Chapter 210
I interpreted it as a playful remark pointing out that the bid was won for 2.01 billion points. After rendering it as “Some hunch,” I decided to finalize the translation._TITLE: The Black Market
The Black Market was packed, and roaring with it.
It had always been this way. Nowhere else drew so cruel a line between those who had nothing and those who had everything. The riffraff who drifted in merely to gawk at the goods played their part, but the greater share belonged to the Continent's most notorious fortunes, all of them gathered to watch.
Been a while.
Yujun had no intention of sinking much time into the place. The auction was due to begin before long, so this was only a brief stop along the way.
The moment the mask settled over his face, he was the Wandering Knight.
"Huh? You're a VVIP too?"
"Yeah."
Manuela was holding the same gold token he was. He looked her over again.
"You've got the years, so you must have been to the Black Market dozens of times... no, wait. You've lived well past a thousand years, so it would be hundreds—"
"Seriously, stop."
"Okay."
He had unsummoned Paranet, and he had been very clear that the Death Knight was not to show himself on a whim. If that one popped out here of his own accord, the awkwardness would be anything but ordinary. The instant Yujun threatened to confiscate Horidan's ring if he didn't listen, Paranet had turned meek beyond belief. It was the moment Yujun understood, with perfect clarity, that the ring was the creature's weak point.
He and Manuela went looking for Yoric, the broker with the handlebar mustache.
"It's been some time."
"Not so very long, if I may say..."
Yoric's eyes went wide.
"Oh my... what is this? Sir Wandering Knight and Lady Young Witch, arriving together? An unlikely pairing at a glance, and yet you suit each other perfectly."
"Young Witch?"
"Yes. The lady beside you is Lady Young Witch."
Yujun narrowed his eyes at Manuela.
"Young Witch? Young?"
"Th-that was a name I made up when I was little..."
"The Black Market can't be that old."
Color rushed into Manuela's face, and she ducked her head.
"Fine! I wanted to look young! So what! You got a problem with that?"
"I was only raising a question. Hardly worth getting that angry over, is it?"
"..."
"Er... the two of you? Might I ask whether you mean to register items for sale, or to buy?"
At Yoric's question, Yujun fell briefly into thought. The points he held came to more than 13 billion. Would buying consumables really call for still more? Honestly, more money was always better, but...
Just in case.
He might someday regret being unable to buy an item for lack of points. He would never regret having points left over.
"List some items for sale as well."
"And Lady Young Witch?"
"I'm sitting this one out."
"Yes. Understood. But that white thing up there... might I ask?"
Yoric's gaze had drifted to the vicinity of Yujun's shoulder.
"Hm? Ah. Right..."
He had hidden the mask and his items, and nothing else. Harp was still fast asleep on his shoulder, exactly as before. The whole plan to conceal his identity had just collapsed.
Of all the mistakes to make.
Anyone who knew he went around with Harp perched on his shoulder would know. With the divine beast sitting there in plain view, it was far from unlikely that a fair number of the bidders would put together who he was.
And a divine beast isn't about to go into the inventory, either...
Harp had taken a Divine Beast Growth Pill. There was nowhere he could leave the creature, and nothing else for it. Whether people worked out his identity or not, he would simply have to carry Harp along. In truth, it hardly mattered anymore if other players found him out. He had climbed high enough for that. It would leave a sour taste, and no more than that.
"What sort of item do you intend to register?"
"A Mythic item."
"...Mythic?"
"Yes."
"Truly?"
"See that it's handled quickly."
The last time, Yujun had listed an item that sat at the very peak of Legendary, and the hammer had fallen at 12.2 billion points. Now he was talking about selling a grade above even that. Yoric could hardly have helped his shock.
"Has a Mythic-grade listing ever come up?"
"There was one, not long after your last visit, Sir Wandering Knight. The whole place went mad."
"What did it sell for?"
"Sixteen billion points, I believe."
"Not bad."
There was surely a reason the price had not strayed far from what Yujun's own item had brought. Odds were that Mythic piece simply had not been much of one.
Maybe I'll put up something in the upper-middle range.
He didn't need the money right now, but he was curious all the same. What would a proper Mythic item actually close at?
Letting a single Mythic out shouldn't hurt.
One had already passed through the Black Market, and Yujun knew the grades did not end at Mythic.
Transcendent.
For a man the word Mythic no longer tempted, there was little meaning left in hoarding Mythic items.
Equip Requirement: Lv. 450 or above
Grade: Mythic
Defense: 6,000
Options: Magic increases by 47%. Spell power increases by 178%. Casting speed increases slightly.
This should be about right.
By his own measure, the options were neither lacking nor exceptional. Other players might have seen the bracelet very differently, but it was not a piece he would miss much once it left his inventory.
"This one."
"...Understood."
Yoric did everything he could to keep the astonishment off his face. Something of finer quality than the last Mythic listing had just appeared in front of him.
"I'd like the order as close to first as possible. Can you manage that?"
"But of course. We shall proceed exactly as you wish, Sir Wandering Knight."
The auction began.
The item Yujun had put up closed at a staggering sum — fully 20.1 billion points, a new record for the house. Chaos followed, of course. The noise blew straight past lively chatter and hung over the hall for a long while. Once the commission was stripped from that 20.1 billion, the remainder was paid out on the spot.
"That white thing on that man's shoulder... haven't we seen it in a video?"
"What is that? First time I've seen it."
