Episode 4
That night, the miners didn't return to the lodging.
Thanks to that, Jeon had the spacious lodging to himself and slept comfortably.
"Oohaha!"
Jeon stretched and rose from his spot.
Perhaps because he had Awakened, he didn't feel the slightest fatigue—only refreshment.
"Nice!"
Jeon was satisfied with his physical condition.
The vitality he felt from morning was clearly different from yesterday.
Jeon opened the door and stepped out of the lodging. Intense sunlight was the first thing to greet him.
Even though it was still early morning, the sun beat down fiercely, as if it would burn his skin.
If this were before, he would have frantically covered his bare skin. But now, there was no need.
This, too, was thanks to his Awakening.
Jeon savored the benefits of his Awakening as he strolled through the mining city.
Calling it a city was a stretch—it was cramped and shabby—but it had more or less everything it needed.
The Majeongseok Mine was also a major hub in the desert.
Caravans crossing the desert would stop by to resupply, and would also sell goods purchased from other cities.
It was also an essential stop for dungeon-raiding parties like Jang Yong-beom's to inspect their equipment.
Because of that, a fairly large market had formed within the city.
'First, I need to learn everything about this place.'
A lot of information about the interior was known through word of mouth from those who had worked at the Majeongseok Mine and returned. But there was a vast difference between hearing things from others and seeing and grasping them for oneself.
Jeon only trusted information he saw and judged with his own eyes.
This, too, was one of the habits he had learned in the slums.
Not many people could be seen in the shabby market.
Partly because it was so early, and partly because most of the main clientele—the miners—hadn't emerged from the tunnels.
Because the tunnels were so deep and complex, the miners would take several days' worth of food and go straight in. They would have to swing their pickaxes for days like that to barely extract a single Majeongseok, if even that.
Since even the time spent traveling to and from the tunnels was too precious, the miners chose to eat and sleep inside instead.
It truly deserved to be called a living hell.
Jeon couldn't believe how much he had shuddered when he first heard this story.
Fortunately, he had Awakened, but if he didn't quickly find a way to grow his abilities, he too might have to enter the tunnels someday.
He absolutely had to avoid that situation.
Gurgle!
Jeon furrowed his brows.
Come to think of it, he hadn't eaten properly since yesterday's lunch.
For now, he had to solve his hunger first.
Jeon entered the market looking for a place to eat.
It was highly unlikely to find a proper restaurant in the market. Still, it wasn't completely hopeless.
Deep in the market, he found a shop selling unidentifiable meat skewers.
Meat was being threaded onto skewers and grilled; the smell was incredibly savory.
The person grilling the meat was a shabby old man.
He was a striking old man with impossibly deep wrinkles and a beard that made it difficult to guess his age, not to mention glasses cracked on one side.
Jeon plopped down in front of the old man and spoke.
"What kind of meat is this?"
"Knowing won't do you any good. Hehe!"
"Fair enough..."
Jeon nodded.
In the past, they had raised cows and pigs and eaten meat to their heart's content, but in the current world, such luxury was impossible to hope for.
At least inside Neo Seoul, artificial meat was produced for consumption, but in the slums, it was common for people to eat rats, cockroaches, or monster scraps.
Jeon naturally brought a skewer to his mouth.
The old man watched him through his cracked glasses.
"Haven't seen you before?"
"I arrived yesterday. This is pretty good."
Jeon answered, chewing vigorously.
"Yesterday? So you're the survivor who got away from the sandworm."
"Has the news already spread?"
"Hehe! Around here, the only secret is the color of the underwear you're wearing. Even that, everyone will know by tomorrow."
"Tch!"
"Hehe! Anyway, you're pale and good-looking, so quite a few people will have their eyes on you."
Jeon immediately caught the meaning behind the old man's words and glared at him.
Despite his fairly fierce gaze, the old man paid no mind and continued.
"Be careful. I don't know what you're running from by choosing this place as your hideout, but this isn't such an easygoing place."
