The sphere in front of him brightened faintly, then answered in a crackling voice: "That’s right... sir... Insufficient energy... kzzt... forced shutdown..."
Hearing that, Liam shouted in a hurry: "Hey! Don’t go dying on me the moment you turn on! How am I supposed to get enough energy into you? Do I plug you in?"
The sphere answered with its last breath: "Do you... consent to depositing... silver stars... to increase... energy?"
A control panel appeared in front of Liam, with a line of introductory text at the top and two options, Yes and No, at the bottom. The panel was exactly like a computer screen with a faulty circuit board, flickering on and on until Liam’s eyes swam.
He couldn’t even read the introduction at the top.
Irritated, Liam simply put out his index finger and chose Yes.
"Ting... Eight hundred and sixteen million silver stars deposited successfully... Loading energy... Energy at 25%, initiating level-one Trading Hall... Initiation successful!"
"Meow! Congratulations to the host on successfully activating the Cross-World Trading Hall System! We wish the host a pleasant shopping experience!"
In the blink of an eye the sphere changed shape, turning into a cat made of blue light that clutched a blue screen and meowed its congratulations at Liam. The user manual scrolled past on the control panel, but Liam was no longer in any state of mind to read it.
He had gone as stiff as a statue.
About ten minutes later, Liam clutched his head and howled: "You motherfucker! My eight hundred million silver stars! My entire life savings! You swallowed every last one of them! You thief! Give me back my silver stars!"
The blue cat hopped onto the edge of the screen and licked its claws at leisure. Only when Liam was on the verge of turning Super Saiyan did it speak up calmly: "Host, don’t go blaming the system so fast. Trust me. That miserable little pile of silver stars is nothing next to what you’re going to get out of opening the Trading Hall."
With that, the cat swung its bushy tail up and slapped it hard against the middle of Liam’s forehead. Streams of information came pouring into his brain, and he had to clutch his head and sink down where he stood.
The Cross-World Trading Hall System was, put bluntly, a channel for trade between one world and another. The Trading Hall had six levels, and the goods permitted to be exchanged in it were graded to match.
At level one, for instance, the owner could trade low-grade goods with no energy in them, such as nutrient fluid, low-grade medicine, seeds, meat, rice and oil.
A level-two Trading Hall could trade items with low energy fluctuation.
And so it went, with the quality of tradeable items rising level by level. At the very top, the owner of a Trading Hall could even trade Magic items of extremely high rank.
The method of exchange was as follows: [The system will scan the item the owner wishes to offer for sale, and if it qualifies within the permitted range it will be placed in a display slot in the Trading Hall. Once the item is listed, the owner may specify what item they wish to receive in return.]
[Once another party accepts the exchange, the system will open a trade panel. Both sides will place the item they wish to trade onto the panel, and the system will carry out a final verification. If the data matches, the goods will be transferred into the owner’s storage.]
[From level two onward, the owner may view every stall present in the Cross-World Trading Hall System and may actively request exchanges with any stall shown in green. Stalls shown in gray are of a higher grade than the owner’s own, and the owner must reach the equivalent level before being permitted to trade with them.]
...
Liam sat there for hours digesting the information the system had poured into him, and then spent another half hour weighing the pros and cons. After thinking it through properly, Liam decided that these eight hundred million silver stars were not a loss at all.
What did low-grade goods include? Seeds, seedlings, seasonings — all the things his own era didn’t have.
And what did his family do? Farming!
And what else besides farming? Food streaming!
And what was this world shortest of? Fresh food!
Liam pictured silver stars pouring into his account by the torrent and grinned all over his face. That foul-mouthed blue cat promptly dumped a bucket of cold water over him: "Dear host, the first energy deposit is at a promotional rate. From the second one on, it’s ten billion silver stars per one percent of energy. If you want to open the Trading Hall all the way to level six, you’ll have to become a multi-billionaire first. And if the Trading Hall hasn’t reached 100% energy within three years, the system shuts itself down automatically."
Liam: "..."
He flopped straight down onto the white floor and spread out his arms and legs like a turtle washed up on a beach: "Then go ahead and shut the hell down."
The cat licked its claws and looked at Liam with open contempt, scolding: "Short-sighted creature. Stop and think about it. How large is this planet of yours? If you restored the whole thing and grew and raised new things on it, how much would you make in a year? And that’s before you count the fact that every level of the Trading Hall has valuable goods in it, and you could pull any one of them out and sell it outside for several billion. Seven hundred billion and change, that’s all. You’d earn it inside two years, with plenty left over."
Liam’s eyes slowly brightened. He sat straight up and propped his chin on his hand to ask the cat: "Hey. Does the Trading Hall allow wholesale orders?"
The cat paused for a moment, then pressed a front paw to the data panel and searched quickly. After a while it answered: "Wholesale is permitted, but only from level three upward. And each wholesale order is capped at ten thousand units, with only two wholesale orders a month, at two different stalls."
"So how are the Trading Hall levels calculated?" Liam asked excitedly.
"Level one is 25%. After that it’s another 15% per level."
Which meant reaching level three needed another 30% of energy, and 30% came to three hundred billion. Liam wilted on the spot.
The blue cat flicked its tail in disdain, then swept its gaze over Liam from head to foot. Wherever that blue gaze passed, Liam’s soul shivered.
After a while the cat clicked its tongue twice and looked at him with a great deal of meaning behind its eyes.
Liam blurted out: "What’s that look supposed to mean?"
The cat stretched itself out and yawned: "You’ll find out soon enough."
That said, it swept its tail hard in Liam’s direction. Liam reeled, and after a bout of spinning he found himself standing beside the compost pit. Sunflower was still diligently adjusting the moisture inside it, entirely unaware that her master had briefly disconnected.
Liam checked the time on his smart watch at once. Just before he was pulled into the white space, he had happened to glance at it, and the time had been showing 09:03:26. Now, looking again, only the seconds were ticking steadily upward.
Which meant he had spent nearly two hours in that white expanse while outside nothing had changed at all.
[Relax. The flow of time in the soul space runs a thousand times faster than real time. A day in there is a minute and a half out here.] The cat’s lazy voice sounded in Liam’s ear.
Liam’s eyes lit up. So from now on he could duck into the Trading Hall and shop right in front of other people, and nobody would ever notice.
"Hey, cat." Liam stretched and spoke to the system with his thoughts: "What’s your name?"
The blue cat snorted: [Whatever name the host gives me is my name. I’d advise you to pick something nice.]
Liam did not care for this insolent system one bit. It spoke with a lofty, superior air at all times, as though it were his master rather than the other way round. Liam curled his lip into a very sunny smile: "Then from now on your name is Woof Woof."
The cat: [...]
The instant the contract lit up to show that the master had confirmed the information, the cat’s fur stood on end and it screeched: [Damn your whole family! My name is your stall’s name! It’s the name every single host in the Trading Hall System can see!]
Liam: "... Why the hell didn’t you tell me that earlier instead of putting on a whole performance? Is there still time to change it?"
The blue cat swore furiously: [The system’s logged it, what the fuck do you think you’re changing now!]
Liam: "..."