The First Buyer Is the Sword Emperor

"……Heh heh."

Ha Dohyun was already savoring what was coming. It was an S-rank skillbook, after all. He simply hadn't had the Points to get a Quality Certification. And there had been a reason he'd written the post to be as inflammatory as possible.

"If you play humble even on the marketplace, nobody even looks."

Especially when the listing had no Quality Certification to its name. He needed to stir up as much aggro as he could, to get as many eyes on it as possible—otherwise it would never sell. People's reactions were easy enough to predict. It would play out just like those antique-shop TV shows where they separate the genuine articles from the fakes. Everyone would recognize its true worth only after the fact.

"……Or maybe the quality is so high the very first person will see it for what it is."

Comment notifications started rolling in.

Contrary to his expectations, the comments were ice-cold.

"Oh, come on!"

Only then did Ha Dohyun realize. Of all things, that ridiculous username he'd made was what had caught everyone's eye. Well, of course—he'd still been F-rank when he made it. And usernames, as a rule, could not be changed. Nothing to be done about it. A true artisan was supposed to let the work speak anyway.

He still felt a little too wronged to just sit there and take it, though. Maybe he'd leave a short rebuttal.

"……Fuck."

Ha Dohyun was speechless. They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weren't wrong. That was what made it sting. He fired off a rebuttal in a hurry.

Right on cue, a well-known working Artisan dropped a rebuttal of his own. Ha Dohyun decided to take him down a peg.

And then, in the middle of all that, someone expressed a genuine intent to buy.

It was the Sword Emperor.

The Sword Emperor was an S-rank hunter so far beyond argument that talking about it was a waste of breath. No one disputed that Korea's number-one hunter was the Sword Emperor. No one. First in Points contribution, first in Tower climbing, and even well-liked by the public. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠prevailing prediction was that even if every other S-rank hunter left Korea, the Sword Emperor would stay and protect it to the end.

"Wait. The actual Sword Emperor?"

Ha Dohyun was stunned. The Sword Emperor didn't even hide his identity. His real name was Kwon Kang-il—a middle-aged man with a thick, bristling beard. A-ranks and B-ranks had all run for it, but the S-rank Sword Emperor had remained in Korea.

Ha Dohyun gave it some serious thought.

"Hmm. He's probably loaded. Should I have him name a price first?"

But asking outright for an opening offer would look too cheap. He turned it over in his head and added another comment.

"Ah, shit. That didn't work."

A shame, but there was nothing for it. When he thought about it, the Sword Emperor was practically the head of household holding the entire Republic of Korea up by himself. Sell too expensive, and the karma might come back around.

Ha Dohyun was genuinely delighted.

"Heheh. This feels pretty good."

Fifteen minutes of work for a hundred thousand won. When he'd been selling F-rank skillbooks, that would have been unthinkable. And unlike other skillbooks, the production cost was cheap, too. It was the Sword Emperor, so he wouldn't scam him over a mere hundred thousand won. Well—they'd been the only one to recognize the skillbook, and it was his first sale, so he'd given a discount besides.

Even if you used the skillbook, the duration was a mere five minutes. A sampler product. But then word would get around that the effect was genuinely incredible. Building a reputation like that and locking in regulars was a solid strategy.

"Huh?"

It wasn't a hundred thousand won. Ten million won had come in. Shhk—! Two bundles of fifty-thousand-won bills materialized before his eyes.

"Wow. So that's what ten bills meant."

Well, the Sword Emperor was rich, after all. He might have taken it as ten bills of a million. Ha Dohyun was still lifting the bundles of fifty-thousand-won notes and setting them down again, marvelling, when—

"Wh-what?"

His mind went blank. Shhk-shhk-shhk-shhk—! The piles of fifty-thousand-won bundles kept stacking up. He was just starting to feel that something had gone very wrong when the alerts finally stopped—after ringing ten times in total.

Ha Dohyun swallowed, staring at the dozens of cash bundles.

"That's a hundred million won. For real."

Just in case, he even counted it. It all added up exactly.

……Well. Who sends money wrong ten times in a row?

"Well then. I guess that's what I'm worth."

Ha Dohyun stared blankly at the trade confirmation button for a moment. The Sword Emperor had acknowledged him. Not anyone else—the Sword Emperor. It went past feeling good and into something stranger.

