Integrated Exchange.
It was a massive store that could only be reached via teleport from exchanges around the world.
And to go there, a teleport pass—
in other words, a token—was needed.
To get that token, it seemed you’d need money or an offering.
At this, Lee Geon cracked his knuckles toward the appraiser.
“Ah, what a pain. Let’s just take this inside.”
He locked the door. The appraiser stepped back in alarm.
“Wh—what is this…?”
Bang!
“Argh!”
Lee Geon rested his arms on the desk and grinned shamelessly.
“What’s the matter, boss? You just tried to rip me off.”
“What? Rip you off? That’s ridiculous. When did I…?”
Then it happened.
Crunch!
The plastic soda bottle on the table collapsed vertically.
“……!”
He’d only pressed the cap down with his index finger, but it crumpled like a gum wrapper as if put through a compressor. The appraiser recoiled in shock.
“You thought I didn’t know the market value, so you tried to trick me into letting an item worth hundreds of millions go for a pittance.”
Sweat beaded on the appraiser’s face.
“Th… thinking back, it does seem that way, sir.”
His originally clipped tone grew oddly courteous.
“And on top of that, you pretended you were doing me a favor by throwing in a recall phone for free.”
“Yes, yes. I did.”
“Even went so far as to treat something I made myself like worthless scrap.”
That last bit sounded as though he’d just tacked it on for good measure, but it hardly mattered.
“I get that business is tough, but even merchants should have some scruples, don’t you think?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Lee Geon beamed.
“So then, how about you lend me a token, free of charge?”
Lend, my ass!
The appraiser felt his mind go blank. Yet he could utter not a word of protest.
Because he had no choice.
“Whoops, here’s a useful piece of craft material.”
Crack!
“……!”
Maybe crushing the bottle into a gum wrapper wasn’t enough. Lee Geon picked up a discarded metal chopstick and began working it.
Crack, crack!
It was monstrous strength. As if braiding thread, the hard steel chopstick bent into the shape of a flower. The appraiser despaired.
He’d assumed the man was a low-level production type since he wanted to sell his own creations, but—
‘Dammit, he’s definitely from a combat deity faction!’
One misstep and his body would twist just like that chopstick.
Thanks to that, the appraiser’s about-face was lightning quick.
“I—I’m sorry for trying to scam you, sir. But the thing is, tokens aren’t something small-time merchants like us can just get our hands on…”
“I hear that resident merchants get support from the exchange itself. And a lot of them stockpile and sell them, so you must have plenty.”
“!”
The appraiser stared at Lee Geon.
Lee Geon was reading comments verbatim off his outdated phone.
He must have searched up a reputable community, because he proudly waved the search results.
“See? People should make use of modern technology. It’s the information age.”
The appraiser was dumbfounded.
What is he on about with that slow, ancient phone?!
But regardless, Lee Geon simply smiled and held out his hand.
“At any rate, just lend me the token. And while you’re at it, lend me a phone too, for free. I’ll return it in two years.”
Now he’s even trying to fleece a phone off a phone dealer!
The appraiser’s expression was priceless, but Lee Geon just grinned, insufferably smug.
It was the look of someone who’d caught a huge opportunity because the other guy had tried to cheat him first.
“Anyway, aren’t all these phones sponsored by the deities? One shouldn’t hurt, right?”
The appraiser took a deep breath, watching Lee Geon wiggle the search results again.
“Well, if you don’t want to, I can’t make you.”
When Lee Geon began working the metal again, the appraiser finally yelled.
“Fine! I’ll give it to you. I’ll give it to you right now!”
He quickly fetched the token and placed it on the table.
It was a coin-shaped cast with a symbol resembling the Korean consonant ‘ㅍ’, bearing the insignia of the Gemini Constellation.
Along with it came a suitable-looking phone.
“This should serve you comfortably…”
But Lee Geon, who’d been searching again, clicked his tongue.
“This model number is from three years ago. The phone has to be the latest model.”
“…#$*&!”
The appraiser’s blood boiled.
In the end, when he brought out a recently released model, Lee Geon was moderately satisfied.
He wasn’t entirely sure, but a quick search confirmed it was indeed the latest model from a few months back.
‘Well, as long as it works fine.’
But at that sight, the appraiser smirked inwardly.
‘Country bumpkin. It may be the best phone in my shop, but it’s still from a brick phone company.’
Among IT fanatics, it was known as the unoptimized mess from TKBM.
‘If I can fob this off on him, I’ll be the one cleaning up.’
The young appraiser laughed to himself.
“In that case, sir, I’ll give you this…”
But then—
“Hey, even if it’s a premium phone, you’d want to avoid that manufacturer.”
“!”
