I Just Traded in the Forest of Monsters, but the World Changed - Chapter 25

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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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Chapter 25
“V-VIP service?”
One of the younger knights, who had been scowling the most deeply, found himself asking back in confusion.
With those words, a small murmur rippled through the gathered soldiers.
The faces that had been full of complaint only moments before began to show the faintest glimmer of curiosity.
Se Hui didn’t miss the opening, pressing a stick of Jjwandeugi into their hands.
“That’s right. This is something you can’t get anywhere else in the Empire.”
Se Hui lowered her voice as if she were divulging state secrets, her eyes narrowing with conspiratorial intent.
That clandestine allure drew the gazes of the disgruntled knights instinctively toward the tips of her fingers.
When one swallowed hard, the man beside him coughed awkwardly in response.
“The more you chew it, the more your stress melts away—and your mind clears right up.”
“There’s no such thing!”
“Normally, only someone of the Duke’s rank would be served this…….”
Se Hui glanced sideways at Cassian as if checking his reaction, then turned to the knights with a decisive, radiant smile.
“Just for today—special occasion! Out of respect for the Duke, I’m opening this up to you knights too. You know an opportunity like this doesn’t come around often, right?”
As Se Hui winked and smiled, the knights’ wariness began to melt away like snow.
Even Rowen felt his grip on the sword hilt loosen at the sight of her luminous smile.
“Come on, everyone gather around here, please.”
Se Hui lightly tapped the table with her hand, ushering them to their seats.
“I’ll cook them to absolute perfection for you.”
Under Se Hui’s practiced salesmanship, the knights drifted toward the tent as if bewitched.
Once the foremost knight claimed a seat, the others followed cautiously, watching each other’s lead.
Cassian looked on at the scene with a bemused, silent laugh.
“Hmm…… I suppose taking a brief rest wouldn’t hurt.”
Rowen muttered as if trying to sound indifferent, when one of the nearby knights quietly spoke up.
“Duke, might we take a moment to rest?”
Cassian looked down at them without speaking.
“Go ahead.”
At his brief permission, the knights’ expressions visibly brightened.
“Then…… just a taste, mind you.”
“Ahem, sounds good.”
The woman who had been glaring at them as if she might devour them whole just moments ago was now wearing a angelic smile—calculating how to empty his men’s purses.
He found it terrifying, and yet somehow endearing.
‘She’s quite pretty when she smiles.’
Cassian opened his purse without hesitation.
He knew she was making her calculations, but he didn’t stop her.
He’d said he would take responsibility—so he would see it through to the end.
* * *
The sizzle and crackle of cooking filled the Clearing, accompanied by the rich aroma of caramel.
The knights’ indrawn breaths came one after another.
Se Hui’s hands moved with unprecedented speed and precision.
‘That should do it.’
She flipped the Jjwandeugi at precisely the right moment.
‘Should I cook them a bit longer?’
The pieces of Jjwandeugi were stacked neatly into paper cups.
The motion of passing them one by one to the knights’ hands had no wasted movement.
The entire process resembled a perfectly choreographed assembly line.
“Here you go! I took special care with these.”
Se Hui’s capitalist smile never faded.
The knights at first regarded the Jjwandeugi with suspicious eyes.
One knight carefully brought the piece to his mouth.
As soon as he bit down, he paused for a moment.
“……?”
And the next instant, his jaw resumed its work.
The chewy texture and sweetness burst across his palate with that first bite, and his resistance crumbled at once.
“Oh—what is this chewiness!?”
“My stress really is melting away. This is…… better than I expected, honestly.”
As the knights’ praise continued, Se Hui’s spirits rose higher.
In that moment, one edge of her vision glimmered softly.
At last—the notification for reaching ten cumulative transactions had arrived.
[Survival Quest Reward Distributed!]
Store 20% Discount Coupon x5, New Function Unlocked
*Current Stability is in temporary phase.
The thrill of achieving her goal flooded through her entire body.
That was when Se Hui’s hand froze in mid-air.
“What?”
At last—a message confirming the quest was complete.
Store discount coupons.
The chopsticks she’d been holding clattered softly against empty air.
“Finally!”
How much she’d endured to obtain them.
Tension unwound through her shoulders, which dipped perceptibly lower.
Just moments ago, when the entire chain of monsters had been swept away, she’d thought everything was lost.
Se Hui let out an involuntary cough.
She barely suppressed the corners of her mouth from rising of their own accord.
If she started bouncing around here now, the knights would undoubtedly give her strange looks.
But inside, fireworks were detonating.
‘Five Store 20% Discount Coupons, and on top of that, a new function?’
The system window slowly faded, its light dimming away.
In its place, a faint outline materialized across her field of vision.
A translucent map overlaid the space before her, as if layers of transparent glass had been stacked together.
“What is this?”
Se Hui drew in a breath without thinking.
She reached her hand toward empty space.
Her fingertips brushed across the translucent map, but there was no tactile sensation.
It spread out as if she were looking down at the forest from above.
Yet only a small portion of it was rendered with clarity.
‘This here…’
It was unmistakably the Clearing where she herself stood.
The paths she had traveled were rendered in relatively bright detail.
But beyond that, everything blurred as if ink had been spilled across it.
‘Only the places I’ve been to show up?’
A small point of light flickered slowly at the center of the Clearing.
It couldn’t expand or contract yet—it was still operating at the basic level of simple field-of-view sharing.
A very faint circle was drawn around that point of light.
As if marking the store’s range of influence, only the space within that boundary remained relatively distinct.
She could see neither the forest’s edge, nor any exit, nor any other path.
‘I wonder if there will be upgrades for this too?’
Though the map was still half-finished, showing only the Clearing and its immediate surroundings, at least now she understood that this forest wasn’t some featureless labyrinth.
Se Hui unconsciously took a step to the side.
The point of light on the map shifted slightly in response.
“It’s actually synchronized.”
Se Hui opened her eyes wide and stepped back half a pace.
The light point moved backward with exact precision.
To the left.
Then to the right.
Each time she moved, the point on the map followed.
“Wow.”
A small exclamation slipped out.
Se Hui spun herself around in place for no particular reason.
The map rotated smoothly in response.
Se Hui’s gaze lingered on the boundary of the circle drawn in faint outline.
“What happens if I step outside this line?”
She carefully moved one foot toward the edge of the circle.
The moment the light point touched the circle’s boundary, a notification appeared alongside a system window.
[Action Radius Limit Reached.]
Se Hui flinched and stopped.
Her heart lurched abruptly downward.
“Huh?”
It was an instinctive reaction, one she hadn’t consciously initiated.
When Se Hui stepped back inside the boundary, the line flared softly and stabilized.
That was the moment.
[Convenience Store Promotion Examination!]
This world does not long maintain existence that lacks necessity.
Prove your existence through activity.
Objective:
Raise store rank
Time limit: 30 days
Progress Rate: 0%

