Calculating Function's Value (3)
The burly bald man frowned. There were two reasons for it. One was that the woman was so beautiful it was almost terrifying. The other was that the force twisting his wrist had been no joke.
“Kuh!”
The burly man yanked his wrist free and stumbled backward. His wrist had turned bright red.
‘What kind of strength…’
It was nothing like what he had expected from grabbing an ordinary person. All he could see was a stunning woman with the looks of a top actress.
“…A foreigner?”
At the word “foreigner,” Lee Nayeon tilted her head and glanced at the man behind her. She offered no reply.
“Whoa… Hey! She’s gorgeous, huh? Are you a celebrity? Foreign actress? Gravure model? Here for a shoot?”
The man licked his lips as he openly scanned Lee Nayeon’s toned, curvaceous figure. The moment her characteristically indifferent, cold eyes swept over him from head to toe, the man’s gaze trembled violently.
It felt as though an invisible hand had seized his throat. She had subdued him with nothing but a look. When his breath caught in his chest, the man sensed something was wrong and signaled his companion on the opposite side to back off.
“I-I’ll let it slide just this once.”
The two men abandoned Choi Junseok’s backpack far too easily. An aura they could not hope to approach. A spectacle unfolded in which every man became a lesser being in her presence.
Yet Lee Nayeon showed no intention of simply letting them go.
“Halt.”
The two men stopped in their tracks, their faces uneasy. They themselves could not understand why they were so frightened, but their instinctive survival instinct soon made itself clear.
Whoosh!
When Lee Nayeon took a single step forward, the men’s hair whipped backward as if caught in a sudden gust.
“Retract the words you just spoke to insult this lord. Otherwise…”
Otherwise, she looked ready to challenge them to a duel on grounds of defamation. Her hand drifted toward her waist as though to draw a sword, but of course no blade hung there.
“Tch.”
Lee Nayeon lightly bit her red lips in disappointment. The two men could only blink, unable to move.
‘Did the wind really whip around just because she took one step?’
It could not have been an illusion. ‘We’re indoors…’ There was no fan or air conditioner that could have produced such a breeze. It was a danger signal they had never encountered even during their long years working the back alleys. Their crisis-detection instincts activated instantly. Both men raised their palms and began backing away.
“W-We meant no offense.”
“It was purely a compliment—”
“Who.”
Lee Nayeon’s sharp interjection cut them off. Both men’s mouths snapped shut as though their throats had been struck. The pressure in the air itself felt like a blade pressing against their skin. They poured every ounce of strength into their legs to keep their knees from buckling under the crushing weight.
They had never felt anything like this outside a Magic Tower. Just as their knees began to give way, the pressure abruptly vanished. Choi Junseok had glanced at Lee Nayeon.
“Get lost.”
“…Yes! Th-Thank you!”
Arms folded, Lee Nayeon watched the two men retreat. ‘Their legs are shaking that badly?’ Choi Junseok, standing beside her, could not comprehend what kind of magic she had worked. ‘If their legs are shaking, they must have felt genuine terror.’ Yet the Lee Nayeon he saw right next to him looked exactly the same as always. ‘She only looked at them, and even then it was the kind of look that said, “Has this guy lost his mind?”’ When her eyes met Choi Junseok’s, she immediately turned her gaze toward the second floor as though she had not been looking at all. It was the usual cold, indifferent Lee Nayeon.
Richard I. Nicknamed Lionheart. In Korea he was known as the Lionheart King or the God of War. ‘I really should buy his biography.’ She could be hostile one moment and suddenly step in to help the next. ‘Maybe she approved of how I sent that American broker packing earlier?’
While Choi Junseok watched the two men hurry away, Lee Nayeon spoke.
“There are armed personnel stationed on the second floor.”
“It’s a black market. That’s to be expected.”
“They do not appear to be monitoring the exterior.”
Her observation was precise. Their purpose was not to watch the outside. It was merely to prevent and deter the activities of various gangs and thugs within the market.
“They are watching us.”
“We should hide your appearance. You stand out too much.”
“Are you saying others might recognize me as a summon?”
“No. That’s not it, but you… Never mind.”
Even if he explained that people were drawn to her because she was beautiful, she would only tilt her head and ask why that would attract attention.
“Using the word ‘no’ three times in a single sentence is unbecoming of a lord’s speech.”
“…”
Her clear eyes, faintly tinged with madness, turned toward Choi Junseok.
“Let us move. I will follow.”
