- Hey, Lee. Still holding up?
His sturdy frame easily exceeded two meters, looking as solid as a boulder, while there was hardly a patch of his black skin that was free of scars.
Yet a smile was always hanging from his lips.
- These days, your body is your greatest asset. Literally!
Tyron Maxwell of the United States.
A Ranker with the Healer Class who became humanity’s final Healer.
He belonged to the Monk Class, yet possessed such tremendous Stats that he had even fought as a close-range damage dealer or Tank.
A powerful man.
However, after becoming friends with Kim Suho of Cosmo Guild, he was later betrayed by him and suffered grievous injuries.
He spent the rest of his life tormented by the aftereffects before ultimately meeting his end.
A tragic hero.
‘He’s coming to this auction house.’
And this was where he would meet Kim Suho and become acquainted with him.
The very man who would eventually drive him to his death.
‘Not this time.’
Before his regression, Dojin had heard from Tyron himself why he had deliberately traveled all the way to an auction house in Korea.
And how he had ended up becoming involved with Kim Suho.
Dojin intended to take that connection for himself.
That was the true reason he had come to this auction house with Rahi.
At that moment, Rahi handed something to Dojin.
“Take a look. That’s the list of Items scheduled to appear in today’s auction.”
“…….”
Dojin silently accepted the list and unfolded it.
Rahi watched him for a moment before letting out a faint sigh.
‘He really is an unbelievable man…… Even I never thought of using it that way.’
***
Kim Suho was not in a particularly good mood.
Of course, thanks to his flawless social skills, no one who met him had ever noticed his true nature.
But his secretary, who had served Suho for years, sensitively picked up on the cold atmosphere surrounding his superior and shrank back.
He even knew exactly why Suho’s mood had soured.
‘Because of the Necromancer.’
Cosmo Guild had recently planned a spectacular debut for its trainees.
By producing the greatest number of Full-Fledged Players in Korea all at once, they had intended to prove that Cosmo Guild was the greatest Player Guild in the country.
‘And we were going to ride that momentum into Cosmo Guild’s expansion overseas……!’
It had failed.
Completely.
Because on that very same day, a crazy Necromancer had pulled off something equally crazy and stolen all the attention!
‘And of all places, it had to be an Under Arena no one had logged into for almost two years!’
When the Necromancer’s stream first began, even the secretary had scoffed.
He had assumed some ignorant rookie Player was showing off recklessly and was about to ruin himself.
Then the bastard cleared it.
The moment that happened, every Player other than the Necromancer vanished cleanly from the public’s mind.
Not only in Korea, but across the entire world.
‘The project itself succeeded, yet the result was still a failure.’
Player streaming made money.
There were more than enough obscenely wealthy people in the world with money to burn.
Moreover, even after a live broadcast ended, the recorded stream remained intact within the System.
As its view count rose, the Player’s income increased proportionally.
But after the Necromancer cleared the Under Arena, Cosmo Guild’s earnings had been cut in half…….
No.
Considering how much money they had spent producing their broadcasts, they had suffered a horrific loss.
‘The other Guilds and the Awakening Department are probably in the same boat.’
Because of the System’s nature, all income related to streaming belonged entirely to the Player.
That was one of the differences between it and platforms created by humans.
The System was also completely independent.
No matter how much humans objected, there was nothing they could do.
Humanity had not simply watched the System passively since the Great Upheaval began.
They had tried countless ways to contact and control it.
Every attempt had failed.
Preventing viewers from watching the Necromancer’s broadcasts was simply impossible.
‘Ha! The Guild that signed that bastard must be the only one making a fortune!’
He had no idea how they had arranged the distribution ratio, but money must practically be raining from the sky for them.
“By the way…….”
“Yes, Guild Master!”
At the low, emotionless voice that stabbed into him from beside him, the secretary flinched and immediately straightened his posture.
This was no time to lose himself in thought.
“You’re certain that Item will appear at today’s auction, Secretary Song?”
“……There’s no mistake, Guild Master.”
Secretary Song’s mind raced.
He absolutely could not make a mistake in front of a Guild Master who was already in a foul mood.
Outwardly, Kim Suho maintained the image of a kind, sociable, and approachable Guild Master.
