Chapter 3

Yong-ju crossed the glittering pawn street and entered a narrow alley.

"This is the old food alley. It's an alley where businesses have been operating for a long time, targeting people in the jewelry and pawn industries."

"Judging from the 'old' in the name, there must be a new food alley, right?"

"Yeah. It's attached to the pawn street. It's a new place, so it has a different vibe from here. Here's the building."

It was a shabby, old three-story building.

Just by looking at the tiled exterior, one could roughly guess the age of the building.

The first floor had a rusty shutter pulled down, and the glass of the front door was taped up with yellow tape.

Yong-ju guided Tae-sik to the second floor.

A sign that didn't look like a sign read "Half-Price Pawn Shop."

"Half-price to buy and half-price to sell."

"Who would sell if you buy at half-price?"

"That's why the shop is on the market. Let's go in."

The interior was not much different from the exterior.

A worn leather sofa and a low table covered with green non-woven fabric were particularly noticeable.

"Mr. Park, this is the person interested in taking over the shop."

"Ah, I see. A young owner."

Mr. Park looked Tae-sik up and down.

"Hunter?"

He then casually threw out.

Tae-sik chuckled.

"Is being a Hunter important?"

"Well, you're a Hunter, so you're in the pawn business, right? Then take a look at the items. A pawn shop owner should have an eye for goods."

He leaned back in the chair and stretched.

"Just a bunch of worthless items laid out for you to look at."

"That's how we talk in this industry, even on first meetings."

"Hey, Tae-sik."

Yong-ju poked Tae-sik's side.

Special ability users have Dark Matter, the power to handle special abilities.

Depending on various conditions, Dark Matter can radiate or not, but in Tae-sik's case, it's usually possible to detect the aura.

The aura emanating from Mr. Park was strong but shallow and lacked purity, a typical show of pretense.

"It's fine, it's fine."

Tae-sik stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a stack of cash.

Mr. Park, who was about to shout, shut his mouth as the stacks of cash piled up.

"If you want to haggle, just clear it away. If you want to sell, let's do it cleanly without any hassle." Tae-sik emitted a straight aura along with the cash. It didn't matter if he wasn't a skilled enough to read auras.

It was enough to make him feel it.

"Uh, uh—."

The owner only blinked and looked at Yong-ju.

"Looks like you've almost finished sorting things out... Do you have to go somewhere in a hurry? Why are you so anxious?"

"W-What are you talking about? When was I anxious?"

"So you don't like it?"

Snap!

The last stack of money landed on the table.

It was 20 billion won, all in cash, with no checks mixed in.

Mr. Park finally shut his mouth.

The money piled up in front of him was one thing, but the volume of the cash was a problem.

This much volume of items came out of Tae-sik's inner pocket.

An ability beyond comprehension.

"I didn't say I didn't like it... But you look so young, isn't it too disrespectful?"

"Then speak more politely. Raise your tone?"

He slightly averted his gaze. There was nothing more to say.

"Bro, if there's any paperwork to be done, do it."

"Wait, wait. But this money, it's not some problematic money, right?"

"Life is hard to progress if you're too suspicious."

Tae-sik walked out.

Since it was a food alley, restaurants lined up.

Tae-sik sat at a street stall serving rice soup, where the plastic chairs were worn out.

The smell of fish might not be to everyone's taste, but Tae-sik liked it.

"Grandma, one bowl of rice soup, please."

"I haven't seen you before."

Her words were warm.

It wasn't the tone of an old woman dealing with a child. It was the same as a grandmother dealing with a grown-up grandson.

"I'm going to work nearby."

"This alley is a place where, if you work hard, you can come in empty-handed and leave with a bunch of keys. It's good to see a young man with ambition."

The white-haired owner cut some head meat and added it to the rice soup.

"Enjoy your meal."

"Thank you, Grandma."

It was nice that the words "enjoy your meal" were not just words.

Tae-sik slurped down the rice soup.

Just as he finished, he got a call from Yong-ju.

-What, where are you?

"Having a meal."

-How mean, you're eating alone?

"I didn't have breakfast, so I'm having it now."

-Come here. I've got all the documents. Just sign and it's done.

"Got it."

Tae-sik paid for the rice soup.

He was grateful for the offer to eat more, so he thought about leaving a 50,000 won bill in the money box, but it felt like ignoring the offer, so he handed over a crisp 10,000 won bill.

"Thanks to Grandma, I had a delicious and full meal."

"Hehe, what a polite young man. Come again, and I'll treat you well."

"Haha, then I'll come often."

Tae-sik smiled and greeted Yong-ju. In the office, only Yong-ju was there.

"Of course."

"What's of course?"

"Didn't this guy take the money and run?"

"He said he had something urgent to do."

"Anyway, is everything done?"

"Yeah, I can handle it. But wasn't it a bit too sudden?"

"Forget it, it's already done. And I like it here."

