Chapter 22: Black Market (1)

There was nothing that the Player Market didn’t have. It had elixirs, weapons, armor, alchemic materials, skill books, and everything else. You could buy anything as long as you had the money.

It was popular even among non-Players as a place to shop, so it was always full of people.

“It looks exactly the same as before.” Seo Jun-Ho stared up at the entrance, a new feeling filled him up. 29 years ago, Insa-dong’s flea market sold nothing more than spare parts. But now, it had transformed into a Player Market.

‘Korea only has two branches. Insa-dong and Nampo-dong in Busan.’

And today, he was at the Seoul location. The LED sign was much more familiar than the hologram.

‘The streets are a lot livelier now.’

There had been non-Players in the area in the past, but not as many as there were now. The large market street was filled with people and couples. Seo Jun-Ho strolled around the loud market, looking at the items on display.

‘They have a big assortment.’

There only seemed to be low and intermediate-grade items.

‘They still keep all the good stuff inside.’

Deeper in, there was the ‘Black Market.’ You needed a special Player skill to go in.

But Seo Jun-Ho didn’t need to go through all that trouble, he had already been informed by Shim Deok-Gu.

‘The method of entering the Black Market changes every year, so the old one won’t work.’

All of Korea’s populous cities had theaters and restaurants and there was no reason that a Player’s Market wouldn’t have them either.

“Found it.” Seo Jun-Ho started inside the theater. Most people were using ticket machines out of convenience, but he headed to the counter.

“Welcome.” The male worker gave him a bright smile as he greeted him. Seo Jun-Ho responded with the passcode that Shim Deok-Gu gave to him. “What’s the worst movie you’re showing?”

The worker’s smile didn’t falter as he replied, “Actually, all the movies we’re showing right now have good reviews.”

“Then, can you give me a ticket for the one that’s the soonest and a cup full of ice?”

“Alright.” The worker’s face stayed the same as he cooly handed over the ticket and the cup full of ice.

‘Theater 8, seat G-10.’

As soon as he sat down, the commercials stopped and the screen shut off. If he went to the movies often, he would have known that no one paid attention to other people. On top of that, his seat was in the back corner of the theater.

The audience held their breaths as the movie started, and Seo Jun-Ho’s seat started to leak a small amount of magic.

‘It’s working.’

He didn’t resist it. His body disappeared from the theater in an instant without a sound. Too focused on the movie, no one in the audience noticed.

***

Transport, or teleport magic, as it was often called, felt similar to when you entered a Gate. But depending on the skill of the user, it could cause motion sickness.

‘Ugh...Skaya’s teleport magic really is the best.’

Seo Jun-Ho stood at a street entrance as he tried to soothe his nausea. The passersby gave him occasional glances as they passed. They were all people who had the right to enter the Black Market.

‘Every country has their individual Player Market, but the Black Market is different.’

All the Player Markets of the world were simply ports that lead to here.

‘This place...it’s Estonia, I think.’

The Black Market was an underground market located in a European country that was relatively unknown. It was perhaps for that reason that the sky, no, the ceiling was covered in glittering rocks instead of the sun and moon.

There were only ten people in the world who knew where this wonderful place was.

‘Well, that was long ago, so it has probably changed since then.’

There was only one reason he knew about the Black Market’s entrance. Skaya had complained about the incompetent teleporters and backtracked the magic to find the location so she could teleport herself. That was why he knew where it was. After that, Seo Jun-Ho had never used a Market teleporter. All he had to do was ask Skaya.

‘The Market owner hated her because of that.’

Of course, he wasn’t being blatant about it because he valued his life.

After taking in his surroundings, Seo Jun-Ho started moving. The Black Market didn’t have any guides or anyone to help those that entered it.

‘It will never become a normal shopping center like the Player Market.’

There was a reason why normal people and low-level Players were denied access. The Black Market was like an independent state in the underworld. There was no common language or common sense here.

‘This is a cold and bloodthirsty place where you can get killed simply for brushing shoulders or looking at someone the wrong way.’

The Market was a place where you could do anything as long as you had money. The Black Market took that a step further. This was a place where the administrators would turn a blind eye to murder if you bribed them.

But Seo Jun-Ho’s steps were confident. There was a very low chance of running into any Players that were stronger than him.

‘Most of the good Players went to the 2nd floor. Maybe it’s because the Frontier requires you to be level 30 or higher.’

Most of the Players on Earth were either below level 30 or came down from the 2nd floor because they were unable to handle it.

So, with his current stats, he could take on anyone that came at him.

‘It’s here.’

Seo Jun-Ho stared up at the dilapidated sign as he found the store he was looking for.

