The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 10: Sub-merchant’s Task

No. 37 flapped his blue robe. A small magic cube flew out from his sleeve, hanging in the air and emitting magical lights.

After a second, the lights disappeared. The white column suddenly contracted, pouring all its energy into the magical cube. In the blink of an eye, the magical cube bright lights recovered with a higher intensity, covering both of Zhang Mu and No. 37.

The magical cube was hollow and transparent. Zhang Mu felt as if he had been wrapped up in a fantasy bubble.

Everything around Zhang Mu had disappeared, replaced by a messy sky map.

Above his head, beneath his feet, and in all directions, the space turned into a vast sea of stars. The distant stars were obviously far away from him, but Zhang Mu could clearly perceive their unique auras.

What a miracle!

Zhang Mu was really shocked.

This was the first time he enjoyed this treatment. For all ten years in his last life he had been a sub-merchant, he could only trade from a product list on a light screen or with No. 37, who always looked at him indifferently. However, he had heard from others of the difference in attitude when No. 37 traded with other sub-merchants. He was skeptical at that time, but he thought that their description was too conservative now.

A faint smile appeared on No. 37’s face. He had seen too many similar expression on other aborigines. He didn’t say anything, but swung his sleeves, quietly stretching out both hands and gently grasped in the air. A burst of rumbling sound came from in front of him.

Zhang Mu looked at the direction the sound came from. He suddenly found that the stars in the surroundings started flying towards them all at once.

Looking at dozens of stars flying to them, Zhang Mu subconsciously tried to get out of their way, but found that they all suddenly disappeared.

He looked back and found that the stars had turned into a stream of tiny planets, lining up between them.

“This is the first day of the new era and I don’t think that you know what the crystals are exactly and how to collect them. You can only buy era local goods from me right now. Let me give you a brief introduction. All the sub-merchants will receive four golden leaves as their starting capital. You are my first sub-merchants, so you can buy my goods at a 20% discount this time… Oh, you are also the first era-merchant of the whole Testing Field Number Forty-seven! So the goods for your first trade are all 50% off!”

Zhang Mu finally understood why the first few sun-merchants could dominate the market so easily. He hadn’t started at the same starting line as them. The era merchant didn’t say it clearly, but Zhang Mu knew he could barely lose in his first trade.

No. 37 casually picked up two purple planets amongst these stars, then said to Zhang Mu, “This is Luoyang Peony Bud, a bundle of peony bud is equal to one gold leaf. I have a total of ten peony buds. And this is Yellow River Carp, one carp is worth half a gold leaf. The total number is twenty. You can spend all your gold leaves or leave some as backup. After all, you should know that you won’t always earn money from trading. Your task is to ensure that after selling my goods to other era merchants, you can earn at least ten golden leaves and you must return to my shop within half a year.”

No. 37 stopped and waited Zhang Mu to think on his words, but Zhang Mu couldn’t suppress his happiness any longer and eagerly said, “I don’t need to save any golden leaf! Give me eight Luoyang Peony Buds!”

Zhang Mu really worked hard in his past life. He survived in the chaotic world only relying on his analytical ability and his rich experience. Because he often regretted for his wrong choice in his past life and even thought of kinds of goods he should’ve sold in the beginning of the new era, he already had a plan in his heart since a long time ago.

In his past life, when he became No. 37’s sub-merchant, there were only two bouquets of Luoyang Peony Buds left. He only dared to buy a bundle of buds and two Yellow River Carps, saving a gold leaf as a backup because he had been frightened by No. 37’s cold voice. He didn’t have guts to run out of all his gold leaves.

In fact, other sub-merchants also made the same choice like him. However, when Zhang Mu took the great risk of going to a nearby city and saw the price of Luoyang Peony Bud there, it was already too late for him to repent.

Although at the beginning of the new era, he didn’t need to worry about the possibility of loss, but compared to the Yellow River Carp, whose selling price was only slightly higher than its purchasing price, only around 20% more, the Luoyang Peony Bud’s selling price was twice its purchasing price.

So this time, he bought No. 37’s Luoyang Peony Buds without hesitation. If the following four sub-merchants knew what he did and the profits of Luoyang Peony Buds, they would definitely curse him in anger.

Although No. 37 wondered why Zhang Mu was so decisive, after all, he didn’t tell Zhang Mu that he wouldn’t lose in the first trade, he didn’t ask anything. He was always conscientious in trading.

“Ok, your gold leaves have been deducted automatically. You can find the eight bunches of Luoyang Peony Buds in your Merchant’s Ring. You can view them by concentrating your mind on the ring. However, you can’t take the local goods out unless you are in an era merchant’s shop. As for other goods… including the era goods, you can take out of them or store them two times per day. This is your welfare as a sub-merchant.”

Zhang Yang cocked his head, trying to check inside the ring. As expected, his mind immediately immersed in the ring. The space inside it was several times bigger than his original one.

In the central of the ring, there were eight elegant Luoyang Peony Buds inside a golden cage, but Zhang Mu knew that they were not real buds. They were just the coagula of Luoyang City’s Spirit Qi.

“Well, you should understand your task. As for the era goods… you should not be able to exchange it now, so you don’t need to think about them. I will keep opening my era shop till I have five sub-merchants. Afterwards, every sub-merchant can only visit my shop once per month. You can try to collect as much crystals as you can during this period of time, then come to trade with me.”

Zhang Mu quietly listened to No. 37’s words. After a while, Zhang Mu cleared his throat, staring at No. 37 and asked, “Do you mean… If I have crystals, I can buy your era general goods now?”