Chapter 28: Let’s Become A Millionaire

Emily noticed the shift in Reinhard’s attention almost immediately. "You’re going to stay here, aren’t you?"

He looked down at her. "For a little while."

Emily glanced at the exchange floor. "Maybe I should stay."

"We’d just get in the way," Maki said gently. "He knows what he’s doing. The only thing we can do right now is trust him."

"Finally, someone with vision," Reinhard said.

"I said trust, not worship."

"I’ll take what I can get."

Emily was quiet for a moment. For so long, she had been the one everyone else leaned on, and she still wasn’t used to leaning on someone herself. But trusting Reinhard no longer frightened her.

"I’ll call you when I’m done," Reinhard said.

"All right. Just don’t take too long."

"Besides, it’s boring," Lily added.

"Boring?"

Lily waved toward the exchange. "He doesn’t need help. Look how fast he figured everything out."

"You’re making me sound suspicious."

"You are suspicious."

"I’m not suspicious, I’m gifted, and people confuse the two constantly."

Reinhard laughed and pulled out his phone. A moment later, Maki’s pocket buzzed. $10,000 received.

Her eyes widened. "Reinhard."

"For the three of you. Get something to eat, look around, buy whatever catches your eye, and actually enjoy the city."

"Ten thousand is too much," Emily said immediately.

"It’s not money I need right now," Reinhard said with a shrug. "And you came all this way. You might as well enjoy it. Besides, I’m about to make that back before lunch. Watch."

Emily studied him, then reached over and squeezed his hand. "Call us when you’re done."

"I will."

Lily started pushing Emily toward the crowd with Maki beside her, and Reinhard watched them disappear before sliding the Merchant King’s Lens onto his face. He cracked his knuckles and looked across the most expensive room he had ever stood in.

[Current Balance: $48,340.]

Reinhard smiled. "All right. Time to get rich. Properly this time, not the sad, trembling kind of rich from three weeks ago."

...

He started with a small flip.

[Market Value: $12,000.]

[True Value: $29,000.]

[Recommended Buyer: Alchemy Specialist.]

[Current Demand: High.]

The material looked like an ordinary lump of stone. Reinhard walked up to the seller. "Ten thousand."

The merchant frowned. "It’s listed at twelve."

"It’s been sitting here for three days."

The merchant stared at him. "...You’ve been watching it?"

"I have," Reinhard said, and the man eventually sighed. "Ten thousand."

A few minutes later, an alchemy shop owner offered Reinhard twenty-seven thousand for it.

[Profit: $17,000.]

[Current Balance: $65,340.]

Reinhard walked back into the exchange with a spring in his step, and his phone buzzed.

Lily: we found a weapons street.

Lily: there’s a sword.

Lily: it’s $400.

Lily: maki said no.

Reinhard typed back. Tell Maki I said yes.

His phone rang four seconds later. "Do not tell her yes," Maki said.

"It’s your ten thousand. I’m only giving permission."

"She’s going to break something!"

"Sounds like fun. I wish you luck, and I wish the nearest hospital luck too, just in case."

Maki hung up, and Reinhard was still grinning when he reached the monster crystal Maki had found earlier, sitting beneath the glass exactly where she had said.

[Market Value: $35,600.]

[True Value: $200,000.]

[Recommended Buyer Located.]

Reinhard pointed at it. "Thirty-two thousand."

"It’s listed at thirty-five six."

"It’s been sitting here for two weeks."

The seller narrowed his eyes. "You’ve been watching it?"

"For two weeks," Reinhard said solemnly. "Every day. I think about this crystal before I go to sleep."

The seller stared at him, and apparently decided he would rather take the money than continue the conversation. The crystal changed hands, and the specialist buyer didn’t even haggle.

[Profit: $158,000.]

[Current Balance: $223,340.]

Reinhard looked at the number and let out a low whistle. That morning, he had been shocked by the price of a crystal in a shop window, and now he could buy it. He still couldn’t buy the building. Yet.

His phone buzzed again.

Lily: maki bought me churros instead of the sword.

Lily: this is a betrayal!

Lily: the churros are good though.

