41 VR: Second Life (1/2)
To be frank, he ordered their specialties and their best dishes. The food arrived after 35 minutes since placing the order.
For his entree, it was scallops sauteed in mushroom and soy sauce, and two baskets of fries with some sort of sweet, but sour aftertaste sauce.
For his main dish, it was some sort of meat turned into steak? As well as pilaf rice and corn.
For his dessert, it was 3 scoops of cookies n' cream stacked like a sundae.
For the next 30 minutes, he ate his food, while occasionally reading the research papers published. True to their promise, he didn't have to pay for the food.
He continued to wait for another 2 hours before the trio returned, their Vaea and Carold's faces flushed with excitement.
Carold immediately went close to Xander, and spoke, almost beggingly, to him,
”Mr. Simpson! We have verified your materials to be truly what you say they were! We are willing to pay for the materials with the following:
Every square meter of the Veiled fire serpent would be 100,000 galaxy coins, a total of 6 million.
Every square meter of the Water vine earthworm would be 80,000 galaxy coins, a total of 4.8 million.
Every 50 drops of the Mound Jackal would be 10,000 galaxy coins, a total of 10 million.
Every 100 grams of Wingmetal Chicken's feathers would be 150,000 galaxy coins, a total of 3 million.
Every 100 grams of Jackal Ice Squirrel's fur would be 150,000 galaxy coins, a total of 3 million.
Every 100 grams of Fire skin Anteater's fur would be 130,000 galaxy coins, a total of 2.6 million.
All in all, we are to pay you 29.4 million galaxy coins. What do you think?” Carold asks, a bit nervous inside. After all, this was considered quite a below-average price for the materials Xander had given to the auction house, but this was to ensure that the auction house would gain double, if not triple the profit!
Xander, who heard the price, responded to Carold.
”Yeah, sure. transfer it now to my bank account.” Xander gave Carold his identification card which was placed on top of the scanner, and another notification popped out, showing Xander that he had gained 29.4 million, giving him a total of 47.8 million galaxy coins.
Carold handed the identification card after putting it on top of another scanner he whipped out after the transaction. Seeing the action, Xander raised his eyebrow in question, which Vaea quickly responded to.
”Mr. Simpson, don't worry. What my partner did was add your identity to the database for Gold VIP members. Usually, only those who have made a single deal amounting to a total of 40 million galaxy coins or more can receive this, as well as if they have been recommended by our Platinum VIP members.”
Xander, who didn't plan on returning to this planet, just said a simple ”oh” in response. What caused him initially to raise his eyebrow was that when his ID card was scanned by the second terminal, the system was also able to access the internal database of the auction house, and from there, connect to the internal server of their parent company, allowing him to harvest and catalog their data information.
Xander immediately cut to the chase of the second reason he was in the auction house. ”I came here with a second purpose: I plan to buy seeds of different plants of different affinities. Roughly, around 100 per elemental affinities you have.” Xander stated, causing the trio to fall into confusion? Seeds? plants of different elemental affinities? Hey, can't you just buy them in the supermarket?
Fawkes spoke up, telling Xander what he knows.
”Mr. Simpson, the seeds you are looking for, you can purchase them through online stores or even through the supermarkets in the city. Can you be a little more specific on what you are looking for?”
”Alright, I need 20 pieces of 20 different species of seeds that have the 5-elements affinity, 10 species of seeds that have all 5-elements present in their system, as well as 20 different species of seeds that fall under the Purgatory, Karma (Causality), and Fortune elements. I'm not picky with the species, as long as it is different species.” Upon hearing that request, it was the trio's turn to feel astounded.
20 different species of seeds that have 5-elements affinity; each species having 20 seeds, a total of 400 seeds.
10 different species of seeds with the 5-elements in their system, 20 seeds each species, a total of 200 seeds.
20 different species of seeds that fall under purgatory, karma, and fortune elements, 20 seeds each species, a total of 400 seeds.
Vaea took out her communicator tablet and began calculating furiously the prices of the seeds that the auction house had internally, and also checked with their parent company.
After a few minutes of browsing and crunching, she already reached a price value: 30 million galaxy coins, which already included the 20% discount Gold VIPs were entitled to.
”Mr. Simpson, the total is 30 million galaxy coins, which included the 20% discount you are entitled to as a Gold VIP member. Please check the breakdown.” Vaea sent a copy of the breakdown cost to Xander's smartwatch, allowing him to read the breakdown.
