Second Trade Complete

The 9 extractors exited the portal with the masked and cloaked Cynthia in tow. For privacy reasons, she had put on these articles as soon as she heard them curse about failing to capture Ryan.

Their device later told them that he had already exited the gate by some unknown means. They had to exit and take her along with them as she was part of their mission as well.

The Extractors left the room and only Thomas, Natsumi, and Cynthia were left in the room.

"You can take them off now."Natsumi helped her take off the masks and heavy cloak as they were hindrances. It made them feel too much heat and was hard to breathe in.

Since Thomas already knew who they were, why would they inconvenience themselves?

"Are fine! There are no injuries right?" she checked all over Cynthia's body to make sure there were no cuts or wounds anywhere and was surprised with how clean her outfit was.

"I'm fine. Look, there's not a single scratch on me." Cynthia tried her best to resist her frantic arms that were feeling her everywhere. If she didn't know any better, she might think this was sexual harassment.

'Didn't she go into a swamp biome? There is no sign of it. there is only some sand on her back and boots.' Natsumi was suspicious of what Cynthia was doing in there for a whole 5 minutes before the guards found her.

She gave it a thought and concluded that her friend was probably nervous and hesitating. This theory was disproven the next second.

"I apologize for the interruption. I was told that you had enough time to hunt one of the required monsters?" Thomas could only apologize for the security breach but this didn't mean that he could just give away the card for nothing.

He had rules to follow or his mom would come for his neck.

"Here you go. Give me the card." Cynthia shook her wrist and the storage device from her wrist materialized the corpse of a lizard the size of a full-grown alligator.

The lizard had skin that was dark orange and light yellow camouflage. On its head was a pair of thick, blue horns. Its yellow eyes were pierced on both sides and its brain was most likely in the same state.

It could be easily inferred that it was killed in a single blow and taken by surprise as there were no other injuries on its slimy body. There was also a normal expression on its face indicating that it wasn't at full alert when taken out.

Adult Blue Horned Pedro Lizard is its species, it is one of the hunting targets for the silver card. Cynthia found it in the storage ring that Ryan left to her, along with tens of other monsters killed in a similar fashion.

All of them had been killed in one shot, their brains penetrated by something slim yet sharp.

She remembered that he had more than one power and the blood spears that get could he generate were his main choice for attacks.

Thomas glanced at the monster real quick and then at Cynthia. He just sighed and gave some instruction to a group of assistants he had called over.

"Can you two wait in that study? I have things I need to do because of the incident just now. I will have someone authenticate the corpse. It will probably take half an hour before you can get it." he hurried out of the room.

From how he was nonsensically muttering about his demise earlier, Natsumi knew that he had a great deal of work to do so. She just held onto Cynthia and took her back into that annoyingly sparkly study.

While sitting in those comfy seats, she thought about how Cynthia had provided the body of that Adult Blue Horned Pedro Lizard.

'She had no signs of battle on her body nor did she enter the place where this particular monster lives. She only awakened her abilities yesterday and has no formal training in combat. Why was she so confident about taking on the gate?'

Natsumi did not know what to assume out of this, she could only ask Cynthia for an explanation but wait until they were out of the black market. there were sure to be people monitoring them.

It was not the ideal place to voice her doubts and share possible secrets.

The black market wasn't questioning Cynthia on the kill anyway since the tracker they put on her did indicate that she had gotten one kill within the gate.

"Did you meet the guy who broke into the gate?" Natsumi was curious if she met Ryan Frontera, someone she knows to be a heartless killer.

"Hmm." Cynthia nodded in confirmation."

"What? Did he do or say something to you?" Natsumi was once again worried as she did not trust that guy one bit.

"Don't worry. He just introduced himself said that we will be our classmates soon," she replied with a smirk.

When she heard that nothing serious happened she calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief, that was at least until she heard the end part.

"What did you say? Our classmate!!!" she yelled and forgot all of her dignity. She didn't want to want a maniac to be lurking around her.

She was worried he would recognize her. 'I shouldn't have done that...' she lamented internally about a prank she had pulled on him years ago. One that she regrets very deeply.

