Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Gold Village Pawnshop
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The next item wasn't an artifact.
Two pistols.
Guns, huh...
One was the one I'd picked up from the secret lab where I first escaped, and the other was Lee Chang-hyuk's gun.
At first, my strength was too low to even fire them, but now I could use them.
Plus, I could now augment my strength with mana...
I had the shooting-specialized trait [Precision Aim], so it was worth utilizing my marksmanship skills alongside magic.
Of course, rather than using a pistol as-is like the Crimson Dragon's Orb, it'd be better to just fire off a spell.
'But if I enchanted it with some magic, it might become a bit more useful.'
Besides, while I didn't have enemies like that right now, there were foes in [Cthulhu World] that were immune to magic.
'In fact, Lee Chang-hyuk had some minor magic resistance.'
Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to keep a couple of backup weapons. I should even buy some ammo.
And the last ones... the most dangerous items.
[Squirming Slime (SS-grade Catalyst): A fragment harvested from the 'Formless One.'
Consuming this grants great evolution and cosmic wonders.]
[Black Goat's Bodily Fluid (SSS-grade Catalyst): Bodily fluid from the 'Outer God - Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young.'
This miraculous elixir cures all diseases and bestows new powers and transcendent sanity never before known.]
"This is pure bullshit from where?"
Items directly tied to outer gods were generally like this. 'Go ahead and try it—something really good will happen.'
Just like Lee Chang-hyuk had demonstrated firsthand, the blessings of outer gods manifested in grotesque forms that humanity couldn't yet comprehend.
Even I couldn't fully control these.
I'd sealed them with magic to prevent external influence, but the magic circles etched on the bottles were fading.
'Mana drain's faster than expected.'
For now, I poured in mana to reinforce the circles.
But this was just a stopgap. Without proper catalysts or containers to seal them completely, who knew when they'd break free.
Apart from that, I had about 20 million won in cash combining the money I'd taken from Lee Chang-hyuk and the reward from the commission.
That about wrapped up the sorting. There were documents and such from Lee Chang-hyuk too, but I just bundled them up to look through later.
'Tudor will get me an ID and bankbook.'
He said it'd take about a month. I could swing by then, but I had no intention of just lounging around.
To save time, I needed to keep moving, even if just a little.
'Ugh... but for now, just a quick lie-down.'
In the end, I lay back down.
'Ah, lying down really is the best...'
My whole body ached. My fingertips were numb, my legs had no strength, and my shoulders made ominous noises with every movement.
I needed to get an artifact that boosted health, since it was still lacking. Unlike the [Corrupted Flame Ring] that raised strength, there were health-boosting artifacts available for purchase.
And to get one, I needed to go shopping.
'And deal with these useless sundries, buy some bullets too.'
But today, I'd rest a bit more... lying down made my eyes heavy...
* * *
Today's destination was a secret shop dealing in Cthulhu mythos items.
I'd dawdled all day, so night had already fallen.
Wearing a mask, this was the perfect time to move anyway.
I ignored the stunned stares from the occasional passersby and kept walking. The secret shop wasn't far from my lodging.
Paju in reality had a bit of this vibe too, but [Cthulhu World]'s Paju was a city ravaged by abnormal, extreme haphazard development.
Just a block or two away, and the atmosphere changed completely.
[Welcome. Gold Village Traditional Market Gate 3]
The area around Gold Village Traditional Market was a typical old downtown. The rundown market had formed ages ago and stayed that way, with surrounding scenery that was ambiguously nostalgic or just plain dilapidated.
Most buildings looked over 40 years old.
'Body still not recovered...'
I'd spent the whole day lying around doing nothing, but it was already feeling sluggish.
I took a moment to catch my breath and looked up at the building housing the [Secret Shop].
It was a three-story structure clad in colorful bricks.
The walls were plastered with faded signs weathered by time...
Scanning from the bottom right: shoe store, a teahouse of dubious operation, an optician with a store-closing event, a phone shop covered in Chinese notices, a secondhand fashion store with a relatively new sign, computer cleaning, boiler distributor, fortune-telling, and a barely legible 'ㄱchon ㅈdangㅗ.'
That was the secret shop: 'ㄱchon ㅈdangㅗ.' Gold Village Pawnshop.
Of course, the pawnshop business was just a front.
It dealt in pawnable items alongside Cthulhu mythos goods.
I climbed the narrow, grimy stairs and entered the pawnshop.
Gold Village Pawnshop took up most of the floor with a spacious interior, but it was so cluttered with junk and antiques that finding footing was a challenge.
Rough wooden shelves held all sorts of bizarre items: Buddha statues next to luxury watches and stacks of ancient books.
The next shelf had cages with lizards and parrots, and on the floor beside it were old jars mixed with radios, air conditioners, and various electronics.
