TL: Hanguk
“Is there no one to be swindled today?”
Skaram, as usual, hid in a corner of the building, looking for new prey to scam.
Then
Squeak squeak~
A white rabbit, humming merrily, passed by Skaram while singing a lively tune.
‘What the… it’s just a rabbit…’
Skaram turned his gaze again to find prey, but then
‘What’s that?’
The red ribbon worn on the rabbit’s ears caught Skaram’s attention. It was the symbol of the now-vanished Red Ribbon Royal Family, featuring a crescent moon and a rabbit.
And then,
‘Could it be?!’
An item flashed across Skaram’s mind.
‘Red Ribbon?!’
It was definitely the Red Ribbon, the item that landlord Grid, was desperately searching for, offering a reward through the Dark Society.
‘Hehehe, I am lucky today.’
With a smirk, Skaram put on his hood to hide his face and started following the white rabbit.
And then,
Thud.
When the white rabbit passed a secluded area, he knocked it unconscious with his poison sting.
Squeak…
Thump.
The white rabbit fainted and fell to the ground.
“Hehehe.”
Skaram approached, laughing, and put the unconscious white rabbit into his bag. Considering the various problems that could arise from just taking the Red Ribbon and leaving the rabbit here, Skaram decided to hand over the rabbit to Grid as well for a clean finish.
Just as Skaram was leaving the market area with his bag,
Tap.
Someone touched his bag.
“What the?!”
Skaram glared at the person who dared to touch his bag.
And then,
“You?!”
He locked eyes with Theo, a customer he once swindled.
***
“Huh?!”
Theo was taken aback by his own paw reaching towards someone else’s bag, but once he recognized that the owner was Skaram, he pulled himself together.
And then,
“Scammer! Hand over ChuChu, meow!”
He shouted at Skaram.
“ChuChu?”
“That’s right, meow! ChuChu is definitely in your bag, meow!”
Iona, who knew about Theo’s golden front paw, described the appearance of ChuChu and also about the Red Ribbon that ChuChu was carrying.
“The Red Ribbon is a relic item, one of only ten in the Black Tower. Your front paw will definitely be attracted to it.”
Indeed, Theo felt the same attraction from Skaram’s bag as he did when he found the relic item, the Straw Hat.
“What…what are you talking about?!”
“Iona!”
As Skaram was startled and tried to leave the shopping area, Theo quickly called Iona.
“Representative Theo, have you found our ChuChu?”
At Theo’s call, Iona, who was nearby, quickly flew over.
“I think so, meow! That goblin wandering merchant’s bag is very suspicious, meow!”
“Is that so? Goblin wandering merchant, can you show us your bag? I’m Iona, the Chairman of the Wizard’s Association. I’ll give you 10,000 Tower Coins just for showing your bag.”
Iona politely asked Skaram to show his bag. An opportunity to earn a large amount just for showing the bag. If he had nothing to hide, there would be no reason to refuse.
But,
“I refuse.”
Skaram, who had something to hide, refused, and
“Open the bag, now!”
Iona became enraged, triggering her level 1 anger state, and used her magic.
Swoosh.
With Iona’s shout, the bag began to open by itself. It was Iona using her magic to forcibly open the bag.
Rumble. 𝘪𝑎.
The contents of the bag began to pour out. Most of them were earth items, like tumblers.
“Huh?”
Skaram was startled when his bag opened on its own.
Then, a pure white rabbit came out of the bag.
“ChuChu!”
As expected of Theo, he found ChuChu in Skaram’s bag.
“ChuChu!”
……
ChuChu did not respond even when Iona called.
“Absolute recovery.”
When Iona was using the highest-level healing magic to restore ChuChu,
Quietly.
Skaram began to run away.
But
Grrrr
Elka and the wolves who had arrived late surrounded Skaram.
And then,
“Puhuhut. Where do you think you’re going when there’s still much to account for, meow?!”
Theo stepped forward with the cat interns and spoke. Theo intended to get back at Skaram for deceiving him by taking him to Sejun to demand payment, aside from the kidnapping of ChuChu.
