239: Chapter 239 Weapons and Wealth, I Want Them All!

Little Eight's eight tentacles lost their strength simultaneously, and its entire body slumped onto the floor.

"Lord... Lord Sovereign, where did you strike it rich?"

"It just happened while I was fighting." Lin Xiao looked down at it. "Don't worry, the goods are clean. Sell them as you please; no one will give you trouble!"

At this moment, hearing the commotion, Jiang Wanwan and the other two women came down from the second floor.

Wen Yiran walked at the front, her flaxen twin-tails swaying on her shoulders.

She was about to greet Lin Xiao, the smile on her face not yet fully bloomed, when her gaze crossed Lin Xiao's shoulder and landed on the half-human, half-octopus creature behind him.

Her smile froze.

But her hands were faster than her smile.

The [cloud piercer] crossbow flipped in her hand, and a bolt was already notched on the string.

The sound of the bowstring tightening was exceptionally clear in the quiet meeting area.

Immediately following was a sharp whistle as it pierced the air.

The crossbow bolt, carried by a fierce wind, headed straight for Little Eight's forehead.

In Little Eight's large eyes, the rapidly enlarging arrowhead was reflected.

It wanted to dodge, but its tentacles felt as if they were filled with lead and wouldn't obey.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao flicked his left hand, and a sharp steel blade directly blocked the incoming bolt.

The direction of the arrowhead was deflected by a mere inch.

The bolt grazed Little Eight's ear and thudded into the wall behind it, the fletching still vibrating with a hum.

"Lord-Lord-Lord-Lord Sovereign... Save me!!!"

Only then did Little Eight manage to let out a delayed scream, its eight tentacles curling into a ball as it turned into a round octopus sphere.

"Ranran, this is a new guest. Don't panic."

Lin Xiao retracted his left hand, the steel blade making a soft click as it slid into the storage slot of his bracer.

"What on earth, a guest? This is a person?"

Wen Yiran looked at the curled-up creature with lingering fear, her crossbow still held at the ready.

Little Eight cautiously peeked half a face out from behind Lin Xiao, raising its tentacles above its head in a standard surrender pose. "I'm an octopus! A good octopus! You sisters can call me Little Eight—'Little' as in small, and 'Eight' as in... well, Eight!"

Wen Yiran was stunned for a moment.

"An octopus that speaks human language?"

Jiang Wanwan, on the other hand, didn't react too strongly.

Having experienced so many absurd things, she didn't find this scene particularly strange and accepted it quickly.

Lin Xiao gave a helpless smile and briefly explained what had just happened.

Princess Xiyao's old friend, the Deep-sea Traveling Merchant, being swept onto the Astral Express by the current, and that bizarre merchant caravan.

The three women finally understood, and the tense atmosphere gradually relaxed.

Lin Xiao continued, "The main reason I called Little Eight over is to have it help sell supplies."

"Sell supplies?" Wen Yiran put the crossbow back into her backpack, her tone tinged with confusion. "We have online trading; we can list things for sale anytime, anywhere. Why open an offline stall?"

"Online trading is indeed convenient." Lin Xiao walked to the conference table and tapped his fingers lightly on the surface. "But we basically only list high-end goods—for example, Level 3 equipment with attributes, or skill books and blueprints above Level 3.

These types of products have a high unit price and a high decision threshold for buyers. There's no need for haggling; you just list them and wait for someone who knows their value to buy them directly."

His finger swept toward the mountain of supplies piled in the corner of the meeting area.

"But the remaining lower-level supplies, like Level 2 basic equipment, skill books, and basic materials, can also be sold.

However, the cheaper the item, the more people want to haggle. Every single piece requires ten or twenty private messages back and forth. Grinding your teeth over a hundred or two hundred stardust... just thinking about it is a headache."

The three women nodded in unison.

They had all sold supplies before and had experienced the problem Lin Xiao described.

Especially Wen Yiran.

She knew best that feeling of being bombarded by dozens of private messages at once, with everyone talking for ages only for there to be no follow-up—it was a breakdown-inducing experience.

"So."

Lin Xiao held up two fingers.

"I plan to sell both online and offline."

"Online will be high-end, focusing on a luxury positioning—no haggling, take it or leave it."

"Offline will take a more accessible route, high quality at low prices. The more people buy, the more we earn."

As he spoke, his gaze landed on Little Eight.

"We just happen to need an experienced merchant to help us run the offline stall."

Little Eight noticed everyone's eyes on it and pointed a tentacle at itself. "Ah, me?"

"Exactly. You are the best candidate I'm looking for. No one here has more experience than you."

Lin Xiao's tone was calm, but every word struck home in Little Eight's heart.

Little Eight's tentacles unconsciously twisted together.

This feeling of being recognized made it very happy.

"However, we won't use a bartering system," Lin Xiao continued. "Everything will be settled in stardust. For every piece of equipment sold, you'll get a corresponding commission."

He took out some stardust and opened his palm.

They were black grains of sand reflecting a dim luster, lying quietly in his palm like a small pinch of the crushed night sky.

Jiang Wanwan stepped forward and used her index finger to gently nudge one of the grains.

"Xiao Lin, we can trade face-to-face and transfer stardust, but how should Little Eight measure it? We can't have it count them grain by grain with its tentacles, can we?"

"Yeah, if you really made it count this sand, even eighty tentacles wouldn't be enough," Wen Yiran added from the side.

Little Eight nodded heavily and said gratefully, "The sisters are right."

The corners of Lin Xiao's mouth curled slightly as he pulled back his hand and poured the stardust back into his backpack.

"I've considered that issue. So, next is my second idea."

He paused for a beat.

"I want to establish a universal currency system. Let the passengers deposit all their stardust with us, and in return, we'll give them supply vouchers of equivalent value."

"supply vouchers?" The three women said in unison.

Lin Xiao looked at Wen Yiran. "Remember those few supply exchange vouchers you gave me when you first joined our team?"

Wen Yiran was startled for a moment, then nodded. "I remember."

"We'll do it in that format, but on a much larger scale. I want the entire train to use them."

Lin Xiao held up one finger.

"First, stardust can be deposited or withdrawn at any time. There are rewards for depositing. If it's a fixed-term deposit, the seven-day interest rate will be 2.5%. Suppose you deposit ten thousand stardust; after seven days, you can get back the ten thousand principal plus two hundred and fifty in interest."

He held up a second finger.

"Second, people can also take out loans from me. The seven-day interest rate will be 10%. Suppose you borrow ten thousand stardust; after seven days, you need to repay the ten thousand principal plus one thousand in interest."

Unlike the previous world.

Here, every seven days was a cycle of profit and loss.

Survival and death, points and supplies, shops and settlements—everything revolved around this number.

Therefore, interest rates also had to be calculated every seven days, rather than the annual interest rates of the old world.

After hearing Lin Xiao's words, The three women all showed shocked expressions.

"Xiao Lin, you're going to start a bank on the train?" Jiang Wanwan didn't react for a moment.

Lin Xiao nodded.

"I have already integrated all the forces of the doomsday train. Core combat power, logistics, equipment, and supplies are all under our control. So next, it's time to integrate the economic system."

He extended his right hand, fingers spread wide.

Then, he slowly clenched it into a fist, his knuckles cracking.

"The guns and the money bags..."

He looked up, his gaze cold and sharp.

"I want it all!"