Dungeon Bakery Chapter 33

‘MakeAnythingForYou,’ who had seemed like she would never leave the bakery, eventually headed back to Seoul not long afterward. Apparently, she had an appointment or something.

Fortunately, thanks to her leaving without delaying things any further, Baek Seol was able to immediately look up the article MakeAnythingForYou had mentioned.

‘What on earth was the article about?’

With a slightly uneasy feeling, Baek Seol began searching for the article on her smartphone.

It turned out that it wasn’t from a newspaper but a weekly magazine. And not just any weekly magazine—it was a third-rate publication aimed at Hunters that covered all kinds of rumors about them.

Baek Seol looked at the front page of last week’s issue.

「The Owner of 100,000 Sugar Beets—Who Is He? The Special Investigation Begins! By Top-Tier Reporter Gogohan!」

Perhaps because the incident had caused quite a stir among Hunters, the weekly magazine had apparently started a special series about it.

Baek Seol lightly bit her lip as she turned to the article.

The title appeared first in the preview window.

「Part 1. The Owner of 100,000 Sugar Beets! We Got His Picture! He Is……」

What? A picture?

The title was cut off because it was only a preview. Baek Seol hurriedly tapped the screen, but instead of opening the article, a payment window popped up.

‘Ugh.’

What kind of weekly magazine cost ten thousand won?

Baek Seol made an incredulous face. Even famous weekly magazines probably cost less than five thousand won. Was it more expensive because it was aimed at Hunters?

She wasn’t particularly willing to pay, but she had to check the article, so Baek Seol raised an eyebrow, paid for the magazine, and opened it.

“Oh my goodness……”

Amazingly, there was a photo of a familiar figure from behind.

It was Baek Seol herself.

‘That was the day I went to the Exchange to receive the sugar beet delivery.’

The person was dressed entirely in black. Their pale, long hair was tied back, and they wore a black hat pulled low over their face and black sunglasses.

‘……Looking at it now, I really do look suspicious.’

It was understandable that the reporter’s instincts had kicked in and prompted him to take a picture.

But fortunately, because she had covered her entire body, there was no way anyone other than herself, who had actually gone there that day, would recognize the person in the picture as Baek Seol.

‘But how did he know I was the owner of the sugar beet transaction?’

The Exchange’s anonymity system was supposed to be thorough.

Baek Seol calmly read through the article.

“Discovering him was pure luck. At the time, this reporter had been conducting a stakeout for three days straight, driven by an unwavering journalistic spirit to discover the identity of the fool who had ordered 100,000 sugar beets. Since there was no telling when he might suddenly appear and finalize the transaction, I never left my post and……”

The very first paragraph was filled with nothing but the reporter praising himself.

“……The reporter photographed everyone entering and leaving the Exchange and cross-referenced their appearances with the time the transaction was finalized. And then I discovered him. That fool!”

Why did he keep calling himself a fool?

Baek Seol read the next line with a sullen expression.

“But the moment the reporter saw his photograph, he was overcome by a chilling sensation. This person, dressed entirely in black…… was giving off an incredibly dangerous aura…… Huh? What do you mean, ‘dangerous’?”

Baek Seol furrowed her brow.

She skimmed through the rest of the article.

In short, the controversial figure who had appeared at the Exchange that day was clearly plotting some enormous conspiracy.

And not just any conspiracy……

“A Green Necromancer who turns sugar beets into zombies……?”

The theory about an army of 100,000 sugar beet zombies that MakeAnythingForYou had mentioned earlier seemed to have originated here.

According to the article, the ‘Green Necromancer’ was plotting to create an army of 100,000 sugar beet zombies and launch an attack on the Blue House.

……Was this for real?

And why the Blue House of all places? What were they even going to accomplish by attacking it?

Baek Seol scrolled rapidly down the article with an incredulous expression.

After all sorts of advertisements flashed past, a comment section appeared.

