Chapter 292: It’s Yellow And Meaty, that’s just…
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
"Has it been four years?" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself. She wasn't quite sure. After counting, Lin Sanjiu figured that it had been more than four years since she had thought about how she should earn money. Lin Sanjiu left the Airship Registration Point. After walking aimlessly for a while, she stood at the side of the street in a daze, holding all the money she had in her hand.
She would have looked even more pathetic if she could actually squat down beside the road. However, the wings on her back stopped her from doing so. When she was by herself, Mrs. Manas would usually appear and converse with her. However, even Mrs. Manas was stumped by the current situation.
"Didn't the siblings say you could sell your Special Items?" Mrs. Manas suggested, "Maybe, you could find a place that bought Special Items…"
Lin Sanjiu had seen quite a few "Special Items Cash Converter" sign on her way to the Airship Registration Point. However, they all had a distinctive feature—they were all hidden in some deserted archway or deep in some back alley. Their door frames were usually dilapidated, the paint was peeling from their walls and if one were to look into any of the stores, they would barely be able to see anything in the dark rooms.
From the first look, they all seemed very suspicious.
Since she wasn't familiar with this world, Lin Sanjiu wasn't willing to take such risks. After she let out a long sigh, she opened the transport map of the Cyber District. To be honest, even though the map was a little pricey, it provided a lot of detailed information. It showed the locations of the Airship Registration Points, the main roads, and landmarks like various shopping and business streets. In addition, various areas were shaded with a red or black color code and labeled with "Do not trespass" in a few languages.
The red zones covered only a small area, as they were only a few fragmented zones. There was a symbol of a claymore beside each of these zones and there were the words "pocket dimension". This was something that was quite understandable. The Twelve Worlds Centrum had already existed for many years so there should be quite a lot of information about the pocket dimensions in these worlds, thus, in these worlds, it is also very unlikely that people would enter a pocket dimension unknowingly.
The black zones were labeled with a small symbol. The symbol was a picture of a smiling mermaid with open arms. Other than that symbol, they were not labeled with additional words.
"Are these areas controlled by a certain faction?" Lin Sanjiu couldn't help thinking.
Shifting her eyes away from the black zones, she noticed a shopping street. "Maybe, I can convert some cash there?" she mumbled doubtfully to herself.
All the shopping streets were marked with a symbol of a small dark red crystal. They certainly looked very attractive to Lin Sanjiu right now. The nearest shopping street was not far from her and she could just walk there. When Lin Sanjiu started moving again, she tried to retract her wings into her back but her large, menacing, skeletal wings remained stubbornly on her back. The heavy weight of her skeletal wings did partially contribute to their lethality. After dragging them around for almost a day, Lin Sanjiu's back felt slightly sore. Evidently, her back muscles had not fully adapted to this sudden additional burden.
"Really? How am I going to sleep if I can't retract them?" Lin Sanjiu grumbled softly as she walked, "Will I need to extend the wings and sleep on my stomach?"
When Mrs. Manas imagined that scene, she found it rather funny. She thought about it and suggested, "Actually, right now you're still not used to them, so you can't sit and you can't crouch when you want to. If you learn to adjust them to a correct angle, I'm sure they won't be much of a hassle." Her words did make sense.
Currently, it was as if Lin Sanjiu's pair of skeletal wings had been tied up by an invisible rope. As their owner didn't know what to do with them, they were almost always retracted behind Lin Sanjiu's back. At first glance, they neither looked like they were part of Lin Sanjiu body nor did they appear movable. Instead, they were more like costume wings. That was also the reason why very few people on the street even gave her a second look. After all, in the Twelve Worlds Centrum, there were many people whose outfits were weirder.
After dragging her large wings around, walking for more than ten minutes, Lin Sanjiu nearly missed the entrance to the shopping street. This was mainly because she had never seen buildings within an area designed in such a haphazard way.
In her impression, shopping streets were usually rows of terrace buildings with adjacent shops lining the streets. Lin Sanjiu didn't know if this particular shopping street was specifically designed to attract customers but she would simply classify the whole design as a complete mess.
The entrance of a shop that was just a few steps away from Lin Sanjiu wasn't facing the main street but was rather at a slanting angle. She could see from a distance that there was a "Special Item" signboard. However, she didn't go in because that particular building wasn't even a proper shop. Someone had just created that small space by stacking some bricks together and the height of the door was only up to Lin Sanjiu's shoulders. She could bend over and enter the 'store' but she would have to rip off her wings as well.
She saw a similarly random building not far from that store which was basically a giant, overturned, metal bucket. She didn't know how the owners even found that thing. The metal bucket was two stories high and apparently, someone had cut out an entrance. There was a sign above the entrance "Munition Factory Exclusive: Private sales and Surplus Samples". Lin Sanjiu saw a few people heading inside. Interestingly, they would accidentally hit the walls of the metal bucket, no matter how careful they were, and it would cause the whole building to sway once or twice.
Behind that metal bucket, there was a beautiful ornate building that stretched to near the end of a street. It had an ancient oriental architecture that was so tall that it reached the clouds. Before Lin Sanjiu could process her awe, she suddenly realized that something was wrong. On closer examination, she realized that the building was not so tall that it reached the clouds, but rather the rooftop of the building came with its own clouds as if to create the false impression that it was a tall building.
Other than the common stalls which sold maps and street snacks, many posthumans just placed a cloth on the ground and started selling their items. Lin Sanjiu browsed around, pretending like she had a lot of money in her pockets. She discovered that both the pricing and the types of items were decided very arbitrarily. However, she noticed one extra detail. Most sellers would place the survivor supplies or weapons like handguns and military knives that they had on the ground. However, when it came to Special Items, none of these makeshift stalls would just lay them out. Instead, they would place a sort of standardized paper to show the item that they were selling.
When Lin Sanjiu looked down, she saw that the paper in front of her had the words: "Special Item #572012623 - Appraisal Certificate".
"Are you interested?" the stall owner smiled when he noticed a potential customer, "Go ahead and look at that certificate! I just got the item appraised yesterday. The appraiser even mentioned that he rarely sees items of this quality!"
"Why… why do you have to get your Special Item appraised?" Lin Sanjiu scanned the content of the paper.
The paper provided information about the item's name, item's description, safety warning, additional notes, and instructions. There was also an estimated value of the item at the bottom. The particular appraisal certificate was for an item called [Peach Blossom Fan]. It was valued at about 42 large crystals.
"You are looking for unappraised items?" the stall owner's expression changed slightly and he took the certificate from Lin Sanjiu, "Then, you shouldn't be here… Just a word of advice, it's best not to try to get a cheap bargain, the risks are too high…"
Lin Sanjiu was confused by his words but she at least understood one thing. If she wanted to sell any Special Items here, she would need to have her Special Item professionally appraised before anyone would be willing to buy it.
It wasn't difficult to find a professional appraisal agency. Such businesses practically required only a single licensed appraiser. She found out that there were a couple of these agencies in that particular "pseudo highrise" building.
After she got more information from that half-hearted stall owner who was just answering her superficially, Lin Sanjiu sprinted to the "pseudo highrise" building.
Now that she had decided on what she had to do, she felt a little more relaxed. She took out her "sepia yellow" steamed bun and took a bite…
"Oh, isn't this a meat bun?"