“The price is still the same as the last time. The difference in the wholesale price that you gain from distributing it will be your commission. Urge them to hurry up and send the things to me as soon as possible.”
Garen furrowed his eyebrows when he spoke.
“Are you that anxious? Alright, I’ll take a look at the process in between to see where it is now. I’ll try to speed them up,” Beardy sounded somewhat helpless. “As for the commission and whatnot,” he wavered for a while before becoming slightly more sincere in the end. “I don’t want the commission or anything like that. I’ve already earned a lot just by doing this.”
Cooperation was something that required a long duration of perseverance and it was clear that Beardy understood this. If he wanted this business deal to be repeated in the future, he could not give the other party a reason to change business partners. Moreover, he would need to show him that he was a superior associate as much as possible.
“That’s right, what is your name?” asked Garen suddenly.
“Kendall…” the bearded man sounded somewhat impatient as he had clearly introduced himself previously.
“Alright, Kendall. If you can deliver the items to the academy by tonight, I will increase the payment by an additional five Units for each item,” said Garen while attempting to lure him in with the promise of an immediate gain.
After coming to this world and encountering mysterious Willpower systems, he could vaguely feel, and had a premonition that this Willpower was actually a powerful force that was not inferior to his Secret Technique systems. Through his martial arts consciousness, he could vaguely see the future of Willpower training methods through this.
The ability to dominate civilizations in the universe that used planetary territories as units while occupying peak forces meant that it was highly likely that these systems were hiding certain powerful aspects that were unknown to most people.
“Tonight?” the person on the other terminal became silent for a while as if he was considering something.
Garen was not anxious and chose to wait quietly instead. He required a large batch of goods this time. He had spent one thousand Units for two hundred pieces previously, which meant that he had almost spent five Units for each piece. Although it was not a huge leap when the price increased to five Units per piece, it was important to note that he was buying more than two thousand pieces this time. Therefore, he would be performing a transaction of over ten thousand Units at once. Transactions like these were not considered as minor business deals in physical stores, much less for little vendors like him who only had enough capital to run pushcart businesses.
“All of the White Stones will arrive at your doorstep before three o’clock in the morning tomorrow!” finally, Kendall’s confident voice echoed from the other line. His tone was firm and it seemed as though he had made up his mind.
“Alright, I’ll be waiting for your news!” when Garen heard the other man’s words earlier, he could tell that Kendall truly planned to display his resolution during this business deal. The expenses and energy that was needed midway throughout the process to shorten the route by half of its required duration was not something that a regular small vendor could provide. It was clear that Kendall was planning to put in all of his effort to invest in this business. The important part was to flaunt his sincerity and cooperation abilities.
After he had disconnected from the terminal, Garen inhaled deeply.
“I need to make up for the shortcomings in my Willpower immediately. This world feels more complicated the deeper I dive in…”
He sat in front of the desk and turned his tablet computer on before beginning to do research on information regarding high-level fighting techniques.
Unfortunately, there were no web pages with related information as most of them were banned and taken down. Although they were a few websites with information regarding Mech battles, these things looked extremely inauthentic and did not possess great referencing values.
After spending a period of time in this world, Garen had unconsciously assimilated into this place gradually. The information regarding the greatest strength in this world was naturally the subject that he wished to understand the most.
He clicked through web pages continuously while looking for the related information on his computer. He relied on his hacking techniques, and although he was not very familiar with these converted techniques yet, it was still easy for him to find information.
After passing through conventional channels, Garen was able to find certain advanced information about certain Mech Pilot assessments quickly.
A white square frame was displayed on the light blue background of the screen. Inside the box, the assessment subjects that advanced Mech Pilots were supposed to go through were listed in neat rows.
‘Compulsory to achieve Level 4 in Willpower tests’
‘Possesses a suitable Mech that belongs solely to themselves’
‘More than one qualifying record’
‘Has been issued a certificate of qualification by authorized governmental branches’
“There is still no concrete information regarding strength comparisons,” Garen pushed his tablet away. “It’s clear that an administrator who is even more skilled than me is currently controlling the information here. My hacking techniques are only impressive compared to those of the average person. There is still a great difference between me and the real first-class hackers.” he was already aware of this matter.
“I was already used to powers that were equivalent to Fifth Star levels in the previous world. Right now, I really cannot adapt to such a weak body…” Garen furrowed his eyebrows and clicked on the battle network messaging client AL. This was a communications software that was similar to QQ which could only be used to connect battle networks.
He had a lot of good friends on the AL website. They were large clusters and groups of them, but he had not contacted many of them after adding them as contacts. Perhaps some of them had even deleted Nono’s number from their list of ‘good friends’ long ago.
Garen clicked on the friend list pane that marked his unknown contacts. There were two colorful avatar images that were blinking there. He glanced at these avatars but did not click the images to connect with them in the end. After all, these were Nono’s friends, not his.
There did not seem to be any messages in the bottom right corner of his AL page. Instead, there were only two advertisements from the AL officials.
This was the first time that Garen had used Nono’s number to look at his interpersonal circles.
There were only a few high school students in his circle of good friends and two groups of friends from elementary school. Next, there were his good friends Aier and Mina and his family members. Other than that, he did not seem to have any other relationship networks.
