Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 69

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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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Episode 69. The Reputation Shop
Secret Traitor!
The name obtainable only when a Fugitive destroys a Fugitive’s Mark for the first time.
Thus, the Second Night of the Abyss concealed countless hidden quests.
And each time one discovered and cleared a quest, the system granted rewards—raising one’s Qualification Grade, or bestowing special abilities.
‘Useful stuff.’
Park Chan-woo nodded quietly to himself.
The Secret Traitor he’d just obtained came with remarkably practical options.
Breaking a Fugitive’s Mark would net him a staggering 400 points in one stroke—the best possible condition.
Of course, there was no shortage of risk.
For one, earning Contribution Points by rescuing captives became impossible.
And.
‘I can’t let anyone find out that I’m disposing of Doppelgängers.’
If discovered, both his existence and his true identity could be exposed to everyone.
He couldn’t say exactly how the exposure would unfold, but the moment it happened, he’d gain countless enemies—that much was certain.
With high probability, he’d become hunted by both Fugitives and Pursuers alike.
High risk, high reward.
The old saying that there’s no such thing as a free lunch applied here just the same.
‘As long as I keep things discreet and silent, it works out.’
Park Chan-woo fully intended to exterminate every last Doppelgänger.
Left alone, they’d grow explosively, and once they gained sufficient strength, they’d stop fleeing.
Instead, they’d turn to attack Pursuers—attack Earthlings.
If even one of them evolved into a Doppelgänger Lord, the outcome would be catastrophe.
He couldn’t afford to let the worst-case scenario come to pass.
Above all, wielding Non-existence made it possible to minimize the danger.
Discreetly, silently.
He’d need to sweep up Pursuers and captives, or strike isolated Fugitives—managing things in ways that left no trace.
Park Chan-woo recovered his composure.
‘The Fugitives have been replaced by Doppelgängers. Everything else remains as before.’
It wasn’t drastically different from how things had been.
The Fugitive swarms had simply been substituted with Doppelgängers.
Every other rule and progression stayed identical.
Naturally, as someone who had returned, he possessed sufficient understanding of how to navigate this Night of the Abyss.
He also knew what mattered most at this juncture.
‘After the Second Night ended, people regretted.’
Humanity had strung together one wrong choice after another without end.
They’d left records of their failures and regrets scattered everywhere.
Park Chan-woo had always watched those records—their ‘diaries’—with keen attention.
The Second Night was no exception.
The regrets people shared uniformly all concerned quests.
―The early stages of the Second Night are quests—absolutely.
―You must clear hidden quests to raise the abilities of Pursuers or Fugitives.
―Normal Quests, Secret Quests, Hidden Quests, and masterpiece Quests!
―Only far too late did we realize that how much power you build up early on changes everything in the endgame.
―So frustrating. Maddening. Absolutely heartbreaking!
Most people had neglected quests.
When cleared, they yielded only trivial amounts of Contribution Points.
They’d judged it far more rewarding to spend that time hunting Fugitives or rescuing captives from Pursuers.
But they were wrong.
‘It’s quests—unconditionally.’
Quests.
Finding and clearing hidden elements took priority.
And the method for discovering quests wasn’t as difficult as one might think.
‘The Quest Compass.’
Park Chan-woo activated the map.
In the lower-left corner of the map sat a compass that pointed toward the nearest available quest.
Through it, he could methodically solve nearby quests one by one.
But.
‘Only amateurs would rely on that tool.’
Inwardly, he shook his head.
Using the Compass is the most basic method.
‘I just need to buy a Quest Map from the shop.’
A tip that surfaced at the end of the message.
The system scattered advice to participants through messages labeled ‘Tips’—counsel they should heed or absolutely act upon.
A sort of safety mechanism for humans who were absolutely disadvantaged in the Abyss.
Park Chan-woo recalled the tip’s contents once more.
《Tip: From now on, special shops will be marked on your map.》
《Purchase useful tools and equipment from shops to endure the ‘Night.’》
Shops sold all manner of goods.
A book called the ‘Quest Map’ was among them.
A guide incomparable to the Compass—one that revealed the types and locations of Quests!
Of course, using a shop required special currency, but Park Chan-woo didn’t mind.
‘I have enough currency to work with.’
