15: Do business slowly

Two hundred and fifty-six pieces of material, emitting a soft white light, piled high on the dilapidated table, almost overflowing.

Beneath the mask, Lin Yu's breathing was steady.

One hundred yuan per piece.

Two hundred and fifty-six pieces amounted to twenty-five thousand six hundred yuan.

Not long ago, he had to rely on various loans, robbing Peter to pay Paul, just to barely scrape together this sum.

Now, it only took a few minutes.

But this was still not enough.

Far from enough.

He did not stop, casually picking up a piece from the mountain of consumables and activating his professional ability once more.

Card Transformation!

His mental energy drained like an ebbing tide, and a new White Basic Consumable Card formed in his hand.

Immediately following was the perfect closed-loop he had rehearsed in his dreams for five years, now finally realized.

Ghost Card!

Multiplication x256!

Clatter!

The sound of material appearing out of thin air rang out again, crisp and pleasant to the ear. The consumables on the table piled even higher, with several pieces rolling onto the floor.

Lin Yu was expressionless, like a tireless machine, repeating the process.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

When the fourth cycle was completed, the floor of the small single room was completely filled with white basic consumables. They formed a small mountain, completely burying the only table and chair.

One thousand and twenty-four pieces.

One hundred and two thousand four hundred yuan.

A dull ache pulsed in his temples; the mental energy consumption was considerable. It was time to convert these items into cash.

Lin Yu took out the simple communicator provided in the room and sent an encoded message.

"1024, white basic consumables, standard. Room 307. Certified buyers only."

He leaned against the door, waiting quietly.

The black market was highly efficient. In less than ten minutes, there was a "thump, thump, thump" knock at the door.

Lin Yu pulled open the door.

Standing outside the door was a man also wearing a black cloak, but with a Bronze Mask. His gaze swept over the small mountain of consumables in the room, without any superfluous fluctuations.

"Are they all standard products?" the man's voice was hoarse and deep.

"Inspect them yourself." Lin Yu stepped aside, making way.

The buyer entered the room, took out a small instrument from his sleeve, and scanned a piece from the top, middle, and bottom layers of the consumable pile. The instrument emitted a few soft beeps and lit up green.

"99.8% purity, standard grade. I'll take them all."

"One hundred and two thousand four hundred," Lin Yu quoted the price.

"Okay." The buyer did not haggle. For transactions of such basic consumables, prices were transparent, and bargaining would only waste each other's time.

He took out a black card and a small terminal. "Your card."

"I just arrived. I'll use cash or a transfer."

The buyer paused. "Cash is troublesome, and transfers can be traced. Get a black card; that's the rule."

"Where do I get one?"

"At the exchange. Mention my name, 'Bronze Mask,' and they'll set you up. I'll wait for you."

The buyer seemed very patient. He pushed aside the chair half-buried by consumables, sat down, and appeared unhurried.

Lin Yu locked the door and, following the instructions, found the so-called exchange. A greasy fat man sat behind the window.

"Bronze Mask sent me. I need a card."

The fat man pushed out a form and a card. "Just fill in a random alias. The card fee is one hundred."

Lin Yu paid with a duplicated banknote and soon received a plain black card with no markings, only a chip.

Returning to room 307, the Bronze Mask buyer was still there.

Lin Yu handed over the card.

The buyer inserted the card into the terminal and operated it a few times.

"Beep."

"Transferred. One hundred and two thousand four hundred." He returned the card to Lin Yu.

Lin Yu waved his hand.

"They're all yours."

The buyer nodded, took out an unremarkable burlap sack from under his cloak. He opened the mouth of the bag and began to load the white consumables into it. The bag was like a bottomless pit; over a thousand kilograms of consumables were packed cleanly in less than a minute.

A low-level spatial storage item.

"Next time you have this quantity, contact me directly." The buyer hoisted the seemingly heavy burlap sack onto his shoulder and turned to leave.

Lin Yu scanned the black card on the room's terminal.

Balance: 102400.

Below it was a line of small text.

"Black Market Internal Circulation: No handling fee. External Transfers: 30% handling fee."

Skimming a bit off the top was indeed in line with the black market's style. As long as the money circulated internally, he wouldn't have to pay that cut.

One hundred thousand yuan, the first small pot of gold was in hand!

But this method of filling the room before trading was too inefficient and high-risk. He needed a more convenient tool.

He left the room again and walked towards an area in the depths of the black market that sold miscellaneous goods.

He stopped in front of a stall filled with old equipment.

"I want a storage ring."

The stall owner was a scrawny old man. He pointed to several rings on a tray. "Official standard issue, three cubic meters, three hundred thousand. Guild certified, five cubic meters, five hundred and fifty thousand."

The prices were all beyond his means.

"Do you have anything cheaper?"

The old man sized him up. "Cheaper? Of course."

He fumbled under the counter and pulled out a dark iron ring. "If you don't mind, it's a replica."

"What's wrong with it?"

"The problem is, its spatial beacon is replicated. Here, with signal jamming, it works fine. But once you leave the black market, if you dare to activate it, it will immediately trigger an alarm, sending your coordinates to the company, who will send them to the police, and you'll be waiting in jail."

The old man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "But in the 'Junkyard,' it works very well."

A black market exclusive item.

"How big is it?"

"One hundred cubic meters. But it's unstable; it can only hold one type of non-living material. Once something is loaded, you have to empty it before loading another type."

"How much?"

"Seeing as you're a regular, eighty thousand, no haggling."

Lin Yu only considered it for a second. Starting capital was meant for snowballing; efficiency was paramount.

"Deal."

Transfer money, take the goods.

Back in the single room, Lin Yu put on the ring and injected a trace of mental energy. A vast but chaotic space appeared in his perception.

He put a consumable sample in and took it out again. It went smoothly.

One hundred cubic meters, absolutely, absolutely enough!

His Ghost Card Amplification Cycle produced two hundred and fifty-six pieces at a time.

A thought formed in his mind.

He placed a piece of consumable into the ring, then performed Card Transformation on it, activating his ability.

Multiplication x256!

With a thought, two hundred and fifty-six pieces of consumables were generated directly within the ring's internal space.

It was a success.

This meant he could complete production and storage within the ring!

Efficiency greatly improved!

Lin Yu did not hesitate and immediately began a new round of production.

Mental energy consumption, Card Transformation, Ghost Card, Multiplication!

In one smooth motion.

He planned to first fill the ring with one hundred cubic meters of consumables, then sell them all at once.

However, after repeating the cycle forty times, his movements stopped.

"Hint: Storage space is full."

Forty times?

One cycle was two hundred and fifty-six kilograms, which meant two hundred and fifty-six standard consumables.

Forty cycles amounted to ten thousand two hundred and forty pieces.