BXBX NOVEL Chapter 219 - Alliance (6)
Chapter 219: Alliance (6)
“Pinch my cheek.”
Kaiwan spoke to Catalina with a blank expression, so Catalina pinched her cheek without any hesitation.
It hurt. So Kaiwan pinched Catalina’s cheek a little harder then burst into a strange laughter, mixed with emptiness, embarrassment, and joy.
Even Salami and Bucephalas, who were basically not excited about treasures, admired what they saw. Eligos was rather scared while Ophelia sat down, overwhelmed by the amazing treasure. Her feet became wobbly at that moment.
Even Tigrius, a detached old gentleman, kept gulping. Only Skull behaved as usual.
With a hearty laugh, Skull threw himself into the piles of gold in front of him. He rolled on the floor like a stone beside Yong-ho.
Yong-ho dived into the sea of gold. Of course, it hurt. It was impossible to swim in a sea of gold that he saw in the cartoon. He felt nice though. Even the pain was a pleasure.
The treasure storage was vast. The whole 8th floor really looked like a treasure trove except for the pillars in between. And the treasure storage was filled with various gold and silver. His description of the treasure storage as ‘the sea of gold’ was no exaggeration.
Ancient gold coins, jewels with beautiful colors, various treasures made of gold and silver, each one of them had tremendous value, but there was nothing special inside the treasure storage. It was literally a treasure trove of great wealth.
“You guys, come in!”
Yong-ho, who was rolling there with Skull, shouted. Catalina, who wanted to jump in, fluttered her ears and tail. Like Yong-ho, she dived into the sea of gold and felt pain. However, she laughed like a fool like Yong-ho.
Kaiwan, who was so excited, came in immediately. After taking off her shoes, Ophelia walked barefoot on the gold and trembled with thrilling pleasure. She even moaned, though briefly.
Although Eligos felt fear in front of a huge amount of gold, he felt more joy than fear when he stood on the sea of gold, holding Ophelia’s hand. He was even moved to tears, recalling all sorts of hardships in the past.
Bucephalas ran through the treasure storage, and Salami rolled over gold. Even the gentle Tigrius buried himself into gold as if he returned to his childhood.
[Next time when you return from the human world, please buy me a hundred clothes!]
[No, a thousand!]
[Just buy me a department store!]
Lucia shouted in joy, and Yong-ho nodded several times.
He overcame the temptation to keep rolling several times and stood up quickly.
Hearing Lucia’s words, something came to his mind suddenly.
He thought of the most fundamental reason why he found the treasure storage, and what he could do now.
He had to meet Sitri.
Now was the time he did shopping at the Dungeon Market.
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“My dear customer? Uh, you look a little scary?” Said Sitri, frowning a bit.
It was because Yong-ho’s expression was very unusual.
“Uhhhhhhhh”
Yong-ho giggled, facing Sitri. His laughter was mischievous and sly on one hand, but silly on the other.
Sitri, who always had a chair close to him, doubled the distance between the chairs by fidgeting with her hands quickly.
She said, slightly putting her body back, “Don’t laugh like that because I’m afraid my love will cool off a little.”
Startled by her serious voice, who really didn’t like the way he laughed, Yong-ho cleared his throat, but he did it again.
“Hmmm. Uhhhhhhhhh.”
It seemed like his condition was serious. Putting her body back a little more, she said in a nervous voice, “... Customer?”
Now, she didn’t use the modifier ‘My dear,’ which made him come to his senses again.
Only now could he stop laughing silly and opened his mouth with a straight face.
“Hmmm. Oh yes. I have something I want to buy.”
He was a little excited, but now he was back to normal.
Sitri narrowed the distance between the chairs then said, “You want a catalog about flying spirits plus a five-star flying monster?”
He nodded happily because she guessed right. Sitri pointed out the price of the flying spirit on the first page of the catalog, and he responded with a relaxed smile.
Sitri closed and opened her eyes once. Then she laughed several times as if she got wind of it. She then corrected her posture. She looked straight into his eyes and said, “You have obtained his treasure storage, right?”
He did not deny it. It was natural for Sitri, who was Mammon’s lover, to know the existence of the treasure storage. She must know how much gold and silver were there.
“Well, I don’t think I can’t sell them at this price.”
“Sitri”
Instead of answering, she narrowed her distance with him. She narrowed it down to almost where her knees would touch his. She then snapped her fingers. Then, the whole white world turned black. Only the surroundings of Yong-ho and Sitri were white now.
Sitri once again closed and opened her eyes.
Then she said with a charming smile, “From now on I’m going to start a ‘secret deal’ between the king and the director of the Dungeon Market.”
As soon as she finished talking, new catalogs emerged behind her back.
All the covers of the catalog were black. Titles made up of golden letters were somewhat different from previous ones.
