I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 93

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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093-Contention
93. Contention
Huff… huff…
My breath comes in ragged gasps, reaching the very limit of my lungs.
I can’t even remember when I started running like this.
Every fiber of my being screams to stop, yet I cannot.
The destination looms just ahead, tantalizingly close.
Li Yuantao, a City Hall administrator, sprints toward the restaurant where he’d eaten lunch yesterday.
Clinging to the hope that the candy might still be there.
*****
Yesterday, Li Yuantao experienced something entirely unprecedented.
After eating at the restaurant and consuming a single piece of candy, his mind had crystallized with clarity, and his emotions surged with vitality.
The stress accumulated from event preparations evaporated in an instant.
Problems that had plagued him dissolved in moments.
The venue’s layout materialized vividly in his mind, and suddenly he envisioned exactly how to execute the event flawlessly.
Solutions emerged for persuading the florists and restaurateurs.
He threw himself into drafting the report with fervent dedication.
Time became meaningless, flowing past without his notice.
When he finally glanced at his watch, two hours had already elapsed.
Never in his life had he experienced such profound immersion.
The concentration astonished even himself.
It was perfect flow—absolute absorption.
The moment his focus shattered, a ravenous hunger crashed over him.
Perhaps he’d eaten lunch too hastily?
The hunger became unbearable.
He bolted to the Convenience Store and devoured bread, jelly, and candy with frenzied abandon.
Ordinarily, Li Yuantao avoided such foods, but now nothing else would suffice.
He craved sweets and carbohydrate-laden delicacies with an almost primal intensity.
After hastily sating his hunger, he returned to the Office.
Settling into his chair, the file he’d been composing moments earlier glowed on the monitor.
But…
But…
What does this even mean?
I cannot comprehend it.
I know with certainty that I wrote this myself.
I wrote it, yet I cannot fathom why I wrote it this way.
I have no recollection of what possessed me to arrange things this manner.
I cannot understand why I left this section blank.
It feels like solving a mathematics problem with missing symbols.
It’s like assembling a jigsaw puzzle while staring at the back of the pieces.
No matter how hard I tried to think, no answer came to me.
‘Candy!’
Suddenly, candy crossed my mind.
I was certain that when I’d eaten candy before, my mood had lifted and an idea had struck me.
Would an idea come to me if I ate candy again?
It was merely a possibility, but verifying it wouldn’t be difficult.
I’d grabbed a handful of candy when leaving the Restaurant.
Eating the candy would tell me.
Whether the candy sparked inspiration or not.
Li Yuantao searched for the candy he’d stashed in his pocket.
Huh?
It’s gone?
Ah, that’s right.
The candy in my pocket was inconvenient, so I’d placed it on the desk, hadn’t I?
I looked at the desk, but there was nothing on it.
The candy I’d brought was nowhere to be found.
Where had it gone?
Only then did I glance around and notice something was different from usual.
My colleagues were locked in perfect concentration.
Without turning their heads or blinking, they moved their keyboards and mice with fervent dedication.
Even those who normally only watched stocks or scrolled through social media were now staring intently at their monitors, their fingers hammering away at the keys.
Their appearance was so strange it bordered on eerie, but the emotions that came first were disappointment and rage.
Damn it, did those bastards eat it?
My candy? Without even asking?
These Chinese guys really are something.
You have to give them credit for their lack of manners.
I was furious, but I couldn’t just sit here seething.
I had to go back to the Restaurant.
I needed to get more candy.
If they wouldn’t give it to me, I’d have to buy it.
In this situation, that was the only way.
The missing sections of the report—
The report written like a cipher seemed to have only one key to decode it: candy.
I was about to head toward the Restaurant when—
“Li Yuantao, come in. Let’s have a meeting.”
“I… right now… I need to go urgently…”
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you coming in?”
“Yes…”
Dragged away by the Manager, Li Yuantao spent a considerable time discussing the festival event.
By the time the meeting ended—
“Shall we go check out the site?”
“Pardon?”
“Hearing about it secondhand just doesn’t cut it. I need to see it for myself.”
“Is that really necessary…”
“We’re leaving in five minutes. Have the car ready.”
“Yes, sir.”
Li Yuantao felt like he was about to burst.
I needed to get to that restaurant and grab the candy, but what if someone had already taken it all? What would I do then?
Anxiety consumed me.
I couldn’t even remember what I was thinking during the site inspection.
My mind was completely filled with thoughts of candy.
By the time the inspection ended, it was already seven o’clock.
But the restaurant was still open at that hour.
If I went now… maybe… the candy…
“Li Yuantao, it’s getting late. Let’s grab dinner together before heading back.”
The words of refusal rose to my throat, but I barely managed to swallow them down.
Instead, I reconsidered my priorities.
