Chapter 18: Contact (4)

‘Mage-nim…’

It was probably referring to him.

After all, Han-seong was the only survivor in this officetel.

What could she want to say?

As he wore a puzzled expression, Ha-eun’s voice was heard from outside once again.

“I’d like to propose a trade to Mage-nim!”

Han-seong tilted his head.

With the shop and auction house available, most items could be obtained, so why a trade?

‘Ah! Perhaps she wants to exchange skillbooks?’

That might not be so bad.

It would be better to exchange than to list a skillbook on the auction house without knowing when it would sell.

But the answer that came back was different from what he expected.

“Actually, we recently obtained a potion that recovers mana, but no one on our side can use it. If possible, we’d like to exchange it for food!”

“…Potion?”

Han-seong knew what potions were.

Anyone who’s played even a little bit of games would know. Moreover, Ha-eun had just mentioned a mana recovery potion.

‘Mana recovery potions aren’t even in the shop.’

He hadn’t seen them in the auction house either.

He didn’t know where they got it from, but if what she said was true, it was exactly what Han-seong needed.

“Ah! If not food, skillbooks or other resources are fine too! Coins are good as well.”

Can you give Coins to others?

It’s not like they have a physical form, they’re just engraved as numbers on your palm? How would that work?

As new questions arose.

“I’ll wait here for about 30 minutes, so please let me know if you’re interested in trading!”

Ha-eun, having said her piece, sat down.

It seemed like a defenseless action, but it was probably fine. The zombies wandering around this area had already been completely wiped out by Han-seong.

In the now quiet room.

Han-seong mulled over Ha-eun’s words.

“Hmm, a trade…”

The idea itself was good.

But there was something that bothered him.

‘There’s not enough information.’

How much mana would be recovered by drinking the potion, and were there any side effects? There was far too little information about the potion itself.

But for Han-seong to go down and check it out himself would be too risky.

This wasn’t his only concern.

‘The value of the potion.’

Value is an important factor in trading.

Even if an item has no value to you, if it has high value to the other party, the price of that item becomes whatever they’re willing to pay.

‘It’s best not to reveal too much.’

The fact that he needed the mana potion.

To do that, he needed to show disinterest in Ha-eun’s proposed trade. It felt a bit of a shame, but he decided to ignore it.

If he got carried away from the start, he’d be the one making concessions later.

But then.

“Huh? Wait a minute…”

He suddenly realized something.

Ha-eun’s position.

She was currently quite close to the officetel. Han-seong checked the coordinates where she was sitting, and soon broke into a grin.

He had belatedly realized a way to solve both of his earlier concerns.

[Activating skill.]

[Remote: Inventory (Storage)]

[Storing all items at the coordinates.]

The target was the delivery box next to Ha-eun.

He carefully adjusted the coordinates so Ha-eun wouldn’t get caught up in the inventory. As a result, Han-seong was able to obtain the item he wanted.

[Remote: Inventory (Release)]

[Please select the item to release.]

Thud!

The delivery box fell in front of him.

Opening the box, he saw a water bottle filled with blue liquid.

[Name]: Lowest Grade Energy Potion

[Effect]: Recovers 30 HP/Mana/Energy/Spirit Power

[Creator]: Lee Ji-hye

“Oh, not bad.”

The mana recovery amount was decent too.

30 mana recovery per 10mL.

In other words, drinking about the amount of a small beer can would recover almost the maximum amount of mana.

Meanwhile, at that time.

A scream was heard from outside the window.

It was Ha-eun’s voice. She must have been shocked by the sudden disappearance of the delivery box. Ignoring this, Han-seong focused on the potion.

Then he noticed something that caught his attention.

“Creator Lee Ji-hye?”

It was clearly a person’s name.

He had been wondering where they got the mana recovery potion from, but was it actually created by a survivor?

Han-seong looked towards the shopping mall where the underground survivors had gathered and activated an additional skill.

[Remote: Detection]

Soon, the information of the survivors appeared.

Han-seong carefully examined this and soon found his target on the rooftop of the shopping mall.

[Name]: Lee Ji-hye

[Owned Skills]:

▷Component Analysis

▷Material Decomposition

▷Potion Crafting (Energy Recovery)

The source of the mana recovery potion was revealed. After storing the personal information in his mind, Han-seong looked at the potion with suspicious eyes.

“…Surely there’s no poison in it?”

Some might think this is an overreaction, but it was a natural response. Moreover, this Lee Ji-hye person was a survivor from the underground shopping mall.

She was with Bae Hyeon-seok.

