Sinuiju Free Market (2)

The next day, at the entrance to the Sinuiju Free Market.

“Whoa…… this is insane.”

At the sight spread out before her, Ye Hyeonseong blurted out an involuntary gasp of admiration.

Right at the market entrance, people were everywhere—holding placards with proselytizing slogans or scattering flyers as they preached.

Just counting the ones that made it into view, there were already more than ten different religions randomly evangelizing at passersby.

Even while she watched, some groups packed up and left while others took their places. It was hard to even get an accurate count.

“I heard you can see every kind of religious nutjob here, and they weren’t kidding.”

Hyeonseong recalled a few places—some even in Seoul—that were notorious for heavy-handed street preaching. She’d seen scenes like this more than once.

“Seriously, every time I see this, I feel like I’m going to lose my mind…….”

“You look like a suffering soul in need of release from worldly afflictions. In that case…….”

“Gaaah!”

Hyeonseong yelped at the sudden flyer shoved toward her.

“Hey—hey, we need to move. Now.”

“O suffering soul, come this way and partake in a profound contemplation of life and affliction—”

“I’m not buying! I’m not buying!”

Shaking off the persistent preacher, Hyeonseong dragged Ye Hyeonyeong and hurried deeper into the market.

“Ugh, these psychos. If they want to believe, they can believe by themselves—stop sticking to me.”

Hyeonseong grumbled as she tugged down the brim of her hood.

“Once we’re farther in, there won’t be people grabbing at you like that. Just hang on a little.”

Hyeonyeong said in a soothing voice.

“Must be nice. You can block those creeps from the start.”

Hyeonseong complained with a sigh.

From the moment they entered the free market, the two stayed together. But the street preachers only tried to preach to Hyeonseong.

Which made sense—Hyeonyeong could use her buffs and debuffs to shut down half-baked people trying to get close.

And the kind of person preaching on the street in a place like this had an obvious ceiling, so nobody dared approach Hyeonyeong while her skills were active.

“If you’re tired, should I buy you some gear or a scroll later? Something with an intimidation effect, or maybe concealment…….”

“No need for that. You said it yourself—once we go deeper in, it’ll get better.”

“What about on the way back out?”

“Then we just…… sprint for our lives and escape.”

Hyeonseong shrugged.

“So what are we doing from here?”

Hyeonyeong asked next.

“Yeah. We know where it is, and we know how you normally get in to buy from it……”

Hyeonseong thought back to what she and her sisters had researched about the free market yesterday.

This free market could be divided into a legal business zone, an illegal business zone, and a gray middle area between the two.

Most of the visible, easy-to-access shops only did legal trade. But some shops pretended to be legal storefronts while acting as passages into illegal territory.

‘The ways in were mostly predictable. Matching a password with the owner, or finding a hidden passage in the shop on your own.’

The way to access the illegal auction house she needed to reach was one of those common patterns—except, in this case, the method was giving the shop owner the correct password.

‘Even Hyeonju and Hyeonyeong couldn’t find the password. Same with Nemesis.’

Hyeonju and Hyeonyeong had plenty of information access as proper S-ranks, and they could even ask contracted Constellations for help. Even so, they couldn’t dig up the password needed to enter the black market.

Nemesis was excellent at searching information on the network. Its skill rank wasn’t high, but it could still break through human-level security without trouble.

The security level of accounts or communities related to the free market was lower than expected. Black-market info was slightly more secure, but not to a degree that Nemesis’s skills couldn’t handle.

That was why she’d had her hopes up when Nemesis succeeded in penetrating the server. But in the end, Nemesis couldn’t find any information about the password.

‘More precisely…… it said there wasn’t even a trace of people talking about it.’

If there was no trace on the network, there was only one reason: it meant there had been no discussion at all on the network in the first place.

‘If someone talked and then deleted it, there would still be deletion traces……. Nemesis told me that.’

Which meant that, even within the black market, places with higher importance—or higher risk—only shared access methods in analog form.

