I jumped onto the building beside Park Injun's store from the back alley. It was easy for me, who had superhuman strength, and I arrived on the roof of the said building easily.
Now I just needed to wait for Park Injun's customer to arrive.
From what I knew, Park Injun never accepted any appointment unless it was something related to an Artifact.
Surely, the meeting with a customer this time would also be related to an Artifact.
At this time, around three weeks before Zaiden's awakening, fake artifacts were in circulation.
Those artifacts would even fool Park Injun, and it was related to the first arc where Zaiden would meet Park Injun.
This first arc was the start of his story, and I wrote in the setting book on my computer that Park Injun was fooled around a month before Zaiden's awakening.
The timing matched. The one who visited him was, without a doubt, the scammer who sold fake artifacts.
'What an unexpected find. He shows up when I still need a lot of money.'
The scammer's identity was never revealed until the end of the first Arc. His identity was nothing special, so I could take care of him right now and take the sweet result for myself.
Although this would mean that what happened in this world was a bit different from the original one, the general setting and plot have not deviated too much yet. Only one main key was missing.
I could use this to my advantage.
Now I only needed to wait.
***
[06:15 PM]
Park Injun was sitting on his chair while looking at the Merchant Store.
He was trying to find information about the one who contacted him yesterday, asking for a meeting because he had an artifact in which he took an interest.
'Monalisa Painting, huh? After I got Elizabeth Painting, I became more greedy and even trusted someone who contacted me out of nowhere.'
Right now, he had no idea about the person who just contacted him. He only knew that he was an Awakener from Sacred Relic and that he was here to sell Monalisa Painting.
It was not strange if an Awakener from Sacred Relic knew about his existence. A lot of Awakeners from big guilds often sold their Artifacts to him after all.
However, that didn't mean he would trust that someone. They indeed knew about him, but he didn't know about them.
With that as a reason, he always investigated his customers. It was something like a rule that he would always follow. In his life, there was only one exception to this rule, and that was Vincent Dihart.
'He's amusing. Not only that, he has the same eyes as me.'
The eyes of a greedy bastard. Someone like that would not betray you as long as you were useful to them. So their feelings were mutual, and hence, he trusted Vincent more than any of his customers right now.
Concerning his new customer, who was supposed to arrive any minute now, he actually got something from Merchant Store's best information broker, Darkest Secret.
His new customer was an Awakener who joined Sacred Relic a year ago, and he just recently came back from Europa after clearing a newly formed dungeon.
That meant the credibility of him having [Monalisa Painting] was high. The fact that he had recently cleared a dungeon added to his plausibility of possessing an Artifact.
"It seems that I have no need to worry about today's transaction." He muttered in a low voice as he put his phone in his pants pocket.
He was using his old man persona. It made his customer trust him, as he appeared to be an experienced merchant because of his age.
Not so long after, the customer that he was waiting for arrived.
Ting–
The bell chimed in as the door was pushed open, revealing a man. It was already dark outside, and his brown hair and average face were lit by artificial light in the store.
The man was holding an object wrapped in cloth in his hand. From its shape, Park Injun presumed it to be the mentioned painting.
"Umm, are you the Artifact Dealer?" Asked the man cautiously.
Artifact Dealer. That was what Park Injun was known to the big guilds. Only a few people who were trusted by him knew his real name.
"Yes." Park Injun answered with a smile. "I believe you are Mr. Raymond, who contacted me yesterday?"
The man known as Raymond nodded his head with a smile.
"Yes, you're correct."
He approached Park Injun and held the square-shaped object in front of his chest.
"Will you buy this from me? I… I need a lot of money, and I can't sell this anywhere due to… you know what."
"I understand." Park Injun nodded his head as he looked at Raymond.
A lot of Awakeners stole an Artifact or two from their guilds after expeditions. This occurrence was not rare at all.
Some of them were desperate for money to buy new equipment, while some of them wanted money for their greed.
Humans were creatures born of greed. And Park Injun was a merchant who took care of that greed.
"Can I see the good first? I will see whether it is the real one or a fake one."
"Of course!"
The man put the object on the table to let Park Injun inspect it.
