Ch.401[Side Story] Epitrina – 1

To be honest, women rarely ever come to our shop.

First of all, even our sign has a completely old-man vibe design.

On top of that, the shop name “Repair Workshop” seemed somehow disconnected from the world of women.

So it’s no exaggeration to say that the only female visitor to our shop was the water purifier maintenance person.

Ah, occasionally there were female customers.

Once in a blue moon, someone would come to buy a used graphics card.

Internet broadcaster? She said something about her streaming computer’s graphics card breaking suddenly, so she came to buy a used one.

So I thought, “That must be why,” and sold her a graphics card.

Other than that, well, female customers were really rare.

But suddenly, a beauty visited our shop.

And not just any beauty, but a “goddess” visited.

Not a figurative goddess, but a real goddess.

“Is this your shop? You’re living more modestly than I expected.”

The woman I met at the beginning and end of my second life entered my shop and slowly began looking around.

In my shop, I had graphics cards and gaming laptops displayed on shelves for sale.

And behind the display shelves, mountains of graphics cards and laptops were stacked in plastic boxes with moisture absorbers.

Anyone looking would think it was just being used as a storage room.

Of course, I deliberately arranged it this way.

That way, customers wouldn’t take interest and wouldn’t come in.

Since my business is primarily internet-based anyway, I hardly have any offline transactions.

“What does this shop sell?”

“I buy things that people have used and broken, fix them, and sell them for more money.”

“Does that business do well?”

Epitrina seemed genuinely curious about whether the business was successful.

Well, in the world she ruled, the practice of repairing and reselling items was extremely rare.

Even if it existed, it would only happen between individuals, not like me who buys in bulk and sells them in a shop.

“It does well. Thanks to the ability Epitrina gave me, only I can run a business like this.”

“Is that so? I’m glad to see you’re making good use of the ability I gave you.”

With that, she plopped down on a chair in the store.

When she sat down, her large and beautiful bosom bounced up and down.

“By the way, aren’t you curious why I came here?”

“I am curious. Why would a great goddess responsible for an entire world come all the way here?”

Epitrina heard my question and put on a proud expression.

“Hehe. That’s because I took a vacation! In that world, I had to be mindful of my title as a goddess, but here, I don’t need to worry about that.”

“Hmm.”

In short, she came to this world for fun.

“How long of a vacation did you take?”

“About 100 years? Most gods usually take a rest period of about 100 years, so it’s nothing special.”

As expected, the concept of time differs between mortals and immortals.

A 100-year vacation. The scale of divine beings is truly different.

“Then what are you going to do here? This world has many more things to enjoy compared to Epitrina’s world.”

“Well, first I need to settle down here, right? Actually, I don’t know much about this world.”

“Do you have an ID? In our country, it’s inconvenient to live without identification.”

“Hehe, don’t worry. I was able to easily make an ID.”

With that, Epitrina pulled out a resident registration card from between her cleavage.

On her registration card, the name “Lee Harin” was written.

“Lee Harin?”

“Yes. That’s my name in this world. With the help of Earth’s god, I was able to acquire South Korean citizenship. What’s your name in this world?”

“My name is Park Seojun.”

“Nice, Park Seojun.”

Epitrina stood up from her seat.

“Alright, Seojun. Are there any good restaurants around here?”

“No, there aren’t. This is a really remote area, so everything closes when evening comes.”

“Huh?”

Epitrina, or rather Lee Harin, showed a bewildered reaction.

“Then why did you open a shop here?”

“The rent is cheap here. Since my shop only needs deliveries to come in, a place with cheap rent is convenient.”

“What’s good about low rent?”

“I can save money and accumulate it faster. That way I can buy a house.”

In this life, I’m determined to buy an apartment with a Han River view.

Before, I couldn’t afford it, but this time it will be possible.

Right now, my net profit for this month alone is 30 million won.

That’s pure profit after excluding all fixed expenses, including rent.

