Stealing a Shop for Free
We slapped a label on the shop. Now, this place belongs to us. If any robber tries to target this store, we can legally kill them and strip them of their valuables.
“H-hngh...”
“I don’t want to hear your crying, so shut up.”
“H-hup...”
For the record, I decided to keep the fly-monster and the maggots alive to use as employees. Yes, they’re essentially becoming the shop managers. Since parasitic humans probably don’t understand the nuances of the Black Market, I figured it was better to keep the original owners running the business.
“My... my arm...”
In the process, the fly-monster had all six of its arms ripped off. It refused to submit, so I locked the shop door, beat it until it broke, and tore its limbs out. Once it tasted the flavor of its own regenerating flesh, it finally gave in.
“Stay still. I’m going to reattach them.”
“W-wait...! If you just leave it, they’ll grow back on their own...”
“Do you think I have time to wait for your arms to grow back?”
—*CRACK!*
“GYAAAAAAH!!!!”
I ignored the fly-monster’s desperate protests, shoved the arms back into the wounds, and used the Flesh Regeneration skill. Soon, the wounds closed up on their own, healing in a grotesque, twisted fashion. Because the depth of the insertion varied, the six arms were all different lengths.
“Guhhh....”
The fly-monster trembled, dripping with yellowish pus. It was a truly horrific sight. The maggots, who had been watching their parent—or whatever it was—get tortured, squirmed and submitted to me as well. It was incredibly easy and simple to get my hands on a shop, a manager, and inventory. Though, I’m not sure if those things count as "inventory."
“Phew. Hey, Perpero. How much did you charge for people to play with one of these maggots?”
“Guhhh... The rental fee for a biological fleshlight is 20 coins... The aphrodisiac to insert into the back is 10 coins per serving... The seat fee is 20... Including the 10-coin tip, it’s 60 coins per hour...”
“Cheaper than I thought?”
“Guhhh... Cough... Huff... Huff... Our motto is high turnover at low margins...”
“But aren’t those your children?”
“Kehehe... Don’t joke... To us, parents and children are just trivial concepts. Those things are just half-baked runts. Nothing more than disposable spare parts.”
“I see... So in your situation, those who grow up but remain maggots... aren’t even treated as kin.”
“Those who are not born with the great wings... are merely livestock for the chosen ones like us...”
I hauled Perpero, the fly-monster steeped in elitism, to his feet. Meanwhile, Cheshire, who had been checking the back of the shop for any other hidden fly-monsters, shouted from the storage room.
—Jojun!! There’s another fly-bastard in here!!!
It seemed she had found another one inside. I asked Perpero, who I had just stood up.
“You said there was no one else. You said you were all there was.”
“Th-that... I, I’m sorry... Please... please forgive me... I was so flustered earlier that I...”
“Phew... I fucking hate liars. There won’t be a second time. If you pull any more stunts, I’ll make sure you get eaten alive. No, wait, I’ll just keep peeling off your flesh and regenerating it over and over again.”
“UAAAGH!!! I, I will never lie again. I swear my obedience. Oh, my master... Sovereign of the Manma-jeon... Seeker of the Great Ones....”
The fly-monster slammed his head against the floor. Yellow fluid leaked from his forehead. I could probably catch these guys and make some kind of medicine if I gave them to Hellas, but I don’t want to eat it, so I’ll just leave them be. Even someone as unpicky as me doesn’t want to put an elixir made from such filthy creatures into my mouth.
“Phew... Good. We’re closing shop for today. Clean this place up.”
“Y-yes, understood...”
The fly-monster prostrated himself on the floor, rubbing his hands together. I quickly turned the maggots into my slaves and headed to the storage room at the back of the shop where Cheshire was. Seeing as I could turn them into slaves... these maggots were indeed sentient beings.
“Ugh...”
The hallway leading to the storage room was incredibly messy and filthy. Mold and mushrooms grew everywhere, and the walls were covered in hoses dripping with yellow pus. Furthermore, maggots were swarming over casually discarded humanoid corpses. Did they catch customers and feed them to the maggots? It’s a terrifying place.
“I, I’m here... Ugh...”
Cheshire, who was suppressing the fly-monsters with her laser shotgun, had found a storage room that was hard to believe even with my own eyes.
“Jojun, look at this.”
“Haa...”
In the storage room, large female flies were lying down with their limbs severed. Perpero was a male, not a female. It seemed this specimen was the real female. Also, fly-monsters smaller than Perpero were trembling with all six hands raised. It looked like Cheshire had shot and killed a few before I arrived. A fly-monster and a fly-production matrix that had half-melted into liquid were shoved into a corner. She must have shot them to make an example of them. Cheshire is as hot-blooded as ever.
“This place... it’s like a factory, it’s horrific. A factory made of your own kind...”
“Yeah. It seems they’re trapped in this storage room for life... and bred. It’s a complete fly farm. They don’t seem to have any affection for their own kind at all. Well, bugs tend to have that tendency...”
“Ugh...”
Even in this threatening situation, the female’s abdomen was heaving, pumping out new maggots. Furthermore, dozens of hoses were plugged into the female fly’s body. It seemed she was being fed nutrients through those until she died.
‘With her limbs taken and her face mutilated, she’s lost almost all her senses and will spend her life just giving birth... And when she’s finally useless, she’ll be slaughtered, thrown into a grinder, and turned into feed... A horrific life... I should feel pity, but... she looks so disgusting that I don’t feel a shred of sympathy...’
