Trading System

Karn drove to the location Jimmy had given him. It was a little out of the way, but still within New York City, though the outskirts were not far from here.

After getting out of the car, Karn pushed open the door and walked straight in. It was a standard gun shop, with firearms commonly sold in the United States displayed openly. Karn looked around. If these were all it had, he would not have needed to ask Jimmy for a lead or come this far to buy anything.

"Anyone here?"

After Karn called out, a man slowly rose from behind the checkout counter. He was middle-aged, with an unkempt beard that nearly merged with his messy hair, making him look like an ape without hairy legs.

"If you're old enough to buy a gun, feel free to look around."

Seeing Karn's age, the gun shop owner assumed he was a young gun enthusiast who had sneaked out to buy one. There was usually little money to be made from customers like that. Even scraping together everything they had, they could probably only afford the cheapest hunting rifle.

"Pick out what you want and let me know when you're done. Since it's your first time here, I'll give you ten percent off."

"I've already picked everything out. I want everything on this list."

Karn approached the counter, took a list out of his pocket, and laid it on the counter for the owner. The owner took one look and immediately frowned. Not only were the quantities large, but many of the items were prohibited from sale.

"Jimmy sent me."

The gun shop owner replied irritably, "Why didn't he send you to Stark Industries?"

"Stark Industries wouldn't break the law for this kind of money. Name your price."

Karn indicated that he was willing to pay a premium for the items on the list. It would cost a little more, but if he wanted to buy them now, he had no choice. At least this gun shop owner did not look particularly dangerous. If Jimmy had referred him to the Mafia, Karn would rather have bought his guns through legal channels.

His connections were completely useless in this area. Of everyone he knew, only Jimmy was willing to point him toward a source for guns in exchange for money. Anyone else would have advised Karn to call the police or hire bodyguards.

But his special advantage would not recognize New York police officers or bodyguards as his possessions, even if Karn produced an employment contract.

The gun shop owner told Karn solemnly, "Selling these things is a crime. If the police found out, I'd-"

Thump.

Karn pulled thirty thousand dollars from inside his jacket and slapped it down on the counter.

"This is the deposit. If we can make a deal, I'll pay the balance in cash too." Seeing the temptation on the owner's face at the sight of the money, Karn continued, "Besides, you know Jimmy. He has no reason to set you up, does he? This won't be a one-time deal. I'll be coming back."

Thirty thousand dollars was still worth a lot at this point, and Karn only wanted enough for his own use. His list included both handguns and rifles, along with a fairly large quantity of ammunition, grenades, and explosives, but the total price would not exceed a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

This was a major deal. The gun shop owner considered it for a while, repeatedly studying Karn's expression, but he could read nothing from it. Nor could he possibly uncover Karn's entire background from such a brief conversation.

"I can do it. I'll have everything together within five days. You'll need to leave an address."

After some thought, the gun shop owner decided to accept the deal. Jimmy's referral was one reason. The man was fairly reliable, and none of the people he had sent over had ever caused trouble. Another reason was that Karn looked a little too young, and neither his clothes nor the car he had parked outside was cheap.

Karn took a pen and a piece of paper from the counter, wrote down an address and phone number, and said, "Here's my number and address. It's best to call me before you come."

It was another home Karn's parents had left him, only four streets away from here. It also had a large garage, though Karn rarely went there.

After accepting Karn's number and address, the gun shop owner immediately put away the thirty thousand dollars. This deal would earn him as much as he usually made in three months.

With the arrangements settled, Karn drove away.

Once he got home, Karn still had some medical knowledge to study on his own. His outstanding memory was the reason he ranked first at Midtown High School, so he did not want to waste time on boring video games. He found games from the year 2000 particularly dull, both in their graphics and their stories.

He was not studying medicine because of his thirty-four percent stake in the hospital, but because medical knowledge would be a great help on his travels to other worlds. Weapons could give him some sense of security against humanoid creatures, but medicine could help him safeguard his life in an emergency.

Bandaging, suturing, the use of various medications, and diagnosing illnesses-his family owned a hospital, and his late parents had left plenty of books on those subjects. Karn even practiced some surgical procedures on mannequins. His success rate was currently a hundred percent, though he had no idea how many actual patients he could save.

Karn was a little excited that day. Once the weapons arrived, he would be able to try out his special advantage.

He might encounter danger, but Karn had long since prepared himself for that. An ordinary person like him had very few ways to gain extraordinary powers. The system he had brought with him when he crossed over was the option best suited to him.

"I'll try the Trading System in five days. Should I get some more practice first? I'm pretty good with guns, but I've only watched videos of rocket launchers and things like that."

Karn was a little excited that day, and he gave up studying after just two hours. After taking a shower, he poured himself a glass of red wine. As long as no police came knocking to enforce the law, he was not committing a crime.

"When the time comes, I'll see what world it turns up first. If it doesn't look too troublesome, I'll go take a look. System."

A transparent panel appeared before Karn's eyes. Only he could see the system's panel, something he had tested many times in front of his classmates.

There was little information on it, and its functions were very simple.

The system could locate a world, after which Karn had to go there in person and negotiate a deal. Only once he obtained a trade request from any native of that world could the Multiverse Trading System place a trade marker there. After that, Karn could freely enter and leave that world through the system to conduct trades.

In other words, the first trade was the most dangerous. Once it succeeded, Karn could quickly return to the Marvel Universe through the system, or gradually build a power base of his own in the world where he traded.

The system also came with fifty storage slots. Each slot could hold only one type of item. A hundred kilograms of an item counted as one unit in a storage slot, and each slot could hold 999 units. If Karn traded in something as basic as flour, those fifty slots could hold 4,995 metric tons of it, which was an enormous quantity.

Risk and opportunity went hand in hand, but as long as he succeeded, the opportunities would far outweigh the dangers. Karn felt he could take the gamble. He had thought it through carefully, and the life of an ordinary rich man was not what he wanted.

Karn wanted to see more worlds.