No matter where you look, it's all people.
Look ahead, and it's packed with people.
Look to the side, and the crowd is swarming.
Even look across, and it's the same.
"...."
Kim Jangcheol unconsciously rubbed his eyelids hard. And he thought: Did I not get enough sleep last night? Or did I eat something weird this morning? Is that why I'm seeing hallucinations?
But reality was cruel.
"Waaaah! They're here!"
"It's the same group from yesterday! I'm sure of it!"
"Potatoes! Are they the same price as yesterday?!"
"I'll take one!"
"I'll take two! I brought money!"
"Hey, don't push!"
"Let's form a line, a line!"
Bustling, bustling.
Why did it feel like he was looking at Seongsu Station during rush hour? This open space in front of the inn—it was fairly wide, too.
And yet, the whole place was filled, packed, completely crammed with people who wanted to buy chuno? From this early in the morning?
"Um, what exactly is going on here?"
The rest of the party seemed just as startled by the unexpected situation. Especially Reivaj. He approached with a pale face and asked.
What kind of answer should one give in times like this?
"First, let's get out of here."
Kim Jangcheol made a quick decision.
He didn't know why this was happening.
Didn't know what the people were so obsessed with.
But either way, lingering around was only going to lead to a mess. Seeing how the crowd surrounding the inn surged the moment they spotted them made that even more clear.
'Wait, chuno is that popular?'
Honestly, it didn't make much sense.
Sure, it was a crop they had raised with great care. A result of the Demon King's Castle working hard, sweating blood and tears. But still, it wasn't like it was so amazing that people should be going this crazy over it.
'Realistically speaking… it's just an oversized potato that's been frozen, crushed, and dried for preservation.'
It wasn't especially flavorful on its own.
Thanks to being shriveled up, it did soak up seasoning pretty well, and had a unique taste to it, sure—but not something people would go this wild for.
Yet here they were, going absolutely nuts.
Like what would happen if a major supermarket sold two chickens for a thousand won for one day only. This was frenzied hysteria, plain and simple.
"....."
No idea.
But now wasn't the time to hesitate.
"If we stay here any longer, we'll never get out. Move."
Signs showed the crowd was about to surge toward them. Everyone is scrambling to buy chuno, pushing and shoving without regard for lines or order.
"Everyone! Break through!"
Kim Jangcheol took the lead.
Behind him followed Zephyros, Reivaj, Baal, the servant Dyoll, Aged Kimchi, and Sirgi pulling the cart. And Asurat, flustered, flapped his massive wings.
That only made the crowd go even more berserk.
"Waaaah! They're coming! They're coming out!"
"Excuse me! I bought three yesterday—can I go first?!"
"Same price as yesterday, right?! Here's my money!"
"Ahh! Me first!"
"Over here too!"
".....!"
Screams.
Chaos.
No room to think.
People rushing in endlessly.
Hands reaching out.
Shouts. Screams. Pinches. Huh? Pinches?
'...Ah, ugh! How do you... do...!'
Is this what a hamster thrown into a market feels like? Amidst it all, a sudden chill crept up his spine.
'…The Elixir of Transformation.'
Right.
The Elixir of Transformation.
They'd taken it.
Him, Zephyros, and their whole group.
But that elixir—didn't it have a warning?
That's right.
'If you take a certain amount of damage… the disguise breaks.'
Shiver.
A chill crawled down his spine as he instinctively looked back. Aged Kimchi came into view. If the disguise broke in front of that guy?
"...Ret, retreat!"
He shouted instantly.
Stopped in his tracks.
No—he stepped back. Pulled the whole group back. And frantically avoided the outstretched hands of the charging crowd.
A disheveled-haired Zephyros urgently asked,
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
"Problem? Of course there is."
"Excuse me?"
"You think you can get through this without taking a single hit?"
"....Ah."
Zephyros grasped the situation instantly.
Kim Jangcheol barely held off the people climbing the stairs and gave an awkward smile.
"I don't think I can either. Forget getting through peacefully."
Seriously.
The crowd's frenzy was no joke. And getting through here? Quietly? Without getting hit even once?
"....."
No.
Absolutely not.
Honestly, it felt like a miracle their disguises hadn't already been broken during the first attempt to break through.
'In the game, the Elixir of Transformation always broke after a single hit, no matter what.'
Then what about now?
Here, in this reality, not a game?
How strong would the hit need to be to count as "a single hit"?
'.......'
No idea.
He couldn't predict it. And it wasn't something he could test recklessly.