The appraiser startled. Lee Geon also blinked in surprise.
Looking over, the woman had vanished, and in her place stood a familiar boy next to a young man.
“Were you buying a phone? If you want one, this is better than that crap TKBM.”
At the recognizable face, the appraiser went pale.
‘Cheon Seongjae!’
Though only a third-year in middle school, he was a famous saint renowned for his genius talent.
And upon seeing him, Lee Geon brightened up as if this were a stroke of luck.
“What’re you doing here?”
“I have business with the SS-rank appraiser here.”
“!”
At that, Lee Geon grinned for some reason.
Then he asked,
“You know phones pretty well?”
“Pretty well?”
“Then pick out the best one in this place for me.”
“Price doesn’t matter?”
“Yep. Doesn’t matter. Right?”
At Lee Geon’s smile, the appraiser laughed to himself.
“Ah, yes. Go ahead. Though, all we’ve got are the budget models on display here…”
But then—
“Hey, why lie? There’s a better one in here.”
When Cheon Seongjae pulled a box out of a drawer, the appraiser screamed.
“Ack, not that one!”
“???”
Cheon Seongjae looked at the appraiser in disbelief, but Lee Geon just grinned.
“Okay. Then we’ll take that one.”
“No, you can’t! That one’s already promised to someone…!”
“Why? You can just get another one exactly like it.”
“But…!”
“If you don’t want to, fine. Ooh, more scrap metal over here.”
As the scrap-metal crafting began again, the appraiser gave in completely.
* * *
“Oh, it’s really spacious.”
People of various races bustled before his eyes.
The place Lee Geon had arrived at was the very Integrated Exchange he’d wanted to visit.
It was a place reachable only through the teleport zone—an integrated sphere connecting the entire world.
And beneath what seemed like sheer cliffs, layers of plazas and neon signs came into view.
There were even moving staircases bridging the cliffs.
It was a magnificent sight, but Lee Geon was a bit ticked off.
Because of what he’d just experienced at the teleport zone.
[Estimated wait time from this point: 3 hours 40 minutes]
The queue was beyond belief.
But Lee Geon wasn’t just steamed about the queue.
If the line is this long, they could at least add more staff.
[Express service is available for an additional fee of 10 million won.]
Those money-grubbing bastards, seriously.
Of course, that problem was solved with help from Cheon Seongjae, who was with him.
Because the teleport zone was a Gemini artifact, he said there was a usage discount and no extra fee was required.
So after arriving safely at the Integrated Exchange, Lee Geon remarked,
“Saints in a faction sure have it easy. Lucky them.”
At that, Cheon Seongjae glanced at Lee Geon’s face.
The reason was simple.
Vrrr.
[You met that boy who caught the Spider Queen, right?]
His sharp-eyed faction leader had sent a text a few minutes ago.
But the message didn’t end there.
[Definitely recruit that boy into our faction today.]
The faction leader kept sending instructions, but Cheon Seongjae’s expression as he looked at Lee Geon was far from enthusiastic.
Perhaps his expression was noticed.
“What? Why are you looking at me like you’re holding in a dump?”
“!”
“You said you’d introduce me to that regular SS-rank appraiser of yours. Why’re you stopping?”
“Ah… well…”
Cheon Seongjae started to say something, but then a tremendous vibration sounded.
Vrrr. Vrrr. Vrrr.
[Tell him if he joins our faction, he gets a black card in one second.]
[Lifetime free teleport.]
[Contract terms will be top-notch.]
[I’ll put in a good word with the Gemini Sage.]
It was as if they were watching him from somewhere. Cheon Seongjae sighed after checking the messages.
Because his faction leader had every intention of recruiting the boy who caught the Spider Queen.
Recruiting talent—in other words, expanding the congregation—was a great boon to a deity’s growth.
And it was the recent talk of Lee Geon’s return that had them even more fired up.
Why?
‘This is perfect. If Lee Geon really is alive, we can properly show who’s superior.’
That’s exactly what the faction leader had said.
It seemed the faction leaders were irritated by fans who insisted that Lee Geon was stronger than them.
In fact, the arrogant faction leaders had watched Lee Geon’s exploits and dismissed them, saying, “We can do at least that much ourselves.”
‘Well, they probably want to recruit talent and increase their influence, too.’
That’s why they’d kept asking about the situation at the mart, and now it had come to this.
[You must recruit him. That kid is at least S-rank!]
[Tell him we’ll accommodate anything!]
So, in this situation, Cheon Seongjae looked at Lee Geon with nerves.
Of course, in his own case, he’d initially suspected this older guy might be Lee Geon, but—
—“If you’re going to talk nonsense, just come home.”