***
255th day of being stranded, morning.
“Alright.”
Sejun woke up in a good mood. Perhaps because he had burned the western forest yesterday, no branch scouts came this morning.
“I’ll need to set a fire from time to time.”
Sejun added ‘Burning the western forest’ to his farming task list. It was killing two birds with one stone, gaining experience and preventing the corrupted Ents of the western forest from expanding their power.
Swoosh.
Sejun added a stroke on the bedroom wall to complete one ‘正’ and then went outside.
Today, since he woke up early, there was no one wandering around the ground fields except for busy honeybees.
“Should I have some morning coffee for a change?”
Sejun filled a tumbler with hot water to make coffee and sat in the chair in front of his house drinking the coffee.
Slurp.
“Ahh, this is good.”
As the hot coffee went down his throat and into his stomach, he felt a comforting warmth as if he was having a hangover cure.
Just as he was enjoying his leisurely coffee,
Buzz..zzz..
He saw a struggling honeybee fall to the ground.
“Huh?”
Sejun, who had been drinking coffee, quickly put down his tumbler and ran towards the fallen honeybee.
“Hey! What’s wrong with you?”
Sejun asked as he touched the honeybee’s body and asked. The honeybee was in bad shape. Its wings were slightly torn and one of its legs was cut off.
Buzz…zz…
[To the east…the honeybees…]
“East?”
If it’s the east, it’s the original habitat of the bees that used to live on the 99th floor of the tower.
Unlike the honeybees that Sejun raises, these were aggressive and carnivorous, so Sejun had instructed the honeybees not to venture near the eastern region.
Buzz…
[They’ve invaded our territory… and we fought…]
“Rest for now.”
Sejun put the honeybee into the hive.
“I need to go check out the east.”
With the west calming down a bit, the east was the problem. Sejun started to prepare to go east.
First,
“Black Rabbit! Cuengi!”
He called his bodyguards, the Black Rabbit and Cuengi. Sejun never went outside the farm alone.
While the poisonous honeybee’s venom can be easily neutralized with detoxifying green onions, that’s only true if stung once or twice.
The sting of the poisonous honeybee is about 10cm long and as thick as a ballpoint pen. On top of that, the bees move in groups of hundreds. It wasn’t the poison that could kill, but excessive bleeding was also a possibility.
Squeak!
Kroung!
At Sejun’s call, Black Rabbit and Cuengi came running.
“Cuengi, transform!”
Kroung!
Sejun rode on the enlarged Cuengi and moved towards the eastern border.
***
“Help me, everyone! These guys are trying to kill me!”
Skaram called for help from those around him. He hoped to create an opportunity to escape in the confusion when other merchants gathered to watch.
However,
Click.
“I am Jeras, an agent of secret inspection bureau of the Wandering Merchant Association! This goblin wandering merchant, Skaram, is caught red-handed trying to kidnap a white rabbit. I will hold an immediate trial now.”
Jeras stepped forward quickly, showing his identification from secret inspection bureau. For him, who had been struggling to catch Skaram in the act, this was a golden opportunity.
Clank.
Jeras handcuffed Skaram’s hand.
“Huh?!”
Skaram was surprised when an agent of secret inspection bureau suddenly appeared.
“Goblin Wandering Merchant Skaram, you are permanently expelled from the list of wandering merchants. You are no longer a wandering merchant.”
With Jeras’s words, Skaram’s name was erased from the wandering merchant’s certificate he held and from the scoreboard showing the sales amount ranking of wandering merchants.
“No!”
Skaram despaired at Jeras’s judgment. Being permanently expelled from the wandering merchant list had significant implications.
First of all, when you are permanently expelled from the wandering merchant list, not only the Wandering Merchant Association but also all relationships with the Freelance Mercenaries Association, Wizard’s Association are cut off.
In other words, it was impossible to officially operate in the tower. Moreover, the Wandering Merchant Association does not protect those who are not wandering merchants.
“You can do as you please now.”
