Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Black Market Raid
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Dozens of figures marched through the winding alleys, their heavy footsteps thudding dully.
Masks covered their faces.
But unlike the typical masks seen in the black market, these were far more tactical and menacing.
Soon, these hulking masked men appeared at the black market's entrance.
While customers panicked, the battle-hardened merchants—who had reached the pinnacle of savvy through years of wheeling and dealing—quickly sized up the situation.
"It's the Response Team! Run!"
With that shout, merchants bolted in the opposite direction. Customers, gauging the danger from the fleeing vendors, erupted in chaos.
The clamor of screams and swirling dust was disorienting enough on its own, but the Response Team stood rock-solid, eyes locked on the merchants.
"Damn it..."
A frontliner charged ahead, baton gripped tightly in one hand.
By the time the merchant blinked, the team member was already upon him.
"Uwaaa!"
Thwack—
They carried guns slung over their shoulders, of course. But for rounding up untrained civilians, a baton was more than enough.
"Argh!"
"Grab that bastard!"
The apparent leader gestured sharply, pointing at a fleeing merchant.
"Damn it! Get lost!"
"Kyaak!"
The frantic cries of customers and merchants filled the alley.
Realizing escape was futile, the merchants skidded to a halt and turned to face the Response Team.
"You fucking... you're all dead..."
Despite the foul curses spilling from their lips, tension was plain on their faces.
One clutched his trembling legs and lunged at the Response Team. The others followed his lead.
"Kim! Throw it!"
Boom—
"Graaah!"
This scream came from the Response Team.
Dust clouded their vision as merchants' cheers rang out.
"Firearms authorized."
But the triumph was short-lived.
Bang—!
"...Huh?"
Something wet oozed from the chest of the man the merchants had called 'Kim'.
As the red liquid soaked the ground, his body crumpled.
Thud.
"Uwaaaak!"
Even wilder pandemonium engulfed the alley.
"Help!"
Customers milled about in blind panic, drawing wandering eyes, while Response Team gun barrels tracked every twitch.
Bang—!
"Fuck!"
Rat-a-tat-tat—!
Utter mayhem.
From a big-picture view, the Response Team dominated the merchants. But the unpredictable tale items hurled by the vendors began to slowly erode their numbers.
One team member burst through a barrage of bombs and smoke conjured by 'phenomena,' seizing a merchant's arm.
As he hoisted his baton overhead for a crushing blow...
"Tsssk!"
Another merchant tackled his waist from the side, sending him sprawling.
Thud.
A vicious fist hurtled toward the team member's face.
He flailed his arms in defense, but punches slipped through the gaps, pulping his mask.
"Hehe! Good luck with that!"
Confirming the team member was out cold, the merchant slapped something onto his arm and fled into the alley's shadows.
Bang—!
But a bullet ripped through the air from behind, piercing the merchant's heart to avenge the fallen operative.
Justice served? The dazed team member wiped blood from his face and struggled to rise.
"Damn, what is this! It won't come off!"
Tape glued skin to floor.
It wouldn't rip. It wouldn't peel.
The tape from the briefing.
His decision was instant.
With his good arm, he crammed a handkerchief into his mouth, pried the dagger from his rifle, and carved away the taped flesh.
"Grrrmph..."
Groaning through the agony, he watched another team member vault over him, unleashing a hail of bullets at the merchants.
Merchant intel was vital, of course.
But letting more slip away for it was irrational.
A few would survive the barrage anyway.
That cold calculus drove the gunfire.
Human rights groups might decry it as unethical—if any lurked here. But the Tale Management Bureau had always danced one step beyond such concerns.
"There! Kill the downed one!"
Some merchants rallied for a charge on the Response Team. Those who knew true fear huddled on the ground, shivering. Meanwhile, one man slunk slowly away in the cramped alley.
"Damn... Those guys said we had more time before getting busted..."
His name was Kwon Jeong-seok.
Unlike the newbie merchants fresh to peddling tale items, he'd been smuggling them for ages.
What separated a veteran smuggler from rookies?
