Seeing the stall owner hesitate, the man added, "20 pounds in cash, payable on the spot."
The stall owner stroked his chin, looking somewhat troubled. For him, £20 in cash was indeed more attractive than £5 plus a brass knuckles that he would have to resell.
He turned to Isaac: "Sir, what do you think... perhaps we could add some more?"
Isaac was somewhat unhappy, but the deal wasn't finalized yet, and the stall owner had the right to choose the party offering the higher price.
He was considering whether to raise the price when Carlo spoke first, "Gentlemen, doing business this way isn't very ethical. Be careful, or someone might come to check your water meter in the middle of the night."
The buyer who suddenly appeared sneered, "The rule in the black market is that the highest bidder wins; everyone knows that."
"Then I'll reluctantly offer a price, 21 pounds."
"Are you here to cause trouble?"
"Highest bidder wins, right? A pound more is always better than a pound less. Why don't you add a little more?"
The man looked at the stall owner, who remained silent, clearly pleased to see the two bidding against each other.
"22 pounds," the man said.
"23 pounds," Carlo replied quickly.
"24 pounds."
"25 pounds."
As the two exchanged words, the price steadily climbed, attracting the attention of several onlookers who stayed put, watching the bidding with great interest.
"40 pounds!"
"41 pounds."
The man gritted his teeth, stared at Carlo, and finally waved his hand. "Fine, you win, I'm not buying it."
Carlo waved his hand in agreement, "Then I won't buy it. Please, sir, buy it for 40 pounds."
The man was taken aback, then realized that what he could have bought for 20 pounds had been forcibly inflated to 40 pounds, and Carlo had never really intended to buy it.
"You did this on purpose, didn't you?!"
Carlo shrugged. "This is the black market. Are you going to call the market supervision bureau to arrest me?"
The man's voice turned serious as he turned to the stall owner. "This gentleman isn't genuinely interested in buying; he's just here to cause trouble. Since he's not buying, I'll give you the 20 pounds we agreed on earlier."
The stall owner's expression became somewhat subtle. Just now, Carlo had raised the price all the way up to 40 pounds, and he had already assumed that the deal would be made at 40 pounds. Now that it had suddenly dropped back to 20 pounds, a sense of disappointment washed over him.
He coughed. "Sir, didn't we just agree on 40 pounds...?"
"Who said that?" the man said, his tone becoming more forceful. "He never intended to buy it! He's just deliberately inflating the price!"
Carlo shrugged. "How could I not have planned to buy it? I was serious when I made the bid, but then I realized the ring wasn't worth 41 pounds, so I gave up. In black market bidding, giving up is giving up; there's no reason to force someone to buy."
The man's face turned ashen. "You're all in cahoots to drive up the price! This guy's a shill you hired, isn't he!"
The stall owner quickly replied, "I really don't know this person."
"Then why did he immediately raise the price for you?"
"This... I don't know either."
The man sneered, "Fine, I won't argue with you. 20 pounds, deal or not?"
The stall owner was in a dilemma again. "I already bid 40 pounds, and now you're offering 20 pounds, isn't that a bit too much of a drop... How about we compromise and 30 pounds?"
"Who's going to compromise with you? No way! £20, is that it or not?"
"Well..."
Seeing that the stall owner was still hesitant, the man became convinced that Carlo was a shill the stall owner had hired. He angrily waved his hand and turned to leave.
Seeing this, the stall owner quickly called out to the man, "Sir, sir, don't go! It's only 20 pounds!"
The man stopped, still annoyed, but he took out his money pouch from his pocket, counted out two banknotes, and placed them on the carpet in front of the stall owner.
The stall owner chuckled as he checked the banknotes, then handed over the wooden box along with the ring. The man took the box, closed the lid, and glared at Carlo before leaving.
Carlo shrugged. "Looks like it's hopeless. Let's go back."
Isaac was a little disappointed, but not too upset. He withdrew his brass knuckles and followed.
As they were leaving the black market, at the entrance, a uniformed organizer stopped them, took back their lanterns, examined the bases which appeared to have numbers engraved on them, gave each of them a rather simple candlestick, and then let them pass.
Back in the sewers, Isaac said, "That was just now..."
"The lanterns serve more than just illumination; they also prove that you paid to enter through the organizer's portal, and they should be returned upon departure," Carlo said. "Without lanterns, those who enter through the sewers without using the organizer's portal will have to pay an additional entrance fee."
"After all, there's more than one black market in Vista; we have to offer some discounts to repeat customers."
There's competition even within the black market.
"Of course. There are at least three or four well-known black markets, each with its own rules and regulations. Once a customer gets used to a particular market, they'll likely go back, so the organizers will try their best to retain repeat customers."
Running a black market isn't easy... Isaac thought to himself, then turned back and left the tavern.
He was about to head towards the office when Carlo called out to him, "What's the rush back for? To work overtime?"
"Overtime?" Isaac was taken aback.
"Go get the ring."
"That ring was already...?"
"It was bought by that lucky bastard who popped up out of nowhere," Carlo continued. "But the ring is indeed a good item; it's just that the method of obtaining it has changed from trading to a quest."
"When I say checking the water meter in the middle of the night, I'm not joking; it's a crime—an operation announcement."
"Boss, are you serious?"
"Otherwise, we can't just rob it on the spot, that's too undignified."
"This isn't a matter of dignity, boss. If you can't compete, resorting to robbery... isn't that a bit...?"
Isn't this a classic scene?
"What kind of classic scene is this?!"
"Sigh, never mind, you wouldn't understand." Carlo shook his head. "Besides, it's perfectly legitimate for us to check the water meter. Think about it, what is our official status?"
"Uh, Joint Investigation Bureau chief and an unofficial agent?"
"That's right. And those two guys, one was a vendor selling strange Wonder on the black market, and the other was a buyer who knew this thing was tainted with evil and still bought it... Under the cover of darkness, they actually dared to trade Ghoul Cult items on the black market. They really don't take the Joint Investigation Bureau seriously."
Isaac had just come from the black market and was originally planning to buy a Wonder item from the Ghoul Cult, was speechless.
"Therefore, it was just, reasonable, and legal for us to go to their house to check the water meter," Carlo said.
"Boss, how do we track down those two people? Do you know where they live?"
"Have no idea."
"That..."
"But you should know why you think I'm playing these two games with their price-gouging nonsense."
"Well?"
"Of course, it's to simplify the criteria for locking onto targets whose names I don't know, for example, the two people whose emotions were most volatile after I just provoked them." Carlo pulled out a die.