“What time is it right now?”
It was 11:15 AM.
A full day had already passed since Yu-na had visited the shop yesterday.
Between sleeping and crafting Dream Solvent, I found myself surprisingly without a moment to spare.
“Tearing off people’s fingers every day was grotesque enough, but now that I haven’t done it for over a day, it feels… peculiar.”
‘Perhaps it meant I was quite satisfied with my role as the Merchant.’
‘Hmm, I doubt that’s the case.’
“Anyway, is it almost time?”
Less than ten minutes remained until the next prophecy was set to begin.
The prophecy likely read: [Today, 11:23 AM, yesterday’s customer returns. Afterward, another customer purchases an item.]
For reasons unknown, Yu-na, the child customer, was indeed set to return.
Who, then, would be the other customer?
Her parents, perhaps?
Well, I would soon find out.
Inside the windowless shop, time flowed by, silent and unnoticed.
Now, less than a minute remained.
“Okay.”
As I stared intently at the door, the remaining seconds ticked away, and then, the shop’s door swung open.
“Huuuugh. Haaah. Haa…”
Yu-na, yesterday’s child, appeared, her entire body drenched in sweat.
Her condition, at a glance, was far from good.
As I approached to check on Yu-na’s state, a horrific sound, accompanied by the presence of another, assaulted my ears.
“Aaaargh!”
The shop screamed.
But this time, it wasn’t through a system window; it was a genuine vocalization.
‘Wait, the shop could make sounds?’
As if reading my thoughts, the familiar red system window reappeared before my eyes.
‘Damn it.’
[Any mute person would scream if their mouth were slit open with a knife.]
[And I am not unable to speak; rather, I cannot articulate human words with my vocal organs.]
‘I think I understand what it’s trying to say.’
‘But what does it mean by slitting its mouth open with a knife?’
My question was quickly answered.
As I turned my head towards the sound of metal corroding and vanishing, I saw Kim Do-hyun standing there.
From what I could tell, he seemed to have forced an entrance into the shop using Rosa’s cutter knife.
‘I should remember that the shop’s entrance can be opened by such a mere consumable item.’
“Merchant.”
Upon closer inspection, Kim Do-hyun’s condition was also far from normal.
His clothes were torn in several places and stained with blood, and he was breathing heavily, a stark contrast to the Kim Do-hyun in the game who had never once shown any sign of difficulty, no matter how strenuous the situation.
“Would it be alright if I rested here for a moment before leaving?”
Kim Do-hyun spoke with a remarkably serious expression, as if he lacked even the strength to maintain the pretense he had shown me last time.
‘What exactly was the relationship between those two?’
‘They couldn’t be family, given their different surnames.’
‘Nor were they likely acquaintances, as Kim Do-hyun was fundamentally the type to maintain bleak human relationships.’
‘Most likely, they had simply met by chance.’
“By all means.”
I readily agreed.
From the outset, it seemed neither Yu-na, let alone Kim Do-hyun, had come to harm me.
If that were the case, it would have been written in the prophecy.
Frankly, even if he were to attack me, I felt I could kill Kim Do-hyun in his current state with my eyes closed.
Yu-na and Kim Do-hyun crouched in a corner of the shop, taking a rest.
A silly thought crossed my mind: if this were a convenience store, there would be no more troublesome customers (TL Note: ‘jinsang,’ referring to rude or demanding patrons) than these two.
However, this was a Tale Shop, far removed from the ordinary from its very inception, so perhaps even troublesome customers were excellent patrons here.
In fact, the Tale Management Bureau, including Kim Do-hyun, was destined to become important customers for me.
Watching Yu-na, who was on the verge of falling asleep, I grew curious about why she was in such a state.
Since I was letting them use this space for free, asking this much shouldn’t be an issue.
“By the way, your condition is quite dire. How did you end up like this?”
At my question, Kim Do-hyun hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“That is not something you need to know.”
‘Indeed, there wouldn’t be a madman in the Tale Management Bureau who would openly reveal their condition to an unknown tale entity.’
I hadn’t really expected him to, anyway.
‘In such a situation, acting like a Merchant wouldn’t be a bad idea.’
“Then, how about this? I will purchase your information. Hmm, I will give you one item that costs a single finger. Oh, and I’ll even provide some simple information as a service.”
As if flustered, Kim Do-hyun stared intently at me, then glanced towards the items.
He seemed to be deep in thought.
The very act of trading with a tale entity wouldn’t be ideal, so the fact that he was even considering it suggested something quite significant had occurred.
