SK 8

(8: The Swindler)

It is the second day after reincarnation, another reminder that the most unbelievable of things have happened.

A man turning his life to live in the shoes of another. Dai Jin always dreamed of such a thing but knowing how unrealistic it sounded back then, it was a fantasy-grade dream.

Deep down, he felt like something was completely wrong with this whole Reincarnation thingy. It is not like he had proof it didn't exist before or anything, it is just that he was so unfortunate that he was never used to get anything he really wanted.

Bad Luck was not just a belief to Dai Jin back in the day but an actual practice, he even memorized the Fifty Laws of Murphy in order to outsmart his bad luck in some situations.

All in all, Dai Jin didn't really get up from his bed now that he woke up. He waited until he felt like it as he always does. During those times, he would hold a phone or anything but as he had nothing of the sort, he opened the System menu.

"System, show me everything."

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« Profile »
Name: Dai Jin
Level: 2
Rank: Early Spirit Novice
Spirit Qi: 2.8 Years
Mind: 9.1
Energy: 5/5
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« Equipment »
- Weapon: Lv.1 Dagger
- Helmet: Lv.1 Martial Band
- Armor: Lv.1 Martial Robe
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« Storage »
- Empty -
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« Aptitude »
- Shadow Affinity
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« Techniques »
- Nothing -
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« Fights Board »
- Training
- Arena (3/25)
- Survival (5%)
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"Storage, Aptitude, Technique? Those are new."

Dai Jin found something interesting enough for him to go out of his bed and check out what it is. Using the same command methods for the other command, he found that storage is very simple where it literally sends objects to the Game World in the Temple's storeroom. Technique is probably something he learns and Aptitude is about things that are qualities within him.

But for his Aptitude to a "Shadow Affinity" is something that felt a bit dark and ominous. After all, he was introduced to Viper and the Shadow Fiends which are all about shadowy bad guys.

So the theme of his System is related to the Shadows as it seemed.

"Well, unless the System itself starts giving me tips, I will just look and ask around."

He dressed in the most average clothing he found according to the muscle memory of this body.

"System, can I just equip the dagger?"

He didn't need to ask more as the dagger appeared around his waist right away.

"Perfect."

With such a convenient system backing him up, he felt like ready to face this new world for the first time. First, he needed to go and see his Grandfather and…

"Where does Grandpa live?"

He paused in his place the moment this thought came across his mind but he decided to let it go and simply walked out of his quarters to his courtyard. Due to his low standing in the Dai Clan, he clearly had no servants save for those who were sent by his grandfather. The clan seemed to have its system which prioritizes those with talent and actual power. If not for Dai Mo, his grandfather, this world's Dai Jin would have met his demise long ago.

He shook his head and walked out of the courtyard which he never stepped beyond before. The area beyond this courtyard was spacious and had a lot of other courtyards connected to it. It was clearly the residence of a traditional clan. He had no memories of the place but he felt his way around just by the faint remembrance from the former owner of this body who was an unreliable fool.

After getting to finally go across some servants and people who seemed like relatives, Dai Jin overheard them talking about him wherever he goes. Things about him causing trouble again, and the rich lady which comes to see him, and the damnable half-demon. It was truly the Dai Clan he knows and never loved, a heap of absolute trash through and through.

"Hey, trash!"

"Just the word I was thinking about."

"I'm talking to you, you damn bastard."

Dai Jin finally turned around to see a face he hasn't seen in literal ages.

"Dai Yaoting?"

"Huh? What's with saying my name? Know your place you fool!"

And it was as if nothing changed, Dai Yaoting, the little brother of Dai Feng and the little wretch that has no off button when it comes to provoking Dai Jin.

"What is your business with me?" Dai Jin replied at him disdainfully not intending to drag the pointless encounter more than it needs.

"Business? Why do I need to… something is different about you…" Dai Yaoting noticed the unusual attitude of Dai Jin.

"Sigh!" Dai Jin simply walked away leaving Dai Yaoting to his brat attitude.

By observing the place left and right, Dai Jin mapped the place in his head as he was actually good with directions. By knowing where everything is, he managed to easily find the way out of the clan residence and from there to a bustling town.

Unexpected and out of the world in his mind, seeing such a town was akin to a breath of fresh air compared to the cold attitude in the Dai Clan. Taking his first step into Tianlong town, Dai Jin simply walked with the flow trying to be a face in the crowd. He took a circle around the clan residence first to know how far the influence of the Dai Clan reaches. Mostly all of the buildings around the clan's residence belong to the Clan and its business. Dai Jin noticed the guards around these establishments eyeing him dangerously which was exactly how things went back on Earth.

