"Look, old man. You have a shop because you want to sell. And we are here because we want to buy. You have a price, we also have a price. So unless we stand on the same understanding, we can’t make a deal."
The owner pondered for a few seconds as he stared at the black box.
’What the hell is this thing? I have no idea the fuck it is and what it does. Isn’t it just a box? I don’t really care about it as long as I can get some change. But...’ He glanced at Jason and Xavier. ’Why do I feel like something is fishy?’
"So, tell your price, old man."
"I will do it for $480,000. I usually don’t lower that much, but you seem like someone who knows the worth of hidden gems."
"Eh, not really. I wouldn’t even buy it for $500, to be honest."
’What the hell?! Do they want it or not? Dammit! I was getting $50,000 earlier! I should have just sold it! My greedy ass just can’t catch a break. But wait... there are thousands of items in my shop, so why did they choose this box only? Maybe they were looking for it? If that’s the case, they will give as much as I ask for.’
"So, do you want it or not?" The old man asked haughtily. "As I said, there is already a buyer for this."
"Sell it, then. We don’t want it," Xavier remarked and pretended to leave the store, uninterested.. "Let’s go. We will get one from the last shop we went to. He was giving us five of them for $100,000. He was selling a set, so we didn’t get it, but I guess it’s still a much better deal than this one."
"Heh! You are bluffing. This is the oldest trick in the book. How many years of experience do you think I have? If you don’t want to buy it then it’s completely fine."
The old man thought Xavier was bluffing, but he wasn’t. He had actually seen the same black boxes at a shop and it had the price tag of $100,000. Xavier could buy it to prove the old man wrong, but he didn’t want to waste $100,000 on something he didn’t need.
"Do you even know what’s the purpose of this box?" Jason asked. "And neither of us know what’s inside it. It might just even be empty."
"How is that my problem?"
Xavier left the shop and returned a few minutes later with five black boxes.
"Here. How much do you think I paid for them?"
"$100,000?"
"$5000."
"You are lying!"
"Go ahead and ask the shopkeeper if you don’t believe me." He shrugged. "Now, are you going to sell yours or not?"
"You already have five, why would you need this one now?"
Xavier stared at the old man for a few seconds and let out a sigh. I was as though he was contemplating about something and finally made a decision.
He purposely tossed the black box over the counter and made it look like an accident. Then, when the old man was picking up the boxes, Xavier sneakily exchanged one of them.
The old man got suspicious but everything seemed normal.
After that, Xavier and Jason left.
"Hey! I will sell it for $100,000 if you want." the old man called out to them for the last time.
"Nah. Keep it and give it to the ’buyer’ who is ready to buy it."
As they walked, Jason glanced at Xavier repeatedly.
"Is there something you want to say?" Xavier asked as he opened the black boxes one by one, but only one of them opened.
The others were locked.
"If you really wanted that box, you should have just signaled me. I would have knocked the old man out and taken the box."
"There was no need to do that. I wanted to steal it, but I wanted to avoid all the drama. This is still a virtual item and we have to get it delivered. I wanted it to be hassle free."
’The item didn’t belong to that old man in the first place.’ Xavier sighed. ’He could have just sold it nicely instead of acting like a son of a bitch.’
"Is there anything else you have to buy? Or if you want to walk around the market?" Jason asked.
"No, not now. Although I am interested in some things, it can wait. There is something more important that needs to be done."
"Let’s go to the drop point then."
After walking for a while, they reached a drop point. It was like a vending machine with a portal like hole to where the buttons should be. There was a screen to enter details and select one of the few designated pick-up points.
"It will be delivered at the club. Is that okay?" Jason turned to Xavier for confirmation.
"Yeah. How much time will it take, by the way?"
"If there is traffic on the server and the frame, it should be delivered in a few months. But there are options for quicker delivery. It uses a unique service, so the more you pay for the delivery, the quicker it will get."
"I want it today."
"Hmm. Let me see if we have an available slot." After a while, Jason muttered with a confused look on his face. "This isn’t right. Why is the delivery time showing fifteen minutes, but only charging $20,000? These portal-services charge hundreds of thousands of bucks."
"Maybe there is a glitch or bug?" Xavier wondered.
"No. The servers may be fucked, bu they don’t mess around when it comes to any kind of transactions. Plus, everything is logged so consumers don’t worry much."
After filling the details and putting the black boxes in the portal, Jason and Xavier logged out.
Xavier felt his consciousness fading away and the next moment, everything went dark.
Angel pulled out Xavier’s glasses and asked, "How was the experience?"
"Argh!"
Angel passed a drink to Xavier and said, "No need to say anything."
A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door.
"I will check."
Jason returned with five boxes in his hands.
"Well, that was quick."
Xavier had spent $25,000 out of 10 million he had. And surprisingly, he had gotten a $125 rebate.