Carlos was relieved and relayed this information back to Samuel, also informing him that the plan of Francisco and his group was no longer viable since Amalia's account had been unfrozen in the Red Espiritual Net's backend.
Despite receiving a confirming response, Samuel couldn't put his mind at ease. After some hesitation, he left a private message for Amalia, "Shopkeeper, after this incident, the number of people coming to your shop to buy artifacts will only increase, won't it?"
While it appeared to be a congratulatory statement, Amalia understood that Samuel was actually reminding her. Even before the rise of the No. 1 Artificer Shop, someone had their eyes on it. As it gained popularity, it was sure to attract more bad people..
"Thank you for the reminder," As soon Amalia replied, Samuel immediately received the message.
"It should be me thanking you," Samuel replied. If it weren't for this incident, he wouldn't have seen Francisco's true nature. Although he was disappointed in his friend, he had no regrets.
Amalia remained non-committal. "Mr. Samuel, if you ever have artifacts that need repair in the future, you can come to me."
Samuel paused for a moment and then realized the hidden meaning in her words. A person who sells artifacts and can repair them likely had a 99.9% chance of being an artificer. This meant that Francisco and his group had not offended mere black market dealers but a genuine genius artificer.
...
"What... what's going on?"
After Hector successfully blackened Amalia's reputation and had the discussions in the forums going just as he had anticipated, he was content to log off.
He had expected when he come back, he would find Amalia being widely criticized, but to his suprise, he was greeted by a system notification stating that his account had been suspended.
Hector couldn't believe it. He thought he might have made a mistake in one of his actions, leading to this situation. He had no suspicion towards his employer or his own judgment. Even when he had been targeted by multiple shop owners' joint complaints in the past, he had come out unscathed. He wasn't easy to be defeated.
Hector tried to log in again, but the result was the same. Overwhelming anxiety coursed through him, and he quickly logged in with an anonymous account.
As he entered the most popular section of the forum and saw a prominently highlighted announcement post, his vision darkened, and he nearly couldn't catch his breath. He collapsed, unable to comprehend how it had become like this?