Chương 64: Chapter 61

Granessa continued screaming at the top of her lungs while desperately trying to fling the sea sheep from her hand. Unfortunately, the little creature had no intention of letting go. It clung to her finger as tightly as it could, refusing to be shaken off no matter how violently she waved her arm. The commotion quickly attracted the attention of the sailors scattered across the deck. One by one, they turned toward the source of the screaming before gathering around to see what was happening.

"Is that the captain's niece?"

"Why is she screaming?"

"What's on her hand? A sea slug?"

"Is it attacking her?"

"No, that's a leaf sheep. They're harmless." No matter what anyone said, Granessa couldn't calm down. Her fear response was in overdrive, completely overwhelming her ability to rationalize the situation. She had microphobia. A fear of small objects.

"Maybe I could…?" Adam mumbled. He reached out his hand while imagining a calming aura washing over Granessa, hoping the spell would be enough to bring her back to her senses.

"[Calm]." [Calm] Calms the mind of the target. Effect: Reduces or eliminates the effects of negative mental status conditions. A lime-green light resembling a thin fog drifted from his open palm and enveloped Granessa for an instant before dissipating. The spell seemed to affect both Granessa and the sea sheep. The orc and the tiny creature suddenly stopped screaming and simply stared at one another in silence.

"Hurp!" The sea sheep suddenly vomited a small amount of seawater onto Granessa's palm.

"I… I told you I was going to puke." Granessa's expression immediately began to crumble as she teetered on the edge of another panic attack. Adam reacted quickly, plucking the sea sheep from her hand and placing it on a wooden barrel that had somehow survived their earlier crash. Mei leaned down and stared at the strange little creature.

"What are you?" she asked. The sea sheep tilted her head.

"Oh! I forgot." After closing her eyes for a moment, a name tag suddenly popped into existence above her head. Saya, Leaf Sheep (Traveling Merchant - Intern)"I'm Saya, a Traveling Merchant of the Vast Sea Agency," she introduced herself with a slight nod, causing the leaves along her back to rustle.

"Ooh! A merchant!" Mei said, clapping her hands.

"What do you sell?" A slight blush formed on Saya's small, puffy white cheeks.

"Well… I'm only an intern, so I don't have an inventory of my own. I can only sell what the agency has available according to your financial situation." Mei tilted her head.

"So, the more coins we have, the better the items we can buy?"

"Yes."

"I don't have any coins," Mei said with a smile.

"Got any free stuff?" Saya blinked and stared up at her with a baffled expression.

"…No."

"Oh, okay." Mei turned toward Adam.

"You've got all our coins. See what we can buy." Adam stepped beside her and crouched down until he was roughly at eye level with Saya, who was standing on top of the barrel. Before he could say anything, however, the leaves along Saya's back suddenly began glowing with a bright green light.

"Y-you! Just how much money do you have?! My Merchant class has never reacted this powerfully before!"

"Um, let's see…" Adam glanced toward the corner of his inventory screen, where a ridiculously long string of numbers represented the amount of Game Coins he possessed. It was very, very long. In fact, he wasn't even sure he knew the name of the number.

"A… lot." Saya stared at him for a moment before nodding vigorously.

"I like a lot." She reached out one of her tiny, leg-like appendages.

"Please touch my leg." Adam carefully touched it with his fingertip, which was almost as large as Saya's entire body. A system screen immediately appeared between them. Traveling Merchant Inventory - Vast Sea Agency (VVVIP Shop) The screen expanded endlessly, displaying page after page of merchandise until it eventually reached its limit and collapsed into a manageable list. There were ten items displayed at a time, with page numbers beginning at 1 and continuing all the way to 1, 000, 000.

"That's a lot of pages," Mei said as she leaned over Adam's shoulder.

"Think we could buy them all?"

"I haven't even looked yet…" Granessa leaned over his other shoulder.

"Do they sell weapons?"

"Probably," Adam said with a shrug before glancing at Saya.

"Do you sell weapons?" Saya stared blankly at the screen with her tiny, black, button-like eyes. After blinking a few times, she looked up at him.

"Umm… yes. Uhh, this is our agency's entire inventory. I didn't even know the shops went past VIP, let alone VVIP…"

"Oh." Adam looked back at the screen. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Can I filter it?" Saya nodded.

"Use the drop-down list at the top." Adam glanced between Mei and Granessa.

"What should we search for first?"

"Guns!"

"Axes!"

