“Excuse me, miss, what are you looking for?”
“A hospital gift.”
“Oh, then how about this one?”
Seeing a market merchant approach while looking for a hospital gift for Noah, I moved my feet.
“An apple.”
“Yes, is this your first time here?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I see.”
The apple he handed over appeared very clean on the outside and looked delicious with a shiny surface.
The same went for the other fruits.
“Can I taste this?”
“Of course! You should always taste things before deciding.”
When I asked if sampling was possible, the merchant quickly brought out a previously cut apple and stuffed it into his mouth.
“…Ugh…Ugh!!”
“Don’t refuse. It’s tasty, isn’t it?”
“Ughhh!!!”
I was struggling to shake him off with force, but the alcohol I purchased earlier was taking effect, and I was quite buzzed.
To escape from my current state, I would need at least the strength of an academy student.
“…Cool.”
After a few minutes of him forcefully stuffing the apple into his mouth, the merchant eventually fell asleep.
“As expected.”
No matter how much this was an officially recognized black market, some people went beyond the line.
People who kidnap others, for instance.
Especially food is effective for such methods, so it was normal for those in the know to avoid coming here, usually children or frail old men.
And to others, my body… well, it’s closer to that of a child than an adult.
If things went south, they might have thought about taking me even if the food didn’t have any sleeping drug.
Someone might say that perhaps the alcohol had sleeping drugs too, but the situation is a bit different.
After all, the alcohol sold near the entrance was watched by many, and above all, my nose is sensitive enough to identify other smells mixed with alcohol.
Considering this ability is only effective with alcohol, it might be influenced more by the characteristics of a drunkard than that of an alcoholic.
I don’t sense such sensitive smells when eating other foods.
“Miss, do you want to try this?”
“Would you like to share it?”
“I’m sorry.”
“····.”
After that, I tried to go around various places to buy different gifts, but everything was abnormally cheap and had defects, making it impossible to buy anything fruit-related.
‘Fruits have been expensive lately.’
I don’t understand why fruits I don’t even eat at home feel so expensive when I actually want to buy them.
Still, I couldn’t purchase fruits just because they were cheap and contained sleeping drugs… I gave up.
Buying from a regular mart would be safer and lower risk.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t reach the goal of buying a gift for Noah, but my business with the black market wasn’t finished yet.
The reason I need to earn money.
It’s not just to cover the cost of alcohol.
Of course, drinking good alcohol makes me feel good…!
But before that, my body can’t handle alcohol.
It’s often referred to as external strength and internal weakness in martial arts.
It’s akin to how peak or super-peak martial artists occasionally die after consuming food poisoned by someone they underestimated.
I’m somewhat curious about what happens to a martial artist who develops cancer.
No matter how much mental stats increase and physical stats rise, that doesn’t necessarily improve actual health.
Moreover, these days, I feel unhealthy symptoms even when deliberately drinking alcohol with a lower alcohol content.
At this rate, I might ruin my body from alcohol before reaching the middle of the game, leading to a limited life.
No, perhaps I might already be at that point.
‘My body is dying.’
Even if stats make my body stronger, the possibility of sudden death increases at some point.
What a terrifying setting, isn’t it?
That’s why I urgently need money to solve this problem.
I never expected it to hold such value, but I happened to sell a mask, which provided me with the funds to make it possible.
If I could receive cash as the guide mentioned, I might be able to afford countermeasures for a few months.
However, I could not buy medicine or related items through proper channels.
It was too expensive, and the methods of access were difficult.
Unless a stroke of luck falls from the sky, this will only be a temporary measure.
So, what I need to do is simple.
As mentioned before, this black market is like a stronghold that the state merely watches but doesn’t touch.
Thus, among those wandering the black market, there are quite a number of people who don’t seem to fit that image in their daily lives.
People you wouldn’t think would come to a place like a black market.
Professors or students who usually appear diligent.
In that case, an organization connecting the light and the shadows of society must also exist.
“I found it.”
Arriving at a decent gray building after walking through the alleyway.
