Absolute Dweller

[Episode 16] Eve of the Storm (4)

Bang!

The charred body of the land shark fell to the ground, emitting a shockwave.

Kim Min-ho1Not the biggest of changes, but Kim Min-ho was spelled Kim Minho before. Going forward will be Kim Min-ho. relaxed his skin hardening after confirming the disappearance of the body.

“Phew.”

“Thanks for the hard work2??????? is kind of like a greeting/phrase people say at the end of working. A more English equivalent would be “Nice job/Great work today.” In Japanese, you might’ve heard “Otsukaresama desu/deshita.”!”

Kang Sung-cheol’s voice came from behind.

The youngest members of the team, Kang Sung-cheol and Ha Seo-jun, were collecting the bodies of the sky marlin scattered around.

In the case of ordinary citizens, the bodies of monsters disappear as if they were illusions after dying. However, for those with the Hunter profession like Kang Sung-cheol and Ha Seo-jun, the bodies of the monsters they hunt would remain.

The main business of Kim Min-ho’s party was to sell these.

Sky marlin were one of the popular foods with lots of meat and tender texture.

Although it was available in the convenience store, the sky marlin there was too expensive.

Since it was sold several times cheaper, the sky marlin brought by Kim Min-ho’s party were pretty in demand.

Kim Min-ho pointed to a still wriggling sky marlin and said, “Sung-cheol, don’t kill that one. Leave it behind.”

“Yes!”

After loading the sky marlin onto the truck, Kim Min-ho’s party gathered around the remaining sky marlin bodies.

Kang Sung-cheol stepped forward naturally, pulling out a sashimi knife and cutting the throat of the sky marlin. Then, he skillfully began to prepare it.

After quickly finishing the work, Kang Sung-cheol started to make sashimi.

Next to him, Ha Seo-jun brought disposable plates and wooden chopsticks and distributed them to the party members.

“What about the dipping sauce3??, a reddish dipping sauce.?”

“Here it is!”

Large pieces of sliced sky marlin sashimi were set on disposable plates, and they started eating with chopsticks.

“Mmm!”

Moon Hae-ri exclaimed with admiration, raising her thumb and praising Kang Sung-cheol.

“Sung-cheol, it seems like you’re getting better at making sashimi!”

“Thank you.”

“It’s delicious.”

Kim Min-ho dipped a large piece of sashimi into the sauce and put it in his mouth, mumbling, “Somehow, aren’t you getting tired of eating this over and over?”

“That’s what I’m thinking!”

At that moment, Moon Hae-ri raised a chopstick covered in red dipping sauce, “Why don’t we start a business too? There are many restaurants opening these days, and I think it would do well if we sell this.”

Kim Min-ho shook his head, “Noona, this tastes good because we’re eating it fresh. You can’t get this taste if sold at a store. We tried it last time, you know.”

“By our trading partner that’s running a business?”

“Yes. Even if it’s sold by an expert, the freshness is not the same.”

“Hm… what if I froze it with my ice arrows? Or getting a freezer truck or something for storage?”

“Ai4?? is a type of sigh. You might’ve seen “aiyah” or “aish” before. Maybe even “hai…”., noona. Once it’s frozen, it’s much lower in quality. Why else would we be eating sashimi here? It’s because it’s much tastier this way.”

Moon Hae-i nodded as she took another bite of sashimi, “That’s true. Mmm, it’s delicious.”

At this time, Kang Sung-cheol put out a suggestion, “Then how about this? We could receive tourist groups and show them the hunting process, and they can also eat some sashimi for free. Wouldn’t that be fun? There are a lot of people these days looking for something exciting.”

Kim Min-ho refuted the suggestion, which seemed plausible at first.

“Say something sensible. You must’ve lost your touch because there haven’t been any accidents recently, but this is a really dangerous place. Wake up.”

“Oh, yes. I’m sorry.”

Kim Min-ho was silent for a while, then carefully asked Kang Sung-cheol.

“So, how much were you thinking of charging per person?”

“Huh?”

“What you just mentioned. How much were you thinking of charging each person?”

“Um… 50,000 won per person…?”

When Kang Sung-cheol said uncertainly, Kim Min-ho chuckled and replied, “Hey, how would you make a living on that? We should charge at least 100,000 won per person.”

“Haha, you’re right.”

Ending the meaningless conversation, Nam Ji-ho put down his chopsticks and said, “Everyone, we need to hurry. We have to return before the meat quality drops.”

“Oh, yup.”

Everyone hastened their eating at his words.

Kim Min-ho, stuffing himself hurriedly, pondered seriously.

‘Would it be better to sell them frozen?’

These days, they had to drive quite far even in a car to encounter monsters.

Unlike about a month ago, the number of people driving vehicles within the area had increased, causing traffic jams.

Therefore, as soon as the hunt was over, they had to gather the sky marlin and return immediately.

If the hunt took too long, the freshness of the fish would drop.

But if they froze the sky marlin like Moon Hae-ri suggested, it would be different.

‘We can hunt for longer.’

They would be able to transport a large quantity of sky marlin at once.

‘Even if we sell them cheaply, this way is much more profitable!’

There was a reason for sayings like “Birds in the hand are worth two in the bush.5The things we currently have are worth a lot more than the things we have a chance of getting.” )”

‘Plus, it’s still winter right now, so the freshness is maintained; but in the summer, the quality of the meat will deteriorate rapidly.’

Eventually, they would still have to sell frozen meat.

“Should I look for a freezer truck or something like that?”

It was then.

[The ‘Exchange’ is now open.]

“Huh?”

A strange notification appeared before him.

“The Exchange?”

As he expressed his doubt.

