Matan’s Shooter

Sometimes the answer comes from an unexpected place.

“Can’t I just go to the capital before thinking about it? I have to go anyway, so what can I do after thinking about it in advance? Even if you sell it for cash, it would be better to sell it in the capital. It has a floating population that a beginner village like Candle Castle can’t possibly compare to.”

After accessing Middle Earth, he went to the general store.

“Boss.”

“H-Ha Leeha-nim, no, Ha Leeha-ssi you’re here. Hehe, how was your harvest today?”

“It’s hard to find Buwak herbs these days. I’m still looking for it, so please wait a little longer.”

“Ah, right. It won’t be easy to get.”

Leeha was shamelessly acting. He didn’t even go near the southern forest, let alone the Buwak herb. And in the first place, he returned the sachet to make the Black Angus come out to Madame Lou, so he would not be able to get it anymore.

He did not feel guilty doing this to the half-bald general store owner, however he did not know it would be the same with Madame Lou.

“The sun has just risen, but they should be coming. They might be on the way. Hehe, wait a bit, how about a cup of coffee?”

“It would be nice to have some.”

It would have been different if the buwak herbs had not been attached as bait.

‘This uncle might really exist in real life.’ 

He smiled and sat down in the guest chair. Smelling the coffee from the counter, Leeha looked around the general store.

“Do you sell maps here by any chance?”

“Yes I do.”

“How much are they?”

“The map near Candle Castle is 80 silver. The entire map of the Fibiel Kingdom is 5 gold.”

Leeha almost spat out the coffee he had been drinking. How much was this guy selling it for? He needed to ask again if he had heard him correctly. What kind of map was that much?

“The map is worth 5 gold?”

“The original map is a luxury item. Of course, it is expensive. We only have two of them in our store. Common people can’t even… …Ahem!”

“Did you try to say that the common people couldn’t even buy one?”

“Who would say something like that? Hehe, let’s have some more coffee.”

Therefore, there would be people who printed and connected local information on the Internet who memorized them and played with the knowledge they obtained. It was because it was too expensive to see maps in Middle Earth.

As the current location was displayed like a navigation, a map was essential when going to an unexplored area, but it was not necessary for low-level users or Leeha.

‘In the past, trade and sailing games were also played offline while memorizing maps. Is it going to be the same here?’

Leeha drank a sip of coffee. It was night in reality, but morning in Middle Earth. Leeha was now accustomed to living in such a strangely shifted time zone.

He suddenly felt a faint buzzing in his head as he whispered to Kijeong.

-You there.

He heard a sound in his head after a while. 

-Hyung! Are you not asleep yet?

Leeha smiled.

-What are you doing, Master K? 

– Kukuku! I’m in the middle of leveling, hunting with my guildmates.

-Sounds wonderful. Oh by the way, I’m level 12 now. I’m going to the capital soon. Will I be able to see your face there?

– Wow. You’re already level 12? H-How? What about the golden eagle?

-I already hunted it a long time ago.

– Amazing……. That’s really fast.. I wanted to give you some tips on how to catch the Golden Eagle.

– You might even be more surprised for the tips that I have.

He had chased the Servant Wolf with the smell of gunpowder and killed the Golden Eagle in one blow. Could Kijeong possibly imagine how he had done it? Additionally, because Biyemi, who knew a lot about the game’s secrets, was in the party, they were able to proceed smoothly.

-Congratulations anyway! If you come to the capital, I’ll treat you to something nice Hyung-nim!

-Okay, thanks.

-How envious! Hyung, you’re in Candle Castle, right? Did you happen to see Ram Hwajeong? Didn’t you say you were in the Candle Castle last time?

Leeha could feel the excitement in his voice.

Leeha barely held his laughter. Did he see her? He did not just see her.

He saw Ram Hwayeon and Ram Hwajeong. He caught the Black Angus, the hidden boss of Candle Castle, in one shot. The two women saw it and asked him to add them as friends.

-Well, I saw Ram Hwajeong and Ram Hwayeon together.

-I-It’s a shame. You should have called me.

Kijeong was sincerely disappointed.

-Are you a part of Ram Hwajeong and Ram Hwayeon’s fan club? Actually I-

-I wanted to kill them.. It would have been easier to hunt if Ram Hwayeon had been together…  previously.

-..

– Oh? Oh?

His voice was filled with anger. Leeha was quite surprised as he knew that Kijeong did not like to swear

.

-In fact what? Have you been hurt, too? Ah, those two really…!

-N-no. What harm? But, are you angry?

-Our guild also put a bounty for the real-time location of Ram Hwajeong. If I knew she was in Candle Castle, I would have gone there.

-The kid… the lady? And beat her up?

-Little lady? Well, it must be because you saw her in town. That bitch is crazy.

A little lady with blue straight hair. She was cute and her job was as a Cryomancer. Although they did not talk that much, the image of Ram Hwajeong remained in Leeha’s memory.

However, he could feel that Kijeong’s anger was sincere. Leeha’s head was buzzing from Kijeong’s persistent swearing.

-W-what happened?

-The story is a bit complicated, but we are at war. Did you see her use magic? It’s absolutely brutal. I also got hit by her.

-Also?