He is not welcome near the family business. Half foreigner, half-demon, half-witted, they have always found a reason to keep him away from power and money.

"Heh! Money, now that's not too much of a problem." Dai Jin turned around after making sure where not to go now.

He walked through the town for an hour without stopping until he familiarized himself with the main roads, the big shops, the restaurants, the names, the large residents. It may seem weird that Dai Jin is able to figure out all of that on his own but his past life, he had to do all this on the scale of an actual metropolis back when he was fighting for his inheritance against the Dai Family. Figuring out the layout of this town was simply a child's play to him.

Now that he had that crossed, he decided to go on a small escapade he had in mind and prepared even before going out of his courtyard. He looked around and found the best target for this not so innocent prank.

It was a stall on the other side of town in a small but bustling market where a lot of faces come and go thus he can make sure no one recognizes let alone remembers his face. He stood in front of the stall that sells antiques and charms and tapped twice on it to draw the attention of the trader.

"Greetings, uncle."

"Yeah…"

The middle-aged man looked at Dai Jin up and down trying to assess him.

"Buying anything, young man?"

"On the contrary, I would like to sell that if possible."

Dai Jin recovered the dagger from his robe and put it in front of the trader.

"Hm?" The trader frowned for a bit but Dai Jin continued.

"It is just some ornamental thing I had lying around."

The trader took the dagger and unsheathed it for the bright and sharp blade to reflect the stray ray of the sun perfectly clear.

"Oh! And why are you selling it?" The old man asked.

"Well, it is just some antique, not sure if it can cut anything so… I wanted money to get some booze. That's all."

"Booze? Alright." The man-made sure to drag the dagger in his stall first before showing out some wen cash coins.

"Come on, old man. Shake it off a little bit. I want to get drunk till night, not till the afternoon."

"Hmph! Just take that."

"Come."

"I said take it, this is enough to get you wasted. Now scram."

The middle-aged trader seemed to have winked for some thug to come and stand behind Dai Jin. The latter smiled awkwardly and took the coins before bowing and walking away.

"Hmph! Such trash is everywhere these days. Instead of learning how to use a weapon, those young masters would sell it for some rounds of booze."

The trader and the thug laughed after saying while Dai Jin was already blending twenty meters away in the crowd.

"Unequip Dagger."

And just like that, Dai Jin was notified that the dagger returned to his storage.

"Hehehe! This is grand. Such a trick used to be a two-man trick to pull off, I am counting you in, System, but it is now a one-man trick. Hehe." Dai Jin counted a total of 12 wen coins keeping them in his storage when no one was looking, "Now… where are those other traders?"

***

Wen cash was the lowest form of currency in the Eastern Continent and was only used by the commoners. For Dai Jin who had nothing, he started to quickly con some of the shady traders around the marketplace. He used to do these swindling jobs before in order to make a living and afford the law cases against the Dai Family and their armies of lawyers but it was of no use against them. However, he is still a conman at heart.

After getting over a hundred coins and learning the prices of things, he moved to a different marketplace and selected a few items to buy. They were mostly antiques of low value that he could haggle the living ghosts out of their sellers over. From that market place, he took those items and ran over to a secluded alleyway before polishing and cleaning all of them and selling them over in a different place as items of precious sentiment. He nearly sold them at triple the price and was even disheartened over it.

"Aren't there any dumb tourists in this godforsaken place?! I'm hardly making any decent profit goddammit."

It was not easy to con the locals and this small town didn't have that many markets to begin with so he had to be careful not to cross paths with the people he conned again especially if they were the ones he sold the dagger to. It is also very hard to do this trick without a partner.

Either way, it wasn't noon yet and he graduated from a person who had no money to one with a decent amount of cash enough to loiter around for a bit now that he figured out the value of things. He walked into a restaurant and tried to find a place where people chatter more than often then sat down and ordered a fried chicken and some liquor.

"… Have you heard? The rice merchants are going to be late this season…"

"… It is driving me crazy, I can't figure out why she chose that punk over me…"

"… The rats, man, the rats are breeding like… well… rats. We need to sell this grain before the harvest is ruined…"

Not any of the conversations were of any value. He heard some social problems and harvest problems but in such a dirty poor town, he couldn't find a thing that helps him make more money. That until…

"… Yes, this merchant will arrive this noon. Don't you already know? The young ladies of the big families will flock over to Old Wu's shop where he sells those books."

"Yeah, those novels published in the capital sell at some crazy price among those ladies."

