Chapter 9

Chapter 9. First Shopping Trip (1)

“―So, the motel you were staying at got wrecked, leaving you with nowhere to go. So you just came here for the time being?”

“Exactly. You’re good at summarizing.”

“Phew...”

Leaving out the part about Inrang’s pawn since that still wasn’t certain.

After hearing the rest of what had happened, Ma Cheol-sik rubbed his face.

Then let out a deep sigh.

Was my story really that pitiful?

“I more or less understand the situation. If you don’t mind the duty room, you can stay for a few days. I’ll report it to the Association as self-defense, citing their failure to properly manage the situation.”

“Oh! Thank you.”

“And... you said you were looking for a gun shop? I know a suitable place. A discount may be difficult, but at least they won’t rip you off, so don’t worry.”

Then, leaving the rest of the guidance to Maria.

Ma Cheol-sik went into the room behind the counter with the three data chips I had handed him.

He would take care of digging up the information now.

‘Once he realizes I’m starting to attract attention, he’ll get impatient.’

From Saetani’s perspective, with its chronic manpower shortage, I was a big fish they absolutely wouldn’t want to let get away.

They would want to keep me around even at a loss.

Even if I made unreasonable demands, they’d probably accept them in the end.

‘Then all that’s left is to wait for the one with more to lose to make the first offer.’

Maybe this time I’ll finally get to meet Saetani’s ‘exclusive hunters.’

I remember them being a pretty distinctive bunch.

Saetani already operated on a small-elite policy, and with the manpower shortage on top of that, I’d never gotten the chance to run into them.

“Follow me.”

“Sorry for making you work this late.”

“If you know that, wouldn’t it be better to be a little more careful with how you behave?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, okay? Those idiots suddenly started blasting grenades everywhere. What was I supposed to do?”

“...That’s true. I apologize. I misspoke.”

Maria bowed her head and apologized.

...I was joking.

She really seems to have trouble distinguishing between jokes and serious remarks sometimes.

‘Maybe she was just born that way...’

So I spent the night resting on the cot in the duty room Maria showed me.

The next morning.

After finishing a shower in the small attached bathroom and coming out, Ma Cheol-sik was waiting for me.

“Did you sleep well?”

“It was practically a five-star hotel suite.”

“Kahah, you joke well too.”

Laughing loudly, Ma Cheol-sik handed me something.

“Take this.”

“A business card?”

It had the same design as the old business card I had handed over when I first came to Saetani.

But this one was new and unfaded.

The holographic letters spelling Saetani gleamed like a neon sign.

“I’ve already contacted them. Go there anytime and show this card, and they’ll bring out whatever you want.”

“So they don’t normally operate as a gun shop?”

“That’s right. It’s a private gun shop exclusively for Saetani’s hunters.”

Ma Cheol-sik grinned as he spoke.

Oh, just as I thought.

―Ding.

Then my phone rang.

A message appeared on the screen along with a simple map.

【Jigwirang】

Named after a ghost that governs fire, it was Saetani’s hidden gun shop and...

My next destination.

_____________

“Whew. That place looks terrifying. In what world is that a ‘market’?”

After spending a few days at Saetani, learning how to use the bank and familiarizing myself with the surrounding geography.

While continuing my daily ten-thousand-won meddling and confirming that there were no other pursuers.

I arrived here in search of Jigwirang.

A massive commercial complex located in a district slightly farther south than the Jamsil area, the center of Sector 28.

【Garak Complex Plaza】

The name had changed to something flashier.

But in a word, it was Garak Market.

‘Of course, compared to the real Garak Market, the scale and atmosphere are completely different.’

Thirty-five floors above ground and ten underground, for a total of forty-five floors stacked vertically.

And on top of that, a massive reinforced-concrete fortress sprawling across an area roughly equal to five or six football stadiums put together.

That was what Garak Market looked like now.

Including Sector 28, where Jamsil was located... most goods distributed throughout Neo Seoul’s lower districts passed through this place first.

“Didn’t they say that if you can’t find it here, then you probably can’t find it anywhere in the lower districts?”

