I Awakened the Trading Gallery in the Apocalypse

The world ended on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday.

I was on my way home after finishing my part-time delivery shift, clutching a cold can of coffee I'd bought with my last bit of pocket money. The sky split open without warning. A massive crack tore through the air like shattered glass, and from it poured monsters straight out of a nightmare. People screamed. Cars flipped. Blood sprayed across the pavement like cheap ink.

By the time I came to my senses, I was hiding behind a overturned truck in the middle of Daejeon, covered in someone else's guts. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. My phone was dead. And the only thing running through my head was one stupid, useless thought:

Man... I really wanted to drink this coffee.

That was when it happened.

A translucent window floated in front of my eyes. It looked exactly like an internet forum. The kind of shady anonymous board where people traded weird shit at three in the morning.

The top banner read [Dimensional Trading Gallery - Catastrophe Edition] in glowing letters.

Below it, a list of posts was already scrolling up at insane speed.

I stared at the posts like an idiot. My brain refused to process what I was seeing. This wasn't a game. This wasn't a dream. The smell of blood and burning cars was very, very real.

Yet here was a forum where people from other dimensions were casually trading legendary artifacts for everyday junk.

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A new notification popped up right in front of my face.

I swallowed hard. My throat felt like sandpaper.

"...Yeah. Sure. Why the hell not."

The moment I muttered the words, the window expanded. Thousands of posts flooded my vision. Weapons. Skills. Food. Information. Even people. Everything was for sale. Everything had a price.

A particularly eye-catching post sat at the very top, pinned with a glowing border.

Without thinking, I clicked the claim button that appeared below it.

A small glass vial appeared in my hand with a soft pop. The liquid inside glowed faintly pink. I didn't hesitate. I ripped the cap off and chugged it like cheap soju.

The pain in my side vanished instantly. The deep gash that had been leaking blood for the last twenty minutes closed up like it had never existed. Even the exhaustion weighing down my limbs lightened a little.

"Holy shit..."

I laughed. It sounded cracked and broken, but it was a laugh. For the first time since the sky tore open, I felt something other than pure terror.

This gallery. This ridiculous, beautiful, capitalist hellhole of a system. It was my lifeline.

And I was going to milk it for everything it was worth.

Because if the world had already ended...

Then the only thing left to do was trade my way to the top.

I wiped the blood off my face with the back of my sleeve and opened the gallery again. My fingers trembled with excitement ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as I typed my first post.

I hit post.

Within seconds, the replies started pouring in.

I stared at the flood of responses. My lips curled into a grin despite the corpses littering the street around me.

This was it.

This was how I was going to survive. No, not just survive.

I was going to thrive.

Let the monsters come. Let the world burn.

I'd just turned the apocalypse into the biggest flea market in existence.

And business was about to boom.