“No. You can stay here. Dismiss yourself so people do not notice.”
“…I refuse.”
She would not answer when summoned, yet now she refused to disappear at will? Lee Nayeon immediately gave her reason.
“It is dangerous.”
“Those people on the second floor are—”
“They are not the problem. We are being followed.”
‘Followed?’ Choi Junseok’s brow furrowed. His pace quickened slightly.
- Is that true?
- Junseok, I’m just an ordinary person outside the tower. How would I know?
Ah, right. Yu Junhyeok had also been an ordinary citizen protected by special forces outside the tower.
‘Outside the tower he’s completely useless…’
- I can hear you.
- Yes, sir.
It was possible that whoever was tailing them had grown suspicious after witnessing Lee Nayeon’s earlier display. In any case, with the cash at home nearly gone, he could not return empty-handed after coming all this way. He quickly located the first merchant.
An old man reading a newspaper had his feet propped on the stall. The newspaper was merely a cover for the display on the desk. A hidden surveillance camera was angled to capture customers’ faces at the lower left of the stall entrance. It was one of the many ways black-market merchants used to assert dominance over customers—making it seem as though they could size up a visitor even while pretending to read the paper.
Lee Nayeon calmly stood beside Choi Junseok and immediately spotted the camera hidden on the floor. Without hesitation, she stomped on it.
Crunch!
She crushed it, her usual unflinching composure intact. The merchant folded his newspaper with a start and glared at Choi Junseok. He glanced at the woman beside him as if to ask what she was doing there, but Choi Junseok ignored him and set his bag down. It might have seemed trivial, yet whether one seized the initiative or not changed the entire negotiation from the start. The merchant realized the hidden CCTV had been discovered at a glance. In three years of doing business here, this had never happened before.
“Lizard thigh meat, lizard skull and scales.”
That was not all.
“Tail meat, venom gland, spine bones… You’ll take the heart too, right?”
Each item he listed showed none of a beginner’s butchering skill. The merchant immediately sensed that this was no ordinary customer and pulled his chair closer.
“What, did you stuff an entire lizardman into your bag?”
“Do you need a whole one? If you do, just say so. I’ve got one. I cut the Achilles tendon and drained the blood…”
“You—you’ve got one?”
At those words, a nearby merchant cautiously approached Choi Junseok.
“I’ll buy it! There’s someone who’s been looking for a stuffed lizardman lately! Sell it to me!”
The first merchant’s eyes sharpened at Choi Junseok’s words.
“Hey! Get lost! Can’t you see you’re in my territory?”
Then he rubbed his hands together like a fly and spoke ingratiatingly.
“Well, well. A big shot has arrived. Welcome, customer.”
─┼
In the end, the profit he made was only 780,000 won. Even that was only because Choi Junseok had negotiated the price back up to market rate after the merchant tried to lowball him. Considering he risked his life for roughly an hour a day and earned a little under 400,000 won, it was not a small amount. Still, it was not money that left him particularly satisfied. He had gathered and sold every part of the lizardmen and orcs at the highest prices, yet items sold on the black market were always one of two extremes: absurdly expensive or absurdly cheap. Since purchasing items from Magic Towers without Player Management Agency oversight was prohibited, simply selling on the black market already meant normal transactions were impossible. That was why sellers rarely received fair prices. Choi Junseok tucked the cash into his inner pocket with satisfaction. He felt it slip into the Inventory Bag.
- Putting dirty money into my bag!
- It’s not dirty. It’s money earned with blood, sweat, and tears.
He decided to sell the magic stones later. There was the tail as well, but more importantly, magic stones were not something one traded lightly. Most other goods could be overlooked even if caught, but being discovered trafficking magic stones illegally was an entirely different matter.
‘I’ll have to be satisfied with this much and head back.’
- The main entrance is dangerous.
Lee Nayeon spoke to him from inside. At the same time, he saw the market guards on the second floor moving busily. They were likely connected to whoever was following him. Choi Junseok, no stranger to the black market, naturally changed direction. He planned to slip out through one of the several exits and use buses and subways.
After exiting through a side door, Choi Junseok waited until he was out of sight before storing his backpack in the Inventory. The cumbersome weight and bulk vanished, and his steps quickened. Lee Nayeon followed swiftly, half-jogging to keep up. The path twisted through a maze of alleys. Though complicated, Choi Junseok navigated without hesitation. Moments later, he emerged into an open area where ordinary citizens walked about. At the same time, a massive black Magic Tower soared into the sky. It was Suseo Magic Tower. While putting distance between himself and the market, Choi Junseok chose a bus so that anyone following him could not act recklessly. Blending in among ordinary people seemed safest in multiple ways. As he headed toward the nearby bus stop, passersby murmured at the sight of Lee Nayeon.
