Chapter 253 Looby's Shop Transformation!
There was no point in remaining in the Measurement Center anymore as the only test left was his energy capacity.
Felix didn't need to test it as he already felt that his energy was almost half full after he finished replacement.
This suggested that his capacity had actually doubled as well!
Felix knew that this was a massive enhancement as the others rarely receive a 50% increase even after using a legendary bloodline.
Since energy was always his Acheel's Heel, he was most glad by this enhancement.
***
Back in real life...
Felix was dialing Looby, wanting to check whether he had his money for the old three serpents bottles or not.
15 days had passed since Looby received them, marking the end of the payment delay.
If Looby didn't come through and paid him now, Felix wouldn't hesitate to enter a non-exclusive contract with other shops and send them those four sand bottles, which were still in his possession.
Clunk!
"Greedy dog, where is my money?" Felix asked calmly.
"Hehe, Brother Felix, come down to the shop. I want to show you something." Looby requested with a sly laugh.
'What is he up to?' Felix wondered to himself in curiosity.
"Don't be alarmed when you reach my shop!" Looby said one last time before hanging up.
"Oh? Interesting."
Intrigued, Felix immediately laid down on the bed and requested the Queen to log him in.
***
Inside the UVR, Felix was walking in the maze-like alley with clear confusion clouding his face. He ought to feel like that as he met with five individuals walking past him in this alley only.
After going to the next, he saw three more, walking and chatting with each other.
Alas, he could only see their mouths moving and not hear a sound as they must have blocked strangers from hearing the content of their conversation.
'What the hell is going on?' Felix was quite befuddled, as this was the first time he saw so many people in those alleys, which they had nothing in them besides being a path to Looby's shop.
The closer he got to Looby's shop, the more people he met with, which was a pretty obvious sign of where they were coming from.
After a while, Felix reached the well-lighted alley that had the shop's brick wall.
Unexpectedly, there was a long line to enter the shop! An unprecedented scene since the moment Felix was aware of Looby's shop.
'The hell did he do?' Felix lined up properly while sizing up the people in front of him.
Instead of asking Looby, Felix poked a bald man in front of him and asked politely, "Sir, may I know how did you find out about the shop?" Felix added after seeing that he was being glared at, "1000 SC."
"This shop was turned black last week." The bald man touched Felix's bracelet and carried on, "The news about it is currently spreading like wildfire in the dark network. Plus, his legit products had even better quality than most shops."
"Thank you," Felix murmured the words in a daze, finding it hard to process the fact that Looby's shop had actually turned black!
Meaning, he was now part of the black market!!
Felix understood that Looby's shop might be hidden from the public and even had a password for access; he was actually selling only legit products.
Legit, in a sense, they were obtained with proper channels and were documented. In other words, every potion, substance, item, and bloodline bottle in the shop were registered in the Kingdom's database and could be traced back to Looby's shop in the real world.
If it weren't for them being registered, the tax department of the Kingdom wouldn't know how many coins Looby was making, and thus they wouldn't be able to tax his earnings from the UVR.
As long as Looby was paying his taxes from the real world and UVR's sales, he would always be seen favorably by the kingdom.
However, going black changes everything, as Looby's shop would be dealing with stolen goods from pirates, smuggled goods undetected by the customs enforcers, and every kind of illegal products.
By joining this endeavor, Looby was putting himself at risk of being caught and thrown into jail, sentenced for possibly hundreds of years.
It was effortless to catch him as the moment Looby get linked to be dealing with illegal goods; He would be paid a visit to his shop in the real world.
This made Felix conclude that Looby definitely gave up on his shop in the real universe and was currently on the run.
Felix was certain that he had a tiny role in Looby's decision to join the black market.
After all, there was no way for Looby to be capable of building an illegal network with pirates and smugglers in measly 15 days.
Looby couldn't just contact a pirate crew and enter a contract with them like dealing with his customers.
Felix knew that such a trust-related process requires years of effort to shape up into a reliable network, where the stolen goods could actually reach the buyers' hands without endangering anyone participating in the transaction.
This meant Looby had already done most of the work to turn his shop into a black market.
He was probably hesitating or worried about taking the final step and committing himself to the dark side.
Felix knew that his harsh words from before were simply the tiny push that Looby needed to head in that direction.
'Greedy dog, I am in front of the shop.' Felix sighed as he requested, 'Let me in.'
Immediately after, Looby's delighted voice resounded from the brick wall, "Come inside, Brother Felix."
Receiving his confirmation, Felix stepped forward, bypassing the grumbling crowd, who clearly didn't like this favorable treatment.
Felix didn't care about them getting upset as it was Looby's problem to fix.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please do forgive me, but he is one of my business partners," Looby explained himself politely.
The rising tension was cooled down after hearing him mention business partners. They understood that it was only logical for Felix to have a priority over them. Thus, they weren't bothered anymore about him skipping the line.
After Felix entered through the brick wall, his eyes couldn't help but widen in shock at the packed full shop with customers spread all over the place while accompanied by one little elve to assist them.
Some of them were standing before the shelves, which were quite empty compared to the earlier days, while some were sitting in chairs in front of a hologram that was displaying a peculiar looking potion.
They weren't just looking at it but raising the bid on it silently by using the Queen. By the time Felix's eyes landed on the screen, the bid had already reached two billion SC!
'I am upstairs.' Hearing Looby's voice, Felix broke out of his daze.
He didn't think that in 15 days of not seeing it, the entire shop would get more customer traffic than Goati's shop in the empire's capital!
He gotta say that he was in favor of the change!
Felix went to the 2nd floor without wasting time and found that Looby was attending to a customer personally.
For Looby to be doing so while the shop was packed to the brim, it only meant that this man was worth the effort.
Instead of interfering in their business deal, Felix left them and checked on Looby's new stock.
He knew that since the 2nd floor had the best products in the shop, there must be some noteworthy stolen items.
After checking the 1st shelf, Felix felt like his eyes were introduced into a new world, as most of the items placed had a billion+ price tag!
However, he didn't think that they were overpriced for a second, as each of them could only be found in Beethoven's auctions or other noteworthy establishments.
Yet, those items were now placed in this shop for anyone to take unconditionally!
This array of rare items made Felix understand that Looby wasn't dealing with pirates scum, who pry only on small merchants spaceships, but professional pirates crew!
He knew that those pirates had only one target insight, and that was the cargo spaceships of the upper echelon in the Mariana Empire!
The upper echelon, who devours all of the good stuff coming from outside of the galaxy before landing on the public markets. To actually steal from them, it took a lot of courage, skill, and a bit of madness.
This applied to even Looby, who was currently promoting probably one of the upper echelon's stolen potion to that VIP man.
'This dog was truly hiding too deep.' Felix smiled wryly as he went to sit on a couch.
Alas, just as his ass was about to touch the fiber, he heard the VIP man say calmly to Looby, "I never thought that I would need to buy a potion twice just to reach me."