Chapter 146: Setting Off

...

The next objective is to find Uchiha Itachi, and through him, locate Yakushi Kabuto and his companions.

Along the way, Torre Mikiyoshi led Orochimaru to a commercial planet, where they boarded spatial gates and traveled by leaping across space.

Commercial planets, primarily centered around trade, are types of planets with extremely high population mobility. Space merchants basically all stop here for a few short days, and the dissemination of goods is extremely widespread.

On a commercial planet named the "Scarlet Planet," Torre Mikiyoshi and Orochimaru were browsing the "Commercial Street," as Orochimaru wanted to buy some things.

The so-called "street" was actually a road looping around the planet's equator, with shops standing on both sides. Those shops generally had more than a dozen floors, and browsing through them completely required a significant amount of time.

Orochimaru and Torre Mikiyoshi walked at extreme speeds along the street, their bodies turning into blurred afterimages, moving exceptionally fast.

In fact, not only the two of them, but everyone on the street was using "chakra" to travel at high speed. If an ordinary person were to come here, they would only see afterimages filling the streets, giving the sensation of watching an ordinary street played in fast forward.

This was a unique way of shopping in the cosmic era.

The goods were varied and numerous: shoes, clothes, weapons, exercise equipment... all of them were chakra-infused technologies, possessing all sorts of effects.

Orochimaru intended to buy a communication gas orb. The communication gas orb in his mind was merely the most ordinary kind with subpar performance.

Even after his modifications, which allowed him to hack into major forums, it still had flaws and would leave behind various traces.

He planned to upgrade it significantly to establish his own "secret base" on the genjutsu network, which would be of great use.

They arrived at a building dedicated to selling "communication gas pufs." This building was famous, belonging to a large, universally renowned telecommunications company known as Lingtong Company, which specialized in selling communication gas orbs.

Many people were selecting communication gas orbs, and Orochimaru was doing the same.

The salesclerks were winged humans belonging to the Winged Race. This race measured its strength by the number of wings they possessed, with the strongest having twelve wings.

There were two salesclerks in total. Without noticing Orochimaru and Torre Mikiyoshi approaching, the two of them were chattering away in lively conversation, as their race was extremely gossipy.

"There's breaking news! The Sage of Six Paths issued a statement saying he will restrict Itachi-god's area of activity, confining him strictly to the Red Star Region!"

"Ah? With Itachi-god's strength, staying in just a single star region is equivalent to living in a cell!"

"Exactly, my poor Itachi-god..."

"..."

Both of them were deeply worried about Uchiha Itachi's plight. Evidently, they were fans of Uchiha Itachi, closely following everything about him.

"With this news out, does it mean the rumors are true? Did Itachi-god really collude with the remnants of Earth?"

"It's not outside the realm of possibility; Itachi-god also originated from Earth."

"Look here, there's more news!"

On the network, there were other posts stating that restricting personal freedom was only the first step, and next would be the gradual deprivation of Uchiha Itachi's rights, step-by-step stripping away his authority until he was ultimately eliminated.

This post sparked a massive discussion because it sounded very authentic, and the content was highly logical, as if leaked by an insider.

The two salesclerks were reading the comments when suddenly the post ceased to exist, having been deleted by the administrators.

"What's going on?"

"The post was deleted!"

"There's definitely something fishy going on. The content of that post is most likely true!"

Almost simultaneously, a new post appeared, claiming that a portion of Uchiha Itachi's authority had already been stripped away and transferred to Uchiha Sasuke instead.

This seemed to validate what the previous post had claimed!

"My Itachi-god... I'm so angry!"

"What's the deal with Sasuke? I used to be quite a fan of his, but he..."

"Ah, customers are here, stop talking."

"Ah?..."

The two of them finally noticed Orochimaru and Torre Mikiyoshi, who were selecting items nearby.

Orochimaru did not mind; whether anyone introduced the products did not matter, as he could see right through the quality of a product at a single glance.

