Chapter 15

〈 Chapter 15 〉Part 2 Chapter 1

How did it come to this?

“…Kuul.”

I looked at the raven-haired beauty sprawled on the couch before me, sleeping like the dead, and dropped my head in despair.

How did things get so messed up? If only I could turn back time, even by ten minutes, no, just one minute.

“Why are you here with me right now?”

This wasn’t the character who was supposed to appear at this moment. This wasn’t the character who was supposed to be here during this period. So, without a second thought, I helped her when she was attacked by monsters.

But it seems that was the trigger.

The main heroine’s event where she awakens her special ability after falling into a distrust of humanity.

By saving her, I prevented her awakening.

“The original story got twisted…”

Because of me.

How did it come to this? I tried to recall everything from this morning.

* * *

<April 4, 2020, 9:00 AM, shabby office near Incheon City Hall.>

“So you want me to convert all this into cash right now?”

Sang-woo frowned as he looked at the various cores stuffed in the crossbody bag.

“Yes. It’ll be quick.”

The source of the trouble, Phoenix, smiled brightly as she pointed to the cores on the table.

“These are fresh cores that haven’t even been processed yet. Look! They’re pristine! Not a scratch!”

“Sure. They’re so clean it feels like a monster will attack here any second.”

When Phoenix took out the cores, Sang-woo seriously considered just running away immediately. With years of experience as a fence, he could tell at a glance that these were C to B Rank cores.

If this weren’t near City Hall guarded by A Rank Heroes, monsters would already be charging into the city, their eyes bloodshot from smelling the cores.

“What if…”

If a B Rank monster ate all these, wouldn’t it evolve into A Rank right away? As if sensing Sang-woo’s worry, Phoenix waved her hand dismissively and smiled.

“Nah. That’ll never happen. Right, Deokbae?”

“…Yeah.”

Deokbae, standing behind Phoenix on the couch, pulled down his hood. Beneath was a monstrous being with rock-like skin covering his entire body.

“Villain?”

Of course, since monsters hadn’t officially revealed themselves yet, Sang-woo mistook Deokbae for a villain showing off his powers.

“As you can see, my bodyguard is a special ability user. There are plenty of good hunting spots for monsters in northern Incheon.”

“That may be true…”

Sang-woo looked suspiciously between Deokbae and the bag full of cores. It seemed strange that someone like him could gather this many.

“Then by any chance, you too?”

“That’s right.”

Phoenix shrugged. Sang-woo tried to recall if he’d heard of this woman among special ability users.

Her striking blue hair.

Among special ability users whose body hair changes color upon awakening, hers was particularly distinctive.

But he had no memory of such an ability user. Perhaps she was a recent newbie who just awakened her powers?

“Anyway, doesn’t matter how you killed or stole it from whoever.”

“Hehe. You quickly understand customer needs. Impressive.”

“If you were a properly registered Hero, you’d have gone to the Association window. Someone with your skills bringing this stuff here… I don’t need to see it to know what’s going on.”

It’s not a legitimate sales route after all. Sang-woo put on white gloves and began inspecting each core carefully.

The white gloves moved through the dark gray spheres, gently wiping their surfaces.

“Seems like mostly C Ranks. And these…”

Sang-wool carefully pulled out three cores from inside the bag. Compared to the others, they were clearly larger.

Most importantly, unlike the C Ranks, these had a certain ‘color’. Strands of green light twisted like genetic code – unmistakably B Rank monster cores.

“B Ranks. Took some effort to catch them.”

“It must have been tough for the two of you to take down a B Rank. Didn’t you run into any Heroes or hunters? Or did you steal these from a guild?”

“Relax. There’s absolutely no risk of that happening. We found these on Yeongjong Island.”

Pfft!

An employee drinking coffee at another desk spewed it all over his monitor. The awkward smell of coffee spread through the room.

“Were you joking about that last part?”

“Believe it or not, that’s your choice. So how much can you offer?”

“Hmph. Frustrating. Mind if I smoke?”

Phoenix nodded. Sang-woo took a cigarette from the pack in his bosom and searched for a lighter.

Whoosh.

“…Huh?”

Gray smoke rose before his eyes. On Phoenix’s fingertip danced a small flame.

