CH 7.2

Chapter 7.2. Equal Exchange Stores

“Well, shall we go goblin hunting then? No, it doesn’t have to be goblins, right? Because even a giant rat or a slime has a core.”

“Right. Around here, slime? You’d have to have a club, right?”

Slime is a monster that has acid. However, its body is harmless, like jelly. In games, their body is acidic, but that’s unnatural if you think about it. Because it will melt the place where they’re and fall into a hole.

In reality, slimes have a monster core and another core that maintains their bodies. Destroying that core will defeat it. The slime attacks by transforming its own body into tentacles of a weak acid. The slime then uses its tentacles to dissolve and eat its prey. Since its body is like jelly, even a child can crush its core and win if they don’t panic.

The giant rat is a rat about the size of a puppy. Unlike ordinary rats, they are too large to climb walls and are no better than stray dogs. This is proof that bigger isn’t necessarily stronger. Therefore, they can’t go in and out of small passageways like ordinary rats, so they don’t have germs. That’s one of the reasons I don’t eat jerky.

In addition, there are black insects as big as puppies, but because of their size, they cannot support their legs and are sluggish, and are preyed on by large rats. Monsters with physical bodies also have a food chain.

“All right. Well, then, you guys, go and beat those slimes!”

“Heiiiii!”

Shingen’s sharp voice caused his men to disperse in groups. Around here, we would gather the cores in no time.

“Hey, this one has pages-nyayo?”

Karin, who was flipping through the vending machine, pressed the round button mark, and [Switch Rank] was displayed. Now it displays [F], [G].

Selecting [G] toggles the list.

[1 liter of water: 5 G monster cores]

“Oh~ such a good deal, huh?”

Shingen smacked his cheeks as he looked at his awkwardly dispersed subordinates.

“Yes,… I thought it would be easier to get food.”

Too bad, really too bad, it’s not that good of a deal.

“But it would help if we could get some water. It doesn’t ring a bell with Sakimori can use water magic, but it’s a struggle for other people to get clean water. Rainwater alone will run out in no time.”

“I see. Then water is good too.”

I fold my arms and look at the men who will probably beat me down, and I know. They should be able to use plenty of water to take a bath.

This vending machine is my skill [Equivalent Exchange Store]. I’m sure people will be surprised when they find out the truth. I will never tell them the truth. Only me and Shizuku will know.

The [Equivalent Exchange Store] is the skill that answered my wish. I think. It was a skill that manifested itself after the dungeon first appeared. There were people with similar skills. It was a skill that allowed me to buy goods on the internet. However, I soon stopped hearing of their existence. Either their user gets slaved, captured, and dissected, or they died while diving into the dungeon to raise their skill level.

I think it was probably the latter. Skills are crappy at the beginning. I could buy skills later, and my skills could do that, but even they were level 0 at first. I have to train myself to get more goods. Even I can buy goods on the internet. I expected it to be less than 10 yen at first.

Even I started with just water. I spent 3 years diving in dungeons as times got worse and worse, hoping that something better would appear when I grew up. When I saw the words Shadow Magic, Elemental Magic, and the addition of the [Chain Store] feature, I suddenly thought this skill could save the world.

This skill. People will make the skill’s owner a slave if people realized it. The skill holder who has leveled up can use it even at level 1. For example is my Equivalent Exchange Store skill. It’s a skill that can exchange various items in exchange for monster cores. If I’m the only one who can use it, people will try to catch m3 by any means necessary.

Humans are cruel.

Other threats are blackmail, brainwashing, and drugging. Even if I can’t beat them with force, they’ll think of many ways to get me. Even if I obeyed them honestly, other forces would try to get my power and start a war.

I was self-conscious, but that’s what I thought. That is why I couldn’t utilize this skill so that it would not seem unnatural to those around me.

But what if all people could use this store? What if this store appeared in many places? The reason it’s rare is that only one person can use it. What if many people could use it?

Of course, I will take out 20% as commission and 20% as usage fee, totaling 40%, so that I don’t die, but since they don’t know the fixed price, there is no problem, right?

Currently, there are five stores here in Tokyo. I set one set up in front of the dungeon in the inner city, and four near the dungeon in the abandoned city. The Black Cat has installed them remotely.

That misleads people into believing that they’re the same as the dungeon. I plan to use crow to install more near dungeons in Nagoya, Osaka, and other cities as appropriate.

First, they could only water, and coupepan will be available. If I put out too many goodies, the military will try to monopolize them. Gradually, as I grow stronger, I will increase the number of things they can exchange until the army can’t handle them.

This will cause some disruption, but the economy should recover. If the corporations won’t buy it, I will.

I’ll be the savior of the world. Economic revival is the best way to save the world.