Chapter 16: So That’s How It Is

“However, Master, if you want to buy things from other merchants in the Dimensional Trading System, then you will need to pay a small extra handling fee. Because the system rules state that interdimensional teleportation requires paying Credit Points.”

“What! There’s a shipping fee too?” Fatty Lei stared wide-eyed at Wangcai.

“It can indeed be considered a shipping fee, after all that’s what the system rules dictate.” Wangcai shrugged his shoulders and said.

“Damn it!” Fatty Lei cursed, while thinking to himself: “This is just like the e-commerce websites in my original world, like Taobao. After purchasing a product, you still have to pay for a courier to deliver what you bought.”

Of course, this Dimensional System was a one-stop service; as long as you paid the Credit Points, they would directly teleport it to you across dimensions.

Compared to the couriers in Fatty Lei’s original world, it was much more convenient.

“So, do you know how much shipping fee I would need to pay if I bought those food items and drinking water in the trading system?” Fatty Lei asked.

Wangcai spread his hands and shook his head at Fatty Lei: “I’m not clear about that, because the system fees never have a uniform standard. When you purchase a product, Master, the system will automatically prompt you. At that time, the system will indicate the shipping fee required for interdimensional teleportation.”

“That Andrew who bought my Sand Beast earlier, then he would also have to pay a shipping fee, right?” Fatty Lei thought of Andrew, who had purchased his Sand Beast.

Wangcai nodded. “That’s certainly the case. In the Dimensional Trading System, the shipping fees are always paid by the buyer themselves; it’s an unwritten rule among all merchants.” Wangcai gave Fatty Lei a very good answer.

Fatty Lei fell silent and began calculating in his heart.

“I myself currently have 250 Credit Points, and I owe the system exactly 250 Credit Points.” Calculating that the Credit Points he earned from selling the Sand Beast were just enough to pay off what he owed the system, Fatty Lei couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on. “There’s not a single point to spare. In thirty days, I have to pay the Tax and the debt. And because I just became a merchant, there’s a discount only for this month. Next month I have to pay 1000 in Tax.”

Thinking about all this, Fatty Lei felt those 250 Credit Points were burning hot.

“If I don’t have food, my body will surely break down. And I haven’t drunk water for two days already; my body has started to show signs of dehydration. This is not a good thing; I must replenish water and food.” Fatty Lei suddenly felt he had never had such a headache before.

“Really, damn it.” Fatty Lei cursed to himself. “Ever since I arrived here, I haven’t had a single comfortable moment. Which other transmigrator is as unlucky as me? Could I be the most miserable one among all transmigrators?”

“Master, look, your lips are all dry and cracked. If you ask me, let’s just buy some on the trading system. It shouldn’t cost much anyway. After all, if your body breaks down, everything else is pointless.” Seeing Fatty Lei’s indecisive appearance, Wangcai spoke up to persuade him a bit.

“Sigh～～～”

After thinking it over and over, Fatty Lei felt that now he had no choice but to do as Wangcai said—first buy some of the food and drinking water he needed in the trading system.

After all, Wangcai was right; the body is the capital of revolution. If even the body breaks down, then everything else is just like fleeting clouds.

Quickly seeing through this point, Fatty Lei let out a long sigh and stood up. He patted his butt with both hands, then walked over and stood in front of that old, shabby desktop computer.

Wangcai, like a loyal dog, bent his waist and followed behind Fatty Lei.

Standing in front of the old desktop computer, Fatty Lei tilted his head and said to Wangcai: “You open the trading device; let me see if we can actually buy cheap food and drinking water. As long as the price is cheap, that’s fine. Right now, I don’t need those expensive things. We can consider them later when our business is on track and we have some surplus.”

What Fatty Lei said was indeed true; currently, these Credit Points were very precious to him. Fatty Lei wished he could split one point into two to use, but for the sake of his stomach, necessary expenses still had to be made.

“Alright, just leave it to me.” Wangcai replied like an obedient dog, then walked to the computer and quickly tapped on the keyboard with all ten fingers.

As Wangcai tapped the keyboard, the monitor turned on again.

A vast, dazzling starry sky appeared on the screen.

“Beep beep beep beep!”

A series of ‘beeping’ sounds came from the speakers, and then a search bar appeared on the screen.

“Master, this is the quick search bar. You can find any item you want just by typing its name.” Wangcai looked back at Fatty Lei and said.

“Then why aren’t you quickly typing in what I’m looking for? What are you looking at me for?” Fatty Lei urged Wangcai.

Wangcai showed a bitter smile and looked at Fatty Lei: “Master, the thing is, if we use this search bar, we need to pay the system a fifty-point fee.” Wangcai told Fatty Lei the reason.

“So I wanted to ask you, Master, whether you actually need to use this function or not?”

Hearing Wangcai’s words, Fatty Lei trembled all over.

