The Black Market (1)
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
The Korean Branch of the Awakener Association.
"Now what is it this time, old man President?"
Hong Yeon-hwa, summoned to the Association out of nowhere, spoke with a scrunched-up frown.
The Association President, who had been sorting through documents, took a beat to respond.
"Ah, Team Leader Hong."
"Do you have any idea how busy I've been with Tower climbing lately? If this is about some trivial nonsense..."
"My apologies. Something rather troublesome has come up."
"......"
Wearing a weary expression, he handed the documents over.
Hong Yeon-hwa grumbled under her breath but accepted the file without further protest.
Then she checked the title, and her brow furrowed even deeper.
[ Tracking Status Report: Special Surveillance Targets, District 13 ]
"District 13? That's where the black market is, isn't it?"
"Sharp as ever. Yes, this is a matter concerning the black market."
"Why did this land on the Response Team's desk? Isn't this Field Team work?"
"...Please, just read the documents."
At his words, Hong Yeon-hwa flipped through the file once more.
Sure enough, tucked near the back were the profiles of several Awakeners she hadn't noticed before.
The Association President went on with a grave face.
"Wanted criminals. A-rank Awakeners, no less — and they move as an organized unit."
"...That's a pretty big fish."
"A criminal organization has begun operating in the black market. Surely you understand what that means better than anyone, Team Leader Hong?"
"......"
Of course she did. She couldn't not.
Hong Yeon-hwa's position within the Association was Team Leader of the Special Response Team.
And as far as she knew, there was exactly one reason a Response Team would ever be dispatched to the black market.
"...Drugs."
Illegal narcotics trafficking inside the Tower.
The reason the Association had been forced to wage its war on crime.
The Association President nodded.
"That's right. As you already know, drug crime has been a chronic plague on Floor 0 of the Tower."
"Didn't we round up every last drug offender just recently...?"
"Apparently a newly formed organization. Nothing else would explain why anyone would dare sell drugs so openly while the Association still stands."
"...Absolute lunatics, the lot of them."
The Tower's justice system was relatively lax, but drug trafficking alone was classified as a serious felony.
It was a profession whose members faced the extreme stress of life-or-death combat on a daily basis.
Perhaps because of that, in the Tower's early days, Awakeners touching drugs was a frequent occurrence.
For Awakeners raking in fortunes from Tower climbing, obtaining narcotics was easy.
Worse still, their bodies were far more resistant to the side effects than ordinary civilians', which led to rampant abuse.
Addicts multiplied, and the Tower slid slowly toward lawlessness.
Only after the Association stepped in and clamped down on the drug trade did today's peaceful Tower become possible.
After poring over the wanted criminals' profiles for a long while, Hong Yeon-hwa spoke up, looking thoroughly cornered.
"Yeah, but this one's not for me. You know that, old man. I'm hopeless against one-versus-many."
Hong Yeon-hwa's specialty was short-term firepower output.
In gaming terms, her position was closest to a Nuker.
She excelled at taking down a single target with one devastating strike — but when the enemy outnumbered her, she was nearly useless.
And if the opponent was a criminal organization made up of A-rank Awakeners? The problem only compounded.
"Most of our people are only B-rank... Going up against an A-rank criminal organization without any support is..."
Hong Yeon-hwa rattled off excuses, deliberately glancing sideways for sympathy.
Watching her squirm, the Association President smiled as if he'd expected exactly this, and continued.
"Which is why I've prepared some dependable reinforcements for you."
"What? The Association has spare personnel??"
"I put in a cooperation request to the major guilds."
"Ah, that figures..."
A happy dream, briefly dreamed and gone.
If the Association actually had people to spare, she wouldn't be the one getting ground into overtime in the first place.
Then, chewing over the President's words, Hong Yeon-hwa's face suddenly changed.
"...Wait. The major guilds?"
"That's right. One you know quite well, I'd imagine."
"Oh, don't tell me—"
BANG!
But before she could finish, the meeting room door swung open and a blue-haired woman stormed inside.
A black suit and harness, a jacket draped over her shoulders.
And a figure that couldn't be hidden by any of it, making its presence known with almost violent insistence.
