Trading Hub

Yuuto's next days on the express have been very calm as he had finally got used to its atmosphere.

A daily routine had now started to form as he would have his meals and in his spare time he would explore the library in his mind and try to find more about it's abilities while also educating himself about the current universe he was in.

*Knock Knock

"It's open."

Hearing the standard tone of his voice, Yuuto entered the archives of the Astral Express and greeted the person who was the only one inside.

"You don't have to knock each time, the archives are open to everyone."

"But I just wanted to make sure since this place is technically your room right?" Yuuto walked up to Dan Heng who was sitting at his desk writing on some papers.

Yuuto didn't want to accidentally see Dan Heng's 'spear' during any moment that he could be potentially changing. 

'Wait do Vidyadharas even have any reproductive parts in the first place? They always go through reincarnation by transforming into eggs right…'

A big question suddenly appeared in his mind but he didn't want to be the one to find out so he just pushed that thought to the side.

"Here's what you asked for last time."

"Thanks for your help."

Handing him a book called [Curios for Beginners] Yuuto looked at the title strangely before finding himself a chair and 'reading' its contents.

The archives of the Express was the first place Yuuto thought of when he first discovered the essence of the library in his mind. 

As it was mainly a passive ability to store memories, Yuuto thought of getting as much knowledge that he could and accumulate any piece of info he could find. Making use of said information to grow stronger.

'Knowledge is definitely power in my case.'

Showing a faint smile, he opened the book and quietly read its contents little by little.

As he was reading Yuuto opened his palm and allowed the iridescent mist to come out and move his fingers to have it flow around his hands.

'I thought I would need to train a lot to control this cold mist but it's surprisingly obedient.'

Recalling its nature as 'sharp and cold' as March had described it, the mist felt 'warm' to him as he let it flow around.

To explore more about this mist Yuuto had been periodically practicing his control with it but to his surprise the mist was fairly easy to control as he thought it would be a lot harder to do so.

A quiet atmosphere surrounded the archives as the sounds of papers moving and pages being flipped were heard. 

Taking his eyes aways from the book, Yuuto looked to see if Dan Heng was busy doing his own thing.

Seeing that it was the case, he quickly closed the book and placed his fingers onto the hard cover to try out one more ability he had discovered when exploring the [Memory of the World]

"[Archive]"

Faintly saying this word Yuuto closed his eyes and a dim white glow quickly appeared on his fingertips before it slowly faded away.

'Why couldn't I have this during the time I was studying for my finals..'

Feeling his energy getting drained, a sudden headache surged and information about curios began to fill Yuuto's head.

By using [Archive] he is able to make a 'memory' of the object he touches and have it memorized into the library in his mind.

This came to him just yesterday when he began to realize just how time consuming it was to read a whole book even if he was skimming past them.

 As he was finding ways to speed the process up he saw a glimpse of text inscribed inside of the floating book as it found its place in his head.

The previous blank pages now had a few lines of text explaining some of the powers he had already discovered while its last page gave him instructions on how to use [Archive].

However he was unable to do this with information within electronic devices so physical copies were his limit for now.

"I knew it, you guys were here!"

The doors to the archives suddenly opened as Yuuto thought of what book he should get next and an energetic pink haired girl smiled seeing that her guess was correct.

"Himeko just told me that we're going to arrive at planet Solarian in a few minutes."

"Planet Solarian?"

Yuuto raised his eyebrows at the name of the unknown planet.

"Hehe it's one of the trading hubs for ships crossing into the Klimt Republic so there's a vast amount of shops in it!" 

March hummed to herself as she recalled the planet indicating that it wasn't the first time they have arrived in this area.

"You can already see the planet show up if you look through the window of the parlor car. Come! It's a good way to start off your first visit."

Urging Yuuto to go, March also brought Dan Heng to the parlor car where everyone else was and the sight of a large planet entered their view.

"So is everyone ready to dock?" Himeko who saw the three enter, gave a faint smile as she waited for the Express to land so that she can open the door.

"Yes Yes! You won't take back your promise of us staying a bit longer right..?"

"Who knows, just make sure you don't cause any troubles alright."

"Of course, I'll be extra sure to stay out of trouble!"

March gave Himeko a small salute as she promised to stay out of trouble while Yuuto gave a strange gaze towards her.

'I feel like a flag has been raised…'

Leaving the Express and entering one of the cities on the planet, what welcomed them was it's bustling streets where stores and stalls of all varieties were busy trying to rope in customers into buying their wares.

Yuuto looked at his surroundings and saw how people with animal ears, people with towering heights and people with smaller physiques were all interacting with each other.

This scenery made him a bit excited as a whole new experience had opened up to him which was not seen in the game.

