The Jiangnan Underground Market wasn't some flashy, bustling bazaar. It was built into the massive, collapsed subway tunnels from before the Great Mutation, smelling heavily of dried monster blood.

  Hulking mercenaries—men with low-level genetic enhancements who acted as meat-shields for Mages—patrolled the muddy pathways, carrying massive tung-alloy swords and the severed horns of Mutated Boars.

  Lin Jue, wearing a faded high school uniform, looked like a lost lamb wandering into a den of mutant-hunting wolves.

  'Everyone here looks like they eat gravel for breakfast,' Lin Jue analysed, stepping around a puddle of questionable glowing liquid. 'I need to convert this gold fast before someone decides I look like a free loot drop.'

  He ducked into "Old Jin's Curios," a dimly lit shop protected by a faint magical ward. The shelves were lined with monster cores, beast hides, and low-tier magical Stardust accelerators.

  Old Jin, a greasy man with a jeweler's loupe permanently squeezed over his right eye, took one look at Lin Jue's school uniform and sneered. "We don't sell Holo-Net games, kid. Beat it."

  Lin Jue didn't say a word. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a heavy, rectangular bar of ancient Xianxia gold, and dropped it onto the reinforced glass counter.

  CLONK.

  The heavy thud made the glass groan. Old Jin's sneer vanished. He picked up the bar, his hands trembling slightly as he inspected the weight and luster.

  "Pure," Old Jin muttered, his greed instantly overriding his suspicion. "But there are no Federal serial numbers. It's contraband. I'm taking a massive risk just having this in my shop. I'll give you 10,000 credits for the brick."

  It was an insulting lowball. A five-pound brick of 99.9% pure gold was easily worth 400,000 credits on the open market.

  'Does this old man take me for a pushover?' Lin Jue thought. He didn't get angry. He didn't argue the price. He just smiled pleasantly.

  "Ten thousand? Deal," Lin Jue said smoothly. "But I don't want Federal credits. Too much of a paper trail. I want it in Monster Cores."

  Old Jin paused, his eyes narrowing. He had expected the kid to haggle, to cry, to beg.

  He hadn't expected him to instantly pivot to an untraceable, liquid asset like monster cores.

  'This idiot doesn't know monster cores fluctuate in value,' Old Jin thought smugly. 'I'll just unload my garbage stock on him.'

  "Fine," Old Jin grunted. He reached under the counter and pulled out a dusty wooden lockbox. He opened it, revealing a dozen dull, slightly cracked crystals. "Here. Ten thousand credits worth of Tier-1 Earth element cores."

  Lin Jue picked one up. He held it to the light, inspecting the cloudy interior.

  "Interesting," Lin Jue mused aloud, his voice perfectly calm. "Federal Classification Code 402-B dictates that any monster core with a Stardust residual mana capacity under twelve percent is legally classified as 'industrial fertilizer sludge,' not a magical resource."

  Old Jin froze.

  Lin Jue looked the greasy merchant dead in the eye. "These are cracked. The mana leakage is severe. You're trying to hand me 10,000 credits worth of premium lawn food."

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  [From Old Jin's sudden confusion and alarm, +120!]

  'How does a slum kid in a faded uniform know Federal classification codes?' Old Jin's brain scrambled to make sense of the situation.

  The truth was, Lin Jue didn't know the codes.

  He had completely made up '402-B' based on a boring school textbook he had half-read two years ago. But his delivery was flawless.

  "Who... who are you?" Old Jin asked, his voice losing its arrogant edge.

  Lin Jue leaned over the counter, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "Old Jin, do you honestly think a high schooler walks into the Underground Market with untraceable, 99.9% pure gold by himself? My 'employer' is a High-Tier Mage with the Federal Audit Bureau. He likes his gold off the books, and he likes his monster cores pure."

  Lin Jue tapped the dull crystal on the glass. "You want to give a Federal Auditor fertilizer? Be my guest. I'll take these back to him and let him know exactly where I got them. I'm sure he'd love to review your shop's tax history…personally by visiting the shop."

