Translator: – – Editor: – –
“Hello?”
I couldn’t just keep ignoring her greetings and replied, “Yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I had to hide that I knew who she was.
“We’ve only become devas for a day now. When did you become a deva?”
“It hasn’t been long for me, either.”
I was obviously the first deva, but I couldn’t just tell her that, nor did I need to. It would only make her wary of me. I had to constantly watch what I said.
“Ah, I see. Anyway, this place seems quite unwelcoming. No one really answers our questions, and if they do, it’s all one-word answers. Oh yeah, is this your first time to Store 72?”
“No, it’s my second visit.”
“So, you’ve been here before us. Then, you probably already know.”
Not a single person was unwelcoming to me. The problem was that they were too overbearing.
I never had anyone like the Manager cling to me like that.
“Well…”
“Oh, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. I’m Song Hyein, 27 years old. The guys behind me are just some helpers of mine.”
“I’m Lee Jiwon, 30 years old.”
“It’s almost like our encounter was fated, and we probably have more to learn as devas. By chance, how do you feel about exchanging information with each other, should either of us need to?”
“Um…I’m sorry. That will be difficult.”
I turned down her offer without a second thought. I mean, I understood why she asked. Neither of us had been devas for long, and they had no idea where to go from now.
She may have been South Korea’s Unrivaled tanker, but that was before. Right now, she was a new deva.
Even the Sunbin Guild had a hard time back then. We all did. The normal reaction was to combine forces, but I was busy.
Twenty-four hours a day wasn’t enough for me to do everything in my head. More importantly, I had to take advantage of anything helpful. I didn’t even think about sharing it with anyone else.
“Ah…” She seemed taken aback at my curt response.
“Oh? Deva Lee Jiwon, you’re back?” Marie approached us with broom in hand while we were talking.
She was always in the background, like when I had tea with Anton. I knew from the beginning that she was not a normal maid.
I moved past Song Hyein and greeted Marie. “Hello, Miss Marie.”
“You’ve already taken Store 72’s foundation…I should be scared. I wonder what you’ll take this time.”
“No…that’s…”
“Fufu. It’s a joke. With the points deva Lee Jiwon gave us, we can give you 10, no, 100 of our most prized stock.”
“Ahaha!” I could only awkwardly laugh. “I’m actually here to speak to Manager Anton.”
I’m sure I could have asked Marie about dungeons, but I felt that she would never tell me even if I asked a hundred different ways. That’s what my gut told me.
“The manager’s taking his break right now. Hmm…” Marie shook her head in thought. “That’s fine. deva Lee Jiwon has that right. Follow me, please.”
“Wait a second!” Song Hyein interrupted as soon as Marie finished her sentence. “What is going on here? Don’t you think your treatment of him and us is too different? You’ve ignored all of my questions and all your employees have been unreceptive this whole time, but don’t you think you’re treating this Lee Jiwon guy too well? I don’t mean treat him any less, but treat us fairly!”
“Fufufu.” Marie slightly smiled and gave a small laugh at Song Hyein’s demand. “Did you want special treatment?”
Instead of Song Hyein, a 40-something man behind her relied with a scowl.”I don’t mean special treatment, but treat us fairly.”
“Fairly, you say…I don’t know. You want fair treatment in an Earth in the Otadonol stage. Let me give you a piece of advice. This is advice that even deva Lee Jiwon knows.”
Marie glanced at me before looking back Song Hyein.
“If you want to be treated fairly, become stronger. Fairness and even ground isn’t a right for the weak, but given by the strong.”
“…” Song Hyein didn’t reply to Marie.
“Now then, deva Lee Jiwon. Let us go.”
“Yes. After you.” I bowed slightly to Song Hyein, who just stood there, and followed Marie.
—
Store 72’s manager, Anton, and his maid, Marie, were not beings of this Earth.
In my previous life, there was little known about these beings. We just called them NPCs. They were definitely alien to us, even though they looked like us.
“Miss.”
The always supportive Chief Kim Sungryul called out to Song Hyein in a worried tone.
“Leave it. She’s not wrong. I’ve done the same to others before. Conglomerate life is even worse. If you don’t have power or underlings, you will find yourself in a position lower than mudfish. That’s our life. I just didn’t expect to hear that from a stranger.”
Chief Kim Sungryul had supported Song Hyein for ten years and knew what she was thinking just from the tone of her voice.
Song Hyein and her two executive secretaries had become Sunbin Group’s devas the day before.
Her parents and grandparents always told her off, but could never beat her stubbornness.
As Sunbin Group’s heir, she became its first deva and spent that whole day experimenting with her newfound abilities. When she received the report that a strange tent had appeared in the middle of Seoul but no one could enter it, she arrived to enter herself three hours ago.
Normal people were not allowed to enter, but as a deva, Song Hyein was allowed entrance.
She dismissed the rest of her people and searched around the store with her executive secretaries for three hours.
They found the skill shop, item shop, public marketplace, and the exchange shop. They found everything except civility. Not a single trace of hospitality. Everyone just looked at them idly, with arms crossed.
“His name was Lee Jiwon…30 years old. Do you think that’s enough?”
“I’ll look into it right away.”
As long as they knew a name and age, the Sunbin group could find out where one’s parents lived, their job, and where they lived as long as they were in Korea. They could even find out what someone else looked like.
“OK. Let’s go. There’s nothing else to find out here.”
They needed golden rings.
It wasn’t just Seoul’s Store, but all the Stores in the big cities. Any functioning Store was the same. They all wanted one thing if you wanted to do business with them… golden rings.
“It’s all good. Just finding out about Lee Jiwon seems like a huge catch. But the power Marie talked about… it’s only been three days. In three days, he has enough power that even she acknowledged him. I wonder what that is.”
While everyone else would be overwhelmed with the limited information and would not know how to respond to the uncertain future, the Sunbin group would be prepared.
While everyone else refused to accept such an unbelievable event, the Sunbin group knew that it was stupid to ignore all the events that were happening right before their eyes, and so they prepared.
Even though some within the group argued that it was useless, the Sunbin group secured a Don Gate not an hour later and devoted all their power to it…
————–
I followed Marie to the fifth floor.
There were two guard-like beings blocking the stairs from the fourth to the fifth floor, but they did not stop Marie or me from entering. We walked towards a door that reading “Manager’s Office.”
“Mr. Manager. Deva Lee Jiwon, who came by yesterday, is here.”
“Uh huh. Come in!”
From inside the door, Anton called us in as if he already knew what had happened outside.
“Go on in.”
“Yes. Thank you, Miss Marie.”
“You are most welcome.”