She was so scared of him after that incident that she moved countries.

"Yeah. He should be starting sometime next week." Cynthia remembered that Ryan would originally start school another two weeks later. However, seeing how he looked at her earlier, he was most likely to become impatient and join earlier.

Natsumi proceeded to slump in her chair and sulk. They decided that talking about these things was too burdening. Instead, they discussed what they were planning on buying this weekend on their excursion with the other girls.

During this conversation, a secretary came in twice. One was to deliver some snacks and drinks and the other time was Cynthia's membership card.

It was a credit card with nothing but a large, red M in the middle. it felt cold to the touch as it was really made from a thin layer of silver.

She had already filled her card with $2,000,000. Cynthia was sure she would come here often and needed to have enough money on hand from her newfound allowance.

The two girls headed into a different set of hallways before being greeted by a large stone door with the M logo in the middle.

Guards opened the door for them as it was abnormally heavy. And with that, they were greeted by their first look at the black market. A first look that left Cynthia stunned.

A whole floor filled with shops that were trendy and modernly styled. They were colorful and attractive, just like shops inside a mall. It looked no different than n actual mall, that is if you ignore the people here wore all sorts of masks and cloaks.

It seemed like some cosplay event or a world filled with cult members.

Cynthia had never been to the black market in the past as she didn't need to. She had connections that would supply things to her directly.

She didn't expect there to even be janitors and other cleaning staff that made this place look perfectly clean and welcoming.

There were also staff members in suits that would show you around if you were new.

After clearing her head from cultural shock, Cynthia walked up to the staff. With their help, they found the area with the weapons and the like. They were guided to who the staff claimed was best for their needs.

Someone with a large collection of a variety of militaristic supplies.

The seller wore a gray octopus mask and had a large, male figure. She assumed that there had to be a good amount of muscles under his cloak but could not tell his age from the voice.

It was being masked by a voice modulator. She didn't mind as his identity didn't matter anyway.

"What would you like? I have everything from pistols and machine guns to assault rifles and high caliber snipers," he said when they walked in.

Cynthia's eyes canvassed through all the guns on the walls and the ones in the display cases. She picked up some of them and felt their weight in her weak hands that were buckling from the weight of an assault rifle made purely from carbon-based alloys.

Apparently, guns had become much lighter than they were in the past. they even had more firepower and speed but were still hard for unexercised people like her to use.

Cynthia was sure she could only use a pistol with these skinny arms of hers.

"From those that are carbon-based, I would like one of each? Fully loaded, and one of each explosive as well," she said.

"One of each?... Okay, give me ten minutes." The shopkeeper had a slight change in tone as if indicating his surprise. He wasn't expecting such a purchase from what he assumed was a young lady.

Nonetheless, this was his business and he wasn't going to question profits.

The shopkeeper left the counter and went into the back and sent out another person to keep watch.

Natsumi just stared wt Cynthia with a questioning look from under the make. Cynthia could sense her gaze and just chuckled as she had already prepared her excuse for everything.

Ten minutes later, he came back and invited Cynthia to the back where he had made a pile of guns and explosives inside a multitude of crates. Cynthia nodded in approval of the efficiency this man showed.

"How much?" she asked.

"$170,000 for the guns and $5,000 for the explosives." the man replied. It was in no way cheap. It was the back market where everything cost more.

The government probably only paid a fourth of the price for the same goods. With this Cynthia, had a good idea about how much she would need to spend.

"Do you have samples that I can try out?" She needed to send these samples to the Champion so she can know exactly what she wants.

Cynthia only asked for one of each thing to test the capability of the seller and see if he could provide a lot on short notice.

"I do have samples for all of these. I don't sell things that I haven't tried myself." The seller somehow sounded very proud of his goods.

"You can borrow the samples for a day as long as you put down collateral of $200,000. As for explosives, you will still have to pay for them." the man said as he put down fair terms.

He seemed to be quite experienced and Cynthia did not feel like haggling it is only collateral, she would use that money to actually pay for the gods anyway.

"That's alright. We will draw up a contract," she said and they called over a staff member. All purchases were overseen by the guarantee of the Boreal family.

