The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 18

However, a magic stone wasn’t something anyone could easily sell just because they wanted to.

Magic stone transactions mainly took place at the Hunter Market, and the Hunter Market basically required a Hunter registration card for entry, so ordinary people couldn’t even enter. There seemed to be quiet dealings on internet Hunter communities too, but that also required a registration card.

‘An ordinary person can’t even approach it.’

He considered brazenly trying to sell it to the hangover soup restaurant regulars, but word would inevitably leak from somewhere. And everyone would ask.

‘No, you’re not even a Hunter, so where on earth did you get a magic stone like this?’

If an ordinary person had a magic stone of this purity, honestly, even he would ask. There were so many things to be careful about. Truly, the life of an ordinary person was far too arduous.

‘Should I just say a regular gave it to me to help with living expenses?’

Wijae shook his head as if answering his own question. The hangover soup restaurant regulars were now at a level where they could be considered a community rather than simply customers. Even if there happened to be someone who’d brushed collars with him, everyone was connected within two degrees of separation, so if they started digging into each other’s backgrounds, it would quickly be revealed that no one had given something like this to a mere part-timer.

In the end, only one option remained for the ordinary person Cha Wijae.

The local secondhand trading app, ‘Tomato Market.’

Tomato Market, which had been in service since before the Day of the Rift, greatly helped survivors share information and survive while waiting for rescue when the world was falling apart after the Day of the Rift. People who used to live without even knowing their next-door neighbor’s face endured by feeling the warm affection of neighbors through Tomato Market.

‘It was quite helpful when rescuing survivors….’

Would a magic stone sell if he posted it on Tomato Market? Well, nothing to lose. Wijae immediately installed the Tomato Market app and tried to log in. However, his existing account seemed to have been deleted after becoming dormant. It had been eight years, so that was natural. He pressed the sign-up button.

[Please set a nickname.]

What should he use? He tried entering garlic, hangover soup, blood pudding, pork bone, etc., but only the message that someone was already using the nickname appeared every time. Even ‘hangover soup 1234’ was rejected, and Wijae, slightly irritated, just typed random alphabet letters.

[EZ]

[Welcome to Tomato Market, EZ! Turn on GPS and register your region!]

Good. Wijae, having finally succeeded in signing up, finished logging in and tapped around the app.

Looking around the app, fortunately, a Hunter category had been newly established! Of course, the main traded items were things like past exam workbooks for the Hunter civil service exam and merchandise of famous Hunters, so it looked slightly different from Wijae’s purpose, but still.

‘Would it sell if I list it at eighteen million won?’

He didn’t know if a transaction worth tens of millions of won would be easily completed, but… well, he’d list it first and if it didn’t sell, he’d sell it to a regular then. If he earnestly begged them to keep it secret while matching the price they wanted as much as possible, wouldn’t they have the loyalty to keep their mouths shut?

Wijae reverently spread newspaper on the green table, adjusted the angle so the golden glittering flakes were clearly visible, and carefully placed it down.

Click.

Click.

And after taking photos from various angles, he selected the best shot and wrote a post on Tomato Market.

Title: Selling a magic stone

Author: EZ

Price: 80,000,000 won

It’s a high-purity magic stone with no impurities.

Negotiable, so please chat me.

Worried he’d listed it too expensive, he attached the phrase “negotiable” as a final act of conscience, and his heart felt a little lighter.

‘If this sells, I’ll buy Haeun and Grandma winter coats, contribute to the surgery costs. And let’s buy a new ladle too.’

It was a flawless, perfect plan. It was the moment Wijae, dreaming sweet dreams, happily posted on Tomato Market.

Bzzzz―

Bzzzz―

Bzzzz―

Bzzzz―

The phone suddenly began trembling like someone thrown into minus 30 degrees. His contract period wasn’t even over yet, so what was going on? Worried it might have broken from the ceaseless vibrating, Wijae hurriedly checked his phone, and

MajangdongStakePounding: **Hey you, I’m reporting you to the Awakened Management Agency for fraud lol if it’s not fraud please please reply to my chat would you? would you grant me this grace?

XLevel: In-person trade yesss

GoodNeighbor: Fraud ** legend

PoppingCurry: Where are you? I’ll go to wherever you are, just tell me the address, I can go right now with money, for real I could seat you on a money cushion, I’ll roll out a red carpet with money

White: Did you post a bait product to kidnap someone when you meet?

DeliveringGoodWords: where?

Haing: Do you have more magic stones like this?

Mackerel: Address

:

:

He was faced with Tomato Market chat notifications piling up like crazy in real time….

Not even 30 seconds had passed since he unlocked his phone, checked it, and grasped the situation, and on top of the cute tomato icon was a red +99 speech bubble.

‘Fucked.’

The messages continuing to pile up also seemed to whisper to Wijae, ‘Yep, you’re fucked.’ It had been a long time since he’d broken out in cold sweat like this. It seemed this hadn’t been a wise choice after all. No, he’d definitely done something supremely stupid!

