Hitman with a Badass System

Michael put the cure inside his space ring before walking out of the room with Eve and Gaya. The trio directly went to the counter.

"My lord, my lady," Zentha greeted them with the brightest smile as though she was meeting them for the first time.

"Take her to the portal," Gaya asked Zentha as Eve quickly took out the pay cube. The purple cube glowed in Zentha's hands. The light shot out from the cube formed the number five thousand. After the number faded away, Miriad approached them again.

"If you may, my lady," Miriad gestured at Eve to follow her.

"We will meet you after we are done here," Michael patted her shoulder with a nod.

"Take this," Eve handed over the VIP card to Michael.

"Hmm," Afterwards, Eve didn't linger any longer as she nodded at Michael and Gaya before following Miriad to the portal. This time, they didn't go to the stairs but walked around the hall and disappeared through a door.

"Zentha, if we want to put something precious in an auction, who should we meet?" Gaya leaned on the marble counter and asked Zentha in a low-pitched voice.

"I can take the item and take it to our appraisers, my lady,"

However, Gaya shook her head,

"I was thinking about meeting the one in charge of the annual. The item we have can save thousands of people. So it's pretty important,"

"Since you have a VIP card, I can arrange a meeting with our manager Lord Anfaler, my lady,"

"That would be great," Gaya grinned from ear to ear,

"Please wait a few minutes, my lady, my lord," Zentha turned around, walking into the room behind her.

"They can't figure out the formula using the list of ingredients we bought, right?" Gaya whispered to Michael. She knew many alchemists who had recreated someone else's potion or pill formula by bribing the place where the alchemist buys the ingredients. For example, suppose an alchemist had a list of ingredients to refine a particular pill or potion. In that case, they could eventually come up with the formula. That was why many alchemists keep the list of ingredients needed for a potion or pill a secret and only buy the ingredients from a highly reputed place.

Although Aqua place was a highly reputed place, she didn't trust the elves.

"I am not an amateur. I didn't need half the items in that list. Even the heavenly alchemists won't be able to find my formula," Michael smirked. Among the ingredients they bought, Michael only used a few of them because he wrote others to confuse if anyone tried to recreate the formula using the list. Michael didn't trust the elves either.

They waited for another couple of minutes, and finally, Zentha walked out of the room again.

"Lord Anfaler will meet you now, my lord, my lady. Go straight and enter the third door on the left," instead of leading them, Zentha provided them with instructions.

"Thank you," Michael nodded with a smile and entered through the door. Many of the elves in the hall creased their brows, seeing Michael entering the staff-only place. They wondered what the human was up to and who he was. They already began to murmur among themselves to find out who he was. Typically, they wouldn't bother with a human, but after seeing his cultivation level, they were startled. After all, every Fusion Stage cultivator they had met was old. Even Lailah Alden wasn't as young as Michael when she reached the Fusion Stage.

Michael, on the other hand, was flooded with system notifications. He received twenty thousand badass points in a few minutes, literally doing nothing. Ignoring the notifications, Michael walked into the brightly lit corridor resembling the one upstairs.

"This is the place," Gaya said, looking at the name 'Anfaler Herdi' engraved in gold on the red oak door.

"Please come in," suddenly, a chill, warm and welcoming voice came from the other side as though someone inside sensed them waiting outside. Michael opened the door to see an arranged room and an elf behind a glass table. The elf who greeted them bore a welcoming smile on his face. Unlike Eloba, the elf radiated warmth and friendliness.  Like any elf, Anfalan was blessed with perfect jaw structure, glossy skin, striking blonde hair, and hazel eyes. He was tall enough to be considered a tall man, and despite his Soul Refining stage cultivation,  he looked approachable.

It was quite slurping to see an elf smiling so widely and being so welcoming to them. Normally, the elves would be cold towards anyone except elves.

"Please be seated. Would you like some freshly brewed tea?" the elf pointed at the marble cup and tea saucer set on the glass table,

"No, thanks, Lord Anfalen," Michael politely rejected the offer as the elf sat before them.

"So I heard you have something valuable to add to our annual auction. Normally, we wouldn't take any item at this point, but since you are friends of Lady Eve, we can make  an exception,"  Anfalen leaned forward,

"Have you heard of the plague in There, Lord Anfalen?" Regardless of how much she hated the elves, she talked to Anfalen with a face full of smiles.

"Of course, bad business. Her Imperial Majesty will soon declare the lockdown, and I hope they come up with a cure. Otherwise, who knows how many lives would be lost to the plague?"