In a way, it was perfect security. No matter how good your hacker was, it would be useless.

“To find that damn password, we’ll have to use our feet…….”

“Then should we at least go to the shopping block that supposedly connects to the auction house?”

Hyeonyeong suggested to the troubled Hyeonseong.

“That place? We don’t even know how to get in yet.”

“That’s why we go. You never know—there might be a clue on site.”

Hyeonyeong had a point. If they lurked around nearby, maybe someone careless would let something slip about the access method.

And they couldn’t just stand around in one spot forever. So Hyeonseong decided to try Hyeonyeong’s plan. The two moved deeper into the free market.

“The ‘legal’ side looks like a normal general market or shopping center.”

Hyeonseong muttered as she looked at the stores lining both sides.

From everyday goods to Awakened and hunter-exclusive equipment, the shopping street didn’t look much different from any other market.

“It does feel like there’s more variety. And there are a lot of things that look like they came in from China or Russia.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely true. Must be because it’s a border region.”

Hyeonseong nodded at Hyeonyeong’s comment. Geographically, China was much closer, so the most common foreigners were Chinese, and the most common imported goods were Chinese too.

But there were also plenty of people and goods that had come in from Russia—via Hamgyeong-do or Manchuria.

“So, is there anything you want to buy? You already said you’d ‘procure items,’ so you should pick up something, right?”

Hyeonseong asked Hyeonyeong.

“Not sure……. I don’t see anything I really want yet. For most things, it’s better to keep using the workshop brands we already trust.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“So if I buy anything, it’ll probably be personal support gear…… and I think anything worth my time would be deeper inside.”

“Right. This still feels closer to the market’s outskirts…….”

“Hey—wait!”

They were walking and chatting when Hyeonyeong suddenly shouted in alarm and reached behind Hyeonseong.

Thunk

“Ghk—!”

Someone behind Hyeonseong let out a strangled groan, like their throat had been grabbed.

“What the—?”

Startled, Hyeonseong spun around and stepped away from the unknown person.

The one Hyeonyeong had seized by the nape was wearing a cap and a hooded outer jacket like them. On top of that, they had a mask on, making their face impossible to recognize.

But from the voice and build, Hyeonseong could guess they weren’t old. And given the situation, she could also guess what they were.

‘Is this punk living off pickpocketing in a place like this?’

A teen or young adult creeping up behind strangers with their face suspiciously covered—textbook street pickpocket behavior.

“Unni, check your pockets. Now.”

“Oh. Right.”

Hyeonseong immediately rummaged through her jacket pockets. Sure enough, one pocket felt emptier than it should’ve.

‘They swiped the wallet pocket like a damn ghost.’

After confirming the empty pocket, Hyeonseong let out a sigh.

“Hand it over.”

Hyeonseong held out her hand toward the pickpocket.

“W-what? What are you talking about?”

The pickpocket shot back in a flustered voice.

“The thing you stole from my pocket. Hand it over.”

“W-what are you saying? I didn’t steal anything.”

At Hyeonseong’s demand, the pickpocket tried to play dumb first. Their raised voice made a few passersby glance over.

But that was it. Nobody cared what Hyeonseong’s group was doing. It happened too often here to be worth noticing.

“I figured you’d act like this.”

It would’ve been nice if they’d admitted it and returned it, but even stubborn denial wasn’t a real problem. There were plenty of ways to solve it.

“Then I’ll just have to find it myself, won’t I?”

“Y-you—aren’t you going to let go?!”

When Hyeonseong looked like she was about to do something, the pickpocket twisted their body, trying to run. But it wasn’t easy to escape an S-rank close-combat Awakened’s grip.

‘Still, this one’s probably an Awakened too.’

Even if Hyeonseong didn’t really live up to her rank, the stats she’d amassed put her roughly at low C-rank level. If an ordinary person had tried to sneak up on her, she would’ve noticed.

‘But I didn’t, until Hyeonyeong caught them. So they’re at least D-rank… or they’ve got a skill set made for pickpocketing.’