“Oh, found your lighter for you.”

“Ho ho.”

Sang-woo took a drag on the cigarette and ran his hand through his hair.

“Is this you threatening to kill me if I don’t pay up?”

“Are you calling it a threat? I’m just being kind.”

“Tigers playing with rabbits doesn’t make them friends.”

Sang-woo flicked the ash into the ashtray. The cigarette seemed to be burning faster than usual.

“…In short, I can’t pay in cash.”

“Cash’ only’?”

Phoenix tilted her head.

“Of course. Do you know how much this all adds up to? D Ranks alone go for around ten million won.”

“Thirty million, right?”

Deokbae, who had been silent until now, interjected. Phoenix clicked her tongue while Sang-woo, looking more relaxed, wagged his finger.

“That’s through official Association channels. Selling to fences like me means you won’t get full price, obviously.”

“Our value just dropped by a third, Deokbae.”

“Tch.”

Deokbae’s face contorted in annoyance at Phoenix’s snide remark. Taking a drag on his cigarette, Sang-woo continued.

“So, five million per C Rank. Fifty billion for the B Ranks.”

“…Wait. Are you saying you’re adding that much on top? How does that even work as a business?”

Phoenix asked curiously, and Sang-woo stubbed out his cigarette. He smirked at the employee busy cleaning up coffee spills.

“Look at this. She’s a schemer. If we cut the market price, we’d all be dead.”

“Eh. We wouldn’t kill you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure you wouldn’t. So we’ll give our real minimum margin… Twenty-two billion. Deal?”

“Fine.”

When Phoenix coolly nodded, Sang-woo glared at her uneasily as he pulled out a contract.

“No more negotiation, right? I’m recording this. Sign the contract?”

“You don’t care about that. Rather, isn’t it only twenty-two billion? And you said no cash, right?”

“That’s right. Recently sent a large amount of cash to New Seoul.”

Sang-woo took a sip of instant coffee. The mixture of cigarette smoke and coffee created a foul stench.

“If you plan to become a regular customer, it’s good to know this. All the money earned from offices in places like this goes straight to the headquarters in New Seoul after minimal expenses are deducted. Payments are also made from headquarters. We’re basically just intermediaries.”

“Oh ho. So what?”

Sang-woo massaged his aching head as he pointed to the cores.

“I feel like you’re misunderstanding something major, so let me make it clear.”

Sang-woo gave Phoenix a condescending look, twisting his lips as he pointed to the smartwatch on his wrist.

“In today’s world, who carries cash around? Everyone keeps it here.”

“Hmm.”

For the first time, Phoenix furrowed her brow as if troubled. Sang-woo licked his lips and grinned like a snake.

“Customer, surely you don’t have a virtual account? No, really, in this 21st century smart era, were you planning to carry around bundles of paper money and scatter them everywhere? Unless you’re in New Seoul, doing that in Gyeonggi or Incheon will get you dragged into some secluded spot and completely stripped.”

“Hold on, strategy time.”

Phoenix raised her hand to pause the conversation, then turned to signal Deokbae.

“Do you have an account on this smartphone?”

“Sure, but it’s Hyochul’s account. Without his biometric authentication, the account will be frozen immediately and the police will track it.”

“What about your account?”

“Don’t have one. Never made it.”

“…Damn. Should’ve brought along a severed finger or something.”

‘Did I burn it unnecessarily?’

Regretfully savoring the taste, Phoenix met Sang-woo’s eyes again.

“Alright. Since we’re making a deal, how about you throw in some extra services?”

“This trend makes me think I’m about to get very annoyed.”

Phoenix clapped her hands.

“Resident registration certificate. Virtual account. Smartphone under that name. Since we’ll continue trading, you can do that much, right?”

“Wasn’t that your real goal all along?”

“Just a bonus. Hehe. Can’t do it?”

Sang-woo shrugged arrogantly.

“Two billion.”

“Call.”

“??”

“????”

A cognitive dissonance occurred in Sang-woo’s brain. Did I just hear that wrong?

“Maybe I explained it too briefly? What I mean is, in exchange for fulfilling those conditions, I’ll set the value of the cores in this bag at twenty billion. Just reduced it by two billion. Understand?”

