After reading the content from the SCO, Rex nodded his head before the crow on his shoulder flapped its wings away.
He already decided to go to the SCO’s meeting at a designated time.
Before going back to Faraday University, Rex decided that he will investigate the shop the Supernatural said earlier.
‘It’s that way right? It seems I need to stay here longer’, Rex thought.
He never thought that the Platchi’s illegal market would reach this far.
Rex went in the direction pointed by the Supernatural before, there are many shops along the street and many of them are already closed.
He didn’t know which shop the Supernatural means so he sat on a bench and waited.
It’s already past midnight now, the moon still shines above him brightly.
Rex uses the time he waited to meditate using his breathing technique, now he can meditate and is still aware of his surrounding simultaneously.
Thanks to becoming an Awakened, meditating using breathing techniques becomes easier for him. Focusing is no longer a problem for Rex.
All this while Rex never forgets to finish his Daily Quest and meditation.
No matter how rough the day was, he always spends some time doing his daily quest and meditation. He had no choice.
‘Hmm… I wonder what mother up to, she hasn’t called yet’, Rex thought.
He takes out his phone and started to massage his mother, with the tournament before, she should’ve called to congratulate him.
After messaging his mother, Rex browses through the system.
He has about over 10,000 gold sitting in his pocket right now, so he’s trying to find something to give Adhara.
‘Upgrading Adhara’s elemental affinity, and giving her a breathing technique is a great idea’, Rex thought.
Rex quickly scrolls through the shop section and found mid-rank fire affinity costing only 2,000 gold.
‘System can others use elemental affinity, and a breathing technique I bought from the shop?’
<Yes, anything in the shop can be materialized in the real world. The breathing Technique can only be used on a Werewolf, Adhara will be able to use it after she transforms>
Reading this, Rex becomes delighted as he buys the mid-rank Fire Affinity.
Seconds become minutes, minutes turn into an hour, and there are no people around.
It’s like a dead street, in this hour Rex didn’t saw anyone except for him.
Even after browsing through the shop, Rex still didn’t saw anyone around this block that can potentially lead him into it.
Rex still can’t decided which breathing technique for Adhara, so he postponed buying it.
Just after Rex wanted to leave, he suddenly remembered.
‘Wait, that group of guys is not shocked by the Supernatural’, Rex thought.
If the black market is not an easy to access place, that means normal people should’ve been afraid when they saw Supernatural.
But those guys, instead of being afraid they have the guts to mess with them.
Rex stands up from the bench, ‘Let’s find them’, Rex thought as he went to the alley where he meets those guys before.
He then takes a sniff of the place and caught one of the guy’s hats on the ground.
One of them left their hat because of how scared they are for offending Rex, the guy didn’t even take his hat back.
Rex takes the hat before he smells it.
After becoming a Werewolf, his senses are not that of a human anymore.
His senses become really strong especially his hearing and smelling, he can even hear someone whispers amongst the crowd if he focus on it and smell a person’s odor from afar.
Because of that, Rex manages to track down the group of guys instantly.
Rex went from block to block dashing around the place, nobody is around so he can move however he wants.
If it’s the day then Awakened are refrained from using their powers.
Aside from keeping the safety of normal people, it will also make Awakened look petty if they use their powers to do something that’s not important.
Not long after, Rex found the group of guys in another block alley.
They’re smoking cigarettes while talking to each other.
Seeing this, Rex immediately dashes towards them before he landed just in the middle of them.
Thud!
He landed gracefully in the middle of them making them shocked.
“What the-“
“That’s the Awakened from before! Run!”
“I have a kid, please don’t do this”
The two of them begged under Rex’s mercy, they’re so scared that even one of them started to pee their pants.
Rex glared at the other one making him froze in his spot before saying, “I will let you guys live if you answer my question”
“Anything, please we’ll answer truthfully”, the guy who peed his pants said meekly, his hands are trembling uncontrollably.
“You guys seem to know where those Supernatural came from, I want to know where they sold that kind of Supernatural”, Rex said coldly.
He pretends that he wants to buy that Supernatural before, he uses it as an excuse.
The guy who peed his pants then replied hurriedly, “Zaki, you work there! Just tell him, I don’t want to die!”, he points at another guy wearing a red shirt.
Rex glance at the red shirt guy with a questioning look.
