Act Now, Negotiate Later

Erin was very relieved by Alfred's enthusiastic attitude.

"Great! I think things will be very easy then." Eric smiled.

"I just want money."

These words sounded so simple that Alfred's mind actually paused for a moment.

'Money?' Alfred thought to himself. 'Did he mean hard-currency like the Dimensional Platinum?'

He automatically assumed this due to the previous trade. It was normal since Dimensional Platinum was one of the most valuable hard currencies in the entire universe.

"Certainly possible! It's just that I don't think we have enough Dimensional Platinum in stock at this auction house." Alfred answered politely.

'When did I say I wanted platinum?' Erin was dumbfounded. He clearly said money.

"I think you're misunderstanding. I meant cyber currency. I would prefer the highest-tier cyber currency you have available." Erin wanted to make things as clear as possible. Furthermore, because he didn't know what types of third generation cyber currencies were available in this universe, Erin decided to play it smart by asking what was available instead.

'...Cyber currency?' Alfred was stupefied. "Are you referring to third-generation cyber currency?"

Alfred sounded rhetorical because, other than Lafite, third-gen was the only other kind of cyber currency available in the entire universal market. In Alfred's mind, only fools would trade extremely precious first-gen cyber currency for extremely common third-gen currency.

Erin started to question Alfred's brain right now. Did the shock actually short-circuit the left side of his brain?

Seeing both parties look at each other like idiots, Ron sighed and sent another mental message to Erin.

'The amount of Lafite you want to trade-in is simply on another level entirely. It is not possible to value it with mere money. Alfred wants to know what precious items or resources you want in exchange. Even if you requested a developed life-planet or a military-grade starship fleet, they would be more than willing to oblige. I recommend that you aim higher.'

Ron's words made Erin realize that his original plan was probably absurd. Although a planet or fleet sounded tempting, Erin was merely an 18 year old youth with zero experience. He knew that the current him was nowhere near capable of managing a starship fleet or a life-planet.

In any case, Erin didn't know where to start.

"Erm, do you happen to have a list of goods?" Erin asked Alfred awkwardly.

"List?" Alfred pondered.

"The Clover Clan has access to hundreds of billions of different items. This auction house alone physically stores at least twenty billion unique items. Do you have something more specific in mind?" Alfred started to recover from shock and went into a merchant-mentality.

As simple as he made it sound, these numbers made Erin speechless.

"Can you show me the most valuable things then?" If Erin was going to trade-in so much wealth, he was going to go all-out.

Although Alfred was stunned by Erin's appetite, upon thinking about what Erin was offering, Alfred actually found this to actually be quite reasonable.

Alfred took out a small device and activated it in front of Erin. The device projected a touch-able holographic screen that showed an innumerable number of items. Many of these items had a market value next to their names.

With a few adjustments, the list of items was narrowed down to a few thousand. None of these several thousand items had a value marked on them.

"Rest assured, these are some of the most valuable items the Clover Clan has in its possession. Their values have never been estimated because the clan never planned on selling any of them. Due to how prominent this trade is, I have used my power within the clan to make an exception. This is probably the first and last time some of these items will ever be offered as possible trade-goods for someone outside our clan."

"A tenth of these items are treasured artifacts. I personally believe that this is a very reasonable list of treasures for you to pick from." Alfred's words were straight to the point.

This was basically a gamble on Alfred's part.

The fact that Alfred included a few hundred artifacts to pick from was something even Ron did not expect.

Erin's face was blank on the outside but actually smiling on the inside.

As Erin scrolled down the holographic list of treasures, he selected things so quickly that beads of sweat were forming on Alfred's temples.

'Is he even looking at the description of the items?' Alfred complained a little in his head.

Without even realizing it, in the depths of Erin's subconscious mind, the purple light was happily swimming around right now. It's existence was actually boosting his brain's ability to think!

After a minute of scrolling, Erin's scrolling and selection speed was greatly increasing! One hand scrolled down the list while another casually yet swiftly selected everything Erin set his sights one!

At this ridiculous speed, it might not even be long before he scoured the entire list!

Alfred's eyes popped out of his sockets!

The list was covered in thousands of treasures that would make countless people envious! Quite a few of these treasures could even buy out a small clan!

Erin was just picking items like they were vegetables at the market!

Even when Erin found treasures with multiple quantities, he casually maxed the quantity out before continuing on his merry way.

For the first time ever, Ron's jaw actually dropped. The guts that Erin had at this moment made him feel like a completely different person.

Edward and Olivia were very entertained by the sight. They were wondering how fast Erin could scroll down this list!

Alice was still silent. Every time she tried speaking, she couldn't let out the words before another shocking thing happened. At this point, she decided to just patiently wait until all these crazy events were over.