They were the mediators that made sure neither side was cheated in deals and didn't renege on their deals as they held their real information.

After she tossed all the samples into her storage, she put down the collateral of two hundred thousand and paid 5 thousand for the explosives.

It had only been 3 hours since she made first contact with the Champion. She still had 7 hours before her client could no longer be in the appropriate setting for a trade.

Cynthia planned to go home, send over the samples and then come back to buy the goods based on her requirements.

They got into the car driven by a Duketh servant and rode to Natsumi's first as he had to be dropped off.

"I will call you tonight to explain everything." is all Cynthia said when they had reached her friend's home and she was about to get off.

Natsumi nodded quietly as the whole ride was somewhat awkward with uncertainties flowing in both of their minds.

Natsumi understood that they couldn't talk in front of the driver as these were sensitive topics. Talking over their phones, over a protected line was much safer.

With that, they greeted each other goodbye after Cynthia took her time hugging Natsumi and playing with her chubby cheeks.

....

After getting into her room and shutting the door, Cynthia did not delay as opened her system inventory and transferred all the weapons from her storage device.

[I have sent the samples over. Let me know which ones you would like.]

[Warfield's Fifteenth Champion is currently offline....]

Cynthia did not expect that people could be offline.

"System, what does it mean to be offline?"

[It is when someone shuts off system notifications in order to concentrate on a task.]

'She's probably working very hard since she's living on a battlefield. That was completely different from the Potato Lord who seemed to only laze around.' she thought.

Cynthia could see from her contacts tab the potato lord was always active. The system never indicated him as offline unlike the busy Champion.

...

About 2 hours later, she received a message from the Champion that detailed a list of the things she wanted. Cynthia was doing her homework at the time.

There were only about 7 assault rifles of different specializations, 2 sniper rifles, and a dozen submachine guns.

This wouldn't cost Cynthia much but rather, it was the copious amounts of explosives and ammunition that would cost the bulk.

Lixtensite-17, an explosive that was highly effective in small amounts was what she wanted the most. She had ordered enough to take down a dozen skyscrapers.

When Cynthia went back and bought everything from the black market, she had only spent $50,000 in weapons, $70,000 in ammunition, and $100,000 in explosives.

In return, she was able to add Warfield's Fifteenth Champion as a friend and received the serums she wanted.

[Grade 1 Speed Oriented Serum- Multiply overall speed of all movements by x1.2, Effects are stackable up to 3 times.] She got 3 of these.

[Grade 1 Intelligence Oriented Serum- Multiply overall memory and processing speed by x1.2, Effects are stackable up to 3 times.] 3 of these as well.

This was because she could use the intelligence serum anytime she wanted. It was something very useful for her since it will help her to clearly remember details about future events with greater ease.

As for the speed serum, it was something that she needed to maximize her ice ability that was used to slow down her enemies.

She would be miles faster than her opponents and he preferred this style of combat the best She liked it when her foe could not even react. They were dead before they knew it.

...

As she was in her room, getting ready for taking in the intelligence serum, a government building in Navas city was in mayhem.

"Is the news accurate?" asked a man with an intimidating appearance. His black suit could not high the prominent muscles and his middle-aged face was dotted with scars from war.

He was reading a report that monitored the sales within the black market.

"Yes sir! Alexander Duketh's oldest daughter has been confirmed to have awakened. She also seen bought an excessive amount of Lixtensite-17." replied an average-looking man from the side.

He was most likely a subordinate of the man who was reading in his chair. The nameplate on his desk read "Director Laven Centenin."

"Prepare the Alpha team for briefing. I will guide them myself for this one." the frightening man said with authority.

"Yes, sir!" The other room saluted and then left the office in a hurry.

The director sighed and then looked at the picture of the young and beautiful girl on the paper.

He frowned and said, "Lilliana's older sister, I hope she does not disappoint us."

The government had now trained their sights very steadily at Cynthia Duketh, for more reasons than she could have thought of.

(Author's Note: I warmheartedly welcome all the new readers who came here from the featured page. Feel free to share your thoughts with me and enjoy this story with us.)