The one that costs the most was the seeds that contained the 5-elements; a total of 200 seeds of 10 different species was roughly 18.5 million galaxy coins, and the remaining value came from the combined cost of the 5-elements and the seeds with the elements under the Fate series.
He thought about it for a moment before accepting the price and paid immediately using his ID card. His balance was now 17.8 million galaxy coins.
”Mr. Simpson, please wait for a moment, I will be retrieving the seeds in our storage. Carold, Fawkes, please help me collect the seeds.” Vaea called for the other two, and the trio left Xander once again. Xander continued to read research articles for the next 20 minutes until the door opened again and the trio returned.
Vaea came close to Xander and handed him a large bag, which, upon opening, contained 50 pouches with labels on them. Scanning it with spatial energy, he already confirmed that they were of different species based on the structure and the faint element signature they were emitting.
”Alright, nice doing business. See ya.” Xander stood up from the couch and greeted the trio as such and left. Before they could even process what happened, Xander was already gone from the auction house.
___________________________________________
Deep in the Empire's domain, an unknown Exoplanet.
Xander was standing on top of a mountain, not a living being seen; just grass and moss all around. The mountain was the tallest area on the planet; roughly 5 kilometers above sea level.
Before he came here, he had already modified the garden area, placing the seeds he had gotten from the auction house and planting them carefully in their respective environments. He had also naturally accelerated the formation of lava lakes, craters with higher densities of fire elements, as well as areas where the air elements were very high. For water-type seeds, he just chucked them in the underground riverbeds and lakebeds. For those under the Life-Death elements, specifically, those that grow on fate, he just modified a section of the garden, roughly around 1,000,000 square kilometers, for these seeds. From the places where he threw the seeds, the rules of the space in those areas were modified; meaning, not a single sprite can be borne even with the concentration of elements. He had tested it before, even after speeding up the time to 1 second: 10,000,000 years in a small area of land, the highest speed he could currently muster, which only lasted for 1.0001 seconds. No sprite was formed, nor were there any magic beasts created. However, in that patch of land, the grasses had gained sentience, which was quickly named by Xander as Piece.
He had observed the grass and newly-formed sentience it had, as well as the changes in its body. For one, the whole 100 square meters of land with grass became the parts of Piece's grass body. The grass also changed in color and appearance; in the 1,000,000 years that passed by it was crystallized, but upon reaching the 10 millionth year, the crystal body returned to its original look, albeit upon closer inspection of the leaf veins, it would be made up of runic writings and spell matrices.
Piece was basically the oldest thing in this place. It was technically 10.000076 million years old. It had no gender and could reproduce on its own, as well as command its offspring to do its bidding. He was content with what he has right now and decided to remain in the pocket garden, as a Divine-1 cultivator.
He then played with the sprites and held several classes concerning cultivation, and subjects relating to business, agriculture, scientific research, philosophy, and one's emotions.
For the past 2 years inside the garden, he was just there, talking with the magic beasts and the sprites with their own personalities and problems, and attempting to resolve them by guiding them to the answer they are searching for. The majority of them were quite content with the life they were experiencing, but some yearned for something more.
He also discovered that nothing had changed with the semi-independent ordered system ever since he disrupted the formation of the time sprite and forced the rules to change in such a way origin element sprites would not be formed, which was good news that Xander had been happy to hear. However, he felt that something wasn't quite right with the garden, but he wasn't sure yet what it is, because even with his increased understanding of the origin elements, there weren't any problems he could see, or visibly detect. However, he had a premonition that this would lead to a major problem in the future. Which was why Xander had conducted the one-on-one sessions with the beasts and the sprites. He wanted to understand more of this garden where they have lived for the past 180,000 years, at the same time, discover their inner thoughts, as well as if there was an invisible hand manipulating their ideas and feelings, as well as actions.
After 2 years, that research has borne fruit. There really was something pulling the strings. He was stuck with two options: Destroy the garden including everyone in it and create another one, or find a method to extract the presence of this something from the garden.
For now, Xander didn't dwell on the issue too much; he'll fix it once he returns to Eteria. Xander left the garden and brought the VR portable console out of the space storage.
He booted it up and wore it over his head. Before he activated the program, he covered himself with [Absolute Defense] as well as creating a space barrier around the top of the mountain. He then opened the program and immediately, his whole body became limp, and was now out of his control.