“Tina, what the hell is this?” Jeremy asked as the virtual girl appeared in his room. Tina was quite an influencer thanks to her looks and talent in singing. Her superpower was voice-related, she could record any sound and use them as she willed.

So, in the music market, she was quite a rising star. She used to go to Portal World as well, but her powers weren’t that good. She quit her hunting career and decided to work as a social media artist.

When she was not that famous yet, a Unizon shop wanted her to make clips about their products, and Tina was more than willing to work for them. After that small job, she started to look into Unizon shops and get in touch with shops she thought she could promote. Her social media account was also getting more and more followers, so it was getting easier to be hired lately.

But as her fame grew, came troubles. In one of her advertisements, she recommended her followers a home device for kids. The shop owner paid her abundantly, so she was happy to take the job. But after a week, the device turned out to be faulty, and several kids injured themselves because of the device.

Her followers sent her hate messages, and she was even condemned in several unions about parenting and such. There were people fanning the flames from behind the scenes because they were jealous of her, but it didn’t mean she hadn't screwed up.

After calming her fans, and letting things over on their own for a while. She started from where she left. But this time, she was more careful. Each time she got an offer, she would purchase the item first to test it. The shop would send her a sample for her to advertise, but she thought maybe the shops were sending well-built things unlike things in the shop. So she was purchasing under a different account. She also luckily found Jeremy and was working with him ever since.

Jeremy wasn’t as efficient when appraising for others. But he could still smell the value of the items, so the denser the smell, the more it would sell. It also meant there wouldn't be many troubles with the item. Through their powers, Tina and Jeremy started to work together ever since.

But that morning was different. Tina woke up to see tens of messages from her friends. All of them were unrelated, yet all of them were sending the same link. It was a shop called “Maroon Workshop”, and there was only a single item there. A thank you card with a custom message. But what was weird was its price. A whopping billion UD.

Of course, Tina knew what the shop was. Almost everyone in Unity knew whose shop this was. Thanks to famous auctioning, Maroon Workshop was famous, that is why most of the people would visit it to see if there was anything worth buying. But a thank you card worth a billion? Wasn’t that daylight robbery?

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t send it if it was any other shop, but this is Marooner’s shop. The Marooner!” Tina answered with a squeak. She didn’t have Jeremy’s powers, but she knew this wasn’t an ordinary item. “So, how is it?”

“It smells sooo good but it's rotten. I want to buy and take a bite right now but am afraid of stomach ache.” Jeremy could feel that the item wasn’t as simple as it looked, but the worth wasn’t as good as cost.

“What does it mean?” Tina asked with a cute head tilt.

“It means, the item is something good and can be worth more than the cost, but it is not certain, and probably won't be worth it at all. All in all, I think this is a secret deal for someone. Besides the person who meant to buy it, it is worthless.” Jeremy thought for a while and added, “I would rather stay away from it lest it poisons your stomach. It is not something we can chew.”

As they were discussing, the item was removed from the shop and added to the ‘Sold’ list. It would stay there for a day, before being removed completely.

“What? Sold already?” Tina asked. “Was it you, Jeremy? You didn’t trick me so you can make a profit out of it, did you?” She looked at Jeremy with a squint, but her virtual body was in Jeremy’s room and she didn’t see her buying at all.

“What? No, of course not.” Jeremy looked offended then added, “It is good it was sold. It is not something worth shit for others.”

“What do you think it was? A secret message maybe, or a hit order?” Tina asked excitedly. Jeremy sighed and ended the call.

The same scenes happened in many other places. Even some of the families were interested, but no one would waste that much money on a thank you card.

In Lemaze Mansion,

“Such a clever boy.” Emeric Lemaze sighed in amazement. They were wondering how Marooner would receive the money from the Shin family, but it turned out Marooner had it covered.

“Maybe because exactly for this, she wanted to get in touch with him.” Yves Lemaze was troubled with what they had done. They let Marooner down by tricking him to talk with Mother AI. Marooner hadn’t said anything else, but his trust would be lessened because of it. Now that the sole known dual elemental orb came from his hands, the Lemaze family was in a bind.

“Let’s forget it for now. He chose to deposit his money there, so he is still trusting our site.” Emeric was more hopeful, but Yves was aware that was one of the few options Marooner had. As they were talking the study room opened, and a servant walked in. Before saying anything else, he closed the door and showed his arms. There wasn’t any wristwatch on him. He walked into a small circle where two family heads were sitting and silently said, “Target red started his shopping.”

Emeric and Yves Lemaze jumped up from their seats and left the study. Without bothering to take their wristwatches, hidden inside an alloy case, they walked down to the basement. There was a giant room with lots of electronic devices there, it was Unizon’s database. They would delete the address as soon as target red finished his shopping and would send what he was ordering manually. They already let him down once, they couldn’t afford to do it once again.

After five minutes, five orbs had been purchased, and a line lit up. “123 Main Street, Capital, number 23.” The address was changed to “18 Sunny Street, Business District, Capital Number 23.” before it could appear in the database. Not even the Lemaze family knew where Marooner’s address was. Only the drones would deliver it without even knowing whose address it was.