Ch.99 – Can’t Resist Rare Food

<9 – Can’t Resist Rare Food>

Senior Examiner Michael.

A beautiful nobleman with long blonde hair.

Michael, an androgynous charmer, sat at his designated seat at the bar table, seemingly oblivious to the stares of the candidates watching him.

“Is the honey wine still far off?”

“The honey stock hasn’t arrived yet. What a shame. You’ll have to wait about two days until the beekeepers’ stock arrives.”

“Didn’t you say the same thing two days ago? This truly is a worthless backwater not worth waiting for.”

After keeping his seat for 10 minutes and emptying a suitable drink, he goes upstairs.

After 50 minutes pass, he comes back down to the first floor and sits at his designated seat again.

“Is the five-colored shaved ice still far off?”

“The ice stock hasn’t arrived yet. What a shame. You’ll have to wait between three days to a week until the ice merchants’ stock arrives.”

“Didn’t you say the same thing three days ago? This truly is a worthless backwater not worth waiting for.”

A conversation identical to the previous one, as if only the menu item had been changed in a predetermined script.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the dizzying dialogue that reminded me of repetitive NPC lines from games.

When I saw it in games, I didn’t think much of it, but in reality, it looks so bizarre.

“What do you think, miss? It seems the examiner has already presented the problem.”

As if to drive home the butler’s point, an event notification appears.

<Michael’s Ticket Exam Event>

The ticket exam has already begun!

Michael and the innkeeper repeat conversations about different menu items every hour like broken NPCs, always saying the stock has run out.

Find hints from these mysterious conversations to pass the ticket exam.

While listening to the bard strumming his instrument, Jona asked again.

“Are you sure it’s alright to just stay like this?”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

If game strategies work here, passing the ticket exam would be no problem.

My confident demeanor must have looked quite concerning to others, as someone from the next table suddenly spoke up.

“Haha! The little lady is thinking hard.”

“…That’s not a nice thing to say, you know?”

“Eek. The lady seems displeased.”

The man gave me a tip.

“Let me give you a hint. This exam is a first-come-first-served ingredient gathering test where you climb Mount Sanjeong to find the missing ingredients for the dishes the examiner mentioned.”

“Hmm. Is that so?”

“You heard the innkeeper say how many days it would take for stock to arrive, right? That indicates which level you can find the ingredient. Within 1000m altitude, within 2000m, things like that.”

The honey needed for honey wine is an item obtained from the second level, within 2000m altitude.

The ice needed for five-colored shaved ice is an item obtained between the third and seventh levels, from above 2000m to below 7000m altitude.

All information I already know.

‘In the game, the dialogue would automatically advance by one hour each time you clicked the next button.’

A random ticket exam where you just keep clicking [Next] until a doable quest appears.

If you’re unlucky, only impossible requirements would appear, leading to jokes about how many dishes this madman wants to eat.

I vividly remember the meme of a 100kg “Fat Michael” after analyzing how much weight he’d gain if he ate all the food he requested.

“The sap of the thorn vine monster from the fourth level? If I kill it, will you give me a plate of food too?”

The monkey beastkin I saw outside poked his head down from above to look at Michael.

Michael‘s bored expression didn’t change at all, only his eyeballs following the beastkin.

“If the quantity is sufficient.”

“I’ll be right back.”

At the innkeeper’s words, the monkey beastkin excitedly ran outside.

“Is that guy going without forming a party?”

“Ignorant monkey.”

“The fourth level? He must have a death wish.”

Most adventurers target items growing in the early and middle sections of the second level.

There are plenty who wait patiently just for those rare items.

Some form parties of three or four to target the late or deep sections of the second level, or the early and middle sections of the third level, but nobody targets the fourth level and beyond.

‘Without the right level, gathering is usually impossible.’

No one takes responsibility if you die during the exam.

The price of greed is death.

Climbing mountains in a game world where monsters actually exist is that dangerous.

“What ingredient are you aiming for, miss?”

“Hmm? I’m not particularly aiming for anything.”

“Have you given up on the exam?”

