3 Old Man Hussein And the Cube

A ton of people obscured my vision as I got into the marketplace. There were lots of humans, androids, and robots going around the place. There was even hovering patrol robots here and there, patrolling the area.

"It's always been a sight to see all the people here look young in appearance. No one's ugly in the least, although it bores me, somewhat." I commented to myself.

These phenomena were caused by the advanced medical technology humanity had perfected over the millennia, like the advanced stem cell, nanobot, and gene modification. Despite the technology that had caused people to live longer and look young, there was still a limit to it.

It's a shame but as a normal civilian, I could only afford a low-grade life extension which could only increase life expectancy to around 200 years. I wonder, with selling the Golden Stardust would I be able to afford the medium or perhaps… a high-grade one?

Well, no need to think about this further, only by selling it would I know.

Even without life extension, people could also be immortal by uploading their minds. They could also transplant their brains into another young body. But there hadn't been any concrete theory about whether they were still themselves after they had done either of the one.

Even if I had only 200 years to life, I don't feel like immortalizing myself with uploading my consciousness into a machine!

I shook my head and then gazed to the side and found a few men and women with the appearance of middle-aged. Well, it's not like all people prefer to keep a young appearance.

"ATHENA, gather the market information you can find here!" I commanded in a whisper, looking around to check if there were anyone suspicious.

[Yes, Master!] ATHENA replied with her cheerful voice.

Following that, I continued to stroll around the market. Digital advertisements were everywhere, popping out from every store that I came across. This what made it different than the normal conventional market, very neat indeed. Now, accessing the more detailed information about the product could be achieved by scanning the advertisement with their small gadgets.

Hmm… I recalled that there was an auto learner technology to transfer the information instantly to the mind. Still, the human brain can only store around 300 or so years of memory. Wouldn't it be bad if it became full?

No matter, since I've got an IQ of 160 after having the basic gene enhancement. There's also a way to enhance the brain further.

Since I found nothing of interest in the market and ATHENA had finished the information gathering — market price on things, I decided to head into my place of connections. I walked to a specific location, not that far from the market, and found a general store with a digital signboard above. There was "Hussein's resource and equipment store" written on it.

The door opened automatically when my body was about a meter away from the entrance. Inside were a lot of white-colored cabinets and shelves filled with a myriad of items. A holo-screen was floating in front of the respective items with a description and price written on it.

Behind the desk, a black-haired middle-aged man, with a quite meaty short figure and a long dwarf beard, was inspecting a white cube with a sophisticated design on it. He was using a pair of rusty yellow gloves and magnifying lenses to inspect it.

"You still alive, old Hussein?" I blurted out without thinking while approaching him curiously.

"Ah??" The man called Hussein raised his head and looked at me through his lenses, he seemed confused, as I was wearing a helmet before he realized and laughed, "Hahaha… It's you, young Victor! It's been half a year since the last time you were here, lad, wasn't it?"

Hussein put his lenses aside and the white cube to a drawer and hit me lightly on the shoulder with his other hand.

"Lad? I'm 25 years old!" I shouted and instinctively backed away a little after being hit earlier, being cautious of him a little.

"25? I'm more than 80 years old, calling you a lad's normal." Hussein shook his head and said, "Still, recently, you seem to be a little bit paranoid when people interact with you—"

"Enough! No more of that talk… Let's just get to the point, I want to propose a good deal with you, are you interested?"

"A deal? I'm all ears!" Hussein sat in his chair and held his chin, tilting his ear towards me.

"This is a big secret deal, and I trust you the most of my connections! You won't betray me, will you?" I narrowed my eyes, spoke with a threat hidden in my tone.

"Hah! You should have more faith in people…" Just as Hussein was about to continue, his eyes bulged out and he opened his mouth wide in shock upon seeing what's on the table.

What I placed on the table was a finger-size tube case, filled with a speck of golden-colored dust.

"A…a tube full… of Golden... Stardust!?" That voice barely came out from Hussein's mouth. Hussein tried to rub his eyes again and again, but then accepted what he just saw was a priceless treasure.

"Where did you get this? No, don't tell me… sell it to me! 50,000… 100,000 credits! I'll pay you one hundred grands!" Hussein frantically expressed, eyeing the tube case with the greed of a merchant.

This is worth that much? Even the amount of credits I have accumulated for years is just around that amount! No… it's definitely worth even more…

I kept a straight face, trying not to show any sign of excitement. Noticing that my face wasn't so excited, Hussein panicked and continued, "If you aren't satisfied, we can discuss more of this, especially if you have more."

"If I've more of it, could you really buy all of it?" Finding that Hussein was so desperate, I decided to take out dozens of the finger-sized tubes from my dimensional storage.

This was only a small part of what I brought; I didn't dare to reveal more as it might bring a calamity instead of a fortune. Seeing a few dozens more newly taken out finger-sized Golden Stardust, Hussein seemed lost for words.

"This…. Are you trying to bankrupt me? This is too much!" His eyes couldn't focus, and he almost fainted before he jolted awake for some reason.

"Wait, I've something that might interest you." Hussein took out the same white cube from earlier from the drawer.

He placed the cube above the desk carefully as if scared of damaging it and then explained in a serious tone, "I got this just recently from a foolish scavenger, who didn't know what kind of gem he just uncovered; have you ever heard of a Technology Cube?"

"Technology Cube? What's that?"

"Technology Cube is said to contain the cutting-edge technology of mankind. Unfortunately, I don't know what kind of technology is inside of this because you need an insane amount of energy to access it. However, it just so happens that your Golden Stardust can be the key to access this."

From what I know, technology is strictly regulated. So, a Technology Cube like this, if sold to the right owner, might fetch an incredible sum in millions of credits, at the very least.

I've got a lot of this Golden Stardust. If there's the slightest chance that it contains a technology I could monopolize, I would have hit the jackpot!

I was thrilled and secretly grinned inside by the bright prospects that might be brought on by this cube. Hussein began having a misconception that I might not agree, finding that I went silent for a moment. He started to rummage through his dimensional storage and drawer as if trying to find something that might pique my interest.

"It's a deal then, but I want 500,000 credits as a guarantee. I might also bring more in the future."

"If you still disa… Wait, what?" Hussein made a hilarious face when surprised that I accepted the deal, soon he calmed himself and continued, "Okay, it's a deal."

After we both accepted the deal, I decided to make a digital contract with an ambiguous description which only we would understand. After all, it was better to be safe than sorry.