Dai Jin's ear almost elongated and widened when he heard the words "crazy price". His inner swindler realized something and he remembered a practice he used to be good with in the past.

Old Wu's shop! Dai Jin couldn't remember where that place would be so he instantly asked the men right away. Surely he was looked at as some eavesdropper but he was given the directions he wanted and it didn't take him a couple of minutes to disappear from the restaurant and appeared in front of that bustling shop.

He heard that the item of interest will be some novel that was written by an author from the capital and right away, he entered the shop and pretended to be a runner from the Dai Clan and demanded to buy a few copies. The name of the Dai Clan worked similarly to how the name of the Dai Family used to work back in his past life. It would open all doors for negotiation right away since the shop owner wanted to get closer to the Dai Clan. Dai Jin pre-ordered some copies of that novel and paid all the money he had on him. Just like that, he bought 10 books and spent all his 400 coins.

From now on, he had to wait outside the nearby restaurant for the traveling merchant to arrive in town and grab his copies right away. Until then he decided to pretend to be asleep from alcohol and log into the Game World.

***

———————————
« Profile »
Name: Dai Jin
Level: 2
Rank: Early Spirit Novice
Spirit Qi: 2.8 Years
Mind: 9.1
Energy: 5/5
———————————
« Fights Board »
- Training
- Arena (3/25)
- Survival (5%)
———————————

Now that his Energy was recharged for the next day, Dai Jin wanted to do some leveling up if possible. There was no time to ask for lessons so he went ahead and chose an Arena fight.

< Dai Jin vs. Thief >

The places these Arena fights happen change every time but he is either somewhere around the Jungle or in a small village on the other side of the Zone. He can't escape the Arena Zone as there is some invisible force or actual physical barriers that keep him in the zone.

His opponent was a Lv.2 Thief which was the first time to encounter as the former three were all Lv.1. Dai Jin didn't feel much difference facing the Lv.2 but his items were less effective as they were all Lv.1 which means he won't have it easy against higher-level opponents.

Thankfully, the fight took a minute before he killed his opponent and was transported back to the Temple's Courtyard. The second fight was a little bit tougher since the opponent had an actual sword which made Dai Jin think twice about the range of his attacks. Even after winning that difficult fight, he was not able to level up.

This was all good and dandy until something happened. Just as he was wondering what to do next, he started having a strange feeling over his shoulder and arm. He then heard a distant voice ringing in his head. It seemed like exhaustion but he was in perfect condition after the fight and outside as well.

"Unless…" Dai Jin thought of the possibility and decided to Log Out right away.

Indeed, he was still sleeping at the restaurant's table and the restaurant worker was telling him that drunkards can't sleep here. He didn't stay after that and decided to go look for the shop as it seemed about time for the books to arrive. And they surely did.

From his perspective, Dai Jin managed to see a lot of young women and even servants flocking towards the store asking the shop owner for copies of that infamous novel. Dai Jin secretly joined the line of the servants and waited until he met the shop owner who warmly received him and handed him the ten copies all wrapped and prepared. Dai Jin took them and strode out of the shop before attracting any unnecessary attention.

And another game of long wait started. All Dai Jin needed to do was to wait not too far away from the shop until it sold out in the afternoon and from then, the hunt began.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk, is the shop over there closed already?"

It was Dai Jin who was asking while shaking his head. The one he asked was a young lady whose face was showing a hint of distress.

"Y- Yes, dammit. I couldn't get here in time."

"Tsk tsk tsk… What a shame! What a shame! The young ladies in my clan wanted more copies and I only managed to get a hold of some. Tsk tsk tsk tsk. If only I knew someone who had some to spare… tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk."

"Wait! You have…" The girl looked around her and lowered her voice, "… more copies of [Eternity in Love]."

"Ah! Yes, I have… ehem… a couple on me right now." Dai Jin said with a disheartened face, "If only I…"

"Hey, can you sell it for me? Just one." The girl said with a demanding expression as if she won't take no for an answer.

"Oh! I… I… I am just a courier. It cost me 80 wens for each copy. The young lady…" He said to convey his price which was actually double the real thing.

"Hmph! I'll give you a string of 100 wens."

"Eh… well… I guess… alright…"

He made it look like that he will be in trouble but he ended up selling a copy with 240% what its actually worth.

The young woman walked away with a satisfied expression and Dai Jin turned around with his smiling lips hardly keeping in line with his act.

"Limited Editions Black Marketing. Dai Jin never dies with you around." He looked around in a good mood and soon found his next prey.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk…"