Time Twister

After a few seconds, a young lady in her 20s approached him. She was wearing a salesperson attire.

"Welcome to Varas Electronics. My name is Eleide. How can I help you today?" Eleide greeted Xander politely. After all, everyone was a potential customer once they set foot into the store. Although Xander was dressed weirdly, she didn"t dare question his tastes because who knows of the person in front of him was an eccentric cultivator.

"Hmm. I"m looking for two things: A virtual reality console and a communicator. For the communicator, I want it able to connect to my account in the virtual reality program, [Second Life], allowing me to receive, read, and respond to messages sent to me whether it be a voice, video, or written message. I also want a perfect coverage within the borders of the Empire; meaning, no disconnections whatsoever. I also want it to be able to connect to the internet, and play mobile games as well." Xander said, his voice quite soft compared to his current persona, Homer Simpson.

Eleide thought for a moment before nodding.

"Alright, I"ll introduce to you first the virtual reality consoles. Please follow me to the next floor." Eleide walked towards the second floor, where Xander was greeted with the sight of different helmets, capsules, and even a suit? Seeing the confused look in Xander, Eleide began to explain.

"This floor is where the VR console models are being sold and showcased. Our company sells 3 models: Capsule, Portable, and Suit models."

"VR: Capsule model is designed for at-home or at-office use, basically to be used in places where it would not be disturbed or easily moved. It basically contains the features of both Portable and Suit models, but even more. It is created with an Adamanite-Hardite alloy, allowing the person to comfortably use VR even if an earthquake happened or the planet was continuously razed by a DemiG.o.d-9 cultivator. It can last 1 hit against a Divine-1 cultivator. The VR capsule offers a near 99.999999998% immersion rate to the virtual world. Not only that, you can save and load multiple VR programs besides [Second Life], allowing you to access both private and public VR programs. It also has a health monitor, allowing you to set the maximum amount of days you can stay in the virtual world before being safely ejected 99.9999999% of the time. It also has the best cooling and heating magic runes, even allowing you to survive in s.p.a.ce for more than 3 months if you are below Mythic cla.s.s. The price of the latest model, CM-10000, or the 1000th generation of the Capsule series, is at 1.8 million galaxy coins."

"VR: Portable model is designed for those on-the-go, and didn"t care much about the immersion rate. Portable helmets can only reach 99.9998% immersion rate to the virtual world and is made with a cheaper alloy, Cardite-Hardite alloy, which allows it to survive attacks from anyone below DemiG.o.d-6. Each helmet can only be designated for 1 VR program; you must buy a specific helmet for other VR programs. It has a default 30-day limit in entering the VR program, wherein you will be ejected safely and automatically 99.9999999% of the time. The price of the latest model for [Second Life], SLP-5000, or the 500th generation of the Portable series, is 300,000 galaxy coins."

"Last but not least, the VR: Suit model combines the functions of the Capsule model while retaining its portability. It is an armor-type VR console that rapidly expands from a simple command, covering the entire body of the owner. It can last 2 hits against a Divine-2 cultivator, and upon reaching its limit, it will automatically jettison you for a total distance of 1 light-year to call for reinforcements from your contacts, from the military, or from the government who are within 5 lightyears of your location. This only happens if you are detected to be within the borders of the Empire and in s.p.a.ce. If you are within the borders of the empire but in an exoplanet with a civilization present, the machine will contact the officers in the civilization instead. It also has the same cooling and heating capability the capsule has, as well as element filtration runes to ensure that you won"t be killed through its ventilation system. The latest model available for public use, SMP-500, the 50th generation of the Suit series, costs 3.5 million galaxy coins."

Xander thought for a moment before he decided to get the Portable model. After all, he wasn"t a citizen of the empire, and he had no home or office to speak of. His goal of getting the machine is to access the VR program, where it is said to hold the database of all pseudo-spells for every member of the empire"s perusal. These pseudo-spells are basically downgraded versions of Master (Advanced), Legendary, Mythic, and DemiG.o.d rank spells. Right now, Xander had 5 Master spells; if he broke through to Master cla.s.s, he would immediately be a Master-5 stage magician.