Seeing this, the guy stumbles backward before he said, “I…I can’t tell you”
Just after saying this, Rex’s body exploded with mana making all of their legs weak as they fell to the ground.
“Please! I’ll tell you!! I’ll tell you!”, the redshirt guy said while signaling Rex to stop.
Hearing this, Rex stopped his mana as he squats down in front of the red shirt guy, “Talk…”
“There’s a candy shop around that area called Emma’s Candy, just knock on the shop’s door and say I want to buy the best black candy”, he said with a trembling voice.
He then added, “It’s only open from 10 pm until 4 am”
Rex becomes skeptical of this, it’s not that he thinks the guy’s lying but because if he did lie then he will definitely look stupid.
“Are you lying to me?”, Rex said slowly as he activates the black lightning again.
The ground cracked under his feet sending a subtle shockwave around him, he did it just to break the guy’s will.
Feeling the pressure becomes heavier, “I swear! It’s the truth!”
After adding more pressure to the group of guys until their noses started to bleed, Rex finally stops after he doesn’t get any other answer.
“If you lie, I will find you”, Rex said before he left.
Rex went back to the place where he waited and immediately find the shop beside a hotel, he didn’t forget to use a mask and a black hood he bought from the shop.
If this black market is the Platchi’s business then he doesn’t want to get caught.
He went to the shop before he knocked on the door three times.
Knock, Knock, Knock!
The door is white in color and there’s a bell on the side, ‘the guy said to knock so let’s just follow his instructions’
After he knocked on the door, there’s no response from the other side.
‘Did he trick me?’, Rex thought.
But then, the sound of footsteps approaching the door was heard before the door opened a little revealing a woman in a clerk outfit.
“We’re close, come again tomorrow”, the woman said.
Hearing this, Rex then answered whisperingly, “I want to buy the best black candy”
Just as he said that the woman paused for a second, she looks at Rex up and down before she opened the door.
“Dear customer, please follow me”, she said.
‘It worked! It seems he’s not lying’, Rex thought before he follows the woman.
The woman guides him to the back of the store, she then steps on a floor in the storage room before it makes a clicking sound.
Click!
The floor snuggle before it reveals a pathway underground.
Seeing this, Rex becomes even more determined that this is a black market but the question on his head is whose black market is it.
Rex follows the woman, they walk down for a minute before they arrived.
The woman opened the wooden door in front of her,
Immediately after the woman opened the door, the sound of a bustling crowd is instantly heard by Rex.
Even with his enhanced hearing, he can’ hear it from the outside.
‘This place is soundproof, I can’t even hear any of their voices’, Rex thought as he was greeted by the market with many people wearing disguises around and all of them are an Awakened.
In front of him, there are many cages with different kinds of Supernatural on them.
“Welcome to the Fire Band Market, Are you new to this place?”, the woman said while she bowed slightly.
Rex replied with a nod before the woman explains, “New customer, let me explain to you about this market”
“Just like a regular market, this is a place where you buy and sell anything. You can buy and sell literally anything here, if the goods you’re looking for is not here then you can ask me directly to request the goods you want”
Hearing this, Rex nodded his head.
He half-listened to what the woman said because the scene in front of him greatly surprised him.
In front of him, there are many goods that he didn’t even think can be transacted.
There are many things such as spellbooks, battle equipment, elixir, human slaves, Supernatural, materials, miscellaneous items, all of them are here.
He even saw a powerful Supernatural that is drugged sitting in a cage weakly.
“What are those Supernatural sold for? Can we even brought them outside?”, Rex asks the woman while pointing at a human-sized dragon.
The woman looks at the dragon before he said, “I’m sorry but to have such Supernatural you will need to be a diamond member of our Fire Band Market, it will be troublesome if the customer can’t keep the Supernatural in check”
After she said that, she added, “But for new customers like you, we recommend the Succubus to pleasure you. It is a famous service here and It only cost $10,000 a session”
Rex is shocked by the astounding cost, it’s super expensive even for him.
“How about the human slaves? Can I buy them?”, Rex asks.
The woman replied with a nod.
‘Should I buy a slave to fill my pack? No, that’s just not the right thing to do’, Rex thought but he’s still curious.
‘System, is there any compatibility in turning someone into a Werewolf?’
<Yes, people with Gifts will be a stronger Werewolf when transformed rather than an Awakened>
Reading this, Rex nodded his head in thought, ‘Werewolf is not a Spell-based Supernatural so it makes sense for gifted to become a stronger Werewolf’
Rex then thought, ‘System, Can you tell me if you find any gifted person?’