'In the game, if your disguise was broken by force, you had to wait 24 hours before using the Elixir again, right?'
But what if they experimented now and the disguise broke? And Aged Kimchi saw that?
Then their identity would be exposed, and they'd be instantly dead. Probably having a fruitful and educational career counseling session with the Ruler of the Underworld in a matter of seconds.
"....Tch."
This won't work.
There's no way to push through.
"Why are you hesitating, Sir Kim Jangcheol! Are you planning to stay trapped here!"
Maybe it was because of how they backed off instead of breaking through. Reivaj called out in urgency.
He shook his head at him.
"This won't do. If we force our way through, someone's going to get seriously hurt."
"Then what do you propose we do!"
"We'll have to try persuading them."
If force won't work, then use your brain.
Not muscle, but tongue.
With that in mind, he cleared his throat. Looked around at the crowd completely surrounding the inn. And spoke to them.
"....Everyone."
"Waaah! Sales are starting!"
"...."
"See! I told you! I said we'd be able to buy more today!"
"Wait, everyone…?"
"With this price, I can feed my whole family. Thank you!"
"No, listen to me for a second…!"
"Let's form a line! Hey! Stop pushing! I said I was first!"
"This isn't something for sale anymore…"
"Quiet down! He's trying to explain something!"
"No, I said we're not selling anymore!"
"......."
He couldn't hold it in anymore and yelled.
The crowd fell silent. Awkward air. A pause of confusion. Disbelieving expressions. Then hundreds of eyes all turning toward him at once.
And finally, an eruption of complaints.
"What do you mean, not selling?!"
"I saw there was plenty left in the cart yesterday!"
"Yeah! I saw it too! You brought that cart here today!"
"Just one day! Please sell for just one more day, okay?"
"I didn't even get to see it yesterday! I want to buy some too!"
"My kid just wants to eat it one more time! Please!"
"Come on, sell it! It's not like I'm gonna eat it all myself!"
"....."
This is insane.
Thanks to this, he realized something.
They were completely trapped inside this inn.
'Tch. Should I just take advantage of this chaos, sell off all the chuno, and make a break for it?'
The impulse hit him for a moment.
But he dropped it quickly.
That would be like openly revealing their identity to Aged Kimchi—could he really handle the consequences? Could he even escape that guy's pursuit?
"...."
No.
Absolutely not.
He didn't want to bet his life on some half-baked optimism. That's why—Kim Jangcheol turned to his companions and asked,
"Uh, maybe we should retreat inside the inn for now and come up with a plan?"
"...Baal wanna smash through and give kisses!"
"Whoa, whoa. Easy. Calm down, okay?"
"A dumb idea, but I do like the goal of breaking through. Might be better to use a bit of force, after all."
"Wait, Sir Aged Kimchi, what are you even—!"
Barely managing to calm down the excited(?) group, they went back into the inn. The innkeeper, face pale as a sheet, quickly shut the door behind them. Thanks to that, they got a moment to breathe.
".....Hoo, now what do we do?"
Wiping the sweat beading on his forehead, Reivaj asked. His handsome face held a clear trace of reproach.
"You said chuno wouldn't get much attention, didn't you?"
"...Well, yeah, I did."
"Yet the outcome turned out exactly the opposite."
"....Right, it really did."
"Hah. This is bad. Maybe we should wait until night, when the crowd thins out, and try to escape then."
"Baal can just throw those people away, like whoosh whoosh, and clear the way!"
"Uh, do that and you're definitely getting arrested."
"Baal is a free spirit who belongs to no one!"
"Where did you even learn to talk like that?"
"Here! Potato Face taught me!"
Baal pointed to the servant Dyoll, who grinned proudly(?) with a chuno-like expression.
That's when it happened.
"Excuse me, someone out there says they'd like to speak with your group..."
The innkeeper approached.
Then pointed toward the entrance.
Someone wanted to meet them?
Honestly, the problem right now was that there were too many people out there wanting to meet them(?).
"They're a person of rather special status. That is, if I may explain—"
"That's enough. I'll explain myself."
Creak.
The old door of the inn opened.
Through it stepped a man in his 30s, neatly dressed. He was quite tall, with an air of nobility on his sharp, composed face.
He looked straight at them and said,
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ruslan, secretary to the merchant Lord Richmond."
Merchant?
Richmond?
A name they'd never heard before.
Ruslan, the one who introduced himself as secretary, continued.
