Hanga market, Imperial city;
It's the seventh day of the week and the market is bustling with commoners of the working-class who have a holiday.
In the busy crowded market, a certain Android is walking alone. Strangely, he hasn't received an order from Mark and neither did he think about taking permission from his master while withdrawing 2 gold coins directly from the inventory.
The system directly helped him without even giving a notification to Mark either.
As if it wasn't weird enough, Allen was humming some kind of tune as if he was in a good mood while shopping for veggies and meat. After that, he went to the bookstore to look for the cookbook.
Every item that was bought by Allen was sent to his own inventory system followed by the remaining 12 silver coins and 34 bronze coins of change ended up returning to Mark's account.
An hour later, he returned to the home.
He opened the shutter, went in, and then closed it again, climbed up the steps, and went into the kitchen before taking out the ingredients and the cookbook from his inventory.
He then took the cookbook into his hands. It was small in the size of an average adult palm but have several pages.
"Scanning the recipes," Allen turned the pages rapidly and finished it in ten seconds. "124 recipes have been saved in the storage."
"Now, all left is to ask master about which dish he would like to eat." Allen then left the kitchen, passed through the living room, and reached the bedroom only to see it's empty.
"Big Brother… Huh!"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Master isn't here?" Allen was puzzled. He checked every corner of the house but Mark was yet to be found. "Where did he go, early in this morning?"
Allen closed his eyes for a moment, establishing a connection with the system that was attached to Mark's soul.
"Master isn't in danger," Allen let out a sigh in relief and took the seat.
He then went downstairs and proceeded to open the store on his master's behalf.
****
Jin Province, Eastern Yan, Phoenix Empire;
The sun has risen but more than half of the spirit warriors were appeared to be half-asleep. Due to the tension, most of them couldn't get sleep properly. A few of them even decided to run away.
Meanwhile, at a certain section of the camping ground, it was too lively. They were all soldiers belonging to the second prince's regiment.
Their General was personally giving them a lesson by combating with each of them using only swordplay without involving ether energy.
It was a normal scene the people are seeing for the past six days. So, no one interrupted them and everyone minded their business.
Several more volunteers are joining the campground as the D-Day is only 20 hours away.
A group of adventurers from a tiny guild named Blue Hunters were dispatched from the city of Dongchuan. All of them are only in the 3-circle realm and their leader is in the 4-circle realm. Along with these adventurers, a young man in his mid-twenties was tagging along with them while riding a young donkey.
While none of them are even paying attention to him, the young man had his head down in disappointment and kept sighing once in a while. "This damned, I mean, this almighty system had directly thrown me into this city as soon as I accepted the quest. Allen was at the store. This place is nearly a thousand kilometers away from Imperial city. Sigh…"
He's none other Mark who was teleported to Dongchuan city, a place that is nearly 50 kilometers away from the camping grounds, as soon as he woke up from a peaceful sleep.
Intending to stay low-key, Mark decided not to summon either his lightning panther or the mighty battle tank.
But, he can't also be looked down on by others because of his cotton pajamas.
So, he first went to the store and changed his clothes to good ones. Luckily for him, due to the commotion, he got 3-gold coins worth of linen clothes for just 1 gold coin.
Along with that, he also was able to buy a 14-year-old young donkey for a mere 5 gold coins. He intended to ride on it until he reached his destination and will probably free it, later.
Or, maybe, he should just hand it over to the cooks there at the camp like a contribution so that people can fill their stomachs as he doesn't like to eat donkey meat.
Whatever the case, the life of this poor animal that is carrying Mark for fifty kilometers isn't of his concern. And neither did he care about the humans who were about the humans he had yet to meet. The only thing that's on his mind is to kill the overlord of the dungeon and snatch its core and return as soon as possible. Per every day he's missing at the store, he'll be losing more than 500 gold coins.
However, just an hour later, he received the shock of his life that he almost fell off from the saddle.
*Ding! A semi-automatic Pistol has been sold. 24 gold coins have been deducted.
*Ding! A semi-automatic Pistol has been sold. 24 gold coins have been deducted.
.
.
.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm*Ding! A semi-automatic Pistol has been sold. 24 gold coins have been deducted.
*Ding! Revolver has been sold. 16 gold coins have been deducted.
"This…" Mark saw seventeen notifications appear one after another. When he realized that the total is added up to 500 gold coins, he concluded that Lin Xue come to the store and bought from Allen.
"Allen opened the store on his own and is operating it without taking my permission? What's going on?" He didn't understand the situation properly. It was only after consulting with the system, Mark finally realized that Allen no longer needed supervision.
"And that would mean I can expand the store in different cities." Mark thought of his earlier plan again. He decided to think about the store's future after the return.
Nearly five hours later, dozens of tents appeared in Mark's view after reaching an elevated spot. The entire land appeared to be barren without a single blade of grass. Behind them also lie a couple of barren hills, covering the sight of the portal.
The horses walking in front of him stopped. The leader and the only four-realm expert of the group, Gu Zemin turned his head and spoke in a bit of harsh tone as if he is in a bad mood, "Hey, you… Lu Wen…"
"Lu Zhen," Mark corrected him.
"Lu Wen or Lu Zhen, whatever. We are here and our job is done." Gu Zemin told Mark that he's on his own and further gave a friendly warning that he can't expect anyone here to save him if the situation worsens.
Mark naturally didn't like his tone but since he had done a favor of showing the way and even escorted him all the way to this place, Mark forgave him and get down from the donkey, and started walking towards the camping ground in a different direction from them.
Where he was going in the kitchens where cooks are busy preparing lunch for the people who came to save the region from the beasts. There are a few soldiers on standby to ensure no disturbance to the chefs.
"Stop, right there," As expected, one of them stopped Mark and his donkey. The remaining two soldiers also took a glimpse at him. Surprisingly, they cannot sense any ether inside him.
Mark stepped aside from the donkey, "I'm here to contribute on my part. There are hundreds of people around and it must be very difficult to procure the meat. You can take this. I hope it will be edible."
In the past week, Mark wasn't the first one to provide the animals but still, it is rare to see a voluntary contribution during such situations.
"Who do you work for?" A soldier questioned in curiosity. In the camping grounds, only cooks, cleaners, or servants to the nobles are seen not having ether. So, he wondered which minor or major noble clan member sent it. Considering Mark is wearing good quality clothes, they have no doubt that Mark gets good pay.
"My name is Lu Zhen and I'm from Imperial city." Mark introduced himself with a smile. "Due to personal situation, I came to Dongchuan and heard about the dungeon break. So, I made a visit here. It's not every day that I get to see so many Spirit Warriors in action, right?"
The soldiers were taken aback by his explanation and looked at him as if he was crazy or something.