Reinhard smiled and kept walking, already composing his reply in his head: a betrayal with excellent cinnamon sugar is still a betrayal, Lily, stay strong.

...

The next section of the exchange was quieter and much more expensive, with private collectors and high-level merchants sitting inside small negotiation rooms along the walls. One of the damaged artifacts Maki had found earlier was sitting in the third room, and the Lens revealed its value immediately.

[Market Value: $52,000.]

[True Value: $710,000.]

[Recommended Buyer Located.]

An older man in a formal suit sat behind a low table with a pot of tea. "You want the artifact?"

"Yes."

"Fifty-two thousand."

Reinhard sat down without being invited, picked up the teapot, and poured himself a cup. "Forty-five."

The old man’s eye twitched. "What makes you think I’ll sell it for forty-five?"

"It’s damaged. Nobody serious has looked at it all day, and you’ve been sitting here long enough to finish an entire pot by yourself." Reinhard took another sip. "This tea is excellent, by the way. Did you make it, or did someone make it for you and you’ve just been taking credit all afternoon?"

"That’s my tea."

"And it’s excellent, and also now partially mine, so really we’re business partners."

The old man stared at him, then sighed. "Forty-five thousand. And you’re paying for the tea."

"Deal. I’d pay double for the tea alone, honestly, don’t tell the next guy that."

[Current Balance: $178,140.]

Less than an hour later, a private equipment manufacturer bought the artifact for six hundred and eighty thousand.

And some extra pocket change

[Profit: $635,000.]

[Current Balance: $858,340.]

Reinhard stopped walking. Eight hundred and fifty-eight thousand dollars. Three weeks ago, he had woken up on a floor surrounded by eleven bottles of terrible beer in an apartment where the refrigerator held three eggs, and now he was a millionaire in the making.

Somewhere, past me is weeping with joy and also mild embarrassment.

A gold-framed mirror in a nearby shop caught his attention, and the Lens told him it was worth twenty thousand dollars. Reinhard looked at the mirror, then at his reflection, then at the price. "No."

He took one step away, then came back and checked his hair, then finally walked off. "Focus. The face is already perfect, it doesn’t need a twenty-thousand-dollar frame to prove it."

...

The small artifact he had noticed when he first arrived was still sitting behind the same glass.

[Market Value: $600,000.]

[True Value: $3,800,000.]

Reinhard walked up to the counter. "I’d like to buy this."

The seller looked up. "That one? It’s six hundred thousand."

"I know."

The seller studied him. "Do you understand what it is?"

Reinhard smiled. "I understand that someone wants it."

The seller frowned. "You’ve been watching it, haven’t you?"

"Since before you were born."

The seller, who was at least fifty, opened his mouth and then decided not to ask. The artifact had been gathering dust for months, and he agreed to the listed price almost gratefully.

[Current Balance: $258,340.]

His phone buzzed.

Lily: you better not have spent all the money.

Reinhard typed back. Technically, I have not.

Lily: that’s not a no.

He put his phone away, and a few minutes later, the recommended buyer met him at a quiet café near the exchange. A sharply dressed woman in a gray coat examined the artifact for a long moment. "Three point four million."

"Deal."

The transfer went through almost instantly.

$258,340 → $3,658,340.

Reinhard stared at the number, then turned his phone face down, then face up again. The number hadn’t changed.

The woman smiled slightly. "First time?"

"First time today."

She laughed, and after she left, a waiter came over. "Can I get you anything else, sir?"

Reinhard studied the menu with the seriousness of a man who had just become a millionaire. "What’s the most expensive thing you have?"

"The chocolate cake. Nine dollars."

Reinhard stared at the menu. "This city’s cafés are very humble."

He ordered two slices anyway and tipped the waiter a hundred dollars.

...

He called Emily while eating the second slice, and she picked up immediately. "Are you done?"

"I’m done. I just have one more thing to do."

"How did it go?"

"Fine," Reinhard said, taking another bite. "I made a little money."

"How much is a little?"

"About three and a half million."

The line went quiet, and then Lily’s voice came faintly through the phone. "What did he say?"

"He said three and a half million," Maki answered.

Lily screamed.