The reason Sector 28, unlike the other districts, still had no clear ruler.

Whoever controlled this district where Garak Market was located... would essentially hold the capital of the entire lower district economy in their hands.

So the corporations, Families, and the Imperial Household that served as the central government all kept one another in check, ensuring no one could monopolize it.

They had effectively turned it into an unclaimed no-man’s-land.

“Seeing it in person really feels completely different from seeing it on a screen.”

Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City, which supposedly had been demolished before I was even born.

Would it have looked something like this in person?

【The Never-Extinguishing Lighthouse That Illuminates the Gloomy Outskirts of the City】

Because it had undergone endless repairs and expansions, even sections of the same wall being different colors was commonplace.

And on the exterior walls, as though someone had embroidered them.

All kinds of neon signs were packed tightly together, leaving me not only amazed but even overwhelmed.

Of course, not all of my impressions were positive.

“What do you mean stall rent?! Go fuck yourselves!”

“You bastard, are you picking a fight with our Albano Family?”

“You gonna hit me? Go ahead! I’ve been doing business here for ten years! Get lost before I put a hole in your skull!”

“What did you say?!”

“Hey, little brother, you’ve got a handsome face. How about getting a suit made?”

“Anyone selling organs! Twenty million for a heart, seven million for a liver! Priority given to anyone ready for immediate extraction!”

“Military-grade Mitsubishi eyes just came in. You won’t get surgery at this price anywhere else!”

As expected of the largest commercial district in the lower zones.

Minor disputes were an everyday occurrence.

And because the place was effectively lawless, under no one’s direct rule...

From goods that barely walked the line of legality.

To items that would normally get you punished the instant they were discovered.

Absolutely everything was bought and sold here.

“Well, none of that has anything to do with me.”

Leaving behind the shops that spilled all the way outside the entrance and the various people enthusiastically hawking their wares.

“Then let’s hurry up and find it.”

For my first shopping trip since falling into this world, excluding accommodation expenses.

I confidently entered the building.

―Two hours later.

<​Yes, this is Maria.>

“Hey, Maria? Sorry for calling out of nowhere, but could you give me directions around this place?”

After wandering endlessly through the building with nothing but Ma Cheol-sik’s rough map.

I quickly sent an SOS to Maria when I realized this was going nowhere.

<​...I expected this. When you come back, make sure you install navigation on your phone first.>

“Yeah, I was planning to. I’m still not very good at using this thing.”

<​Did you come down from some mountain? You found Lakehill and the gang hideouts just fine.>

“I’m just saying, you know.”

Though in reality, it really was strangely harder to use than a modern smartphone.

‘I can somehow manage making calls.’

It felt like handing an iPhone to someone who had spent their entire life using only Galaxy phones.

I thought I heard Maria let out a small sigh from the other end.

‘Besides, back when this was a game, a few clicks would have delivered me straight to whatever shop I wanted.’

It was probably done to save resources.

But I had no idea the interior would be this much of a labyrinth.

I definitely followed the map and climbed the stairs, so why did I end up back at the same staircase?

This is not because I have a bad sense of direction.

I’m serious.

“This is unfair, seriously.”

<​What?>

“Ah. Just talking to myself.”

<​...Understood. From where you are, go straight for twelve meters, then take the first right turn―>

Besides, once you reached the mid-level districts just one tier above, there were tons of shops selling much better equipment for the same price.

Who would bother fully gearing up with inferior equipment in a newbie zone?

“Ah, found it. I’m in front of the shop now.”

<​That’s good.>

“Thanks for the directions.”

<​Call me once you’re done shopping. I have something to tell you.>

“Hm? Do we already have my next request lined up?”

<​No. It’s a different matter.>

“Hmm, okay. Sure.”

With that, I ended the call with Maria and slipped the phone back into my coat.

“Phew, how can he give me one tiny map and tell me to find my way through a place this complicated?”

With a dry laugh, I voiced a small complaint about Ma Cheol-sik and looked up.

There was the sign I had spent the entire morning searching for.

【Jigwirang】

The three syllables were written boldly across it.

But the sign wasn’t lit, and the interior visible through the window was completely dark.

