Flutter─

In front of her, a towering placard.

Aya took off her pink baseball cap and took a deep breath with a cheerful face.

‘Ah, the scent of money.’

In the distance, she could see people standing in line. What looked like an ATM from a distance was an automatic license recognition device.

‘If I wait in line honestly, it’ll be dark.’

Money and time were proportional. Aya walked confidently to the front of the waiting line without hesitation. And,

“Long time no see, right? Sorry, sorry.”

Approaching the hunter who was waiting in line at the very front, she lightly tapped his shoulder.

Turning back, the man’s face showed sudden confusion. It was understandable since she was pretending to know someone he had never seen before.

“Uh, who…?”

“Suddenly had a bad stomachache. Is it our turn yet?”

“No, you must have mistaken me─.”

The hunter hushed as something hefty entered his pocket. A stack of 50,000 won bills. The hunter’s Adam’s apple moved significantly, up and down.

“Oh, is it already our turn? Let’s go, buddy.”

“Uh, uh…”

Cheers to the 21st-century capitalist era.

In a world where you could become close friends in just 5 seconds if you had money.

Guilt? There was no such thing. After all, this kind of paid line-cutting was practically a rule among the ‘Auction Veterans.’

‘Smart move.’

Those fools waiting for badge issuance from dawn to the next morning were truly foolish.

Ping. When Aya lightly touched the hunter’s license recognition device with her hunter license,

「Recognition in progress. Please wait a moment.」

「Recognition is complete. Thank you.」

With the guidance voice, a badge fell with a clatter under the machine. It was an authentication badge with the intertwined shapes of the letters ‘H’ and ‘A.’

An item given to official hunters based on their rank when they pay the participation fee. Simply having it allowed the use of automatic translation in designated areas.

‘I exchanged the chips, so next is…’

Chips.

If the globally used system currency for hunters was coins, then chips referred to the one-time-use currency issued by the organizers for the Hunter Auction. It was perhaps even more important than coins as it was necessary for pre-bidding on auction items.

‘If I don’t earn enough chips generously on the first and second days, even if good items come up on the third day auction, it’ll be like a pie in the sky, they say.’

Let’s see. Aya, who had burst a bubblegum balloon, reached for the empty space in the air.

Finally, the inventory window emerged, filling her field of view. After setting the transparency to 40%, Aya touched ‘Sort Items by Grade’…

Shalalak─

A list of items flowing down to her toes. These were the cuties Aya had diligently accumulated over the past year.
Heroic-grade items 112, rare-grade items 338. With this many, she should easily be able to earn about 10,000 chips.

Ah, if only it were already the 12th! Aya, with high expectations, neatly organized her stall.

However.

“…….”

Whooooosh.

In one hour, only three customers visited her stall. Total items sold: 0.

‘Is this for real?’

Looking around, there were clearly bustling crowds of hunters. It was evident at a glance that there were far more people than last year. However, among those many hunters, not a single one was Aya’s customer.

Aya pondered deeply. Something was wrong.

Is the price too high? No, with this quality, it’s worth the price. Is the location bad? No, this place was undoubtedly the most popular.

Then…

‘There must be competitors.’

And they must be nearby.

Aya’s eyes quickly scanned her surroundings. And soon enough, she found her target.

To have a stall in such a secluded place and snatch others’ customers…! Even if she didn’t know who the seller was, she was undoubtedly a cunning and sly character.

I should see for myself. Aya, who temporarily suspended sales, walked confidently toward the competitor’s stall. But.

“Huh.”

Black tiger leather.

Sharp fangs.

Sturdy beast bones.

The items displayed on the modest stall were more pitiful than she had expected.

‘How could they sell such ordinary items?’

It was embarrassing to snort at such miscellaneous items.

Aya loosened the clenched fist she had held to her face in frustration. As she tried to leave the place,

“This is crazy. ‘Black Tiger Leather’ 15 pieces for 1 chip?”

“I just exchanged ‘Red Crystal’ over there for 2 chips.”

“Where, where?”

Not only that, but she heard that 20 fangs were worth 1 chip. Even 25 bones for 1 chip?! This was almost at the level of ‘Our boss has gone crazy.’

‘This is ridiculous.’

Considering the effort and time spent conquering gates, the manpower and resources spent subduing monsters after entering the gate, life allowances, and so on, even if they were just miscellaneous items, 15 pieces of leather for 1 chip was truly an absurd price.