When Did I Become An Artifact Dealer?!
Chapter 85 - 86: Egin

Chapter 85: Chapter 86: Egin

"You have parents?" his bracelet suddenly sounded.

Cail felt offended by that question. "Do you think I just popped out of a rock?" What kind of nonsense is that? Is this bracelet insane?

The Fake God defended himself. "It’s just... I can’t imagine you being a normal human. It just feels like you popped out of nowhere to create chaos."

He ignored the Fake God and rubbed his hair with a towel. After he finished dressing up, he walked toward his bed and plopped down.

"Aya... This is heaven," he muttered. He buried himself in the blankets and closed his eyes. Finally, he could rest.

He cut off his telepathy with his bracelet and went into a deep sleep.

...

On the floor beneath Cail’s room, a conspiracy was happening.

A man was sitting on the bed facing the window. He looked somber as he puffed smoke. If Cail were here, he would have realized that the man looked familiar.

It was the desperate man, the one from whom Cail got the Sleepless artifact in a trade.

It hadn’t been many days since it happened. When Evin jumped into the world of the void after finding his family’s dead bodies, he was devastated after seeing the decapitated corpses.

Was he acting like a fool the entire time? Did the organization that targeted him have fun threatening him with his family, knowing they were already long dead?

He had crumbled inside after seeing his family discarded like trash beneath their home.

He was still attacked despite no longer having the Sleepless. Fortunately, the Scarab made it easy for him to preserve his life. But in exchange, his entire body was filled with scars.

While running from his pursuers, he was saved by a group of rift explorers and joined their team.

His face was now filled with scars, and his eye was replaced with an artificial one. "You ever get something... way before you understood what it meant?" he muttered. He felt conflicted whenever he remembered that event.

Lira leaned toward him. "You’re talking about that thing again?" Lira was a very beautiful woman. Not filled with weak, meek gentleness but with heroic bravery. With her full chest and wide hips, men’s eyes always wandered over her body as if licking it with their gaze.

Egin was quick to push her away. He scurried far from her as if she were some man-eating monster.

Seeing Egin’s skittish reaction, the two men sitting on the sofa laughed. "Lira, mind your actions. That guy’s still not used to it."

Lira pouted, but it was obvious that she was also amused by Egin’s reaction. She knew her charm, and she also knew how to use it against men. One distraction and she’d stab them like a porcupine.

Egin sighed as he looked at them. These were the people who took him in after he was chased. Although it had only been days in this world, he and his newly found group had entered a rift. It was a controlled rift.

The rift was owned by the VRA, so it was safe. Time passed differently there. Though only a few days had passed outside, after going in and out for a job, they’d been together for almost three months.

Egin rubbed his head. "I feel like I’m going crazy. My sense of time is messed up." Who would have thought it had only been three days since his family died? For him, it had already been months.

His body showed scars from the rift exploration. He had been just a weak chicken three days ago, and now he already had some muscle on his biceps.

The time was so off. He felt like he was going insane.

Ollen cleaned his iron knuckles. His dirty feet were placed on the sofa. The man beside him pushed his feet off, but he put them back again. He knew Egin was having a hard time adjusting.

"You’ll get used to it. Our main job is to salvage artifacts inside the void... So this isn’t going to be the last time."

Ollen was a very buff man. He had a muscle-builder type of body. He had a long beard but a bald head. He looked very scary and not someone easy to mess with.

Lira sat next to Egin. "You’re lamenting again about the deal? I think it was a fair deal. You exchanged an S artifact for another S artifact." They had already heard Egin talk about the man he met when he was escaping.

Egin slowly moved away from her. "That’s what makes this even more unreal... I thought dealers came easily. But..." They were almost scammed to death inside the rift by a dealer.

"I got a feeling that it was pure nonsense. Like, I didn’t have anything at that time. Why didn’t he scam me?" Egin asked like an idiot.

Yesell, a bookish-looking man, stared at Egin as if he were crazy. "You’re asking to be scammed. Maybe you just got lucky? Maybe you met a newbie dealer who doesn’t know what he’s doing?"

Egin was silent. During his adventure in the rift, aside from knowing how lucky he was to get a legitimate deal, he also realized something.

It wasn’t just the deal. It wasn’t about the artifact. It was about what came with it.

The coupon. He realized it was a treasure. Something even the higher-ups would kill for.

It was a heaven-defying gift. It wasn’t something he could buy with money, but he got it just because he was lucky.

He realized that 100% tuning wasn’t something people could just give randomly.

How do you even give something like that? Tuning with an artifact involves a lot of factors. You couldn’t offer that unless you were a god.

Actually, remembering that encounter now that he had a bit of knowledge. He could feel his stomach twisting remembering that man. Aside from gratefulness, he also felt a sense of horror.

The person he met that night... Was that man even human? Or did he meet something else?

Egin was having goosebumps.

The coupon was something he didn’t dare tell anyone about. He had learned from the Sleepless that you’re guilty if you possess a treasure.

He realized that 100% tuning was something that could change his life. It meant potential. A secure ticket to becoming strong.

Egin chuckled. "I was very clueless during the entire transaction. I was just going with the flow and following what that dealer was saying." That dealer was a bit crazy in the head. Based on his observation, most dealers, fake or not... all of them were a bit crazy in the head.

He heard from Yesell that it was probably from being in close proximity to artifacts with different void energy.

Ollen didn’t think much of it. Just like Yesell, he thought maybe it was just a newbie dealer. "You’re a lucky guy. Hey, do you still have contact with that man?"

Yesell tsked. "Asking about that again? Egin already told you he doesn’t have any more connections to that man." Being around this musclehead made him feel like his intelligence was getting sucked away.

Egin went silent after hearing that. He looked at them and felt a bit guilty. He actually had a contact number for that dealer. But he didn’t dare nor want to tell anyone.

Was it selfishness? He wanted to guard the power he’d gained. He was scared that the more people knew about the dealer, the less of an advantage he would have.

And also... deep down, he was scared to contact him. Was it just his imagination, or did dealing with that guy feel like selling your soul to the devil?

Lira was putting on lipstick beside him. She held a small compact mirror. Seeing her beautiful face, she smiled. "I’m ready... So, when are we going to start hunting? This hotel seems to be turning into a den now."

...

Cail, upstairs and still sleeping... Well,

I guess he should rest for now. Because when he wakes up, he’ll have another problem to solve.