Hyeonseong lifted her head and quickly scanned the rooftops and sky, looking for surveillance cameras.

‘I can see a few cameras with the naked eye. Then there might be more hidden ones.’

Then she lightly tapped the pocket holding her phone with her fingertips.

Nemesis displayed a message, understanding her signal.

‘Find every surveillance camera covering this area. No need to pull footage—just confirm the cameras exist.’

Nemesis began working. A map appeared on the right side of her view, marking camera positions in real time.

‘While it finds the cameras, I’ll…….’

Next, Hyeonseong pulled out the “Magician’s Hand” card from the Infinite Corridor.

“Just so you know, I’ve done a little pickpocketing myself.”

“What?”

At Hyeonseong’s random remark, the pickpocket frowned. Ignoring them, Hyeonseong activated the card’s effect.

The moment it triggered, she lightly tapped the pickpocket’s left arm a couple times.

Tap

Something dropped to the ground from inside the pickpocket’s outerwear. Hyeonseong bent down and picked it up.

“Oops. You said you didn’t steal anything—so why did this fall out of your clothes?”

She spoke while pulling her ID card out of the wallet. She carefully covered her name and resident registration number with her fingers so they couldn’t be seen.

“Ghk……!”

“Hah. This is awkward, isn’t it? If it weren’t for the ID, you could’ve insisted it was your wallet.”

Hyeonseong shoved the ID photo right up in the pickpocket’s face, making sure they saw her picture.

“Good thing we got it back quickly.”

Hyeonyeong said to Hyeonseong in a calm voice.

“Only because you grabbed them immediately.”

“So what do we do now? Take them to the police station?”

When Hyeonyeong said “police station,” the pickpocket recoiled with a horrified face. Judging by that reaction, it wasn’t their first time seeing a holding cell over something like this.

‘From that voice, they sound even younger than Hyeonyeong.’

If they were this rotten already at that age, it was truly the end times. Hyeonseong clicked her tongue in disgust.

“I really want to just dump you at the police station, honestly…….”

“W-wait!”

The pickpocket cried out urgently.

“Keep your voice down, kid.”

Making sure passersby didn’t start paying attention again, Hyeonseong spoke in a low voice. The pickpocket shut up and nodded.

“So. Any last words?”

“Huh?”

The pickpocket flinched hard at Hyeonseong’s follow-up.

“From your reaction, it looks like if you go in this time, you’ll be eating prison rice for a while. And if that happens, that’s the end of your life, isn’t it?”

“C’mon, seriously…….”

“Hm? What was that?”

“Please—just let me off once.”

When Hyeonseong glared, the pickpocket stopped mumbling and immediately started begging.

“If I get caught this time, like you said, I’ll be eating prison rice for a while.”

“Then why’d you pickpocket if you knew that?”

“I mean… I’ve still gotta live somehow…….”

The pickpocket answered with an awkward grin.

“Unni, shouldn’t we just hand them to the police?”

Hyeonyeong asked, looking down at the pickpocket with a colder gaze than before.

“Hold on. Hey—how long have you been in this line of work?”

Hyeonseong asked the pickpocket.

“Me? Uh… I guess around ten years, give or take…….”

That meant they’d been living around the free market district since they were old enough to know better.

‘They’re young, but if they’ve been here that long…… maybe they know something about the black market side too?’

Hyeonseong stared at the pickpocket, thinking.

They needed someone who could point them toward a black-market access route. A pickpocket who’d lived here for years might have heard or seen something, even if they weren’t directly connected to the underworld.

“Then you’re going to run an errand for me.”

Hyeonseong said, lightly patting the pickpocket’s shoulder.

“A-an errand?”

The pickpocket eyed Hyeonseong’s hand nervously, like they were worried their belongings would get snatched again.

‘The skill card’s already off…… but I don’t need to tell them that.’

“Yeah. An errand.”

“What is it?”

The pickpocket asked quickly. They clearly wanted to avoid the police at all costs.

“A market guide.”

Hyeonseong answered at once.