What's Inside the Box?

The Official Hunter Market of Seoul stood as a monument to humanity's oldest instinct.

Greed.

Buried beneath the glittering skyline of Gangnam, the market occupied what had once been one of Seoul's busiest subway transfer stations. When the Tower appeared, the trains stopped running.

Money never did.

The abandoned underground complex had been reborn into a city beneath the city, a sprawling marketplace where lives, fortunes, and sometimes entire futures changed hands every hour.

Towering holographic advertisements painted the cavernous ceiling with shifting colors.

『Grade D Monster Cores!』

『Mana-Reactive Armor : Limited Stock!』

『Guild Recruitment : Guaranteed Floor Advancement!』

The flashing lights reflected across polished steel, cracked concrete, and countless wary eyes.

The air carried an unusual mixture of scents.

Freshly grilled skewers from roadside vendors.

The sharp bite of ozone leaking from enchanted equipment.

Oil, sweat, rust...

...and the lingering metallic smell that never truly disappeared from armor washed with monster blood.

"Is... this really the official Hunter Market?"

Ha Neul's voice was barely louder than a whisper.

She instinctively tightened her grip on her shoulder bag, her gaze drifting from one corner to another as if afraid she might miss something or worse, catch someone's attention.

Everywhere she looked, Hunters moved with purpose.

Some carried freshly harvested monster carcasses.

Others negotiated over shimmering magic crystals worth more than an average family's yearly income.

There were smiles.

But none of them felt genuine.

Seo-Jun calmly observed the bustling crowd before answering.

"This..."

His eyes swept across the endless rows of merchants and customers.

"...is the world after awakening."

His tone remained even, almost detached.

"The Tower is where people gamble with their lives."

A brief pause.

"This market is where those lives are given a price."

Ha Neul unconsciously fell silent.

The simple sentence carried far more weight than any lecture.

Around them, reality unfolded exactly as Seo-Jun described.

Veteran Hunters with scar-covered faces argued over the price of healing potions as though every coin mattered.

Porters hauled crates overflowing with monster materials.

Guild representatives dressed in immaculate suits walked through the crowd with polished smiles, quietly searching for frightened rookies desperate enough to sign exploitative contracts.

No one looked relaxed.

Everyone was calculating.

Everyone was measuring value.

Seo-Jun ignored the brightly illuminated storefronts lining the central avenue.

Large glass displays showcased dazzling weapons forged by famous craftsmen.

Premium enchanted armor gleamed beneath carefully arranged spotlights.

Everything looked luxurious.

Everything was absurdly overpriced.

Those stores belonged to the major guilds.

They weren't selling quality.

They were selling reassurance to inexperienced Hunters who couldn't distinguish true craftsmanship from expensive branding.

Without slowing his pace, Seo-Jun veered away from the crowded boulevard.

The atmosphere changed almost immediately.

The brilliant lights faded behind them.

The streets narrowed.

Concrete walls replaced polished storefronts.

Old fluorescent lamps flickered overhead, casting pale light over cramped alleys where silence carried more weight than conversation.

The merchants here didn't shout advertisements.

Most sat quietly on worn blankets or rusted folding chairs.

Their goods were displayed with little care.

Some sold chipped weapons.

Others offered unidentified monster remains, forgotten relics, or strange items whose origins were impossible to guess.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Every pair of eyes followed newcomers.

Not openly.

Never obviously.

Just enough to judge.

Just enough to calculate.

Seo-Jun spoke without turning around.

"Stay close."

His voice dropped into a calm, commanding tone.

"And don't stare at anything."

Ha Neul immediately shortened the distance between them.

"...Why?"

"Because interest has a price."

Seo-Jun's footsteps never faltered.

"The moment someone thinks you want something..."

"...they'll either raise the price..."

"...or decide taking your money is easier."

Ha Neul instinctively looked away from a nearby stall.

"...Understood."

She answered quietly, matching his pace with disciplined precision.

A faint smile almost formed on Seo-Jun's lips.

She learned quickly.

That alone separated survivors from corpses.

After walking a little farther into the dim maze of alleyways, Seo-Jun slowed.

His eyes closed.

Only for a heartbeat.

A thin strand of mana flowed through his circuits before gathering around his optic nerves with flawless precision.

The world shifted.

A translucent blue window unfolded before his vision.

[Skill Activated.]

[Eye Of Insight Lv. 4]

The moment Seo-Jun activated the skill, the world before him changed.

It wasn't that color disappeared.

Rather, everything else became insignificant.

The endless stream of Hunters, the dazzling holographic advertisements, even the clamor of bargaining voices, all of it faded into the background as countless threads of mana emerged beneath reality.

Every object revealed its true nature.

Some glimmered faintly.

Others shone with a stable, gentle radiance.

Most...

Were little more than dull stains of muddy brown mana.

Cheap weapons forged from inferior monster materials.

Armor repaired so many times that its enchantments had nearly collapsed.

Accessories carrying unstable mana that would lose their effects after only a handful of battles.

Items made to be sold.

Not relied upon.

Seo-Jun walked past them without the slightest hesitation.

He wasn't looking for a weapon.

Nor was he searching for expensive equipment.

He needed an armor.

One that would serve Ha Neul until she reached the Tenth Floor.

After that...

Its role would end.

But before that another destination awaits.

His destination lay far beyond the bustling center of the market.

The further he walked, the quieter the underground streets became.

The polished storefronts gradually disappeared, replaced by aging buildings whose faded signs looked as though they had survived solely because no one cared enough to remove them.

Eventually, he stopped before a narrow shop squeezed between two abandoned warehouses.

