The Magic Stone Deal
"But even if they come looking, so what?"
They didn't even know who I was. How were they supposed to find me? If I actually committed to staying hidden, they'd never track me down. Besides, my Tower climbs were just going to be round trips from home anyway.
The more I thought about it, the less reason I had to be afraid of the Overlord. If they had even a sliver of a chance of getting close to me, maybe I'd worry — but I could say this with certainty: in the situation I was in now, they would never find me.
The Association was probably already climbing the walls trying to hunt me down, running every CCTV feed they could get their hands on. Even if I showed up on camera, though, the odds were good they'd glance right past me. Who in their right mind would look at a girl in sunglasses and think that's the one who got an S+? They'd write me off as some slightly weird kid and move on. And it wasn't as if I was the only person those cameras were capturing. Tracking down every last face besides mine would take a serious amount of time.
What mattered most, though, was this: there were no cameras on the Tower's entrance. To the naked eye, the gateway looked perfectly ordinary. Point a camera at it — any camera, any recording device — and that one patch of the image crushed itself into a smear of black. Distance didn't matter. Neither did the equipment. Satellites, telephoto lenses, it made no difference. Which meant that nobody, not a single soul, would ever know I'd gone inside. And the place was crawling with tourists besides. The idea that anyone could pick Bibi out of a crowd like that was laughable.
The Overlord was never going to find me. So I went back to the gallery to sell my magic stones.
"First things first. Let's check the going rate."
I pulled up the trading board and looked over the prices for C-rank magic stones. The Association's official purchase price was one million won apiece. Buying one from the Association, on the other hand, would run you 1.3 million. True to that spread, private deals on the Tower Gallery were landing somewhere in the middle — 1.1 to 1.2 million won a stone.
So five of them would be…
"That's over five million won, easy."
Five million won, and all I'd done was clear the first floor of the Tower. Once. I'd just made more in a single day than I could have earned working myself to the bone every day of my old life.
So that's why they say hunters vacuum up money. They weren't kidding.
Granted, Nightmare difficulty did come with generous rewards.
Wait. Then how much did the first climbers rake in?
I'd heard magic stone prices peaked when the Tower first appeared. Curious, I looked up the going rate from twenty years ago.
"Holy shit…"
Back then, a single C-rank magic stone went for over ten million won.
Why'd you people get exclusive rights to the money-dupe glitch?!
Looking at the old prices, I felt like I'd taken a loss somehow.
"Ah, whatever. What's the point of getting jealous? I just made five million myself."
Clear the next floor and I'd pull in another five million, at least. After that, I wouldn't have to worry about something as trivial as delivery fees ever again. And it wouldn't stop at delivery fees. I could get out of this studio that cost me 500,000 won a month and move into some ultra-luxury penthouse…
Ah. No, I couldn't.
Money wasn't the problem. I didn't have a legal identity to sign a lease with.
"…Do I need to register as a hunter?"
It wasn't urgent. I'd pile up some cash first and think about it then. If I really needed an identity, I could register later and it wouldn't be too late. Besides, signing up now felt like a good way to draw even more suspicion.
I tapped at my status window and browsed the trading posts.
Let's see. C-rank magic stones, buying… ah. There.
Right. Now came the hard part.
Ordinarily, a deal went through the Auction House — you exchanged or sent the Tower-made goods, then received a bank transfer. Cash wasn't generated by the Tower, so it couldn't be traded inside the system. But I was Bibi. The moment money hit a bank account, my identity would be blown wide open. An in-person meetup was off the table too. Showing my face was an even worse idea.
So the method I was going with: a cash drop at a storage locker. I honestly wasn't sure any hunter would agree to that, but if they wouldn't, I was prepared to slash the price until they did. I'd go as low as 900,000 won a stone. And if even that didn't work… then I'd hold my nose and register as a hunter, whether I liked it or not.
If I sell them cheap, though, someone will take them. Right?
Clinging to that hope, I sent a trade note to the buyer looking for C-rank stones.
Already famous, I guess. They recognized me instantly.
I hit send, and my hands started shaking. What if they said no? There didn't seem to be that many people buying C-rank stones in the first place.
D-rank stones were cheap enough that hunters used them as consumables without a second thought. From B-rank up, the jump in efficiency was obvious, and demand was high. C-rank, though, sat in a deeply awkward spot. More expensive than D-rank, but without the clear performance gap you got from B-rank. Hunters watching their wallets bought D-rank for the value. Hunters with money to spare bought B-rank.
It came out a little like a threat, but I didn't have a choice. Not if I wanted to stay safe. The last thing I needed was someone lying in wait, trying to get a look at my face.
Not that it would matter. With my Divine Eye, I'd notice the second something like that happened.
Yes!
I was a little surprised they'd gone along with it so easily. I'd at least expected them to haggle. A clean deal, just like that?
"Works for me."
I'd been ready to drop as low as 900,000. Selling at 1.1 million instead was like making an extra million won for free.
