A Bit of Shopping

Chapter 16: A Bit of Shopping

Satria was a man living a simple and normal daily life before, he never hold a big secret like this. Because of his positive outlook and way of thinking, he is too trusting ..., easily giving his trust to someone else close to him.

He knows that by telling other people about his big secret, there's always a possibility that the other party would leak it to someone else. Then before he know it, that piece of information would not be a secret they both kept anymore. After all, a secret isn't necessarily a secret anymore if he started spilling it.

It's not that he didn't trust Salsa, in fact, aside from himself he could say that this childhood friend of his know too much about him that he felt there was no need to disclose anything to her. There were some dark secrets that even his family didn't know but Salsa knew everything about them. Of course, it works both ways, he also still remembers some embarrassing moments of the tomboyish girl.

He always had good blackmailing material with those. However, after revealing his big secret ..., he knows that he's at disadvantage. Even if he revealed all of her shameful deeds in the past, it would pale in comparison to his Earth-shocking, viral-inducing secret. Though he knows that only a minority of people would believe it with enough evidence someone would pick that up.

'Well, let's just write a non-disclosure agreement with her ..., this blank contract is quite handy. I hope the magic works.'

While Salsa took Ningguang into a bath, he started writing an NDA on the Blank Contract Paper. He has write one before when he recruited Dahlia, and so after filling in the term and conditions he finished and just needed her to sign it.

When he put down his pen, Salsa came out from the bathroom and said.

"Hey Sat, could you go to the nearby shopping mall for a sec and buy child-sized clothes or something?"

"Right, wait ..." he picked up his phone and opened an online shopping app, "Is something like a one-piece dress doable?"

"Yeah, just buy something like that ... mine is small size but it won't fit on her."

"Okay, ... ah while you're at it. Salsa, here sign this paper first." he pointed at the contract paper on the low table.

"Hm? What is this? A non-disclosure agreement?" she read the letter's content and frowned her brows. "The fuck is this, are you kidding with me?"

"Language please, and I'm dead serious," he said flatly.

"But what's with these penalties? It's nonsense, 'If the SECOND PARTY violated the term mentioned above, a penalty of some kind would effective immediately. The penalties consist of: (1) losing the ability to speak and hear until the FIRST PARTY acquiesced and pardoned; (2) a reimbursement of 10 grams of pure gold for every head who learned about the confidential information through the SECOND PARTY.' This is ..., this is insane, the fuck is this? It's nuts!"

"Right, I forgot to mention to you that this paper is a magical contract that will tie both of our souls," Satria stated.

"Look, I never asked for your damn secret! You came to me, asking for help, and then somehow you say that 'oh look, I can do magic!'. Now, I had to sign a bullshit soul contract or whatever because you willingly share those supposedly secret information with me? Fuck, where's the logic behind that! There's no way I'd sign this, not with this kind of penalty."

"Sigh ... I'm telling you about all of this because I know I can trust you, Salsa. However, I know something would likely be out of control ..., and that's why I had to write this. It's a precaution, beside, I don't know what would you blabber around when you're drunk. I don't know what those in the government would do if they know about my power."

"..., It's not that bad, I never had a party that hard until I get wasted." she tried to defend herself.

"Just sign it and we're good to go." He rolled his eyes at her, "and here are the change clothes for Ningguang."

From the system store, he bought a one-piece child dress the color of orchid and white. He bought it because the color reminded him of the Orchid's Evening Gown, her skin in the game, so it would fit on her. Well, he just hopes that the size is correct. Ningguang was around 12 years old, but her body was malnourished and she was skinny as a stick.

Salsa gazed straight at him for a minute before eventually letting out a long sigh.

"Sigh ..., well fine, I'll sign it. It's kinda hard to believe that you put so little faith in me, but alright." Salsa took a pen and then signed the confidentiality agreement between him and her about his secret. After finished with that, she handed the contract paper to him. "Here, you happy?"

"I'm sorry. I never had a secret this big, and I had to do this. You're the first one to know, Salsa. I'm so confused and freaked out about all of this." he sighed in relief after she signed the contract.

"Geez, I know ..., I understand where your fear comes from. I'll keep this secret to my grave for you."

"Thanks."

"I'll go check on little Ningguang." she picked up the orchid dress not bothering to ask where did he get it.