“There’s no reason to assume there’s only one way to pass the exam, right?”

The man next to me brightened.

“Indeed, my eyes weren’t wrong. I thought the little lady would be targeting something different from all the cowards in this inn.”

“Aren’t you a coward too, mister?”

“Haha. I don’t know if you’ll be satisfied, but I’ve prepared in my own way.”

Two days later.

We found out what the man meant.

“Wow, what an enormous procession of carts!”

“Did someone call for a merchant guild?”

The man whistled sharply, and turbaned merchants presented their ledgers.

“We’ve procured all the items you requested.”

“Good. You’ve come a long way, thank you for your efforts. Have some tea while I check the goods.”

At the man’s words, more than half the people at the first floor tables stood up.

They all went to inspect the goods loaded on the carts and check their quality.

The adventurers muttered with dumbfounded expressions.

“My goodness. They were all working together?”

“There’s more than twenty of them.”

“I remember now! That annoyingly handsome bearded man. He’s Giselle, the general merchant who’s been making a name for himself lately!”

Giselle had responded to the exam in a very clever way.

“Now, please exchange tickets for the items we can make with our goods.”

The innkeeper looked at Michael with a bewildered expression.

It was beyond the innkeeper’s authority to judge whether this should count as a pass.

Senior Examiner Michael, with a slightly less bored face, compared the menu and the ledger.

“Chocolate balls, Sparkling Pasta, Honey Wine, and 29 other menu items achieved. This is the first time in my five years as an examiner that a participant has earned 32 tickets at once.”

“Haha. If you’re not smart, your body suffers. This is just reaping the rewards of using my brain more diligently than others.”

General Merchant Giselle.

He really obtained 32 tickets in one go.

“Wow, amazing.”

“What do you think, little lady? You seem to have plenty of money, and I happen to have plenty of tickets. Since you’re wealthy, would you be interested in buying some tickets?”

“Are you a ticket hunter too, mister?”

“Haha. As you can see, I am. It wasn’t easy collecting all types of monster materials and mountain ingredients by category, and most became waste, but thanks to that I obtained a large number of tickets.”

“That’s impressive. How much money did you spend?”

“About 40 gold coins. In return, I plan to sell Bronze tickets for 10 gold coins each and Silver tickets for 100 gold coins each, so it’s more than profitable.”

Tickets sold for 10 gold coins and 100 gold coins.

Those units were very familiar to me.

‘The ticket black market merchant from the game!’

In the game, they were just NPC black market merchants selling tickets as rescue items for those short on time, but in reality, they were implemented like this.

The identity of the black market merchant selling large quantities of tickets was none other than General Merchant Giselle!

If you ask how I didn’t recognize the black market merchant, I do have an excuse.

-Kukuk. Those who wish to become Academy freshmen, come to me…

-Our branch offers a 10% discount on ticket prices if you just gut one person…

-Hey you there, you have the look of someone who’ll become an Academy freshman… Want to buy this ticket for 10 gold?

The ticket black market merchants in the game were idiots who wore dark hoods in shadowy back alleys late at night, saying such nonsense.

How could I think someone walking around in broad daylight without a hood was a black market merchant!

“You’re quite a skilled merchant. What will you do, miss?”

“I’ll give you 10 gold coins.”

At the butler’s words, I promptly took out 10 gold coins from my purse.

Giselle looked disappointed as he spoke.

“Just a Bronze ticket? Since you have plenty of money, why not splurge on 100 coins? There’s always a reason expensive things are expensive.”

“That’s fine. What I want to buy isn’t actually that Bronze ticket.”

He passed multiple ticket exam tasks simultaneously.

As soon as I saw that scene, I knew what I wanted to buy.

“What I want to buy is the meal voucher for the food served after passing the tasks!”

“Pardon? A meal voucher… you want to purchase the right to eat the food that would be served to us?”

Giselle’s eyes widened at this unexpected request. He had approached a rich young lady hoping to sell tickets, only to hear something completely unexpected.

But from a player’s perspective, this was definitely more valuable than any ticket.