The candy was uncertain.
The candy was one of the high-probability sources of inspiration.
But the Manager was not.
My relationship with the Manager was not a matter of probability.
If I rejected the Manager now, my performance review would almost certainly suffer a significant penalty.
Our relationship would deteriorate as well.
“There’s a new lamb skewer place that opened nearby. How does that sound?”
“Lamb skewers? Excellent. Shall we have a beer too?”
“Of course we should.”
“That’s why I like you, Li Yuantao. Ha ha ha.”
I couldn’t remember how the lamb skewers even made it into my mouth,
nor could I recall what the Manager said.
Or more precisely, I hadn’t even been listening.
My mind was consumed with the desire to get to that restaurant as quickly as possible.
I barely managed to placate the Manager’s suggestion for a second round before hastily catching a taxi to the restaurant, only to find the doors already locked.
Li Yuantao simply collapsed in front of the restaurant.
Tears welled up unbidden.
.
.
.
In Guangzhou, Tian Guolin, who operated a hot pot restaurant, sat in a chair with vacant eyes fixed on the ceiling.
Normally, this would be the time when I’d be preparing ingredients from the market or simmering broth, but today I simply sat in this chair, staring blankly upward.
Everything was completely ruined.
Just yesterday, when I consumed the candy, everything felt wonderful.
Vitality surged through my body.
I could feel the blood coursing through my veins.
I felt like I’d been reborn as a nineteen-year-old.
My body brimmed with strength and elasticity.
I’d forgotten what exhaustion even meant.
So I savored that night.
I couldn’t remember how long it had been.
I called friends and summoned them over.
Normally, I don’t drink much.
When I do, I become exhausted, and the effects linger into the next day.
But tonight was different.
With such vitality coursing through me.
I felt I could stay up all night drinking without consequence.
My friends left one by one, but Tian Guolin didn’t.
I wanted to experience this entire night from beginning to end.
As a result.
I’d pulled an all-nighter.
When dawn broke, the exhaustion in my body had doubled.
My body felt impossibly heavy.
Having felt lightness, the sudden heaviness made the contrast all the more acute.
I’d transformed from a nineteen-year-old into a sixty-year-old in an instant.
Apathy consumed me.
I didn’t want to move a single finger.
So I abandoned any thought of buying ingredients at the Market or preparing them, instead sitting in a daze.
That was all I could manage.
Yet my mind churned with entirely different thoughts.
If only I had that candy.
If only I had that candy, I could return to being nineteen again.
My lethargic body began to move.
I started searching through the counter where the candy had been.
Could there be any candy left by chance?
Had someone accidentally dropped some?
I searched every corner meticulously, but the candy was nowhere to be found.
With the candy gone, a profound apathy washed over me once more.
As I sat listlessly in my chair, someone suddenly burst through the door, breathless.
“D-do you have any c-candy?”
********
“I’m going to stop distributing samples and shift to actual sales.”
I hastily revised my plan.
I contacted Yingjie Xian’s handler and informed them that there was no need to distribute samples anymore—we were beginning sales operations immediately.
Now Yingjie Xian would proceed with their preparations for sales according to the plan we’d established beforehand.
They would stop distributing Essence samples at restaurants, cafes, and bars, instead hiding packages of ten pills in various locations and photographing them for records.
When orders came in, they would send the photographs along with the order confirmation.
It was the “drop method” that drug dealers commonly used nowadays, adapted for the Chinese market.
In truth, I’d originally intended to distribute the first batch entirely as samples, but it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary.
I’d started this operation thinking it would be a lengthy, long-term endeavor, but the response came far faster than I’d anticipated.
With orders flooding in like this, why waste product on samples?
I should just sell it all.
What, was I running a charity?
The real reason for this hasty change was something else entirely.
A problem more pressing than money.
To distribute another batch, I’d have to get on a plane again.
Enduring the nausea, switching passports, traveling through multiple countries, flying repeatedly, and distributing the Essence—I’d have to do it all over again.
The thought of repeating that ordeal made every single pill precious beyond measure.
Yet there was one aspect that brought me some relief.
Fortunately, a promising new distribution channel had emerged.
.
.
.
Not long ago.
I had a meeting with the leader of the New People’s Army.
The Broker that Simon had captured turned out to be the Captain of the New People’s Army.
Not officially—the current nominal leader had grown too old and become a figurehead in the back room, while this Broker actually handled all the real planning and commands.
His name was Jason Chua.
Since we had time, we talked slowly and at length.
I’d wondered if he’d attack again once I released his restraints, but he didn’t.
Some men truly respect strength.
He hadn’t forgotten the taste of my left hook.
In turn, I gave the now-docile man water and food.
As we ate slowly and conversed, the discussion flowed surprisingly well.