Toys, comics, jars with strange creatures, jewelry, unidentified ritual tools, chakrams, masks, daily necessities, crumpled clothes, dried herbs, and bone fragments that looked suspiciously like human skulls.
Just looking around made my head spin.
In the midst of it all, a small girl who looked like she was middle or high school age was dozing against a large iron bell.
She wore baggy school gym clothes with a faded apron reading 'Gold Village Traditional Market Prosperity Association,' her hair pulled back tightly in a ponytail. Her round face was cute.
I knew who she was: Jeong Ye-eun, the part-timer at Gold Village Pawnshop.
"Huaaa... Ah, welcome—?! Kyaaak!"
She jolted awake at my footsteps, tried to greet me, then screamed at the sight of my face—or rather, my mask.
It could've ended there, but unfortunately, she flailed her arms, knocking over an unstable tower of rice cookers.
Rumble-rumble-.
Cylindrical rice cookers rolled wildly through the cramped shop, toppling several jars.
Crash!
The impact shook the shelf stacked with animal cages, sending a few crashing to the floor.
Thud-crash.
Ah, why did this pawnshop even stock stuff like that? One of the broken crates held white mice—probably feed for reptiles?
Dozens of mice scattered everywhere.
Squeak, squeak-.
Good thing my musophobia was gone.
"Kyaaaa! Catch them! Catch them!"
That was Ye-eun's scream. Catch the mice?
"What's going on!"
A stocky old man burst out from the back room. Maybe he shouldn't be running?
"Uwaaaak!"
The old man slipped on a rolling rice cooker and fell spectacularly.
Thud-crash-.
It was such a flashy tumble I worried if he'd broken something. Ah, the impact made a nearby shelf wobble...
Rumble-rumble! Crash-thud!
Why... what the hell was happening...?
* * *
The already messy, cluttered pawnshop now looked like it'd been bombed.
The old man from earlier, who'd tumbled so enthusiastically, glared at Jeong Ye-eun while wrapping a bandage around his arm.
"I called you to help clean up, and on your first day, you wreck the place like this?"
"No, but I was really startled!"
She subtly pointed at my mask.
"Look at that—how could I not be?"
I did bear some blame for showing up in a skull mask. But could you really pin this chaos on me? If you're gonna complain, at least tidy up a bit.
"Sorry about that. My granddaughter's such an airhead."
Fortunately, the old man seemed to have decided I was a customer, not some thug or intruder.
"No, no, it's fine."
"Anyway, you came at this hour on purpose, so what can I help you with?"
The old man's name was Jeong Eun-taek. People who knew him mostly called him Elder.
He was a wrinkled, squat geezer now, but his backstory was that of a hotshot fixer back in the day.
He'd resolved several Cthulhu mythos incidents, some on the brink of human extinction.
Anyway, he was retired now and ran the secret shop.
I pulled out the [Crimson Dragon's Orb] and showed it to him.
"I want to sell this. And buy some things too."
"Hmm..."
Jeong Eun-taek donned odd glasses with multiple small lenses and examined the orb slowly.
"Hmm... The craftsmanship is meh, but it's infused with murky mana. Not ancient... No, it was made recently. Can't be done through normal means."
He looked up at me. Explaining the origin was tricky.
I shrugged ambiguously as if to say I didn't know, and he nodded like he got it.
"Well, I can take this off your hands. Cash?"
"How much?"
"Religious items often have shady origins... 3 million."
"You're lowballing an artifact with Survival Instinct?"
He grinned.
"You know your stuff. 4 million."
"...Add these gloves, 3 million."
He frowned and glanced where I pointed.
[Hurook Gloves (B-grade Armor): Modern bike gloves crafted by an artisan and infused with mana.
Mana Infusion: Health +2]
"Those are worth 2 million."
"1.5 million? I'll take those and everything listed here too. Give me 20 million back in change. I'm cutting you a deal."
I handed him a pre-written note.
I'd known the shop was this disorganized from the start, so I'd listed the catalysts and small tools I needed in advance.
"Sheesh..."
Jeong Eun-taek read the note, gave me a 'what's this guy's deal' look, then tossed me the gloves.
The total came out perfectly, right?
"I'll gather the rest, so browse around."
"Sure."
"And don't knock anything over."
"That's for your granddaughter, not me."
"Sheesh!"
He snatched the orb and headed to the back room.
I checked out the Hurook Gloves.
Black leather bike gloves.
Rough carbon knuckles on the backs, sturdy protectors on each finger.
The design was cool—I liked it.
It appealed to the middle-schooler in my heart, somehow.
Perfect fit too. They clung nicely to my hands.
'But why "Hurook Gloves"?'
Plenty of better names out there. Not like they're for slurping ramen. Why name them like that? Even I didn't know everything in [Cthulhu World].
How was I supposed to know stuff the game glossed over without explanation?