Stuck in a Chinese novel

"What is this?" Wei Jun asked Yan Rong who was putting on a cat mask while he was handed a tiger mask.

"A gift from our mage friends. Protects our identity or any other sort of manipulation magic." Yan Rong informed.

Wei Jun nodded and put on the mask and then changed his clothes in a separate room. His old clothes were stored in the inventory and when he came out, he asked to do the same for Yan Rong's clothes.

Other than identity, there were thousands of ways to track someone in the black market and Wei Jun wasn't going to risk it over some clothes.

Wei Jun and Yan Rong entered the big black gate and went past it. It was as if the entire scenery changed. The ceiling of the place wasn't open but covered with some sort of stone that didn't let any light from the sky in.

Wei Jun checked the atmosphere in there. It wasn't like how one would have expected it to be. There were no stalls and there was sure as hell no crowd. There were shops but those shops were as big as an entire store where various things could be seen.

"Come on," Yan Rong said and led him to another section.

In that section, Wei Jun could spot stones, precious stones of good quality which he guessed could be used to make weapons.

[Good quality, my foot]

[There's no better metal in the world than in my shop]

Wei Jun once again wisely ignored the reason the system was so upset over this and asked, 'Is there anything special in there?'

[Are you trying to find a hidden treasure?]

[That plot is only reserved for the main heroes]

[You're a villain]

[According to the plot, what you have should be taken away]

'Aren't you the one taking my wealth?'

[And giving much more in return]

Wei Jun admitted defeat to that statement because it was the truth. The system indeed had been very helpful and if not for the system shop, he wouldn't have been able to reach the rank he was today.

He also admitted that he lost that argument because he really was hoping to find some hidden treasure.

"Welcome," A man said in a neutral voice and no emotion could be gleaned from that voice.

[It's most probably a function of the mask]

Wei Jun nodded and let Yan Rong lead the conversation.

"We're hoping to sell something that cannot be sold on the outside because of how… conflicting it is," Yan Rong chose her words carefully and when she mentioned conflicting, it meant she was afraid of the powers coming after her.

The man, who was wearing a rabbit mask, looked at Yan Rong, his eyes and emotions discernable due to the mask which was a major setback to a businessman like Wei Jun who worked based on the signs of such emotions.

"What sort of trouble would follow?" The rabbit man asked.

"The imperial kind," Yan Rong replied. There was no other power stronger than the imperial family who held the power of military as well so it was the highest form of threat there ever was.

The man went silent for a while before he said, "It would be sold at 60% of the intended price due to the troublesome repercussions of the item."

A 40% loss. It wasn't something anyone else would have been able to get through but since Wei Jun was obtaining his item at 10% of the price, earning 50% on top of it wasn't really a bad bargain.

"80%" Yan Rong, however, didn't think it was fair.

The rabbit man remained silent and turned to Wei Jun and said, "Let's keep this chatterbox out of this. Say your final price."

Wei Jun looked at the man with squinted eyes from underneath his mask and said, "60% and an apology for calling her that."

Wei Jun didn't have a problem with the price but he didn't like how the man insulted Yan Rong despite how mild and lovely the insult was.

"Depends on what you're selling. If it's something good, then I will get on my knees and beg for forgiveness at her feet," The rabbit man said without an ounce of pride in his voice.

Not that any sort of emotion could be gleamed from his tone anyway but Wei Jun could tell he wasn't lying. If Wei Jun were to show him something important, he would beg on the floor to sell it to him.

Wei Jun pretended to rub his ring and pulled out a piece of black iron which was about 1 kg in weight.

As soon as the man saw the black iron, he froze. Just the Weight of it was enough to freeze him. Wei Jun was sure he would be sweating underneath his mask but Wei Jun didn't push it and said, "Make an estimate. How will you be apologizing?"

The man raised his head to look at Wei Jun before he moved and left the counter to stand in front of them. Without saying a word, he knelt and kowtowed on the floor as he said, "Forgive me, my queen, for insulting you in any way. I was wrong."

There was no emotion in his voice but the sincerity could still be detected. The problem was the person who was supposed to be receiving the apology was also frozen, looking at the precious mineral at the counter.

A mineral you couldn't buy even if you had a lot of money because it was never on sale.

Wei Jun nudged her but she didn't snap out of it. In the end, Wei Jun turned to the man who was still on the ground and said, "Make an estimation. How much will get for it?"

"120 million. That's the best I can do given that I will be facing a lot of problems going ahead." The man said.

"120 for 1 kg?" Wei Jun asked.

"Yes," The man replied, still in the kneeling pose.

"Then how much for 10 kg?" Wei Jun asked.

"…" No answer came. The man remained silent for a while before in a monotonous voice, "Hahaha," he laughed which had no essence of emotion in it so it sounded really creepy, and said, "You're a good jokester, sir."

Wei Jun didn't say anything to that and simply put the rest of the nine kg on the table. Although he purchased ten kg which was the minimum amount, it still came in ten equally distributed pieces.

Wei Jun turned to look at the man and said, "Here it is. Estimate it and give me a bonus on that as well."

The rabbit man raised his head and when he saw the ten pieces of black iron on his counter, he passed out as he was. Not just him, but the girl beside Wei Jun passed out as well.

Wei Jun caught her and softly sat her on a sofa and turned to the man who was still in the same 'all fours' pose. Wei Jun didn't like that for some reason.

~~

"I apologize for the earlier incident," The man said with a cough that once again sounded robotic along with everything he said which was very strange.

Wei Jun sighed and said, "So, how much will you be giving me for it?"

"Well, given what you brought me, selling it so easily would be a problem but the market would protect me as long as I give them some so I will be buying all this from your hands for 1.3 billion.

Although the price should have been 1200 million, given that Wei Jun was bringing a lot of this product, the rabbit man decided to give him an extra 100 million as goodwill.

"And if I have more I want to sell?" Wei Jun asked.

The man looked at Wei Jun and asked, "You still have more?"

"Not yet, but I will. 30 kg somewhere in the next month," Wei Jun replied.

~~

"Forgive me for doing that again," The man apologized as he finally came to after an hour. He looked at Wei Jun and said, "Unfortunately, I cannot buy that much. Not only wouldn't I have the funds to do so in the near future because even this much will be sold in about a year or two, but having that much would bring powers I wouldn't be able to deal with and the market would give me up."

"Then what's the most you can do?" Wei Jun asked.

"None. Even this much is a stretch. I will have to be careful about it." The rabbit man outright refused.

"I see." Wei Jun said before he asked, "Tell me the most expensive metal in your shop that can be sold without a problem and wouldn't cause this much trouble."

"That would be dead man's gold," The shopkeeper pointed at a metal that was showcased in a glass and said, "This metal is a hundred times sturdier than gold, processes Qi at a good pace, and is extremely beautiful once crafted properly. But it isn't as durable as black iron."

Wei Jun nodded and asked, "If I wanted to sell you that, how much can you take off my hands right now?"

"Given that I'm low on funds and have only 3 billion on my hands. The metal would be sold at 10 million per kg so I can purchase about 300 kg." The shopkeeper replied.

"I don't have that much," Wei Jun replied because even if there was that much of it in the shop, a sudden appearance of that much mineral would make a small hill. Questions would be raised and he might attract trouble.

"But I can get it in the course of the next few months. Given that you give me a fair price and become my regular buyer," Wei Jun proposed.

"How much can you get me and when?" The rabbit man asked.

"100 kg every week," Wei Jun replied.

"…"

"You're a very good jokester indeed."

And a black line appeared on Wei Jun's face.