The Traveler in the story almost got into a fight with a mercenary group, all because of one man.
That man was named Alhaitham—judging by his face: cold expression, sharp eyes, face chiseled like a knife, eyes like stars; truly a great face.
Hmm, and he was holding a book in his hand—definitely an academic type, right?
Taking another look at his arms—that full body of toned muscles looked like one punch could kill a cow.
Uh... should still be an academic type, right?
What is this? The power of knowledge? Reading books can build muscle too?
Alhaitham's timely appearance exposed the mercenary group's lie and saved the Traveler's 500,000.
[Tariq threatened: "Fine... if you really want to die that badly, next week today at 4 PM, we'll meet at the pier in front of Lighthouse over there."]
Cyno: "Do you know why it's at the pier in front of Lighthouse?"
This question drew everyone's attention, including Alhaitham's.
Mainly because Cyno was the General Mahamatra after all, and he should have investigated Port Ormos—everyone thought he knew some secret.
"Because it's the pier (battle)!"
Everyone: "..."
We thought you had some profound theory! We really overestimated you!
Anyway, after a 'don't go home after school, meet in the alley behind the school gate!' style challenge, the Gilded Brigade people dropped the money and ran.
Alhaitham didn't care about such threats at all; he wasn't some delicate scholar—he had plenty of strength and means.
He also had no intention of accepting the Traveler's thanks; he roasted the restaurant owner a couple times, mooched a free meal, and left.
Alhaitham was very aloof and didn't want to hear the Traveler's thanks, but the Traveler wasn't happy about it.
Who do you think you're rejecting thanks from? The Traveler's thanks!
Lumine in the story chased after Alhaitham—you have to accept today's thanks!
Alright, actually the real purpose was to inquire about some intelligence; this guy looked like he knew a lot.
After showing off some 'muscles' in front of Alhaitham, the Traveler earned his recognition.
Both sides reached a cooperation; Alhaitham told Lumine about a 'secret respawn spot' (Dori's secret shop).
Dori doesn't do business with Akademiya people, and Alhaitham happens to be one, so he needed the Traveler to go on his behalf to build trust with the other party.
[Alhaitham: "I need you to go find someone. Her name is Dori; she's a traveling general goods merchant."]
["She can often get real good stuff, and some say as long as there's profit to be made, there's nothing she won't sell."]
Dori scratched her head watching this... thanks for the compliment?
She appeared in the prophecy book, and it was recognition of her—this was a gold-lettered signboard!
The value of the prophecy book goes without saying; Dori now had free advertising on it—she was thrilled to the skies.
But why did Dori seem a bit hesitant and not that happy?
Because Dori had a bad premonition—what's going on? Went out for a stroll and came home to find the wild area about to be invaded!
I've already been very vigilant—don't write out all the meeting methods so clearly!
I just sold some 'forbidden little discs'—is that worth putting in the prophecy book?
The Mahamatras' eyes widened, fully focused on the following plot development—fish, such a big fish.
Alhaitham in the plot was like Sumeru's 'Childe,' bearing all the expenses for this operation just like Tartaglia.
The Traveler only needed to run errands, taking Alhaitham's money to find Dori's contact; Alhaitham even prepared a code sheet for the Traveler.
It said: 'Come buy completely not-sweet Scarletberries: Tell the contact you want to see Dori.'
The Mahamatras secretly lamented—why couldn't this code be told to us secretly?
Now it's written so openly; won't that little fox Dori cut ties immediately?
By the way, Alhaitham, aren't you one of us? You have this intelligence and don't hand it over?
Facts proved that a little fox is indeed a little fox—even though the Traveler in the story followed the code exactly in the conversation, the contact still guarded against it by using a 'run away' method to bring the Traveler to Dori.
At the same time, Dori's illustration appeared before everyone's eyes.
The readers really didn't expect that Dori, this cunning old merchant, was actually a little loli! And pretty cute too!
But she was indeed cunning; there was no clothing on her shoulders—probably because they were too slippery to hold clothes, exposing her fragrant shoulders.
Not just her shoulders—her waist was exposed a lot too, but she was too petite, with no figure to speak of. The Hall Master's chest was about the same size, but the Hall Master at least had a slim waist feel.
The Hall Master's figure could still be said to be like an X, but Dori looked like an H—could only say she had a tiny bit of waist.
If anything drew the most attention, it was Dori's glasses; this thing added a lot of atmosphere to her 'shady merchant' vibe. Without the glasses, she'd just look like a little girl.
[Paimon exclaimed in shock: "Eh, what? You're Dori? I thought you were some scary big sis boss..."]
In fact, this was most people's imagination—who would've thought the biggest black market merchant was a loli.
But this loli was indeed a 'little adult,' even complimenting Paimon and the Traveler—mainly on their good stamina and fast running.
Don't mind what the compliment was—flattery without reason is either adultery or theft; good words are free, but good words make money.
And this compliment wasn't exaggerated; the Traveler was unmatched in this—wanted in multiple countries but they couldn't catch her; she could run too fast.
[Dori complained: "Those guys who have money but gasp for breath after two steps—not only do they easily fall into the Mahamatras' hands themselves, they also implicate us kind small-business citizens, right?"]
Kind small-business citizens—Dori only qualified for the 'small.'
Could only say Paimon's feeling wasn't wrong; though Dori looked like a little loli on the outside, inwardly she was a big sis boss, a lawless outlaw.
This lawless outlaw did have a lot of canned knowledge on hand, but most of it was useless.
Like "Ideological and Dialectical Analysis of Hilichurl Society"—very rare, but rare because few people were interested in it.
Only Elamusk's eyes lit up—this is good stuff, want to buy.
People like Elamusk are ultimately a minority; on the other hand, "Teyvat National Architectural Standards and Construction Methods in the Early Archon War" was somewhat useful—Kaveh was very interested.
Looking closely, Dori's stuff could actually sell for quite a bit of money, but the premise was finding the target customers.
As a black market merchant, Dori wasn't that easy to sell to because she dealt in contraband; almost only customers came to her, not her picking customers.
But if it were in the Traveler's hands, it would be different—the Traveler's connections weren't a joke; they could find target customers for anything!
Even for Nahida's footprints, the Traveler knew target customers.