"Unless you pay him a hush fee, the price varies. He's quite despicable in his methods, so shopkeepers need to be cautious. He made a big fuss about you yesterday, and he probably has some significant intentions. He might come looking for you soon."
Just as they spoke of the devil, Héctor arrived.
Amalia saw another private message in her inbox, this time from a sender named Héctor, the same ID as the user who started the thread berating her.
"Is this the person you were talking about?"
She showed Carlos the ID of the private message.
Carlos hadn't expected this to happen so quickly; his eyes nearly popped out. "It's him." However, he didn't understand why Héctor seemed so urgent.
He wondered what was in the private message.
Amalia glanced at the message content, which was almost identical to what Carlos had described.
This person didn't explicitly ask for a hush fee, but he had his eyes on Amalia artifacts, asking her to sell them for a low price of five hundred thousand.
If not, he threatened to make disparaging posts about the shop, ensuring that Amalia shop would never have any customers.
If it weren't for her lack of money at the moment—her injuries were left untreated due to the lack of funds, and she could only afford half of the recovery process, with the other half progressing slowly—she wouldn't have been so hasty to put her artifacts up for sale.
"I know you're there. It's just a simple decision whether to sell for five hundred thousand or not. But don't blame me for not warning you in advance. Your shop reputation on Red Espiritual Net has already turned sour. It might extend beyond Red Espiritual Net as well. It's not difficult for real-world Artificer to find out. I'm generally reasonable, but if you provoke me, I can't guarantee anything."
Héctor waited for a while without receiving a response from Amalia.
He decided to send another private message, feeling that he had displayed considerable patience.
After Amalia finished dealing with matters and returned, she saw the new private message. She replied in a composed manner with just one word.
"Scram."
Héctor heard the notification sound and eagerly opened the private message, but his expression changed from stiffness to a grimace of anger.
He angrily swept objects off a surface, muttering, "You don't want to give face, huh? Just you wait. If your shop manages to succeed, I'll have my name written backwards!"
Héctor finished his message and closed Red Espiritual Net. Clenching his teeth, he began contemplating how to ruin Amalia shop.
...
"Shopkeeper, is that Héctor still bothering you?" Carlos had seen many shops that had been targeted by Héctor.
His methods were truly repugnant, even someone like Carlos couldn't bear to witness it.
"No worries, no need to pay him any attention," Amalia attitude towards the person giving her this advice was still quite good.
Carlos immediately understood the gravity of the situation.
It was clear that the shopkeeper hadn't realized the extent of Héctor tactics.
He reminded, "Shopkeeper, be cautious these next few days. By rejecting him, you've likely provoked him further. He's very likely to strike back."
"Alright, I know," Amalia dismissed the concern.
After some thought, she added, "If you really want this artifact, I can sell it to you at market price. Consider it a discount for being the shop first customer."
Carlos emotions, previously a bit downcast, were reignited by this message.
He nearly jumped with excitement.
Market price was one million five hundred thousand, even though it was still a bit expensive for him. But a difference of five hundred thousand was a significant saving.
"Thank you, shopkeeper. Give me, uh, half an hour."
Carlos rushed off eagerly to gather the funds.
Amalia remained nonchalant.
Half an hour later, Carlos returned and decisively placed an order.
Amalia told him it would be sent out the next morning.
After Carlos initial excitement, he finally calmed down and found it quite incredible.
He had been hesitant before contacting the shopkeeper, yet after their conversation, he had placed an order without even thinking twice.
He couldn't help but feel regretful and lightly tapped his own head, hoping that the shopkeeper hadn't deceived him; otherwise, he would have suffered a substantial loss.
Amalia looked up information about the so-called official certification organization online.
It was run by Artificer, but she had no intention of pursuing official certification.
She believed in leaving things to fate, and most importantly, she didn't want Arthur to find out.
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GOT IT