"Reinhard," Emily said slowly. "Lily was convinced you’d spend all of it."

"I didn’t spend it," he said with a smile. "I made it. There’s a difference, and the difference is called talent."

"You keep saying that word."

"It keeps being true."

In the background, he heard Lily grab the phone. "Buy me the sword now."

"Put Maki back on."

"NO."

There was another pause, and then Emily started laughing. The real kind, helpless and bright, the kind Reinhard had only heard from her a handful of times.

He closed his eyes and listened.

A notification appeared the moment he put the phone down.

[Investment Objective Completed.]

[B-Grade Investment Successful.]

[Calculating Returns...]

Reinhard smiled. This was the part he liked.

[Legendary Reward Granted: Knowledge: Gnosis Recovery.]

[Description: Knowledge concerning the reconstruction and restoration of a shattered Gnosis.]

[Recovery Principle: When a Gnosis is completely shattered and successfully reconstructed, its structure can undergo fundamental changes.]

Another notification arrived as well.

[Legendary Additional Reward Granted: Post Gnosis Reawakening.]

[A successfully reconstructed Gnosis may possess up to three times its previous capacity and mana after fully awakening.]

Three times.

Repairing Emily’s Gnosis wouldn’t simply return her to what she had been. She could become stronger than ever before. "Poor everyone else."

[Additional Reward Granted: Gnosis Upgrade.]

[Grade: S → S+]

He felt it immediately.

His Gnosis seemed to refine itself, its structure changing. As his mana control, his reinforcement, and even his Gnosis ability were all amplified.

Reinhard gripped the edge of the table until the sensation settled. Apparently, he hadn’t reached his limit yet.

[Additional Reward Granted: Gnosis Expansion.]

[Effect: Doubles one Gnosis, allowing more mana to be stored within it.]

His Gnosis trembled and expanded as mana rushed into the newly created space.

[Additional Reward Granted: Personal Inventory Upgrade.]

[Inventory Capacity: 100 → 300 Slots.]

"Much better." Two hundred extra slots would be useful.

His eyes drifted toward the exchange, and then he remembered the gold-framed mirror. "No. Focus."

[Additional Reward Granted: Mental State Insight.]

[Effect: Gain insight into Emily’s thoughts and feelings.]

Something clicked, and his thoughts turned straight to Emily. She had been spending more time inside the new house, and he had assumed she was simply getting comfortable.

That wasn’t the whole reason.

She was anxious.

She wanted to reach her old peak again, but part of her was afraid of what would happen if she tried.

The smile faded from his face. So that’s what you’ve been worried about. Don’t worry, things will turn out alright. I promise.

[Additional Reward Granted: Rare Material Acquisition Knowledge.]

[Knowledge Obtained: Locations and Current Holders of Materials Required for Gnosis Recovery.]

[Starfall Crystal — Private Collector — Astral Exchange, Private Collector’s District.]

[Dragonlight — Licensed Rare-Material Merchant — Aurileus Rare Material Exchange.]

[Azure Lifeblood Ore — Private Auction House — Aurileus Private Auction District.]

[Eclipse Glass — Collector Shop — Astral Exchange, Private Collector’s District.]

Another notification.

[Additional Reward Granted: Toxic Resistance Enhancement.]

[Effect: Greatly increases resistance to poisons, toxins, venom, and other harmful substances.]

[Additional Effect: Allows the user to safely handle substances that would normally be lethal to Awakeners of the user’s rank.]

Reinhard smiled. "Also useful if I ever have to taste my soup from that first week again."

[Investment Objective Available.]

[Target: Emily Ashcroft.]

[Current Value: B.]

[Objective: Acquire all materials required for Gnosis Recovery – Materials Acquired: 0/4.]

[Difficulty Grade: B.]

[Success Probability: 40%]

Reinhard finished the last bite of his nine-dollar cake and stood. Outside, Aurileus stretched in every direction, filled with private collectors, auction houses, rare-material merchants, and millions of dollars’ worth of resources, and somewhere among them were the four things Emily needed.

He folded Cassian’s list into his pocket, and a smile spread across his face as he looked out at the city. "All right. Let’s go shopping."