Salsa went to the bathroom and put the dress on the hanger. She then knock on the bathroom door and asked, "Ningguang, I have your change here just tell me when you finish."

It was a bit late, but she realized that Ningguang couldn't understand her language. "Oh, what am I saying, of course, you won-"

"Yes, thank you, Ms. Salsa."

"Huh?" but came the little girl's reply from behind the bathroom door. And it was in Bahasa Indonesia, which in turn made her puzzled. "Ningguang, you can understand me?"

"Uhmm ..., yeah?" said Ningguang a bit unsure.

Previously she couldn't understand a single thing that the older girl speaking. They were speaking a different language that she had never heard before. However, just now Salsa asked that question in the common Teyvat language that she knows.

"That's weird. Satria! she ran back to the living room and called out his name.

"Hmmm, what?"

"I can understand what she's saying!"

"Hah? What are you talking about?"

"As I said, I can understand what Ningguang is saying. And she can understand me too!" Salsa with too much excitement pulled out his hand and shook it over up and down.

"But huh? How?" he tried to think about it, and the possible reason for that is the contract that she just signed. "Is it because of the contract?"

"Possibly! I also think it's because of that."

'So there's a feature like this ..., but what is the limitation, is anyone who signs a contract with me can ignore the language barrier no matter what kind of contract it is? Or is it just between the contractee?'

He needed to investigate more about this to find out whether his assumption is correct or not.

.

..

...

"Mr. Boss, how do I look?" asked Ningguang as she twirl around in her new dress.

Satria waited for almost an hour for Ningguang to get ready. He wondered what makes a woman take that long time for a bath. He spent no more than five minutes for a bath, and when he was in rush it would take less time. Nevertheless, the little girl transformed into something else. If before she look like a homeless kid, now after cleaning herself and with her dress, she looked like a child actress.

Her hair which previously looked murky and unkempt with mud and grime now become milky white color. Salsa combed and cut some of her hair to make it look good with her bare minimum knowledge of haircutting. She helped style Ningguang's hair into a loose braid that reminds him of Shenhe.

"Better, I guess," he said plainly, but his mind thought of how cute she is at the moment. Of course, he won't say it upfront because that would label him as something that he doesn't want.

"Let's go then." the time is tight and he wanted to save time as much as he could.

Salsa followed them to open the access door. They went directly to the basement parking lot, but the tomboy girl keep following them to the car that Satria borrowed.

"Ningguang ... you'll sit in the back seat." said the tomboyish girl as she opened the front door.

Satria who saw this frowned his brows and asked. "Didn't you say you have a class at 1 pm?"

"Skip, skip ..., I'm not in the mood for a boring class." She fastened the seatbelt and pulled down the sun shield, "besides, I need to watch this little girl from some suspicious uncle."

"Urgh, uncle and aunty won't like this."

"Try me, tell this to my parents and I'll spread your dark history to everyone you know."

"I should've included this in that contract ... sigh." Satria sighed in exasperation and let the girl do as she likes.

"So where will we be going?"

"TP."

"Aight."

It would be time-consuming, but buying things directly from the shop or supplier is way cheaper than buying from the system shop. He has done comparing this back when he still bought those paper and stationery. The price of the system shop is 15% more expensive than buying it directly.

By the look of it, it seems that his Masque of Clavicus Vile and Half-Price Discount Coupon won't work in the System Shop. It was strange because the artifact and the coupon come from the Merchant System, and yet he couldn't use them in the system shop. A strange glitch, but how and to whom he could complain about this?

It took about just twenty minutes to get to the Tunjungan Plaza Surabaya.

"Right, do you know where's the supermarket?"

"..., you're asking me?" Salsa pointed at herself with the sudden question.

"Who else is there aside from you?"

"Oh, okay ..., it's this way." Salsa took the lead.

On the way, the group of three immediately captured everyone's attention. They took a curious glance at Ningguang's natural white hair. Black hair is the most common hair color in Indonesia, some might dye it into another color or maybe a blasteran(half). The little girl also has big red eyes, another striking trait that stood out in the crowd.

The two young adults noticed this while the oblivious little girl was looking around appreciating the magnificent sight of the shopping mall.

"Maybe we should put her in hijab or something ..." Salsa whispered near Satria.

"Yeah and sunglasses," Satria added.

"I concur."

