novelraw Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7. A New Branch
The moment he saw the black electric shock sparking from my hand.
Ruger felt sweat trickle down his back.
The feeling of being prey in front of a predator.
It wasn't just fear of being zapped by electricity again.
It was a more fundamental, instinctive fear.
He wasn't afraid of the electric shock; he was afraid of the very existence standing before him.
Overwhelming.
Existential terror.
A trembling voice leaked from Ruger's lips.
“…P-p-p-please spare me…!”
“That's for you to decide, not me. The twelve motorcycles they took, is there a way to track them?”
“Yes, yes! Of course!!”
“How?”
“All those motorcycles have location trackers installed. I can check them on the tablet in my office.”
“Then, lead me to your office.”
“Yes!”
On the way to the office, following Ruger.
I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
“By the way, how did you think to put location trackers on their motorcycles? You must have been pretty scared, right?”
“Haha…”
Ruger hesitated for a moment, then answered.
“…We didn't put location trackers on their motorcycles; the motorcycles already had them.”
“Why were they installed?”
“Well… it's a unique business model of our establishment, shall we say…”
“Do you want me to raise my hand again?”
As soon as I raised my hand, Ruger confessed.
“It's just that! After selling the motorcycles, our employees go back a few days later to retrieve them! And then, well…”
“You sell them again?”
“Yes…”
“That's theft, you crazy bastard.”
“They were originally ours, hehe…”
Zap.
“Kaaak!”
When I gave him a light electric shock to his side, Ruger fell down again.
“Let's live honestly. Why be so shabby…”
“I-I'm sorry!!”
“Get up.”
As we started walking again, the office soon came into view.
And I could also see cars that were not junkyard-worthy.
Those cars were not scrap; they were used cars.
Because this establishment also sold used cars.
And just then, a salesman was dealing with a customer who had come to buy a used car.
I had to admire his steadfastness, focusing on his work even while his colleagues were being electrocuted.
“Sir, if you do this, it makes things very difficult for us, you know?”
“No, but, this isn't the car I inquired about…”
“Aish, I told you that car was sold just 5 minutes before you arrived! So I brought you the best of the same class, are you going to ignore my sincerity? Huh?”
“…I have no intention of buying anything other than that car.”
“Then give me a reason.”
“I just don't like it, why do I need a reason…”
“Exactly! If you can't give a reason, doesn't that mean you like it? I brought you the same thing, right? Then you should like it just the same!”
“How is this the same…”
“Haah, really, if you drag this out any longer, you'll be obstructing our business, don't you
know?”
“What?!”
The salesman, having caught a pushover, was running wild with his momentum.
The buyer, properly ensnared, was flustered.
And I quietly made my way towards them.
Seeing me, Ruger was inwardly terrified.
Because he could clearly see the future that awaited his subordinate.
“Mr. Mage…!”
“Shh.”
I quietly approached the salesman from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey.”
“Who are you?”
“Pikachu.”
“What?”
Zap!
A black electric shock flashed, and the salesman fainted.
I looked down at the fallen salesman.
He wasn't dead.
I had controlled the intensity.
This time, I looked up at the buyer.
He was a man who looked to be around twenty years old.
A slight young man with eyes that looked like they were about to cry and thick horn-rimmed glasses.
An unmistakable aura of being a klutz radiated from his entire body.
The reason I had helped this young man wasn't just out of a sense of justice.
If I had to put a number on it, only about 10 percent of the reason was justice.
Because in my past life as a young professional, I myself had been scammed by a used car dealer.
And the other 90 percent of the reason was the young man himself.
'I know.'
What this young man will grow into after today.
The young man said timidly.
“Th-th-thank you…”
“Don't mention it.”
There will be far more things for me to thank you for in the future.
“Wait outside. I'll finish my consultation in that office and come out to help you buy a used car.”
“Huh? Huh??”
Leaving only those words, I returned to Ruger.
“Now, let's go to the office.”
“Yes, ah, yes!”
As soon as we entered the office, Ruger held out a tablet PC.
“If you press this button here, a map will appear. The locations of the motorcycles will appear as dots on that map.”
“Oh.”
“If you press those dots, you can see the vehicle information of the motorcycles.”
Indeed, I could see twelve dots busily scattering across the map.
“But you don't know who's riding each motorcycle, right?”
“Th…at's right?”
“What do you mean, that's right. Check the CCTV.”
“Ah!”
The faces of the twelve escaped convicts were all captured on the CCTV.
And which motorcycle each of them had ridden when they left this place.
By combining the location information on the tablet and the information from the CCTV, I could figure out where each of them had gone.
I jotted down the information about the escaped convicts and the motorcycles on my phone and thought.
'There are some quite troublesome guys mixed in.'
From guys I could subdue with my current strength to guys who were so strong I couldn't face them at this point in time.
The skills of the twelve escaped convicts were that varied.
But I knew one thing for sure.
Who I had to catch first.
'Choi Young-go.'
Alright, my human hunt begins with you.
Thinking so, I packed up my phone and the tablet PC.
Ruger asked from beside me.
“Um, would you like some coffee?”
“You should have asked that when I came in. I'm done.”
“Ah, yes! Of course, haha.”
I walked out of the office.
Outside, the same pushover young man from before was waiting for me.