-My guildmates and I were ambushed and before we knew it our bodies were frozen solid. I could see her clearly, but I could not move my body at all.  At that moment, she came to me and cut my neck while smiling. Do you know what it feels like when your neck gets cut off?

-The feeling of seeing my body falling, with my head falling to the ground just before I was judged dead, was so realistic. The death penalty is only 48 hours, but I wasn’t able to log in for 5 days because of that. Dropping items, dropping levels. Those bitches….! If I meet them again…whew they’re dead meat!

Kijeong poured out his resentments.

Leeha had heard that Middle Earth’s PK could turn into ‘Real-Life PK’, but if you really thought about it, it could really happen.

It was the reason why Leeha was taken aback. Kijeong was so angry that it even made his head hurt. We’re whispers capable of capturing emotions like this?

-Sorry, hyung. I was talking to hyung but I swore nonstop. I’m sorry.

-No, it’s okay. I know how angry you are. So your guild and Ram Hwajeong’s guild are at war, right?

-It’s not just us. Didn’t you say you saw Ram Hwayeon? She’s suddenly spilling money and is expanding her influence. She can only do it because she has the backing of a big corporation.

-Yeah, that’s right.

-Then of course we don’t have a choice but to bump into each other. You should know how to do things in moderation, but she has a conglomerate backing. The word ‘moderate’ is not in her vocabulary. She stretched her hands out like a conglomerate that absorbed the commercial area of the alley… Even if our guild joined forces with other guilds, we are barely able to deal with them. Their momentum is enormous. Sooner or later, they would be in the top 5 Middle Earth guild.

And a lot of people did not like that. Certainly, Leeha also saw comments swearing Ram Hwajeong and Ram Hwayeon on the Internet.

He thought it was just envy and jealousy. If they were at war with Korean guilds, the Ram Sisters would completely be public enemies of all Koreans.

‘Then what about me? If I entered Ki-jeong’s guild, I would have to fight the Ram Sisters. If I join the Ram sisters’ guild, do I have to fight Ki-jeong? I thought I could go anywhere and get help, but why did this happen? First of all, I shouldn’t join either of them.’

When the Ram Sisters fought with Kijeong, Leeha decided he should pretend that he did not know the sisters.

In addition to receiving a scouting offer from the Pyromancer Ram Hwayeon, the actual guild master, they even added him as a friend himself.

‘Because those rankers don’t add friends to just anyone.’

In the Friends window, he could see the current connection status and approximate location of his friends. In other words, Leeha could tell Kijeong the location of Ram Hwajeong and Ram Hwayeon right at that very moment.

“Oh my head will burst…really.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m not saying it to the boss. Haha. The coffee is good. But when will the wholesaler–”

The doorbell rang lightly.

“Boss, I’ve got the stuff!”

It was then that a big man with a string tied around his forehead came in.

“Bob-ssi! You came early!”

“Aren’t you going to introduce someone to me today? I can’t be late. Haha.”

It was immediately clear that he was a wholesaler. 

Leeha also stood up from his seat.

“Hello.”

“Yes, hello. Ah, this is?”

The lively man called Bob turned to the half-bald general store owner. An awkward silence ensued. The general store owner nodded.

“Hey, didn’t you say you will buy a lot of gunpowder? In the future, I will make sure to deliver on time. I’m Bob.”

“It’s not a lot, but it’s absolutely necessary for a job. Haha, I would like an inexpensive and high quality guy.”

“So how much are you going to buy? Now, let’s see… … . I have roughly 500 bags of gunpowder.”

500 bags! 50 silver! It was an amount that could not be bought even with all of Leeha’s current assets!

For Leeha who thought that gunpowder and ammunition were a necessity, 500 sets of gunpowder and bullets would give him a tremendous sense of stability.

“Well, I don’t have that much money right now. If you buy it at the delivery price here-”

“Ahem, huh! Would you like to talk about that in a little bit Leeha-ssi? Wait weren’t you just about to leave? Let’s start with what we ordered, Bob-ssi? Come inside.”

The half-bald general store owner suddenly coughed and stopped talking.

His eyes were shaking and sweat trickled down from his balding forehead.

‘What is it? Is he… anxious? Why?’

The general store owner tried to pull Bob inside.

“W-wait a minute please.”

“Yes?”

Leeha instinctively knew. That he shouldn’t let these two people go in.

Why did they need to have a conversation that did not include Leeha? Leeha was growing more and more suspicious as the seconds went by.

“Gunpowder! How much does it cost? And its delivery price!”

“That’s-”

“Uwah! Uwaaah!”

The grocery store owner was struggling. It appeared that he was somehow trying to stop him from speaking, but Bob already opened his mouth.

“It’s 4 coppers each.”

“4 Coppers? 4 coppers for one bag?”

“T-that’s right. Is there anything wrong… … ?”

When Bob was confused, the general store owner’s body stiffened.

“So what about the iron ball?”

“1 copper per each.”

Yes, that was what he had thought. Leeha turned his head to the general store owner, with a menacing look.

“Boss?”

He bought gunpowder for 4 coppers each, and sold it for 10 coppers each. And he bought iron beads for 1 copper and sold them for 3 coppers each? 

‘Did he think I was a pushover?’