“What!!!”

Fatty Lei’s voice rose several decibels, and he looked very angry.

“M-Master, I-I mean~ this~ if you want to use the search bar, you need to pay…” Seeing Fatty Lei’s furious appearance, Wangcai felt a bit scared, but he still said it.

“Damn it! This Dimensional Trading System is too ruthless!” Fatty Lei trembled all over, his eyes fierce as he glared at Wangcai and shouted. “They actually charge fifty Credit Points just for searching for supplies!”

Wangcai’s body shivered, and even a layer of sweat seeped out under his synthetic skin.

It had to be said that this Intelligent Life was made quite realistically.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, “gulp,” Wangcai looked at Fatty Lei and cautiously said to him: “Master, these are all system rules. If you don’t want to use this function, then we can trouble ourselves to search manually.”

Fatty Lei’s face was iron-gray as he nodded at Wangcai.

“Let’s just not use this function. You need to understand that I don’t have many Credit Points on hand right now; we should save wherever we can.”

Fatty Lei couldn’t really get angry at Wangcai either, since the system fees weren’t Wangcai’s fault.

So Fatty Lei had no choice but to suppress his anger and gave Wangcai an instruction.

Then Wangcai began the task of picking and searching through the vast amount of information for what Fatty Lei needed.

Three hours later, Fatty Lei’s face turned from iron-gray to ashen.

Throughout the entire three hours, Wangcai hadn’t found a single suitable merchant.

It wasn’t because of the small quantity Fatty Lei wanted to buy, but because Fatty Lei’s Merchant Rank was too low, so he simply couldn’t search for more merchants from other dimensional planes.

In three hours, Wangcai searched through the spaces of thousands of low-level merchants. But the other parties all despised Fatty Lei’s low offers, so they simply couldn’t be bothered to trade with him.

“What, you only offer one Credit Point, but you want to buy so many things? That’s simply a joke!!” In the video, a Dwarf wearing what looked like a pilot’s leather hat and with a full beard waved an axe and yelled.

“You two paupers, I won’t do business with you. You’re really wasting my time, damn pigs.” The other party then immediately closed the communication.

“Bastard! He even insulted us!”

Fatty Lei’s face turned bright red, and he started cursing loudly too.

“Master, Master, forget it. The other party has already turned off the communicator; he can’t hear you at all.” Wangcai tried to comfort the furious Fatty Lei.

“These guys are such idiots. Isn’t one Credit Point still a Credit Point? They don’t know how to do business at all. I curse him to be unable to pay the Tax next month and get eliminated by the system.” Fatty Lei cursed that Dwarf angrily.

Seeing that Fatty Lei had calmed down a bit, Wangcai walked over to his side.

“Master, what should we do now? These guys always want to do big deals. For poor people like us with no Credit Points, they simply look down on us.” After coming over, Wangcai asked Fatty Lei with a humble and submissive demeanor.

Right now, Fatty Lei was in a very bad mood. Wangcai, observing his expression, immediately knew he absolutely must not anger Fatty Lei now. Otherwise, this Master might just slap him again.

Fatty Lei panted heavily, “Huff, huff,” and slowly let his mood settle down.

“Gurgle～～～～”

Fatty Lei’s stomach started making noises to remind him again.

Holding his stomach, Fatty Lei gritted his teeth and let out a “Hmph” sound.

“What other options do we have now? We only have to go find that Andrew. After all, we’ve done one transaction with him. Compared to those other guys, Andrew should be willing to help us.” Fatty Lei had no other ideas now; he just placed all his hopes on Andrew.

“Alright, Master, I’ll contact Andrew right away and see.”

Wangcai swiftly turned around, walked back to the computer, and quickly tapped the keyboard with both hands to start the communication program.

Meanwhile, Andrew was staring at the still unconscious Sand Beast with a conflicted expression.

“This time I really lost out. I originally thought it was a super-tier magical beast. Who knew it was just an ordinary animal, nothing more than having a venomous spike on its tail.”

Looking at this Sand Beast he bought for 250 Credit Points, which was completely useless, Andrew didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“I wondered why this thing emitted such strong mana fluctuations?”

Andrew was very puzzled about this, so he simply started dissecting the Sand Beast to examine it.

…

A few hours later, Andrew finally figured out the reason.

Inside the Sand Beast’s hard shell, there was a groove containing a lot of sand.

Andrew took that sand and held it in his hand, feeling the mana fluctuations emanating from the grains.

“So it was these sands causing the trouble.” Andrew closed his eyes, sensing the magical elements within the sand.

“Hmm~ The mana is slowly dissipating. It seems due to the Dimensional Rule, these mana-infused sands will lose their effectiveness here.” Andrew finally concluded.

Then Andrew threw the sand, whose mana was continuously dissipating, into a flowerpot beside him.