I passed the people walking like corpses in front of the auction house and left alone. When I came here before, I had only thought they looked lifeless, but to think those were living dolls. Soon Eden would be mixed in among them too.
Something that had been a headache was gone, and I felt relieved, yet strange.
'But do I need to think too hard about it?'
I knew my feelings toward other people had been growing duller since I came to the Ghost Story Market, but Eden wasn't dead, and I thought I was still fine for now. Something like this was everyday life in the market.
Ah.
One regrettable thing was that I hadn't gotten a commission from Eden. I had gone through all this trouble coming to the auction house, and I had ended up doing it for free; it was truly the worst of the worst. Later, I would have to try proposing that I take back the points Eden would have no use for.
I thought I might be going home today with nothing to show for it, but the shadow spoke to me.
[Do you need this?]
Ever since Darkness appeared, it had been trembling and hiding tight, never showing itself, so I had assumed it wouldn't speak to me until we left the market, but the shadow was handing me something shiny, looking shy.
When I looked at what it held out, it was a silver marble that looked pretty useless. I wondered where on earth it had picked that up.
'No, wait. If it's a market item, maybe I should take it first and ask questions later.'
When I took it, trying to touch it as little as possible, there was a sparkle of light in the air, and an alert window floated up.
[Darkness's Spare Key]
A manager's master key that allows searching the information of every investor in the market, summoning events, assessing risk levels, creating quests, and more.
Good grief.
It was definitely an item Darkness had dropped at the auction house.
'Is it all right for me to have this?'
My head wouldn't work. The only certain thing was that I had to get out of the Ghost Story Market right now. If I were caught with this, I would be killed on the spot before I even had time to think of a next move.
Even if I went to return it, saying, 'I found it lying quietly on the ground,' no one would believe me. And they would never just let me go after I had seen the key's abilities with my own eyes.
***
Back home, I sat still in my room and thought about what to do with this marble. No matter how hard I racked my brain, no good alternative came to mind.
'This is a tough spot.'
Its abilities were so tempting that I wanted to just pocket it, but it was Darkness's. One wrong move, and there was a chance I would end up like the things I had seen in the market, alive but not really living.
"Ah. Right. I haven't done my skill-up yet."
As I thought about ways to get through this, I remembered I had forgotten that I could do a skill-up now that I had 30 soul fragments. Thinking I might as well do the skill-up now, I decided to use the 30 soul fragments.
The roulette Daniel had shown in Human Hammering had definitely come from a skill-up. What came out seemed random, but hoping something similar would come out, I pressed the button to confirm the skill-up.
[Due to the influence of the Manager's Spare Key, the skill-up specs are upgraded.]
[Due to the influence of the Manager's Spare Key, an ability is granted at random from among advanced skills.]
[Due to the influence of the Manager's Spare Key, the skill's usage limit is lifted to unlimited.]
DING-A-LING— DING-A-LING—
The alerts rang one after another, and a roulette wheel began spinning frantically.
[All-Purpose Calculator]
Skill-up readjustment complete.
Along with the message, a calculator was absorbed into my item box.
"A calculator??"
All I had gotten from an advanced skill was a mere calculator.
The messages that came up first had pumped my expectations sky-high, and then it gave me not an attack skill, not a defense skill, but a calculator.
'I have no idea what I'm supposed to use that for.'
That settled it. I was someone with trash luck who only ever pulled garbage-tier items. Even with the spare key's influence, it had driven the final nail in, confirming I had no talent for gacha, and I was crushed.
While I was heaving sigh after sigh, I noticed messages piled up on my phone screen and checked them. Lately I had only been going between home and the market and hadn't been in touch with anyone at all, so there was no one in particular who would contact me, which made me curious.
"Fuck."
The curse came out on its own.
About 10 of the piled-up messages were from Sang-min, but the rest were a barrage of hate comments that had come through social media.
I had gone shopping a few months ago, as part of a plan to lure in Go A-ran and Kim Hyun-woo. But this was what came of it. They didn't think I had gotten back on my feet.
[Fucking bastard. Trying so hard. Trying so hard. Went broke, then borrowed to the hilt to invest and now you're showing off?]
[Given up on life, Kim Min-jae? One last shopping spree and then you're done?]
[Right. I'm a fucking crazy bitch for checking the property register just in case.]
[Heard you still live in that fucked-up hillside slum?]
Not a single one of them thought I was doing this because my life had really gotten better. The market's entrance was in this house, so I had no plans to move, and I hadn't thought as far as the property register, but I would buy one more house for others to see and announce my comeback again. They were anonymous accounts that weren't even on my friends list, but they were all people who had known me. I had to first show the people who knew my old life that I had boldly succeeded.
"Ha. I had the wrong idea from the start."
It wasn't enough. I hadn't expected them to track my movements this persistently, but I had to show them I was somewhere far, far higher. I had been a fool to think they would fall for it just because I bought a few luxury brands. In the middle of all this, I sent a message to Sang-min, who had seen the social media and been the first to worry about me.
'I'll show you what being truly out of reach looks like.'
***
As I turned into the market alley in Bangi-dong, I saw Sang-min standing out in front of his shop. Just as I was about to honk happily, an alert window popped up in front of my eyes and numbers came rattling down.
Soul price: cannot be measured.
Memories tradable. Separate measurement criteria.
Kidney: tradable for 45 points.