The two salesclerks came over to introduce the merchandise, but Orochimaru brushed them off onto Torre Mikiyoshi. After a round of comparison and bargaining, Torre Mikiyoshi ultimately selected a purple-gold communication gas orb, which ought to be the finest one available here.

"Lord Orochimaru, take a look..." Torre Mikiyoshi held up the gas orb for Orochimaru to inspect.

Orochimaru glanced at it, nodded faintly, and said, "Not bad."

Torre Mikiyoshi quickly asked, "Then, Lord Orochimaru, shall we buy this one?"

Expecting it to be a done deal, Orochimaru shook his head instead.

"Huh? We're not buying this one?"

Torre Mikiyoshi was bewildered. If not this one, which one were they buying?

Then he heard Orochimaru say indifferently, "I want all of them."

No matter how powerful the functions of a single communication gas orb were, there was a limit. However, when all communication gas orbs were combined together, it became formidable. If the combined orbs were numerous enough, surpassing the servers of major forums was entirely possible.

Orochimaru intended to buy every single communication gas orb and assemble them himself.

"Ah?" Torre Mikiyoshi froze.

The two salesclerks froze as well.

They wanted all of them? You've got to be kidding me!

Torre Mikiyoshi was somewhat better off; having witnessed Orochimaru's strength and how he forcibly seized his own communicator, he had some inkling of what to expect.

However, the two salesclerks were unaware. Swallowing hard, they asked, "Customer, did you say you want *all* of them?"

As they spoke, they deliberately pointed out the price tags.

The prices of communication gas orbs varied: lesser ones cost a few hundred space coins, while better ones cost tens of thousands. With thirty or forty of them in this single display counter, it would total at least two to three hundred thousand. They wanted to buy all of them?

Buying that many was completely useless. They feared they might have misheard.

Orochimaru nodded and said, "I want all of them."

He was indeed buying everything. As for money, if it were in the form of Earth's paper currency or gold coins, he genuinely could not produce any.

Yet, space coins were simply numbers on the genjutsu network, and those numbers represented wealth.

Orochimaru could use his technology to alter the digits at will; he could have as much money as he desired.

"A—Alright, we'll pack them up for you," the two salesclerks said.

They were pleasantly surprised. Selling so much at once meant their commission would be enormous!

Unexpectedly, Orochimaru furrowed his brow again and said, "You two seem to have misunderstood my meaning. I said all of them—not just this counter, but the entire building."

The entire building sold communication gas orbs of different models and varying prices. There were at least forty to fifty thousand of them in the building. He wanted all of them?

Their expressions of joy vanished, replaced by anger, as they assumed this customer was toying with them.

Without wasting words, Orochimaru directly retrieved the communication gas orb from between his eyebrows and displayed his balance. A long string of nines—99999...—appeared, so many that the digits were uncountable.

Torre Mikiyoshi leaned in to look as well. This gas orb originally belonged to him, and the balance upon it ought to have been his, but what was going on with that endless stream of nines...

Indeed, he was now certain that Orochimaru knew how to digitally hack and modify communication gas orbs!

"Forget it," Orochimaru said. "Making you bustle about is too slow. I'll do it myself. You both have the data, calculate the total cost."

Before he had even finished speaking, and before the two salesclerks could comprehend what he meant, the communication gas orbs throughout the entire building suddenly began to tremble. Then, as if endowed with life, they actively flew out of the display counters, converging entirely upon Orochimaru.

"What is going on?"

"What happened?"

"My communication gas orb!"

"..."

There were other customers and salesclerks in the building, and all the communication gas orbs flew away right before their eyes, leaving them utterly shocked and bewildered.

Their complexions shifting dramatically, the salesclerks hurriedly contacted the boss to report the situation.

"What? You're saying the communication gas orbs in the entire building flew away by themselves?"

The boss refused to believe it. Saying the gas orbs flew away on their own sounded even more absurd than being robbed!