Chapter 128
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Chapter 128: Copper-Zinc Alloy with a Hint of Lead
As the footsteps of the two grew clearer, all the noise from the black market above seemed to fade away.
"Hey, is this enough? Do we have to go further in?"
The man voiced his displeasure.
If they went deeper, there would be no light at all, and he would have spent a thousand coins seeing nothing.
That was the problem; in places with light, people shared with each other, while in dark places, it wasn’t worth the ticket price.
"Then let’s stay here; I can’t wait any longer."
The girl’s gentle voice stirred something in the man’s heart.
Then, the girl swung her hard hammer, striking the man’s head painfully.
After a dull thud, he collapsed to the ground.
Seeing he showed no further reaction, the girl reached down and began to search his body inside and out.
Soon, the familiar feel of information coins slid through her fingers.
“Ah, wild information coins~”
After an unexpected hunt, the budget of Shi Jin, the leader of the outer city’s third production line maintenance team, increased to two thousand eight hundred information coins that night.
"Looks like he never planned to pay in full."
She stuffed all the items she could take into her pockets, then stood up and spat at the man lying motionless on the ground. Afterward, she climbed up the nearby stairs, searching for the merchant with the red hair she remembered.
She explored from the first floor of the dilapidated factory all the way to the third, finally spotting that familiar color in a corner on the third floor.
At the stall, she pretended to browse, but she bought nothing.
This was an established signal; when someone behaved this way without leaving, it indicated that they wanted to discuss something sensitive with the stall owner.
The red-haired woman clearly understood this, and a snicker came from beneath her hood. She then pushed aside the various potions and items on the counter, leaning closer to Shi Jin.
"Go ahead, what shady business do you want to talk about?"
"I want to sell a batch of goods. I’m not sure if you’re interested."
Shi Jin deliberately lowered her voice.
"Tell me, are they biological agents declared obsolete by the research institutes, or are they obsolete weapons that the military pretended to destroy?"
"Gold, will you take it?"
“…”
Shi Jin felt the black market merchant stiffen slightly before responding.
"You have such good stuff?!"
The red-haired merchant’s voice showed clear surprise, but it quickly turned into a mocking tone as she said,
"Impossible; it must be fake."
"Just because you say so?"
Shi Jin became anxious; if he didn’t want to buy it, why throw dirt on her?
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the gold she had "refined," while her other hand aimed the small hammer at the merchant’s head.
There were plenty of merchants; if this one didn’t work out, she could just switch to another.
However, the red-haired merchant didn’t even glance at the item in Shi Jin’s hand. Instead, with confidence, she asked,
"What if I can prove that this is fake?"
"If this is fake, would you want it?"
"No."
"Then I’ll just sell it to someone else."
Shi Jin said with a hint of resignation.
What else could she do? Surely no one thought everything sold in the black market was genuine, right?
Could real goods still be called black market?
Now that she was here, whether it was real or fake relied entirely on their judgment.
But she couldn’t understand why the merchant in front of her believed the gold was fake without even looking at it, even though she had learned in school that gold was a precious metal.
She didn’t know where her item had come from.
Unable to resolve her confusion, Shi Jin watched as the red-haired merchant searched through a large pile of bottles and jars on the ground.
Using the light from a small lamp, she finally found what she wanted.
"Here, look at what this says?"
Shi Jin leaned in closer.
"Dilute Hydrochloric Acid."
"Exactly~"
The red-haired merchant used a dropper to take a tiny bit of liquid and gently dripped it onto the small pieces of gold in the girl’s hand.
Tiny bubbles began to form continuously, clearly visible in the light, and Shi Jin’s heart sank.
The merchant’s mocking voice came just in time:
"Identified as Copper-Zinc Alloy with a hint of lead; touch it too much, and you won’t grow."
Shi Jin left the merchant’s stall feeling dejected.
The once heavy gold in her hands felt as if it had lost its soul, becoming faint and insubstantial.
Several times, she almost threw it away.
Although she knew it could be exchanged for some information coins in the eyes of an uninformed merchant, fake was still fake, and the huge gap in her expectations was hard for the girl to accept.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, and her thoughts began to spiral, leading her to curse at things that hadn’t even provoked her:
“Hope City is such a mess!
"Even the gold is fake; that director looked so rich!
“Information coins are worthless; I can’t even tell where the information is…”
A small piece of gold was ultimately sold for five hundred information coins to an unfortunate soul, who claimed that they could take as much as they wanted in the future, and would pay more for better quality.
Shi Jin ignored the buyer’s calls; she had only intended to do business once with each merchant to avoid drawing attention.
After purchasing some tools for processing with most of her total of three thousand three hundred information coins, she reluctantly left the black market, her place of sorrow.
“When will such days come to an end?!”
Upon returning home, Shi Jin carefully cleaned the bloodstains from the Small Hammer—she still needed this for work, and having someone see it wouldn’t be good.
Then she dove into her blankets and slept until six the next morning.
Rubbing her eyes, she knew another day of work was about to begin.
After searching through her messy home for a moment, she hung the worn name tag from the corner around her neck:
【(photo)
Name: Shi Jin
Position: Maintenance Team Leader
Level: 2】
After a quick tidying of her hair in front of the mirror, the once reckless and carefree thief “Master Hand” quietly stepped out of her home in her work attire:
“Earning four thousand eight hundred a month, smiling every day~”
—
The black market in the abandoned Chemical Factory didn’t end with Shi Jin’s departure.
Dirty deals continued, with waves of sellers and buyers coming and going.
Finally, a hint of brightness appeared on the horizon, and the accustomed black market merchants rolled up their mats, preparing to leave.
The red-haired merchant skillfully tugged the corners of a black cloth, wrapping a large number of bottles and jars within.
She twisted and turned through the Chemical Factory, entering an unnoticed corner and making her way to the seldom-traveled underground.
Kicking aside a person lying on the ground, bleeding and uncertain if dead or alive, she gently removed her facial mask.
Hope Council Councilwoman Nia strode confidently and disappeared into the dark depths of the abandoned Chemical Factory.