He was just lacking a s.p.a.ce-time pseudo-spell, and he was just trying his luck whether the empire has it in their database, whether it be cla.s.sified wrongly or cla.s.sified as is. Or else, he might have to resort to combining [Temporal Replication] and [s.p.a.ce Crush] into another spell, then create a downgraded version from it. He wasn"t even sure if it works though, so he decided to exhaust all options first.

Eleide, hearing Xander"s choice, nodded before saying, "Okay, let"s go downstairs and select the communicator. Please follow me."

Both of them headed down to the first floor, where Eleide showed Xander 3 models of communicators they currently were selling.

"The company currently sells 3 model types: Watch, Cla.s.sic, and Biological."

"The watch model is basically the standardized smart.w.a.tch model in the empire, with the majority of its functions and interface done through hologram projection. Its features include a health tracker, perfect signal, meaning it can use any of the known bandwidths used by the Empire, and being able to sync to VR programs. It also uses the latest quantum computing technology available for communicators, making sure that time will always be accurate no matter where you are depending on the set planet in the settings, and all the computing tasks are easily resolved. The material alloy used ensures stability, structural integrity, and protection from external forces. Enabling it to survive in the toughest of conditions. It has been tested to be able to resist the power of a Divine-1 cultivator. The total price of the latest model, WM-1000 Max, is 150,000."

"The cla.s.sic model is the standard tablet form communication, with sizes ranging from 6.3 to 8.9 inches for screen size. Majority of its functions are done through touching the screen interface, but it can also project holographic photos and videos, allowing it not to lose out to the watch model. Its features also include perfect signal and being able to sync to VR programs, and uses the latest quantum computing technology available to communicator models to ensure that all your tasks are easily resolved. The material alloy used ensures stability, structural integrity, and protection from external forces; it has been stress-tested in the toughest of conditions, even managing to retain its functions and shape after receiving an attack from a Divine-3 cultivator. The total price of the latest model, CM-3000 Max, is 150,000."

"The last model, the biological, is a recent developing trend in the electronics field. This is a biological augmentation wherein you allow a biological-based electronic material to be placed anywhere in your body. In the field of communicators, we at Varas Electronics have 3 prime locations for biologicals: The arm, the back of one"s hand, and one of your eyes. It has all the benefits that the watch model has, as well as self-contained (isolated) artificial intelligence monitoring your health, vitality, magic energy and elemental energy in your body. Not only that, but the biological-based material used can also seamlessly integrate into one"s body 99.999999%, ensuring that there would be no problem concerning magic and elemental energy circulation. Because of the percentage, we usually offer this model to cultivators who can"t cultivate or those that are above DemiG.o.d cla.s.s. Currently, the latest model, BCM-1000, or the 100th generation model, is priced at 700,000 for its lowest specs. If you want to add more features, you have to pay additional."

After finishing her spiel, Eleide looked at Xander, waiting for him to decide which model he would take. Xander, on the other hand, didn"t care much of the Biological model and instead said to Eleide,

"I"ll get the latest watch model and the cla.s.sic model."

"Great choice sir! I almost forgot, but because of our partnership with multiple telecommunication companies in the empire, you would also gain 20 years of unlimited, free data usage, before charging you 10 galaxy coins/year for unlimited data usage." Eleide said, elated that she had already done a large deal on the first 2 hours in the shift. Eleide then led Xander towards the cashier, where he was to pay for the 3 items he had bought.

"You have bought the VR Portable console model, this comes up to 300,000 galaxy coins. The total cost of the 2 communicators you have selected is 300,000 galaxy coins. You have to pay a total of 600,000 galaxy coins. Would you pay via credit or bank transfer?"

"Bank Transfer," Xander replied. He just wanted to get this over with.

"Alright, please place your identification card on top of the scanner."

"Received 600,000 galaxy coins. Thank you, Mr. Simpson, for your patronage of our store. We hope to see you again in the future!" Eleide said, after packing the 3 items and presenting it to Xander.

Xander just nodded and brought the things he had outside the store, and headed to a deserted alleyway, where he quickly put the items in the s.p.a.ce storage. He then headed out to one of the auction houses in the city. There were a total of 3 large auction houses, and 5 smaller auction houses catering to specific products for auction.

