Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Patience of the Merchant
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A merchant, since time immemorial, must stock plenty of goods for their customers even when important matters arise.
These days, my sense of self as a merchant has somewhat faded, but be that as it may, a merchant is just that kind of existence.
I'm not saying this for any special reason.
It's simply because dozens of employees are milling around me, leaving me stuck in place, unable to move for the past 20 minutes.
A situation where slight tension breeds boredom naturally leads me to deeply ponder whether I really need to stock up on goods.
To put it simply, I'm pissed off.
Should I just skewer them all?
If it goes well, I could enjoy some comfortable shopping and theft, but there's a 90% chance it'd trigger a disaster with even more employees swarming in.
"Hah..."
The alcohol I'm targeting is just a single bottle.
Just get close enough, and I can snag it easily.
It's obvious I'd get caught by an employee if I tried pulling it in with telekinesis through my gloves from a distance.
Patience is a human virtue, after all.
Just wait a little longer.
That's what I resolved—right before realizing I should've just wiped them out.
Another 30 minutes passed before most of the employees finally cleared out.
Some clueless fools might think, '30 minutes? That's nothing,' but for someone without even a smartphone, 30 minutes becomes an unimaginably long stretch of time.
Especially with monsters lurking nearby!
I calmed my mind and slowly rose to my feet.
One more aisle over, and I was within telekinesis range.
"Alright, slowly..."
Telekinesis is inherently a finicky power.
With the fruit last time, it was just fruit, so dropping it on the floor or bumping the wall didn't matter—but this time, one wrong move and the bottle shatters.
I focused every ounce of my concentration and successfully settled the bottle into my hand.
I don't know much about booze, but judging by its look, I could tell it was a type of whiskey.
As the label states, this product's name is Valentine.
It seems named after some famous whiskey, but whether Valentine came first or the famous one did, who knows.
I gave the bottle a quick check for cracks, slipped it into my bag, and that's when I felt an unnatural presence over my shoulder.
"Cu...cu,customer?"
An employee, right behind me.
All I needed was to head to checkout now, but the timing was awful.
If a commotion broke out like this, my last 30 minutes would've been for nothing.
I scanned the surroundings before the employee could make a sound.
No other employees in sight within a 10-meter radius, except the one behind me.
Which means no one else had spotted me yet.
"Cu,customer. Ou-our speci—"
I pierced its head through before it could babble any further.
What I presumed was bits of brain matter, along with a gush of blood, soaked my body.
It went beyond sticky into outright revulsion, but I had no time to show it.
If I didn't hide this corpse fast, it'd only be a matter of time before the others found it.
I couldn't help recalling an idea I'd used once before.
Thinking of the woman slumbering in one of my shop's drawers, I shoved the body straight into a nearby storage drawer for goods.
The floor was a grotesque mess of unidentified liquids and chunks of flesh, but this much should be fine.
"Now I've got everything I need."
Even double-checking just in case, nothing came to mind but unsellable junk like three-eyed eggs or pills that cause gender swaps.
So now, all that's left is to head to the checkout and rip off the barcode reader.
It'd be a hassle, and I couldn't avoid running into employees, but it was worth the effort.
I immediately dodged the nearby employees and made it to the front of the checkout counter.
Each register had one employee flailing its arms like a zombie, with the barcode reader lying fallen below it, emitting a red glow.
I used telekinesis to slowly lift the reader.
The employee's flailing arm paused and reached toward the reader.
The instant it was about to touch the employee's hand, I yanked the reader hard—like a seasoned fisherman hooking a catch.
The cord connecting to the reader snapped with a sharp rip, and the employee's eyes fixed on me.
The eyes of the surrounding employees turned toward me too.
This time, I'd been properly spotted.
The employees charged at me without even a moment's grace period.
Their speed was incomparable to their usual shambling gait.
"Cu,cu-customer. How about th-this pro-product?"
"Ch-check out th-this cor-corner too."
But I didn't prepare to attack or defend.
Thud!
Suddenly, a display shelf appeared right in front of me.
This was exactly why I'd been avoiding encounters with the employees up to now.
They tear a product display shelf from their elongated necks and block the path like a maze.
The problem is that these shelves are made of some dream-world super material—they don't break.
Even if I climb over one, they stack another on top.
If I were a regular person, I'd get trapped in an infinite maze of shelves, either starving to death or eating the shelf food and mutating grotesquely.
But of course, that doesn't apply to me, fully geared and prepared.
After all, don't I have these magnificent gloves on my hands?
Sure, I've got a key in my pocket too, but leaving the mall without paying would cause problems even I couldn't handle, so I'll skip that.
I lightly levitated the shelf into the air with my gloves.
The employee frantically pulled out another shelf in a panic.
But my speed outpaced it—I broke through in the blink of an eye.
Most employees failed to block my path, but there were so many that a couple managed to set up shelves right near me.
"Wo-would you like to tr-try this bo-body—bodywash?"
I blasted that one away with my gloves too and passed by with a smirk.
"Meat! On-one kin tw-two kin th-three kin for 30,000 won?"
Before long, I reached my destination.
The so-called toad house—a covered knife switch.
No idea why the mall's circuit breaker box is stuck in a spot like this, but it's a tale, so whatever.
I flipped open the toad house lid and threw the internal breaker.
In that instant, the already dim interior lights winked out completely, and the employees froze in place all at once.
Then, with a blink, I was standing in a perfectly ordinary shopping mall.
People's chatter, the sound of kids clutching toys as they scampered about.
Everyday noises filled the air around me.
But look closely, and you realize they're just emitting sounds without any real movement.
That's right.
This shopping mall tale still wasn't over.
Sure, this phase was basically a trap, but even so, the only way to describe it is relentlessly persistent.
This time, I headed to a checkout manned by ordinary middle-aged women.
Look closely, and you see they're repeating the exact same actions.
In a way, it felt even creepier than the initial employees.
I strode up to the register as if nothing was amiss.
The checkout lady (not sure if "lady" even fits) mechanically rang up all the items except the barcode reader, without a word of complaint.
Even though every single item looked anything but normal.
"83,000 won."
I pulled out the cash I'd prepared in advance.
"Thank you."
What happens if you just walk out without properly checking out here?
You could probably guess if you knew those sound-only figures were once real people.
Anyway, it's got nothing to do with me since I paid properly.
"Now, shall I give this reader a try?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The sewer interior was bustling.
Rats scurried about in search of food, while all manner of wastewater and sewage rushed along beside them.
But today's sewers were hectic for an entirely different reason.
"Th-think we've found it!"
"On my way!"
Park Se-jin had speculated that Yi Young-gil might be moving through the sewers, based on what Tae-jun had told him about the horrific sewer stench.
"No wonder he never showed up on surveillance cameras—he's using the sewers. And he's even been living down here?"
Park Se-jin couldn't help feeling a certain awe at Yi Young-gil's tolerance.
It was a fragment of some document marked 'Grade 1 Gi—'.
He couldn't make out the full picture, but he recognized it was similar to the unique format used by the Tale Management Bureau.
With trembling hands, Park Se-jin clutched the document.
Even as squad leader, he rarely got a chance to peek at Grade 1 files, so in a way, it was only natural.
If anything, he was suspicious of how Yi Young-gil had come to possess it in the first place.
"By the book, I shouldn't read it and should send it straight to the Bureau, but..."
Since the New Tale Investigation Squad was handling this incident, he figured he had the right to check it out.
Park Se-jin quietly turned the page.
Most of it was torn to shreds, impossible to read properly, but two sentences stood out clearly.
Successfully proved the existence of the Outer God.
Most of the summoning method has been uncovered, but further research is prohibited.