Chapter 179: Arms Negotiation, Nightmare Mushroom
Master Yuan from the declining industrial city, accompanied by tour guide Meng Xiyue, spent an entire afternoon and only hurriedly browsed the territory of the Knowledge School. After dinner, he was forcibly arranged by the pink-haired senior student to attend a 2-hour public lecture.
They had all graduated from high school, working part-time in the Space of Gods, chatting and laughing with the Mao Mao King, and committing the Cicada City major robbery case, yet still unable to escape the curse of ‘learning until old age’.
He, a dignified 18-year-old high-age social success person, a Holy Light System supernova who achieved Foundation Establishment in just 2 months of cultivation, was forced to attend classes at university.
The main content of the public lecture revolved around the historical changes, development, industry layout, and international influence of the ‘Knowledge School, Mechanics Magic Net, and contemporary Magic Net’… The content was very detailed, with a flavor of luxurious brainwashing chicken soup.
After listening, people could only keep exclaiming that the Magic Net is awesome! It seems even more promising than the Pale Great Law, and Holy Light is like a younger brother in front of it.
But under the stimulation of the Little Spicy Stick, he quickly calmed down.
The Magic Net, as an acquired Pollution System, inherently has shortcomings compared to those Innate Roots. Its influence seems huge, but it is based on 100% open-source Magic Net and cooperation with various ‘little Pollution Roots’, which allows it to spread all over the world, leaving traces everywhere.
As for the Pale Great Law, it is also an acquired man-made Root, but its foundation and intent are completely different.
The Law System is the only supernatural power in the world that can forcibly intervene in, bind, gather, accommodate, and refine all Pollution Systems.
Its birth is to create an artificial Pale Heavenly Dao for this chaotic world of demons dancing wildly with absolute great power. Like the First Emperor, forcibly unifying the eight wildernesses and six directions, suppressing and integrating all systems!
Of course, the idea is good, but success is still far away.
After the public lecture ended, Yuan Zhu dragged his tired body to the luxurious emperor suite on the top floor of the 36th floor of the luxurious on-campus hotel booked by the pink hair.
Through the huge floor-to-ceiling glass, he could look up and gaze at the ‘Heavenly Palace Pavilions’ open to the public below the Floating Island. Well, the 36th floor he lived on also implicitly contained the concept of the thirty-sixth heaven.
In just two days in Taixi, he found that although this city resembled modern cities everywhere in high degree, the details were all dregs of the old dynasty, with Eastern culture permeating every place, which gave him, a Celestial Dynasty traverser, a feeling of being home away from home.
…
The next morning, Yuan Zhu, who hadn’t woken up yet, was forcibly woken up by the pink hair who broke in holding a door card.
“Eh…”
Looking at Yuan Zhu leaning on the headboard, quickly recovering from confusion, Meng Xiyue showed a hint of regret on her face.
Yuan Zhu tugged at his sleep-wrinkled collar and asked: “What’s with that perverted expression? Regretting not seeing restricted scenes?”
As he spoke, he lifted the quilt and stood up. He was wearing loose colorful pajama pants below, not giving the female pervert any opportunity. Boys alone outside must learn to protect themselves.
“Boss, she’s craving your body too!”
Meng Xiyue adjusted her slightly crooked backpack and asked: “Tch, as if anyone cares. For the arms order you gave me yesterday, I’ve already selected it. Where are we going to negotiate?”
Yuan Zhu recalled slightly and remembered everything: “The other party gave me an address, but I don’t know if they’ll keep the appointment?”
“Keep the appointment? Why not?”
Yuan Zhu looked slightly worried: “This supplier of mine was arrested on site yesterday at the Taixi Saintess preliminary selection arena for illegal possession of weapons, illegal use of dangerous arms and other crimes. I don’t know if she can be released?”
“Wait!”
The pink hair frowned, realizing the matter wasn’t simple: “You mean you went to watch the Taixi Saintess preliminary selection yesterday?”
Yuan Zhu quickly shook his head to quibble: “No! It’s not like that, the rendezvous point happened to be at the preliminary selection site, I didn’t go specifically to watch.”
Meng Xiyue completely ignored him: “You’re saying your trading partner also participated in the stage performance? Used arms illegally on site and got arrested? And she’s an idol?!”
“She was originally a contestant sponsored by Lei Shen Industry, advertising for her patron on stage is reasonable, right?”
Meng Xiyue’s voice grew louder: “You made me wait foolishly for a morning, just so you could watch girls, watch lightning, watch legs at the preliminary selection site?!”
“I think… it’s necessary to increase your control permissions in the Shadow Domain.”
Meng Xiyue’s voice immediately dropped: “Hmm, I’ll accompany you to the agreed location first. If we don’t see her, we’ll go to the Security Bureau to meet Zhou Chu and have her get the person out.”
