Chapter 25
Cha Yeri spoke.
“Are you perhaps the Phantom Thief?”
It felt somewhat wary.
Even her steps approaching the table felt hesitant.
“Yes, then you must be Sharp Sheriff, your nickname.”
“……How can your nickname be Phantom Thief?”
“I thought it would be a duplicate and wouldn’t work, but I was lucky.”
“An item sold by the worst thief in human history would sell well, I’m sure.”
“I know, right? It sold well. For 1.1 billion at that.”
“……”
Cha Yeri subtly frowned her eyebrows as if reacting to my trailing words.
It probably meant that she was not pleased with this situation.
“Then, would you please check the item?”
The mediator, wearing pristine white gloves, carefully lifted the MA6.
Then, he very carefully held the barrel horizontally and presented it to Cha Yeri.
“……”
It was the most tense moment while trading an item.
Because the authenticity of the actual item had to be proven.
Of course, buyers with a collector’s tendency like Cha Yeri could distinguish items right away.
Rather, for them, it should be seen as a procedure to check the signs of use left on the item.
Typically, for a pistol, one checks how the previous owner pulled the trigger.
The degree to which the trigger is pulled varies from shooter to shooter.
That slight error and gap can only be distinguished by feeling.
Although, in the first place, there would be no buyer who would nitpick a ‘classic’ item like the MA6, for which only demand exists.
“……It’s nice.”
Cha Yeri, who had been fiddling with it for a while, showed a positive reaction.
From my feeling of having watched her for nearly a month, it was clear that she was very satisfied.
Because she was maintaining a blank expression, pretending to be nonchalant.
“But there’s one thing I want to ask before we make the deal.”
Cha Yeri spoke again as she handed the item back to the mediator.
“A person like you……. No, how does someone like you have an item like this?”
In short, it was a question of how a person from the slums of Seoul’s outskirts, under the social care beneficiary program, could have something like this.
There was no need to be offended.
For her, it was a natural and important question.
If we were not fellow cadets, the atmosphere in the transaction room would have been even grimmer.
So, how should I answer?
It was fortunate that there was no warranty or anything of the sort since it was such an old item, but…….
Well, in times like these, it’s best to be brazen.
“My source is a secret. As you can see from the gun’s serial number, it’s an unregistered firearm not reported to the Bureau. If you, Sharp Sheriff, take this to the Bureau and register it, there will be no ownership issues.”
“You say the obvious so obviously. That’s not what I asked.”
“Then?”
“It's unbelievable. If you are truly related to the real Phantom Thief, the issue of ownership would be a trivial matter.”
What was her intention in mentioning the Phantom Thief?
Was she simply linking the market nickname with the MA6?
Or did she perhaps see me wearing the cloak yesterday?
As the original author, I could often read Cha Yeri’s emotions, but it was difficult to read her mind.
As she was such a calculating person…….
If she was suspicious about the Phantom Thief, it would be wise to stay still until she showed more definite suspicion.
If I acted guiltily, it would lead to nothing good.
“If you’re suspicious, then let’s not. If we’re just going to waste each other’s time, let’s call it off. I can just put it up for auction again.”
I moved my hand to pick up the gun lying on the velvet.
At that, Cha Yeri flinched her shoulders, blinked her eyes rapidly, and added.
“Wait, wait a minute! I didn’t mean I was suspicious……!”
Had she ever spoken so quickly?
It was a rare sight.
“So you’re saying you’ll buy it?”
“……I came here to buy it.”
“Anyone would think I was forcing you to buy it.”
“Cut the chatter and hand it over.”
“There are conditions before that, two of them.”
“What?”
Cha Yeri seemed a little impatient, like a child with a sweet snack in front of them.
I leisurely cast my gaze at the mediator.
“Excuse me, what happens if the seller unilaterally cancels the transaction without reason?”
“A decrease in transaction rating and a transaction ban period will be imposed on the said item. Also, there is a possibility of being omitted from future market user selections.”
“In short, as long as I can recover my transaction record, it’s not a big penalty, right?”
“A decrease in transaction rating is related to commission fees. In the case of Mr. Phantom Thief……”
“I’m at the lowest rank.”
“……Yes, there is no change in your rating.”
I showed a satisfied face and looked back at Cha Yeri.
Then, she was the first to part her lips.
“What on earth are you trying to say? Canceling the transaction?”
“I was just confirming. I’m in a position where I absolutely want to sell.”
“That’s great. Then hurry up and tell me those conditions.”
She was very proactive.
She must be dying to have it.
I was sorry, but I could not just hand it over.