I approached him.
“You've been waiting long?”
“Ah, no, no. Not at all.”
“Tell this man the car model, conditions, and price range you want.”
I said, giving Ruger a gentle push on the back.
Then I whispered to Ruger.
“Let's be honest, be honest.”
“Yes, yes!”
“And if you sell a car with a location tracker, you're dead.”
“Aigoo, how could I dare…!”
And so, under my supervision, the used car transaction was carried out smoothly and cleanly.
The Noksan side brought a vehicle with the specs the young man wanted, and the young man paid a price that was a bit more discounted than a reasonable one.
After signing the contract, the young man approached me and bowed deeply.
“Thank you! The car I used to have was destroyed by a demonic beast, so I really needed a car urgently! I really don't know how to repay this favor…”
“It's nothing. We're all just helping each other live.”
The name of this young man who was about to be a pushover was Ji Byeong-seo.
Behind this klutzy face, a brain and tongue of a generation were hidden.
This young man's true identity was a genius pharmacist of a generation.
A monster of a generation who would create all sorts of elixirs that even giant pharmaceutical companies had failed to produce, using only his tongue and intuition.
But at this point in time, Ji Byeong-seo was not a pharmacist.
His current profession was a medicinal herb collector.
He was just an amateur who made medicine as a hobby.
Therefore, he was completely unaware of his own tremendous talent.
But after awakening his talent and becoming a formal pharmacist, the elixirs he made would become super rare items that couldn't be bought even with money.
But what if I steadily built up his favorability from this point on?
'I can become a VIP customer of this genius pharmacist.'
I would be able to receive elixirs at a cheaper price than anyone else in the world, and be the first to receive them.
Elixirs.
Medicine that granted a permanent stat increase to the body.
Therefore, it was the fastest and most certain way to become stronger.
This was the reason I had gone to the trouble of helping Ji Byeong-seo.
'Helping him after he becomes famous is meaningless. At that point, there will be an overflow of people trying to help him even if you tell them not to. But help received when one is in difficulty and humble is remembered for a long time.'
As I was thinking that and exchanging contact information with Ji Byeong-seo.
Ruger spoke from behind me.
“Um, by any chance, do you need a car?”
“Are you trying to sell a car to me too?”
Actually, I was thinking of taking one as compensation for him attacking me earlier.
“Hey, sell one? I'll just give you one. There's also the matter of our rudeness earlier…”
“……?”
Numerous question marks passed through my eyes.
It was unexpected.
Because in the dozens, hundreds of times I had played the game, something like this had never happened before.
'This guy Ruger is offering me a car first?'
There were countless times I had extorted a vehicle from Ruger in the game.
There were also many times I hadn't.
But in no case had Ruger ever offered to give me a car first.
He would always exude a faint hostility until the end.
That's why I was flustered.
'Which of the things I did here created this new branch?'
Was there anything I did here now that I didn't do in the game?
'…There is.'
There was just one thing.
It was 'overwhelming'.
During the battle with the Noksan gang earlier.
I had overwhelmed and crushed those 32 people without moving much.
This was actually impossible to do in the game.
The point at which one encountered the Noksan gang was the very beginning of the game.
Naturally, the player's character would face Noksan while still weak.
So it was possible to get used to this battle, but it was impossible to play it in an overwhelming manner.
Because the specs weren't there to overwhelm them.
But now, I had the body of the final boss, 'Black God'.
Thanks to that, it became possible to play in a way that crushed and overwhelmed them, and as a result, some change had occurred in the story.
'Perhaps the fear of being overwhelmed outweighed the anger of having lost.'
Just like how one gets annoyed when they lose by a narrow margin, but feels a sense of awe when they are completely overwhelmed.
'On top of that, for guys like that to offer something first is a gesture of friendship or submission.'
If I accepted that offer, I might end up in a friendly relationship with Noksan.
Then the future might flow differently from what I had experienced in the game.
'Do I take the stable, known path, or a new path?'
I thought about it for a moment, but the answer was simple.
'No, it's already become impossible to only take the known path.'
Because I was no longer the bounty hunter protagonist from a commoner background, but the final boss, the Black God.
'The me in the game wasn't a prisoner, wasn't involved with Lancelot from the beginning, and didn't possess such great power.'
In other words, the underlying situation itself was fundamentally different from when I was playing the game.
'So if I try to forcibly follow the same story as when I was playing the game, I might trip myself up.'
What I had to do in a situation like this was-
'Trust my veteran instincts and information, and create and continue a new play.'
I decided.
Having made up his mind, I extended my hand to Ruger and said.
“If you're giving it, I'll gratefully accept. I look forward to working with you.”
“Yes!”
Originally, Noksan was a mob group that provided information and a vehicle at the beginning of the game and was then wiped out.
It was the moment Noksan joined the main stream of the story.
* * *
And so, after both Riman and Ji Byeong-seo had left the Noksan Junkyard.
The gang members who had been knocked out by the electric shock barely got up and pulled themselves together.
The member who had been caught in the flamethrower explosion went to the infirmary to get his burns treated.
And just as the members of Noksan were about to return to their normal daily lives.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!
The mana detector attached to the main gate of the junkyard suddenly started blaring loudly.
It meant that someone with mana had entered the junkyard.