The woman spotted Hong Yeon-hwa's face and openly scowled, her displeasure written all over her.
"...Hello there."
Baek So-hee.
S-rank Awakener, and Guild Leader of the Baekhwa Guild.
Hong Yeon-hwa contorted her face in an identical scowl and muttered under her breath, voice thick with irritation.
"...The IceFucker herself."
"......"
By her other name: IceFucker.
She was one of the famous "crush-tier" regulars of the Awakener Gallery and the Tower Gallery.
— The Great Mage: black market, thoughts?
The Great Mage.
An all too familiar handle.
The jerk who'd called me a 'kid' earlier when he heard my voice.
I'd been itching to hit the downvote button on every single one of his posts...
"The black market...?"
At his comment, I tilted my head and murmured the words back to myself.
First I'd ever heard of the place.
Had there been a location like that in this area?
As far as I knew, there was no such place anywhere inside the Tower.
So I fired off a reply to The Great Mage right away.
Judging by how he answered, he didn't seem to be lying.
District 13 was infamous for having the worst public safety on Floor 0.
Even the Association — which was practically the authority itself — hesitated to set foot there, so the existence of a black market would hardly be strange.
Still.
"Something smells fishy..."
Somehow a suspicious stench wafted right off the whole idea.
No, seriously, think about it.
A place with terrible public safety.
Private transactions happening there?
"That's just... a city of crime, isn't it..."
Somehow I had a feeling that if I went there, I'd find a "Brother Ma" type and a guy with a mullet waiting for me.
A place where losing a kidney or an eyeball or two wouldn't surprise anyone.
But reading through The Great Mage's replies, it apparently wasn't entirely illegal after all.
I kept pressing him with questions.
The fact that magic stones had gotten expensive recently was old news.
The gallery lurkers had just told me there wasn't any supply to be found, after all.
But what did that have to do with the black market?
Could I sell them for even more there?
Answering my unspoken question, The Great Mage continued his explanation.
"Whoa..."
Well, that was news to me. So the Association buys magic stones too.
But one million won for a high-grade magic stone... isn't that an outright rip-off...?
Even mid-grade stones have hit a million won at their priciest.
"A true master of the lowball..."
No wonder I can't bring myself to like the Association.
I'd have to call Carbon over later and demand answers.
The Great Mage carried on.
Being able to get rid of the byproducts was welcome news.
Right now the monsters had been screwing me over on drops, so I had nothing sellable — but as I climbed higher, byproducts would inevitably pile up.
Paving that pipeline in advance meant that, even setting the magic stones aside, I had plenty of reason to visit the black market.
With that thought, I started crunching the numbers in my head.
And right then, a familiar gallery regular showed up in the replies.
ChildEnthusiast.
The weirdo who spamming 'rawr' and 'nngh'-type comments on every post I made.
The tone of his grated on my nerves in a way I couldn't quite name, so I fired back a rebuttal immediately.
But he completely ignored my reply and stubbornly pressed on with his own script.
And at his outburst, The Great Mage brushed it off like it was nothing.
The Great Mage's follow-up threw ChildEnthusiast into a flustered panic.
And so, in the span of a single thread, I'd been reclassified from 'kid' to 'absolute monster.' I could only stare at my screen, dumbfounded.
The Great Mage kept going.
"What do you people take me for, seriously."
Ground up and drunk? Alive?
I'm not a cannibal, you know.
What on earth is my image on The Great Mage's end of the screen supposed to be?
"...Anyway."
Having left The Great Mage to his own devices, I closed the gallery window and murmured quietly to myself.
"The black market, huh..."
The name sounded dangerous, sure — but come to think of it, it didn't seem like much of a problem.
Just like The Great Mage said, compared to Lunatic difficulty, everyone there was small fry.
There'd been a bit of a commotion, but this settled where I'd be selling the magic stones.
And on top of that, I'd learned a way to sell the byproducts the Tower spat out.
My living expenses, meanwhile, were running dangerously on fumes.
With money finally within reach, there was no reason to hesitate.
"Guess I'll head over right now, then?"
And so the moment my next destination was decided.