I worked out the meeting point with WhiteFlower as we talked. If I picked somewhere too far from where they lived, the whole deal might fall through, so I suggested we go with wherever was convenient for them. WhiteFlower said they didn't mind coming to wherever was convenient for me, either.
What's going on? Why are they being this nice?
Not that I was about to volunteer the information that I lived in Seoul. As we kept talking, though, it came out that WhiteFlower lived in Seoul too, and the drop point we settled on wasn't far at all.
"Whew. Thank god. What are the odds they'd actually be in Seoul?"
I'd been bracing myself for a trip all the way out to Busan or Gangwon. Not having to make that kind of journey was a relief.
We set the exchange for the following day. WhiteFlower said today worked just fine, but I pushed it back on purpose.
Because starting now, I needed to go buy a disguise.
Meanwhile, at that same hour, in a hospital in Seoul's Mapo District, a woman with a blue bob and emerald eyes pushed open a patient's door.
"Sis… you came?"
"Yeah. How are you feeling today?"
"Same as always. Sleepy."
The boy sitting up in the hospital bed offered a weak smile. He had the same blue hair as the woman, and eyes of a paler, softer green. This was Yu Dojin — younger brother of Yu Seolhwa, the hunter who went by WhiteFlower.
"I'll bring more magic stones tomorrow. Just say the word if you need them."
"Don't bother. I've already got a whole basket of them piled up."
Dojin turned his head. At the end of his gaze sat the stones Seolhwa had brought him yesterday, stacked in a heap. She watched them for a moment before she spoke again.
"Have you eaten? Want me to order something?"
"I'm good. The staff brought a meal earlier. I already ate."
"Good. That's good."
Before he'd been confined to this bed, her brother had been a hunter — the two of them had raided gates side by side. Neither of them had been especially gifted, but years of working in sync had carried her to B-rank and him to C-rank.
The problem was a year ago. In the middle of a gate raid, a curse had latched onto her brother. Ever since, he spent twenty hours of every day asleep.
"Sis."
"Mm?"
"I'm getting sleepy again."
"Okay. Sleep. Message me when you wake up."
"Okay."
Leaving Dojin to his rest, Seolhwa slipped out of the room.
"Hah…"
Out in the hallway, she let out a long, heavy breath. It never got easier, seeing him like that. Some part of her would always believe it was her fault he'd ended up this way. If she just hadn't suggested they raid that gate that day…
No. Stop spiraling. Focus on making money.
Treating her brother would take ten billion won, at the very least. The magic stones were nothing more than maintenance — the cost of keeping him lucid. They did nothing for the curse itself.
If it were up to her, she would have bought him A-rank stones, S-rank stones, anything. But his doctor had been clear: a C-rank hunter taking in B-rank mana or higher would only put more strain on his body.
In the end, the only way to treat him was to call in Japan's S-rank shrine maiden hunter. The problem was the price of calling her at all — five billion won, minimum. And even that was nearly impossible. Her schedule was booked solid. Five billion wasn't the cost of treatment, either. That was just the fee to get her to show up. Once actual treatment entered the picture, the number would climb into the astronomical.
Seolhwa left the hospital and opened her status window. The messages from the Tower Gallery trade floated up in front of her — the person she was supposed to exchange magic stones with tomorrow.
At first, she'd been suspicious on the spot. The nickname was identical to the one belonging to the person who'd just set a world record.
It really was the Bibi from the news…
Not that she'd needed to doubt it. Gallery nicknames couldn't be duplicated, and they were assigned automatically besides.
They said at the very least a future S-rank candidate, didn't they?
No. People were saying even more than that. She still couldn't believe she was doing business with someone like that.
But why a cash deal?
She'd asked, and they'd said it was personal. They couldn't tell her.
Are they actually a criminal?
There had been rumors that the reason Bibi wouldn't reveal their identity was because they were a criminal. Maybe it was true. They'd gone out of their way to hide who they were, even while doing a deal with her.
But she didn't care whether they were a criminal or not. What mattered was this: she had a chance to make a connection with a future S-rank hunter. She did not intend to let that chance slip away. If she got close to them, she might just find a thread that reached the shrine maiden.
At first, she'd considered reporting them to the Association. Then she'd heard their warning, and she'd changed her mind just as fast. It was hard to shrug off something said by a future S-rank — but even setting that aside, turning them in would have gotten her a small bounty at best. Losing the trust of a future S-rank hunter would have been the far greater loss. And if they really were a criminal, the way the rumors said, there was no telling what kind of retaliation might come later.
As long as it means Dojin can be treated, none of the rest matters.
At the very least, their ability was the real thing. If she treated them with as much kindness as she could, built a sense of trust, drew closer little by little — someday, that would pay off for her too.
Yu Seolhwa stared at the name floating on her status window for a long time. Bibi.
I have to get close to them. No matter what it takes.