They Deal in All Sorts of Goods...
They had said the place dealt in every kind of goods, which meant there might well be items he had never so much as heard of. Heaven ran on points the same as anywhere else, so currency was the least of his worries.
It's been a while since I felt this kind of thrill.
Shopping was always a pleasure when you had money to burn, and this was no ordinary department store. These were players' items, mystery given solid form. That only made it better.
I heard it isn't an auction.
From what he'd been told, you bought straight from the countless merchants hawking their wares. The strange part was that Heaven had goods in abundance and players short on points, so even fine items often went unsold.
Because the items up here are just that good?
Supply outrunning demand, more or less. Which was why Atradeon had been so certain that money alone would buy access in no time.
Lucky it isn't far.
Atradeon had also pointed him toward the Sky Castle, and the market sat reasonably close to it. Of course, that was by Yujun's measure of distance. Whether anyone else would call it close was another question.
Once the meal was finished, he took Manuela and Paranet and set out for the market.
This was a world of winged angels, and the market lived up to it, perched on a high cliff. The drop was no obstacle to Yujun's party. A Fly spell carried him to the cliff's edge in moments, and he made straight for the stalls.
He knew where the market lay at a glance. Even without the coordinates Atradeon had sent, the press of presences from that direction would have led him there.
Angels were not the only ones inside. Other races, surprisingly, made up a large share of the crowd.
"Why are there so many other races?"
"Word that Heaven overflows with high-quality items has spread all the way to the Continent and the Demon Realm. For a long time it was just a rumor, but fairly recently players figured out the rumor wasn't empty talk."
"How?"
"Some player filmed the goods and showed the whole Continent what the item level was like. The footage spread to the Demon Realm too, obviously."
"......Must've been a real dedicated little journalist."
"Anyway. Because of that, the number of players coming to Heaven shot up like crazy."
"Was this place really that easy to reach?"
"It wasn't. But I guess the items were worth it. People found a way somehow. I hear even low-level players can get here now."
"How do you know all this?"
"Another witch told me."
"Another witch? You're friends with witches?"
"......I'm not a total outcast."
"Yeah, figures."
She had lived for thousands of years. Of course she had at least one friend. Nothing good would come of saying that aloud, so Yujun swallowed it.
Heaven posted guards on the market gate as well. These were angels on a completely different level from the ones he had seen at the black market.
Insane. This is Sertiphs-class?
And there were five of them. Every single one on Sertiphs's level. Did that even make sense? Sertiphs hadn't seized command through raw force alone, and still, for mere gate guards, this was excessive.
Which means the goods really are that good.
If items were the reason they had stationed guards this strong, Yujun had no complaints.
"We'll verify your identity for a moment."
One of the guards stepped in front of him. The man's eyes flashed violet, then returned to normal almost at once.
"Verified. You may enter."
"Yes."
What, exactly, had they checked? With so many other races already inside, it probably hadn't been a test of whether he was an angel.
Manuela read his face and supplied the answer.
"They were probably checking whether you're a criminal. Heaven is ridiculously strict about that."
"So if you've got that kind of mark on you, you can't even get into the market?"
"If you sneak in somehow, who cares? I doubt they check identities when you actually trade."
"Yeah? Not like it matters."
They were in, at any rate. The din of players shouting to sell their items was enough to make his head spin.
Can anyone be a merchant here?
In Heaven's market, every player was buyer and seller at once. Even so, one class stood out: the so-called Great Merchants. The title belonged to players who held vast stores of rare items and had made a name for themselves, and there were few enough of them to count on one hand.
"You going to the Great Merchants?"
Yujun nodded at Manuela's question.
"How do you know so much about Heaven, anyway?"
"Heaven has good materials. I did a lot of digging back then. I've got sources, too."
"You've never actually been?"
"Nope."
"So that's why you were so excited."
"Can I look around and buy some material items too?"
"Sure. That's up to you."
"Thanks!"
Guards were posted thick along the way. He couldn't imagine a safer place in all of Heaven. Splitting up here seemed fine.
"Look around, then we'll meet up later. Go on."
"Okay!"
"Paranet. What about you?"
"You mean me? I have no money, so there is nothing I could buy. Besides, should I wander alone, the angels would hardly leave me in peace. They would pick a quarrel. I am certain of it."
"Yeah, they would."
An undead walking around Heaven was suspicious on its face. If the guy went off alone, the guards would almost certainly stop him.
"Stick with me. If we see something useful for you, I'll buy it."
"T-truly?"
"Yeah."
"Manuela, you too......"
Manuela was long gone.
"......She's fast."
Yujun scratched his head.
A building in the Heaven Market.
