Ten Thousand Chips

September 11. The second day of the Hunter Auction.

"Pixie Powder..."

Eunha was reading straight through the pamphlet she had taken from Ayeon the day before. It looked thin enough at a glance, but the print was packed so tightly that unless she opened her eyes wide and searched with care, the thing she wanted refused to show itself.

Here it is.

Only when the pamphlet was nearly worried to rags did she finally find the entry on Pixie Powder.

So it was consigned the year before last.

The winning bid had been 157,000 coins. Ayeon, it seemed, had told the truth. Fortunately, it was scheduled to appear at Booth K again this year—2:30 in the afternoon on the thirteenth. The consignor was undisclosed. The quantity was exactly one.

Her eyes, tracking the dense lines, stopped in one place.

Ten thousand?

The most a white badge could exchange was a mere 1,500 chips. Yesterday she had brought in about four thousand. Even if she sold as much again before the day was out, she would still fall a little short.

This won't be easy.

Eunha set her chin on her hand with a deliberately grave look. Beside her, a yellow message window shoved itself into the air.

The cat had been in that state ever since it learned that an auction required chips. It plainly could not stand the fact that half its grand contribution had come to nothing.

What can you do.

If the bidding had run on coins alone, the matter would have been simple. Eunha was holding roughly four hundred thousand of them. And if even that had fallen short, her cat would have backed her with everything it had.

The organizers have to make their money too.

Chips were one of their sources of income. There was nothing incomprehensible about it.

Eunha gazed for a while at the window floating before her eyes, then let the words fall as if they had simply slipped out.

"If you're that upset, hand over something I can actually sell."

The yellow window flashed. Eureka!

Keeper. And who, exactly, was it calling its keeper? Eunha let out a soft snort at the loading window. A moment later—

Ding, ding, ding. System windows popped up one after another. These items were, without question—

From the Unknown Gate.

Yes. They were the very things the cat had pressed on her back then, when she had kept herself alive by tearing into monsters' raw meat.

"And what am I supposed to do with these?"

"Back then I was stuck inside a gate. It's different now."

Eunha's answer was firm. Seasonings and spices of this sort could be had at any corner shop.

"If it were Shin Siwoo, I feel like he'd have brought something decent for a moment like this."

She had murmured it half as a joke, because the cat's reaction was amusing. Her contract with Siwoo had already been broken, and even if it had not, she would never have borrowed his hand for a thing like this.

There were, however, two things she had failed to consider.

First: she had no talent for jokes whatsoever.

Second: the cat despised Shin Siwoo far beyond anything she had imagined.

The cat vanished again in a hurry.

"..."

So, it seemed, there was nothing useful among the items the cat owned. Eunha studied the Saury Deep with the Scent of the Sea newly added to her inventory and came to that conclusion.

The thought, at least, she was grateful for. She closed the inventory window and offered the cat her thanks.

She had gained nothing of note from the cat, but the business of earning chips went on without trouble.

"Any black tiger hide left?"

"Twenty fangs to one chip, right?"

"Ten chips. I'll trade them for a bundle of one hundred and fifty hides."

"Buy a hundred chips' worth and you'll throw in a little extra? Ha ha."

"That would be difficult."

At this pace she could clear at least three thousand chips without breaking a sweat. She was only a little tired. A glance at the time showed it was already three in the afternoon. She had skipped lunch and sunk so deep into the work that she had never noticed the hours go.

She had just tidied the stall and was about to sit down for a rest when a voice came.

"Excuse me. I heard it was one chip for fifteen black tiger hides."

A young hunter peeked in. Green hair. Green eyes to match. Faint freckles, a large nose, deep-set lids. A foreigner.

Among all the customers she had dealt with yesterday, had there really not been a single foreigner? By now she also knew that the badge carried an automatic translation function.

Unflustered, Eunha received her last customer before the break.

"Take your time."

"You've got quite a lot besides the hides. Oh, this is..."

The man's gaze stopped dead.

Coagulated Monster Blood. She had only just set it out to fill the gap left by the hides ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that had sold so well. It was also one of the few rare-grade items on her stall.

"How many chips would you trade this for?"

The hunter was interested, and Eunha hesitated before she answered.

In truth, this was her first time not only at an auction, but at trading items at all. A woman who did not even properly know the base fare of a modern taxi could hardly be expected to have item prices at her fingertips.

While she seemed lost in thought, the man smiled.

"How would a hundred suit you?"

A hundred.

Rare grade or not, it was still only monster blood. Wouldn't a hundred be fair enough? Set beside the hides and fangs she had mostly been selling, it was an enormous price.

When Eunha did not answer at once, the man spoke again.

"If you'll trade with me right this moment, I am prepared to pay as many as one hundred and fifty."

One hundred and fifty chips. A sum she could earn only by selling more than twenty-two hundred hides.

He had raised the price so easily, though, that she began to think this Coagulated Monster Blood might be worth considerably more than it looked.

