Chapter 143: Salencia
Sophie Wexler carefully researched Salencia, doing her homework thoroughly. Before entering, she even made a point of buying a mask.
People who entered Salencia would buy a special mask beforehand to hide their true appearance and avoid revealing their identity.
This was nothing like the fox mask from before. It was more like a synthetic skin mask. She didn’t know what material it was made of, but it was very thin and light, and she couldn’t feel anything strange when wearing it.
It was a single-use item. After purchase, you could load a custom program based on your personal preferences to generate your desired appearance.
The only catch was the time limit—it could only be worn for a maximum of three hours.
And the price was painfully high.
You could say it was a specialty of Salencia.
After buying it, Sophie Wexler found a deserted spot and took off the scarf that had been wrapped tightly around her.
Looking at her recent purchase and the control device in her hand, Sophie Wexler’s fingers moved lightly, adjusting the various parameters to her liking.
She looked at the plain, unremarkable face designed on the screen and nodded in satisfaction.
’This is the one.’
Then she put the mask on. In the blink of an eye, the beautiful woman vanished, replaced by a perfectly ordinary face.
It was the face of a woman in her thirties, with a somewhat dark complexion and many spots. She wasn’t ugly, but if you had to describe her, you could only say she was plain—a common face.
This was exactly the result Sophie Wexler wanted.
Being too beautiful or too ugly would easily attract attention. Only a plain, unremarkable face like this could easily blend into a crowd.
With everything ready, Sophie Wexler followed the route Evan Adler had given her to the entrance of Salencia.
She never would have imagined that Salencia was a teahouse.
’If that’s the case, I can suddenly understand the name. It is quite refined.’
Tea was a luxury item in The Galaxy, after all. It was scarce, and not everyone could afford it.
’It seems the power behind this Salencia is not to be underestimated.’
The thought crossed Sophie Wexler’s mind, but her expression remained impassive as she stepped inside, her demeanor calm.
The person inside saw someone enter, glanced at Sophie Wexler, then looked away, asking lazily, "Hello, what would you like to drink?"
Sophie Wexler didn’t speak. She walked over, took out a small bell, and placed it in front of the person. "I’m not here for tea."
The moment he saw the bell, the person looked up again. Unlike his previous lazy demeanor, his gaze was now filled with scrutiny.
Sophie Wexler didn’t show a hint of fear.
After a few seconds, the person looked away, picked up the bell from the table to inspect it, and confirmed it was one of theirs. After a moment, he returned it to Sophie Wexler.
Then he picked up a communicator and said, "Someone come up. We have a guest. Take her to a private room."
A moment later, someone emerged from the back, also with a plain, unremarkable face. Seeing Sophie Wexler, the person smiled. "Miss, please come with me."
Sophie Wexler nodded and followed.
The person led her through a series of corridors, finally opening a door that led into another courtyard.
Sophie Wexler glanced around the courtyard. ’So this is Salencia? There’s nothing here.’
Noticing her confusion, her guide smiled. "First time here, guest?"
Sophie Wexler hesitated. "How did you know?"
The person just smiled without answering and led Sophie Wexler to a house. After going inside, they saw Sophie Wexler was still standing outside, not moving.
The person chuckled. "Don’t worry, guest. We here at Salencia operate with integrity. We won’t harm our customers."
After saying that, they paid her no more mind and went into an inner room to retrieve something.
When they came out, they saw Sophie Wexler had already entered the room.
Sophie Wexler scanned the room’s furnishings. They were simple, with nothing out of the ordinary.
She only looked away when the person returned.
The person walked over and handed a token to Sophie Wexler, explaining, "This is the access token for Salencia today. Please keep it safe, or you might not be able to get out."
Sophie Wexler glanced at the token. She could feel the fluctuations of spiritual power coming from it.
’It seems this is also driven by spiritual power.’
"Causing trouble within Salencia is forbidden. Violators will be immediately expelled and permanently banned from entry." This was a rule of Salencia.
Sophie Wexler nodded, indicating she understood.
After conveying the rules, the person said no more. They walked to another corner of the room and, after a series of operations, the color of that wall began to fade until it became completely transparent.
A door slowly materialized.
A hint of surprise appeared in Sophie Wexler’s eyes. ’This kind of technology... truly worthy of The Galaxy.’
The person turned around and said to Sophie Wexler, "Guest, you may place the token here now."
Sophie Wexler had already masked the look in her eyes by the time they turned. She walked over and placed the token as instructed.
Energy from her spiritual power flowed into it, and the door slowly opened.
"Guest, this is as far as I can accompany you. I hope you find what you’re looking for in Salencia."
Sophie Wexler: "Thank you."
With that, she took back the token and stepped into the passageway.
The passage was quite long, but it wasn’t dark at all. In fact, it was exceptionally bright, completely different from the image of a black market Sophie Wexler had in her mind.
After walking for about ten minutes, it finally opened up.
Before her was a vast marketplace. It had everything imaginable, a huge variety of goods. Things you could find outside, things you couldn’t—they were all here.
Sophie Wexler even saw High-level Crystal Stones, normally considered rare treasures, just casually tossed onto a stall’s blanket, along with various jewels, medicines, reagents, and so on.
Of course, besides these things, there were even freshly killed Starbug carcasses. The sight was honestly a bit... nauseating.
Sophie Wexler: "..."
Ordinarily, Sophie Wexler might have actually browsed around. But she was on a mission now and had something specific to find, so she naturally had no interest in looking at anything else.
Her objective was clear: the Slave Collar.
Her eyes swept quickly over every stall, filtering through them for the item she was looking for.
’Not here... not here... not here either.’
Sophie Wexler’s brow slowly furrowed. ’Can’t I find it here either? Then what about Cillian’s Slave Collar?’
’No, this place is my only hope. If I can’t find it here, I really don’t know how I’ll ever be able to remove Cillian Forrest’s Slave Collar.’
Sophie Wexler continued on. Salencia was huge, and she had already been searching for a long time. If she kept searching, her mask would soon run out of time.
’What should I do?’
Just as she was about to lose hope, she suddenly spotted something around a corner, and her eyes lit up.
She walked over. "Hello, is this...?"
The stall owner heard her and glanced over. "Oh, that? It’s a Slave Collar."