Chapter 170: Ruifeng Business Firm
Initially, Jiang Xiao wanted to look for Manager Sun at the Ruifeng Business Firm to purchase the Star Bead that Xia Yan had reserved. However, the staff informed him that Manager Sun had already gone home after work and would only be back the following morning.
Jiang Xiao immediately said that he wanted to sell a White Ghoul Witch Star Bead to Manager Sun and flashed the Star Bead in front of the staff. Knowing that Jiang Xiao had the support of the Xia Family, the staff immediately returned inside to place a call.
Next… Manager Sun got out of the bed and drove to the firm…
“Um, he’s Miss Xia’s friend, nothing will go wrong, for sure.” Manager Sun removed the headpiece and turned to look at Jiang Xiao standing opposite the counter. He said smilingly, “Brother, there are no problems with these few Flame Torch Star Beads, right?”
Jiang Xiao waved his hand and answered confidently, “Of course not. With Brother Sun around, what problems can there be? I was thinking of selling you this White Ghoul Witch Star Bead in exchange for the Flame Torch Star Beads. Well…”
Problems? There are huge problems. If it weren’t for Jiang Xiao’s internal Star Map, it would have been difficult for him to authenticate the Star Bead and find out what it was. He would probably have to go online and search about it before conducting a comparison and analysis with the Flame Torch Star Beads according to the instructions.
Even if he were to do that, it wouldn’t be necessarily accurate. There were too many types of Star Beads in the world and there would inevitably be several similar ones. Hence, there were many ways deception could occur.
However, with Xia Yan as the middleman, the firm wouldn’t fool Jiang Xiao for that small amount of money.
“The prices are stated clearly. Rest assured, brother,” said Manager Sun, still behaving in a prim and proper manner even though he had been dragged out of bed after receiving the call, and his clothes were untidy. He was clearly 37 or 38 years old. Yet, he still addressed Jiang Xiao as “Brother”.
Jiang Xiao looked at Manager Sun’s chubby, round face and somehow felt elated.
Is this the legendary smiley face that makes others happy?
“We buy White Ghoul Witch Star Beads at 200,000 yuan each, and Flame Torch Star Beads are sold at 30,000 yuan each. You have one White Ghoul Witch Star Bead and you’re exchanging them for five Flame Torch Star Beads, which would be 150,000 yuan in total. What’s your bank account number? I’ll get someone to transfer 50,000 yuan to you.”
30,000 yuan each? Why don’t you go rob a bank?
Jiang Xiao scratched his head and asked, “Pardon me for asking, but what are the rates that you offer for Flame Torch Star Beads?”
Manager Sun chuckled and said, “That’s no secret, actually. 8,000 yuan each.”
Jiang Xiao cussed. “… %¥#@#¥!”
Manager Sun smiled and said, “Brother, I can understand Russian.”
Jiang Xiao smirked awkwardly and thought, Fortunately, I only said something that goes along the lines of “Screw you”.
Manager Sun adjusted his clothes and looked like he was out to make peace. “Brother, these Flame Torch Star Beads are from the Dimensional Space in the Dajiang Basin. All the Star Beads there are considered to be very precious. Besides, the Star Techniques contained in them are very strong. It’d be incredibly difficult for you to find advanced fire-element Star Techniques in Beijiang Province.”
Jiang Xiao nodded and felt that it was necessary to buy those Star Beads. However, the problem was that he found the difference between retail and resale prices to be too high.
Jiang Xiao thought, If the official Beijiang firm didn’t sell Lava Ghoul Star Beads at 300 to 400 yuan each, the prices now would definitely be several times higher.
However, Jiang Xiao reckoned that Manager Sun was just making a casual remark. If he could even obtain a Flame Torch Star Bead in the land of Beijiang, it would really be a supernatural phenomenon…
“Brother, don’t be too distressed or upset. Costs are incurred when you go to Dimensional Spaces. If you want to fight yourself, the journey is going to be long and full of danger. Besides, the entry ticket alone costs more than 100,000 yuan and you may not necessarily encounter any Flame Torch Star Beads.” Manager Sun glanced at Jiang Xiao and continued, “Miss Xia wanted me to save this for you. If you don’t want them, I’ll take them back.”
