Splash——
In the afternoon, a drizzle like a thin mist veiled the city, the temperature as though it had sunk into late autumn, only the burning fireplace providing warmth to the heart.
The climate of Vena Ice-Free Port is similar to Belfast, in another kind of similarity.
Their climates are different, for example, Vena Ice-Free Port doesn’t have a rainy season or storms but has corresponding winter and severe cold, along with occasional rain mist falling.
Vena Ice-Free Port is either raining or foggy, there’s rarely a ti when it’s just overcast.
Standing by the window, the winding traces of water blurred the streets and the harbor, Lu Li silently observed, recalling the contents of that letter.
[I can’t rember when they appeared; they are closely related to us. Symbiotic creatures, parasites? I only know that after we appeared, they appeared.]
[Luckily, it was the Exorcist Association that discovered them, not us, or else the rchants might not have intertwined with us so deeply.]
[Regrettably, the Exorcist Association and we have never found their origin, or maybe they did but couldn’t disclose it.]
[They are different individuals yet seem like a whole, like a beehive or an anthill, but without a queen bee or ant queen controlling them, or maybe we haven’t discovered one.]
[They are always elusive; things taken by them will completely disappear from this world unless traded again. We speculate that their nest might be a certain layer of the Inner World. This trait is cleverly utilized by the Exorcist Association, who, dissatisfied with the tedious distribution of resources, made a deal with the rchants (or perhaps the deal existed at the start), the content of which is now the rchants’ frawork.]
[Nevertheless, they are not frightening; in a way, they are very shy existences. You rarely see them in front of many people; they usually appear silently around you when you are alone or there are not many people around, sotis giving you a startle.]
[Although the source is unclear, one thing can be confird: rchants appeared because of us.]
[rchants themselves are shrouded in mist, with many aspects we don’t understand. For instance, why they appear, and what defines an "exorcist" according to them, if we were to replace now, we might approach cautiously, but in those tis, the hearts of exorcists were filled with romance and idealism, they truly believed that humans and the strange could coexist... Sorry, I digressed.]
[By now, you should have realized the function of rchants, which is in their na itself. You can use investigation points or contributions to exchange for resources from them, if there are any left.]
[At the end of my life, I, Fermi Bond, leave this letter to the last exorcist through the rchants, just in case.]
[I hope this letter will never be seen by anyone... wait, actually, it’s best if soone sees it.]
Fermi Bond, a legendary investigator after the Exorcist Association split into investigators and night watchn.
The Fermi Bond who left the letter did not know Lu Li, this letter is simply adhering to the rchant’s transaction, left for the last exorcist.
Lu Li withdrew his gaze.
The rchant stood in the corner, motionless like a coat rack.
Puxiu was fluttering around the rchant flatteringly, while Katerina stayed as far away from it as possible.
Lu Li took it from the museum, or rather, the rchant followed Lu Li out of the museum.
If Lu Li is the last exorcist, then it might be the last rchant.
"How long are you going to spin?"
Katerina sat on the soft sofa, flipping through the picture guide given by the museum curator, speaking without looking up.
She couldn’t read, but fortunately, it was mostly photos.
"Because rchants are the exorcist’s best companion!" Puxiu called back, turning his head.
"Friend? You call this interest transaction friendship?"
Katerina saw no difference between the rchant and the moles she encountered in Tang Ge Town.
"But... but that’s how the books are written." Puxiu stopped, tilting his head to look at Lu Li.
"Transaction is rule; the ubiquitous and transporting nature of rchants is uniquely precious."
The rchant was indeed the best companion for exorcists.
Leaving the window, Lu Li walked over to sit by the fireplace.
The flickering flas stretched his shadow long and narrow, Lu Li asked the rchant, "How many contribution points do I have left."
The corner rchant opened its eyes, turning towards Lu Li blankly: "...589 trillion contribution points."
"589 trillion contribution points?" Katerina was shocked and moved off the picture guide: "Is it so valuable to have only this much, are trillion contribution points very precious?"
"It’s contribution points, not quadrillion contributions..." Puxiu covered his face with a paw, whispering a reminder: "A trillion is a quantity. A ten thousand million is a billion, a hundred thousand billions is a trillion, am I wrong, Mr. Lu Li?"
"Yes."
Ignoring Katerina who was at a loss for words, Lu Li asked the rchant, "Why so many."
Before sinking underground, his contribution points were only in the tens of billions.
"After you disappeared, the Exorcists Association bought all the Deep Sea Stones." The rchant responded after a slight pause.
Lu Li indeed had allowed the rchant to sell that batch of Deep Sea Stones.
It seems the later price inflation of Deep Sea Stones was even more severe, even more expensive than gold.
But now, Deep Sea Stones have beco ordinary stones that no one cares about.
"Can contribution points be converted into Shillings?" Katerina couldn’t help but ask after regaining composure.
"10 to 1." Lu Li replied.
"1 contribution point equals 10 shillings?"
"10 shillings equals 1 contribution point."
"..."
"Miss Katerina, what’s wrong with you!"
Puxiu frantically pounced onto the slumped sofa, the picture guide in hand slipping and falling by the feet of the dazed Katerina.
"Is there inflation?" Lu Li continued to ask the rchant.
Inflation was obviously inevitable; the rarer the substance, the more expensive it is. But the elevated grandiosity of contribution points ensured their value was always greater than investigation points.
The premise is that the rchant still holds resources.
But now, apart from information, the rchant is left with nothing.
"Where did it all go?" Lu Li frowned and asked.
After a brief silence, the rchant answered him: "It was lost."
Before Lu Li continued to inquire, the rchant, uncharacteristically, took the initiative to reveal the truth.
The rchant’s backpack connects to a certain layer of the Inner World. It is also the source of the rchant, their habitat.
All traded items are stored there.
The rchant’s habitat is both a whole and not a whole, like the small houses on the street.
So rchant "houses" are larger because they store a lot, while so "houses" are smaller because they store very little.
The process of rchant trading is very simple: if a rchant has the items the exorcist needs, it takes them from its "house." If not, it visits another rchant that has the resources, taking the items from there.
However, as exorcists dwindled, rchants fell into slumber one after another, and visiting beca impossible unless the rchant found other rchants.
Unfortunately, during prolonged slumber, each rchant’s "house" was emptied by theft—people wouldn’t do nothing when they saw ownerless, bulging backpacks.
Legendary investigator Fermi Bond didn’t ntion these matters in the letter.
This is a secret the Exorcist Association doesn’t know.
Reviews
All reviews (0)