Chapter 53: Displaying Skills - (3)
That man, Nietzsche, made a phone call somewhere.
The number was saved only in special characters.
It wasn’t a call to someone engaged in legitimate business.
<It's been a while, Nietzsche.>
"You have some guys managing the Unseo Station Open Market, right?"
<Of course. We have connections in all the open markets nationwide. It’s nothing new.>
"Shin Sanghyun is heading to the Unseo Station Open Market. Can you lure him in?"
<What do you want? Kidnapping? An ambush? Should we cut his throat?>
"He seems interested in buying artifacts. I saw him stop by the Hyunjeong Market, but he didn’t buy anything."
<So, we just need to entangle him with an artifact and hold him down?>
"Yeah. Just keep him alive enough, and I'll handle the rest."
<As you know, that guy’s got some recognition. We’ll need more people, which means the fee will be high.>
"Have I ever been short on money?"
<Heh. Then we’ll proceed right away.>
The call ended.
No one knew Nietzsche’s true identity.
But in this manner, Nietzsche had killed quite a few players and consumed their constellations.
Compared to Luca Viole, his numbers were pathetically low, but it still served as a stepping stone for his steady growth.
Nietzsche was certain that Sanghyun had made a contract with a constellation that allowed him to expand his abilities as a player with ease.
That was why new skills and abilities kept appearing every time he saw him.
There was a saying about players who were different from the rest.
The term was ‘Irregular.’ Sanghyun was already showing signs of becoming such a unique existence from the very start.
Hadn’t he been in the headlines of The Player’s Journal since his first meeting with Kim Miso, and even swept the breaking news on the channel?
If he could devour him before he grew too big, the future of the Constellation Devourer would shine a little brighter.
‘A protruding nail gets hammered down.’
Nietzsche stroked his sharp jawline and unconsciously licked his lips.
The hunt had already begun.
‘Even with all this rain, there are so many people here. And there’s definitely a lot of goods too.’
An hour later, Sanghyun arrived at the Unseo Station Open Market and was carefully inspecting the artifacts.
The number of potential customers and sellers was at least five times greater than what he had seen at the Hyunjeong Market.
Some staff from the Player Union were on-site to supervise, but they were barely managing the main pathways.
With his keen eyes, Sanghyun could spot pickpockets subtly moving among the visitors.
It wasn’t surprising, as he had expected this from the start. It only reinforced his need to be cautious.
‘Maybe I was being too greedy?’
Even after thoroughly searching the place, he couldn’t find any cost-effective, high-efficiency artifacts that met his criteria.
An artifact with tricky options that would be hard for regular players to handle, like the one he had bought from Ham Jiyeon, would be perfect.
However, such items had either already been sold or were simply not brought in. All he found were straightforward artifacts with basic stats.
"Oh? Aren’t you Shin Sanghyun?"
"Wow! Kim Miso’s boyfr— Ugh!"
"He looks way better than I expected. The camera must be at fault."
"An esteemed guest in such a humble place?"
Players who recognized him started calling out to him from different directions.
Since this happened occasionally in Player Town as well, Sanghyun wasn’t fazed and accepted their greetings naturally.
Perhaps they all felt a subtle fear toward him, as none of them dared to come too close, only exchanging brief words from a distance.
At that moment, a man rushed toward Sanghyun and spoke.
"Excuse me, are you Shin Sanghyun?"
"Yes, that’s me."
"We are a team selling artifacts in Zone 13. We had something to ask you."
"Go ahead."
"You’ve been browsing artifacts without making any purchases. Are you looking for something specific?"
"You’ve been watching me?"
"Of course. There’s no way we wouldn’t recognize a named player. Even having someone like you as a potential customer is an honor."
The man, who politely lowered his head, seemed to have ingrained manners in his behavior.
"I’m looking for artifacts ranging from Bronze to Gold grade, ones with unique options."
"By unique options, you mean?"
"Anything. I just find it hard to buy artifacts that only have plain stat boosts."
"Actually, we have quite a few of those! However, we only put bait items here."
"You run a separate market elsewhere?"
Sanghyun immediately picked up on the hidden meaning in the man’s words.
If transactions took place in the open market, a fee would be deducted, though not as much as in official markets.
So, sellers often used the market to connect with potential buyers and then conducted transactions outside.
By avoiding the transaction fees, there was room for price negotiations or additional deals.
"Yes, exactly. If you step outside for about ten minutes, you’ll find the market we run."
Things were falling into place smoothly.
Tempted by the man’s offer, Sanghyun quickly deciphered his true intentions.
‘These bastards. They use bait items to lure players in, then kidnap them and sell their organs—filthy scumbags.’
The medical field had recently advanced with organ transplant techniques utilizing magic stone inscriptions.
In other words, an era where organs could be easily replaced. That was why demand was high, and naturally, so were the prices.
Just by kidnapping a single player and selling their organs, one could easily earn more than 500 million won.
If they also took the artifacts the player possessed, the expected value would rise even higher.
The Korean Player Union tried to eradicate such crimes, but it was not something that could be easily uprooted.
'Unless players like Shin Taeri started appearing in groups.'
I was confident.
Even if I entered the tiger’s den, I had at least calculated a way to avoid being eaten.
