Age of Summoner

"Sorry, I probably don't have time to take part in the game anyway."

Joke tonelessly rejected. The female staff could only smile in return as if she knew that it would be a waste of time trying to make him sign up. So, she gestured at an available card trading machine.

"If so, you are free to use this machine right here. I'll set its system to a guest sign-in."

She then led him to the mentioned machine; pressed onto its touch screen, which was displaying information in Thai, to begin the trading process; and eventually moved aside, allowing Joke to take over the task.

"Here you go. You can insert your cards into this slot and our system will calculate the price of the cards inserted. If you are satisfied, you can press this button to immediately sell your card. If you are not satisfied with the price, your card will be returned once you press the cancel button here. After you’ve inserted all of your cards, press the finish button right here. The machine will total up the price and cash out the amount from this lower section. Don't worry, our card vending machines base their pricing according to the central global market, so the prices we pay are considered to be extremely accurate."

That simple explanation made him feel that this card trading machine was not difficult to operate. It was almost similar to operating an ATM machine. Joke nodded and walked over to the front of the automatic machine right away.

"I'll leave it up to you. If there is any problem, you can ask for me at any time.”

"Thank you."

That charming staff then walked away, leaving him with the automatic trading machine instead. Joke looked around, seeing that there were a lot of customers using these machines like him and even more customers buying cards. Looking closely, each of them was spending an amount worth a couple of thousands.

Jakkarin curled his lips just upon seeing that.

"This is a world I certainly don't understand, but the business is good for sure."

He sighed at his words, before pulling out the cards he received out from his shirt pocket and starting the selling process (without much expectation.)

"Let me see. Insert right here like this?"

Joke started staring at the automatic machine in front of him. Although he was not a person good with technology, he was not a fool who could not operate it. He spotted the card slot, which was similar to an ATM's, before starting to insert his first card.

"Huh...ten baht for the Onion Bloom card."

The text on the screen turned into a picture of the card he previously inserted with its value. The young man groaned upon seeing that.

"Right. If the store buys cards at high prices, they will probably be losing money. Ten baht is better than nothing. That's worth two packets of instant noodles."

That said, he started inserting the next card into the machine. The values of the other cards were relatively the same. The better cards were at 15 baht, but the current value totaled at only 45 baht. It was disheartening thinking about that.

"I probably won't be getting reimbursement for my chocolate expenses anymore."

Joke asserted, eyeing the last piece of card: a white dragon named Snowbelle.

"This is the only one left. However, it probably won't be of much value."

After saying that, he then managed to immediately put the said card into the slot. The machine went motionless for a moment as if it were calculating its value until it finally revealed a value that stunned Joke.

"Huh?"

The young man exclaimed hesitantly. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief a couple of times at the number he saw until he tried counting with his fingers.

"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions ...tens of millions?”

He was at a loss for words at what he counted. He then shook his head forcefully before exhaling out.

"Ten million?" he sneered. "Didn't they say that these machines are the most accurate? It's already acting up."

He shook his head before turning to the charming staff from a moment ago, seeing that she was talking to her friend not far from here.

"Excuse me, I have a problem."

"Yes?"

The young lady responded immediately by rushing towards him as if the word "problem" was not appropriate in this place.

"What can I help you with?" she asked.

"Well, this machine is probably broken. Look, I put in a card and it displays this amount of money."

"Yes?"

She narrowed her eyes in disbelief and immediately turned to look at it.

"Goodness! It’s this much?" She raised up her hands to her mouth. "This is strange. I've never seen this kind of problem with our machine since I started working here. May I ask which card did you insert into the machine?"

"This one. A card called Snowbelle, or something along those lines."

Joke then jabbed at the mentioned card displayed on the touch screen for the female staff to see. The image of the white dragon card appeared on it once more.

"This is the one. I think that there should be a problem, so..."

He then turned to the female staff who was standing next to him, but he fell into silence. Why, you asked? It was because she was gawking with her mouth and eyes wide open, staring motionless at the image of the dragon card as if a ghost appeared in front of her.