"Okay, so weapons, got it." He nodded and selected Weapons from the drop-down list. The maximum page number immediately changed to 1, 000. That meant there were more than ten thousand weapons available. Adam selected another drop-down menu that appeared and narrowed the results to Firearms and Axes. The maximum number of pages dropped to 100. Using another drop-down menu, he adjusted the rarity filter to display only items above Rare. The results finally condensed into a single list of one hundred items.

Rather than being divided into groups of ten, they were all displayed on one screen with a scroll bar on the side. Adam, Mei, and Granessa slowly scrolled through the inventory. There were plenty of high-rarity weapons, but nothing immediately caught their attention. Most of the items were either impractical, oddly specialized, or simply failed to impress them. There was also only one firearm. Squirt Gun - (Ultra Rare) A water gun with an unlimited capacity.

Effects: Infinite Storage: Has unlimited storage capable of holding anything in liquid form and automatically sorts different liquids. Hydro-Cannon: Converts liquids into high-energy attacks that deal damage and possess effects based on the liquid used. Universal: Can be equipped and used by any class. The display image showed a green-and-yellow plastic toy gun with a blue bottle attached to the top. It was literally a toy squirt gun. Its price was 1, 000, 095 Game Coins. Expensive, but perfectly doable for them.

After collecting coins from Lord of Flesh, Bakari, and Hatshepsut, they had accumulated an astronomical amount of money. They hadn't even bothered checking how much their streams had earned, nor had they enabled subscriptions or donations. Even if they had, the amount would have been little more than a drop in the bucket compared to what they already possessed. Adam glanced at Mei.

"You want it?"

"Can I test it?" she asked Saya.

"Uh, normally, no. But according to the agency's rules, VIP customers can test or rent items. I'm not sure what perks VVVIP customers get, but those perks should remain. I think?" Saya looked slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry, I don't know all the rules. I was only hired recently…" Mei reached out and gently tapped Saya's back with her fingertip.

"That's fine. You're doing great." Saya made a strange sound that resembled a cat's purr, although it wasn't quite the same. It sounded more like seaweed rustling underwater. Her tiny mouth curled into a contented smile. She then reached into the shop's inventory and pulled out the Squirt Gun before handing it to Mei. Mei examined it carefully. At first glance, it really was just a toy gun.

There was nothing particularly impressive about its appearance, and she couldn't find any obvious signs that it was an Ultra Rare item. She unscrewed the container on top, only to discover one small problem. She didn't have anything to put inside it.

"Anybody have some water or something?" she asked the surrounding sailors. One of the sailors reached into his inventory and pulled out a waterskin.

"Here ya go."

"Thanks." Mei accepted it, then glanced down at the waterskin with a strange expression. High-Capacity Waterskin (Rare) Holds several tons of fresh water. Effect: Freshwater Storage: Can hold several tons of fresh water, including freshwater lifeforms. (Add in some salt and you can make saltwater.) Warning: Adding saltwater will kill any freshwater lifeforms. Also, best not to drink either one while living beings are inside. Especially the saltwater. Unless you don't mind choking on living fish… Mei shrugged.

Whatever. She removed the cap and tipped the waterskin over the Squirt Gun's container. Water poured out with a faintly salty and fishy smell, filling the weapon's reservoir. The moment she finished, a system notification appeared. Saltwater Added. Damage converted to Saltwater. Saltwater Effects: High Damage, Extreme Pain, and Dehydration. Mei blinked.

"Oh." She looked at the Squirt Gun again. Maybe it wasn't so useless after all. She walked over to the railing and aimed the weapon at a rocky outcropping sticking out of the sea several hundred feet away. The boulder was more than ten feet thick, making it a fairly impressive target for a glorified water pistol. Mei pulled the trigger. A jet of water erupted from the green tip. Rather than spraying out like an ordinary squirt gun, the stream shot forward like a laser beam.

It struck the distant rock and drilled straight through it, punching a perfectly clean hole through more than ten feet of solid stone. Mei lowered the weapon and turned back toward the sailor who had given her the waterskin.

"By the way. Why is your waterskin filled with saltwater?" she asked. The sailor scratched his head.

"I like collecting marine animals."

"Valid." Mei nodded. Apparently, that was all the explanation she needed. 「 Author Note: Hey all, got a little bit of unfortunate news. I will be taking a one week break from today the 15th until the 22nd. My backlog of chapters is sadly at zero… I've had a terrible couple of weeks which resulted in no writing, but I have the next week off which will hopefully allow me to get caught up. Thank you for reading and enjoying my work and I'll see you again soon with even more of Adam and Mei's chaotic adventures! 」