Chapter 254 - Once You Go Black You Can Never Go Back...
Everyone on the 2nd floor, who heard the VIP man say so, knew that trouble was about to start.
After all, his meaning was clear...Looby was selling his own stolen potion!!!
'Hehe, Interesting.' Felix grinned slightly as he put one leg above the other. He was anticipating how Looby was going to get rid of this accusation.
"I have looked far and wide in every black market shop since the moment my subordinates' spaceship got pirated two weeks ago." The VIP man spoke casually while examining a square-shaped brown potion in focus, "Who would have thought it would be in your hands, Looby?"
"With all due respect Mr. Tom, but if you are going to come in my shop and start throwing false accusations to ruin my esteem reputation, I won't have it!" Looby squinted his eye and repeated, "I won't have it! Not now, not ever!"
Speechless, Felix's eyebrows twitched at the sight of Looby lying through his toothless mouth without a single change of expression.
"Hahaha."
Upon hearing so, Mr. Tom let out a hearty laugh as he placed the bottle on the table.
Only his laugh was resounding on the 2nd floor as everyone went quiet to watch the juicy drama.
"Greedy dog, I am not here to argue with you if this potion is mine or not." Mr. Tom pointed at the shelves and said calmly, "I already noticed that five items from my stolen shipment are here as well."
Before Looby could start playing the victim card and deny his accusation, Mr. Tom added coldly, "I don't know which rat hole you came up from, and I have no interest in hunting you down. I only want two things from you." Mr. Tom extended two fingers, "One, send me my stolen items. Two, give me the location of those pirate sc.u.ms."
Everyone drew a deep breath at such a blatant threatening attempt. Just like Felix, they didn't know who this Mr. Tom was, but the fact that Looby didn't straightaway kick him from the shop was enough to show that he was a big shot.
"What if I said no?" Looby sneered, dropping all pretense as well.
"You can't afford to say no." Mr. Tom said nonchalantly, "You are still new in the il..."
"Queen, Please kick him out of my shop and ban him for life from stepping inside all of my shops and buying my products." Looby requested, interrupted him mid-sentence.
He knew that whatever was going to come out of Mr. Tom's mouth was simply going to disrespect him even further in front of his clients.
Thus, why bother keeping him inside? He already offended him by selling his items.
Seeing that his body was breaking down into white particles, Mr. Tom frowned his eyebrows as he said one last time, "You will regret this decision, mark my words."
"We will see about that." Looby merely scoffed at his threat.
If he were easily frightened from just one threat, he wouldn't have dared to switch his business to the black market.
He knew that selling stolen items wasn't going to be all rainbow and sunshine.
Attracting a couple of offended real owners was going to be a daily occurrence in his shop, and if he didn't balls up and dealt with them properly, his reputation would get screwed even in the black market.
At that point, he would truly be at his end rope.
"Greedy dog, it seems like you are in quite a pickle," Felix said, chuckling.
He spoke first to break off the awkward atmosphere after Mr. Tom left.
Everyone knew that they were purchasing stolen goods, and meeting the real owner left a bad taste in their mouths.
Though, they didn't still give a shit and carried on browsing the shelves, putting in their shopping cart whatever caught their interest.
It wasn't their problem that Mr. Tom got unlucky and had his cargo spaceship getting targeted by professional pirates.
They understood that it was tough to meet pirates in this wide universe even though their numbers were endless in space.
This false sense of security makes most cargo spacesh.i.p.s not waste money on hiring extra mercenary fleets to protect them, as their prices weren't low in the slightest.
There was no way they would be paying for this additional protection in each delivery as the expenses would be quite hard to stomach.
Especially when cargo spacesh.i.p.s meet up with pirates only once in three months if they were extremely unlucky.
"He can't do anything to me." Looby smirked as he stood up, "Let's talk in my office."
Felix nodded and followed after him.
The office was at the back end of the 2nd floor, and it wasn't really that big as it was used mostly for private meetups like those. Looby never bothered to use it before since his shop was always empty.
After sitting down, Felix joked, "How is the view of space?"
"Tsk, if it weren't for the UVR, I would have been bored to the death by how stale it is." Looby clicked his tongue in irritation.
Felix chuckled at hearing him say so, as he knew that Looby was currently in a spaceship wandering in space aimlessly without a place to call home.
The moment he switched to being a black market seller, he gave up on the right to land in any populated planet that was part of the alliance.
After all, his ID was probably already blacklisted, making it impossible for his spaceship to pass through the check-in of technologically advanced planets.
If he went and sneaked in planets like earth, which were in the process of catching up to the rest, he would be found sooner or later.
Since if he sent a sold product to its owner, crumbs leading to his location would be left behind.
Thus, as long as he continued operating as a black merchant, the infinite cosmos would be his greatest ally.
Felix also knew that Looby's spaceship was completely safe from pirates attacks.