He possessed wealth sufficient not just to buy what he needed, but to have plenty left over.
* * *
Aheta, the Moon’s Lord.
He opened his warehouse.
Only shop owners could access his warehouse, yet not every demon merchant used it with equal privilege.
“Welcome to the Contribution Points Shop!”
A demon merchant called out cheerfully.
A massive structure built of stone walls.
The Contribution Points Shop—a building the size of a fortress.
Inside, treasures glittered with breathtaking brilliance, crammed from wall to wall.
“Proprietor, can we only use Contribution Points here?” a man asked as he entered.
The demon merchant nodded.
“Yes! You can purchase goods using ‘Contribution Points.’ And our shop holds more treasures than any other.”
All of them brought from the warehouse of the Moon’s Lord, Aheta.
Depending on a shop’s scale and specifications, the number of items that could be drawn from Aheta’s warehouse was determined—and the Contribution Points Shop had the largest scale of all.
Naturally, it displayed the most items as well.
“……Moon’s Necklace for 1 million Contribution Points?”
“The Pursuer’s Sword goes for 5 million?”
“Are they actually serious about selling those things?”
Among the offerings were numerous ornamental treasures boasting outrageous prices.
Yet Contribution Points were the easiest currency to obtain here.
Because the shop accepted Contribution Points for purchases, its customer base exploded.
‘I won’t have to worry about sales.’
Bivola, the shop’s proprietor and a high-ranking demon merchant, smiled.
She had competed fiercely with countless other merchants to become the Contribution Points Shop’s owner.
The customer base proved exceptional, matching the intensity of that competition.
She had truly seized one excellent Shop Advantage.
Yet that couldn’t possibly be the only reason the shop flourished.
‘Humans really are simple creatures.’
The treasures Bivola selected from the lord’s warehouse captivated them, and they lined up to spend their Contribution Points on goods.
Arranging the shop’s treasures to exploit human psychology worked brilliantly.
Customers entered overwhelmed by dazzling riches, circled the shop once, and by the time they’d completed their loop, they’d already surrendered all their Contribution Points to her counter.
What a simple, magnificent cycle it was.
‘Maybe I should check the performance rankings.’
Of course, first place would be hers.
Bivola smiled and opened a window.
《Shop Performance Rankings》
1st. Contribution Points Shop (Bivola)
2nd. Mark Shop (Parifim)
3rd. Body Shop (Kimering)
…….
…….
11th. Coin Shop (Shuiad)
12th. Renown Shop (Dagon)
Twelve shops operating with various currencies.
And Bivola, who ran the Contribution Points Shop, held an unquestionable first place among them.
Bivola’s smile deepened further.
‘Parifim and Kimering won’t work for me either.’
As demon merchants, they were competitors with each other.
Moreover, the Mark Shop and the Body Shop were both fiercely contested domains.
The Mark Shop was where merchants dealt in the Fugitive’s Mark, while the Body Shop conducted business by converting one’s own flesh into tradeable value.
The surprising part, however, was the Body Shop.
‘I never expected the Body Shop to climb all the way to third place.’
I’d figured it would manage at best a middling rank.
Humans are sensitive to pain and treasure their own bodies above all else as a species.
And yet these same humans would abandon parts of their flesh and make use of such a shop?
‘Kimering specializes in Fusion Body merchandise.’
The shop owner Kimering’s skill at selling products must be formidable indeed.
That creature was a merchant well-versed in handling Fusion Bodies.
She possessed an uncanny ability to unearth artificial flesh or the compatible bodies of other demons that could be grafted seamlessly.
It was likely that humans, desperate for immediate power increases, would sell parts of their own bodies at the Body Shop and then purchase the Fusion Bodies that Kimering recommended, grafting them into themselves.
…Still.
‘Third place is all it is, after all.’
The gap between them and herself, who held first, was heaven and earth.
Bivola’s gaze, descending slowly through the window, reached its final section.
Bivola let out a sharp, bitter laugh.
‘Dagon, of course you’re dead last.’
Dagon, the proprietor of the Renown Shop!
As expected, he did not disappoint.
Dagon’s father was one of the executives who oversaw the entire Demon Merchant Guild.
In particular, he was a demon who had become legendary during his merchant days through phenomenal performance.
