a while and became sure there was a trick involved. Under normal circumstances, someone should have won by now; it was impossible for them to keep missing.
"Wei Wufu is quite the character. He could have simply stolen the money, yet he chooses to put on this whole act," Lin Shen thought to himself.
"Damn you, you're cheating, aren't you?" After Qi Tianfu picked up another twenty rings and missed with each one, with several that looked like they hit being bounced off, he finally lost his temper and burst out cursing at Wei Wufu.
"When you're that clumsy and unlucky, it really shows your lack of character," Lin Shen wouldn't miss the chance to mock Qi Tianfu.
When Qi Tianfu turned and saw it was Lin Shen, he opened his mouth to curse but seemed to remember something and swallowed his words, glaring and sneering, "If you, Mr. Lin Shen, are so skilled and lucky, why don't you land one and show me? If you can do it, I'll call you 'boss' every day from now on."