Episode 135 Preliminary Survey (3)
When dozens, not just two or three, of students are swarming around a busy area, it is impossible to avoid people’s attention.
Even if all of those dozens are members of a thieves’ club, it’s like advertising, ‘We’re suspicious guys! We’re here to do suspicious things!’
So we split up into smaller groups and gathered at our destination, and I was left alone with Dang Gyu-yeong again.
As they walked side by side, Dang Gyu-yeong asked.
“How about watching for a while?”
“That’s interesting. It looks like you’ve prepared a lot.”
The fact that five graduate mentors participated and that security was thorough with double and triple safety measures in place.
Last year’s black market was essentially a failure, but this year it seems they have sharpened their knives.
However, the Student Leadership Team is by no means an easy opponent, so we will have to wait and see who will have the last laugh.
Dang Gyu-yeong smiled pleasantly, as if he was satisfied with my answer.
“Hehe, it was a good decision to bring you out.”
The primary goal of giving me a tour today was to pique my interest, and I guess I feel like I’ve achieved that goal since I’m showing interest.
Then he makes a subtle suggestion to me.
“Do you want to step on one leg?”
The question is whether you would like to participate as a mercenary, like in the raid on the temporary storage facility.
Of course I was interested, but I thought it would be better to listen to the whole thing and then decide, so I asked back.
“What should I do?”
“You know that unlucky senior? Stick with him.”
From Dang Gyu-young’s perspective, if a senior is unlucky, he will most likely be a 100% nerd who graduated from high school.
As with his role, he is meant to stand by as a reserve force and provide strength in times of emergency.
“Well, isn’t that asking too much of me? I can’t possibly be a good fit for the second and third year leaders.”
“Who told you to fight? Just cause some trouble and then get out. You’re good at that.”
“Okay then. What about the compensation?”
“You, are you looking for a forbidden item?”
“Of course there is.”
Those who sell items on the black market are usually graduates.
So there are a lot more items up for sale than there were in the temporary storage at the beginning of the semester, and they are of a much higher grade.
There’s no better opportunity to secure banned items.
Dang Gyu-young smiled brightly, saying he knew it.
“Tell me what you’re looking for. I’ll let you know as soon as anything comes up for sale.”
The Thieves’ Club provides a clear overview of the prohibited items that will be traded during the process of connecting sellers and buyers.
I will take full advantage of this to secure the property I am looking for and give you priority in the transaction.
From my perspective, it was what I had hoped for.
Due to the influence of EX-class quests, the characters have been replaced, and naturally, the items they possess will have changed as well.
So there’s no telling what’s going to pop up in this black market.
It was a situation where I had to go through a lot of trouble, but if the Thieves’ Club did the hard work for me, I could save a lot of time and effort.
And the type of forbidden items I’m looking for is the same as when I raided the temporary storage unit,
‘Elemental penalty item.’
There were two items picked up at that time.
[Inferno Fist] skill book, and two [Simryo-oks] that are still sleeping peacefully in a corner of the dormitory.
There is a huge elemental penalty when using it, but in my case, it can be almost completely nullified with S-class [Elemental Resistance].
It’s the best option for now, as you’re essentially getting the benefits without the penalties.
So, I handed Dang Gyu-young a piece of paper.
“I am looking for it like this.”
“What, you already made a list?”
“I was going to ask you to do it on my behalf, but I appreciate you offering this first.”
“… … .”
Dang Gyu-yeong looks at me with suspicious eyes for a moment.
But first, he lowered his gaze to the piece of paper, as if he wanted to look at the list.
And as I read down the list, my eyebrows gradually furrow.
“… … How can there be so many magical powers? Kim Hoya, how come you always seek out only bloody things? Inferno Fist too.”
“It’s all for world peace.”
If you destroy everything, peace will come.
Dang Gyu-yeong now looked resigned, as if he didn’t know anything.
“Yes, I suppose so. Anyway, you’re using this well, right? And you’re not causing any major problems?”
“You know. I won’t do anything I can’t handle.”
“Okay, I got it. I’ll look into it.”
After that, as I walked and talked with Dang Gyu-yeong about the black market, the number of people passing by suddenly increased rapidly.
We have entered a busy area.
The downtown area was as lively as last week.
The rows of street vendors and street performances haven’t changed much.
For example, the masked gentleman who gave the calligrapher a trump card is still performing a magic show at that place.
At first glance, I thought it was some event boss popping out of here, but now that I look at it, it really seems like it came into the dungeon island just for the magic show.
However, neither Dang Gyu-yeong nor I had much interest in street performances, so we just looked ahead and hurried our steps.
The first destination is the contact point.
