Chapter 869: Versus 18,000

Scars are the brand the eleven-year Calamity has seared into every person's body.

The worst-selling daily good in the safe zones now is the mirror, because the vast majority of people don't want to see the scar-covered, starving-ghost face staring back from the glass.

And the hottest-selling cosmetic in the safe zones is concealer that can hide the scars.

For shallow scars, concealer does provide a certain covering effect, but for more severe or larger-area scars, the effect is very limited. To thoroughly improve scarring, one has to go to a hospital for laser or microneedle procedures.

But during the Calamity years, medical resources are severely scarce; public hospitals simply don't set up these "cosmetic" departments, and the private hospitals in the inner city charge through the roof — not something ordinary people can afford.

So when Fierce Fire began building buzz in March across the various bases in Hui City, claiming it would launch a new drug in June with obvious healing effects on both old and new scars — Scar-Smoothing Cream — it immediately drew widespread attention from people at every base.

But upon learning that Scar-Smoothing Cream was priced as high as 18,000 a bottle, most people gave up the idea.

The love of beauty is universal. No one wants to live covered in scars, but let alone 18,000 — even 1,800 points is something ordinary people, subsisting on rations made from grass, can't scrape together.

Compared to treating scars, staying alive is obviously more important.

Perhaps because the price was too high and market demand insufficient, Fierce Fire voluntarily lowered the price of Scar-Smoothing Cream from 18,000 a bottle to 6,888 a tube, which sparked another wave of buzz.

But no one expected the recently red-hot Hui-Three Pharmaceutical Factory to suddenly announce that tomorrow it would launch a new drug priced at only 1,888 — Scar-Clean!

Once this news broke, it didn't just blow up bases big and small across Hua Nation — even overseas bases called in, scrambling to buy Scar-Clean with broken Chinese.

Hui-Three — a small place;

Hui-Three Pharmaceutical Factory — a small drug factory;

Hui-Three Pharmaceutical Factory's chief researcher, Fu Tianfeng — a big shot!

Hui-Three Pharmaceutical Factory's drugs — excellent quality, low price!

Inside the No. 1–10 Lord Chat Group, the heated discussion was slammed to a pause by a single sentence from Wen Nengjie:

"Scar-Clean versus Scar-Smoothing Cream, 1,888 versus 18,000. Boss Fu is clearly gunning for Fierce Fire — that move is ruthless, and dirty!"

Hearing no one pick up the thread, Wen Nengjie's heart lurched; he knew he'd said the wrong thing, but he couldn't figure out which landmine he'd stepped on.

Fu Tianfeng — or Fierce Fire?

While Wen Nengjie was on pins and needles, Kuang Qingwei laughed and picked up the thread: "Scar-Clean might have been developed by Boss Fu's top team, but the price definitely wasn't set by Boss Fu."

Kuang Qingwei's words were obviously not meant for Wen Nengjie, but possibly for Third Brother, who might be online.

Wen Nengjie caught the key point and immediately jumped in: "Right, right, right. Boss Fu's busy saving all of humanity — when would he have time for this kind of trivial stuff? Besides, what level is Fierce Fire? Not even fit to carry the boss's shoes!"

In the comfortable glass room of Territory Seven, the big shot, barefoot, petting a cat and watching the sunset, yawned.

In the yard of Territory Three, a big-shot fan washing Daigua the monkey was mentally rummaging through his own stockpile, trying to scrape together a dish for his idol's dinner table tonight.

On Fierce Fire Mountain, everyone was on edge, terrified of making the slightest noise and drawing down the squad leader's thunderous wrath.

"1,888?" Fire Phoenix toyed with the blood-filled test tube in her hand using her crimson fingers, watching the dark-red sediment inside slowly flow from one end of the tube to the other. "Shan Ying."

Shan Ying's scalp tightened, and he immediately answered, "At that price, it should be 1g per tube. Our drug is 5g per tube — split into five, the price would be 1,377."

After speaking, Shan Ying looked across the table at Deputy Squad Leader Liao Wendong, who was in charge of the squad's business operations, as if blaming him for not having packaged it in the smallest dosage.

After learning that Zhang San was going to make an affordable scar-removal drug, Fierce Fire had changed its ointment from 20 grams per bottle to 5 grams per tube, which is why the price dropped from 18,000 to 6,888 points.

