When Did I Become An Artifact Dealer?!
Chapter 86 - 87: Walking Backwards

Chapter 86: Chapter 87: Walking Backwards

Cail woke up. His mind felt refreshed, but his head felt heavy and sore. His body had recovered, but his void energy was still empty.

It was already dark. Cail’s vision was blurry, but he was already used to it. Sometimes, he couldn’t help but think: if he dug his eyes out, would he grow a new pair of healthy eyes? Or would they remain defective, just like what he had now?

He was just chilling and enjoying his comfortable time when he heard a knock on the door.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

It was a bit harsh. Like the person on the other side was in a rush and really wanted to go inside Cail’s room.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Cail didn’t get up to check the door. If that was the hotel room service, then he’d rate them one star for how rough their service was. But if it wasn’t the hotel service, then that’s another reason not to open the door.

The knocking intensified. Cail heard his knob twisting as if the person... well, let’s just say it was a person, on the other side of the door was really getting impatient.

"Hey, is the person on the other side human?" Cail lazily asked.

His bracelet vibrated. "You know my senses are restricted when I’m inside this artifact."

"Useless," Cail muttered. Then he sat up. The thing, or whatever it was, on the other side of the door had better be entertaining, or he’d gut that guy to death.

He peeked through the peephole. Outside wasn’t some kind of man-eating monster or a lady ghost wearing a white dress.

Standing outside was a sweaty guy around Cail’s age. He was twisting and knocking on Cail’s knob again and again as his eyes kept darting around, as if something was chasing him. It was the guy that Cail saw running toward the elevator a while ago.

Cail frowned. "What does he want?" This already added to his annoyance. This guy twisting his room knob and knocking on his door nonstop made him feel irritated. There were other rooms why choose this one?

Cail opened the door. The guy outside was stunned. He almost fell toward Cail as he had been leaning on the door with all his body weight.

Of course, Cail wouldn’t just stand there and watch this guy fall toward him. Cail lifted his foot and kicked the guy hard into the ground.

"A robber?" Cail said, tilting his head while looking at the disheveled guy on the floor.

The teen snapped back to reality after hearing that. He shook his head frantically. "N–No..." His voice quivered. "C–can you let me in? I—please. I’m begging you." Then his eyes kept darting down the hallway as if something was going to come out and chop him.

Cail crossed his arms and leaned on the doorframe. Because of how nervous that guy was about the hallway, Cail also glanced around.

Nothing was out of the ordinary. Red carpet, a huge vase, and a mirror. Cail looked at the young man dripping with sweat. "Are you on something? I don’t think there’s anything scary in the hallway. Just a red carpet, a vase, and a mirror."

It would have been fine if Cail hadn’t said that. But when he said what was in the hallway, the young man’s face fell. It was devoid of any color, as if what Cail said sucked the life out of him.

"Wh–what do you mean... you can’t see it?" the young man said. His voice was low, as if whispering. "S–something is standing at the end of the hallway... Can you see it? A tall man wearing a black coat, facing the wall?"

"What?" Cail was taken aback. He looked again and saw nothing. "Buddy, there’s nothing." Cail turned on the gear on his glasses. The hallway was empty. Nothing changed.

The young man’s eyes looked at the end of the hallway. Different from what Cail was seeing, the young man was experiencing something different.

At the end of the hallway, standing there was a man wearing a black coat and a gentleman’s top hat. He had his back facing the young man as he stared at the wall. He had been there. He had always been there.

But the young man knew that man would follow him. Even when he tried leaving the hotel, it would continue to follow him.

Then something different happened this time...

The figure moved. It was walking backward. It was walking backward toward the young man.

"AHHHHHHH!" the young man screamed. He lunged at the guy wearing glasses. "He’s coming! He’s coming! Help me!"

Just as the man in the black coat was about to reach him, he felt a force at the back of his neck. His vision instantly blacked out as he slowly fell to the ground.

Cail looked at the slumped young man. "What are you screaming for?" With a single chop, he had rendered the man unconscious. He bent down and checked the young man. After making sure that he hadn’t accidentally killed him with that blow, he looked around the hallway and didn’t see anything.

"Nothing... Don’t tell me these glasses can see ghosts?" Cail muttered. He had just turned on the first gear, so the vision wasn’t as detailed as with the fourth twist. He dragged the young man by the foot as if he were dragging a corpse. Don’t ask! This was just muscle memory and an automatic response. He was calm doing this because he realized that this hotel didn’t have any CCTV.

His void energy obviously couldn’t support his artifact usage now, so he turned off his glasses as he closed the door.

He put the young man down on the ground. Then, after staring at him and feeling that this scene resembled a murder too much, he picked the guy up by the collar and placed him on the sofa.

Cail stretched his body and laid back down on his bed, unaware that he seemed to have picked up something troublesome. Well, maybe he was aware... he just didn’t care, as his impulse attacked once again.

...

"Our target... his location vanished." Lira’s eyes narrowed as she held the artifact in her hand. "He vanished after arriving at the 15th floor."

Yesell leaned on the wall. "That’s where his room is located, right? He was fine a while ago. Why did he vanish?" They had been eating their dinner an hour ago. Then, when they checked the artifact, it showed that the target had suddenly gone missing.

Ollen felt nervous. "Hey, why don’t we check him out? Our employer will kill us if they know that the target went missing."

Lira kicked him. "Go there and send yourself to your death? What are you thinking? Obviously, something’s wrong on the 15th floor. Even if we want to secure the target’s safety, we need to think about ourselves first."

Egin was preparing their equipment when he saw a hotel attendant standing at their door. He paused. Was that man just standing there?

"Is there anything you need?" Egin asked.

The three heard Egin’s question. Their heads swiftly turned toward the door. They saw a hotel attendant just standing there, staring at them.

Seeing them stare at him, the attendant smiled. "Ah, I guess... I’m just here to ask you: do you guys need anything?"

Ollen gripped his hammer. Yesell was quick to hold him back. "We don’t need anything. You can leave," he said calmly, pretending not to notice that something was off.

The hotel attendant didn’t say anything, but he slowly distanced himself from the room... walking backward.