Chapter 38: Black market

Nick didn’t hesitate as he stepped off the maglev and into the crumbling heart of Terminus’ ’black market’ — which was more like the open market since everybody already knew about it.

Even the Federation officials in charge of overseeing operations on Terminus knew about the place, but just left them to do their own thing.

Naturally, this was because they brought a lot of profit and income streams through Terminus, but also surprisingly because they contributed a lot of money to the planet’s economy — since unlike what most people think, the vendors there paid their taxes.

Unlike in the past, it was nearly impossible for people to avoid paying taxes, criminal or not.

Though the most important reason they were even allowed to operate so openly was obviously because the criminal gangs behind them had influence in the Federation that spanned beyond just Terminus itself.

In today’s day and age, money and connections were power.

It wasn’t much different from the old days of the 21st century, aside from the major factor of personal strength thanks to the Beast Domain — which outweighed all other influences on power by itself.

If someone were a Radiant Ascendant, they would obviously have a lot of power and influence in the Federation.

The black market was located rather centrally in regards to Terminus’ main points of contact. It wouldn’t really make much sense for it to be located far away from civilisation, since that would just discourage prospective customers from visiting.

If it wasn’t within maglev distance, most people wouldn’t even bother.

They’d just find somewhere else to buy what they were looking for.

A jungle of smoke stained towers, flickering neon signs, and alleyways that stank with all sorts of unknown substances. This was the area Nick soon found himself in.

It was the kind of place a man could buy any kinds of illegal weapons, hire a prostitute, or a soul sapping drug far more powerful than 21st century Earth had on offer.

And more importantly… information.

He adjusted the collar of his jacket and pulled his hood up.

Now wasn’t the time to look like someone who’d just walked out of a successful hunt.

Where there was wealth, there was bound to be crime.

Especially in the black market.

The poorer he looked, the less people would bother him.

’Keep your head down. Eyes forward. Act like you belong here!’

Of course, Nick was a little nervous coming to this place, as he hadn’t ever visited somewhere like this before, nor had he really interacted with the criminal underworld of society at all — in the Federation at least.

In the Beast Domain, anything goes — with Beast Slayer’s careless murder of those poor bastards being a prime example of it.

Nick wasn’t going to report their deaths either, as he neither knew their names, but also had absolutely no evidence to back his claims.

That was the advantage of doing all your dirty business in the Beast Domain, where there was no surveillance.

He ducked down a narrow corridor behind a ’noodle stall’ that was really a front for an information broker, found a door with no sign, and descended a graffiti laced stairwell that pulsed with a dim red light.

As a complete newbie to this place, Nick naturally wouldn’t know about all the complex intricacies of how to find a place like this.

But being a nosy busybody had its perks!

His time of hanging around the teleporter in his downtime, listening in on other people’s conversations, had provided him a general overview of how the black market worked, and how to navigate it.

From the information he gathered, he knew how to identify the different types of vendors, even though they didn’t advertise their services at all.

Food stalls were fronts for information vendors.

Buildings with a dedicated beggar sitting outside of them all day were where one would find the brothels.

General goods stores were fronts for the illegal weapons trades.

And so on.

Nick wasn’t interested in anything other than the information vendors though, so he ignored all of the various options available.

The Federation was no place for dreamers.

And certainly not a place for fools.

Because Nick already knew he’d never find what he was looking for online.

That sort of public access databases the internet had to offer only covered the most basic Beast information — only covering Mundane and Awakened beasts, never showing any information about Mutant or Radiant beasts.

Even the information on the lower ranked beasts wasn’t entirely reliable either, as most of the stuff shown was just outdated hunting grounds, and safe routes that were most certainly no longer safe.

Anything more? Like Mutant Beast territory locations? Their weaknesses? Typical behaviour patterns?

Yeah, he’d have a better chance of finding and killing another Radiant Beast before coming across such information online.

That kind of info was locked down.

’Monopolised…’ Nick thought, with a familiar twist of annoyance crossing his face.

Even though the federation portrayed itself as a democracy, it was far from it.

Those with power hoarded all the good resources and information for themselves, while leaving those lower down the chain with scraps.

Like Dido and Beast Slayer.

They commanded whole gangs of people powerful in their own right, but only those two could benefit from absorbing the beast cores found in Radiant beasts.

It wasn’t just Dido and Beast Slayer though.

The whole power structure of the Beast Domain revolved around information control — the ones who found territories didn’t post them for the public good.

They either monopolised them for themselves, and sold them off to the highest bidder when they were finished.

Or just outright sold them, hoarded them, traded them for favours.

Anything really.

Society was all about profiting and doing what it took for personal gains.

’That’s where the information brokers come in.’

People who gathered and sold any and all kinds of information they could get their hands on, and sold them off for a profit.

Nick was meeting one of them today to try and see if he could gather any information about the Mutant beasts in the surrounding area of War Beast sanctuary, or even better, any Mutant Beast territories.

…Though, he was hoping he’d have enough capital in his bank account to pay for such information.

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