Super Spender

Caleb Shaw caught a perplexed glimpse at Mr. Lewis. He seemed unsure about how Lewis was aware of the real state of affairs at hand. He hesitated for a moment before replying, a tad awkwardly, “Uh, if that’s the case, it will be 81 million star credits. Mr. Lewis, I swear to supply everything you’ve asked for. You know, although these items may not look very expensive, considering their quantity, the cost adds up. So, I charge 1 million star credits as handling costs, everything else is complimentary. How about that?”

“Oh, so such scenarios actually exist?” Finn Lewis strange look said to Caleb Shaw.

“Err, yes, haha, Mr. Lewis, you should know that the costs are extremely high. If we only sold battleships, there wouldn’t be much profit for us. Uh, you really have a keen eye for the intricacies involved. Mr. Lewis.” Shaw laughed awkwardly, making a quick retort.

Damn it, the only reason I knew was because the North Federation nations on Earth did the same thing. They always sold the weapons and ammunition first, then added on sales services. Damn, crows of a feather are black throughout the world. Even weapon merchants in the universe do the same.

“Alright, 81 million star credits, right? Do you handle delivery?” Finn Lewis paused to think before he asked.

“So… you’re taking it?” Caleb Shaw was taken aback. He had spoken for so long with Lewis but had not anticipated closing this deal because Lewis hadn’t inquired about the payment method, which was not a small sum. However, now Lewis was asking about delivery, which left Shaw stunned.

“Yes, I’m taking it. If your stuff is indeed good, then we can continue to collaborate in the future. I’m going to buy many more battleships.” Finn Lewis squinted and spoke candidly. Even though Caleb Shaw didn’t seem like a real merchant, at least, a real merchant would give their potential customers enough confidence to spend their money willingly.

But this guy only reciprocated with what Lewis said, he never tried to sell himself or his product. And he isn’t selling cabbage, it’s a battleship! He only provided terse responses to the customer’s queries. Plus, if you’re famous that’s another story.

The most crucial issue here is that this fellow has never closed a deal before. If it wasn’t for Xiao Qing’s analysis, Lewis wouldn’t have shown any interest in this guy. This is nonsense! But since he was asked to come here, Finn Lewis was nonchalant. He weighed the Roberts Coin and felt that its density was perhaps greater than gold.

The weight of a cubic meter of Roberts Coin is estimated to be nearly thirty tons and a couple of cubic meters would weigh sixty tons. According to the calculation that one kilogram costs five million, one ton equals 50 billion, making sixty tons a grand total of 3000 billion star credits. With this, Lewis suddenly felt like a rich man, in fact, a rich person in the Galactic Federation.

A single warship only costs 81 million. At this rate, Lewis could buy 3000 warships and form a fleet! One could play with an S-type, another could play with a B-type.

The Roberts Coins Lewis had obtained were shaped into strips, each six centimeters thick, five centimeters wide, and twelve centimeters long. Each strip weighed precisely ten kilograms, which meant that one strip was worth 50 million star credits; Lewis didn’t know what this could be used for, but since it is an important additive, it meant that this metal was very precious.

There’s no opportunity to use it now, let’s wait till there’s a chance to use it. It might be more practical to simply trade them for cash and buy battleships.

“Uh…Mr. Lewis, did you understand? As I said, we require an upfront payment for battleship transactions.” Caleb Shaw replied promptly.

“I heard, it’s no problem to pay first, but I don’t have money,” Lewis replied smiling.

Caleb Shaw was torn between laughter and tears. If it weren’t for Lewis’s residence, Shaw would have been annoyed by now. Is this a joke? He doesn’t have money and yet he spoke as if he did. Was this all a prank?

“Mr. Lewis, if there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave.” Shaw seemed to have figured out that Lewis didn’t really trust him, so he might just be fooling around after all. Shaw had experienced similar instances several times, so he didn’t mind. If the deal was successful, that would be great. But if it didn’t work out, it wasn’t a big deal; he had plenty of time.

After wrapping up, Caleb Shaw was about to get up and leave when Mr. Lewis called out to him, “Mr. Shaw, I haven’t finished talking. Even though I don’t have money, I have other things.”

“Mr. Lewis, we only accept money; we do not take anything else,” Shaw replied helplessly. He was just a vendor, but Lewis was trying to offer something else as collateral—was this a joke?

“You sure about that?” Finn Lewis asked with a grin while lounging on the couch.

“I…” just as Shaw was about to confirm, something stopped him mid-sentence, spurred him to give it some thought. Although he had only just met Lewis, he had an intuition that Lewis was not someone who shot arrows in the dark.

“Well, I can be flexible if Mr. Lewis has valuable goods in hand. But apart from these, I can’t accept anything else. After all, apart from some valuable commodities, I don’t have the means or the time to process anything else,” Shaw replied after some contemplation.

“Haha, Mr. Shaw, what do you think about this then?” Finn Lewis laughed a couple of times before picking up a pink metal strip from the side and tossing it over. Shaw instinctively reached out to grab what Lewis had thrown; however, its heavy weight almost slipped through his fingers.

He had to quickly step back in order to get a firm grip on it. He lowered his gaze to get a better look at the object only to be struck by the realization—this was…Roberts Coin? The pink color, unique to Roberts Coin, was unmistakable, even its weight and traits led Shaw to confirm that this metal was certainly Roberts Coin.