My Counterattack System After Reborn

Chapter 30: Harvey’s Haggle

Todd thought about Harvey’s request for a minute, and then he said, "The weight of the wood is about one hundred kilograms, and the starting price is ten million dollars. My master carver looked at your business card, and when he saw that you are a manager of an auction house, he said that you could help put the sculptures up for auction."

“My God!" Harvey exclaimed. "One hundred kilograms! Is this for real? The Yellow Rosewood tree is extinct in nature. All those that are left are artificially cultivated substitutes. According to incomplete statistics, there are only about ten thousand Yellow Rosewood products in circulation. Among them, furniture accounts for more than half, and decorative wood carvings are rare.”

“It is for real,” Todd replied. According to the market price, one hundred kilograms of Yellow Rosewood was worth about one million dollars. By using the Mall's processing system, it would not be difficult to increase its value ten-fold.

"Okay, I accept this deal!" Harvey was more than a little excited. His business had always been small, and he had not saved a lot of money. If this deal went through, though, then he would be able to retire as a fairly wealthy man. After all, a three percent commission on a ten-million-dollar transaction amounted to three hundred thousand dollars!

I could buy a house for that much! – thought Harvey. And this was just the first transaction of many. "I will put the items up for auction,” he said. “The starting price will be ten million, and since we are using my auction house, it is only fair that my commission should increase to five percent.”

"5%?" Todd thought about that for a while. Two percent was not a lot, but he had one concern: “Will there be any other hidden costs?” 

“I am afraid so.” Harvey lifted his hands helplessly and said, "The appraisal, insurance, and auction fees will all need to be paid by you. I would budget five percent of the profit for fees.”

Todd was a bit skeptical, so he refused to make his decision right away. He said, “I will have to talk to my master craftsman about this. He will not like the idea of you and your auction eating up ten percent of the profit. Is there anything else that he will need to know before he makes his decision?"

"There is nothing else,” Harvey assured him. “We will arrange everything.”

"Well, I'll let you know after my master craftsman makes his decision," Todd said this, and then he hung up the phone.

When Harvey realized that Todd wanted to hang up, he shouted into the phone: "Hey, wait! When will your master finish the work, and what is the shape of the wood carving? You have to tell me this information in advance so that I can be ready in advance!"

Unfortunately, he was too slow. Todd had already hung up. Harvey slammed the phone on the bed and cursed: "You're really cocky. Once I meet your master craftsman, I will be able to cut out the middleman!”  

***

Todd lay on his bed, activated the Pretentious system, and entered the system interface. Once he was in, he saw right away that he had 12090 Slap-Face Numerical Value, which could buy him 1.2 tons of Yellow Rosewood. This is crazy! – he thought.  Each log was worth over ten 10 million dollars. He had to be careful, though. He could spend all his Slap-Face numerical Value now, but now that the Crew Cut Alliance had used up its potential, it would be tough for him to earn more in the future. 

In the end, Todd decided not to spend all of his Slap-Face Numerical Value. He only needed one hundred kilograms, so that is how much he purchased, and he only had to use up one thousand Slap-Face Numerical Value.

Todd gave an order in his brain: "Purchase one kilogram of Yellow Rosewood."

"Please select the part you need," the mechanical voice replied. 

When Todd gave the order, the Mall's light curtain disappeared and a processing space appeared in front of him. A seed began to germinate in the processing space, and then it began to grow at a speed that was barely visible to the naked eye. It grew to a seedling. Then branches and leaves appeared. As it grew, the metallic voice updated him on its progress. It said, "Yellow Rosewood tree, seedling, one year." Then it said, "Yellow Rosewood tree, slender, three years."

"Stop!" Todd muttered, and the fast-growing Yellow Rosewood sapling immediately stopped growing. Suddenly, the sapling began to spin slowly, and Todd was able to see inside of the tree.

Numerous small-dotted grids appeared inside the sapling. They were divided into standard cubes and they were numbered. Of course, Todd could turn the dotted grid into a rectangular parallelepiped, a sphere, or any other shape that tickled his fancy.

The sapling was divided into nearly twenty thousand cubes, each of which was 0.5 kg. Todd looked closely and said, "Choose blocks number 10001 and 12008."

All at once, the sapling began to collapse like a puzzle until all that was left was lucky numberer 10001 and 12008. Their total weight was one kilogram and they were floating in the air.

“Aha!” Todd smiled. So many of his questions had just been answered.  

Metal was pure. It was gold, and it would always be gold, no matter what shape it was given. Wood was different, though. It was a mixture of different substances, and its composition changed from year to year. It was in a state of constant flux.

This gave Todd an idea. By using the magical effect of the processing space, he was able to use his perspective to possess the sapling. Now, after careful observation, he had a deeper understanding of each part of the Yellow Rosewood tree's stripes and internal structure.

"Is the principle behind carving wood and metal the same?" Todd wondered. “Only one way to find out…” He focused his attention on the two pieces of wood. No. 10001 had been taken from the central part of the yellow rosewood tree, which was relatively soft. No. 12008 had been taken from the trunk of the tree and it was relatively hard.

Todd cut into No. 10001 first, and he was not surprised that the way it cut was quite different from the way that gold cut. Gold was like plasticine. No matter how much the shape changes, its weight cannot change. 

Unlike gold, wood could not be kneaded, and its internal structure could not be changed. Fortunately, if Todd had enough imagination, the processing space could manifest whatever he wanted it to.

After trying several times, Todd carved out six patterns on the six faces of block 10001. Then he cut the block 12008 into two halves, carved them into two small dragons, and had them bite either side of block 10001 so that it looked like two dragons winning a pearl.

After completing the carving, Todd took the woodcarving out of the Pretentious system. Unfortunately, when they appeared, they scattered into three independent woodcarvings.

“f**k!” Todd cursed.  It turned out that, if he wanted to carve a large wooden sculpture, he would need to purchase a larger piece of wood, and the shape would have to fit within it. After figuring out how to do that, he turned off the light and went to sleep.

Unbeknownst to him, right after he fell asleep, something big happened to D.S.G. Unlimited.