The Black Market (4)
"...Kim A-yeon?"
An unexpected face, in an unexpected place.
I stared at the woman before me, and the familiar handle slipped out of my mouth on pure reflex.
"BurntCowIsCarbon?"
"......"
At my slip of the tongue, Hong Yeon-hwa's face immediately crumpled.
Seeing that reaction, I belatedly realized my mistake and scrambled to walk back my words.
"Ah, right—Hong Yeon-hwa out here, I mean."
"...You absolute lunatic of a forum rat."
Hong Yeon-hwa let out a hopeless sigh and clutched her head.
Then she glanced back and forth between the pawnshop's interior and my face, and interrogated me.
"What are you doing here?"
"That's my line. Why are you popping out of a place like this?"
"I'm here on official business. What are you thinking, hanging around places like this at your age?"
"......"
At the age comment, I made a briefly constipated expression before carrying on with cool composure.
"Anyway. The one next to you is..."
The cold-eyed woman who'd been standing beside Hong Yeon-hwa this whole time.
Striking blue hair—the one who'd frozen those thugs with ice magic earlier.
I studied her face closely for a moment, and before long, her identity clicked into place.
"Baek So-hee...?"
The Baek So-hee?
Seriously? The Ice Emperor's daughter?
The guild leader of the Baekhwa Guild?
The Baekhwa Guild was one of the main culprits behind the rumor threads currently setting the forums on fire.
Word was they'd run human experiments on the unawakened, coordinates were dropped, and now the guild was getting torn to shreds in the threads. Yeah, that guild.
Baek So-hee looked me up and down for a moment, then asked Hong Yeon-hwa.
"...Who is this?"
"Ah. Just an acquaintance."
"From that forum again, I take it..."
Baek So-hee muttered flatly, no visible reaction to Hong Yeon-hwa's answer.
At her deadpan, Hong Yeon-hwa shot back, exasperated.
"You're one to talk—you're the same kind of forum rat. You IceFucker, you."
"...I believe I've asked you not to use that name in public?"
The familiar nickname drifted past my ears.
Hong Yeon-hwa paid Baek So-hee's reproach no mind and kept going.
"Well, what else would I call an IceFucker but an IceFucker? It's not like 'IceFucker' has alternatives."
"......"
"IceFucker. You."
Under the barrage of Hong Yeon-hwa's public execution-by-nickname, Baek So-hee's shoulders gave the faintest tremble.
Her face looked perfectly composed, but on closer inspection, her ears had turned bright red.
So I addressed the IceFucker before me with the utmost caution.
"You're really IceFucker...?"
"......"
"I mean... how does a person even—"
"Shut up."
IceFucker—no, Baek So-hee—said it with dead, lifeless eyes.
Killing intent, felt on pure instinct.
Keep pushing and I'd be a dead girl, so I shut my mouth immediately.
"......"
IceFucker.
A handle I'd seen floating around the Awakener gallery from time to time.
Never would've guessed it was the guild leader of the Baekhwa Guild herself, Baek So-hee...
'But setting that aside.'
How does one even... with ice?
And not even a man—why would she...
...Well, fair enough, I guess.
I respect everyone's tastes.
You're not supposed to understand forum rats' derangement with your head.
You have to accept it with your heart and soul.
Unable to bear the shame any longer, Baek So-hee hastily changed the subject and started explaining.
"Recent drug transactions have been detected in the black market. To trace them, the Association and the Baekhwa Guild have partnered and dispatched personnel."
"Aha."
"What's more, this isn't simple crime—it's organized. The drug trade was being run under the direction of a group made up of A-rank Awakeners."
"Ooh..."
"Under normal circumstances we'd have deployed far more people, but given the sensitivity of the situation and the need to finish the trace as quickly as possible, a small elite force—myself and Special Response Team Leader Hong Yeon-hwa—was inserted into the black market to—"
"Mm-hm."
Understood completely.
So the criminals committed 'crime'—right?
And so Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek So-hee got dispatched as the cops.
Made sense. Drug offenses were one of the crimes the Association pathologically hated.
It also roughly explained why such high-and-mighty figures had been sent to a place like this.
"...And in the middle of all that, members of the 'Heuksan Gang' we failed to apprehend fled to this area, so—"
"......?"
Then it hit me.
A familiar word brushed past my ears.
Heuksan Gang...?
Where had I heard that before?
The tattooed pig thugs in the alley, just now...
'Our underlings went and grabbed it from the Heuksan Gang on their own—'
'Got it, got it.'
'You understand? It wasn't us, it was the Heuksan Gang guys who...'
'Y-yeah, I got it.'
"...Ah."
Right. That was the name I'd heard back then.
The organization the thug's underlings had sourced their drugs from.
The moment I recalled it, I pulled a bag of powder out of my Inventory and held it out to Hong Yeon-hwa.
"You mean this?"
"This? What do you mean, this—"
The moment she spotted the bag in my hand, her face froze solid.
