The Master of the Strange Realm

But this still made him feel very good. After all, it was his first achievement in this world.

The name of the fairy tale collection troubled him for a long time. Although he was a copywriter, it would be too shameless to call it "Jenkins Fairy Tales" or "Williamt Fairy Tales" directly.

The names "Andersen's Fairy Tales" and "Grimm's Fairy Tales" cannot be mentioned rashly because the origin cannot be explained. Therefore, the name finally selected was "Stories from a Stranger". Jenkins believed that this represented the origin of the story. Both Mr. Blow and the old painter believed that children today like this kind of mysterious name.

Printing books and drawing illustrations take time, so if you want to make money and move, you still have to wait a long time.

"I hope someone likes my book."

Jenkins prays to the sages every day, like a true believer, but this is somewhat improvident.

Due to the brave and loyal qualities Jenkins displayed during last week's incident, Dad's favorability rating for him has increased even more. While chatting one day, he "accidentally" revealed the existence of a local black market for benefactors.

Of course the black market is against the rules, but as Dad said, where there is light, there is shadow. Of course the church knew about the existence of the black market, but it had always turned a blind eye, and the black market merchants were very cooperative and never caused trouble.

There are many entrances to the black market. The one his father mentioned was in the remote Pig's Head Bar. Jenkins decided to use his weekly vacation time to go and have a look.

He carefully purchased a set of loose robes and a long-brimmed sun hat, entered the empty bar, ordered a glass of "fire whiskey" from the bartender, and then handed out nine copper pennies.

"Introduced by Mr. No. 349."

he whispered.

The bartender nodded, took out a funny bunny mask from under the bar and handed it to Jenkins. Then the two of them walked around to the backyard of the bar, and Jenkins walked down the entrance to the cellar.

The black market is located underground in Nolan City. It was originally an abandoned sewer. I don't know who was the first to use it as a trading place, and gradually developed into its current scale.

According to Dad, the black market has a secret manager. He or they have sealed off the sewer pipe where the black market is located from other places, while leaving dozens of upward exits as entrances. Entrances like the Hog's Head Bar, in addition to charging a small toll, are also responsible for security and information collection.

There were not many people, and most of the people passing by were dressed weirdly and wearing masks like Jenkins. Only merchants selling items will light a candle. This is a rule here, so the entire black market is extremely dark with only sporadic candlelight.

After walking down the pipe, Jenkins walked about twenty steps east, then turned left into another pipe and found a man in black robes with a crystal skull in front of him.

"Three pieces of the molted skin of a skeleton snake, which must be salted; one ounce of bone meal from the right leg of a forest wolf."

He said softly.

From a normal perspective, there are only a few candles in the sewer, but after turning on the [Eye of Reality], the eyes are immediately filled with colorful lights.

After running errands for his father, Jenkins felt that he had been lucky recently and might be able to buy some good things. It turns out that as long as it’s something interesting in their eyes, the lowest price is higher than 500 pounds, and most people only accept barter.

It was still early, and a somewhat disappointed Jenkins searched in the dark sewers as planned. When passing through a very deep shadow somewhere, he called out the black robe soaked in spirituality, and no one noticed his change of clothes.

It took another half an hour to find a crouching clown in the corner. There are also so-called mercenaries and detectives among the benefactors, and this clown is one of the few trustworthy middlemen.

"I need to investigate something."

he whispered.

"What's the price? Do you have any special requirements?" the clown asked in a hoarse voice.

"It's just a small thing, about 15 pounds."

The clown nodded, "Wait a moment and come back in half an hour."

He reached out and extinguished the candle at his feet and left quickly, disappearing into the darkness at the other end of the sewer. Jenkins sniffed the faint smell of burning in the air and curled his lips.

He no longer had the interest to continue shopping, so he just stood there and leaned against the dirty pipe wall to wait.

Half an hour later, the clown who appeared in a hurry asked Jenkins to follow him. The two left the confines of the sewer black market, turned a few turns in the completely dark and smelly underground, and then followed the ladder to a room similar to a reception room. place.

There are soft brown fabric sofas, neat wool printed carpets, and brass steam pipes extending into the room from the corners, but the gas lamps connected to them are not on.

The only lighting was a candle on a low wooden table in the center surrounded by four sofas.

A woman with flaxen hair had already sat down on the sofa. The clown nodded towards her and climbed back underground along the ladder.

The woman's face is not very clear under the light of the candle. If you look carefully, it is an extremely ordinary face. You will forget it after just one glance in the crowd. But Jenkins could see the yellow dot in front of the woman glowing, and it seemed that this was not her true appearance.

"A lot of houses were burned down in the fire at the pier last week. I need you to investigate the history of those houses and see if they are related to the Giver."

That's right, Jenkins was still thinking about the origin of the metal cube. He didn't dare to investigate with his real identity, and he couldn't afford to hire a good detective with the money in his hand, so he could only think of this method.

"30 pounds, last week's fire was related to the believers of [Billion Lords of Glory], this is very dangerous."

The woman's voice was also a little weird, it should be a false voice.

The church certainly won't announce the truth of the fire, this woman is well-informed.

"15 pounds, it has nothing to do with the cause of the fire, I just want to investigate those houses."

"25 pounds, this is very troublesome, there is still martial law under the Church of the True God."

"20 pounds, this is not illegal, I just need information that is difficult to collect."

"22 pounds, give you an answer within three weeks, I will pay the agency fee."

"Okay."

Chapter 39 Chapter 38 Bad Luck and Good Luck

Jenkins nodded and ended the bargaining, took out the banknotes in his pocket and put them on the table, then passed the candle in the middle of the table and pushed it to the woman sitting on the sofa opposite.

"7 pounds advance payment, the rest will be paid in three weeks."

