"..Pay me?" Darwin's eyes popped out of his sockets.
"Not only do I own this entire city, but I also have resource rights to everything found on this continent and in the Eighth Ocean. Does it look like I need your money?"
Darwin knew Erin had artifacts because Ron informed him about it earlier.
However, Darwin really believed that the artifacts Erin had, though valuable, were probably just for safety and convenience. Despite Erin's potentially high background, Darwin doubted that this young man could carry more money than him.
Just as Darwin was talking, Erin was absentmindedly looking under the table and checking his orb to see if he had any money in it.
Because of how enormous and diverse the Universe was, cyber-currency was common throughout the Universe and especially so in Erin's old empire. Unfortunately, there were many types of cyber-currencies in the Universe and Erin only had a lot of the cheapest and most common cyber-currency; otherwise known by the name Lafite.
It was so cheap that he needed at least 2 million units of Lafite just to buy a coffee.
Erin didn't plan on hiding his holographic screen because he wanted to show Darwin that he was poor and couldn't afford to pay him for any of his lessons.
Darwin didn't realize Erin was looking at his orb because the table was in front of him. Darwin misunderstood Erin's absentminded look and thought that he was silently looking down in embarrassment.
"I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that your money means nothing to me. I don't need any of it! I will provide you with guidance for free." Darwin let out a sigh and tried to be as blunt as possible.
Hopefully it would be enough to push Erin out of his embarrassed stance.
Just as Darwin finished his words, Erin finally came out of his absentminded stance.
Darwin smiled because he thought his words finally reached the young man.
In actuality, Erin finally found what he was looking for and was just lifting his orb up. Upon pressing display, a small holographic display appeared in front of the orb. It hovered over the dining table and was visible to everyone in the dining hall.
[Available Cyber-Currencies]
[2,900,865,000 Lafite]
"..."
Complete and utter silence.
If Darwin thought his eyes popped out earlier, it looked like they were going to fall out of his sockets right now.
Edward's jaw dropped so hard that all the food he just ate wouldn't be enough to fill the gap.
Olivia completely lost her composure and her eyes glittered so much that it looked there was another universe full of twinkling stars inside of them.
Even Ron, who was motionless throughout the entire meal, broke his stance and actually stumbled down to the floor in bewilderment.
Some of the servants from earlier came back after they finished cleaning and putting everything away.
Unfortunately for them, the sight of Erin's display actually stunned them so much that half the servants fainted in shock.
"Uh, is everyone okay?" Erin looked around and was extremely confused by everyone's abrupt changes.
'Have they never seen a poor person before?' Erin disappointingly thought in his mind as he looked down at the luxurious dining table.
As if anticipating something, Ron quickly regained his composure before running up next to Darwin.
In the same second he arrived, Ron took out a small sound device and gave the appearance of someone bracing for impact.
Darwin stood up with such power that his chair flew back and hit the dining hall's walls.
His hands landed on the dining table and slammed it so hard that the side of the table that was facing him broke off completely.
"B*tch. What the F**ck."
"Oh my F**king goodness."
"What is G*d d*mn Bulls**t"
"!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!"
Darwin's eyes were bloodshot red. It didn't look like he was stopping anytime soon.
Olivia and Edward were both extremely shocked.
They looked at their father like he was possessed.
Snow and Bobo cowered in a corner.
Fortunately, Ron activated a sound device that was actively filtering all of Darwin's verbal blaspheme. He didn't want the children's ears to be tainted.
Unfortunately, that device was only directed at Olivia and Edward.
Erin, Ron, and even the servants that didn't faint, all heard every word with explicit detail.
'I feel lied to!' These were Darwin's last thoughts before his verbal tirade finished.
His eyes almost rolled back as he stumbled back from trying to keep himself sane.
Ron caught Darwin as he was about to fall to the ground.
Darwin looked at the dining hall's ceiling before tilting his head down and looking Erin directly in the eyes.
"OK. It's decided! You're going to be a G*d D*amn Tamer or I will f*cking devastate your balls and end all of your future generations!! F*ck secondary profession. You have a f*cking talent for Tamer. If you're so f*cking blind and can't see it, I don't give a flying sh*t. You answer either yes or h*ll yes."
Darwin looked like he was going to devour Erin alive.
Erin looked terrified.
All the beasts he encountered previously felt like angels compared to Darwin's face right now.
He didn't understand how he angered Darwin, so he quickly nodded his head in agreement lest Darwin's rage got worse.
He looked like a chick pecking on seeds.
Before Darwin could continue, it looked like something finally snapped in him.
Darwin's brain couldn't handle all the mental anguish and finally decided to temporarily shut down.
With the largest exasperating sigh he's ever let out, Darwin actually fainted in front of everyone.
Fortunately, he didn't hit the ground because he was still in Ron's arms.
Olivia and Edward's jaws dropped so hard they couldn't pick it up.
While carrying Darwin, Ron walked up to Olivia and Edward and took out a small pen-shaped device. With a click, the upper portion of the pen-shaped device let out a bright flash of light that only reached the two younglings eyes.
"Eh? What happened?" Edward muttered as he lightly touched his right temple with his right hand.
Olivia looked very confused for a moment before she suddenly became excited again.
She looked at the direction Erin was in with glittering eyes.
Ron didn't bother flashing the device at Erin.
It's like he didn't care if he was mentally traumatized from Darwin's verbal tirade.
However, he did walk up to the servants and had all the fainted ones wake up. He then did an even deeper flash that completely wiped the servant's memories all the way back to the scene before Erin displayed his orb.