"That's what we wanted to auction, the cure for the plague,"

As soon as Anfalen heard Gaya, the smile on his face froze. But soon, he snapped out of the surprise.

"Here," Michael retrieved the potion from his system storage and placed it on the table.

"Ninety percent pure. It will cure the sickness in a couple of minutes. No side effects," Gaya explained as Anfalen took the potion to examine it closer.

"If I may, where did you find this?"

"I brewed it,"

"Are you an alchemist?"

"The alchemist. I am sure you have heard of Ghost, the number one alchemist of Elon and probably Ozer,"

"You're Ghost?" Anfalen was pleasantly surprised to see a young prodigy like Michael in person. Even in Awor, many related to the alchemy field have heard about Michael, especially after what happened in Ozer during the alchemy competition.

Anfalen was one of the elves who admired and respected Michael despite their racial differences.

"One and only," Michael nodded,

"I have to ask. If you have the cure, why not sell them yourself? If I am right, you have a store. Don't get me wrong, the cure is a big thing. But I don't think it'll be worth the while to put it in the auction,"

Somehow Michael wasn't surprised to hear his words. Merchants like him would always put profits and well-being of their own above everything else.

"Hear me out Lord Anfalen. We don't want you to auction the cure and give us the coins. Whatever you make with the cure by selling it, you can have it all," Gaya initiated the negotiation as Anfalen turned his gaze towards Gaya.

"Let me get this straight. You want us to auction the cure and take all the coins ourselves. You don't want anything,"

"Correct," Gaya nodded.

"You can have it all. We don't want a single coin,"

Anfalen was speechless until Gaya explained her plans to him.

"You will get coins, and we'll get promotion in one of the biggest stages. It's a win-win situation. Moreover, we are planning to venture into the Treacherous ocean. If you do this favor, we'll choose the Aqua palace to auction the rare items we get there,"

Gaya sweetened the pot by mentioning the treacherous ocean. For a few moments, the elf was completely taken aback by surprise. Of course, no sane one would venture into the treacherous ocean voluntarily. Still, after seeing Ghost's cultivation level, Anfalen didn't think they would surely die. Besides, it was a great deal for the Aqua Palace. They would be the first ones to introduce the cure. First, however, Anfalen wanted to check if they really had the cure.

"Have you tested the cure?" Anfalen asked without agreeing to Gaya's terms yet.

"Yes. We cured the Voldigards with the cure. Here, take this and test it on a sick one," Gaya placed another potion on the table.

Anfalen didn't say no to another potion. He had a sick one as Aqua Palace was researching the plague and trying to find a cure. In fact, every single major organization was working hard to come up with a cure. Whoever finds the cure first could earn millions as well as the empress's favor.

"I'll be with you in a few minutes. Please make yourselves at home," Taking the two potions, Anfalen left the room, leaving Michael and Gaya behind.

Although Anfalen left the room, several recording stones were hidden in places such as inside the chandelier above, behind the bear statue on the table, and on top of a portrait watching Michael and Gaya. They were like CCTV cameras recording everything. Michael could easily disable them with the system. But instead, Michael put his hands behind him and released the Spyders.

The little spyders quickly camouflaged themselves with the environment and crawled away.  Since they were being watched, Michael and Gaya didn't speak to each other. Instead, they acted casual and stared at the big stadium outside.

"The auction is next week right?"

Gaya nodded.

This was the only conversation they had until Anfalen returned almost after ten minutes.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting,"

"So what your scholars tell you, Lord Anfalen?" Michael asked,

Seeing Anfalen not answering, Michael smiled,

"Oh come on Lord Anfalen, you have to test the cure. I completely understand that. How can you take something and accept it as a cure for the plague?"

Anfalen looked a bit flustered because of the cure's effectiveness. The Aqua Palace had a few sicknesses underground and studied them to find the cure. So Anfalen just had to give the potion to one of the test subjects to validate the potion. Every scholar, alchemist, and healer responsible for finding the cure was completely startled when they saw the potion cure the sick in a couple of minutes. The cure was legit.

The Aqua Palace wasn't swindlers. Many others would have said the cure was fake, killed Ghost, and tried to replicate the potion to sell the potions themselves. If they wanted Ghost dead, the Aqua Palace had all the resources to kill him despite his cultivation level. However, that is not how Aqua Palace conducted business.

"I can put the cure to the auction, but the Aqua Palace needs something else…."