"You must be busy, so I'll get straight to the point. We'd like to purchase all of your chuno potatoes in bulk. At a price 10% higher than what you sold them for in the square yesterday."
".....What?"
A completely out-of-the-blue proposal.
But maybe he didn't care how they took it. His words continued smoothly, like flowing water.
"I believe this is a very reasonable offer. Full bulk purchase with no haggling over quantity, and at a better price than yesterday. Also—"
".....Also?"
"If possible, we'd like to know whether you'd be willing to enter into a long-term sales contract going forward."
"....."
"What do you say? From the looks of it, this seems to be your first time doing business. Rather than struggling to sell directly to those unruly, uncultured people outside... wouldn't it help your venture more to begin with a proper partner in a larger, well-structured market?"
"......"
Very straightforward.
And very blatant.
Thanks to that, Kim Jangcheol started to get a sense of it.
"You won't find a better buyer offering these terms anywhere else—I can assure you. In fact, the Lord Richmond I serve handles over 90% of all agricultural distribution in this region."
"...."
Somehow, it all started coming back.
The shouting that had stood out earlier.
The cries of the people crowding the inn.
Their desperate shouts the moment they laid eyes on them.
"That's why we guarantee to maintain the agreed purchase price in the contract, regardless of future fluctuations in the potato market."
"...."
Right.
It's coming back now.
The very first shout he'd heard.
What was it again?
'...Potatoes! Same price as yesterday?!'
As if buying them at such a kind price yesterday had been a miracle. As if it was just that good. The voice shouting, full of sincerity.
Was it... really that good?
Why?
Why:
"And think about it. A farmer's worst enemy is the ever-changing price of crops. All that hard work, only to have your harvest end up being worth pennies. But what if there were a stable buyer who always purchased your crops at a set price? What could be more dependable or reassuring for a farmer than that?"
'...Same price as yesterday, right?! Here's my money!'
"So if you sign a distribution contract with the Lord Richmond I serve, it means you'll be protected by an unbeatable stronghold in this region's food industry."
'...At this price, my whole family can eat their fill—thank you!'
"......."
The secretary, neatly dressed, explaining everything with a voice full of trust right in front of them. The desperate faces of the people shouting themselves hoarse earlier.
Yeah.
He gets it now.
Why people had gone so wild over mere chuno. Why they'd gone so hysterical, screaming and pushing. Why they kept shouting like that.
And why this neatly dressed man was making this kind of offer.
'So this guy...'
Kim Jangcheol looked at the man who called himself a secretary.
On his face, he saw the overlapping images of certain people he'd seen back in Korea.
Yeah.
A wholesaler.
And the worst kind.
The ones who buy up all the produce at auctions through hoarding. Then keep it locked in warehouses, refusing to release it into the market.
Right.
Hoarding.
Until when?
Until produce gets so scarce that prices skyrocket. Then they open up the warehouses, trickle it out bit by bit into the market, manipulating the price. Making themselves rich off the spread.
'He's exactly that kind of scum.'
The kind he'd seen plenty of in Korea too.
The root cause of why average consumers feel produce prices soaring in supermarkets. The very people who keep farmers poor even after breaking their backs in the fields.
The middlemen, bleeding the system dry.
'Yup. That's exactly what he is.'
At last, he understood.
Same story here. Because of the wholesaler this secretary served, food prices in this region had been insanely inflated.
That's why the chuno caused a frenzy. Because suddenly someone was selling giant potatoes at a fair price. Of course people rushed in to buy them.
Just like shoppers storming a mega sale.
'To think the price I set with a bit of advice from the servant Dyoll would cause all this.'
A laugh escaped him, involuntarily.
That was when it happened.
Kim Jangcheol's thoughts started to accelerate.
The identity of the merchant who'd just appeared.
The current situation.
And what would come next.
The pieces fell into place.
He could see the picture now.
From here, he would use this shady wholesaler to achieve all his goals, shake off Aged Kimchi, and return safely to the Demon King's Castle.
He imagined it—completed the big picture.
And in that moment—
"...Ha."
A smirk of arrogance spread across Kim Jangcheol's face. Then he turned to the secretary, who had been doing his best to sound trustworthy, and casually tossed out a reply.
"Hey. I don't do business with underlings like you."
"...Pardon?"
The secretary froze.
Kim Jangcheol hit him with a sharp jab.
"Get me your boss."
[T/L: I am not getting any support from webnovel platform, so please support me and read ahead chapters on my ko-fi page "RevengerScans" : https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans ]