Just Reel in One Sucker
Lying in bed, scrolling through the forums on the Multidimensional Secondhand Market community, I let out a disbelieving chuckle. 'Samjae Divine Art? This is total garbage martial arts.'
"Ha, for real. No matter the dimension, where there's people, there's scams."
Even with my shallow knowledge of wuxia novels—gleaned from occasional internet browsing—I could tell right away. The Samjae Sword Technique, Samjae Divine Art, Samjae Divine Method, and so on were the absolute basics that snot-nosed kids at street-side dojos practiced. Tutorial-level stuff, literally.
And this guy was asking 500,000 points for it? 'Obvious scam to rip off newbies, right?'
Even the poster's nickname was 'InvincibleBeggar'. Anyone who's even skimmed wuxia knows the Beggars' Sect. They control the world's information network—or so they claim. Glorified beggars' club, more like.
'Who the hell would fall for this obvious con?'
I snorted and scrolled down. Curiosity about the comments got the better of me.
'What the...?'
Three seconds after I read that comment...
"......"
The 'BroBroDudeDude' comment that had just exposed the truth vanished without a trace right before my eyes. Looked like they had Beggars' Sect goons from the multidimensional community running comment-farming ops. Leaving only their own praise, while deleting any scam-callouts in real-time with author privileges.
"Heh heh heh, these crazy bastards. As if anyone would fall for this crap. Just need one sucker to bite, huh."
I hit back without a second thought.
About two hours of wandering the community later, something felt off.
"Why are there no decent listings?"
No matter how thoroughly I combed the [For Sale] and [Wanted] tabs on the wuxia board, finding usable martial arts was impossible.
While lurking, I eavesdropped on murim folk chatting and pieced it together.
'Murim people really treat martial arts manuals like their own lives.'
Unlike Earth hunters buying skillbooks for cash, in the murim world, manuals were the backbone of clans and sects. They'd hand over ancient treasures before giving up a single manual. That rigid secrecy—once leaked, the sect's fatal weaknesses were exposed.
"Ah, damn... this is a total dead end."
Scratching my head, another idea hit me.
'Wait, maybe the fantasy board has equivalents? Like knightly aura cultivation methods. Could try converting that to mana?'
I frantically searched again. But the results were dismal.
"What? Same problem here?"
Sword manuals and aura methods were guarded just as tightly as wuxia arts. Magic scrolls and potions traded freely, but the root knowledge? Rare as hell.
"Haa..."
Frustrated, I opened my friends list. To make matters worse, everyone who could help was offline: Tower Master, Elder of the World Tree Forest, old priest, Royal Alchemist—even Jermad bro.
No one to ask. Utter beggar situation.
'In the end, gotta keep grinding this community board. Find some desperate fool willing to trade their lifeline for martial arts...'
I rolled around in bed, stubbornly lurking.
Another two hours passed like that. Spam-refreshing, I spotted a steaming-hot new [Wanted] post.
I've been wrongly imprisoned in a death cell. The damn guards fed me San Gong Poison, sealing my internal energy. To escape and prove my innocence, I need to break these bars—but without qi, it's impossible barehanded.
If there's a benevolent seller with a tool that can quietly cut the bars without internal energy, I'll give anything they want except my life.
I have about 2 shichen left (~4 hours). After that, execution. Note: I'm no villain. For proof, I've set my karma public.
Clean explanation, dripping with desperation. TL;DR: Needs a sturdy rebar cutter for qi-sealed jailbreak.
'Hmm... guy seems in a real pinch. Execution in 4 hours?'
An item to cut bars without qi. Reading that, I absentmindedly glanced at the corner of my junkyard workshop from my bed.
My warehouse overflowed with iron-cutting tools.
'Tool for anything he wants? Judging by the name and speech, seems like a martial arts master...'
But second thoughts held me back.
'Prisoner awaiting execution feels sketchy. What if he's a murderer or arch-villain? Don't wanna release that and get backstabbed later.'
Still, the last line piqued my curiosity.
Karma. What was that?
Did the multidimensional market even have that stat? I tapped my profile.
[Current Karma: +22]
"What? This exists?"
Skimming the system guide, karma (or karma debt) quantified cumulative good/bad deeds from your world or others, accumulated by the system. Private by default, but you could public it.
'Like the manner temperature on Earth's secondhand apps?'
Curious, I checked Muyoungdo's profile.
Poster Muyoungdo's Karma: +533
"Oho?"
Plus 533—way higher than my measly +22. Not a scammer or villain?
But others intrigued by the system were flooding the comments with debates.
Then, fed-up Muyoungdo fired off a reply.
Reading through the comment thread, I snorted a laugh.
If the Royal Alchemist or Tower Master were around, maybe different story. But these folks? No clue on qi-free bar-cutting.
But I did.
All I cared about was whether this guy would hand over martial arts for the escape tool.
"Hmm... decisions."
I propped my chin, stared at the ceiling, then grinned and tapped the screen.
"Can't hurt to try. Whatever."
Tossing one bolt cutter from the warehouse wouldn't ruin my life.
I boldly tapped Muyoungdo's ID and sent a PM.
Yeah. Just need one sucker to bite.