"No. I have."
"Where?"
"It's what Shin Yujun's been going around with lately."
"Since when have you cared so much about other people..."
"Oh, come on. Shin Yujun's different. Is there a player these days who doesn't know Shin Yujun?"
"So you're saying the Wandering Knight is Shin Yujun?"
"The odds are pretty high."
"Oh, please."
"No, I'm serious."
"It's just some guy trying to copy Shin Yujun."
"Think about it. The Wandering Knight has a name of his own. You really think he'd pull something like that?"
"If you were Shin Yujun, would you go out of your way to advertise who you are? By your logic, he's deliberately putting it on display on his shoulder so people know it's him. And you don't even know what that white thing is."
"...I'm telling you, I've got a hunch."
"Some hunch."
Whether it was Harp dozing on Yujun's shoulder or not, wild guesses ran rampant through the auction hall. Even so, the sale itself marched on in neat, orderly succession.
"Wow. Somebody's rich."
Manuela said it like a tease.
"Now, now. Lady Young Rich really shouldn't talk like that."
"...It's Young Witch, not Young Rich."
"Same difference. And if you sold even one of the things I gave you, you'd make more than this."
"...That's true."
The Mythic item that had closed at 20.1 billion was inferior even to the gifts Yujun had given Manuela. And still it had fetched that price. It was a stark measure of how rarely gear of real quality ever reached ordinary players.
"Consumables are what you're after, right?"
At Manuela's words, Yujun sucked in a breath.
"How did you know?"
"You already own every piece of equipment in the world."
"Ooh. Sharp. But it's not quite that far."
He glanced around, looking for Do Jiyun, but she didn't seem to be in the hall. She was the one who had given him a rough account of what this auction would offer, and now that he was here, she was nowhere in sight.
Did she stay away because she knew I'd buy it all?
It was a reasonable thought. Had their positions been reversed, he would have done the same.
Yujun's expression set. Lot after lot came up, and every one of them was equipment that didn't interest him in the slightest.
"Yujun. The consumables aren't coming out."
"I know."
"You're not going to flip the whole auction house if they don't, right?"
"What do you take me for. I won't."
"You promise?"
"..."
Manuela's worry proved unnecessary. The very next lot was a consumable.
"A growth stimulant?"
"It's for summons."
"How many people even have a summon..."
"I'm passing."
Unlike most of the players, Yujun's eyes flashed.
This would be good for Paranet.
The auction came to an end.
To his regret, nothing on the order of a true elixir had appeared. Only consumables that might prove useful later. Yujun bought every last one of them without a word of complaint. Unlike equipment, consumables were never a waste to stock in quantity.
So things like Goddess's Tears almost never turn up.
Getting his hands on Behemoth's Blood the last time had been little short of a miracle, and it was thanks to that same Behemoth's Blood that he had come to know Do Jiyun.
He and Manuela were just about to leave the hall, a faint disappointment still with them, when the Rabbit Queen came toward him. Do Jiyun.
"So you were here."
"I waited for the auction to end."
"Did you have business with me?"
"Yes."
"Why not the messenger..."
"It's important. I wanted to tell you in person."
"How very old-fashioned."
"...Pardon?"
"A joke."
"And the person beside you..."
"Manuela. You know her?"
"Ah! The witch who traveled the Demon Realm with you, right?"
"Yes."
"It's been a while."
"Yeah."
Do Jiyun stepped closer.
"Sir Wandering Knight. I'd like to talk somewhere quiet..."
"A message would do."
Manuela said it with a sullen face.
Do Jiyun let out a soft little laugh.
"Then it wouldn't have any style."
"..."
"I'm coming too."
"I was counting on that."
"Then we're good."
While the two of them carried on the whole performance between them, Yujun tilted his head.
"And my opinion?"
"You're not coming?"
"I'm curious, so yes, I'm coming."
"Then follow me."
Do Jiyun set off at a jog. Eyes throughout the crowd locked onto Yujun's party. The Rabbit Queen was a considerable name in her own right, and the Wandering Knight and Young Rich needed no introduction.
Ah. Was it Young Witch?
Either way, the moment the three of them walked, attention was bound to follow. He didn't know what Do Jiyun's grave matter was, but airing it here promised nothing good.
Without so much as a farewell to Yoric, they left the auction hall and made straight for the residential quarter. Only after they were inside the lodgings, a barrier raised around the room, could they finally breathe.
"So what is it? What did you want to say?"
"Do you know the Sky Prison?"
"...I feel as if I've heard of it."
"It's a prison, just as the name says, but you can't reach it by any ordinary means."
"And why tell me? Does it have something to do with me?"
Do Jiyun nodded.
"Here. It's a place crammed with Demon God Worshippers. They're committing horrific things there, too."
"...Demon God Worshippers?"
"Yes."
"You mean their base."
"No. There are many of them, that's all. The Sky Prison can't belong to anyone."
"What does that..."
"Hard to follow, isn't it? You'll understand once you see it yourself."
"You're saying we go to the Sky Prison together, right now?"
"Yes."
"If this is only about the Demon God Worshippers, it doesn't have to be this very moment, does it?"
"There are players there you'd be glad to see. In the Sky Prison."
Yujun tilted his head. He didn't know all that many players. He hadn't been on the Continent long enough to have anyone he would actually be glad to see.
"Who?"
"Hongdae Fashion People Joseph and Joseon's Best Sword."