-Anonymous: Whoa. I knew there was something scary about him.
-Anonymous: Reporter, you’re amazing. How did you go three days without going to the bathroom?
-Anonymous: LMAOOOO. You write fiction pretty well. Looking forward to the next installment~

Fortunately, the reaction in the comments wasn’t particularly heated.

Surprisingly, there were some people who actually believed the article, but they were extremely few.

Just in case, Baek Seol searched through Another as well, but the weekly magazine hadn’t caused any major controversy.

There were, however, occasional posts featuring the photograph of her from behind.

“Ugh……. I need to be more careful from now on.”

Baek Seol grabbed her head as she stared at the photograph.

Even if someone who knew her saw it, they probably wouldn’t recognize her. Still, if something similar happened again in the future, she thought it would be better to be much more careful.

At least her face hadn’t been photographed.

Feeling relieved, Baek Seol let out a sigh.

“All right, then. I’ll tidy up the tables a little……”

When she checked the clock, lunchtime had long since passed.

Since Baek Seol could adjust her business hours however she wanted, she planned to close the bakery for a while and have lunch upstairs.

She was smoothing out the slightly wrinkled apron with a few quick pats and walking toward the door to close up when—

Jingle!

She heard the village-side door open.

“Did you leave something behind?”

Thinking that perhaps MakeAnythingForYou had forgotten something, Baek Seol turned around.

And froze.

There was a stranger standing before her.

It was a middle-aged man she had never seen before. He looked to be in his mid-forties, and perhaps because of his hooked nose and sharp eyes, his appearance was rather unpleasant.

But there was one thing that was certain.

This man was a customer!

Baek Seol immediately wiped the surprise from her face and flashed him a smile.

“Welcome, sir!”

“Hmph.”

However, the man ignored Baek Seol’s greeting and walked straight past her.

Then he began wandering around the bakery, poking at the red bean buns on the display shelf with his finger as though checking whether they were real.

“……What? Is it really a bakery? I wasn’t sure when I saw it from outside.”

One corner of Baek Seol’s mouth twitched.

For a moment, she had been happy to have a new human customer.

‘……Is he one of those difficult customers?’

Having worked quite a few part-time jobs to make a living, Baek Seol had encountered plenty of difficult customers and knew exactly how to deal with them.

“Sir, you can’t touch the products on the display shelf with your hands. Unless you’re buying them, of course.”

All she had to do was deliver a direct message with a polite smile.

“What?!”

The man whipped his head around with an angry expression, but when he saw Baek Seol’s smiling face, he stumbled over his words.

“I-I-I never said I wasn’t buying it.”

As the saying went, you couldn’t spit in the face of someone smiling at you.

Unable to get angry, the man made an awkward face, grabbed the red bean bun he had been poking at, and immediately headed toward the register as though he intended to pay for it.

Baek Seol also headed toward the register while observing the man’s clothes.

Apparently valuing mobility over style, he was dressed in comfortable jeans, a T-shirt, and a jacket. He was wearing sneakers, too. Around his waist was a somewhat cheap-looking daily-payment bag attached to his belt.

A black cotton hat was sticking out of the bag, suggesting that he wore it whenever necessary.

‘He doesn’t seem to be a resident of this neighborhood.’

Baek Seol narrowed her eyes as she stood behind the register.

Was he a tourist who had come to see the Dungeon of Beginnings?

It wasn’t receiving much attention at the moment, but it was still the first dungeon to appear. There was certainly a possibility that tourists might come to see it.

“How much?”

“……”

Seeing the neatly packaged red bean bun being tossed in front of her, Baek Seol raised an eyebrow.

She could overlook the man’s informal speech, but she couldn’t tolerate him throwing the red bean bun around.

How dare he treat my precious child like that?

Her original plan had been to deal with him quickly and send him on his way, but that thought changed.

She couldn’t send her child off with someone like this.

Baek Seol smiled kindly and answered.

“It’s 100,000 won.”

“……What?”

The man recoiled in shock.