He then dismissed all the servants from the dining hall.
"Please excuse me, I will take the Master back to his room." Ron slightly bowed his head at Erin. Right before he left the dining hall, he sent a knowing glance at Snow and Bobo who were still sulking a little in the corner.
The two beasts quickly regained their composure before jumping next to the two younglings. Snow was next to Olivia while Bobo was next to Edward.
Olivia walked up to Erin and glanced at his metallic orb excitedly. To her, the amount of money in this orb was more than enough to buy many starships! She's always dreamed about traveling the Universe through space because of all the stories she's heard from her father.
Edward had a similarly excited look on his face. He had a hunch that Erin was rich but this was on a completely different level!
"How come you have so many Ancient Cyber Credits?" Olivia really wanted to know where Erin acquired all this money.
'Ancient Cyber Credits?'
Because of Olivia's excited tone, Erin suddenly realized that he screwed up.
Even though Lafite was extremely common and cheap in his former empire, this was no longer the same day or age!
There were historic events that have never happened before which may have created significant changes in mankind.
It's just that Cyber Currencies had a history of over fifty thousand years.
Erin really didn't expect another five thousand years would make any difference.
Since it was only just yesterday that he arrived on this planet, Erin found it fortunate that he came to this realization sooner rather than later.
He was going to try and adapt as fast as possible.
"From my family." Erin wasn't actually lying.
This was given to him by his parents before he boarded the Imperial Academy starship. It was their life-savings. They hoped it would help him with his living expenses. They knew the academy was definitely not cheap!
Olivia and Edward didn't doubt Erin's words at all. They already had the misconception that Erin came from a mighty background.
"Out of curiosity, how much do you know about Lafite?" Erin decided to probe the situation a little.
"How much do we know?" Edward and Olivia were really confused by the question.
It was like asking somebody 'Do you know what gold is?'
"Haha. I mean the history of course. Just like earlier, I want to see how well educated you guys are." Erin laughed innocently on the outside but snickered a little on the inside.
"And this time, if you can impress me, I'll give you both a present." Erin finally threw out some bait.
'Present?!' Olivia and Edward looked at each other and smiled widely.
They both assumed that Erin's definition of a present was probably something really nice! This thought distracted them from the fact that Erin's question was odd in the first place.
Snow and Bobo's eyes wandered around this weirdly happy atmosphere. Both of the beasts looked rather bored.
"Okay!" The two younglings accepted quickly before Erin changed his mind.
"Then I'll start!" Edward said with glee.
"Lafite wasn't always as valuable as it currently is." He began explaining. "It was actually really common until the first Intergalactic war happened. Only after the war did it start gaining in value! For some reason, the pirate's targeted all the cyber currencies and almost wiped all of them out. Lafite was the only one of the original cyber currencies that survived."
"Before the second intergalactic war, new cyber currencies were created to replace the lost ones. These new ones were considered the second generation. Lafite was the only one from the first generation and it quickly became the most valuable cyber currency."
"Unfortunately, during the later half of the second Intergalactic war, all the new second-gen cyber currencies were actually destroyed. Lafite, as the only original one, wasn't as lucky this time and was thought to have been finally destroyed too!" Edward continued with a somber sigh.
"A few hundred years after the second intergalactic war, the third-generation of cyber currencies were finally created." Edward got all excited again. "However, after the previous two incidents of cyber currency mass destruction, it took over two thousand years from that point for the third-gen cyber currencies to finally establish themselves throughout the Universe."
"As the years passed, all of the original and second-gen cyber currencies were forgotten. Lafite was no exception." Olivia started explaining her own knowledge. "However! About one thousand years ago, some extremely lucky squad of explorers discovered an unbound identification device that still had a hundred million Lafite in it!"
"For some odd reason, many ancient families that survived the intergalactics wars fought desperately to acquire this Lafite. Most of the explorers died and the surviving one brought the unbound device to a branch of the Clover Auction House. Although the auction was hidden from the public, rumors state that when the auction finally ended, the bidding got so wild that the explorer earned enough to buy his own fully developed life planet!"
At this point, Olivia's eyes went from excited to fanatical.
"After the first discovery, a lot of lucky people throughout the universe started discovering objects filled with Lafite too! It's a pity that many of these objects were very old and corrupted. The salvageable Lafite value of nearly 99% of the discovered items were merely in the double-digits.
"The only redeeming thing about these changes is that Lafite started to enter the intergalactic market more regularly. The fights for Lafite got a lot less violet but the heavy demand was still there." Olivia finished the last part of the cyber currency's historical explanation.
Absorbing all this information, Erin was nodding his head in agreement. He looked like a senior that was approving his junior's academic explanation.
Just as Erin was nodding, Edward suddenly felt a lot more encouraged and finally decided to take a chance at his own question!
"..Are you from an Ancient Family?" Edward finally released the curiosity he was keeping deep inside his heart. Olivia looked like she wanted to know too.
Erin wasn't too surprised by Edward's question. He thought for a moment and decided to keep the facade going.
'If they think I'm an ordinary person, what are the odds that all the soldiers in the city will surround me and rob me blind.' Even though Erin wanted to believe in these younglings, wealth can corrupt. He didn't want to take any chances.
"..Haah. I really can't stay hidden at all." Erin sighed.
"Yes, I am." He said with absolute confidence.
'...'
'..stay hidden?' Both Edward and Olivia couldn't believe what they were hearing. Everything they've seen so far was outright flaunting his status. How the heck was that staying hidden?!