[Boarding objects]
[Immortal]
[Different species]
[Fairy clan]
[Demon clan]
There were no star numbers in the black catalogs. Only dungeon spirits were classified.
Sitri fidgeted with her fingers and put one of them on her lap. It was rather weird among the new catalogs.
[King of Greed]
Looking at the title, he then turned his eyes at her. She opened the catalog with a happy smile and explained it to him.
“This is exclusively for your use, my dear customer. It is a secret ledger to record the details of my transactions with you.”
The catalog, named King of Greed, was completely empty.
Yong-ho asked her immediately, “Do other kings also have secret ledgers like this one?”
“Yes, they do. You are very smart to notice it so quickly.”
A secret deal between a king and a director.
A catalog named King of Greed.
He could naturally infer it. Sitri continued, “I’m sorry to the other customers who use the Dungeon Market, but those kings with Sin and Godly Energy are more special than other beings in the demon world because they are the big players who control the destiny of the demon world.”
It was the same even now. The King of Gluttony caused great turbulence of burning the entire unclaimed land in the south by supporting Embrio. The King of Pride raised up the army directly and shook the entire northern area. The King of Violence plunged the King of Gluttony into confusion and terror by simply deploying his troops along the borders.
Each decision by the kings determined the fate of many people.
Sitri wasn’t wrong.
“The core of the Dungeon Market is the merchant group. Therefore, we provide special services to special customers. That’s what we call a secret deal.”
She let her shoulders droop then said with a gentle smile, “I’ll give you an example. A demon king living next door suddenly started to buy horses to attack a dungeon. Then, what will his neighbors think? And how do they act?”
“Well, they will prepare for an attack or form an alliance with other neighbors.”
If the demon king bought something, it was because he needed it.
Therefore, it was also possible to guess the intention of the buyer by checking his purchased goods.
Sitri was satisfied with his reply.
“You’re right because his purchase history itself is part of his information.”
Yong-ho suddenly recalled the story of “The Pentagon and the Pizza Box” he had heard somewhere.
The Pentagon was a huge pentagonal building where the US Department of Defense was located. He was not sure if it was real or just an unofficial story, the story about the Pentagon was rather plausible.
‘On a day when pizza delivery to the Pentagon surges, something serious will happen. For this reason, spies belonging to anti-American countries or groups are keeping an eye on pizza houses around the Pentagon.’
The story derives from rumors that the day the United States made the decision to start a war with Iraq, the Pentagon’s pizza deliveries increased in record numbers due to their emergency work. It was a little bit different from the example that Sitri cited, but both had something in common because she said that she could infer some information about the buyer from his purchase history.
Sitri continued, “Almost all the masters in the demon world use the Dungeon Market. I’m a bit embarrassed to say this, but in a sense, the Dungeon Market is allegedly an organization that governs the demon world.”
What if the Dungeon Market raised food prices drastically? What would happen if the Dungeon Market stopped selling items needed for dungeon operation or didn’t sell them to a specific target?
What Sitri said wasn’t an exaggeration. The influence of the Dungeon Market on the demon world was so powerful.
Because of this, the Dungeon Market had no rival. There was no option for the masters of the demon world to use a different Dungeon Market.
And that was important, after all.
“The Dungeon Market is one and only such place in the demon world, used by everybody. So, if you work really hard, it’s not impossible to find out the other party’s purchase history, especially when it comes to those items that cannot be easily found in the Dungeon Market.”
“That’s why they want a secret deal?”
Yong-ho suddenly recalled secret accounts in Switzerland. With such accounts, they have to pay the account fee rather than receiving interest from the bank. Nonetheless, numerous people have used Swiss secret accounts, even paying high fees. Their reason was simple. Swiss banks never reveal the account holders of the secret accounts. They protected the account holders thoroughly.
The Dungeon Market used the same method.
They kept their transactions about which spirits were sold to whom at what price secret.
Besides, they didn’t reveal the existence of the sold spirits at all.
Sitri nodded then said in an alluring voice, “The secret transaction between the king and the director is kept secret, as the name suggests. Your purchase history is never disclosed to other customers. What’s more, you can buy things that you can’t obtain normally because kings have a great wealth to purchase them.”
She seemed to explain indirectly why she hadn’t offered such a secret deal to Yong-ho until now. Yong-ho was now qualified. He possessed not only Sin but also Godly Energy and wealth.
Sitri bowed to him, and said a little playfully, “Products that are known to be available only through special auctions, or special products that cannot be found in general catalogs are the main targets of secret trade.”
Hearing it, Yong-ho said unwittingly, “The undead elite troops of the King of Gluttony.”
He also recalled his conversation with Ophelia about the Bone Dragon mobilized by Embrio.