Only I Am A Reader

"Then… We shall proceed with this."

However, knowledge of the novel wasn\'t the only weapon that Leo was equipped with. Through his observation of the dealer\'s micro-expressions, he let her start the negotiation as he slowly judged what was the optimal price they could offer.

"Would you like to receive the full payment for the first transaction now?"

In the end, Leo managed to set up his own \'business\' in one day. Rather than completely selling his small collection, the dealer represented Shadow Star on agreeing to be his proxy in the black market. Other than an up-front payment at the start, Leo would continue to receive a cut of the profit that came with selling these martial arts.

"I will just receive 2500 silver nyangs in promissory notes for now. As for the rest…"

Normally, Shadow Star wasn\'t an organization that would lower themselves to do something like that, but Leo had intentionally leaked a piece of future knowledge. Whenever there was chaos in murim, martial arts would always be in hot demand.

Be it starting Martial Artists or common people, anyone would throw away the entirety of their possessions if it meant getting strong enough to survive!

\'I wonder what kind of bigshot is backing him.\'

Martial arts were products that couldn\'t be bought with money most of the time. However, this dear custom… Young master presented a collection ranging from Breathing Techniques, Internal Energy Martial Techniques to basic Martial Skills. If the \'something big\' that he alerted them of was real, then this upcoming sale would end up boosting both sides\' wealth by a great amount.

"Just make it so I can withdraw it through the Murim Alliance\'s House of Finance or your other branches, you can do the same for my future cut of the sale."

The so-called \'House of Finance\' was basically the commonly approved bank of murim, creating an anonymous account there for Leo\'s use wasn\'t beyond Shadow Star\'s ability, but it wasn\'t something that they did for anyone.

"So be it, I will be right back."

Fortunately, the dealer completely accepted Leo\'s unreasonable request. While their organization had also accumulated its own stash of martial arts, they were preserved for their personal use. After all, no other organization had too many martial arts for them to care about like the Heavenly Strength Society!

If they mobilized some of their forces, they could still collect something comparable to Leo\'s collection, but the risk of revealing their network or being renounced by the Murim Alliance wasn\'t worth it. On the contrary, acting as a proxy to a certain \'bigshot\' provided them the ability to throw away the entirety of the blame if any were to arise!

\'None of that would matter soon anyway.\'

The chaos that was about to descend gave Leo the confidence to boldly break the rules. However, in the end, all of that was only possible thanks to borrowing the protagonist\'s illusory \'background\'. Without it, let alone trusting his words regarding the coming upheaval, they would have simply thrown him away after they had received the books that he had transcripted…

Of course, even with the background that elevated his position from a normal \'dear customer\' to a VIP \'young master\', he was likely to get hounded by Shadow Star in the case his \'prediction\' turned out to be a ploy to upsell his product!

"Here you go, Saja-nim. I hope this transaction won\'t be our last."

As the dealer returned once more, she put down a stack of stamped papers and a black jade plaque. Leo wasn\'t familiar with them, but he recognized them to be promissory notes worth 100 nyang each. A large \'Mu\' was inscribed on the jade plaque, while a \'Saja\' was freshly inscribed at the bottom end, this was Leo\'s new bank card!

"Likewise, I had a great time dealing with you."

Stashing away his newfound wealth, Leo blurted out a few pleasantries that had some meaning to them. This dealer seemed to be of relatively high rank in their organization, but her poker face had quite a few holes. Thanks to her, he didn\'t end up losing the flow of the negotiation!

\'Time to go back.\'

Leo might have behaved calmly, but he could feel the cold sweat that had accumulated on the back of his neck. His life was in danger since he stepped foot into the Night\'s Curtain, but the gains surpassed the risk.

"Ah, man! I didn\'t expect to blackout in the bathroom! That drink was too strong!"

Staggering out of the bathroom straight towards the exit, Leo inwardly sighed in relief as he took a detour back to the inn. Despite his plan being full of holes, he managed to slip back without exposing himself!

The name that he had given them was only a playful translation of his identity as \'Reader Leo\'. For some reason, he felt the need to keep his main identity relevant even if nobody would recognize it…

Quickly restoring his appearance in the inn\'s bathroom, Leo returned to his room only to notice something sneakily approaching him from behind, failing to react due to his suppressed perception!

"You are back."

\'This is not good for the heart.\'

Leo sighed upon recognizing the figure stuck to his back. His heart had been racing through all of that, and Yeon had almost escalated that to a heart attack.

"Yeah, thanks for waiting for me. We have to sleep now, but I will take you for a big feast tomorrow since I made some money today, keep that a secret though!"

"Mhm."

It wasn\'t exactly the best thing to do, but Leo intentionally leaked what he did as a test for Yeon. He only planned to splurge with the leftovers of the money given to them since he didn\'t have to worry about money, so he wouldn\'t get into trouble either way.

Without anything important taking place, time quickly passed as their group once again wandered the streets of Unnam, savoring the calm before the storm. A few days later, the Sword Conference\'s registrations… exploded with great surprise!

"The Demons are here!"

Revolving around Leo\'s group, a brief prelude to murim\'s upheaval broke out into place.