Had he listed it too cheap? Was the magic stone price higher than he thought? Of course, Wijae hadn’t just randomly set the price—before listing the magic stone on Tomato Market, he’d spent enough time swimming in the sea of information. But every time he clicked on a post about magic stone market prices, a window popped up demanding Hunter verification, so he’d roughly added a few thousand on top of his guess.

He’d heard it had risen incomparably compared to the past, but just how much had it skyrocketed….

Wijae left the continuously vibrating phone alone and clasped his hands as if in prayer, closing his eyes. He needed a moment to distance himself from reality.

‘Life is truly arduous.’

From the system spitting him out into South Korea eight years later, his life couldn’t have gotten more twisted. But as the saying goes, the one who ties the knot must untie it—the one who commits a deed must finish it themselves. Wijae quickly reined in his scattered mind and concluded.

‘…Let’s run for now.’

In the end, Wijae decided to ignore all the chats and flee. It was impossible to reply individually to messages piling up in real time anyway. He ignored the continuously popping chat notifications, went into his member info, and pressed withdraw.

[Is this goodbye? How regrettable.]

Even in this moment, chats were pouring in. Wijae earnestly prayed that Tomato Market would no longer hold onto him. But Tomato Market clung pitifully to Wijae’s pant leg and hung on. It felt stickier than the suckers of the grade-3 giant octopus he’d sliced in Namhae about nine years ago.

[We’re curious why EZ wants to delete their account.]

Even in a hurry, he should answer this much. Wijae calmly checked two items.

[✓Too many people are using my post.]

[✓I encountered a rude user.]

[Other: They curse at me even though we’ve never met, these **.]

Withdraw. Delete app.

Having completed all procedures swiftly and accurately, Wijae sat in his chair as if melting, slumped, and blankly looked up at the ceiling.

‘Isn’t this a pretty quick response?’

However, a life once twisted didn’t flow as easily as he thought….

Hunter-net, the anonymous community for Hunters that Cha Wijae couldn’t access. That place was burning hotter than a hellfire over a single anonymous post.

Title: [Anonymous] The current state of Tomato Market, in a nutshell… JPEG

(Photo)

Yesterday an A+ grade magic stone listing went up on Tomato Market and got deleted in 2 minutes lolol

Comments (99+)

—Tomato Market is the future

—It’s fucking dazzling

—Wow… what do you have to hunt to get an A+ grade magic stone? The best I’ve ever eaten is a B grade

　└You need to hunt at least a grade 2 dungeon boss monster. But if it’s a magic stone this pure and clean like in the photo, it might be from a grade 1 monster.

　└Then the person who posted that is a high-rank Hunter?

　└Yeah. It’s probably one of the rankers who posted it.

—Tomato Market is in-person trading so no market fees or taxes get deducted lolol

　└Did they post on Tomato Market to avoid taxes? Ruthless, ruthless

　└For something like that they’re only asking eighty million;; that’s just a giveaway price

　└Maybe they posted it with two zeros missing?

　└This seems the most plausible

—Can you tell it’s an A+ grade magic stone just from the photo?

　└For real, isn’t it a stolen photo or a composite?

　└Hong Yeseong posted on Inhart lololol He’s asking why such a precious thing was posted on Tomato Market instead of the Hunter Market

　└Ah if Hong Yeseong verified it, then it’s acknowledged

　└Wasn’t he in Jirisan Artisan Village, cutting ties with the mundane world and forging weapons?

　└Yeah, he was trying to escape to Seoul but Jeongbin personally went to Jirisan and caught him

　└**lolololololol

　└There’s no extreme job like Jeongbin’s

Title: [Anonymous] Hong Yeseong’s Inhart post lololol

　 xxYeahsungH EZ-nim, I don’t know who you are, but name your price for the magic stone, let’s trade in person #Jirisan #WantToLeave #Seoul #TomatoMarket #PathOfTheArtisan #Baek Jisu’s mark #NameYourPrice #WhyNotPostThisOnHunterMarket #NextCraftedEquipmentIsAnEmergencyEscapeButton

Likes 604k

jungVin80 Why is the wifi working?

Comments (99+)

　 —One word from Jeongbin is fucking scary fck

　 —lolol seems he’s cutting ties with the mundane world and crafting equipment again

—Hong Yeseong must be rich? Saying he’ll give Baek Jisu’s mark lolol

　└Of course, if Hong Yeseong makes one S-rank weapon and sells it, that’s billions right there

　└Friend… that person is the world’s only S-rank craftsman…

　└Yeah, he’s about to get even richer when the auction opens in Songdo~

∞ ∞ ∞

Caw― The cry of a magpie perched in a pine tree echoed through the serene mountain. A man sitting on the wooden veranda, scrolling through internet posts, turned off his phone screen and looked at the surrounding scenery.

A quiet hanok located on a ridge below Banya Peak in Jirisan. The slightly unusual thing was that the stone walls and pine trees surrounding the house had straw ropes and talismans hanging in abundance. Moreover, in one corner of the yard, which looked two or three times the size of an ordinary front yard, a giant kiln sat imposingly.

And beside it,

a man wearing a white fleece was sprawled out flat….