The woman nodded and grabbed the gold pounds on the table:

"Since you can find the middleman clown, you should have heard of the reputation of the huntress. Don't worry about this matter, just find the middleman in three weeks."

Jenkins nodded again, without saying a word, turned around the sofa, opened the trap door on the floor and went underground.

Jenkins didn't know who the huntress was, but the middleman clown was recommended by Daddy. He has been active in the black market under Nolan for more than ten years and has a very good reputation. So he could boldly pay the huge sum of 7 pounds and didn't even ask for a receipt in the end.

The premise is that there is such a thing as a receipt.

The old man didn't ask Jenkins what he wanted to do, but just told him not to reveal his identity easily. Jenkins was also quite clear about this. After saying goodbye to the middleman, he walked around the black market for a few more rounds, bought some commonly used ritual materials, and then changed back to his original clothes in the shadows and returned to the ground from the cellar of the bar.

He didn't have good luck in the black market, but he did in the antique shop. On the second day, Jenkins had just arrived at his father's place and was about to clean up. A fat woman in a bloated sweater hurried into the door amid the sound of the bell.

It was still August [the month of craftsmen and sweet rain], and this outfit was definitely not suitable for this season.

"Is the boss here?"

The fat woman asked Jenkins, who was holding a rag, in a rough voice. Jenkins nodded hesitantly, opened the side door and called the old man in the backyard over.

"Good morning, customer. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Oliver's father had a standard business smile on his face.

"Yes."

The woman nodded neatly, took out a small cloth bag from her arms and unfolded it on the counter. There were all kinds of small badges inside.

"Oh~"

Jenkins, who opened the [Eye of Truth], sighed in his heart that there were actually two glowing badges in that badge.

"How much is it worth?"

The woman asked hurriedly, speaking very quickly.

"Please wait, I need to identify them, these badges seem to belong to different times..."

"Please quote a price, I'm in a hurry!"

The woman interrupted the old man rudely, and the old man frowned and looked at her.

"Sorry, ma'am, we are a professional antique shop here, not a second-hand goods purchasing station. You must identify it before you can quote, otherwise my peers will say that I don't follow the rules."

"Forget it!"

The fat woman grabbed the cloth bag and turned to leave. Jenkins hesitated and stopped her.

"Please wait."

The woman looked at Jenkins with suspicion. After all, Jenkins' current image is a cleaner.

"3 pounds, I want to buy it as a gift for my brother, he finally has to go home recently."

"10 pounds!"

The woman didn't care about Jenkins' words at all.

"2 pounds, I'm just interested."

"5 pounds, I want cash."

"1 pound 12 pence, if you agree, I can give you the money now."

The woman's face showed a dangerous expression that wanted to grab the porcelain bottle next to her and make a hole in Jenkins' head. But she still pursed her lips, squinted her eyes and nodded, walked forward and grabbed the banknotes that Jenkins was counting, stuffed the cloth bag into his arms, and turned around and left the store.

"What's wrong, how much are those banknotes?"

The old man just smiled as the two talked, and asked after the woman left.

"I didn't count them clearly, but after paying the coachman the fare in the morning, the remaining amount would definitely not exceed 1 pound 10 pence... I originally wanted to count them clearly and take the money out of my jacket pocket."

The old man laughed, "She probably won't come back to ask you for money. This kind of person is either a thief who is eager to sell the stolen goods, or an improper professional who takes things that he shouldn't take."

"Will she get into trouble?"

Jenkins suddenly became a little worried.

"Don't worry, don't worry. When Dad came to this street to open a store, the steam pipes had not been laid here, but no one has ever taken advantage of me."

"Very good, very domineering."

Jenkins said in his heart.

He took the small cloth bag to the counter and took out all the badges and put them on the table.

"Please help me take a look, Dad. I really feel that the things here are attractive to me."

Dad nodded, took out a pair of small glasses from his jacket pocket and placed them in front of his eyes, activating his ability to rub dozens of badges one by one.

After a moment, he picked one and put it aside.

"I regret giving you this business. This one is [Super]."

"Dad didn't find the one with blue light?"

Jenkins was a little surprised, and showed it on his face with other reasons.

"Really? So lucky!"

"Stinky boy, you did this early in the morning."

Dad laughed and scolded, "Wait, I'll help you take a closer look at what they can do. You should have some of your own items in your hands. If Brown hadn't put a bomb on his body last time, we would both be finished."

"Don't you have to hand it over to the church?"

Jenkins said hesitantly.

"Our main responsibility is to monitor the "dangerous" items circulating in the market, do you understand?"

Dad said meaningfully.

"Understand! Understand!"

Meaning, if it's not dangerous, you can intercept it yourself, as long as the church doesn't find it!

"Sure enough, Dad has been here for so many years. Not to mention his family background, the supernatural items in his hands are probably more than anyone I have ever seen."

It is not unreasonable to think so. Jenkins has recently learned a lot of mystical knowledge and has learned that the ability to identify items is extremely rare. His [Eye of Truth] has never been recorded. There are probably no more than three people in Nolan City who can directly identify items. The role played by this little old man in the antique shop in the church is definitely no less than that of higher-level combatants.

"It's just right to test the effect of your learning these days."

Taking out the badge separately, Dad pointed to the remaining badges and said:

"Now tell me, what period do they belong to and how much they are worth."

Jenkins nodded, stretched out his hand, and first picked out three relatively new ones.

"This is a modern craft, it should be a commemorative badge, and it is worthless."

Dad nodded gently.

"This should be the badge awarded to low-level military nobles when the Kingdom of Cheslan was founded. I have seen it in a book. The reference price is about 10 pounds."

Dad nodded again.

Chapter 40 Chapter 39 [Medal of Wisdom]