No one expected Zhang San to push the price down to over a thousand, and to launch it just three days before Fierce Fire's Scar-Smoothing Cream hit the market!

Shan Ying was unhappy, but Liao Wendong was even more annoyed. "Hui-Three Pharmaceutical Factory's Scar-Clean comes in 5-gram tubes."

Shan Ying's heart clenched, and he immediately looked at the squad leader — only to see her fiery-red fingers suddenly clench tight, as if gripping her own throat. The will to survive sent Shan Ying's evolved brain domain spinning at top speed, and he seized on a possibility: "Fu Tianfeng must have found Shi Jiaran and extracted recovery factors from her!"

Recovery factors are a synthesized substance unique to Recovery-type evolved beings, capable of rapidly repairing bodily damage.

Liao Wendong "helpfully" reminded Shan Ying, "The first batch of Scar-Clean that Hui-Three Pharmaceutical Factory is putting on the market is twenty thousand tubes."

Even if you drained two hundred Shi Jiarans dry, you couldn't produce twenty thousand doses.

The white-haired, hollow-cheeked woman seated at the other end of the square table spoke up: "Fu Tianfeng developed a drug last year for treating damage to human skin and bone. Scar-Clean is probably a simplified version of that drug."

Fire Phoenix raised her eyes to look at Deputy Squad Leader Qu Fangzhou, seated across from her, who was specifically in charge of intelligence gathering and analysis.

"Yan Long returned to base by helicopter five days ago and challenged the military's six top combatants. Her record was three wins, one draw, two losses — her combat power has jumped a notch from before she left. And it's not just Yan Long — the overall combat power of her special-ops squad has risen. I sent people to investigate for five days, and only got solid intel at noon today: Yan Long's special-ops squad, on Fu Tianfeng's side, used this drug that Hui-One's military internally calls 41-6…"

After finishing on the drug, Qu Fangzhou specifically pointed out one thing: "The fact that Hui-Three's Third Lord Xia Qing's skin tone changed from dark red to normal was very likely to facilitate the use of this drug."

Liao Wendong agreed with Qu Fangzhou's inference: "41 is Fu Tianfeng's laboratory number. 6 is the sixth drug Fu Tianfeng has provided to Hui-One?"

"Correct." Qu Fangzhou nodded. "Fu Tianfeng has very likely already fulfilled his agreement with Hui-One. That's why he now has greater autonomy — he can push a simplified version of this drug to market, and he can let Red Eleven Base's special-ops team station itself in Hui-Three's Territory Seven."

When Fu Tianfeng originally left Hui-One Research Institute, the agreement he signed with Hui-One's military was to provide them with ten drugs of specified effects. It's been less than two years…

Shan Ying slowly lowered his head, clenched his fists, his gaze complex.

Liao Wendong glanced at Shan Ying across the table and suggested to Fire Phoenix, "Fu Tianfeng is now under the protection of Hui-One, Hui-Three, and Red Eleven. We've already lost the best window to recruit him up the mountain. I recommend we stop provoking him — otherwise, given that he'll use any disgusting tactic he can think of…"

Qu Fangzhou quickly followed up: "The special-ops squad Red Eleven sent to Hui-Three's Territory Seven is comparable to Ji Li's special-ops squad in both combat power and equipment. In other words, Hui-One can no longer fully control Fu Tianfeng. Add to that the protection of Hui-Three's military and the Green Dragon Squad, and Fu Tianfeng has already gained a firm foothold in Hui-Three. We don't just need to adjust our strategy toward Fu Tianfeng — we need to adjust it toward Hui-Three as well. Hui-Three, cooperating with Zhang San and Red Eleven, will only grow stronger."

Fire Phoenix certainly understood this point, and nodded. "Has the background investigation on Xia Qing been completed?"

When Xia Qing wiped out Fierce Fire's beast-hunting squad and killed Shan Xiang, Fire Phoenix hadn't paid this person any mind at all, letting Shan Ying deal with her however he pleased. But after going to Hui-Three seven days ago and meeting Xia Qing, Fire Phoenix discovered that this woman, just like Fu Tianfeng, carried every single trait she found most irritating.

Fire Phoenix had a strong premonition: if this woman climbed high enough, she would, just like Fu Tianfeng, cause her trouble at every turn!