“Refund?”

The air fell silent for a moment, before the shopkeeper firmly retorted:

“Impossible!”

“Then do you believe I won’t find someone to tear down your damned shop?”

Muen sneered coldly.

“Or do you think I can’t do it?”

“...Judging from the customer’s previously demonstrated lavish spending, you probably can.”

The shopkeeper looked troubled.

“But I really don’t have any money right now. Even if I wanted to refund you, I can’t.”

“You? Out of money?”

Muen didn’t believe it.

A crooked shop like this one—out of money?

“How about this: I’ll compensate the customer in some other way.” Seeing Muen’s face that clearly demanded justice, the shopkeeper also seemed unwilling to stir up trouble. After thinking for a moment, she said:

Muen raised a brow. “What way?”

“Customer, you didn’t come to the black market just to cause trouble for me, right?”

The shopkeeper glanced around, then leaned close to Muen and lowered her voice to a whisper:

“If you want to find good things in the black market, intel is the most important. And conveniently, I’m always rather well-informed.”

“Intel...”

Muen’s thoughts stirred. He really was having a headache about where to find the Ancient Dragon’s Heartblood. If he could get some information from this shopkeeper, that’d be worth far more than that measly 130,000 Amiels.

“Talk.”

Muen was intrigued and leaned in as well.

At that moment, he smelled a faint, familiar fragrance. But it also seemed distorted by the aura-masking black robe, so he couldn’t quite place what was familiar about it.

“Actually, this intel came through one of my personal channels. If you weren’t such a generous customer, I normally wouldn’t say a thing.”

The shopkeeper pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. On the gold-embossed sheet, there was a faint image of a red-eyed bat.

There weren’t many words—just a brief line like: “Secret Auction—cordially invites your attendance.”

“This is...”

“An invitation.”

The shopkeeper said mysteriously:

“Soon, the black market will hold a secret auction. This is the invitation to that auction. You could also call it a ticket.”

“Auction?”

Muen’s eyes lit up. “Will there be anything good?”

“Well, I don’t know the specifics, but the organizer behind this auction is one of the biggest players backing the black market. Whatever he brings out shouldn’t be anything ordinary.”

“A big player...”

Muen stroked his chin.

It definitely sounded like a chance not to be missed.

“In that case, I’ll take ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) it.”

As he spoke, Muen reached out to grab the invitation—but found that the two slender fingers holding it on the other side gripped it like iron tongs, refusing to let go.

“Unwilling? Then how about that 130,000—”

“...It’s not that,” the shopkeeper cut in, “it’s just that admission to this auction is limited and very precious. I had to go through a lot of trouble to get this one. If you just take it like this, doesn’t that mean I’m taking a huge loss?”

“What do you want, then?”

“How about the customer adds another hundred thousand... eighty thousand? Fifty thousand, maybe?” the shopkeeper tested the waters.

“In your dreams!”

Muen yanked the invitation from her hand and sneered coldly:

“I haven’t even charged you for emotional damages yet!”

“But—”

“No but! I’m leaving!”

Muen carefully tucked the invitation into his chest, afraid this black-hearted, mysterious shopkeeper had some hidden trick left. He immediately slipped away.

The moment he stepped outside, Muen felt like his footsteps had gotten lighter.

Getting a benefit out of that black-hearted shopkeeper was harder than snatching meat from a tiger’s jaws. Absolutely delightful.

...

“The address on the invitation should be around here.”

After leaving that mysterious little shop, Muen directly followed the location written on the invitation and arrived at a rather bustling area within the black market.

On both sides of the road, there were also many people in cloaks selling strange goods on roadside stalls.

In Muen’s experience, there were probably treasures buried among these roadside stands, their luster hidden by dust—but unfortunately, he was not the protagonist, nor did he have a white-bearded old man to guide his way. Apart from a bit of shady money that could buy anything, he had nothing.

So all he could do was act like a dumb rich mark at an auction—one with outrageous markups, but at least no fake goods.

“Huh, that’s strange... it’s really here?”

After finding the location, Muen scratched his head in confusion.

Because the place indicated by the invitation was an ornately decorated, dazzlingly luxurious building—one clearly rare in the entire black market.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a secret auction? Why was it so flashy?

“Hello, sir! Please take one of these!”

Just as Muen was feeling confused, a seductive woman in a short, sexy skirt walked over, carrying a stack of papers in her arms. She handed one to Muen.

“A flyer? Sorry, I’m not looking to buy a house, drink bubble tea, or visit any c-club host models.”

Muen reflexively wanted to refuse, but then a glimpse of the flyer made him freeze.

That bat logo—it looked... really familiar?

“This is...?”

“It’s a flyer for the auction~”

The woman explained cheerfully: “After the recent purge, the black market suffered a heavy blow. So to revive the economy, our boss specially organized this auction. Many of the items up for bidding are from his private collection—absolutely worth anticipating!”

You’re a black market and you’re trying to “revive the economy” my ass!

Wait—no, that’s not the point. The point is...

“Limited admission?”

“Hmm? Ah, yes, technically limited. Due to venue capacity, we can only allow 500 people to attend at once,” the woman replied politely, though she looked slightly confused by Muen’s question.

“Secret auction?”

“Oh! So you’ve already heard the name of our auction, sir? Our boss said that since it’s held in the black market, it needs a bit of mystery. So we didn’t announce the auction items, and even gave it that weird-sounding name.”

“......”

Muen’s hand had started to tremble.

“Invitation?”

“You noticed?” the woman said proudly. “Our boss said that since it’s the first auction after the black market reopened, we had to make it formal. So each flyer was made to look like a real invitation. See the gold lettering? That’s actual liquid gold, you know.”

“......”

“What’s wrong, sir? Won’t you take one? Even though it’s just a flyer, you still need it to enter the auction~” The woman persistently offered another flyer toward him.

“N-No thanks... I already have one.”

“You do?”

The woman blinked, then looked at the trembling hand with which Muen pulled out his “invitation.”

Her expression instantly turned cold.

If you already had one, why didn’t you say so earlier? 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

So I wasted all that breath?

Was it on purpose?

Just trying to flirt because I look pretty, huh?

Tch, I’ve seen your type a hundred times in the black market.

Thinking you can pull this kind of thing just because you’ve got your face hidden—but in everyday life you’ve probably never even held a girl’s hand.

“Pervert!”

The woman spat under her breath, twisted her hips, and left, leaving only a scornful back for Muen to stare at.

“......”

As that contemptuous back disappeared—

Muen was silent.

Stunned.

Thinking.

Dawning realization.

Enlightenment.

Then seething rage.

Fck!

That black-hearted scammer!

She’d tricked him again!