/
I swallowed a few curse words as the semi-forced choices were reprised yet again. Honestly, I’m not surprised.
‘This shittem seriously doesn’t know how to get along with others, huh? No conscience at all.’
Huu. Letting out a small sigh, I roughly choose either of the options while looking at it.
〈 You have accepted the mission. 〉
What do you mean, accept.
Heaven and earth was nothing but a den of thugs.
This guy’s selling me missions by force.
That guy’s selling me gems by force.
While deploring this damn reality, many other words suddenly appeared on the system window.
〈 Hidden Mission, START!
– Let’s get our hands on that gem.
Mission Detail : Charon’s display case, row 3, second gem from the right.
Penalty in case of failure : Reputation -10 decrease!
Reward upon mission success : Reputation +5 / Bonus stats +5 〉
After reading the whole mission, I barely held myself back from slapping a hand to my forehead.
‘Seriously, is this thing crazy?’
Objectively speaking, it’s just straight up putting me in danger.
That’s the kind of mission it’s giving me.
‘Should I just ignore it?’
I thought rebelliously for a moment, but I quickly gave up on that idea.
The penalty was too heavy for me to ignore the mission and face the consequences.
〈 Reputation -10 〉
Right now, I have only 15 reputation points.
After the incident with Charlotte, 6 more points went up little by little.
I’m guessing that it’s because of Teacher Victor and the high priest.
On the day that I asked him about the fountain during our first day of class, my reputation rose by 4 points.
I have no idea where the 2 points came from though.
Anyway.
Perhaps thanks to this, the sensitivity level of the ‘proper and pleasant words’ censoring had gone down a bit.
The automatic censorship and reputation warnings weren’t appearing anymore unless it was a direct cuss.
This was a great development.
My 15 points were all hard-earned, but this thing’s telling me that it’s gonna cut it by 10?
Ridiculous.
‘Yeah, fine, I’ll just do it. If I succeed, my reputation goes up by 5 points. Let’s think positive.’
Didn’t I choose the jewelry I brought beforehand with the thought that I’ll be ripped off anyway?
I’ll give this guy Charon five gems for the price of one, I guess.
“Dear customer?”
Just in time, Charon called my attention.
With eyes that looked like a shiba inu’s, he watched me sharply. He seemed to be suspecting that I was scheming something.
Coughing dryly, I replied.
“Oh, I was going to sell some jewelry, but I see that there are a lot of pretty ones here, too. I’d like to look around while talking to you more. Will that be difficult to do?”
I deliberately answered with a pompous air.
I’m pretty sure he’s already thinking of me as a pushover, but now that I have something I need to take, I’d be in trouble if I looked like too much of a pushover.
Charon observed me with unreadable eyes and nodded.
“Of course. Please feel free to look around.”
“Thank you.”
With that short answer, I turned straight towards the display case.
‘Third row, second from the right
’
The location given to me was precise, so it was easy to find the gem.
It was a rugged white gem that had a diameter of about a thumb.
Though, rather than a gem, it might be more appropriate to call it a mineral or something.
‘Huu. Good thing it doesn’t look very pricey.’
I was worried about it being some kind of crazily expensive gem.
Letting out a sigh of relief on my own, I soon looked at the price tag.
But then, the price tag was empty.
“Over there.”
“Yes, dear customer. Have you found a gem that caught your eye?”
“Why is the price tag blank for that gem over there, the second one from the right on the third row?”
He chuckled then said, “You have a good eye for choosing that one in particular.”
With a glint in his eyes, the man answered my question.
“It’s worth 500 million shillings.”
What. Crazy.
I doubted my own ears.
‘500 million shillings? 500 million Korean won?’
(approx. USD 400k)
Charon just shrugged when I gawked at him, speechless.
“It’s not just an ordinary gem. If you know what it is, then you’ll know that 500 million shillings isn’t high at all.”
I clamped my mouth shut.
What kinda bullsh*t.
No matter who looked at it, it’s just a rice puff.
Besides, my financial situation needs to be reviewed right now.
‘I don’t have 500 million shillings.’
Even if I sold all five jewelry pieces I brought here, I thought I’d be lucky to get only 10 million for them.
‘No choice, I guess. Should I give up on the mission?’
No, wait, that’s not a good thing either.
The reputation points I collected like a rabbit were at stake.
I said nothing and wracked my brain.
‘Come to think of it, the mission was to grab the gem, not necessarily to buy it.’
At present, it’s impossible for me to buy it.
I didn’t even have the confidence to steal it away.
So, I’ve got one way.
‘What if I let that man hand over the gem to me himself?’
As I reached this conclusion, I roughly came up with a plan.
I have no idea whether it’ll succeed or not.