Hissss—
Smoke from burning mana rose, and an acrid stench filled the cramped workshop.
“Ugh, the smell.”
I thumped my stiff lower back and took off my goggles.
On the workbench lay the E-rank hunter gloves I had just finished repairing.
[Repair complete! Proficiency has increased by 0.1%.]
A tiny little proficiency message appeared before my eyes.
I ignored it out of habit and called the owner of the gloves.
“Hello? Yes, Mr. Kim. The gloves you left with me are all repaired. Yes, 100,000 won.”
[Hey, why is it so expensive!?]
“Expensive? Do you know how much trouble I went through to fix these?”
[Still, 100,000 won is too much! Come on! Make it 50,000!]
“I can’t give them to you for 50,000. Then I’ll restore them to how they were. You can go to an official center.”
Did he even have a conscience? He was whining about the price again.
If he went to a center, they’d charge him at least 200,000 won just for the parts.
And labor would be separate.
“Sir, this model is discontinued, so the parts were hard to find. I dug through every junkyard I could and barely managed to fix it. Yes, please send it to my account.”
The moment I hung up, a deep sigh escaped me.
I opened my banking app.
[Deposit: 90,000 won (Balance: 3,042,100 won)]
“Ah… This old man left out 10,000 won again. Pissing me off.”
My name is Kwon Daeseong.
I’m one of the countless F-rank hunters scattered across South Korea.
When I Awakened, I thought my life had turned around, but reality was cruel.
Should I call it the limit of a low-tier production class?
S-rank production classes like blacksmiths and alchemists could easily make a fortune because they could “produce” items, but my ability was a little different.
“Repairman.”
Someone who fixes broken things.
In other words, it was a passive production class that couldn’t create good items in the first place.
The one fortunate thing was that, thanks to the junkyard my father left me—Daeseong Resources—I could make good use of my ability.
Scrap metal and parts were everywhere.
The problem was that it didn’t make much money.
It wasn’t as if an S-rank hunter would entrust the repair of an S-rank weapon to an F-rank repairman.
In the end, my main customers were only low-rank hunters living hand to mouth, or neighborhood grandmothers bringing in broken fans.
No, I shouldn’t have been a production class to begin with.
“If I’d been a combat class, I could’ve made a killing.”
How nice would it be to swing a sword around and fire off magic left and right?
If that were the case, I could pay off this smelly junkyard and all my debts, then live large.
With a bitter heart, I picked up the old radio rolling around on the workbench.
Crackle—
Crack-crackle—
It was something my father used to use, but it hadn’t made a sound for a while.
“You too, huh?”
I sighed and lifted the radio.
“Let’s see…”
[Item Name: Broken Radio.
Rank: None.
Condition: Variable condenser (tuning capacitor) malfunction - rotor and stator contact oxidation.
Repair Availability: Possible.
Required Materials: Aluminum 2g, Copper 1g, Mana 20p]
This was how my skill worked.
It listed the name, the condition of the broken item, whether it could be repaired, and the materials required.
And there was one major problem.
I was a humanities major.
A philosophy major, at that.
There was no way I’d know what a variable condenser or a tuning capacitor was.
The only reason I could fix this kind of thing at all was thanks to my skill.
Yeah, let’s think positively. What would I have done for a living with a philosophy degree?
I should be grateful for even this.
Thinking that, I placed another irreparable radio on top of the broken one and activated my repair skill again.
[Would you like to extract materials from the attached item and proceed with the repair?]
“Yeah, man. Why do you ask every single time?”
Then mana drained from my body and began seeping into the radio.
Hissssss—
The funny thing was, the skill sound really did make it seem like something was being fixed.
And a moment later.
Ding—!
[Repair complete.]
At first, I thought it was an insanely overpowered skill.
A skill that could fix anything with mana?
But it wasn’t as amazing as I had imagined.
For starters, the skill itself couldn’t fix absolutely everything, and the higher the rank, the more absurd the required materials became.
On top of that, from C-rank and above, it required materials imbued with mana, and mana-imbued materials were incredibly expensive.