Brain: tradable for 72 points.
...
....
The value of the human Sang-min, tradable in the Ghost Story Market, had been turned into numbers and appeared before my eyes.
'This... what on earth....'
The window didn't go away even when I blinked, and when someone else walked by in the market alley, another window popped up beside it. The passerby's numbers showed up in full through the window, without fail.
"So this is the calculator's function."
When I had just gotten the skill, I had thought I'd pulled a garbage item, but at the calculator's function, more useful than I had thought, a chill ran down my spine. With this skill, it seemed I could fully use the people who had driven me into despair as wallets.
[The Calculator skill's usage limit has been lifted, allowing unlimited use.]
[Due to the skill's upgrade, you can set an ON/OFF function.]
I was worried that from now on I would be forced to see the numbers of everyone who even brushed past me, and right on time, an alert window floated up in the air. Fortunately, there seemed to be an OFF function, so I turned it off for the time being.
"If you're here, come in. What are you doing out here?"
Finding it strange that I hadn't moved for a while in the parked car, Sang-min knocked on the window. I had been sitting there dazed for too long.
"I was just about to get out. What about what I asked you for?"
"Huh? Well, I reached out to as many as I could."
He had an uneasy look on his face. Still, it showed that he hadn't brushed off my urgent request and had tried to do it one way or another. He probably didn't quite understand yet, but that was something I could persuade him of from here on.
"Let's go in."
I took a big bag out of the trunk, slung it over my shoulder, and headed into Sang-min's shop. When we went inside, Sang-min, following behind, pulled down the shop's shutter. It was rare for him to close the shop, but I had asked him specially today, so he had closed it for me.
"Hello. Nice to meet you."
In Sang-min's shop sat a few people he had brought at my request. People who had all been scammed by Kim Hyun-woo. About six had gathered.
'Fewer than I thought.'
The money Kim Hyun-woo and Park Min-hwan had extorted was 26.4 billion won. They must have fleeced far more people, yet only six had gathered.
"I've invited you all here because I have a proposal for you."
They had gathered, but they all looked shabby, and there was no life in their eyes.
"The verdict's already in. We can't get the money back."
"That's right, pal. We've tried protests, civil suits, criminal suits, lawyers, all of it."
They spoke as if they had given up, but the fact that they had come all the way here meant they hadn't let go of hope yet. Maybe not, but it didn't matter even if I was just assuming. I could simply set that hope on fire again.
BANG!
I set the bag I had brought from the trunk on the table. At the heavy thud, the people who had been staring at the floor with their heads down turned their attention to it. Sang-min and the hacker buddies he had brought also watched closely, as if curious what was in the bag.
"There's 10 billion won here."
When I opened the bag and showed them the bundles of fifty-thousand-won bills, everyone watching shot to their feet. Jumping up in surprise, they knocked their chairs over with a loud clatter.
"I'm going to start a company with this money."
"M-Min-jae? Where did you get all this money?"
Sang-min, startled too, picked up a bundle of fifty-thousand-won bills and examined it this way and that. Realizing that all the money in the bag was real, he backed away, practically foaming at the mouth.
I knew. 10 billion won was money I could never get my hands on, even if I got Dangun, the founding father of Korea, himself to co-sign a loan. They would all be curious where this money had come from.
"The people here will only go through the motions of the work, so there's nothing in particular you'll actually have to do. You just need to be registered as employees and collect your salaries."
When I said it with my hand stretched toward Sang-min and his buddies, Sang-min, hearing it for the first time, jumped in surprise and dropped the bundle of fifty-thousand-won bills from his hand.
"You son of a bitch! You're in on it too? This is some new kind of scam, isn't it?!"
"Go ahead, suck the liver out of a flea!"
At that, the six seemed to feel it was a scam, and one after another they started hurling curses at me.
"If you don't want to join, take as much money out of the bag as Kim Hyun-woo scammed you out of and leave."
"What? Y-you'll really give us the money?"
"We can really just take it and go?"
The people who had been pouring out words sharper than daggers turned meek, like innocent children.
"I don't lie. But if you become employees, I'll give you the money you lost right here and now, and a salary on top of it."
"Wh... what do you get out of doing that?"
At the words of the older man, who had softened a little, I smiled and opened my mouth.
"Revenge."
A heavy silence, lonely and full of murderous intent, settled over Sang-min's shop. If the money they had lost could be made up without any risk, they would all want revenge. They must have gone through the same hell all this time.
"I'll start the company with my own money. Every cost and every benefit the company needs will come out of my own money too. I'm just a madman who wants revenge on those two bastards."
When I finished the whole briefing, the people who had stood up began sitting back down in their chairs one by one. With far calmer, colder eyes than before. And life was returning to their eyes, too.
"I'm counting on you. CEO."
"I'm counting on you too."
"...Please, get revenge for us. My wife hanged herself."
Seeing someone cry and even fall to his knees, I felt none of the six gathered here would drop out. Lastly, I looked at Sang-min and held out my hand.
"I'm going to start an IT company. Let's do it together. You guys in the back too."
"Min... Min-jae?"
"Sell the shop and come out. The baby's going to be born soon; you should be an office worker."
I took the hand of the dumbfounded Sang-min and smiled. To be honest, all this company needed was Sang-min. What I needed wasn't employees, but people who loathed Park Min-hwan and Kim Hyun-woo enough to join in my revenge.