Just selling one graphics card leaves me with a net profit of about 200,000 won.

And I haven’t even started the “repair service” yet.

Even now, research institutes and companies that have purchased graphics cards I’ve repaired and sold are secretly contacting me through secure messengers.

The reason, of course, was for the maintenance of their GPU servers.

If a GPU server breaks down, it results in a loss of at least tens of thousands of dollars.

Even if one server goes down, it won’t affect the entire service, but the opportunity cost increases while it’s out of the rack for repairs.

Well, I was planning to proceed with the repair service once I bought a complete private warehouse.

It also costs money to equip everything needed to do repairs in a discreet manner.

From soldering irons to testers, BGA equipment, and more—there’s a lot to set up.

“It seems that needing a lot of money to buy a house is the same here as it is there.”

“I could buy a shabby, old house even now. But in South Korea, you need to live in a nice house and have a lot of money to avoid being looked down upon.”

In South Korea, you need to have money and live in a good house for people to treat you with respect.

Plus, I’m an orphan with no special background.

Society imposes even harsher standards on orphans.

“Is that really the reason?”

“While power in your world is distributed through aura or magic, here it’s divided between political power and monetary power.”

“Hmm, I really dislike complicated stories.”

Epitrina squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.

Her appearance was so cute that I almost unconsciously put my hand on her head.

“So, there are no good restaurants around here, right?”

“That’s right.”

The only “good restaurant” is a grandma’s home-style meal place that only serves lunch.

This was already a suburban area where business wasn’t good.

“Alright! Then let’s go home.”

“Home?”

Whose home is she talking about?

“Yes. Home. Your home. The home where you and I will live from now on.”

…What did I just hear?

“What? What do you mean…”

“Ha. No, you. When a woman says this much, shouldn’t you just understand the intention?”

“I get it, but… my home is quite far from here. Is that okay?”

My home is a small studio apartment about an hour away from here.

From the beginning, my goal was to save on monthly rent and lease fees to earn money as quickly as possible to establish my own shop.

“It’s fine. No matter how far it is, it can’t be farther than the dimension where I live, right?”

“My place is small and old.”

“That’s even better—I can feel your body heat up close, can’t I?”

Wow, she doesn’t hold back at all.

“Sigh… alright. Let’s head home for today.”

An unexpected visitor came, and I’ve already sent out all of today’s packages.

I closed the shop earlier than usual.

“Get in.”

I opened the passenger door of the car for Epitrina.

“What an interesting carriage! Where are the horses?”

“It’s called a car. Haven’t you seen them when observing this world?”

“I’ve only observed you in this world, so I’m not sure about other things.”

Looking at Epitrina with her eyes sparkling brightly as she spoke, I once again felt at a loss for words.

When I started the engine, the car started very smoothly.

Actually, this car was almost ready for the scrapyard.

I cleaned it thoroughly, removed all the garbage inside, and used my ability to make it look like it had just come out of the factory.

Later, I found out that the dealer who sold me this car was arrested because it was a flood-damaged vehicle.

I even received compensation for that.

Thanks to that, I was able to buy a mid-size sedan at a very affordable price.

This car also helped me conveniently collect items from the used market.

“Wow, this is amazing. It moves forward on its own without horses.”

“That’s science for you.”

I don’t know much about it either, but anyway, this world runs on science, not magic.

On the way home, Epitrina kept looking out the window with an expression of wonder.

“This is truly a fascinating world.”

“That world was more fascinating to me.”

“In my world, building such tall structures is very difficult.”

Before I knew it, we had arrived home while exchanging small talk with Epitrina.

After parking the car in the parking lot in front of the house, I entered the house with Epitrina.

“This is my home. I’m renting it.”

“It’s nice. It’s just the right size for you and me to live in, isn’t it? This is now our newlywed home, right?”

…Someone please stop this goddess who’s coming in with no brakes and no hesitation.