Chapter 23

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Translator: True Detective

Chapter: 23

Chapter Title: Second-Hand Trading Scam

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We started with weapons, then sorted through food, fruits, pickaxes, and everything else, but one problem cropped up.

'Never saw this coming.'

The moment I bought the items, they went straight into my inventory automatically.

I could immediately list items from my inventory on the exchange, but others couldn't.

'They don't have inventories.'

And that's how this mess happened.

"Haa. When am I ever gonna finish putting all this away?"

Rubyel was picking up two or three of the pickaxes I'd bought at a time and slotting them into the gallery window.

'Technically, she's putting them into the listing window for exchange items.'

For the record, I bought exactly a thousand pickaxes.

Plus, to differentiate them from the ones I'd distributed from the food warehouse, I went with much better quality ones.

-TL Antler Pickaxe: 33 points.

'Yeah, these definitely look better.'

I hadn't tested them myself, so I didn't know how they'd perform, but they sure looked good.

The problem was I'd bought a thousand of them, and now Rubyel had to move every single one by hand.

'And it's the same for everyone else.'

Elisicia, Aila, and even Rines.

They were all diligently slotting the items I'd bought one by one into the exchange listings.

"Castaway, I've finished listing all the weapons and shields you gave me."

At that moment, Elisicia had already finished registering the two types of weapons and the one shield I'd given her— a thousand of each type, totaling three thousand items. She'd done it at an insane speed.

'She didn't stop moving once and wrapped it up crazy fast.'

But watching everyone toil away like this made something feel off.

'There has to be an easier way to list them.'

Of course, Elisicia and Aila looked thrilled to be doing it.

They'd probably keep doing it just like this from now on.

'Anyway, the simplest solution would be...'

To increase the number of items I could list at once on the exchange.

'If it went up by at least a hundred, it'd be fine.'

If it increased by about a hundred, I wouldn't need the Hero Party to help list items like this.

I could just do it myself. I wished it'd go up by around a hundred, but I doubted it would.

"Castaway. Hurry up and hand them over."

"Got it."

I used telekinesis to pick up the scattered pickaxes from the ground and passed them to Rubyel.

Time passed like that, and once all the items were listed, Rubyel looked a little fatigued.

"You're not seriously saying we have to do this every day, right?"

"Depends on how well the items sell."

"Then these pickaxes we just listed won't sell as much, huh."

Rubyel coldly stated that the pickaxes wouldn't sell well.

From my perspective, since I'd already handed out pickaxes from the food warehouse, they probably wouldn't.

'Plus, if someone's spending points on pickaxes, wouldn't they buy food or weapons instead?'

The point difference between pickaxes and weapons wasn't that big.

So I figured weapons would sell better. With that in mind, I decided it was time to pack up and move out.

'Start with the tents.'

I lifted one side of the tent slightly and stored it in the gallery inventory.

As expected, the tent went in neatly, contents and all.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Whoa, it actually went in? Elisicia, this beats your sub-space bracelet, doesn't it?"

When I stored the massive tent whole, Rubyel commented.

Elisicia nodded in agreement without denying it.

"Yeah, it looks better than my bracelet. Anyway, let's head out now."

With listings and cleanup done, we could leave right away.

Elisicia seemed to think the same and took the lead, urging us to depart.

'Oh.'

As I followed her, I recalled the conversation I'd had with Melanie from channel 5 before sleeping last night.

"Rubyel. What do you think about mana potions?"

"Mana potions? What's that supposed to be?"

"Potions that slowly restore mana over an hour when you drink them. And if you use them often, they boost your mana recovery speed too."

I relayed exactly what Melanie had told me.

Rubyel frowned, clearly displeased.

"That's not just a recovery potion—it's an elixir. If the surface world were intact, I could've made some..."

"We might get one today if we're lucky."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

My words made the entire Hero Party turn to look, intrigued.

"I was chatting with someone from channel 5 yesterday and mentioned mana potions. They promised to make one for me today."

"Channel 5? Wait, you can talk to people from other channels?"

"Yeah."

Everyone looked shocked that I could chat with other channels.

In reality, different channels couldn't read posts or communicate, but somehow I was the exception.

"Ah... So that's how you bought stuff from channel 4."

Channel 4?

'Come to think of it, they stared at me in shock when I said I bought Rover from channel 4.'

To figure out why, I asked Rubyel.

"Is there something wrong with channel 4?"

"You know we earn a ton of points descending the labyrinth, right?"

"Yeah. Up to 150,000 points."

"Right. So we've bought a few things from channel 4 before."

It was surprising they'd bought from channel 4, but it made sense.

If a weapon popped up on another channel, you'd want to buy it to test it out.

'Plus, channel 4 weapons are all expensive.'

Considering channel 4's tech level, high prices made sense.

"The problem is they were all junk."

"Junk?"

"Yeah. They were just heavy. Useless as weapons, so we wasted points."

The Hero Party must not have known how to use channel 4 weapons since they were unfamiliar.

They'd been shocked seeing my Rover, but I told them not to worry.

"Maybe you just didn't know how to activate them. Let me take a look."

Elisicia nodded readily.

"Sure. I'll show you what I bought from channel 4."

Elisicia pulled an item from her sub-space bracelet.

It was a sword, but an oddly shaped one.

A sword with a long chainsaw-like rotating blade.

'Wait, is that a chainsword?'

A weapon that used a rotating saw blade like a chainsaw to slice targets.

The issue was it needed to rotate, so if it didn't work, it was pointless.

'That's why they called it junk.'

I took the chainsword and searched for the activation button.

I found one on top of the handle and pressed it firmly.

'Button pressed, so it should activate now...'

But after 5 seconds, 10 seconds...

"...?"

The chainsword didn't budge.

'What? Why isn't this working?'

That's when I realized it probably had no battery.

Luckily, I could recharge batteries with my [Resource Charge], so no issue.

'Resource Charge.'

I switched the gallery to Resource Charge's camera mode, selected the chainsword, and...

A weird message popped up, and nothing happened.

"No way...?"

A ridiculous thought crossed my mind.

Elisicia noticed something was off and asked.

"Castaway, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Give me a sec to check something."

I ignored my suspicion and requested a 1:1 chat with Quick Fix Doctor☆ from channel 4.

I snapped a photo of the chainsword and uploaded it right away.

Elisicia had definitely bought it from the exchange, so it wasn't wrong.

Quick Fix Doctor☆ ended the chat, claiming to be busy.

But he'd dropped a hint, so I jumped into gallery channel 4 and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠searched for "exchange".

......

......

The search for "exchange" revealed the shocking truth.

Clicking one post gave even more details.

"......"

I read the comments below too.

......

......

After the comments, it was crystal clear.

'All the weapons on the exchange were scrap.'

The chainsword wouldn't even charge, and now I knew why—this was the hidden truth.

'Good thing the Rover from Quick Fix Doctor was fine.'

The plasma pistol would probably work perfectly too.

Thinking that far, I could only be grateful for Quick Fix Doctor's help in so many ways.

'Wait a sec?'

Then I remembered the Thunder Bolt I'd bought from the exchange.

I hadn't checked it yet, but if this was true...?

"Hero. Here, take it back."

"Did you figure something out?"

"Yeah. But first, something to check."

I pulled the flail weapon, Thunder Bolt, from my inventory.

Examining it, you had to push the handle up fully then twist right to activate.

But.

Pssshhh—

The instant I twisted the handle, black smoke billowed from the head.

"......"