Chapter 8: New Review, New Trouble
Frank turned and unsheathed his blade just long enough to check the edge. It was still clean and sharp.
"I’ve got deliveries to prep."
The Association Trade Hall smelled like a mix of steel, disinfectant, and too many boots. Frank stepped through the front desk checkpoint, nodded at the guard half-asleep in his chair, and made his way toward the back counter. No fanfare—just paperwork and flickering terminals.
He reached the loot submission bay and tapped his ID onto the scanner. A flicker of light shimmered beside him as his dimensional sub-space opened—a quiet pulse, no noise—and dropped three items onto the intake slab: the chitin plates, venom sac, and unstable core.
A clerk stepped out from behind the half-wall partition, uniform jacket with sleeves rolled up and scanner already in hand.
"Chitin set—mid-refined," the clerk muttered, eyes on the data. "Acid sac intact. Core’s unstable but usable. We’ll take the whole batch."
Frank nodded once. The scan confirmed:
The scan confirmed.
『Transfer Complete – 10,000 Arcadian Credits Added to Account』
He signed the digital slip—no questions asked, no explanation given.
Back outside, the sun was sharp and slanting between buildings. He walked back to the Lower Quarter on autopilot, boots stepping over familiar cracks in the pavement. A corner vendor tried to wave him over, but Frank kept moving.