What're Yeh Sellin'?

My answer to the question posed by the title of this entry is always the same: Everything! Take it all, take all my spinels and gems and other treasures - anything to get my precious, precious weapon upgrades!! When dealing with the merchant (who seems to have chosen some rather unlikely locations to set up shop, by the way... which makes me wonder if he's also providing weaponry and provisions to my enemies - a thought that fills me with indescribable rage), my strategy is to always sell, and sell quickly. Since the beginning of the game, I have not had the patience to wait until I can combine treasures to increase their value, because I am always too anxious to immediately upgrade my weapons (except for one instance in which I just happened to stumble upon two combinable treasures before I reached the next merchant). I regret this impulsive behavior, because patience might have led to a greater bounty of goods in the long run, but I am making no steps to change it. This has led to me never having any extra money lying around. I sell stuff, I upgrade the shit out of my weapons, and by the time I bid the merchant farewell, I am nearly penniless again.

This has become a problem lately, because as of Chapter 5-1, the merchant now sells body armor. The body armor costs $60,000 which is twice as expensive as even the most lofty of weapon upgrades. Obviously, I have nowhere close to $60,000, and it will take a significant amount of time (and the sacrifice of weapon upgrades) to pull the cash together. My dilemma is: SHOULD I sacrifice weapon upgrades for this body armor? What's more important to me right now, increasing my offense or my defense? It seems like enemies are going to become harder to kill from this point on, and also will be learning new and fascinating methods by which to kick my ass. I'm not sure what I should do. I'm sure this isn't a problem for most people playing this game; by this point they probably have hundreds of thousands of dollars racked up as a result of wise and conservative business decisions. Sadly, as in real life, I haven't quite learned the value of a dollar yet.

Anyway, having left the merchant, I forged onward. Soon I ran into my first Argh. I call these monsters Arghs because every time one of them shows up, I scream "Argh!" (out of an instinctual mixture of horror, repulsion, and hatred for the God who would allow such creatures to exist), and they started thinking it was their name. I first saw an Argh laid out on an autopsy table in a hellish laboratory that could only exist in the Silent Resident Hill Evil universe. In the same area was a little note left for me by my dead Spaniard friend. I read the note, learning that I would need some sort of infrared something or other in order to kill these things. It suddenly struck me that the instant I finished reading the note, the Argh on the autopsy table would surely rise and attack me, and now I knew that there was nothing I could do to kill it, except for hoping it would drown in my tears. I left the note on the screen and went to smoke a cigarette and sooth my nerves.

I returned to the game, and sure enough the horrible, horrible thing on the table rose and attacked me. Argh! He hit me with a swing so powerful that it knocked me on my ass, and reduced my health into the red zone, forcing me to use one of my herbs. I ran away from the monster, knowing it was invulnerable to my puny weapons. After evading another couple of Arghs, I finally found the infrared scope, and I attached it to my rifle. It turns out they're not so hard to kill once you have the scope, but my shitty aim means I had to stop shooting to distance myself in several battles. No big deal. At one point though, one of the abominations ejected porcupine-like spikes out of its body as some sort of nightmarish death twitch, which fucked my shit up again, requiring yet another herb. I followed Ashley's screams to find her locked up in a cell guarded by big-ass dudes in crazy armor. I killed them, only to find that her cell was locked. Consulting the map, I followed it to the destination marker, where I killed an Argh that left me what I'm guessing is the key to Ashley's cell.

After that, I ran into another merchant. As it turns out, I now had enough cash money for the body armor (the Arghs leave you a TON of money when they die). I purchased it. I hope it helps. I also bought some first aid spray to make up for all the herbage I'd just consumed. Nearby I found a typewriter and saved, deciding to take a break for now.

As this fairly brief gameplay session ends, one truth is ringing loud and clear in my mind: I'm hopelessly screwed on the ammo front. I have exactly TWO bullets left in my handgun. My shotgun is fully loaded, and I have one more clip for it, but that's it. Luckily, I have tons of rifle ammo, which be useful in fighting the Arghs. But I have a feeling that the presence of the Arghs will be similar to that of the invisible insects I encountered earlier in the game... they'll show up, fuck with me for one chapter of gameplay, and then disappear never to be seen again. I hope I find a ton of ammo soon, or I really think I'm screwed. Pray for me.