In other words, the tail ended up wagging the dog.
So in the end, I had no choice but to keep repairing low-grade items of D-rank and below.
I’d already been doing this for three years.
When I adjusted the dial, a person’s voice came from the radio.
[In this National Assembly, a new bill has been passed to improve the treatment of Awakened…]
“Mm, it fixed up nicely.”
It was at that moment.
Ding—!
A clear, bright notification sound unlike the usual rang inside my head.
[Total Repairs: 1,000 achieved!
Total Secondhand Transactions: 1,000 achieved!
Condition Fulfilled: “One Who Presents New Dreams to the Forgotten.”
Hidden Piece unlocked.]
“…Huh?”
Hidden Piece?
That thing that floated around the hunter community like an urban legend?
The jackpot event where you got a hidden skill or item if you satisfied certain conditions?
My heart began pounding like crazy.
“One Who Presents New Dreams to the Forgotten.” Even the name was ridiculously grand.
Was an opportunity finally coming to me? An S-rank combat skill? Or maybe an S-rank item?
With a trembling heart, I focused on the system message.
[As a reward, you have acquired a new trait.
Access authority to a higher-level community has been activated in the system.]
“…Community access authority?”
Ding—!
With a cheerful notification sound, what appeared before my eyes was not a dazzling skill book or an S-rank item, but merely a single purple menu icon that had appeared in one corner of my system status window.
The icon had this name written on it.
“Multidimensional Secondhand Market”?
I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t a skill or an item, but I still had to check it out.
Multidimensional, multidimensional…? No way…?
With trembling hands, I clicked the icon.
[Would you like to access the Multidimensional Secondhand Market?]
“Yeah.”
[Please set a nickname. Duplicate nicknames cannot be used.]
“A nickname…?”
It really was like some kind of secondhand market app.
“Hmm…”
Damn it… I’m really bad at making nicknames.
In the end, I decided to just throw something together for now.
“Pensive Repairman.”
Mm, this much should express my identity pretty well, crossing between philosophy and repair work.
[This nickname is available. Would you like to set your nickname as “Pensive Repairman”?]
There was no way it would already be taken.
After passing the duplicate check on the first try, I accessed the community with a pounding heart.
[Connecting...
User: Pensive Repairman
Welcome! This is a place where all secondhand goods from connected dimensions are traded.
For detailed explanations, please check the “User Guide” board below.]
When the screen lit up, an interface that resembled a familiar online community appeared.
– Selling.
– Buying.
– Free Sharing.
– Events.
– Point Recharge.
– Point Conversion.
– Chat.
– User Guide.
Board menus that looked clean if you were being generous, and shoddy if you weren’t.
I clicked the “Selling” board at the very top first.
But the names of the listed items were strange.
[For Sale] Selling an Earth Dragon’s tooth, leftover piece from making a dragon sword! (Price negotiable)
[For Sale] Selling a holey invisibility cloak. You have to find materials to repair the hole yourself!!
[For Sale] Selling half-eaten Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng. Its energy did not suit me, so I only ate half and am selling the rest.
.
.
.
Quite a large number of posts continued below.
And I muttered to myself, dumbfounded.
“What… is this crap…”
Dragon?
Invisibility cloak?
What the hell is Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng? They’re selling the half they didn’t eat?
“What the hell is this…?”
I still couldn’t make heads or tails of it, so I looked around the community a little more.
Then one banner caught my eye.
[Posts with Rapidly Rising Views in Real Time]
Oh… I can’t resist popular posts.
As if possessed, I clicked the menu.
Among them, I saw the title of the number one post.
[Buying] Title: Looking for a container for reagent experiments (Heat-resistant, no mana reaction preferred) - Price negotiable
“A bowl for reagent experiments?”
Why was something like this the number one post?
Even so, I clicked the post and looked through its contents.
[Author: Royal Alchemist.
Content: I am an alchemist officially recognized by the kingdom, and recently, my research has been delayed because my containers have been causing trouble every time during synthesis experiments.