His father, when he’d dared to ask, had only given him a cold look.
He’d even consulted his S-rank older sister, but she’d laughed, saying not even a sage could have survived that tower.
And on top of that, his faction leader had said this:
—“Listen up. That Spider Queen that showed up again at the mart… there’s no way a mere saint could catch what even a sage couldn’t. No doubt the previous sealing aftereffects temporarily dropped its rank, but…”
Min Seonghun, even though new, was still S-rank, and that monster had swallowed him whole. That meant it was at least S-rank or higher.
But Lee Geon?
—“They say Lee Geon is at best equivalent to a current B-rank awakener. Even the Aquarius Saintess, one of the twelve sages, testified to that. There’s absolutely no way it’s the same person.”
In the end, Cheon Seongjae recalled his superior’s words and felt utterly deflated.
He himself had grown to like Lee Geon after hearing his father’s heroic tales and watching the videos, but this was reality.
Legends are always exaggerated.
The messages kept coming.
[Anyway, that boy might be a freshly awakened S-rank. Since you’ve got a connection, make sure to bring him in.]
[If you bring that boy to the Gemini Sage, the Sage will be extremely pleased.]
In reality, he’d be lucky not to pass out, but Cheon Seongjae, having no way to know that, reluctantly said,
“Hyung, don’t you want to serve a deity and sage? If you join Gemini, teleport is free and unlimited.”
Hearing that, the escort who’d accompanied Cheon Seongjae was shocked.
Because Cheon Seongjae would rather die than do faction missionary work.
‘He’d sooner get him to join Lee Geon’s fan cafe.’
Because of that, his mandatory mission activity score was always too low, and he was perennially penalized.
Was that why? The escort whispered suspiciously.
“What’s going on? You never do faction recruitment.”
Hell, why do you think?
Vrrrr.
Vrrrrrrr!
At that tremendous sound, Lee Geon laughed heartily.
“Looks like the higher-ups are really burning up.”
Cheon Seongjae flinched.
Could it be he’d known all along what sort of contact this was?
Lee Geon smiled.
“Well, it’s fine. A teleport zone is something I can just make.”
“Huh? Make what?”
“Then again, soon there’ll be no need to make one, since using it will become free anyway.”
“Huh??”
Cheon Seongjae and the escort were bewildered, but a dangerous glint flashed in Lee Geon’s eyes.
“Anyway, take this.”
“!”
Cheon Seongjae caught the item Lee Geon tossed and his eyes went wide.
It was none other than the sword Lee Geon had arbitrarily borrowed when they caught the spiders at the mart.
But the state of the sword shocked Cheon Seongjae.
‘That scrap metal back then…!’
“I used it well, and while I was at it, I fixed it up completely.”
“You didn’t buy a new one?!”
“Why would I buy one?”
Cheon Seongjae was flabbergasted.
Because the sword had been utterly drenched in the monster’s poison, and he’d thought it was beyond hope.
‘To so cleanly fix an item afflicted by poison from an unknown civilization…!’
But regardless, Lee Geon was pleased. Thanks to it, he’d been able to test the repair skill, [ ], from his Creation Workshop, and it had been quite the boon.
Items of too low a grade got fixed before the repair skill even fully kicked in, making testing impossible.
‘Since it was a reasonably high-grade item, the experience gains were pretty good too.’
If the Crafting Workshop’s trait was [ ], then the Repair-Enhance Workshop’s trait was [ ].
“Well, I warned you ahead of time. Whatever comes out, don’t blame me.”
“Huh?”
Cheon Seongjae and the escort were bewildered, but Lee Geon simply stepped into the tunnel.
Meanwhile, they arrived at Cheon Seongjae’s regular shop.
Around the same time.
“Good heavens, that person is here…!”
The gambling district.
A beautiful woman appeared, guarded by SS-rank saints.
“It’s the Saintess!”
“Why has she come here?”
But the Saintess’s fine brows were furrowed.
Because of the preposterous news she had just heard.
“Is it really true that our faction’s sacred item was appraised at one dollar?”
She’d come to see the most renowned appraiser in the area because of the auction.
The appraiser here was an SS-rank expert even the deities acknowledged, and you needed his certification to fetch a good price at auction.
But what was this?
‘A mere one dollar?’
Her head had already been aching because of Lee Geon’s name ever since she arrived.
On top of that, due to Lee Geon’s sacred item, other sages were also flocking to the auction. She urgently needed to increase her funds, and now this absurd situation.
No—actually, it was just laughable that her own sacred item had been treated that way.
Finally, the Saintess spoke.
“Is that the shop where that appraiser is located?”
She pointed somewhere.
It was the very shop Lee Geon had entered.
(Continued in the next episode)