An eye for merchandise? Handling difficult customers?
Those helped, sure. But the real difference ran deeper.
"Lucky I scouted escape routes ahead."
Running like hell.
How many near-misses with the Bureau over the years?
Through twists and turns, he'd even cracked their Response Team patterns.
"Tch. Came for a quick payday and look what happens."
Jeong-seok ditched his mask and dusty coat in a nearby trash bin, then slipped from the alley, blending seamlessly into the stream of ordinary citizens.
A short-term loss, but nothing crippling.
Restock from 'those guys,' and Seoul had more black markets than a few.
With those thoughts, he ducked into a convenience store to soothe his parched, aching throat.
Shelves crammed tight. Sturdy racks blocking the aisles.
The layout mirrored a typical convenience store—but the wares were anything but.
"Hello, customer."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ This timing for Jeong-seok stumbling into the Tale Shop was pure coincidence, not something the Merchant had schemed.
A month had passed, so he'd simply linked the door to what seemed the highest foot-traffic spot to welcome his first civilian patron.
He hadn't even known a black market hawking Tale Shop goods and sundries sprawled outside.
'Please... spin a tale fun enough for the Label Library to savor...'
That was the extent of the Merchant's hopes.
And in the end, things played out somewhat to his wishes.
"..."
"This is the Tale Shop. Please buy what you desire. Price: two fingers."
Despite the Merchant's shocking declaration, Jeong-seok stayed cool.
He'd plunged into all sorts of tales chasing items, and before that, his line of work had blades flying at him from grudge-bearing folks plenty of times.
In a word, death didn't faze him.
Truth be told, the 'escape device' in his pocket weighed heavier on his mind.
The Merchant looked a touch rattled by Jeong-seok's demeanor, but he brushed him off and quietly approached the shelves.
"Let me explain the products—"
Jeong-seok had handled an uncountable array of goods.
Items supposedly sourced from some old restaurant tale. Recent pills credited to Researcher Mun Woo-seok.
He even knew wares the Bureau hadn't clocked.
Of course, the restaurant stuff had surfaced just once, sold on the down-low—so aside from Jeong-seok and a handful of partners, no one knew, making it easy to slip past Bureau notice.
"It's fine. I know 'em all."
The Merchant reeled for the second time.
No one who'd come here had ever bantered so casually with him.
The Merchant figured Jeong-seok brimmed with raw guts.
'Two fingers, huh. Stack that against finger-regen costs and resale value... yeah, solid profit.'
Actually, Jeong-seok's head buzzed more with dollar signs.
"You know all these items... you in the trade?"
"Twenty years dealing just this stuff. Beats most Bureau grunts."
Jeong-seok spilled his background freely.
Most in his circles died after bullshitting monsters or marks.
A few bit it telling the truth, sure—but liars outnumbered them by miles.
"Wild seeing these pills here, though. That Mun-whatever researcher whipped 'em up. I hustled my ass off for a piece of that action."
"Haha. Anyway, black market that lively?"
"Huh? Nah. Supply's a bitch, and the Bureau's cracking down like mad—how's it lively?"
"I see."
"It was that way. But capital's gone to hell lately, crackdowns slacked, and these weirdos popped up dumping cheap goods everywhere. Folks like me? Ecstatic."
Jeong-seok eyed the Merchant with a sly squint.
"I'll take 'em happily, but fingers as price? Zero draw for regular Joes, right? Dollars at the black market do fine—why bother here?"
A human schooling a tale was a marvel, but secondary.
Civilians weren't the Merchant's core clientele anyway, so no sweat.
But steady supply implied the Bureau could sever Tale Shop ties and hijack the pipeline.
"Anyway, wanna grab 'em all, but pain's a no-go. Just the ice cream and one candy."
With that, Jeong-seok surrendered four fingers to the shop and vanished out the door like it was nothing.
In the meantime, having absorbed Jeong-seok's chatter and run the calculus, the Merchant couldn't stifle the line that burst from his lips.
"What? Give me back my monopoly."