Dominating Evolution Of The Cosmos 197 Encountering Vivien

After he left the Original Gravity Tower, Steve's mind was focused on the formulation of the spiritual power serum. As the Original Gravity Tower could increase his basic cell value rapidly, he would challenge higher levels in the future.
After all, his basic cell values would advance rapidly before they reached the bottleneck stage. On the contrary, his spiritual power's improvement would be much slower than his basic cell value's. So, the most important thing now was to find ways to improve his spiritual power.
Steve was looking for the medicinal ingredients to use in the replacement recipe. The Original Tower Market, which was the only free market in the military base, had a much better variety of items than the outside market.
Since one could buy things that were prohibited on the outside, the buyers at military bases were usually either soldiers or officers, researchers, or instructors. At the same time, many of the soldiers would also bring items that they had acquired on their missions to sell, which were similarly difficult to buy on the outside.
As such, even though part of the ingredients in the recipe were things that were hard to buy on the outside, as Steve walked along the road, he was actually able to buy most of them!
"The first kind of serum, the Soul-producing serum, is still lacking the Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s. The second kind, the Purple Serum is still lacking Violet Ice Water and the Ice Tiger's horn. The third kind, the Silver Dream Serum, is still lacking the Spark of Stars," Steve mumbled the list of missing ingredients as he looked around.
"Friend, if you need the Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s, the Black Tiger Store might have it." A shop owner gave Steve his recommendation.
"Black Tiger Shop? Where is that?" Steve's eyes lit up.
"The Black Tiger shop has the most complete inventory of dark goods. But, the Black Tiger Store's reputation is not very good. They often cheat shoppers just because their shop is big and they have somewhat of a monopoly. Just be careful," the shopkeeper warned.
After that, he marked the location of the Black Tiger Store on a map for Steve. The reason why the Black Tiger Store had so many dark treasures was that it was one of the stores that was owned by the Babbitt Group.
The Babbitt Group was one of the biggest corporations in Stanlos Base Camp. It used to be on the same level as the Masa Group, but recently, the Masa Group's market value had soared because of the clown pharmacist.
The founder of the Babbitt Group was originally the captain of an adventurous team. He had even discovered the Black Spring in the Magical Beasts Mountain while on a mission!
As he was the discoverer, he could sell the Dark Spring for a large amount of money, so the Babbitt Group had cultivated many dark treasures. This explained how the Babbitt Group had developed so rapidly.
As Dark goods were very special, the market for them was huge. But, as there were few suppliers, the Babbitt Group had trained a group of its own pharmacists to meet the rising demand.

As the Military bases sometimes needed dark items, the Babbitt Group was allowed to set up stores in the square. However, perennial contact with dark items would cause people to become influenced by the dark items.
Steve also checked the internet, finding that the Babbitt Group had attracted many soldiers in the military base to join its Black Tiger Battle Team. The strength of the Black Tiger Battle Team was not to be belittled, as they were ranked in the top 50!
This was a normal occurrence for large groups or n.o.bles to support battle teams by providing them with lots of resources. Of course, this kind of support was not given for free, as the corresponding battle teams must aid the masters in completing many dangerous tasks in return. Another option would be their serving them for a few years after they retired from the military bases.
That was exactly why Steve was reluctant to join a battle team. If he could, he would like to form a battle team of his own. Besides, he had enough money of his own and didn't need a corporate or n.o.ble sponsors.h.i.+p!
Steve found the Black Tiger Store easily, as it was a rare dark department store in the middle of the square. Steve went into the shop and a sales clerk came up immediately.
"Welcome, sir. What are you looking for?" the pretty sales clerk asked with a smile.
"I need Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s. Do you have any of that here?" Steve asked straightforwardly.
"Sir, you're in luck! The Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s only matures once every 10 years, so every Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s is usually booked in advance," the waitress explained. She then suddenly laughed and said, "However, a few days ago, the shop just brought in an extra Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s plant!"
"That's great. I want this Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s plant! It doesn't matter how much it costs!" Steve said, pleasantly surprised.
"That will be 100,000 in original gold for this Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s plant, sir. Are you sure you want to buy it?" The pretty sales clerk glanced at Steve to confirm again.
"Yes, I'll take it. Go and fetch the Blood-Sucking Gra.s.s please," Steve said calmly.
There was a glimmer of surprise in her eyes, as there were not many soldiers in the military base who could easily afford such a sum!
"Just a moment, sir. I'll fetch it for you." The pretty sales clerk laughed, then turned and went inside.
As Steve was waiting at the counter, a sudden quarrel erupted at the counter next to him. One of the voices yelling was slightly familiar...
"You're selling fake stuff!"
"Lady, what we sold you was really a perfect Subatomic Serum."
"But, its lasting effect was only half of what was advertised!"
"We only promise our customers that we sell the perfect Subatomic Serum, but we don't promise how long it will last!"
"That's cheating!"
"What evidence do you have to prove that we are cheating? If you're talking nonsense, be careful, or we'll sue you for slander!"
As he was listening to the noisy quarrel, Steve looked over curiously. A girl in a long black dress was arguing with the counter staff. Her long black hair fell down and blocked her eyes, which caused people to ignore her at times.
Steve, however, recognized her as the 16th person lucky enough to be selected as a soldier in the armored robots unit. It was Vivien!
"What happened, Vivien?" Steve stepped forward and asked her.
Vivien looked back and was surprised to see Steve. "Steve, why are you here?"
"I came here to buy some things." Steve frowned and asked, "What's wrong with you?"
"I... I... I'm all right..." Vivian lowered her head and fidgeted nervously with her clothes.
Her expression revealed that she felt she had been wronged, but dared not speak out. Her body was even shaking. She seemed very frightened.
Then, she picked up the Subatomic Serum on the counter and said, "I'm going to leave!"
"Hold on!" Steve grabbed Vivien's hand and looked at the man at the counter. "I just heard that you sell fake goods!"