With an experienced hand, Park Injun unwrapped the cloth and looked at the object hidden beneath. It was the [Monalisa Painting].
He then inspected it with his discerning eyes.
Park Injun was also an Awakener. He had an A-Ranked Talent called Inspection.
He could know the credibility of an object or even Humans.
With his Inspection Talent, he quickly climbed his way up the ladder as a Merchant, and now he was one of the biggest ones in the world.
Telling a fake Artifact from a real one was easy for him; it didn't take long. Only a few seconds were needed for him to know whether the Artifact in his hand was a fake or a real one.
-----
[Monalisa Painting][Artifact]
[Null Attribute]
A painting of Mona Lisa.
Special Effect:
- Mental Healing
Looking at this painting will calm your heart.
-----
"This is a real one." He exclaimed happily. "I can give you a billion for this. Any more than that, I won't be able to afford it."
"A billion!" Raymond exclaimed in surprise. "Yes! I will sell it to you!"
"May I have your bank number? I will send the payment as soon as possible."
"Of course. Here is my bank account."
Raymond gave Park Injun his bank account without thinking too much.
After receiving the bank account from Raymond, Park Injun quickly sent a billion USD to it. Such a big transaction was normal for him, and the amount was not too much for an Artifact such as the [Monalisa Painting].
He gained more than that in a month, so it was a good trade for Park Injun.
"I have received it. Thank you!"
"It was a pleasure doing business with you."
Raymond then left Park Injun store with a big smile on his face.
***
"As expected, it's that scammer," I muttered as I saw a brown-haired man leaving Park Injun's store.
He was a famous scammer who used the guild that he joined, Sacred Relic, to boost his credibility.
No one knew that he was a scammer. The fake Artifacts that he sold to the broker were similar to the real ones. Even Park Injun couldn't tell the difference between the fake Artifacts and the real one..
"Well, I will let him do as he pleases right now. The first Arc started around a month after Zaiden awakened. There is still a lot of time before he gets caught, so I will let him grow his wealth for now."
Taking care of him was easy. But I wouldn't do that.
He was literally walking cash. He would continue to amass his wealth if I didn't interfere. It would be a waste to catch him right now.
"Be a good walking cash and make a lot of money for me. I will certainly make use of you in the future."
Now I still had something to do. Enhancing [Arash Bow] to change its penalties would be difficult even for me. I needed to secure something to aid my Enhancement.
"It's time to look for Lich's blood."
Liches were undead creatures known for their rotten bodies and dried flesh as well as their mastery of magic.
It was a known fact that this undead was skinny and had no blood in its body. It would be ridiculous to hear a Lich having blood left in their body; even I questioned my sanity when I wrote this part.
However, Lich actually had blood. In the area around his heart, a tiny bit of frozen blood was left in its decaying heart. It was rare and only appeared in a few Lich, but it certainly existed.
Lich's blood was rich in mana. It could be used to make a potion, among other things. But, its specialty lies in its ability to aid an Enhancement and reduce the side effects of an Artifact.
No one knew about it at this moment, as it would be found by Lisa in the future. The Talent that she awakened was A-Rank Research Talent.
She would be a famous researcher in the future, and she was supposed to meet with Zaiden again when he visited the research facility she was in. But that would never happen in this world. They had already met, and Lisa even liked him.
Putting that aside, there was one problem. Lich was a C-Ranked Monster that could use magic.
Because its use was unknown and no one bothered to extract Lich's blood from its heart, there was no Lich's blood on the market right now.
I could ask an Awakener to get it for me, but he then would be suspicious as to why I asked him to get Lich's blood.
I couldn't risk it. Awakeners who were hungry for money would realize that Lich's blood was important and they would attempt to sell it.
Having Lich's blood in circulation right now was dangerous. Not only would the technology progress faster than in the story, but the enemies hiding in the dark would also benefit from Lich's blood.
That only left me with one choice. I must get it myself.
"Well, I can only train in that case."
Pulling my body up, I stretched a little as I found my body sore from crouching for over an hour, then I jumped down from the building before changing my clothes back to the uniform and began to walk back to the Academy.
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