Zhao Zhenwu had never said anything so awkward like “would you please” when he used to live a lawless life in his hometown, but he did pick it up rather fast after he came to the Seminar of Generals. Weighing his words, he tried to lower his self-esteem and said with a smile, “This is a legitimate familial treasure. The body of the saber alone is made of the Red Copper, the Secret Silver, and the Sun Crystal Gold and polished nine times. There is also the most advanced control chip inside the handle of the saber, which can store a hundred attack techniques and automatically protect the user when in danger. It saved my life many times on the battlefield before. I almost regret that I cannot maintain it with the blood from my heart. How on earth can it not have any crystal chips, rune arrays, or techniques?
“The last maintenance alone cost me a thousand crystal coins! Right now, you are giving me three thousand for me to pawn it? Isn’t it a jo—anyway, please be reasonable. How about eight thousand? I’ll redeem it in a few days.”
The young appraiser, who had a complete lack of interest, pushed back the saber and said, “Three thousand coins for the damaged saber. We are not taking it for any higher price!”
The smile on Zhao Zhenwu’s face was completely frozen. He changed his face color, and his eyes somehow lost focus, gliding from the Seven Star Jade Cutting Saber to the nose of the appraiser, and then from the nose of the appraiser to the lobby.
Fearing that he might run into someone familiar, he intentionally chose a time to pawn his saber when there were few customers. Right now, the lobby of the pawnshop was empty except for two tall, strong guards, with high-rising temples and eyebrows, who were watching him coldly.
He looked at the appraiser again, only to discover that the guy’s eyelids were almost stuck together and his head was falling again and again. The guy did not even give his saber or himself another look.
Zhao Zhenwu snatched the familial saber and turned around quickly, striding outside. But while he was on the way, he gritted his teeth and turned back again, putting back the saber and taking back a package that was covered in a silk handkerchief carefully from his pocket. Opening the package layer by layer, he took out an iron plate that had been carved with glamorous rune arrays and breathed hard. “Please ask somebody to give an appraisal on this. Fifty thousand. I’ll pawn it for fifty thousand!”
The young appraiser raised his eyes lazily, not looking at the iron plate at all, before he said with a feigned smile, “A title deed?”
“Yes.”
Zhao Zhenwu said confidently, “A title deed for three mountains with coverage of a hundred square kilometers on a resource planet in the newly-recovered territory, with all the necessary facilities from the mining bases to the infrastructure below the ground. This is no regular magical equipment. Please ask an expert of the properties department of your pawnshop to examine it carefully.”
With a smile, the young appraiser played with the title deed with his finger and pushed it back. Shaking his head, he said, “We won’t take it.”
“You won’t?”
Zhao Zhenwu was dumbfounded. In his fury, he had no time to bother if he would piss the guy off but raised his voice and shouted, “This title deed is hundred percent authentic. The seals of His Majesty and the Council of Elders are on it, with all the necessary certificates. After the mining bases are cleaned and prepared, the annual profit will be at least millions of crystal coins. Why are you not taking it when I’m only pawning for fifty thousand?”
“If I may advise my dear general here…”
The young appraiser said, “This is not just the rule of our ‘East Mountain Pawnshop’ but an agreement made up by all the pawnshops in the thirty-sixth district. Title deeds are naturally great things. The ownership of the properties and mines in the inland of the Imperium is definitely unquestionable hard currency, and we will take it however high the price may be. But when it comes to the newly recovered territory, that will be a whole different matter.”
“How is it different?”
Gnashing his teeth, Zhao Zhenwu grabbed the title deed. “They are both the territory of the Imperium!”
“Yes. All the territory in the universe belongs to the Imperium. Naturally, it is part of the Imperium.”
Seeing that he was exasperated, the young appraiser explained patiently, “However, everybody knows that the Covenant Alliance burned everything to the ground when they retreated and turned all the resource planets in the newly-recovered area into a mess. Almost every mining base has been completely sabotaged. Even the motherlodes thousands of meters into the ground have been polluted.
“In order to purge the pollution, rebuild the mining bases, and restore the operations, it will take at least twenty years and hundreds of millions of crystal coins.
“I imagine your mines are no exceptions, right?
“Of course, if the normal productions are recovered, the mines are likely to guarantee a revenue of millions per year. But the investment before that is simply too huge. How are you going to calculate the time and cost?
“Right now, you are pawning the title deed for fifty thousand. It appears to be a great bargain for us, but if you never come back to redeem it and it stays with us for all eternity, are we going all the way to the newly-recovered territory and invest a huge quantity of resources and money to develop the mines?
“Most critically of all, although the frontline is stabilized now, who can tell if the Covenant Alliance will come back again someday? If we really recover the mining bases in ten to twenty years at the cost of tremendous time and capitals, only to find the place mired in war and reduced to the ground again, we will have no choice except to hang ourselves!