In the first place, there was a separate reason for wanting a face-to-face transaction.
“The first condition is to keep yesterday’s events a secret.”
To be precise, the secret that I was pretending to be a non-ability user.
In fact, even without mentioning it like this, Cha Yeri would keep it a secret.
Since the method of proving an ability was unclear, a person with the name of Hyeonseong would not deliberately cause trouble.
In the first place, unless it was an opponent she really wanted to crush, she was not the type to do something that would tarnish her own reputation.
“A secret……”
Cha Yeri parted her lips as if to ask about the secret.
However, she soon nodded her head as if she understood the meaning of my words and spoke while discreetly glancing at the mediator.
“If you’re worried about that, don’t be. I wasn’t interested from the beginning. Let’s hear the second condition instead.”
As expected, Cha Yeri’s answer came back quickly.
I showed a satisfied smile and said.
“The second condition is even simpler. ……It’s to drop the formalities with me.”
“……?”
“Let’s speak informally to each other. Since we’re the same age and classmates.”
“No, why should we do that?”
“If you refuse, the deal is off.”
Cha Yeri showed a particularly bewildered expression.
As described in the original story, she drew her lips into a straight line, blinked her eyes several times, and occasionally twitched her stiff shoulders.
The purpose of this condition was to improve my relationship with her.
In other words, to become friends.
Cha Yeri, as a talent who will lead the giant corporation Hyeonseong, uses honorifics for a smooth relationship with her employees.
That was the superficial reason why she did not drop formalities with other cadets, but in reality, it was just an excuse for a game addict to not put effort into human relationships.
Rather than pouring time into meaningless socializing, it was better to play one more clan battle.
“……What’s the, what’s the reason?”
Cha Yeri rarely stuttered.
I curled my lips into a very kind smile and held out the MA6.
With one hand holding the barrel as if for a handshake.
“That’s because…… I want to get closer to you.”
For a moment, her gaze thinned as if she were looking at a crazy person.
However, she soon looked back and forth between me and the gun and curled her lips inward.
An awkward atmosphere flowed.
The mediator also started to glance around the transaction room.
Likewise, feeling awkward after saying it, I meaningless spun the cylinder of the MA6 with my thumb.
DRRRRRR─.
The silence did not last long.
Cha Yeri put her smartphone down towards the mediator and snatched the MA6 from me.
“If it’s gradual. For example…… when we’re alone……”
“That much is fine.”
The mediator looked at us and asked.
“Do you both agree to the terms of the transaction?”
Cha Yeri and I nodded our heads at the same time.
Then the mediator held out the pre-prepared documents and showed a business smile.
“Then, according to seller Mr. Phantom Thief’s rating, the commission fee is 45%, which is 501,428,961 won.”
***
After the satisfactory transaction ended, I headed straight to the dormitory.
As soon as I arrived, I plopped down on the sofa and opened the stock trading page on my smartphone.
“It doesn’t feel real, 600 million won……”
They say you need to know how to use money to earn it, but my crude thinking could only conclude that investing in stocks was a good idea.
The stock sector I was currently interested in was ‘Express.’
The industry called Express in this world was a primary industry of the Awakener era that processed and dismantled monster carcasses and even handled sales.
Although it was meaningless to distinguish the order, monster processing was an inevitable process in the Awakener world.
“The representative company in this field is, of course…… Hyeonseong Express.”
But it did not have a monopoly.
That was because the number of monster appearances had decreased significantly a few years ago.
In addition, since it was a field that competing companies could not easily let go of, it was in an oversaturated state, and due to the market structure, it was common to suffer losses as a victim of guild power struggles.
Therefore, the stock price had been on a downward trend for several years without rising.
The price per share was also insignificant, and few were interested in the Express industry itself.
However…….
“For short-term effects, there’s nothing better than this.”
The fundamental reason why Express companies were groaning was that the number of monsters had decreased.
But if a large number of monsters were to appear, the story would change.
“It looks like I’ll have to visit Gangwon-do soon.”
Gangwon-do was a representative monster-occupied area.
It was also a restricted area for non-Awakeners where the last Demonic Being was sighted.
If a valid outpost could be established within Gangwon-do, the Express industry would experience a boom again.
No, this was no different from a foregone conclusion.
According to the story’s development, Hyeonseong would exclusively win the contract with the outpost.
I bought Hyeonseong Express stock to the point where I wondered if it was okay.
I left only 10 million won and put in all the rest.
If I had my way, I would have poured in every single won, but as a Hero Prep cadet who had to acquire personal equipment, I had no choice.
