Chapter 97: Selling Hakurei Talismans
And the Ghost Postman?
Haruto wasn't worried. He was in Gensokyo now; there was no way he'd be bullied by some lowly mail-delivering ghost.
One had to understand that in a place like Gensokyo, even those whose power fell short of Yakumo Yukari or Kazami Yuuka's level wouldn't be suppressed by the Death Game's rules. Take Kaguya, for instance.
If the current Kaguya were to face the False God that the Lady of the Castle had become, she wouldn't even need to borrow one of Yuuka's Talisman Cards. She alone would be more than enough to hang the creature up and beat it senseless.
Just as he was lost in thought, Reimu suddenly poked him in the side.
"Can you stop playing games for a second? You weren't lying to me when you said ten thousand for one talisman, were you?"
"Huh?" Haruto was startled out of his reverie. "What game? I'm just checking the market prices."
"..."
Reimu was also stunned by his response. She nudged Haruto aside and leaned in front of the computer. When her eyes landed on the long string of zeros trailing behind the commission listings, her entire body began to tremble, and her voice followed suit.
"You... you mean... all of these are for real money? Not some kind of game currency?"
"Of course it's real."
Haruto nodded calmly. He glanced at Reimu, who looked like she was about to start jumping with excitement, and ruthlessly poured a bucket of cold water on her dreams.
"Don't even think about it. You can't enter. This doesn't just involve the outside world; it involves other worlds, too. You can't earn this money."
Upon hearing this, Reimu instantly deflated like a punctured eggplant. But a moment later, her eyes lit up again. As if grasping at a life-saving straw, she seized Haruto's clothes with both hands.
"Then what about the ten thousand per talisman you mentioned? You didn't lie to me about that, right?"
"Why would I lie to you? If you think it's too little, I can see if—"
"That's enough!"
Before Haruto could finish, Reimu shook her head vigorously, cutting him off.
"Ten thousand each is perfect!"
She understood the principle of not biting off more than one could chew. The most important thing right now was to secure the meal that was already in front of her. She absolutely could not let this opportunity slip away.
She scurried over to her wardrobe, dug out a small, dusty wooden box, and placed it on the low table with a soft thud.
She lifted the lid.
Inside were neat stacks of handmade talismans.
"Can these be sold?"
"Don't tell me you were planning to sell these from the start?" Haruto asked, picking one up.
Though it was called a talisman, it was really just a leaf tied with a simple string, its design almost comically plain.
"I just wanted to earn some extra pocket money..." Reimu admitted, her tone a little guilty.
"So this is all unsold inventory?"
"An incident happened back then, so they got left here. I forgot about them later."
Reimu also picked up a talisman and tapped it lightly with her Yin-Yang Orb. A soft light immediately bloomed around the paper charm, unfolding like a protective shield.
"Don't worry," she said, patting her chest with a confident air. "The quality is guaranteed. They can still be used. Blocking a few small fry monsters is no problem."
Hearing this, Haruto decided to test it. Without channeling any youkai power, he punched the talisman with his bare fist. Amidst a flicker of light, it felt as if he had struck an invisible wall. He then injected a sliver of youkai power into his next strike; only then did the protective shield shatter, layer by layer, like breaking glass.
"It's decent."
He nodded with satisfaction. It was much sturdier than the low-level supernatural items sold in the game; even the butler from the castle probably couldn't break this in three hits.
Haruto pulled out a pistol and recorded a short video of the talisman deflecting a bullet. Then, he took out the Ghost Phone and sent a photo of the talisman and the video he just shot into a group chat named "Player Nation."
"Hakurei Talisman. Can resist ghost attacks. Physical defense tested to withstand 3 standard hits; also effective against bullets. Unit price: 66,000 each. First batch is a limited run of 50 pieces."
"[Photo.jpg]"
"[Video.mp4]"
After the message was sent, the originally lively group chat suddenly fell into an eerie silence.
'Is it lagging?' Haruto wondered.
It shouldn't be.
He glanced suspiciously at the group member list—over a hundred people were online.
Just as he thought the Ghost Phone might be malfunctioning, the screen was suddenly submerged by a surging tide of messages.
"Holy crap! It can block ghosts and stop bullets? And this thing is only selling for sixty-six thousand?"
"Hakurei Talisman?? How come I've never heard of it?"
"Who is this big shot? To actually get his hands on fifty of these supernatural items and even put them up for sale? Could this be something he brought out of a Nightmare-level instance?"
"Is the price marked wrong? I've seen most talismans going for around two or three hundred thousand."
"Could it be that the price levels in the big shot's world are relatively low? Maybe there's a currency difference between our worlds?"
This last guess was quickly accepted by many; everyone felt it was the most reasonable explanation.
Seeing the discussion, Haruto simply took a screenshot of the commission tasks and the general prices for supernatural items from his world's forum and sent it to the group for them to see for themselves.
"Price isn't wrong. This is the standard."
"[Photo.jpg]"
Seeing the photo, everyone quickly compared and realized that not only was the talisman not expensive, but it was actually a steal.
"Sent a private message, please reserve five for me!"
"Check your DMs, I want ten."
"Please, check your private chat, I'll take them all."
"..."
Within just a few minutes, Haruto's private message icon had turned into a red notification bubble showing "99+".
He clicked on a few to read. Some were asking about the specific effects, some wanted to buy in bulk, and there were even a few people claiming to be from the "strongest guild in this world" who wanted to discuss exclusive distribution rights.
Reimu watched from the side, completely dumbfounded. Her finger trembled slightly as she pointed at the rapidly scrolling information on the screen.
"Are... are these people serious? They're willing to spend sixty-six thousand on a leaf and a string? Fifty talismans were sold... just like that?"
Before Haruto could reply, a new development occurred in the group chat.
Some sharp-eyed members had noticed a clue in the chat history and returned to the main group to comment.
"Isn't this the account Xie Lin uses? Just the profile picture and name have been changed! You're not playing a prank on us, are you?"
"No, I've cleared an instance with him. With his personality, he wouldn't make this kind of joke."
"+1"
Someone directly tagged "The Most Handsome Realm Demon"—
"Where are you making a fortune in silence, kid? Fifty talismans, for real? Selling for sixty-six thousand... you're not messing with us, are you?"
Haruto raised an eyebrow. Just as he was about to reply, an account named "Wu Wenwen" sent a message first.
"Everyone has misunderstood. The account @The Most Handsome Realm Demon isn't being used by Brother Xie Lin right now; it's being used by Brother Haruto. He's a companion we met in the last instance, and he's super, super powerful. Because Brother Haruto didn't have a Ghost Phone, Brother Xie Lin gave him his to make it easier to stay in touch."
After sending that, she added another message: [If it weren't for Brother Haruto, everyone in that instance, including me, would probably be dead by now.]
At this time, another account named "Your Grandpa Hao Ran Is Here" also chimed in.
"You guys have no idea how twisted the ghost in this instance was. In the end, it turned into some kind of damn False God! If it weren't for Big Shot Haruto showing off his divine power at the last second, you wouldn't even be seeing the urn of me, Liu Haoran!"
"False God?"
"For real?"
Everyone was still half-doubting.
Until Liu Haoran posted a video—the thumbnail of which showed a young man holding a parasol.
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