It was a building that existed about 5 minutes’ walk from the entrance to the black market, ambiguously straddling the border of legitimacy and illegitimacy.
Moreover, the people inside.
From a seemingly neat young man in a suit to a trembling homeless person.
The widest spectrum of mixed individuals I had seen so far unfolded before me.
A man in a suit next to a beggar, and beside him a drug user.
It was an image hard to imagine easily, but it told me something about how it was connected to the black market.
Leaving only the cost of alcohol and the minimum food expenses in my bank account, I stood there with trembling legs.
“Do you have any items you wish to purchase?”
“I sold merchandise in the market before, and I’d like to rent some equipment with that.”
“What kind of item do you want?”
“Purification type… would that be possible?”
In the game, purification-type equipment usually resolves most status effects just by wearing it, making it quite high-grade, but since this is reality, I called it out anyway.
“The lowest grade purification type equipment starts at 100 million. Are you looking for something in the pharmaceutical area?”
“····.”
But it was still expensive.
100 million.
And that’s for the lowest grade equipment.
“Is there a… medicine available?”
Damn, I stumbled over the huge number and ended up speaking like someone under the influence of drugs.
“I’m not sure what you want, but if you want enough for a month based on the lowest grade, it would be three hundred.”
“I can’t…!”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, never mind….”
I was about to curse at the nonsensical price, but I decided to look for other items.
“What about healing types…?”
“The lowest grade is 4,000…”
“W-what’s the cost for control types?”
“The lowest grade is about 3,000.”
Finally, a compromiseable level of equipment appeared in the control category.
Control-type items can be thought of as a type of deferred item.
The damage you’re supposed to take gets accumulated and stored somewhere.
Naturally, if this were to burst, there’s almost a 100% chance you would receive near fatal damage.
Before that, the cumulative damage must be resolved using other items.
Compared to other purification or healing equipment, the risks are higher, and the actual danger remains unaddressed, leading to various side effects, but that’s also why I had reached my purchasing limit.
“Would you prefer a one-time payment?”
“I’ll take it in 36-month installments….”
I barely purchased one month’s worth of purification medicine and received a control item on installments.
The information regarding the mask I sold earlier might have reached this side, as permission was granted easily.
Of course, my detailed personal information was not disclosed.
Click.
Fortunately, the control item was a bracelet that could be worn over gloves, so it wouldn’t spill out while fighting or drinking.
“When the limit of the control equipment is reached, the bracelet will glow red. Please keep a careful watch.”
“Yes…”
In the employee’s eyes looking at me, there was the intent that they hoped I wouldn’t die, but the problem was that it wasn’t purely altruistic.
People whose lives have collapsed for various reasons or can only purchase through illegal routes.
They are the company’s financial lifeblood and its biggest patrons.
If they die, it’s practically the same as the company suffering a loss.
Thus, the hope was for them to remain healthy and to continue being a source of income without completely ruining their lives.
That was the reality for them.
‘Indeed, this world is not a good place to live.’
It was a fact I hadn’t really cared about while enjoying life outside the game, but the genre of this game fits better as dark fantasy rather than simple modern fantasy.
Sub-characters die for various reasons, and main characters can die much more easily than expected depending on player actions.
Just a little way out of the central city, and there are drugged individuals and slum dwellers.
Outside, songs of heroes who have eradicated great clans and monsters are spread widely, yet those who are struggling day by day have no time to sing.
This place is overflowing with magic and superb technology, but just a few months ago, I nearly got an axe stuck in my head from a quack doctor.
A clear case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
If I didn’t have any traits or the knowledge from the game.
I might have lived as a thief on the streets and died a lonely death.
“Oh, right.”
As I was drowning in such gloomy thoughts, the fact that I hadn’t visited my parents in this world recently came to mind.
In reality, I had no contacts and no particular reason to visit.
That said, there was nothing to discuss if we met either.
In a collapsing building with daily expenses for food, would I be a bother if I went to visit?
“…Maybe I’ll go see them soon.”
Well, it wouldn’t matter whether I go now or later.
Right now, it was time to focus on surviving.