“Is she a celebrity?”
“Who could someone like her be dating?”
Amid the giggling voices, Choi Junseok placed the baseball cap he was wearing onto her head. Lee Nayeon tilted her head and asked,
“Is this a helmet? Its defensive power seems rather low.”
“It’s a hat.”
“I see. A measure for covert movement. Understood.”
She understood it in her own way. The cap did not hide her appearance, but it drew less attention than before…
“Hey, look at that girl over there… She’s stunning.”
“Is she a celebrity?”
Her looks truly had no equal. He quickly boarded the first bus that arrived at the stop.
Beep!
He tapped his card and boarded, but Lee Nayeon, following behind, had no idea about such things. When she stepped onto the bus,
“You need to tap your card!”
Lee Nayeon looked at the driver, wondering if the words were meant for her. The driver also stared at her clearly through the rearview mirror.
“How dare you block the king’s path—”
“Two people.”
Beep!
[Multiple passengers processed.]
Choi Junseok tapped his card and prevented the impending disaster. The passengers inside the bus stared at Lee Nayeon, but she paid them no mind.
- What about the tail?
- I think we lost them inside Garak Market.
Lee Nayeon also seemed to have finished assessing the threat. Once they got off the bus and were out of sight, she quietly disappeared. However, her absence did not last long. She soon sensed danger again and had to reappear. When Lee Nayeon returned, Choi Junseok had just entered the refugee village carrying armfuls of chicken and bossam.
- Be careful.
Choi Junseok nodded at Lee Nayeon’s warning as she appeared behind him. Black vans surrounding his container home came into view.
“Are you Mr. Choi Junseok?”
“I am. And you are?”
“We’re from the Player Management Agency. I’m Team Leader Kang Jinsu. You can call me Jinsu or Team Leader Kang.”
Choi Junseok maintained a blank expression at the greeting.
“Come inside. We’ve been waiting.”
At that moment, Choi Junseok frowned and spoke.
“Who gave you permission to enter our home?”
Choi Junseok spoke while mimicking Lee Nayeon’s imposing presence. The corner of Lee Nayeon’s mouth curled upward slightly behind him. The man in the black suit guiding Choi Junseok faltered, flustered.
“Uh…”
“Get everyone out right now. Only the representative stays. Everyone else, leave. Did you come here to start a fight?”
“…My apologies. We’ll do that.”
The most important thing in the world of players: seizing the initiative. Choi Junseok’s handling of the situation worked immediately. The man hurriedly whispered into the radio clipped to his shirt collar, ordering the agents inside to come out. Then, with a somewhat businesslike smile, he bowed to Choi Junseok.
“Ah. I haven’t had dinner yet. Let’s eat first and talk at a nearby café. That all right?”
“Of course. We’ll wait however long it takes.”
It meant they would wait until he finished dinner. As Choi Junseok passed by,
‘Is that woman… the summon Choi Junseok obtained as the hidden reward on the first floor?’
The Player Management Agency employee activated the universal skill [Detection] on Lee Nayeon. In that instant, warning windows appeared before his eyes.
Attempting to detect a target with a significant level difference may result in death.
Attempting to detect a target with a significant rank difference may result in death.
Attempting to access an item with a significant level difference may result in death.
His mind grew distant. Yet the final warning remained crystal clear in his vision.
‘An item? What item…’
However, he staggered from dizziness and collapsed to the floor.
“Team Leader Kang!”
“Team Leader Kang!”
The voices of his subordinates emerging from Choi Junseok’s home grew distant. Just before losing consciousness, he left his subordinates with what sounded like a final warning.
“Never… never… analyze her…”
Yet the warning was meaningless. One subordinate, using the analysis skill out of occupational habit, also collapsed with a scream.
“Kek!”
Thud!
Choi Junseok, closing the container door, clicked his tongue openly at them.
Tsk.
“Putting on quite the show, aren’t you?”
A moment later, a grim radio transmission reached the heavily armed tactical team waiting nearby.
“Mission canceled! Mission canceled! The target has a summon!”
“Repeat! Hunting operation canceled! He is not an easy target. Switching to Plan D.”
The heavily armed tactical team members positioned around Choi Junseok’s home vanished from the scene in an instant.