"Hideout? I came here to earn money."
"Hehe! Yes, I'm sure. But for someone here to earn money, you're not prepared at all."
"What preparation?"
"I'm saying that someone who came to the Majeongseok Mine didn't even bring a pickaxe. That's not the attitude of someone here to earn money."
Jeon furrowed his brows deeply at the old man's words that cut to the core.
The old man looked at him with an amused expression.
Jeon changed the subject.
"You've been here a long time?"
"I've been here since the Majeongseok Mine was discovered, so you could say I'm the eldest fixture."
"That long?"
"Yes! You can tell by looking at those. I've collected them since the early days."
The old man pointed to the inside of the shop.
Inside, unidentifiable junk was piled high.
"What is all that?"
"The folks who first come here hold out. Just like you."
"Huh?"
"They somehow hold out to avoid going into the mines. Then when they run out of money, they sell what they own. First the worthless things, and finally the most precious things. When there's nothing left to sell, only then do they enter the mines. That's the sequence."
"Crazy!"
"I send the useful things to Neo Seoul and leave the worthless ones be. So those can be seen as the traces left behind by those miserable lives at the end. Hehe!"
The old man's laughter felt chilling.
His eyes seemed to tell Jeon that he would end up the same way.
His appetite vanished instantly.
Jeon forcibly swallowed the remaining meat and stood up.
"How much?"
"Ten sol!"
"Crazy! Did you sprinkle gold on this meat? Ten sol for this?"
Jeon shouted without realizing it.
The currency standard of the Neo Seoul Colony was Majeongseok.
It was measured based on one kilogram of Majeongseok.
One sol held the value of one-thousandth of a Majeongseok. Therefore, ten sol corresponded to one-hundredth.
Even inside Neo Seoul, they didn't engage in such extortion.
It was only natural for Jeon to be angry.
But the old man remained calm.
He had clearly expected this kind of reaction.
"Everything is precious here. Food, clothing, even pickaxes. That's why everyone ends up selling theirs."
"What if I refuse to pay?"
"Hehe! There's a reason why a powerless old man like me has been able to do business for so long in such a harsh place."
"What?"
It was then.
The nearby shop owners turned their heads and looked at Jeon.
Jeon clenched his teeth at their sharp gazes.
'So he's the big shot around here.'
Now he felt like he understood what that meant.
The old man was likely connected to the other shops in the Majeongseok Mine in some way. Perhaps he was the very center of the market.
This place wasn't easygoing enough that one could survive for a long time simply by being lucky. It was only possible with considerable skill and background.
If he didn't pay the old man for the food, there was a high probability that no shop would do business with him.
"Damn! I've stepped in it."
"Still, your head seems to work well. Some guys lose their minds and start rampaging without knowing what's what."
"Ha! I don't have any money right now..."
"Then you have other goods. Could it be Majeongseok?"
"..."
"It is Majeongseok. Hand it over. I'll assess its value accurately."
Jeon tried to refuse until the very end.
He didn't want to hand over Majeongseok he had kept even while killing people merely for the price of a skewer.
The old man smirked at him.
"Brat! Rumors that you have Majeongseok will spread across the entire mine within the hour. Do you think you can still protect it then?"
Of course, the source of the rumors would be the old man. But he didn't bother mentioning that.
Jeon glared at the old man.
He prided himself on having been through all sorts of hardships, but the old man before his eyes had made it through battlefields several times—no, dozens of times—more brutal.
Not to mention sharpness of wit, but even in a battle of nerves, there was no comparison.
Compared to the old man, Jeon was merely a brat.
Now that it was known he possessed Majeongseok, he had no right of refusal.
"Damn it!"
Jeon took out the small Majeongseok he had hidden inside his pants.
The old man's eyes glinted sharply.
"Ho! At that size, it'd be about one hundred sol."
"Are you kidding? In Neo Seoul, this is something that would fetch over three hundred sol."