“It is exactly because of such concerns that all the pawnshops and private trade centers of real estates in the thirty-sixth district are very cautious about the title deeds and the ownership of the mines in the newly-recovered territory. In principle, we are not taking any of those, but if you are really in dire need of money, I will break the rule and help you take care of it for a few days with ten thousand coins. How does it sound?”
Zhao Zhenwu was dumbfounded. Extending one of his fingers, he asked in disbelief, “Ten thousand?”
“Ten thousand. That is the market price.”
The young appraiser said sincerely, “Not just the thirty-sixth district, even if you fly to other districts five thousand kilometers away, it will be the same. As long as the super mining groups with wealth and power do not take them, nobody will be bold enough to accept the title deeds!”
“This is His Majesty’s award!”
Craning his head, Zhao Zhenwu bellowed, “My fleet earned this after fighting in blood for more than ten years. They said that this was at least worth eight million!”
“If this is His Majesty’s award, why don’t you go to His Majesty?”
The young appraiser turned cold too. Glancing at the two tall and strong guards nearby, he scorned, “Or maybe, you can go back and try to restore the mines first. As long as the normal productions are recovered, you can ask the specialists of our properties department to evaluate them properly. By then, not just eight million, you will be able to pawn them for eighty million. Everybody in the thirty-six district knows that the East Mountain Pawnshop is the most reliable and trustworthy.”
The two guards stood straight, the weapons hanging from their waists clinking against each other.
Zhao Zhenwu almost passed out in fury, but there was little he could do. In dizziness, he took out another few pointy iron plates from his inner pocket and placed all of them on the counter before he demanded, “Those… Those medals and this saber, for ten thousand crystal coins!”
The young appraiser sighed. Taking out a dark red monocle from his pocket and putting it on his right eye, he observed what Zhao Zhenwu had offered for half a second, before he casually said, “The title deed is unacceptable. The saber, three thousand. The medals, two thousand. Five thousand crystal coins in total. Are you pawning them or not?”
“Two thousand?”
Zhao Zhenwu was completely shocked. Then he burst into fury and shoved the medals to the young appraiser’s face vehemently. “Watch carefully. Open your eyes and watch carefully! One level-two Divine Cauldron Medal, one level-two Blue Sky Medal, one level-three Blackstar Medal. It’s the Blackstar Medal! I traded my eye and my arm for the Blackstar Medal, and you are telling me that it’s only worth two thousand? Two thousand?”
“Divine Cauldron and Blue Sky are five hundred apiece, and level-three Blackstar is a thousand. That’s the market price now.”
The young appraiser was untouched. “A lot of generals like you have come to the capital in the recent half of the year. They lack everything but medals. Now that there are too many of them, it is only natural that they grow cheap. Yesterday, a general pawned a level-two Blackstar Medal for two thousand and five hundred coins. It is already fair enough to give you a thousand for your level-three Blackstar Medal. In a few days, it will only become cheaper. Chances are that you won’t even get eight hundred!”
Two thousand and five hundred, a thousand, eight hundred.
They were cheap because there were too many of them!
Zhao Zhenwu felt that his head was exploding. His ears hummed hard, and the level-three Blackstar Medal was enlarging nonstop. The stars on the background of the medal seemed to have turned into the starships of the Covenant Alliance, throwing thousands of heavy crystal bombs on his team and himself, blowing all of them into smithereens.
“Pa!”
His eyes bloodshot, Zhao Zhenwu drew the mini storm bolter from his waist and slammed it down on the counter before he realized what he was doing.
“This is the general’s special gun. How much is it worth?”
He roared. He then dug out his artificial left eye brutally and slammed it down on the counter too.
“This is the artificial eye of a vice-admiral of the Imperium. How much is it worth?”
He then tore off his artificial arm and tossed it at the young appraiser.
“This is my arm. How much is it worth? Tell me! How much is it?”
He seemed to be back to the glorious years when he was a space pirate. His disobedience and violence completely released, he dashed to the top of the counter, meaning to grab the appraiser by the collar.
But out of his expectation, the seemingly empty counter was protected by powerful defense rune arrays in between the customer and the appraiser. Hardly had he extended his hand when dozens of electric arcs shot out from the counter and blew him out to the ground.
Before he had the chance to scream, the two daunting guards had already lunged close and beat him hard with the short sticks that were surrounded by electric arcs, forcing him to throw out his screams.
“This is outrageous!”
Zhao Zhenwu’s lunacy all turned into poignance. He roared in devastation, “I shed blood in the frontline, I made contributions to the Imperium, I am a legitimate vice-admiral of the Imperium and a commander of a fleet!”
“Vice-admiral?”
While the two guards beat him hard, one of them grinned hideously and said, “Old fart, do you know where you are? The capital! If you throw a brick to the street, you may smash ten sect leaders and eight generals!”
“I’ll kill you!”
Zhao Zhenwu groped for his Seven Star Jade Cutting Saber. But then, he recalled that his familial saber was still on the counter and that it already couldn’t perform the function of automatic defense due to the lack of crystals. So, he could only wail aloud, “Wait for it. Just wait until I get my strength back… I am a vice-admiral!”
