Chapter 27: Black Market

"I'll toast you..."

Liu Wei picked up his soda cup again: "We cyborgs have it too hard, like weeds in the cracks, having to fight for every bit of sunlight and rain... After today, I'm going to prepare for the college entrance exam with all my might. From now on, we aren't friends, but competitors."

"Hmm, to competitors!"

Fang Xing also raised his cup, but felt somewhat surprised in his heart.

This kid Liu Wei actually had the intention of cutting ties with him.

"The friendship between men..."

He couldn't help but fall silent for a moment.

Liu Wei left very quickly, as if this gathering was just a final farewell to the past.

In the end, only Fang Xing was left, eating all the barbecue clean: "This was quite expensive, can't waste it..."

He went home as usual, and it wasn't until he closed the door that his expression became somewhat solemn: "Liu Wei..."

Originally he only had some guesses, but judging from today's situation, he feared that this close friend of the original owner was truly involved with certain forces.

But judging from the other party's initiative to cut ties with him, his character was actually not bad.

As for competing in the arena? That was never about friendship anyway, it wasn't a life-or-death struggle...

"If I have the ability, I should still help him... It's a pity that, as I am now, I can barely protect myself..."

Fang Xing sighed and went to sleep.

The next day.

Fang Xing, carrying a shoulder bag, boarded the maglev train.

The scope of Chick Star was very large!

99.99% of it had achieved vehicle and network coverage; only some areas with chaotic magnetic fields, or broken walls and ruins, or vast wilderness, became the wounds of the planet's civilization.

And the black market was in these places!

"Outside Maple Leaf City, there is a city ruin... originating from an attack by an evil deity's kin, which left the original city half-abandoned, even remaining with much dangerous pollution and radiation..."

"Although it's not that the Federation can't clean it up, the cost is greater than building a new city elsewhere, and it's not worth the loss. In the end, they built a new Maple Leaf City, and the original 'old city district' gradually became abandoned, turning into a paradise for scavengers and those without identities, eventually giving rise to the black market..."

"If I think about it darkly, did the high-level officials of Chick Star deliberately leave these 'wounds of civilization' to create soil for the black market?"

Fang Xing thought to himself while grabbing the handrail.

"Dear passengers, the train has reached the terminal station. Please sit tight and hold on, and exit the train in an orderly manner..."

Time passed, and the maglev train reached the terminal station.

Fang Xing got off the train and found that he was already at the edge of Maple Leaf City.

He started walking, his speed gradually increasing, then dodged various surveillance cameras and dived into the streets and alleys.

For this trip to the black market, he had long since left all his electronic devices at home.

While traveling through the darkness, the skin and muscles on his face twitched, immediately performing a disguise, and he put on a black mask.

By the time he emerged from the alley, Fang Xing had even changed his clothes, becoming a strange person wearing a leather jacket, a duck-billed cap, and a pitch-black mask, diving into the boundary between the new city district and the old city district.

Whoosh whoosh!

The old city district had lost maintenance, and everywhere were broken walls and ruins.

A breeze blew by, kicking up a few wisps of sand and dust.

The road was badly damaged, and on both sides was originally a commercial street, but at this time, the signs were mostly broken.

Crack!

Fang Xing stepped on a poster of an outdated female star, and the sound startled several hyenas in the shadows.

Looking closely, he realized these hyenas were different from ordinary dogs; some had two heads, some had four eyes and eight legs...

"Aberrant creatures..."

Information flashed through Fang Xing's mind.

This was because the mixture of evil deity pollution and radiation caused the nearby creatures to mutate, leaving behind deformed offspring.

Although they were far from reaching the standard of low-level servants, they might have some strange abilities.

The three-headed hyena leading them hissed lowly a few times, seemingly feeling that Fang Xing was not to be trifled with, or perhaps it was already full, and immediately turned around, leaving this place with the other hyenas.

Fang Xing walked past the commercial street, arrived at a residential complex, looked at the half-collapsed buildings, strolled around here, and found a convenience store.

In the midst of ruins, a convenience store that was barely still in business looked very conspicuous.

【Beep!】

When he walked into the convenience store door, a green light flashed, and a mechanical sound rang out.

"Very good, very clean, no positioning or communication tools on you."

Behind the convenience store counter, a round-faced youth smiled.

He wore a convenience store uniform, his hair was half-brown, and he was holding an ancient comic book.

At this time, he slowly put down the comic book in his hand: "Guest, welcome to 'Worry-Free Convenience Store.' What do you need to buy?"

"First, give me a communicator."

Fang Xing glanced at a row of communication devices on the counter and nodded.

The communication devices in the black market were naturally anonymous accounts, or someone else's number, which were safer to contact.

"No problem. How will the guest pay?"

The youth picked up a black wristwatch and smiled: "Ten thousand Star Dollars, only cash or equivalent trade items."

"Truly robbery. No, wait, where is robbery as profitable as the black market?"

Fang Xing glanced casually and saw a primary nano-protective suit on the shelf.