Gotcha!
Then, gripping my shoulder hard, Hong Yeon-hwa demanded in a dead serious voice:
"Where did you get this."
"Huh? Where did I get it, well..."
"This isn't a joke, so answer me straight!! You want to become a wanted criminal with the Association??"
"Th-that's..."
Under her overbearing tone, my voice shrank without my permission.
It wasn't that I was scared or anything—but the shock of it made my hands tremble for no good reason.
Seeing me like that, Hong Yeon-hwa's expression faltered a beat late, and she apologized.
"...Sorry. I didn't mean to come at you like that."
For some reason, her attitude was dripping with guilt.
No idea why she was like that, but I paid it no mind and pressed on.
"No, it's nothing major. I just beat up some thugs in the alley and took it off them."
"...Thugs?"
"Yeah. Tattooed pig guys, and some uncles in sportswear."
At my explanation, Hong Yeon-hwa let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew... and here I thought."
"What, you thought I might've bought it off an actual dealer?"
"Not that. Just... you never know."
"Tch..."
Weirdo.
I am a thoroughly law-abiding citizen, thank you very much.
Never mind that I did nibble on—okay, gorged on—things like 'a drug acting on the central nervous system to induce powerful sedation and extreme dependency' back in the elf village...
And fine, I did secretly pocket that powder earlier for my trait-farming...
...Somehow, hearing it said out loud like that suddenly makes me feel like a criminal.
Strange. I'm supposed to be a rigorous, rule-loving, law-abiding citizen.
While I was inwardly contemplating the state of my law-abiding spirit, Baek So-hee spoke up to Hong Yeon-hwa.
"Now that you mention it, we did pass some fallen Awakeners in the alleys on the way here."
"...There were?"
"Yes. They were all seriously injured and unlikely to move for a while, so we left them... I never imagined they were connected to this."
Apparently they'd run into the thugs I'd flattened on my way here.
Serious injuries, though. That's rich.
All I did was swing a 'rod of love' around a little for the sake of instilling manners.
"Still, better safe than sorry—let's move. You know how these guys are. Running away is the one thing they've truly mastered."
"Agreed. Let's hurry."
Baek So-hee scooped up the frozen thug statue one-handed and headed out of the pawnshop.
Hong Yeon-hwa moved to follow her straight out—then suddenly turned back and came toward me.
"Oh, right."
Snatch!
In an instant, the bag was plucked right out of my hand.
Robbed of the drug bag in a blink, I asked, flustered.
"Wh-what was that for?!"
"Confiscated."
"......?"
Confiscation? Here?
And this shamelessly?
"What kind of law even is that...!!"
"Were you planning to take it home, then?"
"N-no... obviously not that, but..."
Cornered by Hong Yeon-hwa's dead-on question, I stammered and shook my head rapidly.
These dirty, lowdown public-authority bastards.
Fine. Just this once, I'll let it slide—jail doesn't sound fun.
Hong Yeon-hwa gave me the faintest smile and said,
"Anyway, thanks. That's one more lead to dig up."
"Reward money!! Isn't there like, reward money for this??"
"Afraid it's classified. But I'll consider it positively."
Which was corporate-speak for no.
When I puffed my cheeks up like a pufferfish in protest, Hong Yeon-hwa patted my head lightly with her palm.
"You shouldn't be hanging around places like this either. Go home soon. This is no place for little kids like you."
"......"
"Anyway, I'm off."
And with those parting words, Hong Yeon-hwa disappeared out the pawnshop door.
I stared at the entrance she'd vanished through for a long while, only belatedly remembering that my drug bag had been stolen, and let out a mournful wail.
"Hiiing..."
If I'd known this would happen, I never should've brought it up at all.
Law-abiding spirit, my ass. I should've just kept my mouth shut and smuggled it out quietly.
"...Well, I've still got two."
The one small mercy: I hadn't pulled out the other bags, so two remained in my possession.
Clutching to that thought for comfort, I took the remaining bags out of my Inventory and looked at them.
◈ Powdered synthetic hallucinogen of inferior manufacture
◈ Origin: Heuksan Gang distribution ring
"......"
"...What am I even doing."
"HWAHK?! Wh-who's there??"
Just as I'd been staring at the drug bags for ages, someone's voice suddenly came from behind me.
I whirled around in shock to find the old man back behind the counter, carefully stuffing money into a bag.
"Grandpa...? I thought you left...?"
"Left? Left to where? This is my shop, girl."
"Then just now—?"
"I was hiding for a bit. That much is basic survival in this neighborhood."
So saying, the old man shuffled over and began carefully tidying up the icy disaster of a floor.
"Honestly... Association folk. Not a shred of consideration for other people's businesses, as ever."
"Ditto."
Freezing people solid out of nowhere in the name of an 'inspection.'
Confiscating drugs someone worked hard to procure.
That second one especially—unforgivable.