Fortunately, they didn't have to walk that long because the department store is not that far.

"By the way, are you on monthly restocking or something?" Salsa asked as she pulled out a trolley cart.

"Right, I haven't told you ..." Satria nodded, he took out the Eavesdropping Prevention Magic Tool and activated it. "You see, I have this business idea ..., that is trading things from earth to another world."

"Your other ability is traveling to another world, that's ... awesome!" Salsa deducted his other superpower based on his explanation, she then asked. "Is it alright saying that right here, in public? Wasn't that supposed to be secret? And is it Teyvat?"

"Yeah, it's fine. You see this ..., this is a magic tool that will trap any voice in a radius of five meters. Which means anyone outside this magic tool sphere of influence would not hear whatever conversation or voice that happened inside." He explained the expensive magic tool that he purchased from Dahlia's world. "And no, it's not Teyvat ..., it's a Japanese Isekai with sword and magic, yeah the usual tropes."

"I see ..., that's awesome." Salsa took the small pyramid-shaped trinket with a glowing stone inside and observed it for a moment, after finished she asked. "So what would you want to sell them?"

"I've sold something like paper and stuff, they were like novelty products in there. I feel bad for selling one box of paper for ..., I don't know, 5 million? But I want to sell something else right now, the basic primary need."

"Clothes, Food, and Accommodation?" Salsa tilted her head

"Just clothes and food for now, I can try selling them cement or something ..., but that would be a thing in the future. After I'm done setting up the supply chain model."

Before he established a model for the supply chain and logistics for the company, he would only sell the product from the earth as novelty and rare products.

Satria is the most OP logistician right now. His storage space could hold an infinite amount of goods without making him over-encumbered. However, there's a problem with this. The problem was how he could buy a large number of products and then transport it into Dahlia's world.

He had thought about it a lot since the time he realized the business potential of traveling to another dimension back and forth. And his solution at the moment is to open a grocery shop, or maybe a convenience store of some kind, and smuggle half of the supplies and transport it to another world.

But that was a plan for the future, as he was aware that to implement this plan he need a massive amount of budget.

Satria led the three in buying the things on his list. Starting from wheat flour, butter, cheese, milk, sugar, salt, and pepper. He also bought some boxes of Indomie to spread its spice festivities to another world.

- [Segitiga Biru Wheat Flour 1 Kg(12 pcs)] | 5 x Rp 140.000 | Rp 700.000

- [forVITA Margarine 250 gr (24pcs)] | 4 x Rp 250.000 | Rp 1.000.000

- [Blue Band Butter 250 gr (12 pcs)] | 4 x Rp 150.000 | Rp 600.000

- [Kraft Cheddar 2 kg (8 pcs)] | 2 x Rp 1.575.000 | Rp 3.150.000

- [Ultra Milk UHT 1 Liter (12 pcs)] | 4 x Rp 200.000 | Rp 800.000

- [Gulaku Premium Cane Sugar 1 kg (24 pcs)] | 8 x Rp 350.000 | Rp 2.800.000

- [Kapal Salt 500gr (25 pcs)] | 5 x Rp 80.000 | Rp 400.000

- [Ladaku Pepper Powder 4 gr (48x12 pcs)] | 2 x Rp 470.000 | Rp 940.000

- [Indomie Goreng (40 pcs)] | 3 x Rp 110.000 | Rp 330.000

- [Indomie Kari Ayam (40 pcs)] | 3 x Rp 110.000 | Rp 330.000

Subtotal = Rp 11.050.000 ($714,68)

Discount = Rp 3.315.000 ($214,40)

Total = Rp 7.735.000 ($500,28)

Despite the crazy amount of discount, the cashier didn't realize anything weird. She just straight ignored it and Satria could go away with the goods after paying it.

"These won't fit in Reihan's car," Salsa commented seeing the two-and-a-half trolley packed with goods. Yes, Satria ordered Ningguang to pull a trolley albeit only half full.

"Relax, I got this."

When they reached the parking lot, Satria opened the tailgate and then pretend to move things from the trolley to the car storage. However, the object in his hand vanished as he store it in his system storage.

Salsa could only drop her jaw and looked around to see if there were other people or security cameras in the vicinity. After spotting one camera, she then moved in a way that her body would obscure it from recording this bizarre phenomenon.