The Wandering Merchant Alliance (2)
A low, resonant hum filled the air.
Once again the entire screen washed over in gold, and a single item resolved into view.
◈ Type: Spear
◈ Grade: Unique
◈ Trait: A sharp whistle of wind rings out with every swing.
◈ Attack Power: 18
◈ Durability: 120/120
◈ Effect: Gale — moderately increases the user's attack speed.
"Oh?"
A spear this time.
Which meant—
Cha-yul noona hits the jackpot.
The specs were solid, too. Attack power well above anything a low-tier Ascender could hope to swing, and the Gale option would mesh beautifully with the butterfly-light footwork of the Drifting Fragrance Valley arts.
Buy it. Now.
Twenty thousand TC wasn't pocket change… but when a better spear eventually dropped, he could flip this one for several times what he'd paid.
— Kkoo!
Lumi spun in delighted little circles at the ongoing flood of Hyun Si-woon's spending.
To wrap things up, Si-woon added three hundred combat rations, snacks, and bottles of water each to the cart. These weren't for resale. They were stock for the village, for the party members, and for himself.
At mealtime, with the whole party gathered, Hyun Si-woon laid out what he'd found in the Monthly Shop and handed the spear to Jang Cha-yul.
"Whoa. No way. Attack power eighteen?"
"Damn."
"The Moonlight Bow sits at twenty because it's ranged, fair enough—but now Cha-yul noonim's about to go full unstoppable mode like Si-a, huh?"
The others celebrated without a trace of envy, and Jang Cha-yul accepted the weapon with the flustered air of someone who didn't quite know what to do with her hands.
"Thank you. I'll put everything into becoming someone the team can count on with this."
Rest time wasn't even over, but she was already heading for the training ground with the spear in hand. Of course she couldn't stand not testing a new weapon. That was fine. They were on leave, and whether someone trained or slept was their own business. If anything, Si-woon preferred it this way. He watched her retreating back with a quiet smile.
Time passed.
Si-woon had listed everything on the Exchange the moment he woke before dawn. Prices stayed exactly as before. He'd considered raising them, then decided it was still too early.
I'll have to raise them eventually anyway.
TC would keep flowing in, and prices would climb with it. The one exception was the Expanded Space Packs—those he listed at eight hundred TC. Only five of them.
He rested a while longer, then, when the sun was high, opened the community boards at his leisure. What caught his eye was the mailbox icon blinking without pause. Hundreds of messages—no, easily over a thousand—had piled up.
The result?
Sold out. Every last unit of the five-hundred-item lots had cleared.
Whoa. This is insanity. Actual insanity.
He ran the numbers. After fees and cost of goods… a single day had netted him a pure profit of 10,350 TC. One day.
"Huh."
Si-woon let out a short, incredulous laugh. Once he'd collected every last TC from his mailbox, he drifted naturally toward the Free Board. A reaction this loud demanded a look. How could anyone resist?
And sure enough—the entire top of the board was wallpapered with Wandering Merchant posts.
Click into any of them and the comments were pure rage and wailing.
Five hundred units should have been a generous release—so why the meltdown? Then it clicked.
Ah.
He'd overlooked something. The Exchange had no purchase-limit feature, no careful per-person caps. If someone had enough TC, they could vacuum up an entire listing in one go. In other words, the stock had never been distributed evenly across Ascenders at all.
The comment threads told the whole story.
Si-woon's brow furrowed.
This was not the picture he'd wanted. He'd hoped to become a beacon—hope and a goal for the lower-floor Ascenders. Instead, the market had become a monopoly for a handful of people with deep pockets and faster fingers.
He scrolled down to other posts. Sure enough, his fears had already taken shape.
Got 300 units.
Want some? Mail me.
No haggling.
Love you, Wandering Merchant! Gonna get rich off this!
The comment section was an absolute inferno.
That last comment landed dead center.
I do the work. The scalpers take the profit.
It grated more than he liked to admit. Making TC was one thing—but he had genuinely wanted the lower-floor Ascenders who might be starving out there to have a chance.
— Tsk, tsk.
Ha-wol clicked her tongue. He'd hung the Formless Sword at his waist so she wouldn't feel cooped up, and now she was watching the whole mess unfold from the sidelines.
— That is simply how the world works. No matter how pure your intentions, there will always be maggots waiting to twist them to their own ends.