[Ginosha’s Secondhand Store]

It was written in English, and the store sold what most people would consider junk or trash. Most Players wouldn’t go in even if they died and came back to life, but it was the perfect place where Seo Jun-Ho might find the items he was looking for.

Creak!

The old door shrieked as he entered. The stench of dust filled his nose.

“Welcome.” A shabby blonde man greeted him and looked at his newspaper as he saw Seo Jun-Ho. “.....Oya? Look at that, it’s the Korean celebrity.” The newspaper he was reading had a picture of Seo Jun-Ho’s picture on the front page.

Seon Jun-Ho didn’t have to read it. The article was probably putting him up on a pedestal for defeating the Cinder Fox.

The man lit his cigarette and spoke with it between his teeth. “Whatever you’re looking for, I don’t think you can find it here.”

“Isn’t this a secondhand store?”

“...Hm. So you came even though you knew that.” His forehead wrinkled as he looked around his store. “Well, take a look. There won’t be anything useful, though.”

“Do you have items with specific attributes?”

“...That aisle, second shelf.” As he made his way over, Seo Jun-Ho nodded at the sight of the mountain of items.

‘Bingo.’

Items with certain abilities were called ‘artifacts’ and were often sold at higher prices. But that didn’t mean that all artifacts were useful. Some inflicted curses, and some had such strict requirements that they were practically useless. Those items were left at this store.

He looked at the dusty pile, hoping that something would catch his eye.

‘It’s a gold mine.’

With his back turned towards the worker, the corners of Seo Jun-Ho’s lip rose. Countless messages were popping up before him.

[You sense low-level cold energy from the target.]

[You sense low-level yin energy from the target.]

[You sense low intermediate-level frost from the target.]

…..

The items had been abandoned for decades in the corner of the store, and they cried out to him. Like that, Seo Jun-Ho found eight artifacts with ice attributes. Most of them were just low-levels, but he was lucky and managed to find a low intermediate-level.

‘With this much, my magic stat should go up at least a bit.’

Holding his items, he went back to the shifty man. He put out his cigarette in an ashtray and spoke. “...What? You’re buying all this?”

“Can I not?”

“No, it’s not that...yeah. I should be thanking you.” He lowered his head and pulled out a cash register from below the counter.

“I’m saying this now, but no matter how much you complain that they’re useless, these guys were expensive because they’re artifacts with attributes.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“...I like your attitude.”

He banged at the register and glanced up at Seo Jun-Ho.

“Even the most shabby ones start at 50 million won…..And in my opinion, this one can be really good with the right user. It’s worth around 400 million won.”

“So what’s my total?”

“1.02 billion won for eight of these…..I’ll take off the 20 mils at the end.”

After seeing the price, Seo Jun-Ho turned around, but it was the worker that got anxious.

“W-wait! I’ll take out another 10 million won…!”

The worker’s panicked voice made him stop, but Seo Jun-Ho had already decided.

‘It’s cheap.’

An elixir that raised your magic stat by 1 started at around 1 billion won. But these eight artifacts were being sold to him at the same price. So he turned around and went back to the store.

‘I’ll check one more time to see if there are any other ice attribute items, and look for those with darkness attributes while I’m at it.’

He spent 30 more minutes searching, eventually finding two low-level ice items. Unfortunately, there were no items with the darkness attribute. It was extremely rare, after all.

When he went back to the counter with the two extra items, there were two more cigarette butts in the ashtray.

“Huh? You want to buy those too?”

“How much is it?”

“Um…That’s…” The worker pushed the eight items toward him, deep in thought. “1.1 billion won for everything.”

The worker was only charging 50 million each for the two extra.

Nice.

He hadn’t planned on haggling, but he wouldn’t refuse a discount.

“I’ll buy everything.”

“Goodness! Celebrities sure are different.” The worker hastily rang up the items as if he was afraid that Seo Jun-Ho would change his mind.

“Now, then…” Seo Jun-Ho put the items in his inventory and leaned in. “Since I’ve bought this much, won’t you show me?”

“...What do you mean?”

As soon as he feigned innocence, Seo Jun-Ho gave an annoyed look as if asking why he bothered to pretend when he already knew about it. “But I heard that there’s another room here where your best artifacts and items that rookies have accidentally sold to you are kept…”

“...”

The worker scratched his head as he gave a bleary look. “Dammit. Where’d ya hear that?”

“No comment.”

“Geez. So many loose-lipped bastards these days.” The worker walked toward the entrance.

Clink.

He locked the door and flipped the sign to “CLOSED” before he lit another cigarette. He jutted his chin. “Follow me.”

Seo Jun-Ho’s steps were light as he followed him inside.

1. -dongs are neighborhoods within big cities

2. 50m=44k USD, 400m= 350k USD

3. around 900k USD