……No, even so, was this right? It kind of felt like he'd become a con artist. Was this actually okay?

"Hahk!"

Ha Dohyun jumped. If he just sat there, the man was liable to send another nine hundred million. Even so, his conscience would not allow anything beyond this. He hit trade confirmation at once.

Shhk—

The pig skin vanished into thin air before his eyes.

At the same time, in a luxury residence in Seocho-gu.

The Sword Emperor swallowed, taking the purchased item in trembling hands.

He had set a keyword alert on the marketplace board a very long time ago. He had even forgotten that fact for a long while. After all, there was no way anyone would list an S-rank skillbook on the Korean marketplace.

And then, just like that, the alert had gone off. It had been an absurd post without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even a Quality Certification. Pig skin. Right. It was nothing more than pig skin. But he had been able to see its value.

A unique skill only the Sword Emperor class could possess. An ability that let him grasp a target's structure and weak points. As a side effect, it let him see the mana structures inside artifacts better than anyone—not that he could make them himself.

"Wow. This is genuinely incredible."

Having received it in person, the item's value was unmistakable.

"With this alone, I could challenge the 40th Floor right away."

The notorious 40th Floor. A boss type that demanded extreme burst attack power in a brief window. Places with deep hunter pools like China or the United States had managed to scrape together a method somehow. But Korea, like most hunter-poor nations, had been stuck on the 39th Floor.

The reason an S-rank hunter had to keep climbing the Tower without rest was simple enough. Every time the nation's maximum Tower record was broken, Korea's overall Points coefficient increased.

And then, touching it with his hands, he felt something.

"……Don't tell me this was handmade?"

No matter how he examined it, this was not an item that had come out of the Tower. And the fact that someone could pull off this kind of insanity on nothing but pig skin carried enormous implications.

Right. This was no time to sit around. Judging by the way they talked on the marketplace, they were clearly Korean. If someone who could make S-rank skillbooks was Korean, they had to be protected at all costs. The moment their identity got out, the entire world would come after them.

Just in case, he went back to the marketplace board and checked the post again. The skillbook had been photographed up close, sitting on a wooden cutting board. There was no immediately identifying personal information, but it was too early to relax.

Then a particular comment in the thread caught his eye.

"……So that's how it is."

He'd asked for a price and gotten a speech about patriotism. On top of that, they'd recognized him as the Sword Emperor and given him a special among specials.

……He'd only sent a hundred million because he didn't have the cash on hand. To hand over something so precious at a steal like this.

Even if it had been a patriot's discount, he couldn't just take it and leave it at that. He would have to carve the debt into his heart, at least.

He kept swallowing, and his throat was going dry. He took off the artifact necklace for a moment.

The Sword Emperor's face shifted into that of an unfamiliar woman. A layered bob brushed the line of her neck, the back of her hair tied in a short, low ponytail.

"Ahem. Ah. Ah."

A beautiful voice. Her real name was Kwon Garam. The Sword Emperor Kwon Kang-il known to the public was a fabricated identity, built through meticulous groundwork.

She lowered her voice as far as it would go and practiced her lines. But of course, it just didn't land the same in a woman's voice.

"Hmph."

Feeling inexplicably sulky, she cleared her throat.

"……Khh! Ahem. Ah. Ah."

Putting forward a false identity had been half a joke at first. Once she'd actually done it, it had proven rather convenient. But she had come to realize something. Korea was crawling with spies.

Steeling herself, Kwon Garam started placing a call. ……This person, too, had to be protected before they ended up in danger.

"Unnie, it's me. I'd like you to find someone for me. Without leaving it on any record. I can't tell you the detailed reason."

Kwon Garam spoke with grim resolve. To think she couldn't even tell her close unnie the reason, and had to ask a favor out of nowhere. Did the world really have situations like this?

"……Ah. You've already seen it?"

Kwon Garam squeezed her eyes shut against the embarrassment welling up. The marketplace was public. She'd acted as if she were sitting on some tremendous secret, when it was information her unnie already knew.

"I-I'll tell you the details after I climb the 40th Floor."

Even though they were on the phone, Kwon Garam found herself looking away for no reason.

Hooo. I am a professional…!

She kept repeating the mantra, forcing her expression back into place.