"…"
He had nothing to say. For all his clever planning, he'd completely missed a problem this simple.
— So what will you do? Sit here and keep fattening the scalpers?
"Hmm."
What could he do? Annoying as they were, he had no real way to go after the scalpers. Everyone was anonymous, and they had only operated within the rules the Exchange itself allowed—the same way he had locked down Lumi as his private merchant.
"It's funny when you think about it. I deliberately stoked resale on the Expanded Space Packs, then get offended when people flip the food. That's pure self-interest talking."
Wasn't that just a self-centered way of looking at it?
"I have to own it. This was a strategic miscalculation on my part. Plain and simple."
— Oh?
Ha-wol looked genuinely surprised. It was not the reaction she had expected. If it had been her, she would have flown into a rage and started devising ways to make the scalpers suffer—pick out the greediest one, dangle a bulk deal that required a face-to-face meeting, then slit his throat. That was the law of the jungle she had lived by. Throw a bigger bait at anyone who chases short-term gain, and destroy them with it.
— Not the response I anticipated. Blaming yourself instead of exploding in anger… If a few crawling insects leave you this dulled, how do you expect to accomplish anything great?
"They're not insects, Ha-wol."
Si-woon spoke quietly.
"They're just people who rode the current of the market. They moved smarter than anyone else on the board I built. Anger doesn't solve problems. It only narrows your field of view."
— Hmph. Teaching this lady a lesson now, are we? Fine. What do you intend to do, then? Let's hear it.
"I'm going to recruit official distribution partners."
— Hm?
Ha-wol's eyes widened. Looking at her, Si-woon allowed himself a crooked grin.
Roughly two hours later, after reviewing the situation with his party, Hyun Si-woon posted an announcement.
Hello. This is the ★Wandering Merchant★.
I am aware that recent indiscriminate bulk-buying and resale have caused significant inconvenience for many Ascenders. As the supplier, I share responsibility for this outcome.
I intend to put a fundamental solution in place.
I, the ★Wandering Merchant★, am founding the Wandering Merchant Alliance to ensure stable supply and a healthy market order. We are publicly recruiting five guilds to serve as our official distribution partners.
The five selected guilds will receive exclusive supply of the ★Wandering Merchant★'s standard goods (rations, potions, scrolls, and similar items)—excluding the bags. Supply price will sit at approximately 80% of market retail.
Partner guilds must sell supplied goods only at the agreed fixed price. To prevent monopolization, each guild will be required to split limited stock across multiple sales windows at designated times.
Violation of these rules, or any internal bulk-buying/resale activity, will result in immediate revocation of partner status, with the opportunity transferred to another guild.
Please declare your guild name and intent to participate in the comments of this post. Based on submitted applications, we will comprehensively evaluate each guild's reputation, vision, and track record, and contact finalists individually within one week.
P.S. Product sales are temporarily suspended until further notice.
"Whoa."
"That cleans it up pretty well, doesn't it?"
"Market stays healthy, we get less headache… partners will have a bit more work, but they eat the margin, so it works out."
Baek Yeon-ho nodded along with Jang Cha-yul.
"Exactly. This is a real win-win for everyone. Especially this part."
He jabbed a finger at the lines about partner revocation and the opportunity passing to another guild.
"That's the real masterstroke. We don't even need to police them. They'll be tripping over each other to rat each other out. One little rule-break and the snitching starts immediately. Surveillance cost: zero. Absolute zero! Si-woon, did you secretly work at some megacorp or what?"
"What are you talking about? I didn't even finish college."
"Oh, right—you're twenty. I keep forgetting… Damn, though. How do you even think of this stuff?"
Baek Yeon-ho was openly impressed.
— Hmmm.
A low note of admiration slipped from Ha-wol as well.
Far more mature—and far more far-sighted—than simply cutting a few scalpers' throats as an example.
The ability to ignore short-term gain and anger, and draw a larger map. Instead of resolving conflict by hand, build a system and let the stakeholders police one another inside it. That was a higher order of power than the pure law of the jungle she had known.
This boy… may truly have the makings of a king.
For the first time, Ha-wol glimpsed in Hyun Si-woon something beyond a mere disciple or a tool of revenge—the possibility of a hegemon who might shape a new age. A faint smile touched her lips before she even realized it was there.