Su Yao felt thoroughly deceived by the novels and entertainment from his original world.
Usually, a small, unremarkable building like this should hide a luxurious den of vice behind its facade.
But the reality was that this place was just as rundown on the inside as it was on the outside.
Never mind—that wasn’t important. As long as he could buy the cute employees he needed, that was enough.
“Miss, this way please.”
The group followed the man step by step down the stairs.
A strange scent hit them—a mixture of an indescribable incense, a foul stench, and a faint metallic bloodiness.
She instinctively covered her nose with her hand. Chlor and Sofia, standing beside her, did the same.
The entertainment media was right in one sense: dim, damp basements really did have a world of their own.
This place had been turned into some sort of dungeon. Through the wooden bars, they could see slaves locked inside.
Nearly naked, their bodies were shackled and chained. Some had their mouths tightly gagged.
For some reason, their restraints were far more severe than those of slaves on the Black Market.
Though their appearances were much better than those slaves, being treated like this was still excessive.
“Wait a moment.”
Su Yao stopped in front of a cell deep inside. At first, she couldn’t believe her eyes, but after a pause, she was certain.
The beautiful woman with slender, pointed ears was definitely an Elf. She fit every stereotype Su Yao had about the Elf race perfectly.
Unfortunately, some kind of leather restraint muffled the Elf’s face, so Su Yao only caught half of her beauty.
Seeing this, Su Yao roughly understood why these slaves were treated so harshly. They must be the first kind of slaves that had been mentioned before.
This man was a genuine slave trader. All the slaves locked here had been “poached” through illegal means.
No wonder he wanted to confirm they were nobles. Aside from perverted nobles, no one else seemed able to afford these slaves.
But the problem was that Su Yao wasn’t a perverted noble. She only wanted to buy some working ladies who had been forced into legal “slavery” to pay off debts because of economic troubles.
These unlicensed “black” slaves sold openly in the red-light district to satisfy some people’s twisted fetishes were not her target “merchandise.”
They said nothing as the three followed the man further into the dungeon.
There were twenty cells in total. Except for a few single rooms, most cells held two or three slaves.
By rough count, there were about fifty “black” slaves here.
One had to admit these victims were carefully selected by the slave trader. Their appearances were much better than the twin sisters Su Yao had seen at the market.
“So? Miss, have you found anyone you like?”
To be honest, she wanted them all. But slaves like these would never willingly become her employees. If she were soft-hearted, she might even pay for their travel expenses.
Of course, that was secondary. The main reason was that this kind of activity was illegal.
Rather than spending money to buy them, Su Yao might as well “black eat black” instead.
She had thought about this possibility more than once, but in the end, she held back.
Besides, she was a Dungeon Core, Chlor was a fugitive Royal Princess, and Sofia was a former Guard Captain who had been captured before.
Apart from these slaves, there were about twenty more people in this building. While they could fight, causing a scene here would be troublesome.
The fact that they had managed to capture an Elf already showed these people were not ordinary. Doing business with nobles for so long meant they must have strong backing.
The correct move was to pretend to leave, then contact Miss Hilvi to investigate.
They could then quietly “black eat black” behind the scenes—eliminate the cancer without exposing themselves.
“Sorry, there aren’t any ‘products’ here I want. Could you please take us away?”
Chlor wanted to say something after hearing this, but Sofia stopped her.
Su Yao could guess what was on Sofia’s mind: she probably wanted to rescue everyone suffering here. Such a strong sense of responsibility was clear.
If possible, Su Yao hoped Sofia could change her temperament a bit. If she kept being so simple-minded, governing a country in the future would be difficult.
No, on second thought, it was better this way. Chlor’s straightforwardness was much cuter.
“Sorry, cute miss, but I’m not planning to let you leave.”
The Black Market merchant, a slave trader, spoke in a tone that suggested he had them completely cornered.
What was this guy saying?
Before she could make a move to “black eat black,” he had already bared his fangs. What was this? A robbery? Forced sale?
Before she could think further, the man clapped his hands, and more than ten people rushed out from behind the door.
At the same time, their “Mana Perception” was affected just like before.
This group had unnaturally pale skin and bright red eyes.
It seemed the man wasn’t just covering himself tightly because he was in the Black Market. Combining this with the strange bloody smell near the stairs—
This was bad! She had stumbled into a nest of Vampires.
“Business is business, but there’s no honor in failure. What do you intend to do?”
Normally, even if she didn’t buy the slaves, they wouldn’t get so angry. A “black” slave shop working with perverted nobles should care about its reputation.
Or had the perverted upper class in this territory all been taken over by them? Was this shop just a trap to “fish” for customers?
Something about this felt off no matter how she thought about it.
“Grab those three and imprison them. The Master will reward you if he’s pleased.”
Tsk. Don’t villains ever say more than just threats? Would it kill them to drop a hint?
“Chlor, handle the ones in the rooms. Sofia and I will take care of these!”
There was no choice. Whether they’d be retaliated against later could be dealt with afterward. For now, they had to fight quickly and decisively.
Su Yao took weapons from the storage and threw them to Sofia. Chlor activated a “Magic Tool” to conceal her presence, combining it with the Light Magic she had taught Sofia earlier. Her entire figure seemed to vanish into thin air.
“Balder’s magic?”
The man’s tone was full of surprise. From the information he inadvertently revealed, the “Master” he mentioned was likely the same person as the “Great Lord” Balder had spoken of.
Finally, some useful information.
“Balder is indeed talented. Without any ‘Optical Knowledge,’ he managed to create this kind of magic. Too bad he chose the wrong opponent.”
Su Yao taunted with a playful tone. The confident expression beneath the man’s hood vanished instantly.
“Surrender, unless you want to end up like Balder.”
She spoke as she stabbed one Vampire’s arm with her weapon.
The struck Vampire turned into a handful of ashes. This bizarre scene—silver weapons striking a Vampire’s vital point causing this—was unfamiliar to most around them.
Except for the one turned to ash, no one else knew why just stabbing the arm could kill a Vampire.
“Want to continue?”
Removing her hood, the fake noble loli revealed her face. Her bright red eyes glowed with a seductive crimson light……