The Little Lunatic Refused to Be a Sucker

"Get out! I don't buy your lousy junk here!"

"Oh?" Mu Yi fished the Grade A shard crystal out of his pocket and tossed it in his hand. "Then do you know which shop would be willing to buy my junk?" he asked leisurely.

The moment the Grade A shard crystal appeared, the little old man's eyes went wide, and his words took an immediate, sharp turn.

"I, I, I... If I didn't buy your junk, that would be this shop's greatest loss! Please sit, dear customer, sit! Haha..."

With that, the little old man personally stepped forward and pulled out a chair at an empty table for Mu Yi.

Mu Yi didn't sit. Instead, he looked down at him with a smile. "Didn't you just tell me to get out? I'd better leave."

"No, no, no...!" The little old man raised a hand and lightly slapped his own mouth, scrambling to salvage things.

"I'm getting old, and my mouth doesn't always do as it's told. Please don't take it to heart."

The corner of Mu Yi's mouth lifted, and he sat down at his leisure.

The little old man hurried into the seat opposite him and asked eagerly, "How many Grade A shard crystals would you like to sell?"

Mu Yi smoothly slipped the Grade A shard crystal back into his pocket, then pulled out a bag of Grade F-D shard crystals and tossed it onto the table.

"These."

The little old man's broad smile froze. Unable to adjust his expression in time, he stammered, "J-just these...?"

Mu Yi reached into his pocket again, took out another small Storage Bag, and dumped its contents onto the table.

"And these."

The little old man adjusted his single-lens reading glasses for a look, and his expression finally improved considerably. The two rolls of Giant-Bellied Colorful Spider silk caught his eye immediately.

But just as he reached for them, Mu Yi put both rolls back into his Storage Bag first and said with a smile, "Those aren't for sale."

The thin flesh on the little old man's face twitched. He had the distinct feeling that the person opposite him was toying with him for fun.

And he was absolutely right. Mu Yi was having his fun. Now that he'd had enough, he curled a finger and tapped the tabletop, signaling for an appraisal.

With the Grade A shard crystal and premium spider silk put away, the items left on the table were:

Spine Celery roots, Giant Ant formic acid, Warthog bristles, Bitter Sunfruit flower seeds, and tiny mutated bird eggs.

In short, Mu Yi had collected a sample of anything he could easily snatch up and carry.

There wasn't much, but it had all come from the Dread Gloom Forest. Any one of these things was worth more than its counterpart from elsewhere.

Having run the exchange shop for years, the little old man was naturally knowledgeable. He even recognized the roots of the newly discovered mutant species, Spine Celery.

He pushed up his lens with two fingers, quickly calculated in his head, then said with a smile, "You strike me as a straightforward customer. As it happens, I'm a straightforward old fellow myself."

"For these materials, including the shard crystals, let's make it a flat..." The little old man held up three fingers and continued, "Three thousand. Immediate purchase, immediate payment."

Mu Yi raised an eyebrow, then smiled.

He still knew absolutely nothing about prices in this world, but he wasn't an idiot.

Thanks to a face that practically screamed wealth, he'd encountered hundreds, if not thousands, of crooked merchants growing up. He'd heard every fancy sales pitch there was.

Usually, calling someone "straightforward" was just another way of saying they looked rich, stupid, and easy to swindle.

Mu Yi's smile widened as he replied slowly, "I'll give you three thousand. Go into the Dread Gloom Forest right now and bring back one of each of these."

At that, most of the shrewdness vanished from the little old man's eyes. He gave a couple of awkward chuckles. "Haha... You're quite the joker..."

"With these old bones, never mind the Dread Gloom Forest. I probably couldn't even make it through the Ruined City."

After that awkward laugh, he meekly increased his raised fingers from three to five and amended his offer. "Five thousand. An honest price."

Unmoved, Mu Yi simply folded his arms and sneered at him.

That sneer made the little old man's skin crawl. He slapped the table and said, "Five thousand five hundred! I can't go any higher!"

Mu Yi finally spoke, his tone casual. "Let's make it eight thousand eight hundred eighty-eight. Has a nice ring to it."

The little old man: "?"

The little old man stared blankly for several seconds before his eyes widened. "Now, hold on... However nice it sounds, you can't just raise the price like that!"

Mu Yi leaned back in his chair with his arms folded and gave him a sidelong look. "If you can lowball me like that, why can't I jack up the price?"

"Only other people are allowed to be suckers?"

The little old man choked, then tried to salvage things again. "Blame this mouth of mine. It wasn't listening to me when I gave that first price. Hehe..."

Mu Yi chuckled too and replied, "What a coincidence. My hands and feet don't always listen to me either. How about I smash up your shop and put you out of business for good?"

"You can't even get your words straight. You're clearly not cut out for business anyway."

Cold sweat instantly broke out across the little old man's back. He finally realized that the person sitting opposite him was no easy mark.

He secretly swallowed and became completely honest. "Well, eight thousand eight hundred really is too high. How about six thousand six hundred? That sounds nice too."

"Four eights." Mu Yi refused to budge and began rolling up his sleeves.

He didn't look remotely as though he was joking. There was even a faint gleam of excitement in his eyes.

The little old man's heart sank at the sight. Oh no. This one's probably a full-blown lunatic...

These days, the pressure to survive was so intense that plenty of people developed mental problems under the strain, and there was no shortage of deadly incidents caused by them.

The little old man hadn't made it to his age easily, and he still wanted to die of natural causes. He didn't dare let a lunatic fixate on him.

Gritting his teeth, he chose to pay for peace. "Fine! Eight thousand eight hundred!"

And so, five minutes later, Mu Yi received his first pot of gold in this new world.

Looking at the incoming payment notification on his Identity Bracelet, he felt thoroughly pleased. He patted the little old man's shoulder and said, "I'll probably have plenty more junk in the future. Let's make this a long-term partnership, old fellow."

The little old man immediately shook his head like a rattle drum. Please don't come back. I'm begging you.

Mu Yi smiled. "Look at you. Your body parts aren't listening again, are they? This is when you're supposed to smile and nod."

The little old man forced a smile uglier than tears and gestured toward the door. "Take care, dear customer."

He didn't even dare ask whether Mu Yi still wanted to sell that Grade A shard crystal. He only wanted him gone. He'd picked the wrong person to swindle; that was his own bad luck.

Seeing his miserable expression, Mu Yi laughed again, then sauntered away, swinging his empty Storage Bag.

After he left, three burly figures stepped out of the shop together and quietly followed him.

Humming a tune, Mu Yi strolled out of the exchange area, then turned into one of the public restrooms.

When he emerged from a stall after relieving himself, he discovered that the restroom door had been locked from the inside, with three burly men guarding it.

Mu Yi ignored them and calmly approached the sink to wash his hands, slowly rubbing them together and cleaning them with meticulous care.

[Mu Yi: Woohoo~ More fun delivered right to my door!]