Chapter 266: Ah, Mister Bloom... I wasn’t expecting you.

"You’ve seen it before?" Valerie said lowly, her voice holding little emotion and her face wearing an expression of disinterest, mixed with some amount of annoyance.

"And here I was sure that it was more of a unique. How disappointing."

However, while her voice was calm and bored, her mind was exploding in panic.

’Shit. Shit. Shiiiiit. What the hell does he mean he’s seen it before? Where the hell could he have seen that before?! It’s not even from this world. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Fuck... is he a player? Does he recognise it from Dawd? Well... Even if he does, there is no way that he thinks that it’s a real coin taken from the game, that would be insane.

I mean it’s true, but you would have to be insane to think it just from seeing a damned coin! He probably thinks it’s just a promotional replica or something. Yeah... I can work with that. Play the tricked heiress angle, maybe I can still get some money for it, or pivot to the spear.

Just calm down, keep your head, and if things start going wrong, mind blast them and get out.’

Valerie finally plucked the glass over water from the table, feigning a roll of the eyes, before taking her first drink of the water. She made sure not to gulp it down, suggesting any guilt or panic, and instead just took a casual sip before placing it down and going back to scratching Beans.

The cat in question was absolutely loving the attention, as he rolled over onto his back and kindly offered her his belly to scratch to help calm her down. A purely selfless act, I’m sure you can agree.

"Yes, It was just the other week that a gentleman sold a piece that was almost identical to this one. Just like yours, it was in tremendous condition, however he refused to give any information on where he found it.

Although, certain questions can naturally be avoided, with the addition of a few extra fees. However if you are feeling generous, I would certainly love to know where you found this." Mister Bloom said with a wide, predatory smile that screamed of a sleazy used car salesman.

’A gentleman?’ Valerie thought to herself, ’Who could have... Oh, of course. Corpse boy. Of course he would know a way to transfer things between worlds. No doubt he’s pulling source remnants through to power level himself.

That’s so cheap... I mean, it’s what I’m doing... but still, it’s different!’

Mister Blooms eyes returned to their ’natural’ gold as he allowed them to drift over Valerie, inspecting her from head to toe, and even narrowing his eyes at the fluffy, adorable cat squirming and purring in her lap. The silky, pitch black fur of Beans actually helped add to her disguise of wealth, as only someone with money to burn, or a love of being in debt, could afford to have such a pampered princess of a pet.

"It’s an old family heirloom, passed down through the generations. Most of the items here today are, and that is as much information as I am willing to give you." She answered bluntly, glaring at the strange historian, who simply chuckled in response and shrugged.

"Very well, At least I can say I tried if I am questioned about it. Now although this piece is certainly rare and authentic, without much information on its origins, the price might be disappointing.

The story is what gives it it’s value, after all. There is a difference between a simple early 2000s gun, and the gun used by the mad tyrant to kill himself after the disaster of World War 3. Even if they are the same make and model, one is exceptionally more expensive than the other.

However, I am sure we can still come to an agreement that will allow you to leave here satisfied."

He gave Valerie another sleazy smile, that she simply accepted and nodded her head along with. Any amount of money would be fine for her. What she needed was money for food, keeping herself alive, as well as getting gear.

She already had an idea of what she wanted to do with her magic focus, but it required money to get it. Money was also good for getting blood, although there was a possible issue with that.

With the advent of cybernetics, blood for transfusions and surgeries and such was no longer collected from blood drives. Between small machines infesting blood, to bad implants giving you unknown diseases, to simply some people replacing their blood with oil because they were so borged out.

Blood drives weren’t really a thing anymore. Instead, just like their meat, blood was grown. It was artificial and designed to work with organic and cybernetic components.

So it was possible that the blood bags she was going to purchase would be useless, but there was only one way to find out. At the best, they might be able to satisfy her cravings more than nibbling at raw meat.

One by one, pieces of their ’ancient collection of family heirlooms’ were presented and laid out onto the table. Valerie didn’t want to go too overboard, plus there was only so much she could sell without being suspicious.

The only weapon she brought was the spear, and that was only because the wood in the shaft would get her a better price as they always loved real wood.

After a thorough examination, the expert Mister Bloom and the greedy salesman left the room for a few minutes to discuss everything between each other, before the salesman returned on his own.

Once again he was rubbing his grubby little hands, already focusing on the commission he would receive, before addressing Valerie.

"We have decided that these items would be perfect for our collection. Although we are still unsure on the exact perfect price for a few of them, we would like to put them up for auction, if that would be alright with you.

However, we would not do so without giving you some kind of assurance. So, as a gesture of good will, we will offer you ten percent of the starting price for the items. Although it is not much, we hope that you will use our establishment in the future."

His grubby hands stopped rubbing, as he took a small black cube, no bigger than an inch long on any face, from his shirt pocket and placed it down on the table. A small panel opened up on the top of the cube and a faint light projected out of the gap, creating a holographic display of a contract floating in the air.

Valerie scanned the contract closely, reviewing it for any loop holes or traps, but thankfully with the clientele this establishment was used to, they did not use such things. However it never hurt to be careful with these types.

When her eyes caught the price written in the contract, her breath caught in her throat and her heart nearly skipped a beat. When she realised that the exuberant number written down was the ten percent, and not the original price, then her heart skipped a beat. Or... It would have if it still beat at all.

Perhaps instead it was just pulsing excitedly. Then again, why wouldn’t it be excited, upon discovering that she had somehow managed to gain 6 million Ollies from her loot. And that was just the ’mere’ ten percent.

A part of Valerie wanted to leap up and strange this man, for even suggesting that this was a small amount or that she might be disappointed by this. Compared to this, the six months rent that she had been so joyous about when she got her book money, seemed like little more than pocket change now.

Trying to keep her emotions under control and act cool, which was incredibly difficult when she was thinking about the kind of money she had never thought she would ever have, Valerie leaned forwards and pressed her finger against the front of the tiny cube.

There was a sharp prick against the tip of her finger as it took a small prick of her blood, before her signature appeared on the holographic contract.

"Wonderful." The salesman said with a giddy smile, performing the same act and signing it himself so that he could earn his commission, before turning off the cube and storing it away.

"Now, how shall we handle payment? Would you like it sent to a specific account, or given in cash? Either way, we will do so with the utmost discretion so don’t you worry. We are professionals after all."

"My assistant has all the details. You can ask her for them. Otherwise, we are done here." Valerie stated with boredom, masking her frothing excitement at the boatload of money she had made, before turning in her chair and wheeling herself out.

Thankfully before they had come here, they had opened a new high value bank account. It had required a collateral of 50,000 Ollies, since they were doing so with no funds, and which they had to pay off before they could store money in the account.

But Valerie had a feeling that they were going to be able to pay that off and still have a little left over to spare.