Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 46: Tier-2 Inventory

The cold water hit Julien’s face like a fatal blow, shocking his consciousness awake.

He gasped, his lungs breathing in air with dust and grease.

His vision blurred for a moment before focusing on the surroundings.

He was bound to a heavy wooden chair in the centre of a massive, abandoned factory floor.

The high windows were shattered, letting in hints of the red light from the apocalyptic sky outside.

His wrists were tied with chains to make sure he could not move an inch.

The Feather Potion had completely worn off by now, which made him suddenly dizzy after getting his weight back.

Directly in front of him, sitting casually on an overturned wooden crate, was Cobra.

The syndicate boss looked more like a corporate executive than a slum warlord, dressed in a sharp suit that stood out absurdly against the ruined factory.

Pacing behind Cobra was Viper, tossing a familiar blue glass bottle from hand to hand. It was Julien’s last Iron Skin potion, stolen straight out of his pocket while he was unconscious.

The bald enforcer who had shot the Enlarge Rope stood silently by the heavy iron doors, his crossbow resting on his shoulder.

"Good morning, kid," Cobra said, his voice smooth and devoid of any actual warmth.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"Viper here has been talking my ear off. He tells me you aren’t just a basic smuggler but are sitting on a stockpile of high-grade Association defensive consumables. And yet, when we searched your coat, all we found was this single bottle."

Cobra gestured lazily with his hand.

"So, I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. Are you useless, or are you holding out on me?"

"My inventory is accessible only by me," Julien said, his throat incredibly dry.

He glared at the boss, trying to mask the absolute panic in his chest.

"You can kill me, but you won’t get a single drop of it. Try your luck."

"Oh, I have no intention of killing you." Cobra smiled, a terrifying expression on his old face. "I just want to know if the product is actually worth the hassle of keeping you alive. Viper, give him the sample."

Viper stopped moving around unnecessarily.

A disgusting grin spread across his scarred face as he stepped up to the bound merchant. He grabbed Julien by the jaw, his fingers gripping with bruising force, and forced his head back.

With his other hand, Viper opened the blue bottle and shoved the glass neck past Julien’s teeth.

Julien choked and sputtered, but he was forced to swallow the cool liquid. The rush of system magic instantly flooded his veins, casting a faint, microsecond blue glow across his skin.

Viper tossed the empty bottle aside, which shattered loudly against the concrete floor.

Then, the driver casually walked over to a pile of construction debris near the factory wall. He reached down and pulled free a solid, thick steel pipe, testing its heavy weight in his hands.

"You see, Boss," Viper said, walking slowly back toward Julien. "I saw this kid’s bodyguard stab me with a dagger with incredible force. I want to see exactly how much stress this little monopoly of his can take."

Julien’s eyes widened.

"Wait-"

Viper didn’t hesitate. He twisted his hips, gripping the heavy steel pipe with both hands like a baseball bat, and swung it with absolute, bone-breaking force directly into Julien’s ribs.

CRACK.

Julien let out a choked, agonising scream as the impact lifted the entire chair an inch off the ground.

The magic of the Iron Skin potion lightened brilliantly. A blue shield materialised right over his ribs for a fraction of a second, completely absorbing the lethal, piercing damage of the strike.

His ribs didn’t shatter at the impact.

But the sheer force of the heavy swing still transferred directly through the barrier. It felt like being hit by a speeding truck.

"Incredible," Cobra murmured, his eyes lighting up with genuine greed.

"Let’s see the threshold," Viper laughed, raising the steel pipe high into the air.

He brought it down hard on Julien’s shoulder. Then a brutal sweep across his shins and another devastating blow to the chest.

Julien screamed, thrashing against the chains. Every single hit was blocked by the flashing blue barrier, preventing any open wounds or broken bones, but the agonising blunt-force trauma was overwhelming.

It was pure torture. Viper was using him as a living crash-test dummy, and the potion was forcibly keeping him intact to feel every second of it.

After five relentless strikes, Viper finally stepped back, panting slightly, and dropped the dented steel pipe onto the floor.

Julien slumped forward, gasping for air, pain streaming down his dirt-streaked face.

But as Cobra and Viper watched, the lingering blue magic from the potion rapidly flushed through Julien’s system, completely erasing the bruising that had started to form under his skin.

Within seconds, his breathing stabilised.

He looked completely uninjured.

Cobra stood up slowly, adjusting his jacket. He looked at Julien not as a person, but as the most valuable asset in the city.

"This is really good," Cobra breathed, his voice tight with excitement.

"With three Red Gates opening simultaneously, the inner sectors are going to completely lock down. The military will hoard their supplies, and street-level guilds with the outer sector gangs are going to be slaughtered without defensive gear."

Viper grinned. "We control the absolute monopoly on survival."

"Exactly," Cobra nodded. He looked down at Julien.

"We are going to lock him in the basement vault. Keep him hooked up to an IV if you have to, and force him to summon every single item his class allows, and we will sell it at a thousand percent markup. Let’s rip him dry."

"I’ll get the holding cell ready," Viper said, eager to secure their prize.

"Good. I need to make some satellite calls to the other district dealers," Cobra instructed, turning toward the heavy iron doors. "They are going to pay a fortune just for the privilege of bidding on this stock."

The bald enforcer pulled the doors open, and the three syndicate men stepped out into the hallway, the heavy doors slamming shut and locking from the outside.

Julien was left completely alone in the cavernous factory.

He sat there in the silent, dusty room, his chest heaving. The physical pain was fading, replaced by a cold, burning fury.

They thought he was just a vending machine and could chain him up and bleed his inventory dry.

But they didn’t realise he had levelled up right before they snatched him.

Julien took a shaky breath, closing his eyes.

System, he commanded in his mind.

The familiar golden interface instantly came into view.

[Dimensional Merchant Interface: Level 12]

[Tier 2 Item Registry: UNLOCKED]

Julien bypassed the basic ropes and potions he had relied on for the past two months.

He scrolled directly into the newly unlocked Tier 2 section, his eyes scanning the golden text.

What he saw made his breath catch in his throat.

Tier 1 was built for basic survival and escaping.

But Tier 2?

Tier 2 was deeply connected to the broader dimensional ecosystem. It wasn’t just deity-made alchemical gear, but it allowed him to purchase temporary contracts with entities from other worlds physically.

’What the fuck?’

[Tier 2 Inventory: Dimensional Beast Summons]

[Shadow Beast]

[Effect: Summons a highly aggressive, predatory beast from the Graveyard Pines to fight for the user. Work time: 5 minutes.]

[Cost: 1000 Credits]

[Iron Boar]

[Effect: Summons a massive, heavily armoured beast from the Terran Wastes, designed to act as an impenetrable vanguard. Work time: 10 minutes.]

[Cost: 800 Credits]

[Ash-Weaver Spider]

[Effect: Summons a giant arachnid from the Cinder Realm capable of spitting high-tensile, heat-resistant webbing to trap enemies. Work time: 8 minutes.]

[Cost: 750 Credits]

’This is amazing.’