The staff member who arrived before us was preparing to sell by taking out various tools from the ice cream cart.
He spots us approaching and greets us with a sinister smile.
“Come on in.”
Dang Gyu-yeong stared at the soft ice cream machine for a few seconds, then turned his head toward me and asked.
“What flavor do you want? Vanilla? Chocolate?”
“I’ll split it half and half.”
“Then I’ll take half and half.”
Then the member took out a cone and scooped up some ice cream.
However, the finished product was a mess, so Dang Gyu-yeong couldn’t stand to watch and said something.
“I need to practice a little.”
“……sorry.”
Even though it is a convenience store, shouldn’t it do the basics as a street vendor?
The fewer suspicious elements there are, the better.
After a couple more attempts, the Thieves Club member handed them out, each wrapped in a napkin, with a relatively less distorted soft cone.
As mentioned at the meeting,
‘The napkin is the main body.’
If you look closely, you can see that it looks like two thin napkins overlapping each other.
While the outside is plain, the inside is densely engraved with elaborate magical techniques.
And on one corner of the napkin’s outer surface, there is a natural arrow that looks like it was originally drawn.
As we walked away from the ice cream cart, the arrow tilted like a compass, pointing in one direction.
I glanced at Dang Gyu-young’s napkin and saw that it was pointing in the same direction.
If you follow the path, you will reach the next location, the exchange.
We kept moving with our ice cream in hand.
Dang Gyu-yeong covered his mouth slightly so as not to arouse the suspicion of those around him, and seemed to be communicating with Cha Da-bin in the control tower.
“We can’t see it. Yeah, nothing particularly noticeable? Okay, let’s go straight to Exchange A.”
The A exchange we arrived at was a small shopping mall-like building.
In front of them, a woman with a tear stain and an old man who had graduated were sitting leisurely and watching us. It seemed like they were checking the effectiveness of the set-up formation, the steps, and the napkins.
So, as I was approaching the building as I wanted, Dang Gyu-yeong suddenly grabbed my napkin.
When I let go of the strength in my hand because I was curious about something, it snatched it away with a snap.
When we met, his eyes were full of mischief, so I asked.
“Why are you suddenly taking the napkin?”
“Go without it, just this once.”
“You want me to pass the course without any milestones?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“What do you gain from doing this, senior?”
“I was just wondering what to do.”
Looking again, his eyes are filled with not only playfulness but also anticipation.
I guess you want to see me floundering around in the wilderness and eventually getting kicked out, but unfortunately that won’t happen.
“I’m sorry, senior, but I don’t have to get lost.”
“You’re saying it’s okay if there are no milestones?”
“If you do it well.”
Then, the graduates who had been watching us happily as if they were watching a sitcom joined in the conversation.
First, the tearjerker woman spoke.
“That’s something I can’t just ignore. It’s a formation I’ve carefully constructed. It won’t be easily broken through.”
Just like when we first met, she has a gentle smile on her face, but she feels a bit cold.
I guess my words subtly hurt your pride.
I answered politely.
“I didn’t mean to belittle your skills. I just thought that since I have a better sense than others, I could somehow overcome this problem.”
“… … .”
The tearjerker woman just looked at me silently, as if lost in thought.
He seemed to agree to some extent with the comment that she had a good intuition, as he immediately saw through her when she was hiding in a transparent ghillie suit when they first met.
However, it seems somewhat questionable whether it will be enough to neutralize the formation she so confidently installed.
The next person to speak was an old graduate.
This man’s role in the Black Market is to create a maze by applying [Pass-Through] to buildings.
He nodded to his creation, Exchange A.
“If you feel like it, is it possible to walk around there without any landmarks?”
“I guess I’ll have to try it to find out.”
“You’re not saying you can’t do it.”
The old man who graduated laughed as if he found it funny.
Soon the two graduates put their heads together and seemed to be discussing something.
Whenever I see him glance in my direction, I can tell he is talking about me 100% of the time.
And after a while, he suggested to me that he had come to a conclusion.
“Then let’s do this. We’ll wait for you inside that building. Come to us without any landmarks.”
“What happens if I succeed?”
“If I succeed, I’ll get you anything you want from this black market.”
It was a very tempting proposal.
What Dang Gyu-yeong promised me was to secure the property and arrange the transaction.
Purchasing those banned items is a separate matter.
The only valuable item that could be used for trading was the large ruby I got from Hong Yeon-hwa, but since I had many uses for gemstone items later on, I felt it was a bit of a waste.
But if you succeed, they’ll buy you that expensive forbidden item instead.
I had nothing to lose by failing, so I had no reason to back down.
I bowed my head politely.
“I will accept the test from my seniors.”