Jiang Xiao said, “I don’t have a bank card. I’ve never applied for one.”
Slightly stunned, Manager Sun answered, “Oh, no problem.”
He then waved at the people beside him. “Go get some cash for Brother Jiang.”
Fine, if he wants to pay me with cash, so be it. Society is so safe now, I probably won’t be robbed.
Besides, it would be really embarrassing for him to be robbed since he was an Awakened.
“Do you have any other Star Beads here? I’d like to take a look,” Jiang Xiao asked as he subconsciously looked around, only to realize that he could see everything in the shop at one glance. Hence, he didn’t have much hope.
“What do you want? It can be booked in advance. We can help you get some basic-level Star Beads from the neighboring provinces.” Manager Sun chuckled and continued, “However, don’t ask for Dajiang Star Beads as Miss Xia did. That’d be a tall order for me.”
Jiang Xiao wanted to ask him if he had any advanced Medical Star Beads.
However, he didn’t do so.
He was afraid of being smacked to death on the spot.
There was an interesting phrase: “Reckless men come from Zhongji, and ocean battles come from Liaodong.”
There weren’t too many arsenals in Beijiang Province, but there were plenty of snowfields. However, it was the complete opposite for Zhongji Province where there were plenty of arsenals and very few snowfields.
Except for the few snowfields in Zhongji Province, there were no other snowfield training sites in Southern China.
Hence, Green Glow had become an iconic Star Technique of Beijiang Province.
In Zhongji Province, the large number of existing weapons and Arsenals had also led to rapid development by the officials. The entry tickets were cheaper than that of the Beijiang Province Arsenals and the distribution of monsters in there was also adjusted to ideal numbers by the government.
Most of the Awakened from Zhongji Province used to train in the Arsenal and fought against savages and Ape Ghouls every day. It would be strange for them not to be menacing.
They wielded swords and long spears…
In the regions of Zhongji and Liaodong provinces, there were specialty Dimensional Spaces known as the “Ice Cave”.
There were creatures of other dimensions in there called “Ice Souls” which had the Star Techniques: Brass Quality Ice Bomb, Silver Quality Ice Mist Armor, and Gold Quality Ice Roar.
Three Star Techniques in one Star Bead, all of which were different from each other. That was very interesting.
However, Star Beads that contained defensive and output Star Techniques were very ideal. But… the existence of Ice Souls was also the reason the Ice Cave was dangerous and not open to the public.
Even if Jiang Xiao could reserve that Star Bead, he probably wouldn’t be able to afford it.
However, the basic Star Beads couldn’t satisfy Jiang Xiao’s needs. What he needed most now were Star Techniques for escaping, as well as Spatial Star Techniques.
The vast Dameng Province was considered to be the most outstanding one amongst the neighboring provinces because it had a wide variety of Dimensional Spaces and some low-level creatures of other dimensions. Hence, the Star Beads there were more attainable.
In Dameng Province, there was a series of Dimensional Spaces known as “Beneath the Starry Sky”.
Upon hearing the beautiful name, Jiang Xiao could imagine it to be an endless field under the moon.
It was said that that Dimensional Space was named by a pioneer of the Wasteland Reclaimers.
Jiang Xiao had no idea how much blood and tears they had shed to explore the entire Dimensional Space.
Jiang Xiao merely hoped that the pioneers had come up with that name because of romantic imagination.
Maybe it was because of romantic feelings towards the people beside them.
Perhaps it was the longing for the newly-discovered Dimensional Space to benefit China in the future.
Those were truly wonderful and beautiful stories.
Society is no longer dreamy or romantic.
This is a superficial and impetuous society, which isn’t that romantic in general.
The ones still sentimental have all been labeled as hopeless romantics.