<Yes, Activating scanning field>
Right after the last notification, many tabs appeared on top of each people’s head in his line of sight.
Some of them have a blank tab while some of them don’t.
Seeing this, Rex thought wryly, ‘System, if you can do this why don’t you use it from the first place to filter which one is an Awakened and which one is not?’
‘No it’s not, there’s only one explanation in the power section’
<The user need to click on the power section to see other insignificant gift or elements a person have, the system only shows the most significant one>
After reading this, Rex widened his eyes in surprise.
He then picks a gifted person inside a cage as his eyes glister,
<Alma Ryze>
Race: Human
Power: Rank Two(Mid) – Super Strength
Mental: 10
Strength: 16
Agility: 12
Endurance: 6
Intelligence: 0
After seeing the stats, Rex then taps on the ‘Super Strength’ before another tab opened revealing further description of the person.
Super Strength – Gift
Super Speed – Gift
Rex scrunch his face, ‘Damn, I should’ve known’
After talking with the system briefly, Rex then asks the woman, “Is there any way to sell or buy information?”
“Yes, please follow me”, the woman said.
He followed the woman through the crowd.
While walking, he suddenly saw an animal tattoo that almost every one of the customers here has on their wrists.
Rex wanted to see it closer but he already arrived at the place.
He is brought to a stall, this stall is devoid of people and there’s a man with a gruesome scar on his face that looks horrifying.
“What do you want to buy?”, the man asks.
Rex with his muffled voice replied, “I come here to sell an information, are you down?”
The man scoffed before he said, “What kind of information”
“An information about the negligence of this place’s staff”, Rex said slowly, he wanted to ask for the Platchi’s but it will be suicide if this place is owned by the Platchi’s.
But he got a plan for it, and if it fails it will bring tremendous risk but he has to do it.
Hearing this, the man laughs, “What kind of information is that? We’re professional here, there’s no way our staff did anything like that”
Rex smiles, “Well then if you’re not interested so be it”, he said while leaving the stall.
Seeing this, the man hesitated for a moment before he called out to Rex, “You come back here, I will buy the information if it’s true”
“There’s two Supernatural that escaped this place, I met them outside”, Rex said.
If this is really a black market, then this information should be important and Rex can get something out of it.
Hearing this, the man widened his eyes in surprise, “What?! That’s not possible!”
“You can find their bodies in the trash nearby, I killed both of them”, Rex said calmly, he then sits on a chair nonchalantly.
The man stares at Rex for a while before he signals the guards to check it out.
Rex stares at the man through the mask calmly, he’s sitting on the chair as if he owned the place.
Not long after, the guard came back and told the man it’s true.
The man then looks back at Rex with a complicated expression, he then said, “What do you want to be paid with? Cash or Items?”
“Cash please”, Rex replied calmly.
He wanted cash because that cash can be converted to gold, it will not leave any evidence that he’s here.
Hearing this, the man then said, “I’ll give you $10,000 for it, I will-“
Before the man can even finish, Rex intervenes, “$10,000,000”
The man is shocked, he didn’t expect Rex to be so blunt about it, “The information you provided is not worth that much”
“This woman right here said that the succubus service is pretty famous, How much is it again? for a session?”, Rex asked.
The woman glanced at the man but before she can reply, Rex said, “Oh right, $10,000!”
“Looking at the crowd here, I think it’s safe to say that you earn quite a bit from that alone”, Rex said nonchalantly.
The scar-faced man’s expression darkened, he already know where this is going.
“I demand $10,000,000 from it, it’s a fair price, right? Is $10,000 the price for this place getting exposed?”, Rex said while shrugging his shoulder, he looks nonchalant even with the guards approaching him.
Rex already scans the area and there’s only two peak rank four in the house, he’s not scared of them. Especially during the night.
The scar-face man raises his hand to stop the guards, “$5,000,000”
Hearing this, Rex immediately stand up from his seat and stretches his hand, “That’s a deal, I want it right now”
The scar-faced man was shocked, he gritted his teeth before signaling the guard to bring the money.
“Well now that the money’s is here, I want to buy something from you”, Rex said.
The scar-faced man looks at Rex weirdly before he sits on his chair, “What do you want to know?”