Yuan Zhu was puzzled: “That iron dummy can do such a thing? I don’t believe it!”
“The Security Bureau isn’t just her. Through her connection, I’ve met many Security Bureau employees, not everyone is as rigid and dogmatic as her, antagonizing heaven, earth, and air. On the contrary, there are plenty of flexible people with low bottom lines in the Security Bureau, who can totally get the person out through back channels.”
“Then let’s do that!”
…
After breakfast, Yuan Zhu and Meng Xiyue went together, took a car to District 15 one district away. Arriving at the agreed time, they went to the second floor of a teahouse to wait slowly, and by the way ordered a table of morning tea.
Before he ate much, a glamorous figure suddenly appeared across from Yuan Zhu’s table. One second he was lowering his head slurping soup dumplings, the next second he slightly raised his head, and this familiar figure was sitting opposite him, also reaching from the steamer in front of him to take a siu mai.
Realizing it, Yuan Zhu was shocked. At such a close distance, he had no perception at all. Only when his gaze locked onto A Miao did his perception ability belatedly capture (realize) the other party’s existence, confirming it was the real person, followed by wisps of captivating fragrance (body scent) drifting into his nose, the familiar and sweet scent of love!
Spicy Stick: “Boss, she smells so good, I like it so much!”
Yuan Zhu: “Me too!”
“Hmm?! Who are you!”
After Yuan Zhu widened his eyes and blinked continuously to confirm it wasn’t an illusion. Similarly, Meng Xiyue, who was eating a small snack, belatedly realized that someone had suddenly appeared beside her!
And it was a bad woman with a figure even more vulgar than Zhou Chu’s, a face more bewitching than Zhou Chu’s, baring a pair of tiger teeth, squinting with a wicked smile…!
Danger! At first glance, her intuition told her this was a bad woman who could bring disaster, misfortune, and danger.
In Yuan Zhu’s eyes, this A Miao was fragrant, soft, and beautiful, and today she had specially changed her hairstyle for him, her gray-brown long hair tied into a loose braid hanging in front of her left shoulder.
The more he looked, the more virtuous she seemed, giving him an impulse to snatch her home and lock her up. Her presence right in front of him felt like she would suddenly disappear the next second.
A Miao spoke at this moment: “You guys arrived quite early, mind if I eat a bit? Locked up for a whole day, my stomach’s been hungry all day.”
Yuan Zhu curiously asked: “You were only locked up for one day and got released?”
Meng Xiyue also looked curiously at this strangely aura-ed unfamiliar woman, and as she perceived and analyzed the other party, the intelligence feedback became increasingly chaotic and contradictory. This was a person with faint aura, self-information shielding, even anti-divination and anti-prophecy effects, a peculiar individual.
Her server database surprisingly had no record of the other party’s ‘energy fluctuation’? The other party’s power system must be extremely rare and peculiar.
On the other side, A Miao continuously snatched multiple portions of food from in front of Yuan Zhu, not acting like an outsider at all, eating heartily in an outgoing and cheerful manner, replying in between: “How could that be? Do I look like someone who’d only be detained for one day? I slipped out this morning when I had a moment.”
Meng Xiyue: “When I had a moment?”
A Miao nodded at Meng Xiyue, explaining naturally: “Yeah, yesterday I was taken to the Investigation Bureau to give a statement. Saw the environment there was pretty good, and a few other ‘roommates’ who were locked up were quite lively. So I decided to stay overnight, everyone exchanged experiences, filled in gaps and progressed together, and saved on accommodation fees. By morning, well-rested, those roommates no longer had reference value, so I slipped out.”
As she spoke, she raised her hand to stretch lazily, stretching her fitted vest to the limit. The button at her chest gave the illusion it might pop off at any moment.
“Impossible! This is Taixi, not some third-tier small city. Can the Security Bureau’s detention room be casually escaped from?”
At this moment, Yuan Zhu and A Miao simultaneously felt belittled, is Running so low-class? Look at our skin, so fair and smooth!
The two exchanged a glance and felt a tacit understanding.
A Miao smiled: “This pink-haired miss is right. But as an industry insider, if I don’t have a couple of tricks, how can I make clients trust me and customize services here? The mere Security Bureau of Taixi can’t stop me at all, otherwise my business would’ve been ruined long ago.”
At this time, Meng Xiyue remembered the business introduction Yuan Zhu mentioned on the way, this pretty and vibrant underground idol young lady’s real identity is the underground black market middleman of Running City, the crime city, a genius criminal girl who deals in arms sales, counterfeiting and fencing stolen goods, smuggling… all in one?