Han-seong had already confirmed through his Detection skill that Hyeon-seok had the job of Poison Master.

It would be strange not to be suspicious.

“I’ll have to check it out separately.”

After organizing his thoughts, he looked out the window.

Ha-eun was sitting there with a dumbfounded expression.

In truth, now that he had obtained the potion, it wouldn’t matter if he just ignored her completely.

But he didn’t want to do that.

‘I owe that child a debt.’

When facing the Collector, if Ha-eun hadn’t told him about the weak spot, Han-seong would likely no longer be in this world.

So he intended to repay that debt.

With the loot he had obtained previously.

The Assassin-exclusive skillbook.

“Ah, should I dispose of this too?”

The Healer’s skillbook, Turn Undead.

It was a product he had previously listed on the auction house, but it was nothing short of dead stock.

Even after lowering the price to the minimum of 100 Coins for skillbooks, it kept going unsold. Probably because the Healer job itself was rare.

“Next…”

There were things he wanted to tell Ha-eun.

And things he wanted to ask.

Since it would be too risky to meet directly and ask, he planned to communicate indirectly. He already had an idea for how to make contact.

Han-seong took out a sketchbook from the drawer and wrote down a simple greeting and some questions. Since real-time communication would be difficult, he tried to predict the situation as much as possible.

Some time later.

“Alright. This should do.”

Having finished his preparations, Han-seong placed a few cans of food rolling around the room, the skillbooks, and the sketchbook into the Collector’s stomach pouch.

Then he touched the Collector’s back.

[Replica: Collector]

[Switching to Manual Mode.]

A moment later, the Collector left the room.

To go meet Ha-eun.

About an hour earlier.

Ha-eun, who had been helping Eun-ji treat the survivors, headed to the shopping mall after receiving a call from Tae-min.

She had heard he had something to say.

After hearing the whole story from Tae-min, Ha-eun’s eyes widened.

“What? You want to trade with the Mage?”

“Yeah. We just happened to get something suitable.”

Tae-min held out a water bottle.

Energy Recovery Potion.

An item that recovers all types of energy consumed when using skills. While checking the information on the potion, Tae-min continued speaking.

“The Mage uses skills frequently, right? I’m sure he must be running low on mana. In that sense, this potion would be quite appealing to the Mage.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Also, we helped the Mage when he was fighting the Collector last time. In a way, this is like repaying a debt.”

It certainly wasn’t wrong.

The assumption that he would be low on mana was plausible, and it was true that the group had helped the Mage.

However, apart from that, Ha-eun wasn’t very keen on Tae-min’s plan.

‘We did tell him about the Collector’s weak spot, but…’

This wasn’t purely out of concern for the Mage. If you think about it, it was closer to helping out of concern for the future that Ha-eun’s group would face.

They had judged that if the Mage fell to the Collector, there would be no one left to stop the Collector in the future.

‘And we’ve received a lot of help too.’

Most notably, completely wiping out all the zombies around the officetel and shopping mall.

Just this alone had greatly expanded the group’s area of activity compared to before. There were also several other instances where they had indirectly benefited.

Because of this, Ha-eun thought of the Mage as something of a comrade. An implicit relationship of mutual aid in this changed world.

That’s why the act of giving items in exchange for compensation, in other words, trading, didn’t sit well with her.

‘And…’

There was one more point of concern.

The power the other party possessed.

The Mage had skills that could call down lightning and create unquenchable flames.

‘If we propose a trade and somehow offend the Mage…’

What if the Mage, with ill intent, attacked Ha-eun’s group to forcibly take the potion? The group would have no choice but to be helplessly overwhelmed.

A situation where the risks outweighed the benefits.

For these reasons, she wasn’t fond of Tae-min’s plan. Meanwhile, as Ha-eun remained silent for a while, Tae-min spoke up again.

“Seo Ha-eun. Are you listening to me?”

“I’m against it.”

“…What?”

“It’s true that we’ve helped the Mage before, but we’ve also received a lot of help, haven’t we?”

Tae-min wore an incredulous expression.

Ha-eun boldly expressed her thoughts.

“He’s practically our comrade, so trading doesn’t seem right. I think it would be better to just share the potion and say we hope to continue getting along well…”

“Comrade? Who? Us and the Mage?”

Before Ha-eun could finish speaking, Tae-min burst into laughter. A moment later, with all traces of humor gone from his face, he rebutted.

“Someone whose face, age, and gender we don’t even know is a comrade? What nonsense are you spouting?”

“That, well…”

“The Mage is not our comrade. He’s never helped us. It’s just that his actions for his own benefit happened to benefit us by chance.”