At a 5% addiction rate, you'd have to chew five cigarettes just to get the same effect.
"And another thing, you..."
The old man narrowed his eyes at the bag of white powder in my hand.
I hastily shoved the bag back into my Inventory.
"Wh-what? You can ask all you want, I'm not giving it to you."
"...Forget it. Wouldn't take it if you offered."
Saying that, the old man stared at my face for a long moment with an unreadable expression.
"......"
"......?"
Baffled by the look, I tilted my head and met his gaze with wide, round eyes.
The old man let out a deep sigh and shook his head at me.
"So young, and already..."
"...No."
"What has District 13 come to... tsk tsk."
No, Grandpa. That's not it.
Really, truly not.
I know exactly what you're thinking right now... but it is genuinely NOT that.
I spent a long while afterward explaining the situation to the old man, but alas—the misunderstanding never cleared.
The injustice. It burns.
"So."
Meanwhile, at the same time.
Baek So-hee, having successfully captured the thugs Kim A-yeon had mentioned, turned to Hong Yeon-hwa.
"Who is she? That person."
"Why ask me? You've got a pretty good guess yourself, don't you?"
"...I just can't believe it."
At Hong Yeon-hwa's words, Baek So-hee let out a faint sigh.
"When we lost that one A-rank Awakener, I was certain all hell was going to break loose..."
"Tell me about it. Thought I'd be writing another incident report for sure."
"...Thank goodness I arrived in time."
Fortunately, her skill had frozen the man first—but looking back, even if she'd been a little later, it likely wouldn't have mattered.
Fwoooosh!!
An enormous surge of mana had erupted at the girl's gesture.
And with it, metal had spread rapidly into the shape of a shield.
For the sheer volume of mana dumped into it, its output had been pitiful—but it was absolutely not the work of some random thug.
And no wonder. That 'pitiful' output alone was worth at least B-rank.
Even without her intervention, the girl would unquestionably have blocked an A-rank Awakener's fist.
No—judging by her skill, she might well have subdued him outright.
In pure skill output, B-rank or above.
Factoring in her mana reserves, at minimum high-tier A-rank.
And among Awakeners of that caliber, exactly one person's identity remained unknown to this day.
"39.7..."
A regular who once made a name for themselves as a troublemaker in the Awakener gallery.
At the recollection of that name, Baek So-hee found herself murmuring aloud.
"To think that attention-hungry troll... no, that user was a girl like her..."
"Yeah. I couldn't believe it at first either."
Hong Yeon-hwa nodded in sympathy.
Baek So-hee threw her a question.
"Does the Association know about this...?"
"Roughly? I strong-armed them into giving her a provisional registration in the first place."
"...One step behind again, I see."
When Baek So-hee muttered, looking chagrined, Hong Yeon-hwa shrugged and told her,
"It's only provisional, though. The Association President has a no-contact order out on her, apparently. Something about how she doesn't seem to want her identity exposed. His words."
"Honestly... that man's paranoia has to be seen to be believed. From the way she carries on, I'd say she isn't even trying to hide it."
"Right?"
Considering how Kim A-yeon walked around with her face fully on display, it seemed only a matter of time before the world learned who she was.
Here on Floor 0 it might not matter, but the moment she climbed to Floor 10, her face would start getting known in earnest.
Unlike Floor 0, where the unawakened made up the majority, Awakeners swarmed in droves from Floor 10 onward.
After a long stretch of careful deliberation, Baek So-hee asked Hong Yeon-hwa in an offhand tone:
"Then our Baekhwa Guild can have her, right?"
"What, you're recruiting?"
"Presumed S-rank. If we don't snap her up fast, every guild in the city will come running."
"Well, true... but..."
Hong Yeon-hwa trailed off, fixing Baek So-hee with a peculiar look.
Then, recalling Kim A-yeon's—or rather, '39.7's'—conduct on the forums, she could only look at Baek So-hee with pity in her eyes.
'...Not gonna happen.'
Never in her life would the Kim A-yeon she knew accept a recruitment offer.
That girl would sooner found her own guild than ever crawl under someone else's.
And why, you ask?
Mod*: Nobody uses nicknames here. Fixed nick only.
└ Mod*: Pick a fixed nickname and take a mod spot.
└ 39.7: nope. pass
└ Mod*: why not??
└ Mod*: I'm literally offering you the right to start threads and pick fights??
└ 39.7: draft into mod duty isn't a privilege, it's a war crime...
39.7 was, in her experience, the purest troublemaker the forums had ever known.
After returning home from the black market.
I found myself in a staring contest with the drug bags laid out on the floor.
[ Low-Quality Synthetic Hallucinogen x2 ]
"......"
Ziplock bags full of white powder.
They looked astronomically dangerous no matter which angle you inspected them from, and I muttered with a troubled expression.
"Is it..."
...Okay for me to actually do this?
Why does it feel like I've become a criminal?