Why does it feel like she clashes with Zhou Chu by nature? Running City only produces all kinds of weird freaks.
While Meng Xiyue’s inner thoughts were active, A Miao looked around at Yuan Zhu and the two, and said: “You’ve been perceiving and scanning me for so long, any gains? Got nothing, instead feeling a strange sense of mystery? I solemnly recommend here my ‘smuggling, fleeing, evacuation, stealth traces’ business, contact me if interested. Whether helping you infiltrate a target location, or escape from a detained prison, or evade tracking and flee… you can contact me, this Taixi young lady.”
With that, she handed an identical card to Meng Xiyue. Her gaze toward the pink hair was full of expectation. Completely opposite to her attitude toward the fellow townsman.
Perhaps the other party saw Meng Xiyue’s extraordinary family background, or the Knowledge School’s extensive connections, thus showing goodwill. In contrast, Yuan Zhu must consume to a certain standard and reach credit points threshold before more services unlock.
Meng Xiyue accepted the other party’s card and put it away. Then from her backpack, she took out the selected arms categories, handed them to the other party, and started the haggling phase.
Yuan Zhu had no talent in negotiation, neither good at bargaining nor knowing market prices. He was equally clueless about the arms categories circled by Meng Xiyue.
He only felt these weapons were more powerful than those from his Earth hometown, and A Miao’s quote was very low. If it were him, he would’ve agreed long ago.
However, Meng Xiyue was not satisfied and offered an even lower quote. A Miao didn’t get angry, instead arguing logically with her, constantly pulling at price details to the limit, spouting a bunch of incomprehensible words, as if finding common ground, both with expressions of enjoyment.
The Spicy Stick, equally unable to understand their fun, worriedly said: “Boss, look at them, so happy in mutual admiration, do you think we’ll get cucked?”
Yuan Zhu, with inexplicable worry, listened to both sides haggling for nearly 20 minutes, finally stopping contentedly, successfully knocking down the price a bit. Actually the fee didn’t decrease, but A Miao agreed to throw in an extra batch of goods.
As for the specific fees, all borne by Meng Xiyue. And besides the basic money, they also had to pay a batch of supernatural supplies. Originally Yuan Zhu planned to use Insect City pills to settle, but Meng Xiyue intervened, pulling out a lot of garbage obtained from Cao Ling City… planning to fool the other party with these.
Involving Nightmare Bubble Layer pollution garbage, even laymen find it hard to judge if these seemingly worthless odds and ends might play extraordinary roles in other systems?
Similar situations happen often, so A Miao couldn’t judge for a moment. But she wouldn’t overvalue the garbage supplies, and both sides started a new round of sparring over minor details.
Until several low-value items common in underground cave tunnels, Polluted Mushrooms, Fluorescent Moss, Slime Mold…, were placed on the table, A Miao let out an ‘eh’, leaned close to pick them up for observation, lightly sniffing the aura, then took out a ‘monocle’ applied with special power, and began careful examination.
“The pollution traces on your ‘mushroom’ don’t seem from the Spirit Layer, instead a bit like Nightmare Bubble Layer traces.”
Meng Xiyue: “You know your stuff?”
A Miao nodded confidently: “Of course! This kid should know, I have a bar on Cat Street in Running. The highest profit in Cat House is naturally the self-brewed contraband liquor. And one of the hottest liquor varieties on Du Ling Star is ‘mushroom wine’.”
Hearing this, Yuan Zhu suddenly remembered something. When buying Yellow Millet Echo, he’d seen many different brands of ‘fluorescent alcoholic beverages, fluorescent drinks’, with special harmless Fluorescent Spores as raw material.
Additionally, Running has a lot of special drinks brewed from illegal (polluted) mushrooms, inheriting certain dangerous mushrooms’ hallucinogenic abilities, producing wonderful feelings after consumption.
Including Yellow Millet Echo, all are drinks with special effects.
Underground illegal mushroom liquor is strictly banned and cracked down on, an important reason being that in the past, various polluted mushrooms could blur consciousness, allowing contact with Demon Gods lurking in the Nightmare Layer in half-true half-false dreams, being instilled with Forbidden Knowledge and gaining power.
Nowadays, even with the Spirit Layer as Du Ling Star’s firewall, similar incidents still occur. The first time he was taken to the Investigation Bureau for review, he overheard a ‘pink something’ Evil God who had sold hallucinogenic fake liquor in Running’s underground black market.
“Mushrooms produced from the Nightmare Bubble Layer are by no means mushrooms polluted by the ‘Nightmare Layer’, they’re natural good brewing materials. Your mushroom isn’t great, got any other good stuff, show me your strength!”
Hearing this, Yuan Zhu’s eyes lit up: “Yes yes yes, how about this one!”