If he wanted to commission an item for auction, he first needed to have a membership for that specific auction house, and then have the item being commissioned for auctioning checked for quality, and whether it meets the standards of the auction house.

Since he was planning to sell plant materials, specifically, the fruits he had collected, he decided to go to Apothecary Auction House, which was a subsidiary of the giant conglomerate Apothecary Universal United.

Upon entering the auction house, he immediately went to the counter and talked to the staff present.

"I plan to commission my plant materials to the auction house," Xander said to one of the staff available, a young man in formal attire.

"Ok sir, please follow me to a private room." The young man said, upon observing Xander for a few seconds, escorting him to one of the private rooms on the first floor used for commissioning items to the auction house.

"Sir, please take a seat. My Name is Fawkes, and I will be in charge of you for this transaction. May I know what items you are planning to auction?"

"Fruits, and magic beast byproducts usable for elixir formation and medicine creation."

"I"m sorry, but what kind of fruit? What are their element type, how old and how many?"

"It"s better to show it to you then." Immediately, Xander "emptied" his backpack, allowing Fawkes to have a view of the number of fruits.

Basically, the fruits Xander placed on the table are of the common variety, except that these fruits are the ones produced by the plant sprites, making them rich in wood and life elements. He got a total of 40 fruits from the recently formed mythic sprites. He also got the tufts of fur, the skin remains, and blood vials from the mythic magic beasts, all with different elements and those that didn"t exist in the Galactic Empire.

Fawkes, upon seeing stacks of fruits with a very, very high concentration of elements, as well as magic beast remains and blood vials, his heart palpitated for a bit. He asked shakily,

"Esteemed sir, can you give me a background of these items?"

"Oh nothing really, those are just fruits that came from Mythic cla.s.s plant sprites, roughly 110,000 years? For those magic beast byproducts, they come from mythic beasts as well." Xander spoke nonchalantly. Upon hearing this, Fawkes couldn"t really help but sweat in both fear and awe of this person.

"Sir, please wait a minute, I need to ask for help from my superiors concerning this matter. If you could, please follow me to another private room."

"Eh? This place is already ok. Too lazy to move. Just call them here and help you, whatever." Xander waved his hands in rejection of Fawkes" offer to move. After all, the room was quite large and quaint, and there were several runic symbols all over the room to ensure people can"t eavesdrop or see through the room without those inside being alerted. Seeing Xander"s determination to stay, he nodded before bowing and leaving the room, calling for his superiors.

In a few minutes, the door opened once more, Fawkes entering with 1 woman and 1 middle-aged man.

"Distinguished sir, my name is Carold, and this is my partner, miss Vaea. May I know your ident.i.ty?" Carold raised his hand in place, waiting for Xander to take it and shake it.

"The name"s Homer Simpson. I"m told by Fawkes he needed your help to identify the items I plan to auction to your company?" Xander said, merely looking at the raised hand without holding it. Carold returned his hand awkwardly, with Vaea coughing, before responding to Xander.

"That"s right, Mr. Simpson. If what you say is true about their age and quality, the items meet the criteria of the auction house, which is that they only auction materials older than 10,000 years of age, and must be a component for cultivation elixirs or medications."

"Hmm. Ok, can you begin now?" Xander asked dismissively, not really caring about the spiel they were talking about.

"No problem, but the inspection would last for 30 minutes to an hour, given the number of items you have decided to auction. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, that"s fine. I"ll wait." Xander sat down before bringing out his new smart.w.a.tch, tinkering with it with the help of the system.

In the meantime, Vaea and Carold, as well as the a.s.sistance of Fawkes, began their task of inspecting and a.n.a.lyzing the elemental concentration, age, and material quality. After 50 minutes, the results were out: All the fruits were 150,000 years of age. The fruits were rich in wood and life elements, meaning they were great materials for medication production. Not only that, if it is used by someone with a primary element for Wood or life elements as a cultivation elixir, that person would also gain comprehension of these elements quickly. This was even helpful up to the DemiG.o.d cla.s.s, wherein the fusion of the domain to the universe is quite a daunting and stressful thing for the body of the cultivator. If taken in junction while attempting to increase fusion rate, the body"s burden load will actually be decreased due to the nurturing effect of life and wood elements.