Here, it was marked at one hundred thousand!

Clearly, an ordinary nano-protective suit wasn't worth that much money, but one with the manufacturer's backdoor removed was worth this price!

"Do you accept gold?"

Fang Xing took out a fist-sized piece of gold nugget from the shoulder bag behind him: "Give me an estimate. Deposit the extra money into a new account..."

"Okay."

The convenience store owner took the gold and tested it slightly: "The purity isn't high... the net weight of gold inside is 2340 grams, and the gold price is 176 Star Dollars per gram, so it's 411,840 Star Dollars."

"A 20% service fee, then deduct 10,000 Star Dollars, and the remaining 319,472 Star Dollars have been deposited into the communicator account!"

Taking the communicator, Fang Xing added the owner's contact information and went to the back of the convenience store.

Here, there was actually a dilapidated street.

Although it looked desolate, there were occasionally a few figures walking among the ruins, each exuding an aura that was not to be trifled with.

"This feeling is somewhat similar to those independent cultivators in the Qinglin Marketplace..."

Fang Xing looked and actually felt a trace of familiarity.

This gold was naturally exchanged for spiritual sand in the cultivation marketplace, which could be said to be extremely easy.

If it were the other way around, exchanging a large amount of gold for spiritual stones would be somewhat difficult, and he might even be heavily price-gouged.

"Weapons, potions, assassin guild, entertainment venues..."

He strolled around slightly and had to admit that the shops here were quite complete.

"Over three hundred thousand Star Dollars, I can also be considered a rich person."

With a trace of excitement, Fang Xing walked into a firearm shop.

The owner of this shop was a brawny man who looked not to be trifled with, wearing exoskeleton armor, at least with Fourth Realm strength.

Seeing Fang Xing come in, he didn't pay any attention at all, only busy wiping a gun barrel in his hand.

Fang Xing glanced casually and saw the Swift Dragon laser gun he had once wanted very much.

Under the silver-white gun body, there was also a small label:

【'Swift Dragon' level laser gun, second-hand, 90% new, can be used against people, 2,000,000 Star Dollars】

"Two million?"

Fang Xing's pupils shrank, then he looked at other firearms and found that this laser gun was actually one of the cheapest firearms in the shop.

"Sorry, sorry to bother you..."

He retreated several steps and walked directly out of the shop.

"I was careless. The things in this black market are truly black. Over three hundred thousand Star Dollars is just a drop in the bucket..."

Thinking this way, Fang Xing walked into another shop.

Half an hour later.

According to the directions he bought with Star Dollars, he walked into a half-collapsed ruin.

Inside the ruin, there was only a wooden table, and a woman wrapped in a headscarf and mask, revealing only her palms, was sitting behind the counter.

Fang Xing glanced and found that on the woman's palms, there were actually dense green tattoos.

"The atmosphere here is also not very good, giving people a sense of danger..."

He muttered to himself, walked to the woman, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

Creak!

The old wooden chair let out an unbearable groan, but the tattooed woman opposite suddenly smiled: "Guest found this shop, are you looking for some solutions?"

"Yes, I want to launder money!"

Fang Xing said solemnly.

He didn't want to lose the identity of the cyborg Fang Xing, so he couldn't go too far.

But he also didn't want to suppress his martial arts progress, so when the sophomore year started, he would definitely need an explanation.

Without a source of income, without the support of a large amount of nutrient solution, how could his realm progress so rapidly?

Therefore, he needed to launder black money into legal income and then purchase a batch of nutrient solution through regular channels!

"What scale?"

The tattooed woman's eyes lit up.

"Several hundred thousand..."

"This little bit of money..." The tattooed woman immediately sat back, looking somewhat bored: "Turn left at the door, go to the casino and gamble a few times, the service fee is 30%..."

"Cannot go through the casino!"

Fang Xing was speechless; he was still a minor, so this path was clearly not feasible.

"For this amount of money, opening a company and doing some turnover is clearly redundant..." The tattooed woman smiled: "Sure enough, just a small client."

She thought for a while and answered: "We acquired a lottery company, which can let you win a small prize. A prize of several hundred thousand is not conspicuous at all. As long as you pay taxes properly, the Federation won't care at all..."

"This, this is actually possible."

Fang Xing touched his chin.

The Blue Star Federation prohibited minors from gambling, but it relaxed a lot for lotteries.

And his little bit of money was indeed not even a small shrimp, basically no one would delve into it.

"Let's do it this way."

He let out a long breath in his heart.

At least this way, he could advance by leaps and bounds in his sophomore and junior years without appearing abrupt.

Even if it was exposed in the future, as long as he got into university, was certified as a 'Professional,' and became a privileged class, this little thing wouldn't count for anything at all.

"Very good, 50% service fee!"

The tattooed woman smiled, revealing a mouthful of pitch-black teeth, making Fang Xing suddenly feel a pain in his heart, almost bleeding: "So pit!" ===== CHAPTER 28 =====