It was five minutes later that Kim Do-hyun finally spoke.
“…Understood.”
Kim Do-hyun’s story felt incomplete, as he omitted crucial details about his identity, but even so, the content itself was quite shocking to me.
‘Tale transformation (TL Note: The process of an individual becoming a tale entity) due to my items, huh…’
To begin with, tale transformation doesn’t simply occur by being near a tale entity.
If it were that easy for people to change, the Tale Management Bureau would be overwhelmed, and half the citizens would have undergone tale transformation.
This time, however, it seemed to be the work of ‘that organization.’
Moreover, tale transformation is a truly rare phenomenon, so it wasn’t strange that Kim Do-hyun wasn’t well-informed about it.
Even the Tale Management Bureau at this point in time likely didn’t fully understand its principles.
‘In this case, giving a simple hint wouldn’t hurt.’
Although my knowledge from the game felt somewhat faded, such a tale had never appeared in the game itself.
I wasn’t sure if this was because many things had changed due to me, or if such an event had occurred in the story but simply hadn’t been mentioned.
Nevertheless, I knew why tale transformation occurred and how to deal with someone who had become a tale entity.
“May I offer a piece of information?”
“…Yes?”
“First of all, the tale transformation did not happen because of me.”
I said, waving my hand casually in the air.
“Do you know why tale transformation progresses?”
Kim Do-hyun looked at me with a slightly perplexed expression.
“Firstly, I trust you already know how tales originate, as it’s common knowledge.”
Kim Do-hyun nodded.
In this game, tales originate from stories.
Ancient oral legends, myths, and even scary stories occasionally posted online are all potential origins of tales.
If many people believe and remember a story, that story comes into being.
However, the more people believe it, the more the story becomes distorted, which is why most are born as tales.
“Human tale transformation is similar, but the difference is that it requires prolonged contact with a tale and having believed a particular story for a very long time.”
This is precisely why it is so rare.
For an ordinary person to have prolonged contact with a tale is difficult when the Tale Management Bureau is keeping a vigilant watch, and believing a single story for an extended period is even harder.
Kim Do-hyun looked at Yu-na, as if something had just occurred to him.
“Then, consider this next part a kind of service.”
I recalled the tale Kim Do-hyun had mentioned.
While I didn’t know why she had continuously come into contact with my items, I felt I knew what story she had believed.
It would be about her supposedly deceased son.
“Fortunately, if that story is related to family, the countermeasures become somewhat simpler.”
I concisely summarized and conveyed the method of countermeasures.
Since Kim Do-hyun became abnormally intelligent when it came to tales, he would understand everything even with this brief explanation.
Kim Do-hyun seemed to be deliberating whether he could trust my words.
“Truly. Can I trust you?”
I offered Kim Do-hyun a faint smile in response to his question.
“In that spirit, how about this item?”
****
The Merchant seemed to know far more than I did.
I had no idea how they possessed so much information, yet they didn’t seem particularly inclined to hide it.
In truth, it might all be a lie.
I could only hope that the Merchant was an honest individual, at least for a tale entity.
I even considered simply waiting inside the shop until the Tale Management Bureau could resolve everything. However, as a Bureau employee myself, I couldn’t allow any more victims to appear.
Once this situation concluded, the Tale Management Bureau would likely assign an official risk level to the shop.
Based on my experience, the risk level would probably be around medium; while I couldn’t defeat it alone, a response team could likely eliminate it immediately.
Given the impression it had given so far, it seemed quite benevolent towards humans, so perhaps it might even be rated low.
I gazed at my left hand, where only two fingers remained.
‘Benevolent… not really, I suppose.’
I swallowed the pill the Merchant had given me in exchange for the story.
It was indeed a unique sensation, as the Team Leader had described, like seeing two worlds simultaneously.
Along a translucent wall, hundreds of people were lined up.
If the wall weren’t translucent and were fully visible instead, I wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed.
I looked behind me.
Above, a tale entity floated in the sky, and beneath it, Choi Yu-na lay sleeping on the floor.
While I felt apologetic for having to entrust this to such a young child, it was unavoidable for the sake of the countermeasure the Merchant had described.
At least Yu-na wouldn’t be in danger.
From now on, my task was to protect Yu-na, ensuring that ‘they’ couldn’t lay a hand on her until she resolved the situation.
“It’s not nap time yet! She’s already sleeping!”
“Wake up! Let’s play together.”
