Once the message disappeared, I stared into the empty space for a while before returning back to the middle of the safe zone.
I picked up the box filled with cores and moved spots. The floor was filled with blood so I had no choice but to move my position.
[01 : 58 : 18]
There was not alot of time. The battle took longer than I expected. In any case, now that it was over, it was time to proceed with my initial plan.
After picking my spot, I drew a circle on the ground before setting up the box and sitting on the floor.
"I will say this again. If you want to purchase cores, then you have to pay 100 coins. However, don't cross this circle."
Everyone in the crowd scrambled around, looking at each other anxiously as if they did not know what to do.
It was then...
Step, Step-!
A man stepped out from the crowd and approached. Surprisingly, it was a familiar face.
"Jakga-ssi, I will like to purchase a few cores."
It was Lee Kwangsun, the doctor. Wasn't he part of the mainframe group?
Well, that doesn't matter. Since he approached me without a weapon or crossing the line, it meant he came as a customer.
"How many do you want?"
"I will take 20."
"That will be 2000 coins."
He didn't speak further and just carried out the transaction before collecting the cores.
[You have obtained 2000 coins.]
As the doctor transfered the coins, he faced the people and spoke with a loud voice.
"What are you thinking is wrong. None of these cores here were obtained by stealing. It was all obtained by hunting."
"How are you sure?"
"How many monsters do you think he killed in order to get that strong?"
Everyone went quiet as if they were mute. From what they had seen, they couldn't fandom how many monsters a person would have to kill to get that strong. In the end, they all believed the doctor's words.
Kwangsun began to speak, "Besides, if Jakga was the kind of person that gained cores from stealing from others, wouldn't everyone here have died?"
His words were true. Almost everyone here was branded with the slave mark. If I had chosen to accept his gift, everyone here would have died and their cores would be completely mine. However, I didn't go down that route.
There were several reasons for my decision. One, most of the constellations would have become my enemy. Two, if I killed those people, nobody will buy my cores. And more importantly, I personally didn't want to go down that route.
There was a person I know that went down that route and things didn't exactly go well for her. I didn't want to repeat the same mistake.
"This is not a lawless world."
Such a casual sentence bought change to the people.
I recalled what Minhyuk told me from before. I've been thinking about it over and realised he was wrong. Even though the old world no longer existed, it was impossible for the new world to be lawless. As long as more than three people were present, there was bound to be at least some unspoken laws and rules.
This was a world ruled by the strong. As such, the laws are decided by them. In such a world, all I had to do was become strong.
The people were silent for a while before someone stepped out from the crowd and approached. It was a girl that looked around her late teens.
"Please give me ten."
"That will be 1000 coins."
She nodded her head and proceeded with the transfer.
[You have obtained 1000 coins.]
Confirming the transfer, I grabbed ten cores and handed it to the girl.
After that, the people started to approach me one by one.
"M-Me too!"
"Give me ten cores...!"
"Give me eleven!"
"Shit! I don't have enough coins. Can anyone lend me a few? I promise I will pay it back in the next scenario."
"Here you go. It's was nice doing business with you."
"Thank you."
Once the boy received the cores, he nodded his head and moved away from me. Our transaction was over so there was no need for him to stay.
Like this, more than 50 people had purchased cores from me. I opened the system window to check the total coins I had in my possession.
[Total Coins: 180, 256C]
The profit was much higher than I originally anticipated. It was the combination of the overall coins I made throughout the nightmare trials; the monsters, the gifts from the constellations and the sales of cores.
Haven't I made more than the coins I previously consumed?
I initially planned on getting around 100K at the end of the third nightmare. But this development was much better than expected.
It was alot of coins even in a grand sense. In fact, most walkers don't get that amount of coins unless they reach or pass the 10th Nightmare.
On top of that, I still had something that I wanted to sell but I couldn't reveal that thing in public. Perhaps I should wait when we start to move.
Jung Yunhee, who approached, stared at the empty box as if she couldn't believe it.
"No way, everything is gone?"
"You have eyes, right? So why are you asking?"
"You are really rude, you know."
"I don't want to hear that from you. Didn't we have a passionate encounter last time?"
"I don't know what you're talking about?"
Look at this shameless girl. She pinned me against the wall but now she's pretending as if nothing happened or maybe did she want to remember that encounter since she was embarrassed.
She faked a cough and then opened her mouth.
"In any case, why did you choose to sell your cores to the survivors?"
I made a confused expression. It was a strange question so it couldn't be helped.
"To make profit. What else?
"Don't play dumb. If you really wanted to make profit, you could have sold the cores in the shop and avoided all this headache. You think I do not know?"
I was quiet for a moment. How was I easily caught.
[A few constellations are curious of your answer.]
I forgot the constellations were also watching. They have been quiet for a long time so I thought they must have left the world channel.
"Why did you do it?"
Jung Yunhee looked emotionless but as it turns out, she was a rather curious fellow. If she was an animal, I would have called her a curious rabbit
I sighed and then opened my mouth to answer her question.
"I wanted to break the chains binding these people and reveal Kim Minhyuk's true nature. This method allowed me to achieve both goals simultaneously."
Though I didn't care much for the other survivors, I realized it would be pointless if they all perished. Actually, it would be pointless if every survivor in Seoul died. They will be useful in the upcoming nightmare trials.
"Wasn't that dangerous? You do realise alot of things could have gone wrong, right? What if you were attacked? What if Minhyuk just ordered everyone to kill each other?"
"Hmm. That's true but that's the beauty of it all. Such a scenario didn't occur so everything worked out in the end, isn't that right?"
"You mean to say that everything completely depended on luck?"
"That's right."
"Tch."
Jung Yunhee made an irritated sound. Perhaps she was expecting a more satisfacting answer from me. Even so, she changed her expression and her cheeks loosened.
"Fine. But what are we going to do now? The trial is almost over."
Upon her words, I checked the time remaining for the nightmare trial.
[01 : 11 : 58]
One hour. That was certainly not alot of time. But at this point, the survivors already possessed the required amount of cores to pass the scenario. For that reason, there wasn't much to do except for one thing.
I opened my mouth and then pulled out the smartphone.
"We will wait in the safe zone until the trial is over."