I have tried various materials such as pottery, tin, silver, and crystal…
But they either fail to withstand changes in heat and cold and burst, or melt into the reagent and ruin the results.
I refuse mithril or orichalcum and the like. Their mana reactions are too strong and distort the results.
I will purchase any vessel or bottle that satisfies the following conditions.
Preferably clear, allowing the inside to be seen, with few cracks, and unreactive to reagents.]
And below that were the comments.
[Comments]
Friend of the Forest: Stop spamming, you bastard. Have some business ethics. Why is this the number one post in views?
Nice Beard: Why are you looking for that? Just float it in the air with magic and do it, dude.
ㄴ(Author) Royal Alchemist: Did you not read the part saying there must be no mana reaction?
ㄴ Nice Beard: Ah, true.
9th-Circle Archmage: A vessel that doesn’t react to reagents… Wouldn’t something made from dragon bone be about the only option?
I Quit Being a Hero: You don’t have to go as far as dragon bone. A triple-headed snake bone should be fine.
ㄴ(Author) Royal Alchemist: Do you know their habitat?
ㄴ I Quit Being a Hero: I killed them all, so they’re probably gone now.
ㄴ (Author) Royal Alchemist: Then please shut up.
Sword of the Blue Sky: This venerable one possesses a vessel made of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron. Will you buy it?
ㄴ(Author) Royal Alchemist: How much is the price?
ㄴ Sword of the Blue Sky: I will need 100 million points.
ㄴ (Author) Royal Alchemist: For that money, I would obtain dragon bone.]
I stared blankly at the screen and muttered without thinking.
“Huh? For reagent experiments… couldn’t you just use a flask?”
I stared blankly at the screen, then slowly turned my head.
The corner of my junkyard.
A large batch of discarded items from an elementary school science lab had been carefully stored there.
And among them were loads of glass flasks used for science experiments.
I’d heard somewhere before.
Flasks used in experiments were different from ordinary glass.
Just in case, I picked up one of the flasks.
Then I pointed my smartphone camera at the bottle.
[Would you like to link your smartphone with the Multidimensional Secondhand Market?]
Oh, it can do that too?
“Yeah.”
Ding—!
[Item scan complete.]
[Item Name: Laboratory Erlenmeyer Flask
Rank: None
Condition: Not fully cleaned, slight signs of use, no cracks
Repair Availability: Repair unnecessary.]
First, I wiped the flask clean.
For something secondhand, it was in decent condition.
Mm, wouldn’t this be enough?
Then I moved to press the [Chat with Seller] button.
Wait, no.
Just in case, should I try listing it for sale instead?
What if I started a one-on-one chat and got humiliated because they said they wouldn’t buy crap like this?
Yeah, let’s just write a sales post.
[For Sale] Selling a glass flask used for experiments. Doesn’t alter contents, absolutely no mana reaction (important). Please make an offer.
Author: Pensive Repairman.
Content: Exactly as the title says. If interested, please send a chat or message.
I probably shouldn’t use an abbreviation like “title says all” here.
[Would you like to register this sales post?]
I pressed confirm, and a little time passed.
“Ah, so an ordinary flask won’t work after all?”
But then, as if it had been waiting, a clear and refreshing sound rang out.
Ding—!
[A chat from “Royal Alchemist” has arrived.]
[A message from “Master of the Magic Tower” has arrived.]
[A message from “Elder of the World Tree Forest” has arrived.]
The smartphone linked with the system window began vibrating as if there were an earthquake.
[Royal Alchemist: Ooh! Mr. Repairman!! Do you still have that item?! Please sell it to me!!]
[Master of the Magic Tower: That is an ID I have never seen before. Is this item real? If it is, I will buy it.]
[Elder of the World Tree Forest: Hello, Mr. Repairman. Would you be willing to sell that to me? I will give you one million points.]
The chat window and whispers were going berserk.
I stared blankly at the chat window with a vacant expression.
“…Holy shit?”
One million points? First, I needed to find out how much that was.