“Oh?!”

[Exchange]

– [Exchange Search]

– [Register an Item]

A translucent hologram window appeared.

“This is…?”

Sensing something, Kim Min-ho quickly ran to the truck.

He held up a sky marlin and said, “Register an item.”

Then.

[Please set the price.]

After setting the usual price, a new notification appeared.

[A 5% registration fee is required to register this item.]

[Would you like to register it?]

There was a lot of money in Kim Min-ho’s wallet.

“Register it.”

At that moment.

Ziiing—

The body of the sky marlin disappeared and was registered on the Exchange.

Soon after, the sky marlin was registered at the top of the Exchange’s products.

Afterwards, various products began to appear one after another.

A few minutes later.

[The sale has been completed.]

He cheered as he saw the amount deposited in his wallet.

‘The money came in!’

Although the registration fee was gone, it was still a sizable amount.

Considering the convenience of the transaction, a 5% commission fee was almost negligible.

Kim Min-ho recalled the taste of the fresh sashimi still lingering in his mouth.

What would happen if he put freshly-killed sky marlin up on the Exchange?

‘This is going to work.’

Kim Min-ho’s excitement rose as if he was going to fly off.

“Hyung, what’s up with you?”

“Sung-cheol.”

“Yes?”

“We’ve hit the jackpot.”

***

I wasn’t particularly fond of transactions between citizens.

It was because the 10% fee from their transactions did not go into the wallet but completely disappeared into air.

The more active the transactions between citizens became, the less efficient the ‘Tax Collection’ skill would be, so I couldn’t be happy about it.

Therefore, I was slightly happy when cash transactions were activated.

Because less money would be thrown away on transaction fees.

But.

‘From now on, cash transactions will completely die out!’

The moment I checked the Exchange’s functions, I could sense that the value of cash would plummet.

‘It’s too convenient.’

The process of buying and selling goods was drastically simplified.

Most cash transactions were currently conducted through face-to-face transactions.

However, the Exchange was different.

The seller only needed to register the item on the Exchange, and the buyer only needed to decide to buy the item. It was an innovative way to reduce time and space.

Using this function made the 5% commission fee feel like nothing at all.

‘It worked out well.’

I smiled.

There was one crucial difference between transactions among citizens and transactions using the Exchange.

Namely:

[521,026 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet from the Exchange.]

[1,024 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet from the Exchange.]

[30,113 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet from the Exchange.]

[577 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet from the Exchange.]

——-

The point was that the 5% commission fee that citizens paid to the Exchange would come into my wallet.

That was different.

And, due to the effect of the Absolute Dweller’s Crown, the money coming in was doubled.

From my perspective, there was no reason to not welcome the existence of the Exchange.

‘Plus, it seems to be more useful than I thought?’

For example, if I registered a weapon on the Exchange and canceled the registration when needed, I could save the hassle of carrying the weapon. By paying only a 5% commission fee, it could be used like a sort of inventory.

‘There’s no need to do that though!’

If there were a variety of items registered on the Exchange, I could just purchase the item when needed.

‘It will be useful in many ways!’

There were already signs that transactions were becoming more active.

As I watched the amount deposited in real-time on the Exchange, I couldn’t help but feel thrilled.

This wasn’t the only good news.

‘Citizen Management Window.’

A new Awakener had joined.

『Name: Yu Han-gil (Lv. 39)

Trust: 21

Awakening Ability: Far Sight6??? – the ability to observe and penetrate into things or the ability to find out something that happened far away immediately.

Experience Distribution Rate: 0% (+200%)

Settlement Money Distribution Rate: 0% (+200%)

★Quest Assignment ??Expulsion』

The Clairvoyance ability was Grade A.

However, even considering that, his level was quite high.

‘Even if he started at level 30 after awakening his Grade A ability, it wouldn’t have been easy to reach that level.’

I had a suspicion.

‘They’re all armed with guns.’

If Yu Han-gil had been actively hunting monsters with a gun, it wouldn’t have been impossible for him to reach level 39.

‘I have to confiscate all the guns first!’

Through the Warehouse ability, I confiscated all the guns and bullets they had.

As the guns they were holding disappeared in real-time, the people became agitated.

“I-It’s dangerous!”

“As expected, let’s go back!”

“All the guns are gone!”

Yu Han-gil responded calmly, “Everyone, please calm down!”

However, those who had lost their guns, their lifeline to fight monsters with, could not calm down easily.

“Are you telling us to calm down? We came all the way here following your words, and now the most important weapon is gone! How are you going to take responsibility?”

“I apologize for the guns. But you’ll change your mind once you see for yourself.”

It seemed that Yu Han-gil, the Awakener, was not the representative of that group.

Looking at the situation, it seemed that the man who kept blaming and arguing with Yu Han-gil was the representative of their group.

The man who seemed to be the representative sighed and held his head with both hands, “Haa, Han-gil. This is not something I can do for you. It’s dangerous to even move from here without guns.”

“I told you, there are no monsters here.”

“Do you think that makes sense? In this situation?”

“You know what my ability is.”

“Sigh…”

I gave the bickering group a quest to come to me.

‘Even if they had guns, they managed to pierce through the monsters and arrive here. I should talk to them!’

It was then.

[A being satisfying the conditions to be recognized as a citizen has been approached the area.]

[Would you like to offer citizenship?]

In the past, new citizens used to come without warning, but not anymore.

Everyone who was going to come had already come, and the rest were either dead or finding their own way to survive.

Thus, it was rare for people to come in succession like this.

‘Is it just one person?’

He looked like a rugged, muscular man.

Without much thought, I checked his information.

‘This guy…’

A Higher Vampire had appeared.

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