“No matter how much I know the future, I need to have a minimum amount of insurance.”
That being said, I did not think the intervention rate would affect this part.
……At least, for now.
***
Four weeks since enrolling in the Hero Preparatory School.
Thursday, five days after the deal with Cha Yeri.
“Hmph, you’ve at least reached a level where you won’t hold me back.”
As always, the training ended with the sunrise.
“Is that a compliment.”
“Complacency is forbidden, you brat.”
After my Agility stat skyrocketed, the difficulty of the training had decreased slightly.
That was not to say it was easy.
It was just that what was originally difficult had become a little less difficult.
After finishing my training, as always, I stopped by the dormitory to rest for a while and then moved to the Hall of Justice.
Usually, there is an end-of-month evaluation in the last week of the month.
Therefore, last Monday, there was a sparring match between An Hwigom and Gong Minwu.
The result was An Hwigom’s victory, marked by an overwhelming difference in skill. However, the old man seemed quite satisfied with Gong Minwu’s performance and did not deduct any points, as he had previously announced.
“Just watching the sparring match was a great learning experience.”
Should I say it was on a different level?
I keenly felt the fact that Gong Minwu had been going easy on me.
I arrived at the underground Investigation Training Ground just in time for the lecture.
Everyone except for the instructor, Yun Jeongseop, was already seated in the training ground.
However, as soon as I entered the training ground, Gwon Chihun approached me with a combative posture and grabbed me by the collar.
“I knew you’d cause trouble eventually. If I gave you that much of a hint, you should have backed off!”
“What are you talking about.”
Gwon Chihun had only given me dirty looks so far; he had never acted out against me directly.
This was a situation that could not be easily overlooked…….
The gazes of the cadets seen over his shoulder were also different from usual, and Do Minyeong next to him also wore a rather complicated expression.
A subtle gaze mixed with pity and a slight hint of blame.
It felt as if I had crossed an irreversible ‘line’ overnight.
“What on earth is wrong?”
“You should know that better than anyone, right?”
“No, I mean, what are you talking about……!”
Gwon Chihun pushed me against the wall.
But at that moment, the investigation instructor Yun Jeongseop crossed the threshold of the training ground with a lazy movement.
“Cadet Gwon Chihun, return to your seat.”
His voice was as dry as ever.
However, the stress in his words was more pronounced than usual.
“Instructor! This bastard……”
“I won’t say it twice. It’s an immediate point deduction.”
“Damn……!”
“And Ji Seokhyeon, you are temporarily suspended until the disciplinary committee meeting is held.”
……What did you say?
“Suddenly, why……”
As I let out the words as if I did not understand, Gwon Chihun shouted.
“This bastard is pretending not to know until the end. You hit Choi Jaejin!”
Me, Choi Jaejin?
Come to think of it, I did not see him in the training ground.
“Where are you looking? Are you looking for that guy now? It’s too late, you bastard. He’s already on a short-term leave to avoid you.”
“Gwon Chihun, 3 points deduction. Return to your seat.”
“Tch.”
Yun Jeongseop said.
“The disciplinary committee meeting will be held next Tuesday. Depending on the result, you could face up to expulsion. No, since the victim cadet himself has named you, it would be more accurate to say at least expulsion.”
“He named me? Choi Jaejin pointed me out?”
“Yeah.”
“When? Why? Where?”
“Shut up. You cannot participate in lectures during the temporary suspension. You will also be omitted from today’s lecture’s end-of-month evaluation.”
After saying that, Yun Jeongseop walked towards the center of the training ground.
The meaning of that action was to get out of the training ground tactfully.
By the way, that guy seems to be enjoying this situation.
As I was about to leave the training ground, my eyes met with Kim Muung’s group, who were showing a malicious smile.
“……”
Kim Muung and Choi Jaejin…….
Only then did it click.
That bastard Kim Muung had clearly set me up and framed me.
More than being angry, I was curious why he was doing this without any context.
It was not revenge, and to pick a fight like this…….
I did not know what his purpose was, but the backlash from me would not be so gentle.
I crossed the threshold of the training ground.
Then at that moment, as if it had been waiting, a system message flew in.
[The episode influence of the extra, ‘Ji Seokhyeon,’ has reached a certain level.]
[The character’s status will be upgraded to ‘Sub Character.’]
[An ‘Extra Episode’ will be created due to the change in the episode.]
<Extra Episode>
Title: None
Characters: Ji Seokhyeon, Choi Jaejin, Kim Muung
Reward: None
“Ha, what bullshit.”