As now that he had a black merchant status, he was going to receive total immunity and protection from any pirate crew.
Although it was merely an unofficial rule, not binding anyone, every pirate still honored it.
After all, black merchants were the ones, who sell their stolen goods, and if they assaulted them, it was the same as lowering their chances of making a profit.
However, the biggest reason would always be the deterrence of being found out and hunted down by the rest of the pirates.
There was a zero-tolerance policy on harming or stealing from black merchants.
That being said, there were always some black sheep who ignores this unofficial rule and attack anything they meet, like rabid dogs hungry for flesh.
Looby needed to be careful of those the most, especially when he was carrying all of his products in his spaceship.
"I kinda feel bad. I didn't think my place in your black heart would be big enough to risk your life just to pay me back." Felix jested with a half-smile.
"Don't flatter yourself." Looby scratched his ear in annoyance, "I was already preparing to turn into a black merchant. I was just reluctant to leave my home planet since I knew that once I go black, I can never go back."
"Hahahaha!" Felix exploded in laughter with his head bent down after hearing the last words of Looby.
"Bastard, what are you laughing at," Looby asked with a disturbed expression.
"If only you knew what those words meant in my home planet, you will never repeat them," Felix said while wiping his eye with his finger.
"Once I go black, I can never go back?" Looby repeated it with a confused expression, seeing nothing wrong with what he said.
"Haha, don't mind it, just a bit of cultural difference." Felix waved his hand, trying his best to hold back his laughter.
Seeing that Felix wasn't planning on explaining it, Looby stopped bothering with it and said smugly, "I have your money prepared, and if you have any other bottles bring them all in."
"It seems like you don't have troubles with liquidity anymore." Felix said with a pleasant smile.
"I will need only three days to sell your bottles now with this kind of traffic." Looby nodded his head in agreement.
Upon hearing so, Felix immediately sent Looby the four bottles' serial codes and told him to be dealing with Bodidi about the delivery details.
Before, Felix was giving Bodidi Looby's real shop address to deliver those bottles.,
But now that Looby was in the middle of nowhere, Bodidi needed new coordination, and it was improper for Felix to ask Looby about them.
Ti-ring!
After receiving the serial codes, Looby didn't hesitate to wire Felix a whopping 1 billion and 500 million SC. This was the total from 7 tier 5 epic bloodlines bottles.
With Felix already having 300 million or so in his bank account, he was getting closer to reach two billion SC!
For the first time, Felix finally neither had debt nor owned anyone. He had his entire capital back again with a couple of hundred millions missing.
"Hehe, brother Felix, how about you purchase something from the 'new stock'?" Looby rubbed his hands together with a sly grin.
"Your stuff might be great, but it isn't what I require at the moment." Felix said, shaking his head.
Felix would rather save his coins until the series gets released and combine his capitals. Then, found an investment firm that would spread its roots in all fields and industries.
To achieve so, he needed massive capital for investing and also to keep buying bloodline bottles.
Felix was patient enough to carry on waiting and waiting until the day his businesses in the UVR would be able to sustain his needs without even bothering to glance at his bank account.
"Tsk, it's your loss." Looby added while showing him an empty screen, "Write the items that you require, so if my hands landed on them, I would inform you just like the rest and bid for them."
"Sure." Felix agreed instantly and started typing the materials for the elemental potion.
If he could buy them with coins, he wouldn't waste his hard-earned game points on them as he knew that the further he advanced in SG, the harder it would be to gather them.
After he finished writing them down, Felix stood up, wanting to excuse himself. However, he soon was reminded of something.
"When are you going to lose your shop lease?" Felix asked.
He knew that the moment Looby's fame as a black merchant started to spread, the enforcers in the Androxa city would pay him a visit for breaking the rules.
First, they would take his shop lease, then kick him out of the capital. In worse cases, even ban him from entering the Alexander Kingdom's UVR territory!
"Probably in two days." Looby replied with a gloomy look, "I will really miss this place."
"After you retire from being a black merchant, you can repurchase it." Felix comforted him.
"My plan exactly." Looby nodded his head in agreement before adding, "I will be transforming my business mostly online while staying in other hidden shops that I leased months ago."
"I see." Felix nodded his head in understanding.
He knew that most black merchants used looby's plan.
First, they make a bang in the network that their shop had gone black to attract as much traffic as possible before getting their shop's lease revoked.
However, they would have already established a good reputation by then, making it easier for them to switch to dealing with their customers online. And in most dire situations, face to face in their new hidden shops.
After all, the items that Looby was dealing with were extremely pricy, and there was no way for someone to buy them without meeting the seller face to face.
"Alright, if I ever needed to meet you, I will ask you about the new shop address," Felix said one last time before leaving the office.
"Buy something before you leave, you cheapskate." Looby cursed him in irritation.
"Next time!" Felix said as he closed the door behind him.