Chapter 182 An Extremely Busy Sunday
Originally, Mark was prepared to spend the market price of 25000 gold coins on buying that 5-acre land, indirectly wasted all because of him.
But, he didn't expect that the Emperor would make this land for his private use to test or demonstrate the weapons as he wishes for free. That means he doesn't need to pay a single copper coin.
However, the land will not be owned by him but belonged to the Empire. So, he cannot sell or rent it to any other person. This is something that he doesn't understand as the land doesn't have any strategic value to it.
Mark didn't know that the Emperor was forced to do it under the pressure of the court officials as it was originally supposed to be auctioned so that it can be turned into an elite neighborhood where wealthy commoners can do their businesses.
Once this experiment becomes successful, the Imperial Palace will evacuate every other poor commoner doing business in all of the Hanga District, turning it into an elite district.
Unfortunately, for them, Mark didn't have plans on staying in Imperial City for very long.
This is why he doesn't worry about not being able to buy the land. As long as he can use it to demonstrate the weapons to customers, he was satisfied. Whether this will inconvenience the surrounding stores due to noise pollution or will it scare the pedestrians, he doesn't give a damn about it.
Now that the land problem is solved, all he needed to wait for is the arrival of the second prince and the letter from Zheng Ha. Then, there's Feng Wu but he wasn't sure whether he will come personally or not as it is indeed riskier.
It was evening and Mark was busy handling the customers.
Because it is the weekend, Chang Bo was given a leave but he still attended his duty to earn extra coins after resting on Saturday.
Mark was thankful for his decision as the store sees an influx of customers, right from the moment he opened the store on Sunday morning.
This has more to do with the announcement made by the Emperor, which spread all over the Empire during the past few days.
More than half of those customers are the commoners and minor nobles who are working as civil servants.
They have respectable positions in society but are quite powerless when facing even a low-level adventurer. Usually, they were also the targets for robbers as they have quite a decent amount of money and jewelry in their lockers.
With the firearms, they hoped to protect themselves and their family members or at least, warn the people by shooting the gun in the air. As it makes a huge sound, it can alert the soldiers if it is shot at midnight.
As they have jobs on the weekdays, they didn't have time to buy them. Sunday was a holiday for all the court officials and civil servants. So, they used this time to buy a weapon for themselves and their family members.
As for the remaining customers, there were merchants and traders, who are earning well. Servants of major noble clans or wealthy individuals have also arrived.
And there were some interested individuals who came from far to try these unorthodox weapons while there were also the spies of the Nie and Zhang Clans who buy the new ones that were added.
Mark was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling from morning to evening.
"P-365, 20 bullets, and 10 R.I.P bullets… A total of 39 gold coins, thank you."
"3 fragmentation grenades… A total of 300 gold coins, thank you."
"1 tear gas grenade, 1 contender, and 10 bullets… A total of 112 gold coins, thank you."
"1 Pzf3- It600 or Rocket launcher and 10 of 110mm warheads… A total of 1050 gold coins, thank you. Please be careful while operating, Customer. It's quite destructive… And as I said before, once the construction of our testing ground is finished, we'll also offer training regarding advanced weapons like these. Please do stop by again…"
One after another, Mark continuously sold the items nonstop. Because of a large number of customers, he and Chang Bo couldn't even manage to eat breakfast, lunch, or even properly take a 15minute break.
By the time it reached 9, Mark had an enormous business of overall transactions almost reaching 15000 gold coins where his share was about 60%. However, once it passed of the closing time, despite wanting to keep it open, Mark no longer kept it open as he was too hungry and very tired. After all, he doesn't have that much stamina courtesy of low strength points.
After taking a look at his pocket watch, Mark spoke in a loud tone, "everyone, the store will close down in five minutes. Either please hurry up your purchases or come back tomorrow. Or else, you will be kicked out and get blacklisted."
There were roughly about six customers in the store. Some of them were curiously observing a sales assistant robot as it was explaining in a robotic voice. No matter what they ask, it wouldn't answer about anything that isn't in its data feed.
A couple looked at each other. The young lady said, "Dear, let's come back, tomorrow, again. This place is really different from the rest of the stores."
Her husband sighed as he shook his head, "No, I will be busy with the work. I'll buy you that stylish-looking pistol, what was its name again…"
The wife reminded him, "Contender."
"Yeah, that's right." He nodded and bought a contender and 20 bullets in hurry, not intending to anger the Cerberus Slayer like Lu Zhen.
The rest were also afraid of his strength and quickly left the store before the time is up.
Once the last customer is out of the store, Mark asked Chang Bo to stay as a guest for the night and offered to treat him to dinner.
At first, he wanted to take him to some luxurious restaurant but then, he got rid of that plan at the last minute upon realizing that he need a horse carriage to go.
The Shimmerwood turtle can also bring them to the restaurant on its back but he knew that its sheer size will not only intimidate the common public but also cause heavy inconvenience to the traffic. Not to mention, there's also a chance of accidentally destroying the buildings on their way.
That's why he gave the task of dinner preparations to Alina and Allen. Both of them hurried off to the first floor with huge smiles on their faces, excited to be useful to their master.
Meanwhile, as Chang Bo thanked his employer, Mark asked him to close down the shutter so as to make sure the customers don't come after the closing hours.
Just as the 15-year-old closed almost half of the store, a hand stopped it, and forcefully pushed it up.
Chang Bo was taken aback as he saw a person in black robes and a hood, along with a clown mask on his face.
"Customer, the store is closed today," Chang Bo informed him.
In response, a muffed voice escaped from the masked human, "I came from far away and I won't take a long time."
Feeling the voice strangely familiar, Mark furrowed his brows and immediately activated his Sage eyes.
He said, "Let the person in, Chang Bo, and close down the store."