The nutrient solution coming through those hoses plugged into the females was probably made by grinding up maggots. They were being forced to repeat the horrific act of eating what they birthed.
“You there, don’t move. Unless you want to die.”
“Hiiik... I, I’m sorry...”
And the worker flies wearing blue gloves must have been sorting the newborn maggots. It seemed half were thrown into a grinder to be crushed, and the other half were slaughtered and packaged.
‘It seems every maggot has a different purpose...’
Some were raised as workers, some for feed, some for sale, and some for the shop. It seemed they were all different. This would be great to commercialize and sell. My idea of cooking and selling soup with zombie heads was nothing compared to the horrific atrocities this inhuman species was committing. Yes, this is what sells in the Black Market. A performance that is grotesque and disgusting from a human perspective is exactly what hits the spot for the main clientele of the Black Market. Perfect. I’m really glad I acquired this shop.
“They were basically operating on self-sufficiency.”
“Yeah. Give birth, kill, grind, feed, and give birth again... And when they ran out of nutrients, they ground up customers whose brains had been turned to mush from mating with the maggots and used them as feed. It’s rare to see guys who grind up their own kind so frugally.”
“Phew... They’re amazing guys. I like them.”
“Y-you like them?”
“Yes?”
“A, ah, no. Hehehe. Jojun, you’ve grown up too.”
“Haha... Cheshire, I was an adult from the start.”
“Hehe... Yeah. That’s right. Jojun is dependable.”
Cheshire stroked my hair. I laughed and turned the rest of the fly-monsters into slaves. The female flies being used as production matrices had already lost their minds, so I figured I’d just let these guys keep managing them. If I, who didn’t know anything, interfered while they were raising them well, the quality of the product would drop. It’s best to let the experts handle these things.
“Clean this place up nicely and operate normally until I come back next week. I’ve checked the daily average income, so if sales drop, you die. I’ll just kill you and put someone else in charge. Do your business properly.”
“Yes...”
“And if you pull any stunts, I’ll use every method I can imagine to kill you in the most painful way possible and then offer you to an Evil God. I’m looking forward to it. Right?”
“N-not at all...!!!”
“Hehe. So behave yourself.”
“Guhhh....”
I left the crying Perpero behind and came out of the shop with Cheshire. I don’t have much time right now, so I’ll have to leave the shop to this bastard. They said they earn an average of 6,000 coins a day with six tables, so after deducting 1,000 coins for materials and other food costs, the remaining 5,000 coins should fall into my hands. Those filthy fly-bastards, of course, work for free. I only make money if those guys work all day without a daily wage.
“Hehe. We gobbled up a shop and a business item in one fell swoop.”
“Yeah! It feels incredibly refreshing, like we got it for free, right?”
“That’s right. Today’s luck is good.”
I linked arms with Cheshire and headed toward the Poacher’s shack. It was a quite satisfying robbery.
The food alley was always a place that gave me a fresh shock. The screams of various sentient beings being slaughtered in absurd ways had always made my mind suffer. But perhaps because I had seen a worse and more shocking scene today, the guys hanging out in the Black Market’s food alley looked almost cute. Should I say adorable? Rather than those fly-bastards who made farms out of their own kind and dismantled them in various ways to sell them, those guys were better. Much more human.
—*Flap.*
“Hmm...”
As I entered the shack, the Poacher glared at me with a displeased expression. Actually, since he was a being with only a mouth and no visible eyeballs, I wasn’t sure if he was really glaring at me, but it felt like he was. I laughed a little awkwardly and waved my hand slightly at him.
“Uh... Hello, father-in-law?”
“Fuuuu... You damn punk. Cheshire, do you really love a guy like that...?”
“Yeah! I love him so much.”
“Haa... Damn it. I raised you wrong. It’s my fault... It’s my fault...”
The Poacher wiped his face a few times, then sighed deeply and frowned. At that sight, Cheshire ruffled my hair and laughed.
“Just buy today’s recommended menu quickly and go home. The feeling isn’t good, so don’t go poking around for no reason...”
“Hahaha. Understood...”
“Seeing you happy with Cheshire... makes my blood boil, as expected...”
The uncomfortable Poacher, for some reason, gave us advice and guided us to the workshop behind the counter. Telling us to leave quickly—is something happening in the Black Market?
“That is... a box, right?”
“Yeah. It’s a unique breeding ground made by some madman.”
In the room I followed the Poacher into, there was a wooden box large enough for one person to crawl into. And a palm-sized plastic pack was hanging, and a root of a long reed-like plant and an unidentified canned food were placed there. I checked the box first.
◈ Contains something unidentified. If a black lamb appears, a disaster will strike. If a white lamb appears, you gain wool and milk daily. If left unopened, it will cry like a child every night, causing insomnia.
It’s a product with a high gambling element. It was even a gacha without revealed probabilities.
“Haa...”
“It’s an opportunity to test your luck.”
The Poacher subtly urged me to buy it quickly.
“Uh... My luck is a bit strange... Haa...”
I can’t easily trust my luck anymore. Surely... when I open the box, a black goat will welcome me. Then a terrible disaster will begin... and after rolling around like a dog, I’ll get something better. ‘That... might actually be better...’
I bought the box immediately. Whatever comes out, I welcome it. If a lamb comes out, I can mass-produce wool and milk, and if a black goat comes out, I can kill it for health and face the disaster that follows. Whatever comes, it seems easier to handle than the Dragon Wave sent by the Dragon King.