"Greetings beings of Planet 5-1-18-20-8, I am here to trade on behalf of the Supreme Being"
"Huh?"
Everyone was shocked, especially those normal people who were staying on the floor. The only two who weren't incredibly shocked were Merlin, and the lady who was protecting the people.
Merlin quickly rushed up to the merchant and said, "I would like to make a deal with you."
With an extremely respectful tone, Merlin even went to the extent to give a bow. From all his meetings with powerful merchants, he knew one thing is that they loved well-behaved humans, and that they loved profit. Therefore, he behaved as well-mannered and respectfully as he could.
"Hmm? What do we have here?"
The merchant was slightly taken aback. He wasn't expecting a human to suddenly appear in front of him as soon as he came through the gate, and ask him for a deal. On top of that, this human was about as strong as his currently sealed body. Which should have made him the strongest human on this planet currently, a Tier 1 being. But such a human was bowing down to him while asking for a deal, and not behaving arrogantly at all.
The merchant was satisfied with this show of respect. He was Deux, the second most powerful, in terms of personal strength, or in terms of military might, under the supreme being's direct subordinate merchants.
He had been sent here under a direct order, and so he immediately departed for this newly evolved planet. Such a planet would have a lot of treasures, not yet destroyed mana beings or mana. His mood was already incredibly good, to be given access to this treasure house, and now there was someone who was the strongest being bowing in front of him.
His ego was satiated for the time being, and he calmly said,
"Rise little one. Speak, what is this deal you wish to make with the great Deux."
"Yes. I would like to make a deal of treasures with you"
Suddenly, the merchant's face grew more serious as he said,
"You do know what a Deal of Treasures is right?"
��Yes. It is a contract formed between a merchant and a player. The merchant will act as the sponsor for the player, and in return, will be given a certain amount of treasures every month."
"Hmm. It seems like you have some knowledge on us merchants. And how do you know this?"
"Hehe. That Mr. Deux, is the only one of my secrets that does not have a price."
"Oho, it seems like you have some more secrets which have a price? Tell me, what do you know? I will give you appropriate prices for each of these secrets."
…Merlin was not fooled. Deux was trying to swindle him of his knowledge without any payment, and Merlin already knew all of this. He had already been fooled too many times by the like of these greedy merchants. He already knew all the tricks they had, and so he wasn't moved at all by this little trick.
"Ok then. I will begin now. My first secret is…"
The merchant was already gloating on the inside at the stupidity of this human. Although he had some knowledge on merchants, he did not know about the fact that all merchants loved to swindle lower life-forms.
"…But before that, I would like to form a Deal of Equal Exchange"
Damnit! The Merchant was momentarily stunned before he began to curse on the inside. This deceitful human had already known about this trick and was just playing with him. But, he still wanted information, which was the second best thing for merchants, after treasures.
What were treasures? Simply put, they were collectables of a planet. Merchants acted like couriers, visiting planets, and collecting things unique to those planets, and selling them to superior beings who wished to create collections. These supreme beings often compared their collections with each other as a form of competition, since fighting among themselves over superiority might destroy universes, and may cause shifts on the flow of time itself.
"Hmph. Fine"
With this, a paper came out of the special ring of the merchant. The paper looked slightly old, with ancient texts written on them. These texts were runes, the very runes which had allowed Merlin to create his puppet kingdom. However, these were not runes of power, but were simply runic characters without any power. They only existed as a universal language between all beings allowing them all to communicate.
Even while speaking, the merchant was using runic characters in his voice, which automatically changed to English, Japanese, French, and any other language the person wanted to hear.
With an even smile plastered on his face, Merlin took the paper, and without even looking at it, he pointed to several places without saying a word.
But the merchants face grew increasingly pale with every points. Why was that? Because the merchant had creating almost 800 different loopholes and areas to adjust in the contract for himself, and Merlin was slowly pointing out each and every one of them.
"Ok Ok. Stop! I will give you a true contract. Stop."
Snatching the paper, the merchant took out another paper and handed it to Merlin, who didn't even look at this paper. He simply shook his head saying,
"A True Contract of Equal Exchange is what I requested. Not a True Contract of Slaves."
The merchant was dumb-founded. How was this puny human seeing through all his tricks without even opening his eyes.
Merlin had already known each of these tricks, and although different merchants used them in different styles, the basis for all of them was the same.
After another 20 tries, Deux was out of tricks, and finally conceited defeat by giving the correct contract. Merlin opened it and read through it before signing it.
"Now, tell me, what secrets do you know?"
"Alright, but I want to discuss it somewhere else…" he said while pointing to the still unmoving people behind him.
*Swoosh*
With the flick of his wrist, a wind-type barrier was formed to prevent sound from escaping.
"Now, go on human."
"Right. So, I will inform you that I am currently the strongest person on this planet."
"I already got that. Around 5 credits for confirming that."
"I will also inform you that I am creating an army"
"Oh! And?"
"And it already has one player"
"Oh! Good! 200 credits. Next"
"My army also has a pre-awakened"
"… 300 credits. I'm sorry. But that is all the information I can afford for now. I haven't brought much with me. So, for the information so far, you have a total of 505 credits, time limit for using them is 10 minutes. The time starts now"
'Tch. This cheeky b*stard. Wanting to reduce my gains by limiting the time? Haha. It doesn't matter. I already know what I'm going to buy.'
"Show me all the Tier 1 staffs you have, along with all the Health potions and scrolls. I also want to see any armours. Set everything to remove anything I cannot afford as I make purchases and my points reduce. And make the system answer, I do not want you to waste my time."
"Tch."
Noticing that Merlin had seen through his scheme once again, he displayed everything on through the system.
"These are some good options. And they are so cheap as well! I will take this, this, 10 of these, no! make that 20…"