The Support Ate it All

Chapter 171: The Black Market (1)

I recalled the conversation I had with Kwak Seung-jae a while ago.

– I heard you’re dating senior Dang Gyu-young.

– We’re close, but we’re not dating.

– I’ve also heard you spend a lot of time together.

– Because we’re mentor and mentee.

And now, the look Kwak Seung-jae was giving me seemed to ask, “Are you going to deny it even now?”

The misunderstanding seemed to be growing and Song Cheon-hye had the same look of suspicion on her face. Her slightly flushed cheeks suggested that she was writing a romance novel in her head.

Han So-mi was just smiling brightly. This girl was just happy with anything.

We’re really not dating.

Thinking that trying to explain would not clear up the misunderstanding, I decided to remain silent.

As I continued to meet his gaze without saying a word, Kwak Seung-jae shifted his focus back to Dang Gyu-young.

“I’ve heard that you two are quite close, but I didn’t know you’d be spending time together in the downtown area.”

“We are pretty close.”

“May I ask what you were doing?”

“We were just wandering around, looking for any trouble to get into.”

Whatever she made of that, Song Cheon-hye covered her mouth with her hand and quickly began whispering something to Han So-mi.

Dang Gyu-young placed her hand on my shoulder and grinned playfully.

I could almost hear the other side asking, “What kind of trouble?”

Dang Gyu-young asked back.

“And you guys?”

“These two are still quite inexperienced, so I’m taking them around to teach them, while also patrolling the downtown area.”

“Yes, I can see that. Keep up the good work.”

Kwak Seung-jae slightly bowed his head.

“I hope you enjoy your time too, senior-nim.”

“What’s gotten into you, Seung-jae, saying such nice things?”

“I view your relationship positively.”

“Do you? Thank you.”

Kwak Seung-jae was about to move forward when, for some reason, Song Cheon-hye stepped up and asked us.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

She held a terminal embedded with a shining crystal ball in her hand.

It was an item that played a similar role to the ban wave; if it detected a prohibited item in someone’s possession or inventory, a red warning light would come on.

It meant she intended to conduct an inspection right here and now.

Both Dang Gyu-young and I often did suspicious things, so there was a chance that one of us might still have a prohibited item.

Dang Gyu-young shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly.

“Go ahead.”

With a tense expression on her face, Song Cheon-hye brought the terminal to each of us in turn.

Wooong—

However, the crystal ball only brightened slightly without any color change.

We aren’t that careless.

Of course, we had anticipated the possibility of an inspection.

Dang Gyu-young had left all prohibited items behind, and I had learned the [Mysterious Yin Jade Demon Finger] skill book as soon as I obtained it.

So, there was nothing to be found.

Song Cheon-hye felt a little embarrassed and stepped back, but she quickly regained her composure and bowed her head politely.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Sure, keep up the good work.”

Kwak Seung-jae who had been watching silently moved forward, and Song Cheon-hye glanced over in this direction before following him.

Han So-mi waved her hand cheerfully and joined them.

As the three members of the disciplinary committee disappeared into the crowd, Dang Gyu-young began to speak.

“Seung-jae left quickly today. Usually, he annoys me a bit more.”

“Maybe he didn’t want to bother us. Also…”

“You noticed it too?”

We had felt eyes on us even before Kwak Seung-jae approached.

It was probably the disciplinary committee trying to keep an eye on Dang Gyu-young.

As the president of the thieves’ club and a key figure in the black market, she was certainly worth watching.

Kwak Seung-jae’s brief conversation was likely intended to lower our guard down.

Though those presumed to be from the disciplinary committee were concealing themselves with stealth on par with any skilled thief, they were unaware of one crucial fact.

The thieves’ club had eyes planted all over the downtown area.

Dang Gyu-young contacted the control tower.

“Da-bin, can you see us?”

– Yes, I can see you.

“We think we’re being followed. Can you check our four o’clock?”

– Just a moment.

Not long after, Chae Da-bin’s report came back.

– They’re there, the disciplinary committee. One third-year, one second-year.

“Of course they are.”

– Should I contact the others?

“No, we’ll handle it ourselves. Thanks.”

After ending the call, Dang Gyu-young and I exchanged a glance and nodded at the same time.

“Let’s run.”

“Let’s go.”

And we started running immediately.

The disciplinary committee members seemed quite flustered and their surprised reaction was evident even from this distance.

How did we figure them out when they were observing from so far away?

However, they clearly thought they couldn’t let us go and started chasing us while picking up speed.

We ran against the crowd like salmon swimming upstream, then darted into an alley between buildings.

As we continued running through the alley, I glanced up to check the buildings’ height.

“Let’s jump up.”

“Up? That’s pretty high.”

“Trust me.”

“Alright, let’s do it.”

“We jump now.”

We immediately held hands and pushed off the ground.

Boom!

Using the wind force I had prepared in advance, we were launched higher in the air and landed on the rooftop.

The next moment, the two members of the disciplinary committee entered the alley.

“…….”

They looked around and spread their senses widely, but they had no clue we were watching them from the rooftop.