Even so, if anyone had asked whether the item was of any use to her, the answer would still have been no.

"All right."

Finished thinking, Eunha nodded and held out her badge. Selling it off now and turning it into chips was, for her, the better bargain.

Badge met badge, the trade was approved, and the chips crossed from his side to hers. That was the system. The man was just about to offer his own badge.

"Stooop."

Someone cut in without warning.

"Not a chance, mister. You got no conscience?"

A pink baseball cap. Ayeon, sprung from somewhere.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Clicking her tongue, Ayeon scurried over to Eunha and whispered.

"Unni, this bastard's a con man."

"...What?"

"A-rank hunter out of Scotland. Verde."

Last year, too, he had picked out only the hunters who were clumsy at business and fleeced them. This year he had sniffed one out again, ghost-quick, and come slinking in.

Ugh, I knew this would happen. Ayeon heaved a great sigh and glared at the foreign hunter.

"Trying to eat for free, you sleaze. Hold on. Leave this to me."

Ayeon prided herself on being honest, at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠least where business was concerned. She did not, like this one, snatch even the scrap of rice cake off someone's nose.

She strode right up to him and flung both hands open with a smack.

"One thousand."

"...What?"

"One thousand, mister."

Ayeon grinned.

"Don't like it, then leave."

Beep.

Eunha confirmed the number on the screen and drew her badge back. In the end, she had succeeded in earning ten thousand chips in two days.

Because she was an F-rank hunter, the most she could exchange for cash was only fifteen hundred, and none of the items occupying her inventory had been worth much. She had worried a great deal, and yet...

Badge in hand, she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠glanced quickly around.

I never even got to thank her.

After a full-blown war of words with the foreign hunter, Ayeon had wrung a thousand chips out of him.

But once the exchange through the badges was done and Eunha turned to offer her thanks, Ayeon was already gone.

I wanted to give this back, too.

She gazed down at the pamphlet in her hand. She had confirmed everything she needed. She had no further use for it.

It was a little ragged now, but if it was not too late, she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted to return it to Ayeon before the thing lost its value.

Should I look for her?

She might still be nearby. Before heading back to the guesthouse where she was staying, Eunha decided to make one circuit of the auction hall.

"What? You didn't land a single score?"

"I couldn't help it. Do you have any idea how loud that kid was? If I'd kept arguing, every eye in the place would've been on us."

Eunha stopped.

She looked back.

Verde, the A-rank hunter from Scotland. The green-haired man from earlier was talking with other hunters who appeared to be his colleagues.

They seemed to be speaking of Ayeon. Eunha slipped her body behind a street tree—an unintended, reflexive motion.

"Then what about the Hannya Mask? The advanced-grade item that Japanese D-rank put up for a hundred and fifty chips."

"Lost that too. To the same kid."

"What? Then what is she? Is that kid a taster too?"

Taster.

In the slang that passed between hunters, it meant those who attended Hunter Auctions around the world, skipped the bidding on the final day, and only window-shopped the flea market.

Their aim was never the expensive items consigned to the auction proper.

Auction novices. Hunters blind to what an item was worth. They were the sort who picked through the rare goods those innocents put up cheaper than the market price, and swept them all away.

Verde and his colleagues were tasters themselves.

"Anything else, fine, but how could you lose the Hannya Mask on top of it? It was one of the reasons we came to the auction. I won't have a word to say to the master."

"Then what was I supposed to do? She followed me all the way and blocked every single trade I tried to make. She called three thousand chips in one breath. I had to let it go."

"Th-three thousand?! Not even in the auction—she put up that many chips at once in the flea market?"

"Yes."

Verde's eyes changed. He shut his mouth as if thinking, checked the surroundings, and then murmured.

"She isn't a taster. That kid."

"..."

His colleagues closed their mouths with the same look on their faces. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing.

Verde spoke again.

"Still, don't worry. I brought the rest of the goods. They should be right here..."

He tapped lightly at the empty air. He looked as though he were checking his inventory.

"Right here... they ought... to be..."

Ought to be? Verde froze where he stood, rigid as stone.

They were gone. The advanced- and rare-grade items he had stacked so neatly in his inventory.

"...There's not a single one."

"What? Look properly. Did you hit the sort button?"

"Sort, my ass. The inventory's empty. Even the things that were already in there. Every last one."

"You didn't sell them all off behind our backs, did you?"

"As if I would. Damn it. How in the world did this..."

In that instant, a memory struck through his mind like lightning.

A tap on the shoulder, and a smile.

A pink baseball cap.

"Damn it—don't tell me it was that brat!"

Verde's head whipped around.

Could someone steal items straight out of an inventory? He didn't know. But he could think of no one except that impudent girl.

Pat-pat! Verde broke into a run toward somewhere in a hurry. His colleagues wore puzzled faces, yet they began, slowly, to move in the same direction.

"..."

Eunha, hidden behind the street tree, slowly showed herself.

Click.

The sound of black shoes followed after them.