A living legend among demon merchants—one who had built his record and risen to executive status within the guild!
……Yet for all that, Dagon, one of his sons, was famous as the ‘eternal last place,’ the ‘perpetual failure.’
‘Why deliberately choose the Renown Shop? Tsk, tsk.’
At this point in time, the renown accumulated by humans would amount to practically nothing.
He surely understood that, so what possible reason could he have for selecting the Renown Shop?
Choosing supply with no demand was the stupidest thing one could do.
Perhaps he was just grasping at any rotten rope he could find.
Did he truly believe that managing the shop himself would change the outcome?
“I have somewhere to attend to for a moment. Mind the shop.”
“Understood, Bivola.”
At Bivola’s command, the lesser demon merchants bowed their heads in deference.
With a shrug of her shoulders, Bivola left her own shop.
She then swept her gaze across the other establishments.
Her competitors and the shops below her own.
“Puhahahaha!”
Upon arriving at the Renown Shop in twelfth place, Bivola could no longer contain her laughter.
The reason was simple.
“This is what you call a shop?”
It was a pathetic structure cobbled together from wooden planks haphazardly lashed together.
Compared to other shops like fortresses, even its size was shabby.
Dagon had clearly built it himself.
In other words, he had received no investment whatsoever from the guild when constructing his shop.
Of course—erecting a building in the Second Night of the Abyss required considerable resources.
Why would the guild invest in someone who obviously couldn’t produce results?
Bivola clicked her tongue and stepped into the Renown Shop.
“Listen, Dagon! Do you even intend to sell anything?”
“……Bivola. Why are you here?”
Upon spotting Bivola, Dagon’s expression hardened abruptly.
They had both been apprentices of the same cohort before becoming merchants.
Bivola had always ranked among the top, while Dagon never managed to escape the bottom.
Dagon was a disgrace among demon merchants.
That such a creature had survived this long on nothing but his father’s influence alone, so it was only natural that Bivola looked down upon him.
Bivola surveyed the shop and let out a sigh.
“I expected it to be lined with shabby goods, but looking at items of this caliber—is there even a human who could afford to purchase them?”
The merchandise displayed in the Renown Shop.
Every last one of them was worth a considerable sum.
There was nothing in the store but items at a level so far beyond what humans could afford with their current renown—utterly out of reach.
And even that wasn’t normal.
It was the kind of inventory that made you wonder if any human could actually use it.
‘Just like Dagon. The man doesn’t have the first clue about running a shop.’
A reputation shop by necessity should have been stocked with “affordable” goods, but Dagon, true to form, lacked even the basics of merchant sense.
“…Stop worrying about someone else’s shop, Bivola.”
“I’d like to, but… forgive me for asking, but this shabby little place—looks like it could collapse any moment. You didn’t construct it yourself, did you?”
“….”
“No? Well, well. The Demon Merchant Guild really outdid themselves. After all the hopelessness, they won’t even invest the bare minimum. Want me to lend a hand?”
“…Not necessary.”
Dagon spoke through gritted teeth, barely containing his rage.
It wasn’t as though Bivola was the only one who’d come to mock him.
All the other demon merchants had passed through, laughing their fill at the sight of his shop.
“That’s cold. We’re from the same cohort, after all! Shouldn’t we help each other out?”
“….”
“Hehehe! If you ever need my help, just say the word. Dagon!”
Bivola, who’d been laughing for a good while, turned and left the reputation shop.
Alone now, Dagon closed his eyes and bit his lip hard.
He’d anticipated this reaction.
He’d been certain he’d face mockery and contempt—accusations of making a foolish choice, questions about why he’d deliberately invite suffering upon himself.
And yet.
Despite all that.
Why had Dagon chosen a reputation shop—the very thing all merchants avoided?
And why had he crammed this cramped little space full of treasures he could barely manage?
Tap. Tap-tap.
Then it came.
Footsteps echoed from somewhere.
As Dagon turned toward the sound, the rigidity in his expression began to crack.
Presently, a man stepped through the shop’s entrance.
“…You’ve finally arrived.”
The moment Dagon spotted Park Chan-woo, all trace of his former grimness vanished—replaced by a brilliant smile he’d never shown before.
The long-awaited “hero” had walked through the door.

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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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