“This is so simple,” he randomly glanced through the messages from his circle of schoolmates and noticed that none of them were substantial. One circle was basically dead while the other one was much livelier. However, none of them mentioned Nonosiva, making it seem as if he was not part of the group at all. Even though he was currently an exceptional student of Blackboard Academy and now possessed an enviable identity, it seemed as though no one was aware of this, as the conversations inside the circle showed that none of these people knew of the situation at all.
After getting to know Nonosiva’s interpersonal circle, Garen understood the facts better now. He closed the AL tab and glanced at the Terminal before noticing that there were a bunch of unread messages on his Watch Terminal that came from an unknown number.
‘We’ve already seen your performance today. Someone will meet you at your place tonight to proceed with the registration. Looking forward to your cooperation. — Blue Narcissus (This message will delete itself automatically after it has been read)’
‘Notification regarding the arrangement of the individual matches. The matches will be organized in this manner: First round of the finals vs the eighth group of the Winners Bracket. Second round of the finals vs the sixth group of the Winners Bracket. Groups will be automatically allocated once the winners are determined.’ This notification was released by the academy.
Garen responded to Blue Narcissus before turning the lights off quietly. He sat cross-legged on his bed while practicing his training methods. No one would disturb him at this hour as Aier and the others knew that he would be taking part in the finals tomorrow. Therefore, it was important for him to rest now.
Time ticked by slowly.
The sound of slow footsteps could be heard outside the window faintly, coupled with the occasional noise of passing cars.
Garen immersed himself into his training methods. Although he could not sense any progress, practicing this was still better than sitting around lazily. The aptitude of this physical body was too mediocre, and sitting around in an elite school like Blackboard Academy while remaining indifferent would cause him to become inferior. If he was unable to fix this, Nonosiva would become useless during his senior year of high school even with the Moonfang. Next, he would be exposed for cheating and finally expelled from the Academy. After facing a blow like this, it would become extremely difficult for him to become a Mech Pilot for the rest of his life. However, for the students in the Academy, becoming a Mech Pilot was something that was bound to happen in time. This was the stark difference between them.
Knock knock.
A soft noise could be heard from the door to the room suddenly. It was not the sound of the doorbell, but a soft knocking noise instead.
Garen opened his eyes and got up before walking to the door. He looked outside through the peephole and saw a young woman in a cream-colored school uniform. The woman wore glasses and had long brown hair that was slung over her left shoulder and reached the front of her chest. She gave off a gentle air.
Garen opened the door with a ‘click’ before sizing up the other person faintly.
“You are?”
“I’m here to help you with the registration process,” the woman smiled casually.
“Please come in.”
Garen nodded and turned his body sideways so that she could enter.
“My name is Kris, and you are Nonosiva Lin, right?”
The young woman walked into the room and took in her surroundings before asking casually.
“What do we need to do?” Garen turned his head and immediately heard a crisp clicking noise. He happened to see Kris take a small camera-like object out before snapping his picture.
“We are registering your photograph. Please press your finger here for a while to register your fingerprint,” Kris took a tablet computer out and turned the screen towards Garen.
Garen stretched his hand out and pressed on the screen before a brief beeping noise could be heard from the computer suddenly.
“Okay, that’s all. We will specially create a membership badge for you soon. You just need to focus on the competition now,” Kris smiled.
“It’s so simple?” Garen was slightly surprised.
“It has always been this simple. There will be a three-dimensional image modeling scan after this. It will be done once you’ve entered. All of your personal information will be recorded in your archives since you’re a Grade C member of Blue Narcissus now,” Kris nodded.
“The next part will be key.”
“What?”
Garen gestured for her to sit before both of them sat on the two chairs beside the table together.
Kris lifted her legs slightly before moving backward and leaning against the back of the chair.
“Student Nono, regarding your opponent in the finals tomorrow, we have already listed certain information about their previous match records. You can find out some things about their strength levels so that you will be prepared. Besides that, as a member of Blue Narcissus, if you become an elite member, you will receive a membership card for Lyles General Hall. You will be able to enjoy many free services there such as gym facilities, entertainment, and lodging. The membership card that is worth a hundred thousand Universal Units yearly will also allow you to enjoy free consumer benefits throughout the whole Blackboard Region. It is equivalent to a converted bank card.”
“Such good treatment?” Garen was somewhat tongue-tied. They were willing to invest a hundred thousand Units on him without determining that he was actually sincere in joining Blue Narcissus. This was truly a bold move on their part.
“Of course, Lyles will also provide many other convenient communication services and hiring services for you. If you want to purchase certain contrabands, this can be done as well,” Kris smiled. “There are many restricted items outside but Lyles can supply these things, including land. As long as you are capable, you will definitely be able to accept employment opportunities from other people through this platform to earn a sizeable profit or side income.”
“This is very convenient…” Garen nodded slightly. Regarding the supposed contrabands, they were definitely referring to a few specific items such as drugs, military supplies, and… territories. Other than the Blackboard Region, there were many other territories that were owned by noble lordships. The nobles and lords once possessed legal territories, but after the chaotic period, in order to exchange their land to develop more technological resources, it was excusable for most of them to sell a portion of their territories. The law had prohibited the buying and selling of territorial lands. However, everyone was already aware of the real situation. No one cared about these matters, and no one was powerful enough to control it anyway.