The wooden sign above the entrance hung crookedly from rusted chains.

Several characters had long since peeled away, making the store's name impossible to read.

Inside...

Chaos.

Shelves overflowed with cracked monster bones, chipped helmets, broken mana tools, rusted blades, and boxes that looked as though they hadn't been opened in decades.

It resembled less a store...

And more the storage room of someone incapable of throwing anything away.

Seo-Jun smiled faintly.

"...Looks exactly the same."

A rough voice immediately answered from somewhere inside.

"Oi."

"If you're here to complain, piss off."

Several wooden crates shifted before an old man emerged from behind them.

His gray hair pointed in every possible direction, his wrinkled clothes looked as though they had survived a small war, and an unlit cigarette rested permanently between his lips.

His expression alone was enough to make most customers leave.

"What're you staring at?"

"Never seen an old man before?"

Seo-Jun met his gaze.

"...You've still got that charming personality."

The old man's brows furrowed.

"The hell?"

"I don't know you."

"So quit acting familiar."

Seo-Jun simply chuckled.

Not because the words amused him...

But because they were exactly what he remembered.

Ignoring the shopkeeper's suspicious glare, he swept his gaze across the cluttered shelves.

The Eye peeled away years of dust and corrosion.

One by one, the scattered items lost their false appearances.

Nearly all of them radiated the same lifeless brown glow.

Discarded.

Broken.

Depleted.

Then...

A faint silver light caught his eye.

It was buried beneath a heap of rusted shields and cracked goblin weapons, almost completely hidden beneath years of accumulated junk.

Unlike the others, its radiance hadn't faded.

It had merely been concealed.

Seo-Jun crouched before the pile and casually moved several shields aside.

His fingers stopped on a long wooden case.

The surface had been blackened by intense heat.

Thick iron chains wrapped around it several times, fused together as though they had partially melted before cooling into a single solid mass.

No keyhole remained.

The lock itself had ceased to exist.

Seo-Jun brushed a thumb across the charred wood.

"You've never opened this."

The shopkeeper snorted.

"If I could've opened it, it'd already be sold."

"I tried cutting it."

"Tried smashing it."

"Waste of time."

He scratched his beard before pointing lazily at the case.

"Found it inside a burned Hobgoblin settlement years ago."

"Heavy piece of crap."

"If you like hauling useless junk around, be my guest."

"I'll even thank you."

Seo-Jun nodded once.

"I'll take it."

The old man blinked.

"...Seriously?"

Seo-Jun didn't answer. Instead, he reached into his coat and placed a neatly bundled stack of bills on the counter.

50,000,000 Won.

The room went still.

The old man's gaze dropped instantly.

Not to Seo-Jun.

To the money.

His single visible eye widened slightly.

"...Fifty?"

He leaned forward, squinting as if the number itself might change if he stared long enough.

Then his gaze shifted to the charred wooden case behind Seo-Jun.

Then back again.

A slow, crooked grin crept across his face.

"Heh."

"I was thinking maybe thirty million if I pushed it."

He let out a low chuckle, half disbelief, half satisfaction.

"And here you are, throwing fifty like it's pocket change."

Without waiting for permission, he swept the money off the counter and shoved it into a locked drawer beneath his stall.

The sound of metal snapping shut echoed once.

"Good."

"Very good."

He pointed a rough finger at the wooden case.

"It's yours."

"No refunds."

"No exchanges."

"And if that thing turns out to be cursed, haunted, or decides to chew your soul in your sleep..."

He shrugged.

"That's your problem now."

Seo-Jun finally spoke again.

His tone was calm.

Almost too calm.

"I overpaid."

The old man frowned.

"...What?"

Seo-Jun's eyes shifted briefly toward the case.

"It feels like cheating."

A pause.

The old man barked a short laugh.

"The hell are you talking about, kid?"

Seo-Jun continued, unbothered.

"I didn't bargain."

"I didn't verify its value properly."

"I simply bought what I already knew was more important than you think."

His gaze returned to the merchant.

"That makes it unfair."

The old man scratched his cheek, clearly confused.

"Unfair my ass. You paid. I sold. That's how the world works."

Seo-Jun shook his head slightly.

"No."

"This isn't worth fifty million."

The old man's grin widened.

"Finally some sense."

Seo-Jun added quietly.

"It's worth more."

Silence.

The old man stopped smiling for a moment.

Seo-Jun lifted his gaze slightly.

"I'm paying fifty million because otherwise it feels like I'm cheating you."

A faint pause.

"And even now..."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"...I still feel like I am."

The old man stared at him.

Then let out a rough laugh that turned into a cough.

"You're a weird bastard."

He leaned back, waving a hand dismissively.

"Listen here, kid."

"I've been selling trash nobody wants for thirty years."

"If someone walks in and pays fifty million for something I couldn't sell for thirty..."

He tapped his temple.

"That's not cheating."

"That's survival of stupidity."

He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice.

"And one more thing."

"If you open that damn thing and start crying about it later...."

His grin returned, sharp and toothy.

"Don't come back here whining."

Then, without looking back, he said:

"I already bought it. You must not cry in the future."

Seo-Jun adjusted his coat.

"After you see what it does."

A brief silence settled between them.

Then he added, almost as an afterthought:

"That's the only warning I'll give you."

Seo-Jun picked up the wooden case and handed it to Ha Neul.

The moment she accepted it, her arms dipped slightly.

Ha Neul froze slightly.

"...Huh?"

"...It's heavier than it looks."

"It is."

Seo-Jun replied calmly.

"But what matters isn't its weight."

He glanced at the soot-covered case.

"It's what's inside."