So we don’t owe him anything.

This was Tae-min’s assertion.

“Besides, this trade is a good deal for the Mage too. Potions aren’t sold in the shop or auction house. In a way, this is also helping the Mage.”

The existence of potions is special.

She too had never seen items in the form of potions in the shop or auction house.

However, just because you have something of value doesn’t necessarily mean it’s advantageous. Especially when there’s such a large power gap, like now.

Ha-eun expressed her concerns.

“…What if the Mage doesn’t agree to trade and tries to take the potion by force?”

A trade only works when both parties are on relatively equal footing. If there’s a large gap in power, forceful taking is much more beneficial than trading.

Tae-min, on the other hand, shook his head.

“No, that won’t happen.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Since the Upheaval, the Mage has never once attacked survivors. Unlike the Poison Master, he seems to be an ordinary person with an aversion to violence.”

Tae-min shrugged.

“Such a person attacking us and plundering the potion? It doesn’t make sense. It’s much more likely he’ll willingly agree to trade.”

An analysis that sounded plausible at first glance.

Ha-eun couldn’t refute it.

As she closed her mouth, Tae-min packed the water bottles he had placed on the ground into a delivery box.

“Anyway, trading with the Mage has already been decided. I didn’t call you here to ask for your opinion.”

“What? Then why did you…”

“I want you to handle this trade.”

A smile formed on Tae-min’s lips.

“You’re somewhat acquainted with the Mage, and if things go south, you can easily escape with your Quick Step skill, right?”

For a moment, Ha-eun almost burst into laughter.

Acquainted, he says. As if we’ve met in person and had a meal together or something. All I did was tell him about a weak spot from afar.

But she couldn’t refuse.

As Tae-min said, she was the only one who could quickly extract herself from a dangerous situation.

“…Alright. I’ll do it.”

“Good, then I’m counting on you.”

And so the conversation with Tae-min ended.

Ha-eun headed towards the officetel with the box containing the potions, and from a distance where her voice could reach the Mage, she explained about the trade.

“Phew.”

After finishing what she had to say.

Ha-eun sat down and waited for the Mage’s response. Meanwhile, she occasionally glanced towards the officetel.

‘I wonder what kind of person they are?’

The person who had helped Ha-eun escape the officetel in the early days of the Upheaval. A being shrouded in mystery, with name, face, gender, and age all unknown.

That’s why she felt even more curious.

‘If we’re going to trade, they’ll have to come out in person.’

Ha-eun stared at the entrance of the officetel with eyes filled with both curiosity and anxiety.

At that moment.

Whoosh!

A sudden gust of wind.

It was just wind blowing, but for some reason she felt strangely empty. As if the luggage she had brought had disappeared.

‘Huh? What’s this?’

Feeling unfamiliar, Ha-eun unconsciously looked around. Then she was startled.

An unbelievable scene unfolded before her.

“…Huh?”

The delivery box that had been full of mana potions.

The items she had brought for trading with the Mage had vanished without a trace. Ha-eun’s eyes quickly grew wide at this sudden turn of events.

“What? Wh-where…”

Where on earth did it go? It’s not light enough to be blown away by the wind, is it? No, the wind wasn’t even that strong to begin with.

As she looked around with a bewildered face, she noticed that the ground where the delivery box had been was slightly indented.

Seeing this, a sudden thought occurred to her.

“No way…!”

Could it be one of the Mage’s skills?

There was no other explanation.

Ha-eun, who had suddenly had her belongings taken right before her eyes, wore a blank expression.

“Ha, haha…”

She was so dumbfounded she couldn’t speak.

She had only thought about whether the Mage would accept or reject the trade, she never imagined he would so blatantly take it like this.

After sitting in a daze for a while, Ha-eun clutched her head. As she was pondering how to explain this situation to Tae-min.

Something flew from the direction of the officetel.

Whoosh! Crash!

Followed by a loud collision sound.

Soon, a cloud of dust rose, and Ha-eun, covered in it, coughed.

“Cough, cough!”

What is it this time?

Did the Mage throw something because he didn’t like the items? As all sorts of speculations crossed her mind, the dust slowly settled.

‘What on earth flew over here?’

Ha-eun narrowed her eyes.

That’s when she realized. She was currently enveloped in a massive shadow.

In other words, something was behind her.

Ha-eun turned her head to check.

And at that moment.

Her entire body stiffened.

She couldn’t help it. The owner of the massive shadow, the thing that had instantly blocked her escape route, was the monster that had been subjugated by the Mage not long ago.

The elite monster, Collector.