“This one red bean bun costs 100,000 won?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“No, how does this tiny little red bean bun cost 100,000 won?”

“Yes. It does.”

First of all, contrary to the man’s words, the red bean bun wasn’t tiny. It was actually considerably larger than an ordinary red bean bun.

And since a red bean bun was originally priced at 100 points, it really was equivalent to 100,000 won in cash.

“I-I-I’ve never heard of a single red bean bun costing 100,000 won anywhere!”

The man shouted, his face turning red.

Baek Seol could understand his confusion. What ordinary bakery sold red bean buns for 100,000 won?

Of course, after looking through the various settings beforehand, Baek Seol knew there was a way to lower the price of the red bean buns.

She could simply sell them at a temporary discount.

That way, she wouldn’t attract attention.

‘If an ordinary customer ever came in, I was planning to sell them that way anyway…….’

But this man was a difficult customer.

There was no need to give someone like him a discount.

Baek Seol was planning to throw him out.

But then……

“Oh-ho. Hmm, hmm. Did you figure it out, perhaps……? My profession……?”

Rather than storming out as she had expected, the difficult customer leaned even closer to the register and began whispering as though he were sharing a secret.

Profession……?

She hadn’t figured out anything at all. What kind of nonsense was he barking about?

Baek Seol stared at him with a sullen expression.

The man chuckled.

“Clever girl. You managed to figure out that I’m a famous reporter. Ah. Have people already recognized my face?”

Ha-ha! Oh, dear, oh, dear.

He grabbed his forehead and slowly shook his head as though it were truly unfortunate.

Watching the man mutter as if he were some greasy protagonist from a Japanese anime, Baek Seol almost went to the kitchen to fetch some Dungeon Salt.

“I suppose you raised the price because you knew I’d be asking for information. Ho-ho. You really are quick on the uptake.”

Oh.

So he had come here intending to ask for information?

The man hadn’t even asked her anything, yet he had already begun listing his profession and everything else about himself.

Baek Seol stared at him with an utterly unimpressed expression.

“What is that look? You’re surprised that I figured it out so quickly, aren’t you? Ho-ho. Don’t worry. I, the first-rate reporter Gogohan, am a merciful man.”

“……Gogohan?”

The name sounded strangely familiar.

Baek Seol began rummaging through her memories.

Gogohan…… First-rate reporter Gogohan.

‘Ah……! The reporter from that weekly magazine!’

He was the reporter from the weekly magazine she’d just read.

The reporter who had secretly taken a picture of her from behind.

Seeing Baek Seol’s surprised expression, Gogohan grinned.

“Ho-ho. You’re a little slow to react, aren’t you? Ahem. Anyway, then I’ll buy this red bean bun for 100,000 won in exchange for the information. And the information I want to ask about is……”

Gogohan rummaged through his jacket and placed two crumpled 50,000-won bills on the counter.

Then he glanced around before showing her a photograph and speaking in a low voice.

“Have you seen anyone in this neighborhood growing a plant shaped like this? Or perhaps noticed anything strange, like a plant suddenly walking around?”

“……”

“I managed to follow the porter all the way to this neighborhood…… but I eventually lost him.”

The Exchange’s anonymous system was quite thorough.

To prevent people like this from following the delivery vehicles, the system gradually erased their presence the closer they got to the buyer.

Apparently, he had followed the delivery vehicle until it got close to Baek Seol before finally losing it.

Still, that was impressive.

He had actually managed to follow it that far.

Looking at Gogohan as he held out a photograph of the Dungeon Sugar Beet, Baek Seol thought that perhaps this difficult customer really was a first-rate reporter.

His determination to find a story was certainly impressive.

“If you haven’t seen this plant, what about this person? Do you happen to know them?”

The next photograph he held out was the picture of Baek Seol from behind that she had seen in the weekly magazine moments earlier.

Baek Seol’s lips stiffened as she looked at the unauthorized photograph the man had secretly taken of her.