Chapter 19
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: It Wasn't Something I Wanted to Do (2)
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"...You don't know the password, but you want to get into the black market?"
"That's right. I forgot the password changes every day? But I've got business inside."
What kind of bastard is this?
Black market guard Kim Hyun-dong was struggling over how to deal with this lunatic who'd popped up out of nowhere.
'He seems to have some skill, too...'
If he were just some random nobody, it'd be easy—just scare him off and send him running. But knowing the black market's concealment dispel method meant he wasn't that weak.
Truth be told, there was an even bigger problem than that: the cocky card the guy was shoving in his face while talking big.
"No, I'm really not here for a crackdown. See, I've got a Mountain Lords card. You're not gonna tell me a gatekeeper doesn't know what this is, right?"
"Mountain Lords' successor..."
"Yeah, so just open up already? There's such a thing as VIP treatment. Make an exception for me."
Impersonating any major corporation was crazy, but especially the Mountain Lords.
If Rags-to-Riches or the Empire might know the word "forgiveness," for the Mountain Lords, forgiveness was just a freebie tacked on after proper punishment had been dealt.
'What if this guy really is the Mountain Lords' New Star...'
There'd been no official announcement, but no lunatic in the world would impersonate a Mountain Lords successor.
With that thought, a solution dawned on Kim Hyun-dong, and he spoke up.
"Understood. I'll escort you in."
"Now that's more like it. Wouldn't have been so hard if you'd done that from the start?"
Kim Hyun-dong opened the black market entrance. Kim Geon-ho patted his shoulder happily, glad things had wrapped up smoothly.
As Kim Geon-ho entered the black market, Kim Hyun-dong quickly contacted his superiors—the Mayribel family.
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'A clan really is a bunch of thugs, huh.'
And not just any clan, but the Mountain Lords—a mega-corporation with massive influence worldwide. That made it even more so.
In terms of raw power, they ranked in the top ten globally, and in certain fields, they were number one.
It was like not knowing the military password but getting through night watch just by flashing your rank.
What can you do if my rank's higher than yours? Open the gate—that's all you're good for.
Once he spelled it out indirectly like that, the gatekeeper had no choice but to comply. At worst, he'd report it up the chain.
But since his "superiors" were the Mayribel family anyway, it didn't matter much if a report went in.
He'd chosen the Mayribel-operated black market precisely because he'd anticipated this scenario.
'It's been a while since I've been here.'
At first glance, the black market felt just like a street night market. Some folks pulled up in trucks like food vendors to sell their wares, while others spread goods out on the ground like roadside hawkers. And it was huge—reports said it was the size of a decent-sized city.
A place where people lived and dark dealings happened. In a way, no different from the regular world.
The differences? Items you could never get through normal channels, murderously high prices, and vague descriptions.
'Buyer beware.'
If you couldn't judge an item's value, that was on you—the seller who'd tricked you was innocent.
That was the black market's cardinal rule. Naturally, they didn't protect buyers or sellers separately. The market only intervened in massive incidents, otherwise staying hands-off by principle.
This led to plenty of unspoken rules, all well-observed to protect everyone's interests.
'Back in my day, I just ran errands here.'
In his first run, he'd only entered the black market for errands—delivering, picking up, or fetching items.
This was his first time coming to actually buy something, so it felt fresh.
'What I'm after is already decided.'
Using his privilege to check intel, he knew it was circulating through the market right now.
The item nobody recognized the value of, which coincidentally ended up in Kim Seok-ho's hands.
He'd half-given up, thinking it'd take ages to acquire, but getting the card changed everything.
"But why... did it keep circulating like that?"
Items rarely went round and round in black markets. To circulate, someone had to buy it, resell it, buy it again, and repeat.
He couldn't think of what could've caused that here.
He'd figure it out soon enough by flipping through his privilege—the "encyclopedia," as he'd decided to call it—on the way to buy it.
Right as he walked along without a care, a massive explosion echoed from deeper in the market.
Boom!!!
"It's a monster! Monster!"
"Dungeon collapse spawn!"
The screams from inside spread like wildfire to where he was, and the moment he heard them, he instantly recalled what was happening.
'Right... now that I think about it.'
That item wasn't for sale—it dropped from killing a monster, sparking a turf war over ownership that drew in the Mayribel family.
And today was the day that monster appeared in the black market.
Why do monsters and dungeons appear? Countless scholars and researchers had tackled it, but the answer was always one.
'Unknown.'
Proving it would require explaining how humans suddenly gained unique powers—like solving whether the chicken or egg came first.
But on the "how" rather than "why," some scholars' hypotheses held the most sway.
The hypothesis? Dungeons as sudden natural disasters born from clumped negative emotions—like emotional trash bins. Monsters emerging from them as a mix of that negativity and humanity's imagined horrors.
Additional notes on dungeon collapses: monsters escaping via collapse differed from regular ones.
Early-game dungeon monsters were weak and easy to suppress, but if you failed to clear in time and collapse happened...
They absorbed all the dungeon's negative emotions and power, gaining ego and immense strength upon emergence.
"U... uwaaa..."
And the monster now appearing in the black market was exactly that—a collapse spawn.
Screams filled the air instantly, people dropping dead pathetically easy. The weak fainted just from sight, the hale got caught fleeing and shredded to bits.
Fed on all the black market's negative vibes, it was a walking murder tank.
'This can't be happening...'
Watching from afar, Kim Hyun-dong frantically tried contacting the outside. Lucky the incident hit during shift change, or he'd have died nearby.
Beep beep beep—
Desperate for even a second faster, but shaking hands delayed him.
Thwack!
"No can do. Can't let you report this."
"Guh!"
In that moment, Kim Hyun-dong was ambushed just before connecting and collapsed unconscious.
"Troubles in the black market stay in the black market... That way, there won't be any blemishes when I inherit the family, right?"
Human lives sometimes valued lower than a fly's for someone's gain. And for that someone—no, Baren Mayribel—this was that moment.
"Doesn't make sense for that useless sister bitch to inherit just 'cause she was born first—a woman, no less."
Eldest son inheriting looks better, inside and out.
Muttering to himself, Baren slipped away, too focused on family succession to notice the glowing item on Kim Hyun-dong's shoulder.
And Kim Geon-ho, who'd planted it there, was now...
"Fuck! Get outta the way! Everybody clear out!"
Racing straight for the monster like his feet were on fire.
No one! Absolutely no one! Can claim that thing!
Not out of heroic justice to avert the ugly future he knew lay ahead.
I'm definitely scoring that drop!
His grand plan: snag it for free, buy another with the card for a buy-one-get-one.
That was his sole thought.