"But this isn't Neo Seoul."
"Are you really doing this?"
"Brat! If you don't have the strength to protect it, even treasure becomes a calamity. Hehe!"
The old man cackled.
Jeon felt like throwing a punch at the old man's face. But in the end, he couldn't.
Subduing the old man wouldn't be that difficult, but he feared the consequences.
Someone who had survived here for so long surely had connections with the Awakened who guarded the Majeongseok Mine.
The old man acted as though he wouldn't care if Jeon walked out.
The old man, who had lived here for decades, exuded an aura of experience and composure that overwhelmed Jeon.
Jeon felt strangely intimidated by him.
"Hah!"
In the end, Jeon let out a sigh.
He had drifted all the way here because of this small Majeongseok, yet its value was a mere one hundred sol. Everything he had done until now felt like a waste.
"What did I go through all that hardship for..."
In the end, he handed the Majeongseok to the old man.
"Hehe! Don't be too discouraged. I'm not that bad or rigid. I'm not shameless enough to completely fleece a newcomer I just met today."
"What?"
"I'll give you back ninety sol. Keep it safe. There are quite a few pickpockets and robbers around here."
"Acting like you're doing me a favor..."
Jeon grumbled and stuffed the ninety sol the old man had returned into his pocket.
The old man smirked and pointed inside.
"As payment for your first transaction, I'll give you one item from the pile inside."
"You want me to take that junk?"
"If you don't want to, forget it..."
"Damn it!"
Jeon got up and went inside.
He didn't want to just leave like this; it somehow felt like losing.
He felt like he had to take something to make up for what the old man had done to him.
Not that he believed there would actually be anything good inside.
Since the old man had said he sent all usable items to Neo Seoul, only real junk would remain.
Jeon searched through the mountain of junk.
"What? It's nothing but trash? What am I supposed to take from here?"
"Hehe!"
The old man laughed, watching him.
He was quite an interesting guy.
Most people who came here were intimidated and hesitant, but Jeon showed no such signs.
It meant he had something he believed in.
This was a worn-down place.
Even normal things wore out here.
People, objects, everything else...
In such a worn-out world, someone with such a raw atmosphere naturally stood out.
So the old man smiled at Jeon.
Even watching him grumble as he rummaged through the junk, he felt vitality.
His appearance, eyes burning with determination not to suffer a loss, was quite endearing.
Then Jeon pulled something out from within the junk.
"What is this?"
What he held out to the old man was a very small hourglass.
"It's an hourglass."
"That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking why it's here."
"It's here because nobody took it."
The old man spoke as if it was no big deal.
His words were true.
He had obtained that hourglass a very long time ago.
It was an item from a caravan heading to Neo Seoul.
He had bought it along with other items, but it was useless, so he had stashed it among the junk.
No matter how ruined the world was, there was no one who would bother carrying around an hourglass.
It was nothing more, nothing less than a decoration.
In today's world, the only ones who would spend money on such decorations were the high-ranking people of Neo Seoul. And such people did not set foot in this place.
"Wouldn't it be better to choose something else?"
"Hmph! Even if I search more, I doubt I'll find anything more intact than this."
"Don't regret it."
"I'm fine."
Jeon left the shop with the hourglass.
"Hehe! Stop by again later."
"I won't."
"I think we'll be seeing each other often somehow."
"Don't say such unlucky things..."
Jeon grimaced and walked away.
The old man watched him without ever losing his smile.
Then Jeon turned around and asked the old man.
"What's your name, old man?"
"Clessi."
"Then I'll call you Elder Clessi. Let's never meet again."
Jeon walked straight out of the market.
The old man laughed, watching his retreating figure.
"That's impossible. It looks like there's still a lot left to take from you. Hehe!"
Once you latched onto a mark, sucking them dry down to the marrow was the law of this place.
Clessi was more well-versed in the laws of this Majeongseok mining city than anyone else.