Success: Store 20% Discount Coupon x 5,
5,000 Points, Expanded Action Radius (entire forest)
Failure: Erasure
* If no progress is made within a certain period, the store will be deemed failing and the Progress Rate will decrease.
“Erasure again? How long am I going to keep facing Erasure?”
The notion of being wiped away without a trace struck her with unwelcome clarity.
Se Hui muttered through gritted teeth at the belated revelation of the terms.
The short word “Erasure” burned itself into her vision with unrelenting sharpness.
“This penalty is excessive, isn’t it?”
Se Hui swept her hand through empty air.
But no answer came.
The demand to prove her existence was, in the end, a capitalist ultimatum: sell more goods and contribute to the system.
Still, the Points accumulated through this transaction were substantial.
The question was whether she could achieve 100% Progress Rate in thirty days.
The forest was vast, and her sphere of influence remained far too narrow.
* * *
Night had fallen upon the Clearing, growing deeper and sweeter and more peaceful than ever before.
As that tranquility settled in, the tension that had drawn so taut began to unravel.
The exhaustion she had suppressed for days came flooding back like waves.
“Sigh……”
Se Hui let slip the faintest breath without thinking, pressing the back of her hand against her eyes.
For a moment, the dark circles hidden beneath her brilliant smile laid bare.
Someone had been watching that small falter.
It was Cassian.
Cassian issued an instruction to Rowen, then kept his gaze fixed upon Se Hui.
“Yes, understood.”
Rowen, having received the order, made straight for the knights.
With the sound of clashing metal, the knights began moving with purpose.
Tents unfurled, and a makeshift encampment swiftly took shape in the Clearing.
Magical illumination hung where torches might have been, and sentries arranged themselves in natural positions around the perimeter.
Even as he observed all of this, Cassian’s gaze never wavered from Se Hui.

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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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