Jeras handed over Skaram, who was handcuffed, to Theo and said.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but thank you, meow! And I also have a secret, meow. In fact, I am the great Black…”
Just when Theo was about to disclose his identity,
“Kyoo-Kyoo-How dare you touch my disciple! I will not forgive you!”
Upon witnessing the situation where her disciple was almost kidnapped, Iona reached level 2 anger state, “Kyoo-Kyoo-“.
“It’s the second stage of Kyoo- anger!”
“Run!”
“We need to get out of here!”
Merchants who recognized Iona, the great destructive wizard, began to flee. If it’s the second stage of Kyoo anger, at least a small village would be destroyed. A quarter of the market area could be blown away.
Gulp.
Jeras was also nervous. If Iona used destructive magic here, he couldn’t guarantee his own life.
Then
“Iona, calm down, meow. We need to take this scammer to President Park, meow!”
“Kyoo-Kyoo-To Sejun?”
“That’s right, meow!”
“Kyoo-Why?”
The level of Iona’s Kyoo anger gradually decreased as she talked with Theo.
“That’s because President Park asked us to bring this scammer, meow!”
Sejun had doubts while looking at the Earth goods that Skaram scammed from the cats. Compared to the number of awakened ones entering through Vanishing, Skaram was selling too many Earth goods.
And,
‘Why are they all Korean products?’
The majority of goods Skaram sold were from Korea. It was impossible that only Koreans were entering the tower via Vanishing.
So, Sejun thought that Skaram was trading with someone in Korea.
“Okay. Let’s go to Sejun together then.”
“Meow?! No way, meow! Iona, don’t come to the 99th floor of the tower, meow!”
Theo immediately adopted a defensive posture at Iona’s willingness to join. He had gone so far as to find her disciple, but she wanted to follow him all the way to the 99th floor of the tower!
“I don’t want to! But it’s my mind and I have no choice but to go to the 99th floor!”
“Then I’ll get to the 99th floor first, meow!”
Theo shouted as he put Skaram on another wolf and climbed on Elka’s back.
“Elka, let’s go, meow!
“Yes!”
The wolves set off for the 99th floor of the tower.
And then…
“Representative Theo!”
“Let’s go together!”
Da-da-da.
Interns eagerly followed him.
“Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot! We can’t lose, either. ChuChu, let’s go!”
Iona got on ChuChu’s back casually and spoke.
Squeak!
ChuChu quickly ran with Iona on its back.
Thus began the race between Theo and Iona.
However…
“Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. Two light-speed merchant route passage, please!”
The winner was already decided.
***
On the way to the East,
Vvveeeeng!
Before Sejun even arrived at the eastern border, he could see the poison honey bees fighting. The eastern poison honey bees had started patrolling up to this point.
“Let’s help them too!”
However, he soon discovered a problem.
“We can’t differentiate between our guys and the enemies.”
The appearance of the poison honey bees was so similar that it was hard to distinguish.
Kreong!
[We can tell by the smell!]
Cuengi pointed to his nose and said. According to Cuengi, Sejun’s poison honey bees smelled sweet like honey and the other poison bees smelled like meat.
“But that’s something only you can do.”
Kreong?
Cuengi tilted his head, wondering why he couldn’t do something so simple.
While they were talking,
Vvveeeeng.
One of the battling poison bees flew toward Sejun.
“Cuengi, what smell is it?”
Kreong!
[It smells like meat!]
“Really?”
Sejun threw his hand axe at the poison bee.
However,
Vvveeeeng.
The poison bee easily dodged Sejun’s hand axe.
And then…
Bang!
Pop! Pop! Pop!
In the end, the Black Rabbit took care of it.
“Guys, I’ve prepared a slogan for us.”
Sejun said suddenly with a serious face.
Squeak?
Kreong?
Black Rabbit and Cuengi were confused by Sejun’s sudden remark.
“Repeat after me. We are one!”
Squeak!(We are one!)
Kreong!(We are one!)
At Sejun’s shout, the black rabbit and Cuengi shouted in unison.
Day 255 of being stranded. Sejun’s journey for self-reliance was still far from complete.
*****
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