“Yes. Is there any problem with that?”

As Phoenix genuinely asked, Sang-woo looked around at the other people in the office. Deokbae was ignoring everything, and the employee had been frozen in place since earlier.

“Hmph.”

Sang-woo lit another cigarette. Blue flames naturally arose, slowly consuming the cigarette – a minor courtesy but somewhat extravagant.

“…Hey. Though it sounds funny coming from someone in the money game, I’m telling you because we’ll likely see each other again. Listen closely.”

“Well, I didn’t really need to hear it anyway.”

Sang-woo gestured with his cigarette toward Phoenix.

“Know the value of money. Huh?! Even in this world dominated by Heroes, the value of money remains unchanged, actually rising! Now, without money, you can’t even enter New Seoul. Twenty billion? Doesn’t even cover a ten-pyeong apartment on the outskirts of New Seoul. Honestly, does it cost two billion to create a fake identity? Making one through Chinese routes here in Incheon costs less than one billion. Miss, you really don’t know anything about how the world works…”

“Wow. So this is what they call an old fart?”

Sang-woo barely restrained himself from throwing the cigarette. Still, the opponent was a special ability user while he was not.

“Am I allowed to be angry right now? Right now? This person really has no sense of life. Wow, seriously, I have lots of money but restrain myself because I lack power.”

“Haha, just kidding.”

Phoenix covered her mouth and giggled, then adjusted her posture and answered seriously.

“Whether you reduce it by two billion or take all twenty-two billion doesn’t matter. Money is something you only need to earn as much as necessary. So, can we get the ID, account, and burner phone immediately? Preferably by this afternoon. Oh, almost forgot. Could you also create a ‘Black Market’ account for me while you’re at it?”

“Ah, fine. You should experience starving due to lack of money someday to come to your senses. Seungsik! Bring the documents!”

“Yes, Mr. President!”

The employee, who had been cleaning the keyboard with wet wipes, stood up and started rummaging through the cabinet. Sang-woo extinguished his cigarette and muttered while checking his watch.

“Hmm. If we spend one billion more, we could finish it before three o’clock…”

“Then please do that.”

“Seungsik!! Add a large order of sweet and sour pork when ordering lunch today!!”

“Yes!!!”

Seungsik happily gathered things and ran around the office.

“Will delivery still work with the city in this state?”

“Maybe not in Seoul, but definitely in Incheon. Ha ha. Well then, Customer. Could you wait a moment? I’ll deposit the remaining nineteen billion into your account and deliver it to you. Let me know if you need anything else. I’ll bring it to you shortly.”

“…Didn’t you suddenly change as a person?”

“Haha! For our generous customer who’s letting us shave off three billion, we’d do anything! I’d kiss your shoes if I could! Hahaha!”

“Eh? Did you just say you’d do anything?”

Phoenix’s eyes sparkled as she clasped her hands together.

Sang-woo felt a cold shiver down his spine and involuntarily trembled his fingers.

“I, well, within the limits of what I can do-”

“Since we’ll be trading frequently, could you sell these too?”

Phoenix grabbed three cores from her pocket and pulled them out. Cores distinctly different from C and B Ranks, with vivid colors.

“Pretty, aren’t they? When it’s an A Rank monster core, the attributes strongly manifest, covering the whole core with its color… Hey! Are you listening?”

Sang-woo rubbed his eyes, feeling increasingly uncertain whether what he was seeing was real. An unprocessed A Rank monster core right here in the middle of Incheon.

“Mr. Sang-woo~ Are you listening?”

“Why.”

“Me?”

“Why aren’t the monster alarms going off? At this level, shouldn’t monsters from Yeongjong Island be flying here by now?”

Seungsik had already fled the office. After absentmindedly fiddling with the beads for a moment, Phoenix understood what Sang-woo meant.

“Ah. You’re asking why monsters aren’t attacking despite having so many cores here, right?”

Phoenix grinned widely, slapped her shoulder, and threw the cores into her bag.

“I told you already. Monsters will ‘never’ attack here.”

Sang-woo met Phoenix’s gaze.

In her round pupils, blue flames were burning.