"Himeko and I will be going to the central plaza where we're going to get the item that has been commissioned to us by Madam Herta so you guys can explore while we're gone."

Welt turned to the March, Dan Heng and Yuuto and pulled out what seemed to be his phone and sent a message to the three of them.

"I gave you guys some credits to use so be free to buy whatever you want."

"Mr.Yang you're the best!"

""Thank you.""

Welt's mouth broke into a small smile as he watched the faces of the three lit up as they received the credits he had given them.

"Just message us if anything happens."

Leaving those words behind, Welt and Himeko left the three behind to do their own activities.

"What are you guys going to do first?"

"Do you have any recommendations? You've been here before so you must know some pretty good areas."

"Hmm…"

March crossed her arms as she fell into deep thoughts thinking about all the stores she had visited before.

"There's a store that has some books you might be interested in near the end of this street."

"Oh that sounds like a good place." Hearing Dan Heng's suggestion Yuuto felt a bit interested in what kind of information was held in that store.

As Yuuto was about to ask March for her opinion he realized that she had disappeared from her spot and after looking around, they had spotted her near a stall that was selling clothes.

"March…"

"You guys look, this dress is 25% off if I buy another one from the same brand! They're also selling another one at a lower price..."

Not noticing the stares being sent her way, Dan Heng and Yuuto looked at each other and just informed March that they would be in the store at the corner of the street if she ever wanted to know where they were.

***

"Not a single physical book.. I guess this really is a sci-fi world I'm in."

Yuuto stretched his arms as he walked out of the store Dan Heng had suggested.

When he first entered, the interior of the place only had terminals instead of bookshelves he was accustomed to and after browning the items he realized that all its books were digitized.

Seeing that he was unable to use [Archive] to help him out, he quickly skimmed through the terminals but all he read was content about the history of the planet.

Figuring that it would be time consuming to read any more, he told Dan Heng that he would look at some other places as the latter still wanted to stay for a bit longer.

"That would be 150 credits."

"Here you go."

"Thank you! We hope to see you again."

Grabbing a bag of what seemed to be some sort of cookies, Yuuto walked down the streets to explore its location for a while.

However a few spaces in front of him, two beings were deeply engrossed in their own conversation.

"Bro, are you sure that Dirt Resident has supplies for us?"

"He better have it, even if it came from 'them' we urgently need it for our camp." The being recalled the injuries his group received and remembered the chill he felt during the battle that caused them to get to its current state. 

"But still.."

"Enough I will not say it a second time."

Two beings with wings comparable to birds and elongated feet mumbled to each other while the taller one of the two coldly glared at the person beside him to not speak another word on the matter.

"But why did we have to meet him in this area?" The shorter one looked at his surroundings in disdain as he walked through the busy streets of the shopping district.

"Just endure it for now. As much as I want to leave too, this was the only location that he said was available before he goes off the radar."

"Is it true that he has th—"

Before he could speak anymore, the two of them stopped in place as he noticed that a person was standing in the way they were walking.

He had purple hair and was eating something out the paper bag as he stared through the window of one of the stores.

"Stop standing in our way." The shorter of the two deeply frowned as he glared at the person in front of him.

"Hmm? I'm out of the way though." Yuuto who looked at the two beings with large wings, felt confused as he was out of the way of the incoming wave of people and just standing off to the side.

"But you're standing right in front of us aren't you? So you're in our way."

"..." 

Yuuto felt dumbfounded hearing this person's logic and looked at him as if he wondered if this person had a few loose screws in his mind.

"So are you going to move or not?"

"There's space around me so feel free to walk around."

Feeling like he was taking part in a pointless conversation, he pointed to the area that was to his side and began to walk inside the store he was eyeing.

"You…"

Seeing his nonchalant attitude towards them, the winged being felt a vein grow and pushed his hand towards Yuuto to grab him. However, contrary to his thoughts, all he grabbed was empty air and saw how Yuuto smoothly dodged his attempt.

"I moved like you said so why so violent?"

Yuuto smiled slightly as he looked at the two and his eyes shone a faint white glow.

"You kno–!"

"Yorte, enough."

Before he could say anything more, the taller of the two spoke deeply and looked at Yuuto with a cold glare.

"We have somewhere to go."

"But bro..."

"I said enough."

An even colder tone came out of him and the Yorte meekly nodded his head and followed him down the street.

"The hell was wrong with them…" Yuuto mumbled to himself wearing a frown before turning his attention back to the store he entered.

Unknown to him, a tall slender man with long blonde hair and green eyes looked at Yuuto deeply as he witnessed the interaction that had just occurred between him and those two beings.