Chapter 32 - Zero Trust

Cyril walked inside the city and noticed a lot of people walking around.

He also realized that many of them are hiding their faces so he decided to do the same though it might be uncomfortable.

Of course, he can still see a lot of them not bothering to hide their appearance as they probably have powerful backing or they just didn't care since they aren't criminals.

"Well, this place looks a bit more lively than what I can remember…" Cyril muttered after seeing his surroundings.

The architectural structure of the city was very well made for its purpose, there are about a hundred layers of buildings in a circular pattern and all of them are filled with various merchant shops or even Guild Bases of some weaker group of Awakened...

The roads are also huge, enough for 15 or so people passing side by side.

After buying a normal black cloak nearby for a staggering price of 1,000 Ains, Cyril walked for about 10 minutes as he started looking for a familiar shop.

'Hmm… Where is it now? It should be around here...'

He went past a row of shops selling unclassified plants. Cyril already glanced at them and recognized a few.

However, even if he knows them, he has no idea how to effectively use them or how he could benefit from identifying them.

In the end, he decided to just ignore these plants and started looking for a certain shop…

"Eh? It's small…"

The young man commented after seeing a small shop in the supposedly huge and extravagant trading shop…

Cyril realized that the owner did not originally possess the four buildings nearby and were just probably bought after a few years to build a larger shop.

'Well, I guess that's natural… So she's not that rich before, huh…'

"Zero Trust Trading"

This is the name of the trustworthy shop that he knows from his previous life. Although the shop is only starting at the moment, it would later grow exponentially as the owner will soon possess another Rank A Artifact. It was never revealed where she got it but because of this artifact, there would be a lot of people willing to make transactions with her.

Not only that, the company would safely run its business without having to get support from large guilds. It means that there isn't a guild that could affect the path of the business.

They would grow powerful enough to not be swayed by large and powerful organizations even after more than a decade!

Aside from that, Zero Trust Trading would also become a legal company in the real world although it would still take a few years.

"Oh?! My first customer for today… How may I help you?"

A girl around the age of 25 looked at Cyril who just entered her small shop. She doesn't seem to have an employee and working here alone.

The young man already removed his cloak and showed his face to the lady. Anyway, he would have a lot more transactions with her in the future so there's no problem with it.

On the other hand, after recognizing that her customer is young, she knows that this guy was probably just recently Awakened. It means that he's most likely poor.

Perhaps, he quickly went to this floating island to look around after earning a bit of money from his first Arcane World Exploration.

"Uhmm… I just noticed that you've displayed a lot of interesting Artifacts from the window, so I came in to check…"

"Ohh… You're talking about the Goblin Techs?"

"Yes. You're right. I would like to check them for a bit."

"Of course, go ahead."

The lady said with a smile. Her blond hair is tied to make a ponytail and she's actually wearing business attire. She looks like a nice office lady that Cyril would see every time he boards a train...

Aside from that, though she has freckles on her face, it doesn't affect her beauty and is still attractive with her attire.

Anyway, Cyril had no idea that this lady would appear like this. Her aura and her appearance are completely different from what he could remember.

'Is she actually an employee in the real world right now and doing this as her part-time job?'

He mused as he looked at the devices and weapons made by the technologically advanced goblins.

Well, not all goblins are just dagger or bow users…

There were Arcane Worlds where these weak creatures had learned to apply magic and technology in their daily lives.

This lady is an A-Rank Awakened who has luckily found an Artifact that allows her to communicate with the Goblins… This allowed her to trade with these goblins and in later years, she would have another Artifact that will allow him to communicate with the Dwarves! This is the one that will make her one of the most successful shops that started in illegal means.

Just like now, these Goblin Techs were all "not recommended" by the Association and most of them were even banned completely.

It is because up until now, they have no way to reverse engineer their technology and make their techs or gears 100% stable.

That's right… the Artifacts being sold like Goblin's Bomb, Goblin's Barrier, Goblin's Musket and Goblin's Jetpack only have about a 40% chance of working!

There are cases that the bombs will not explode or perhaps, they will just suddenly explode inside their bags! A slight pressure might cause a malfunction and kill the carrier!

The Barrier may also have problems and instead of saving the user, it will just kill them completely! Or even if it works, it will only last half of the recorded time limit or even less!

As for the Jetpack… Cyril could remember how many low-rank Awakened have died from this dreadful item.

There are other more gears to talk about but all of them have issues as well. It was no wonder they can only be sold here.

Nevertheless, Cyril decided to purchase 1 Goblin Musket and five pouches of Musket Balls.

"Oh… Sir, their Muskets can malfunction after 5 or 7 shots… So you might want to buy more Muskets?" The lady asked and showed a concerned expression to Cyril.

"No need. I'll just play around with it… However, as for my payment, I would like to talk about my item that I would like you to see first"

The young man replied and finally showed his Lesser Healing Potion on the table.