We realized there was actually much we didn’t know about the New People’s Army.
“Really? The New People’s Army doesn’t receive support from the Communist Party? I thought that’s how it worked?”
“We did at first, but at some point it started drying up.”
“No kidding? I had no idea. So how do you manage? Things must be pretty rough?”
“Incredibly rough.”
“How do you cover living expenses? Do you work part-time jobs?”
“Pretty much. We do various jobs here and there, and we take contracts from the higher-ups.”
“Higher-ups?”
“The Communist Party side. For example, when the Communist Party can’t officially handle something but would benefit from it happening, they assign it as a mission. Like this Shin Jung-gi situation.”
“Ah, I see. So you’re putting up bounties like that?”
“Something like that. Bring certain materials, you get paid. Bring someone in, you get paid. That sort of thing.”
“Oh, that’s quite creative.”
“We actually worked on Shin Jung-gi for a long time because the bounty for Project Moonfall technology was so high.”
“And then?”
“Then one day, it just vanished from the mission list.”
“What? That can happen?”
“It happens pretty often. Depending on circumstances, new missions pop up, and old ones get deleted.”
“So what did you do?”
“In cases like this, we figured Shin Jung-gi wasn’t needed anymore, so we’d eliminate him and just grab the data—just in case the mission comes back later. Or we could sell the data elsewhere if we get the chance.”
“Interesting. So you take on missions like that.”
“But lately, hardly any missions come through at all. And even when we complete them, they nitpick and cut our pay.”
“That sounds absolutely miserable.”
“It is. But we hate it or not, we have to do it to feed our families. It’s dirty work, but what choice do we have? I think they know that too.”
“Will you keep doing this?”
“What else can we do? We just have to keep living the way we have been.”
“Hmm… I see. I wish we could work together well if we just got along a bit better.”
“Your goodwill alone is enough. All we know how to do is bring goods from China. Lately that doesn’t pay much either. Do you need anything from China? I can get it cheap for you.”
“Wait, you can bring goods from China?”
“We don’t know much else, but our supply routes are pretty solid.”
“Really? Can you also send goods into China?”
“That’s even easier. Do you know how much cargo flows into China daily? Throwing in a few containers alongside all that is nothing.”
“Ha ha ha. We’ve got something.”
“What?”
“A way we can work together.”
*******
It was only yesterday, after eating the candy and resolving the error code, that Li Xin realized the truth.
This near-supernatural ability didn’t come from coffee—it came from the candy.
I’d thought the power came from coffee, so I’d rationed it carefully, but it wasn’t coffee at all.
It was the candy.
I rushed back to the cafe where I’d bought the coffee.
But the plastic container that had held the candy was completely empty.
I asked the Female Cafe Employee urgently, and she answered with a smile in a very kind voice.
“The candy that was here—it’s gone?”
“Yes. Other customers took them all.”
“Do you have any extras?”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“Not even any that spilled or fell? Any crumbs?”
“No, nothing.”
“Where do you get that candy from?”
“It’s not for sale.”
“Then what other way is there to get it? Where is this company?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have that information.”
“No, there has to be information you received along with the candy. A company name, phone number, something like that.”
“I’m afraid not. They simply said they’d leave it here, so I agreed. That’s all there was to it—I don’t have any contact information.”
Unlike the desperate Li Xin, the Female Cafe Employee answered with a smile, her voice bright and kind.
That only made Li Xin more frustrated.
But there was a hint hidden in her words.
“They just left it here?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The moment Li Xin heard those words, he bolted from the cafe without so much as a thank you and rushed to another shop.
There was a chance the candy might be at a different store.
Once Li Xin left, the kind smile vanished from the Female Cafe Employee’s face.
She opened a drawer beneath the counter, and it was brimming with candy.
Assand.
She had tasted one yesterday during her shift and been so impressed that she’d hidden away all the remaining candies.
Playing dumb with the man searching for Assand was, in her mind, the best way to make him understand.
She had no intention of sharing the Assand in the drawer with anyone—only she would eat them.
Savoring them slowly.
Meanwhile, Li Xin wasn’t alone in his search for Assand.
Everyone was opening restaurant doors and checking if there was a plastic container at the counter.
More and more people were barging into bars and cafes without warning, then leaving just as abruptly.
To a China already lacking in order, another layer of chaos had been added.
Someone was watching this confusion with eyes gleaming with amusement.
He gazed at those searching for Assand with pitying eyes.
Then he spoke in a low voice.
“Why not just buy it with money? There’s a QR code on the wrapper…”
The man quietly left an Assand wrapper on the bench where he’d been sitting, and those with hawk-like eyes searching for Assand spotted the wrapper resting on the bench.
Though the contents were gone, the wrapper bore a QR code where Assand could be purchased.
“Finally… I found it.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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