"Brother Nick, where do we start our search?" Asked Loyd, but he was laughing inside at Nick's stupid speech earlier about not judging a book by its cover.
"Hehe, of course, we start our search here." Said Nick as he took something out from his storage ring.
"Brother Nick, what is that?" Asked Loyd, curiously.
"This is the 'Extreme two sound'! The most powerful speaker in existence! And the best part about this speaker is that it works with solar energy!" Nick said as he placed the large square box down.
"Wow, it sounds so cool! But…what can this do?" The confusion had yet to leave Loyd's face.
"You will see soon enough." Said Nick, as he took out a microphone from his storage ring and hooked it up to the speaker. He had purchased this and a couple of other things from the system earlier and kept them in the storage ring.
"TESTING, TESTING, 1, 2, 3!" Nick spoke into the microphone. But to Loyd's horror, Nick's voice, that had gone into the thing in his hands, was coming out of the black box on the side, a hundred times louder!
"Ah! Who's there?!" Nick had underestimated the impact of technology in this world, and every cultivator, weak or strong got startled by the blaring loud sound, and was already on their guard, ready to launch their attacks at the speaker any moment now.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and all cultivators of this prosperous Gathering city! My name is Albert Einstein, the greatest inventor of this era! The thing you see beside me is my latest invention, the Speaker! This speaker is capable of magnifying someone's voice by many folds and requires no cultivation energy to use!" Nick spoke slowly so that everyone there can understand him. He didn't want some slow people to misunderstand and start a brawl here after all.
"Miraculous!"
"Truly incredible, how does it operate without cultivation energy?! Is this a form of talisman?!"
"No, I used my soul sense to check it out, and there is no talisman inside! Just some wires, metals, and more wires!"
"This man, Albert Einstein, is truly a genius!"
"Oh, how magical! Truly a work of a genius, don't you agree, honey?" A husband said to his wife, who was standing beside him.
"Yes, buy it for me hubby!" The wife replied, excitedly.
"No, you don't need it, your voice can already do that on its own." The husband replied, briskly.
"I know, but it would make it a lot easier for me…" The wife pouted.
"…" The husband cleared the single tear rolling down his cheek and continued to listen to Nick.
The crowd was in a mess. And having never seen such a thing before it piqued their interest, and it grew bigger and bigger all-around Nick!
"As you all know, a great inventor such myself carries many unique and powerful artifacts with him that have yet to see the time of day in this world, like this, the potato peeler! Tired of peeling all the potatoes back at home, well say no more with this small and compact device you will be able to peel potatoes even in your sleep!"
"Or this, the magical Condom! Men, are you tired of slipping up and getting women pregnant, ladies, are you tired of…getting pregnant, well, here is the solution for you! A plastic wrap that will protect you and your loved ones from the scourge that is children!"
"Oh, you all think those are impressive?! Well, brace yourselves, for the amazing Ink Pen! Ladies, aren't you annoyed that notes on every book you find are written in blood, I mean, after a decade or two all books tend to smell nowadays, am I right or am I right?! But not with this Pen you see before you, for this pen uses an environmentally friendly ink, its ink milked from a blue cow's breasts! Disclaimer, no cows, or their breasts got hurt during the milking process! My friend used to say, 'The pen is mightier than the sword' and I must say, I agree"
"Now that I have said all this, I will get to my main point. I have made the mistake of coming into this secret realm with my neighbor and his children, and although I can find them myself, it would be easier with everyone's help! Now, I don't mind if they died in this realm to tell you the truth, but my neighbor and his kids are quite close to my pet, and I don't want to see it sad. So, effective immediately, I will post a bounty on my neighbor and his kids, and I will reward the person that brings them to me, or me to them, with an incomplete immortal core technique and all of these useless…cough, unique inventions you see before you!"
Nick had made sure to let everyone know that Peter and the kids were just his neighbors, just in case they got some other ideas and tried to blackmail him. He also offered the people the Rage of the Black Tiger technique since he had no need for the book anymore. Nick could just level it up directly from the system menu while others won't even be able to cultivate this technique because the Black Tiger blood was required. And selling it elsewhere would get him in trouble so he would offer this uncultivatable technique as a reward instead.
This was the best he could do for now, as the system had locked away his system storage space with most of his money still in it!
"I want that potato peeler! Did you hear, it can peel potatoes!"
"What are potatoes?"
"I don't know, but it must be some valuable herb we haven't heard off!"
"Are you kidding, haven't you heard of the saying, 'the Pen is mightier than the sword'?! And if a pen can be mightier than the sword, I think it will be better than the potato peeler!"
"Fools! Obviously, the speaker is the real prize here! Don't you know how dangerous this Secret realm is? But with this speaker thingy, you will be safe!"
"How do you figure that?!"
"Humph, look at that bulky thing, you can crack an enemy's skull with it!"
"Wait a minute, did the man say the last prize was an incomplete Immortal King level technique?!"
"This…I almost ignored that because I thought it was just my ears! So, you heard it too?!"
"Oh, my god this crazy little fucker is about to give away such a priceless treasure?!"
"Who the hell are you calling a little fucker?! Let me warn you, this great man is not a little fucker, he is a gigantic fucker! And a lunatic to boot!"
"Marry me, rich playboy! Ahhh!" A woman screamed out all of a sudden.
"What are you saying woman, I, your husband, am standing right here!"
"So?"
"So?! So, you should ask him to marry both of us, you selfish wench!"
"…" The crowd looked at the couple, stunned. What a cute couple.
The crowd went wild, with some of the comments scaring Nick a little.
"Please take a good look ladies and gentlemen, these are the kids we spoke of." Loyd began showing the pictures of Dean, Maggi, and Peter to the surrounding crowd, but since most cultivators had incredible vision even people standing farther away, listening to Nick from their hidden corners were able to see the pictures clearly. And since most of the people in the city were all top cultivators, memorizing a picture wasn't anything difficult. And pretty soon everyone there had seen the pictures, but no one was moving.
"How can we know that you will keep your word, and will keep your side of the bargain if we do what you ask?!" One of the people asked the question on everyone's mind.
"That would be difficult for me to do since most of you saw my face, and leaving this Secret realm is impossible until someone finds all the treasures hidden here! So, how can I hide from so many people in this enclosed space?! Also, if anyone attempts to steal the prizes by force, then I hope that person also understands that you won't only be making an enemy out of me, but of this entire group of people who are earnestly competing to win them!" Nick said every word sternly and solemnly.
The crowd then murmured among themselves for a little before they finally agreed with Nick, he had nowhere to hide in this secret realm if they worked together to find him! But even then, the crow just kept on staring at Nick in anticipation, waiting for the 'go' signal as if this was really a race and he was the judge!
Nick got embarrassed when so many people stared at him, he was just too shy. He needed to be a little more confident in the future. "You can go now!"
Woosh!
The entire crowd scurried away in seconds with not a soul to be seen for hundreds of meters. Even the guards who were in charge of keeping the peace at the city gates had rushed away to search for Peter and the kids.
"What do we do now, brother Nick?" Loyd asked.
"Now, we wait…and build a food stall!" Nick replied, excitedly. It had been a while since he last cooked, and although the meals he makes won't be as incredible anymore due to the inactive Cooking skill, it would still taste better than nothing! And if you add the fact that he was broke for the time being, building a food stall made a lot of sense.