After quite a bit of time had passed, Erin finally reached the end of the list and let out a relieved sigh.

When Alfred first opened up this treasure list, Erin was under the impression that he could only view the list for a limited amount of time. It's not like everyone was going to patiently wait for him to read every single detailed description of every single item. There were thousands of descriptions!

So Erin took the most logical path.

'Act now and negotiate later.'

These were the thoughts in his head earlier as he was scrolling down the list.

A lot of the artifacts Erin saw were all incredibly good stuff! He would have never been able to afford a single one of these items in the past! So he simply picked everything that intrigued him.

At this point, he knew that picking so many treasures was definitely overkill. He did not mind this since he couldn't determine the true value of these items anyways.

If anything, Ron would probably offer his opinion during the negotiations later. From Erin's perspective, regardless of how the negotiations end, this was already a miraculous windfall considering he would secretly still have 90% of his original wealth.

Alfred looked like he wanted to cough out blood. He offered Erin an extensive and valuable list so he had options to pick from! Not so that he can pick nearly everything!

When the holographic screen closed and the small device returned to Alfred, he scanned the contents instantly.

It only took a few moments for Alfred to confirm all the items that Erin had selected. His heart felt like it was being trampled by countless beasts. To him, even the life-or-death situations that he's previously experienced did not feel as bad as this moment.

When he thought about the true value of the ancient credits, Alfred bit his lips until a trace of blood flowed off the side of his mouth. Erin noticed this but didn't say anything.

'Ancient credits would upgrade the entire clan's status entirely! The upgrade in status is not something that can be judged by mere treasures!'

Alfred tried to convince himself that this was worth it by repeating these sentences in his mind.

Although he could try negotiating it down, Erin's decisiveness made Alfred think that Erin was fully aware of the ancient credits value! If he tried pushing down the negotiations too hard, the thought of Erin cancelling the trade would be a regret of a lifetime!

In Erin's mind, he was actually just trying his luck. He didn't realize that his absurd actions were misinterpreted as confidence. In fact, when he saw the blood dripping from Alfred's lips, Erin knew that he definitely went overboard on his selection.

"Three thousand S-Grade Awakening Stones, Eight Thousand Grade-9 Dimensional Crystals, Two Hundred Blood Lotus Pills.." Every name made Alfred's head a little more dizzy. Especially because their quantities were all maxed out! These consumable items composed almost a third of the selected list!

In all, there were 1,490 artifacts selected and 770 consumable items selected! The list only had a total of 3,500 items and these were all considered extremely valuable. Even the elders of Ancient Families would drool at the sight of so many treasures!

At average, around 400~500 of these unique treasures could be traded for a fully developed life planet! That means Erin wanted at least five fully-developed life planets worth of treasure!

He was offering around 290 Million Ancient Cyber Credits. A thousand years ago, this would have only been worth about three fully-developed life planets! Although inflation played a factor, this price was still a bit too steep.

"I am willing to leave the artifacts be." Alfred said with bloodshot eyes. Every word came out with pure perseverance. "However, these extraordinary consumables are linked to our clan's future generations! If you took all of them, I could never explain myself to the rest of the clan." Alfred spoke with such intensity that Erin couldn't even disregard a single word.

"Half. This is the most our clan can afford. I only wish to take back half of each consumable." Alfred enunciated these words and waited for Erin's response.

'The Clover Clan is like a powerful beast that wants to upgrade it's bloodline. They're willing to starve to trade with you for that upgrade, but you shouldn't leave them with no food left to feed their children.' Ron mentally informed Erin with his opinion.

'Furthermore, this trade is still incredibly in your favor by at least 34%! Alfred is already compromising significantly by only negotiating down the consumables to their bottom-line. Even I am shocked by his generosity.' Ron quickly added.

Erin was very quick to understand Alfred's actions. It seems Alfred wanted to maintain a good relationship even after this transaction was complete.

Alfred was too sensitive to possibly losing this trade entirely.

He misunderstood Erin's serious face and silence for disappointment.

"I will also compensate for the reduced consumable treasures with 200 million Imperial Units!" Alfred gritted his teeth. In his mind, it was far easier to make back money than it was to replenish their consumable treasures inventory.

Erin was bewildered. Why would Alfred throw more money at him? In spite of this, Erin wasn't going to reject such a great favor.

Erin smiled and walked up to Alfred before extending his hand.

Alfred stared at Erin's eyes before firmly grabbing his hand. With a single shake, the contract was finally sealed!

'Imperial Units are probably one of the more valuable third-generation cyber currencies right?'

Despite Erin's serious face, his thoughts were straying elsewhere.