Are they really open?

―Knock, knock.

“Hello? Anyone here?”

I knocked lightly and opened the shop door, but no answer came.

Instead.

‘Flowers⋯⋯?’

Slightly exaggerated, there were enough flowers and plants inside that there was hardly room to step.

There had been a few potted plants outside the shop too, but I thought they were just for decoration.

Anyone with a pollen allergy wouldn’t even be able to breathe in here.

“Ugh... Who is it? We’re not open today.”

At that moment, someone walked out from the back of the store with a weary voice.

Apparently she had been arranging flowers until just now.

An old woman holding a large bouquet.

Putting aside the fact that she wasn’t the NPC I remembered.

‘Another human, not a demi-human?’

Among the humanoid races collectively grouped as metahumans, the term demi-human referred to everyone except humans.

Elves, trolls, orcs, beastfolk, and so on...

Except for orcs, most of them lived longer than humans.

Because of that, it was fairly rare for elderly demi-humans to still have human acquaintances around.

‘And in this city, where respect for elders has basically been thrown into the trash?’

There were only two possibilities.

Either she was strong enough to survive.

Or unbelievably lucky.

After thinking that, I looked her over again.

Her back was straight and her complexion healthy, making her look vigorous for her estimated age.

She was quite tall too.

Suddenly, I thought of my grandmother living alone back home.

Is she worried because her grandson suddenly disappeared?

“Nice to meet you. I came from Saetani to look at some firearms.”

“Saetani?”

The old woman looked me up and down in puzzlement.

“This is the business card Manager Ma Cheol-sik gave me.”

“Oh-ho, ‘Manager Ma Cheol-sik,’ is it?”

When I held out the business card Ma Cheol-sik had given me, only then did she nod.

“That old geezer hadn’t contacted me in years, then suddenly he makes a holo-call.”

She shifted her gaze from the card and studied my face closely.

“So you’re the rookie that old man was bragging about?”

“Hmm, probably.”

I nodded, having a rough idea what he must have told her.

The old woman suddenly clicked her tongue.

“Tsk! That senile old geezer. How can he call such a polite, handsome, well-mannered young man a dangerous individual?”

“Are you sure you should be telling me that?”

“So what? If he’s got a complaint, tell him to come here himself!”

As the old woman laughed loudly, she reminded me of someone.

She’s definitely an acquaintance of Ma Cheol-sik.

“Anyway, how’s Maria doing?”

“I’ve only been coming to Saetani for barely a week myself. Don’t you contact each other?”

“I do, now and then, with Maria. But what she says about herself and what someone else says after seeing her are different, aren’t they?”

“That’s true.”

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu, like when I first went to Saetani.

I think I had a similar conversation back then too.

“Well, she didn’t seem dissatisfied. And the manager seems to take good care of her.”

“Of course he should! That mangy bastard took our sweet Maria away and makes her work herself to the bone!”

Our... Maria?

Sweet?

“Who are you? Who sent you?”

“You expect me to believe that now...!”

At that moment, the murderous-looking Maria from my first day flashed through my mind.

Ah, is this that saying?

Even a hedgehog thinks its own young are soft and beautiful―

“―Oh, look at me getting distracted.”

Saying that, the old woman slipped her right hand out from the bouquet she was holding.

In that hand.

“You said you came to look at guns, right? Then you came to the right place, young man.”

―Clack.

She was holding a heavily modified double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.

“There isn’t a better gun around these parts than the ones handled by me, Seol Myeong-ji, the legendary gunsmith of the lower districts.”

So surviving really did mean you were strong.

Her calling herself a legend made me a little uneasy.

But the way she grinned looked more imposing than most mercenaries.

I Became an Immortal Who Chews on Steel

Author |

Mwiu

Publisher |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.

Managing Editor |

Editorial Department

Published by |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dream Books

Address |

Rooms 806-810, Kolon Science Valley I, 187-10 Guro-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul

ISBN |

G720:N+A063-20261006118

Blog |

blog.naver.com/dreambookss

Twitter (X) |

@dreambookss

Submissions |

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