CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!
Inside the crystal dome of Deep-Trench Panorama Station #1, the only sound louder than the bubbling hotpot stoves was the rapid clicking of Abacus Su’s golden abacus.
Sitting on the polished marble floor with his eight purple tentacles still tied in a giant bowknot around his waist, Kraken Sea-King Mo Ba watched in cold sweat as the skinny human scholar unrolled an itemized paper bill that stretched all the way past the ticket booth, around the souvenir stall, and out onto the train platform!
“Ahem! Mr. Mo Ba of the Eastern Trench, please listen carefully to your final municipal war-reparations invoice,” Abacus Su said, pushing his brass spectacles up his nose with a polite, terrifying smile.
“Item 1: Wear-and-Tear on the Great Sponge-Filter Seawall from absorbing your two unauthorized Rank 6 tsunamis: 80,000,000 Spirit Stones! Item 2: Two Scratched Exterior Panels on the Undersea Panorama Train Tunnel caused by your crabs and eels pinching the glass: 50,000,000 Spirit Stones! Item 3: 50,000 Gallons of Alchemist Sun’s Rank 6 Garlic-Butter Steam used to discipline your crab vanguard: 40,000,000 Spirit Stones! Item 4: Chief Plumber Ao Ming’s Overtime Call-Out Fee (50 tail-slaps at 600,000 stones per slap) plus Three Stains of Purple Octopus Ink on our new marble floor tiles: 30,000,000 Spirit Stones! After deducting the value of the salt and yellow croakers you delivered this morning, your net balance due to the Dry-Well Treasury is an even 200,000,000 Spirit Stones! Will you be paying in Spirit Stones, Moon-Glow Pearls, or…
