Chapter 709: ?Forbidden Objects

Song Junlang put it in his pocket after a glance since it was not the time to conduct research. After that, he smiled and said, “Old friend, could you let us stay the night? You know as well that our little friend here is being looked for by a lot of people. You’re still from the Russian academy in the end, so they won’t easily search your place.”

“No problem!” Alexei seemed incredibly unrestrained.

“We might need some equipment, so could you help us with that as well?” Song Junlang pressed for more without a shred of embarrassment.

“That’s simple enough!” Alexei seemed to be drunk, and his eyes reddened as he slapped his chest. “You can take whatever you want from here! Friendship is the most important thing to us Russians!”

Song Junlang’s eyes brightened up before he produced a contract. He pushed it over and said, “You really are a true friend! However, even brothers have to be clear with their deals! Come, sign this document. I can’t just not give you any money!”

“You Chinese are so troublesome!” Alexei membled. In order to show his trust, he did not look at it in detail, and merely threw a glance over at it. He had a bit of doubt in his eyes, as if he felt something was off, but his drunken mind did not want to bother with it, and he signed his name.

Song Junlang finally left the office with Xiao Lin in satisfaction, leaving Alexei who was snoring loudly.

“I feel like he’ll definitely settle the score with you in the morning!” Xiao Lin finally spoke up, full of worry. That so-called document had been looked at by Xiao Lin.

Song Junlang said it was a deal, but it was more like robbery.

There were various high-level equipment and potions and scrolls, and Song Junlang bought it all for merely ten percent of the price. The prices were as good as robbery. Even though they needed to use all of those things in the end, Xiao Lin still sympathized with that Russian. Trusting Song Junlang too much never ended well.

“It’s not just me; he’ll look for both of us!” Song Junlang corrected Xiao Lin unhappily, clarifying that they were accomplices now.

After a pause, Song Junlang waved the paper in his hand, not hiding his pleased expression as he said, “Furthermore, the contract is clear; he has to complete the deal whether he wants to or not!”

Xiao Lin said, “I don’t think that Russian guy will recognize the deal.”

Song Junlang said, “Don’t worry. He won’t dare to cause a scene. Your current status is equal to a fugitive. He’s harboring a fugitive. If it gets reported, Dawn Academy might not do anything to him, but he’ll never be able to do any business near the academy ever again.”

Xiao Lin’s mouth twitched. “So you were using me as a shield. I feel like I really should distance myself from you.”

Song Junlang laughed out loud, slapping Xiao Lin’s shoulder as he stopped smiling. He seriously said, “Alright, I’ll quit joking around. Don’t worry, Alexei won’t be able to wake up for the whole of tomorrow. Do you think the alcohol he’s drinking is anything ordinary? That’s a super strong alcohol that Voyna Akademiya spent five to six years trying to research, it’s extremely expensive. The money he’s earned in the last two years has mostly gone into that. By the time he wakes up, we’ll already have left this place.”

Fine, even though it was not fair to Alexei, Xiao Lin had to admit that it was a good idea.

Alexei might have been a museum curator, but as a black market merchant, he had everything that he needed to have. To Xiao Lin, who had lost his powers, he needed equipment to protect himself. After all, even Song Junlang’s sliver of power at that moment was far more than he had.

Song Junlang ws quite familiar with the museum, and enthusiastically found a hidden door in a corner of the museum. Even though it was protected by a magical lock, Song Junlang actually knew the password as well. After opening the door, there was a moderately sized room behind it that had various consumable tools inside.

Watching as Song Junlang took out a leather bag meant to store those things, it was obvious that this had been planned for a long time. Xiao Lin was speechless, but he did not interfere too much. Song Junlang definitely knew better than him what potions or scrolls they needed.

In his speechlessness, Xiao Lin looked around the messy room, and he suddenly realized something as he said in shock, “These are all forbidden objects?”

Song Junlang was frantically shoving everything into the bag, and he did not even look up as he said, “Obviously. If this guy was a regular merchant, why would he need a museum as a front? Forbidden objects just means that they’re forbidden from being sold publicly. No matter where you go, the black market has never stopped completely.”

Just like forbidden spells and skills, forbidden tools were usually agreed on by the various academies. Most of those had higher effectiveness than other objects of the same rank, but they all had corresponding side effects, and some of the side effects were enough to cause death.

Even funnier was that, other than a small amount of them that had existed in the New World before, most of them had been developed by the colonizers through a mix of Earth technology and the New World’s magic. During the early days of colonization, those forbidden objects did produce good results, but as the various colonies started to stabilize, and when the colonies moved more for peace, they were quickly restricted by the academies.

“The place we’re going to will be dangerous, and I can’t predict the level of danger. To you and me right now, we’ll need these tools,” Song Junlang saw the complicated expression on Xiao Lin’s face, and said lightly.

Xiao Lin sighed, saying, “You don’t have to console me. I understand. Power means sacrifice. This is all necessary.” He felt like he understood those words on a deeper level.

That was right. Song Junlang and himself did not have much in terms of combat ability anymore, so regular potions and scrolls were limited in their use. Only those forbidden objects would be able to temporarily raise their strength. Of course, those objects were incredibly expensive on the black market, so Song Junlang had probably already planned everything out long ago.

After emptying almost a third of the room away, Song Junlang finally left. As they closed that hidden door, Xiao Lin turned around and looked at the empty room.. He suddenly felt like he should never step into Frontier Town again, or he would really be beaten up by that Russian.