The Black Hole Merchant

Legend has it that for every hundred million black holes, one will give rise to a Black Hole Merchant.

Black Hole Merchants call themselves ∞□|#% in the universal language, while people on Earth call them Kasoans.

They are beings born alongside black holes, solitary by nature and lone wanderers of the universe. They have no ties to anyone and dislike getting close to others. Their only family is the black hole they were born with.

Every Kasoan has two ultimate goals. The first is to become the most powerful Black Hole Merchant in the universe. The second is to fatten up their own black hole.

As a rookie newly born in the universe, Kasuan Buflo is no exception. Buflo is its given name, which translates into the Chinese spoken on Earth as Hei Xiaohua, or Little Black Flower.

Buflo dreams of becoming a great merchant. It once watched a prominent Kasoan from afar. The other's 200-meter height filled it with both awe and envy.

It tugged at its tattered black robe, dejectedly concealing its own height of 2 centimeters.

Determined to become someone important, Buflo set out to make a fortune doing business across the universe.

For its first deal, the unscrupulous Buflo bought a batch of watches at a low price on Dark Cloud Star, a world without light or energy. Then it gave them away for free to people on Earth in the Milky Way, telling them, "My watches can absorb excess fat while you eat, so you can eat as much as you like without gaining weight."

The people of Earth were delighted and praised it as a good merchant.

But they had no idea that while the unscrupulous Buflo gave them empty watches for free, it sold the watches packed with energy to Dark Cloud Star at a high price. And just like that, Buflo made its first fortune.

Buflo also grew from 2 centimeters tall to 3.

* Black Hole Merchants have no gender. They look like transparent, dark, roughly spherical ghosts wearing cloaks.

* Black Hole Merchants can change shape once they grow up.

* This is a coming-of-age story. Dear readers can join the author in witnessing Little Black Flower's journey to growing taller. One day, it will become a 200-meter-tall merchant!

* This idea is still in its early stages. I'll look up relevant materials later to develop and revise it.

Theme: A merchant should have a conscience