  [From Old Jin's rising panic, +250!]

  Old Jin turned pale. You could bribe a mercenary, and you could fight a monster, but you couldn't punch your way out of a Federal Audit.

  "Wait, wait!" Old Jin stammered, frantically sweeping the dull cores back into the box. "A misunderstanding! I grabbed the wrong box!"

  "Wrong box? Were you that careless-" Before Lin Jue could farm for more points a voice cut through the space.

  "Boss, he's bluffing."

  A heavy hand clamped down on Lin Jue's shoulder. One of the hulking mercenaries Old Jin employed for security had stepped out from the back room.

  The man's muscles bulged with genetic enhancements, his fingers gripping Lin Jue's collar tight enough to choke him.

  "Look at his shoes, boss," the mercenary sneered, looming over Lin Jue. "They're canvas. He's a slum rat. He doesn't work for an Auditor. I'm going to throw him in the alley, and we're keeping the gold."

  Old Jin hesitated, greed warring with fear.

  Lin Jue sighed.

  'I really didn't want to break anything else today.'

  He didn't try to shrug off the mercenary's massive hand. Instead, Lin Jue casually reached out and picked up a "Tier-1 Iron-Horn Rhino Plate" sitting on the display counter.

  Old Jin proudly advertised it with a little cardboard sign: Bulletproof & Resistant to Novice-Tier Fire Magic.

  Lin Jue pinched the edge of the impenetrable, magically reinforced armor plate between his thumb and forefinger. He applied a fraction of the Iron-Ox Foundation pressure.

  SNAP.

  A solid chunk of the rhino plate broke off like a dry graham cracker. The sound was as loud as a gunshot in the quiet shop.

  Lin Jue casually ground the piece of armor into a fine, grey dust between his fingers, letting it sprinkle gently over the glass counter.

  He didn't look at the mercenary. He kept his eyes locked on Old Jin.

  "Your rhino plates are weak," Lin Jue said softly, his low voice making the sheer abnormality of the physical powers even more terrifying. "Now. I think my employer's gold is worth 400,000 credits. Paid in high-purity monster cores and an untraceable Black-Market card. What do you think, Old Jin?"

  [From the Mercenary's extreme, mind-numbing terror, +400!]

  [From Old Jin's absolute despair and financial bleeding, +500!]

  The mercenary slowly, very carefully, removed his hand from Lin Jue's shoulder and took three large steps backward. A kid who could pinch a rhino plate into dust could pinch a human skull into a puddle.

  "Y-yes, sir," Old Jin squeaked, sweating profusely. "Four hundred thousand. Right away."

  Ten minutes later, Lin Jue walked out of the shop.

  His pockets were significantly heavier, containing a small velvet bag of pristine, highly pure Monster Cores and a sleek black card loaded with credits.

  'Mom's factory debt is five thousand,' Lin Jue thought, a genuine smile finally touching his lips. 'I just made enough to buy her a house in the inner city.'

  He stepped out into the muddy main thorough fare of the underground market, only to be immediately shoved aside by a line of heavily armed guards.

  "Make way!! Move, don't block the road you slum rat!" a guard barked, pushing the market crowds against the tunnel walls.

  Lin Jue leaned against a rusted support pillar and watched the VIP entourage walk past.

  It was a team from the Magical Materials Syndicate—the mega-corporation that owned half the monster-processing factories in Sector 7.

  At the center of the formation walked a young woman.

  She was intoxicatingly beautiful, dressed in an immaculate, razor-sharp white business suit that stood out like a diamond in a coal mine.

  Her eyes were cold, calculating, and completely detached as she inspected the filthy market around her. Flanking her were two men whose bodies practically hummed with the intense Stardust of High-Tier Mages.

  Lin Jue didn't say anything. He didn't try to get her attention.

  'So that's the corporate food chain,' Lin Jue thought, watching her disappear down the tunnel. He patted the black card in his pocket. 'One day, I will defeat that corporation…for now I have to pull mom out of her contract.