"Madam? Did you hear what I just said?"

Joke tried calling her, but it seemed like she had completely lost all her hearing. It took her several seconds to regain her consciousness. But instead of answering Joke's question, her choice of action was to...

scream out loudly.

"Call the manager! He has to see this!"

.

.

"Sir, I have to repeat my question: are you sure that you will actually sell this card?"

Once he became aware again, a man who was in his early thirties approached him in place of that young female staff before Joke received his five cards back from the machine, especially the white dragon card that he was holding. The man who approached him was expected, without a doubt, to be the “store manager”.

Joke was brought to the sofa in the hangout corner, with other customers starting to all turn their heads towards him in unison. The manager was wearing a white shirt and a shop’s apron; his hair was brushed back and his smile openly indicated that he was trying to please Joke.

"Well, yes...but what was wrong with it?"

Joke answered the question in confusion, especially when he was asked to confirm his decision on selling the Snowbelle card again. But for a fact, every staff member started acting suspiciously one after another, especially that manager who was sweating to the point where he had to pull out his handkerchief to wipe it off.

"W...Well, if so, we invite you to wait here for a second because we won't be able to find this amount of money to pay you. But don't worry, we are sure that we can find someone who will be able to pay you the amount for that card in less than ten minutes.”

"Huh?"

Jakkarin exclaimed in puzzlement. He stared at the white dragon card in his hand without much confidence.

"Wait, what's all this…?”

"A...Ah, We sincerely apologize, our store doesn't have up to ten million baht stock in cash. If we have to pay the amount, we will have to contact the headquarters, which is going to take a lot of time. However, we have a lot of members who are well-off and certainly ready to pay for that card in cash.”

Upon hearing that, Joke went rigid for a long while. He stared at the card again. He was not sure whether his hearing had gone weird when he heard the manager saying "ten million baht" until other female staff immediately rushed to place drinking water on the table in front of him along with bowing at him as if he was a VVIP guest.

Amidst the excitement of the Card Factory’s staff, other customers started to crowd around him and urged others to look at him as if encouraging each other to gape at a weirdo.

The atmosphere was becoming suspicious that Jakkarin had to raise his hand to call that manager.

"Well..."

"Y...yes? Your Pardon, sir?"

That thin manager rushed towards him with his hands clasped in front of his lap in the most polite manner possible.

"When you say that this card is worth ten million, is it ten million in-game currency?"

"Oh, it's in baht." The manager waved his hands nimbly. "D...Don't worry, Our store maintains an international trading standard, so there's definitely no money fraud. And for the automatic card trading machine, their system is the most accurate and what we take pride in. Furthermore, our store will act as a middleman in trading to help you ensure that everything runs as fair as possible.”

That was not what Joke was curious about in the slightest. The young man remained emotionless while the manager seemed to be breaking into a sweat.

"So you were not kidding me?"

"Who would dare do that? Or if you are not assured, do you want us to contact AOS's headquarters for you?”

"It's fine."

Joke raised his hand to interrupt the opposing party, trying his hardest to calm down before gesturing to the manager to continue with his duties. Amidst his amazement and not being able to connect the dots, the only thing that he knew right now was that the object in his hand seemed to have a chance of worthing more than eight figures.

"Call the reporters. Our store is definitely getting famous this time."

"And which member should we contact to buy off this card? It's up to ten million, sir."

"Just contact everyone. There must be high-level pro players flocking here for sure."

The staff began talking to themselves to the point it reached Joke. He was still in a daze and needed time to compose himself to avoid overreacting.

With that in mind, the tall figure stood up suddenly, causing every staff to flinch.

"Is...Is there anything wrong, sir? You can let us know if you need anything."

The manager hurriedly rushed towards him again. Perhaps he was afraid his important customer was dissatisfied with something.

"It's that..." Joke uttered, licking his lips. "I need to use the bathroom."