I had been feeling stressed due to the lack of artifact purchases, so in a way, this situation was quite convenient.
"Let's go and check it out."
Sanghyun took the bait.
It was the typical act of an easy mark, knowingly falling for the scheme. The man’s lips curled into a smile.
"You won’t be disappointed. Our transaction success rate is 99%. There’s a reason for that."
'You mean your kidnapping success rate is 99%.'
Sanghyun smirked inwardly and began following the man.
At the same time, he sent a message to Park Jungmin via chat.
【I think I just found a criminal organization that lures players with artifacts. If you're interested, how about making an exclusive report?】
Along with the message, he also sent a notification sharing his real-time location. It was a kind of navigation.
He hadn’t contacted Park Jungmin because he needed help. It was just an insurance policy.
If he came, that would be good.
If not, well, the ones trying to pull something shady would meet their end anyway.
The place Sanghyun arrived at, following the man, appeared to be a large space that had been repurposed from an old abandoned factory.
It looked exactly like a spacious warehouse. To the point where it seemed like they were wasting more space than necessary.
There were quite a few boxes seemingly waiting for delivery, and items that looked like artifacts were displayed.
Moreover, some players were inspecting artifacts here and there.
But the moment Sanghyun walked further inside and picked up the artifact the man had guided him to—
'As expected.'
The result was exactly as he had anticipated.
The so-called artifacts were fakes. Counterfeits so well-made that it was almost a waste of talent.
Clang! Clunk!
Then, the heavy metal doors positioned at the warehouse’s entrance closed with a deep, echoing sound.
"Hmph."
Sanghyun looked around to see how far the situation would escalate.
He wasn’t surprised. He had expected this outcome. The killing intent he sensed from them wasn’t particularly deep.
At most, they were likely an average crew of around level 150.
"Hey, man. Don’t you think you’re a bit too naive? Even if you want to buy an artifact, coming alone is just asking for trouble."
At that moment, the players who had been pretending to be buyers laughed derisively and changed their expressions.
From the beginning, everything in this warehouse had been a setup. They were all part of the same group.
Sanghyun spoke.
"You guys are being pretty bold, huh? You sure about this? The laws in our country aren’t exactly lenient."
"What good are laws? They only matter if you get caught. If you die without a trace, there won’t even be a body, let alone a crime."
"Ah, so you’ve carefully avoided all CCTV from the start, ensuring the perfect crime?"
"You’ve got sharp eyes for a dead man walking. Yeah, you think we’d be as sloppy as some street thugs?"
That was true.
From what Sanghyun had observed in the car on the way here, they had meticulously planned everything.
The only person whose face was known publicly was the man who had lured him here.
That man was probably not a domestic citizen. He was likely a foreign national who could easily slip through surveillance.
"How many are there?"
After a quick scan, Sanghyun counted a total of ten. Each held different weapons, making for a rather well-balanced composition.
"You were acting all high and mighty after getting featured on a few broadcasts, huh? Perfect. We love beating the crap out of arrogant bastards."
"I was on broadcasts, sure, but I’ve never acted arrogant."
"Shut up, you piece of shit!"
"Wow, such harsh words for a first meeting..."
"What are you all standing around for? Beat him to a pulp, just shy of killing him!"
"Oh? That means self-defense is justified, right? You know that, don’t you?"
"Self-defense, my ass! A dead man doesn’t get to talk about self-defense! Try pleading your case to the Grim Reaper!"
The stage was set.
According to the ‘Player Law’ established two years ago, self-defense was a primary consideration in disputes between players.
Because players possessed superhuman strength capable of killing an opponent in the blink of an eye.
For non-players, even a simple flick to the forehead could be lethal.
Thus, if someone tried to kill a player, retaliating and killing the attacker wasn’t considered a major issue.
Regardless of the attacker’s intent, killing in self-defense was not a crime.
'And on top of that, any artifacts gained in self-defense aren’t even questioned!'
There was an implicit understanding that the victor would claim the spoils when subduing a criminal.
In other words, those who were targeting Sanghyun’s life would be legally punished, and their loot would be considered illegally obtained.
But for Sanghyun, who had no choice but to fight to survive, killing them and taking their artifacts was completely legal.
Bzzz. Bzz. Bzzz.
Various effects began activating all around, distorting his vision.
'First, two buffers.'
Sanghyun quickly identified two players casting buff skills on their teammates.
Judging from the activation effects on their bodies, one specialized in defensive buffs, while the other focused on status ailment removal.
'Nice setup.'
They weren’t dumb enough to charge in blindly with the same job class, relying solely on numbers.
'The remaining eight include two spearmen, three swordsmen, one assassin, and two debuffers.'
He finished assessing the enemy composition. It was a well-balanced and professional team.
'It’ll be troublesome, but looking at it from another angle, this is a goldmine, isn’t it?'
A grin spread across Sanghyun’s lips as he scanned the ten enemies evenly.
In battle, numbers weren’t the deciding factor. The key was how quickly one could disarm the opponent.
And for Sanghyun, the blueprint for handling one-versus-many fights had long been drawn up.
One versus ten.
From a numbers standpoint, the odds were overwhelmingly against Sanghyun.
And so, the battle began.