"You like it? It's too shabby. Shouldn't you have haggled a bit?"

"What's the point of money? It's too much trouble to look around, and this is good enough. Besides, the rice soup was delicious."

Tae-sik picked up the TV from a corner of the display cabinet and placed it opposite the sofa.

He then leaned back on the worn sofa.

It fit him perfectly.

"It fits perfectly."

"Phew, you don't even think about working."

"Once you've done enough work, that's it. I'll just live like this forever."

Tae-sik stretched out.

Customer, Customer (1)

It was early morning.

Tae-sik got up without stretching and went to the bathroom.

Miju was preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

She was preparing breakfast because Tae-sik was getting ready for work; otherwise, her filial son would have been there.

After a quick shower, Tae-sik changed into a suit.

It was a new one Miju had tailored for him.

He had an old one from when he was preparing for a job, but his body had changed, so it no longer fit.

"Have breakfast."

The breakfast was not elaborate.

Leftover kimchi stew from last night, fried eggs, kimchi, and bean paste, and some seaweed.

What was special was that the seaweed was homemade roasted seaweed from Miju, and there were five fried eggs.

"The kimchi stew tastes better after a day."

"Want another bowl?"

"No, overeating in the morning makes me feel heavy. I'm going to work."

As Tae-sik left, Miju followed him to the front door.

The shoes were also new, bought when the suit was tailored.

"If it's hard to organize the shop, let me know. I'll come and help."

"I don't need your help."

"Why? You can do cleaning."

"You can call a cleaning service for that. I have to organize the items myself, so there's nothing for you to do."

"Got it, kid. Are you coming home late tonight?"

"Depends. I'll come home early if there's no work."

"Call if you're coming early."

"Sure. I'll go now."

Tae-sik went to the subway station.

After passing through the turnstile, he didn't go to the platform but to the restroom.

It was rush hour. The subway was like a bean sprout box, and he avoided it.

Especially since he had to take the 2号线 and then transfer to the 1号线, it was the worst route.

Tae-sik entered an empty stall in the restroom and teleported to the shop.

Actually, if Miju didn't see from the balcony, he wouldn't even need to go to the subway station.

"Ah, so inconvenient."

The first thing Tae-sik did after arriving was to change his clothes.

Sweatpants and slippers. There was no better outfit for lying on the sofa.

The shop remained as it was when he took it over.

There was no need to redecorate, and there was no reason to display items.

If he ran out of money, he could just go on a sales trip.

The only change was that he moved the sofa to face the TV.

The windows with film on them were not opened.

Without blinds, the room was too bright when the windows were open.

Tae-sik found the sunlight filtering through the faded film just right.

"This feels more like living."

Tae-sik, stretched out on the sofa, looked for the remote.

He didn't have a specific show to watch.

He just flipped through the channels and stopped when something caught his eye.

Recently, morning dramas were quite good.

Watching them, one could say there was a certain aesthetic in melodrama.

"Is it a trend to slap people with food now? Kimchi, jajangmyeon, spaghetti... Oh, now it's doenjang?" After spending the morning like this, Tae-sik sighed.

Even so, he didn't fall into a deep sleep.

Even after being home for almost a year, Tae-sik still couldn't sleep well.

Ding-dong.

Someone must have come.

Tae-sik got up.

"Welcome." Tae-sik went to the counter. Since the shop door was open, he couldn't completely avoid doing business.

"I'd like to look at some items."

At first glance, the customer didn't seem to be a wealthy Hunter.

The fact that he came here instead of the main pawn street in Jongno suggested he knew what he was doing.

"Mr. Owner, how much is this?"

There was no price tag.

Tae-sik flipped through the ledger next to the old computer. The handwritten ledger was densely packed with tiny writing.

It was exhausting.

"Just give me 1.5 million won."

Tae-sik called out a rough price.

"Really? That cheap?"

The customer was surprised and asked back. There was suspicion in his eyes, wondering if there was something wrong with the item.

Explaining was a hassle, and haggling was a hassle.

"It's a half-price pawn shop."

"Ah..."

The customer easily agreed. Tae-sik sent off his first customer like that.

There weren't many customers, but they weren't completely absent. A few came in at intervals.

"What brings you here?"

"I want to sell something."

The customer was young.

He looked to be in his early 20s, and at times, he looked like a high school student.

No, apart from that, his eyes looked tired.

"Let me see the item."

The young customer handed over a dagger with many teeth missing.

"I didn't get it appraised. Can you appraise it?"

"Let me take a look."

Tae-sik examined the dagger.

It looked like an old bone dagger, but there were significant traces of Dark Matter.

If it was filled with Dark Matter, it would be treated as an item-level object.

"It's an item-level object, but it's quite worn out."

"Ah... Is that bad?"

"Not necessarily. It's like an empty container. As a simple weapon, it doesn't have much value."