"lowkeyImmortal: Hello, I couldnt help but notice that you are a mortal, Do you have any of those magic boxes?"
Alex typed out his reply
"Magic boxes?"
As if the other side was waiting for it with some sort of divine fingers it hardly took a second for a reply
"The ones you press a button and it glows then you can touch the surface and make it change"
Alex realized he meant a smartphone so he searched the apocalypse market for smart phones, A cheap one cost 20Apts but had 8Ghz 24 core processors with 128MB cache and 256GB RAM. 20TB Internal memory. He immediately bought it and asked the other side
"Couldnt you just buy it from the apocalypse market?"
"Apocalypse market?"
"You know like the martial market there is a apocalypse one"
"Ohh you must be new to the app, The app has different markets depending on your location and era. Didnt you notice there is no marketplace for your own goods? I have the fantasy and mortal marketplaces by the way makes life a lot more convenient this thing called toilet paper, or paper"
"Oh I have the apocalypse and Immortal marketplaces, I see I was wondering what it did with the goods I sold it, coincidentally whats the cost of the XX model smartphone?"
"Oh that one? 2000 Mpts, M for mortal but I am not sure how much that would be worth to you but with one of these 'smartphones' you can buy a 8th grade strengthening pill here" (by no means are smartphones common, considering who would pay with 1000 years worth of life for a phone if they were? he likely has his own operations set up or perhaps just estimated the values Author note, again I will not explain these type of things in the future, everyone has a life of their own whether explored or not)
Looking up the 8th grade pill it cost him 500Mpts
'These profiteering bastards, So does this make the Apts more valuable? Or is it subjective to how easily said good is available there. Well I still love these guys because with this knowledge Laura and I can be more efficient with what to sell and what to buy, Judging from the situation technology is valuable to Immortals while food and the likes are useful to the apocalypse'
He thought silently but this made him wish to make a private deal to increase his points
"How about I buy you a smartphone from the market with better features for you for the same price?"
"Oh you cant sell items you bought from the app through the app, I would have to descend to your realm to take it but thats not worth the hassle at all with how many resources that would take"
'I see they set it up so we cant just move goods right through the market, But why not do it themselves? Or they already do! through us!'
A thought came to his mind, He thought of how they sold items for profit and if thats the case they dont need to work extra hard to get goods, every app user gets them items and they dont even have to pay for it apart from letting them have a share in a bit of benefits such as availibility of items they normally couldnt get. The app is already moving goods around using the app user. This win win win situation baffled him as he thought that he was overlooking something there is no way there is such a thing as no losing side but the benefits were too great to quit now.
"So I can sell items from my own era? I see this way the app can sell the items to where its the most valued without resellers taking their cut"
Every thought he had he was shuddering at the thoughts behind such an elaborate scheme, He also thought maybe he can use such a thing but that would be a later discussion with his sister
"Yes, so could I buy some smartphones from you? The app would not get in the way of our transaction if we dont trade anything bought from the app. I offer you 2 7th grade strengthening pills, they can help you transform your flesh and live upto 1000 years as well as the ability to lift upto 400KG and infuse 1 ton of force in your punches, But you need to be a Martial beginner to ingest them safely"
Each 7th grade pill cost 200 Mpts, so the Immortal was clearly after a small gain but he did not understand anything other then that. After questioning him a few times he learnt that the martial arts in the Immortal's world can be divided into 10 different 'realms'. Each has a different requirement to enter but these 10 realms were divided again into 10 smaller realms. Alex decided to instead think of it as 100 levels, 10 sections multiplied by 10 realms with a special trait required to unlocked new levels after every 10 levels such as the ability to project force outside the body
"Sorry but I am not even a martial beginner how can I ingest the pills?"
"What sort of heavenly place do you live in where you can survive without any strength? Dont you have demons or monsters? Well, do you have a practicing method? Actually forget it this is taking too long, ill just send you my own method not like you can contest resources from me and you being stronger will also help me. This is a Primordial- I mean one of the 3 best methods for cultivation. I will give it to you if you give me a smartphone"
Incidentally Alex had just bought a new one so he decided to transfer the app to his new one and sell the old one, he got too excited by the possibility of becoming Immortal and neglected checking whether he was lied to, Alex paused and realized this. Fortunately the other side had no real reason to lie to him as he himself said Alex lived way too far to contest resources from him and so Alex thought that its just a smartphone and began transferring the app. In the settings he saw he could set up a Main device and some child devices and thought maybe he can use that later on. Having finished the transfer he also transferred all contacts and data and quickly uploaded it. The Immortal complained a bit about how long it took but Alex couldnt just have given him all his data right?
["You have recieved the Dragon eating tiger Manual"]
As the manual materialized in the form of some weird slip, he looked up its price and was astonished that it cost around 10,000 Mpts. Not the best by far unlike what was claimed but still well over the worth of the phone he most likely drived up its worth without expecting the market to have it too or perhaps he wanted to make Alex grateful and in turn provide him with better deals in the future after all this wasnt some novel where the pie fell straight out of the sky, or perhaps that was the best method available in his world and the market was connected to more powerful ones.
The most expensive martial manual currently available to Alex was one with enough zeroes to make him wonder whether it was glitched. The manual had a simple name "Efficient Manual". As he was browsing, Immortal sent another message saying
"Consider this an investment. I hope next time you will give me a sizable gift. To learn this just put the slip on your forehead and let it do the rest, I loaded it with two times the aura so you can use it a second time incase you forget the complex instructions, or to share with someone if you have some memory technique"
Alex thought of sharing it with his sister but realized his memory isnt perfect. What if he forgot? So in a fit of worry looked up a memory related technique or item in both the markets.
He found a martial technique worth 200 points which he quickly bought. It came in the form of a slip too and it too had 2 charges, perhaps it was a standard thing, He was grateful that this way even Laura could have it completely forgetting his mortal parents. Although he planned to discuss with Laura on how to spend these points, such is life plans dont always work out but in this case he was glad they didnt.
The memory technique was simple all it required was a way of breathing which he practiced a bit while walking, it provided him with the ability to memorize anything he saw once perfectly and increased his brain capacity from 200 years which is normal for humans to 1000 years quite the change. If it was anyone else they would be worried that they are getting too many things too quickly but Alex was grateful for everything he got especially with how significant they are. The shields. The pistols. The manual. The memory. everything.
He said goodbye to the Immortal and rushed home with so much to tell his sister. Perhaps he might even be able to spread the app albiet a dumbed down version for profit or use his memory for academics and become a leading scientist. So many possibilities he couldnt wait to discuss but more importantly he also wished to share whatever he got with his sister again forgetting about his poor parents