In a dark room lit by a single dim lamp, two angels sat.
"Shin Yujun is here?"
"Yes. The guards have already finished verifying his identity."
"His business?"
"That I do not know, but I suspect he means to spend the points he accumulated on the Continent."
"Last time he sold one piece of Legendary gear and one piece of Mythic gear, didn't he? Has he spent any points since?"
"Nothing on record."
"Looks like he's about to drop a fortune for the first time in a while. What's Capcom up to?"
"Most likely the same situation as ours......"
His subordinate's predictions had never been wrong.
"Tsk. That sharp-eyed old man isn't going to sit still."
Shoman clicked his tongue.
"In any case, we can compete on the quality of our items."
"The problem is, once we're up against another Great Merchant, we can't land one big score."
"Shin Yujun is such a heavyweight that it can't be helped."
"I've never seen a human wield influence like that. To think the day would come when Great Merchants like us treat a human as a major player."
"They are beings from another world, are they not? Blessed by the gods and cursed by them at the same time."
"Race hardly matters when you're dealing with a customer. So long as the money's there, that's all that counts."
Shoman was a Great Merchant. Not just any—one of the top three.
In all of Heaven, only five players bore the title. Ranking them might have looked pointless, yet the gaps among them were vast, especially where the player just named was concerned. Capcom and Shoman were locked in a fight for second place, and the contest was never only about hoarded wealth. Holding on to regular clients mattered, as did name and trust inside the market. Details other players would wave off as pointless fuss landed very differently with merchants, and with Great Merchants most of all.
"I'm trailing a bit on this month's numbers, aren't I?"
"In volume and revenue the difference is slight...... but in trust, as always, you are ahead, Lord Shoman."
At his subordinate's words, Shoman's face twisted.
"What Great Merchant does business without trust? Losing to that old man on sales is something my pride won't allow."
"I apologize."
"You've nothing to apologize for. Capcom may be an old fossil who hasn't got long left, but I have to admit his skill."
Capcom was old even among the angels. The story of his early years, a life with no path but trade, had sold like wildfire as a book. Whether that tale was true, Shoman couldn't say, but the commercial know-how written in it was the genuine article. He knew, because he himself had read it as a boy and dreamed of becoming a merchant.
To Shoman, Capcom was as good as a teacher. Even so, years of competition, swallowing one ugly slight after another, had made bad blood unavoidable. Heaven's finest merchants weren't scattered across the realm. They were packed shoulder to shoulder in this single market, so the friction was only natural.
"Capcom is definitely watching me, too."
"Of course he is."
"You said the gear Shin Yujun is wearing now is something we've never seen?"
"Yes. I cannot speak to the options, but the quality is unquestionably of the highest grade."
Shoman stroked his chin.
"Hmm......"
What should he prepare? Capcom was not his only rival. There were other Great Merchants, and some unexpected merchant might catch Shin Yujun's eye. He had to ready the very best.
"Prepare as much as you can for now. The way I see it, Shin Yujun won't be all that interested in equipment."
"Yes. I think so as well. Shall I prepare consumable items?"
"Raise the share of consumables, and have top-grade equipment ready too. Just in case."
"Understood!"
"Shin Yujun matters as a client not because he has a great deal of money right now, but because his potential is staggering."
"Yes."
"Land a regular that strong and lock in an exclusive trade contract, and we'll pull far ahead of the other Great Merchants. Not that it'll be easy."
An Irregular like Shin Yujun was extremely difficult to handle. At a glance, a youngster who was merely strong might look like an easy mark. He was nothing of the sort, because Shoman had rivals in the other Great Merchants. Plenty of them would try to offer Shin Yujun better terms, and only by beating those terms could a deal be closed.
"Winning Shin Yujun's favor would be like gaining one powerful chess piece."
"He's more than a chess piece. Not right away, perhaps, but in time he'll be a player with enough weight to flip the whole board. I'll stake my name on it."
"......To that extent?"
The subordinate's mouth fell slightly open in surprise. It was rare for Shoman to speak with that much certainty, and when he was certain, he was rarely wrong.
"Stake everything on this. In my view, Shin Yujun has talent on a historic scale."
"Honestly, hasn't luck followed him a great deal? It hasn't even been half a year since he became a player."
"He may have been a player before he ever came here. And no matter how good your luck is, it can't stay good forever. We investigated the situations he's been through ourselves. Do you really think those were things he could have overcome on luck alone?"
"......No. They were a long way from luck."
"Shin Yujun grew strong at a tremendous pace. And strength is a talent of its own. On that foundation, he can monopolize better items and better abilities."
Strength, too, was talent.
At Shoman's words, the subordinate nodded with wholehearted agreement.