Nick finally reached the bottom of what felt like never ending stairs and approached a plain metal door embedded with an old bio metric scanner.
He pressed his thumb on the scanner.
The information brokers were quite secretive, and didn't like to meet people without feeling like they knew enough about them.
Even though they operated in the black markets, they still had standards for customers they'd meet.
If a customer turned out to be the murderer of some famous federation official, they could implicate them regardless of whether they were involved or not, simply for just meeting them.
Hence they perform a bio metric scan on everyone that intends to do business with them, to test their DNA and prints against the criminal databases they had access to.
It was just one of their most basic precautions.
It took a few seconds before the door hissed open with a reluctant groan.
Inside was a rather small, dimly lit room that smelled faintly of ozone and old electronics from before the integration of the Beast Domain in society.
Rows of sewers hummed loudly behind the walls surrounding, blocking any noise that was produced inside the small room, giving the information brokers another layer of protection against outside prying ears.
At the centre of the room sat a woman lounging behind a reinforced desk, wearing mirrored glasses, blocking Nick from being able to see her eyes, and chewing some sort of gum.
Nick didn't know her personally, but he had heard of her from the people he had been eavesdropping on.
Vexa.
One of the more discreet and trusted information brokers on Terminus.
But she wasn't the type to play favourites with the big gangs though. She sold to whoever had credits to offer, even if it involved selling out information on the very gangs who controlled the black markets.
Anything could be bought with money.
And more importantly, she had a strict no snitch policy!
Anyone who tried to cross her on that ended up on missing persons lists.
Vexa didn't speak right away as Nick entered.
She just stared at him through those mirrored lenses, with the rhythmic pop of her gum portraying her carefree attitude.
The way she sat — wholly relaxed, absolutely in control — told Nick everything he needed to know.
"You're a new face," she said finally, noticing that Nick's attention was on her. "And I don't like new faces."
Nick didn't flinch.
"You'll like my credits."
He gambled big on coming to this place, as he already knew that Vexa didn't really see new people unless they had a reference from a customer of hers.
Though there were always exceptions.
Nick was hoping to become one of such exceptions.
Liking Nick's response, Vexa smirked, showing the faintest twitch of her lips.
"Everyone thinks that when they come here for the first time." She gestured lazily to a small panel built into the desk.
"ID. Payment. Purpose."
Nick slid his communicator over the scanner, giving her what she asked for without questioning it.
He already knew that he'd have to give information of his own over upon first meeting with an information broker.
Everyone had to do so. It was just one of the most basic things one did upon contacting one for the first time.
Unless one was a VIP, there weren't any exceptions.
One might think it absolutely stupid to hand your information over to an information broker, and in most cases that would be the right way to think!
But when you were a nobody like Nick, the public information on him was practically useless.
Sure, he had secrets, but those were secrets only he himself knew. Not something one could discover just by collecting a few of his personal details and creating a record of him in their database.
Though, Vexa was one of the more lenient information vendors, she offered a 10% discount on new customers' first purchases, citing the sharing of their personal information with her as part of the payment.
Since this could be information she'd sell to someone else, someday.
Once he was finished scanning his communicator on her scanner, Nick moved on to the next subject.
"I'm looking for Mutant Beast territories in the area surrounding War Beast Sanctuary. Preferably one occupied with beasts with below average, or just average defence."
Vexa raised an eyebrow upon hearing Nick's request.
She didn't take him for an Altered who was ready to move onto hunting Mutant beasts.
But whether or not he was ready wasn't her concern.
She wasn't his mother, if he wanted to go out and commit suicide by beast, he was free to do so.
"Bold." She commented.
That was all she said.
Even that was a kind courtesy from her, as it was already a show of warning that he might be biting off more than he could chew.
If it were any other information broker, they'd jump at the opportunity if someone like Nick came along.
They'd do their utmost to rinse him dry of all his credits before sending him off to kill himself by trying to fight a Mutant beast.
But not Vexa.
This was one of the many reasons why she was one of the most popular and trused information brokers in the black market on Terminus.
Nick smiled faintly.
"I don't need your validation on whether I'm ready or not. I just need you to give me the information."
She gave a quiet snort before tapping something on her desk.
A like flickered to life from Nick's communicator.
"I've sent you your options, take your pick."
The options Nick saw when opening up his communicator were… quite limited, to be optimistic.
There were only five results in total, lower than he was expecting, and all quite limited in their information.
Though he was expecting this.
Vexa, and every other information broker at that, wasn't stupid enough to give away any revealing information when presenting their options like this.
All that Nick had received were the strength of the beasts, ratings for their defence like Nick had requested, and a few other miscellaneous and frankly useless data.