Concerning the magic beasts, however, they were a bit puzzled; all these magic beasts" DNA and RNA are not within the list of magic beasts known to the empire. Meaning, these were either species that weren"t present in the empire"s database, or they were new species of magic beasts. Thus, although the age of the materials ranged from 120,000 to 140,000 years, their actual benefits as supplementary materials for medication or cultivation elixir is not known.

Xander, seeing their faces troubled, asked curiously,

"Oh? Are you guys done inspecting the materials?"

"Well, yes. The ages of all the fruits are 150,000 years. They are rich in wood and life elements, making it a valuable resource used in making medication and cultivation elixirs. We are willing to put a base price of 300,000 galaxy coins for each fruit; so a total of 12 million galaxy coins for the 40 fruits, and we get a 15% cut from whatever the final price of the fruits are. We can offer you to buy the fruits at the price of 450,000 galaxy coins each, rather than entrusting it to us, and you don"t have to pay us anything at all. What do you think?" Carold replied to Xander"s question, asking him about his decision.

"Hmm, I agree with the second option. I just have a request: Do not sell the fruits individually, but as sets of 2 and 3. This is because if you use the fruit in junction with another fruit, you would have a multiplicative effect, with a maximum limit of 2 additional fruits. I already tested it out with the other fruits I ate. Not only do they taste good, they feel rejuvenating." Xander replied, before taking out the very same fruit and munching it in front of the three people.

"ah. I-I see. Concerning about the magic beast byproducts, we aren"t sure about their effects in medication creation and cultivation elixir formulation, so we couldn"t place a price-" before Vaea could finish speaking, Xander interrupted her.

"Oh. The skin of the veiled fire serpent can be used as auxiliary material to stabilize fire elements in a cultivation elixir that contains fire and water properties. The skin of the Water vine earthworm, on the other hand, has a rejuvenating effect on the skin, completely removing skin defects and scarring, and can be used as a part of a face mask. It can also be added in food, to supplement water and wood elements in one"s body. For both, you need less than a square meter to test these out.

The blood coming from the Mound Jackal is actually a stimulant, increasing the circulation of magic and element energy in the body, allowing you to have twice the power. Its effects are increased every 5 drops, with a safety limit of 15 drops for anyone below Mythic cla.s.s. Not sure for DemiG.o.ds, haven"t tested it on them. For the fur and feathers of the Jackal Ice Squirrel, Wingmetal Chicken, and Fire skin anteater, it can be used to supplement spell casting of their specific element, or be used to craft clothing that is highly resistant to those elements."

Xander wasn"t worried that he wouldn"t be able to prove his statements. After all, if they decided to buy the magic beast byproducts, they would just need to test a small sample of each type.

After all, the amounts he was selling the auction house were insane: 2 kilograms worth of feathers and fur for each species, 500 mL or 50,000 drops of blood, and skin remains the size of 60 square meters each.

"Mr. Simpson, if what you say is true, this is a huge deal. Are you fine with us testing a small amount from the materials you have given us to be tested? It wouldn"t take more than 4 hours; you can order food with our in-house restaurant while waiting, since it"s nearly lunchtime, our treat."

"Hmm, I"m alright with that. However, finalize the deal we have for the fruits first," Xander said, continuing to play around with his tablet communicator. After all, he had already modified in the past hour the new smart.w.a.tch he had; not only does it have access to the database of Eteria, it could also remotely connect to the VR programs once the user, Xander, connects to them at least once.

The trio nodded in response and immediately after his identification card was placed on the terminal, Xander received a notification in his smart.w.a.tch"s system bank account that he had received 18,000,000 galaxy coins, giving him a total balance of 18.4 million galaxy coins. At this, he nodded at the trio who then left the room with the fruits, as well as a small portion of each magic beast byproducts for testing.

For the next hour, he was just using the tablet to read research papers published in the empire"s internet, especially research on time-s.p.a.ce elements and its applications, as well as theoretical physics concerning s.p.a.ce movement and spatial control while waiting for the tests. When it was 12 noon, he ordered some food in the in-house restaurant the auction house had.