Ready for exploitation

Yawn!

A middle-aged man in his 40s yawned with a peaceful expression on his face. His brows, which were usually scrunched up together, were relaxed.

"What a peaceful day today," The man thought in his head. He was a local businessman in the city of Deadwood. Because of the nature of his business, he rarely got time to relax.

However, before he could think about anything else, the door of his shop was suddenly pushed open, and a man in his early twenties walked inside carrying a brown bag on his back.

The young man's skin was white as snow, with a pointed nose and sword-like eyebrows that were capable of charming any young lady in the city.

The middle-aged man frowned. He wasn't expecting any customers today, so he thought the youth in front of him was a busybody.

The City of Deadwood was celebrating a once-a-decade festival and most of the city's population was busy celebrating.

The youth didn't seem to care about middle-aged man. He walked up to the counter quickly and threw the bag that he was carrying on his back on top of the counter.

"Old man, how much can you give me for this." David looked at the man and asked in a plain voice. Although he wanted to sound calm, his voice carried a trace of urgency.

And why wouldn't he be in a hurry as his chance to rise to the top of the food chain was disappearing every passing minute?

How can the middle-aged men who had dealt with all sorts of people, fail to recognise his predicament?

As this young man was a potential customer, his earlier behavior could be ignored. The middle-aged man thought and glanced at the bag and a blue window popped up in front of him.

[Eyes of Frost Deer(10 spirit stones), Heart of Frost Deer (25 spirit stones), Antlers….]

The middle-aged men went through the list one by one.

David knew the man was using his Crystallisation of life. From the day of his transmigration, the thing that fascinated him the most was this.

You guessed it right, David wasn't a native of this world and this was one of his closely guarded secrets.

David patiently waited while glancing at rows upon rows of items that were neatly placed. He started to mentally calculate their value in his head to pass the time.

However, His thoughts were interrupted by the middle-aged men looked at him and commented in a plain voice.

"I can give you five spirit stones for the eyes and fifteen for the heart."

After saying this he looked at David without any hesitation. He wasn't guilty about the fact that he was buying the goods at half their value.

David just nodded at his words and agreed, he didn't realize the middle-aged man was taking advantage of him.

Hearing David's words the middle-aged men smiled and looked at him with kindness.

"Here are your fifty spirit stones"

David hurriedly grabbed them and left without saying anything.

The middle-aged man looked at the young man calmly and didn't say anything else.

Sometimes he felt glad about his Crystallisation of life - The Eyes of the Beholder, his Crystallisation gave him a fair value of the goods.

And one more thing, it wasn't like he cheated the youth in fact he had bought everything at the market price but it was just that the goods were of higher quality.

*

*

David on the other hand ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He zipped through the busy streets of Dreadwood City and quickly arrived in front of a huge building made of white sandstone.

Before David could even enter inside the building, he was surrounded by several men with shiny eyes.

"Why are you here young man," a man with his hair dyed red asked him with a smiling face.

"Don't listen to him. Tell me, I will help you."

David didn't care about them, he ignored their words and rushed inside the building.

This wasn't David's first time dealing with these people. They were middlemen who were always ready to help him in return for money.

"Hey, you! stop. Where are you going."

"Listen to me, young man."

The man with dyed hair chased David from behind but he wasn't able to stop David from entering inside the office.

David breathed a sigh of relief and curiously looked at the men sitting on a wooden chairs in front of him talking to another middle-aged man with a smiling face.

However, the smile on his face suddenly froze and before he was able to speak David opened his mouth and voiced his request.

"Sir, I am here to take the building on Dreadwood Street for rent." David asked politely.

The gate of the office opened once more, and the dyed-haired man entered.

"Mr. Alex, I tried to stop him but he didn't listen and entered."

Hearing the words of the red-haired man, Mr. Alex flashed, and he looked at David coldly.

"Young man, where are you from, you can't just enter inside my office there are protocols that you have to follow."

"Now get out of my sight."

David wanted to argue but he could only swallow his words and leave the office.

The red-haired man followed him.

"Now, tell me why are you here for." the red haired man asked with a greedy look on his face.

The red-haired man wasn't a newbie in the administrative office. He had seen a lot in life, and by what he could tell the young man was in a hurry.

Thinking up to this point a smile that was difficult to conceal appeared on his face.

In the eyes of the red-haired man David wasn't a human anymore but a human ready for exploitation.