But in essence, he was already a Korean Ranker who had long since transcended ordinary humans.
And Secretary Song, who had survived this long while working as an ordinary person within Cosmo Guild, instinctively understood that Kim Suho was a dangerous man whose actions were impossible to predict once his true nature surfaced.
“Among the Items Hangang Group has put up for auction, the ones our Guild absolutely must purchase are…….”
While Kim Suho and Secretary Song took their seats and quietly discussed matters among themselves—
Players who had flown in from all over Korea and even from around the world carefully unfolded their auction catalogs.
***
Dojin, who had unexpectedly found himself inside an auction house VIP room simply because he was accompanying the owner family hosting the auction, was also casually looking through the list.
“A helmet crafted by Artisan Choi Ilseop, a longsword crafted by Artisan Baek Namgyu, and a full suit of armor jointly crafted by Artisan Oh Jeongsu and Mage Player Oh Chaeyoung…….”
Naturally, most of the auction goods had been made by humans.
“A lot of skilled artisans finished major works this time. That’s why people have deliberately come to Korea from overseas to buy equipment.”
“……I see. With some of the Items even made with assistance from Mages, I suppose even more Players would come.”
Dojin gave an appropriate response to Rahi as he continued down the list.
Before long, however, his attention shifted below the VIP room window.
He was searching for his true objective.
The VIP room the two of them occupied on the second floor was a separately furnished space resembling a theater box.
Special glass ensured privacy, while the facilities were arranged so meticulously that viewing the auction goods posed no difficulty whatsoever.
Thanks to that, it was also the perfect place to observe the other Players seated throughout the first-floor hall.
“…….”
Dojin’s eyes moved sharply.
Asian Players, including Koreans, made up the overwhelming majority.
But here and there, he could also see blond- and red-haired white Players, black Players, Arabs, and Latinos.
Among them—one man.
“……Found him.”
Dojin’s low voice rang out.
***
- I’ll be back in a moment.
- Is it because of that business you mentioned?
- Yes. Wish me luck.
After leaving those words with Rahi, Dojin stepped out of the VIP room and began walking.
Had he come wearing the same clothes he normally wore during his streams, the nearby Players would have immediately turned him into a spectacle.
But a coordinator Rahi had sent had dressed him elegantly from head to toe, and he was also wearing an elegant mask provided for auction VIPs.
No one recognized Dojin.
He strode directly toward the person he had found.
“……What do we do?”
“We don’t have a choice…… If too many people are after them, we’ll have to give up at least one.”
Two men were sitting in the general seating area before Dojin.
One was white.
The other was black.
From the black man, Dojin felt familiar mana.
“…….”
Compared to when Dojin had met him before his regression, the man’s face was remarkably clean and his clothes neat.
Dojin searched his memories.
- It was at an auction house in Korea.
- I didn’t have enough Gold, so I was about to have to give up the equipment I wanted…… and that’s when I met that bastard.
- At first, I was grateful. Thanks to him, I managed to get the equipment I urgently needed.
- ……Never imagined how that debt would come back to haunt me.
I trusted someone I should never have trusted—
Tyron had said those words while pressing a hand against the wound in his side.
A wound burdened by a curse that would never heal.
The very injury that would ultimately take his life…….
“Excuse me.”
“……?”
“Who are you?”
The white man beside Tyron……
Dojin did not know him.
He had no memory of the man.
After the Main Scenario began, far too many people had died.
“It sounded like you were discussing the auction Items. Would you mind if I joined the conversation?”
Dojin chose his words carefully.
He wanted to start off on good terms with Tyron.
“I’m also in a difficult position because it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to buy the equipment I want at the auction…… but I think another option may have opened up.”
“……Another option?”
Tyron and his manager, Oliver Brown, looked cautiously at the unfamiliar Asian man with guarded expressions.
Nobody shared useful information with strangers for no reason.
The modern world was, after all, a competitive society.
But they could not simply ignore everything and close their ears either.
The truth could sometimes be hidden among countless rumors.
The masked Asian man said nothing more.
He merely typed a single phrase into his smartphone and showed it to them.
“……!”
One of Tyron’s eyebrows twitched when he read it.
Store System.
Those were the words displayed on the smartphone screen.