The building was too high to consider jumping up, and with Dang Gyu-young using shadow magic to hide our presence, it was even more so.

“Tch.”

One of the disciplinary committee members clicked their tongue quietly as they continued searching.

Then they left the alley as if they had given up on the chase.

“This wind magic is quite handy at times.”

“It’s not all bad.”

“Mhmm, the bad one here is you.”

Dang Gyu-young poked my cheek.

I said with one cheek squished,

“Looks like they’re starting to move over there too.”

“Mhmm.”

The fact that the disciplinary committee had started watching us openly meant their main objective had shifted from maintaining order in the downtown area to targeting the black market.

And before making any major moves, they marked key individuals.

Therefore, understanding the moves they would make was our top priority.

Dang Gyu-young contacted the control tower again, and Chae Da-bin asked her,

– Did you shake them off?

“Yeah, anything else special?”

– I was just about to tell you. It looks like Exchange B has been discovered. The area around Exchange C isn’t looking good either.

Chae Da-bin then shared a few screens with us.

On each screen, the disciplinary committee members were closing in on Exchange B.

However, Dang Gyu-young did not seem particularly surprised by this.

Instead, she seemed more like someone who had been expecting this all along.

“It was about time one of them got caught.”

Since the morning, they had been gradually increasing the number of exchanges, so it made sense that the disciplinary committee would eventually notice something if they weren’t fools.

After all, the disciplinary committee was composed entirely of elites.

– What should we do?

“We need to give them something. Tell everyone to pull out without making a fuss.”

Anticipating that the disciplinary committee would eventually find out, they had set up six exchanges to ensure that losing a few wouldn’t be a significant issue.

Dang Gyu-young’s instructions were to withdraw all members from Exchange B to avoid unnecessary losses.

“Distribute the trades from Exchange B elsewhere. Is the situation at Exchange C also bad?”

– Yes, it seems like they’re still in the suspicion phase.

“Use it as much as possible until we’re discovered. Keep it running and warn the customers in advance.”

– Understood.

After ending the call with the control tower, Dang Gyu-young handed me several objects that looked like fireworks.

They were signal flares that activated with magical power.

“Keep these with you.”

“The disciplinary committee uses these, don’t they?”

“I swiped a few.”

Dang Gyu-young grinned.

Handing over the committee’s signal flares was obviously a means to create confusion.

We gazed toward Exchange B from the rooftop.

“They say everyone is gathered there, but…”

“They’ll scatter soon enough.”

As soon as the occupation of Exchange B ended, they would disperse in all directions to search for the next exchange.

And as a backup force, our job was to disrupt that search.

“Should I fire one off now?”

“Go ahead.”

Dang Gyu-young shrugged, and I infused the signal flare with magical power.

A bright beam of light shot up into the sky.

Shuuuu—bang!

Immediately, we sensed them approaching quickly.

It was obvious it was the disciplinary committee.

“Let’s run.”

“Let’s go.”

We leaped to the next building.

– We’ve lost them.

“Is that so?”

Upon hearing the news, Kwak Seung-jae nodded his head calmly.

To monitor Dang Gyu-young, they had secretly assigned two disciplinary committee members but she had sensed it like a ghost and shaken them off.

If she had nothing to hide, there would have been no need to run.

What Kim Ho and Dang Gyu-young were up to seemed related to the black market after all.

However, pursuing them was not the current priority.

Kwak Seung-jae turned his head to look at Han So-mi and Song Cheon-hye.

“Hello! We need to conduct a brief inspection!”

“Please cooperate.”

The two stopped passing students and inspected them with crystal balls to check for prohibited items.

However, when Kwak Seung-jae gestured, they immediately ceased the inspections and approached him.

“Yes?”

“Let’s return to the room.”

– Rumble…

When he released the spell, a wooden door suddenly rose up.

As Song Cheon-hye and Han So-mi followed Kwak Seung-jae through the door, they found themselves standing in the disciplinary committee room the next moment.

“Welcome.”

The president of the disciplinary committee, Oh Se-hoon, greeted them with a friendly smile.

Most of the disciplinary committee members including Oh Se-hoon were standing near the wall. They were looking at a large map that was pinned there.

Various red marks were scattered on the map, indicating the locations where the disciplinary committee members had confiscated prohibited items through surprise inspections.

These red marks were connected to form a red circle, and near the center of this circle stood a single building.

A second-year disciplinary committee member reported to Kwak Seung-jae.

“We have identified an exchange used by the black market. However, we have not succeeded in entering it.”

“Why not?”

“A powerful barrier has been set up. We couldn’t get any further.”

“Did you attempt to dismantle it?”

A third-year disciplinary committee member answered this question.

He was somewhat knowledgeable about barriers, but his frown indicated that he had not succeeded.

“My skills were not enough.”

“Is that so?”

If even the third-year disciplinary committee members couldn’t dismantle it, it meant that someone with higher-level skills was involved.

Oh Se-hoon’s eyes gently narrowed.

“It seems Dang Gyu-young has prepared a lot.”

The cost must have been significant to bring in a graduate.

There was a clear determination to make this year’s black market a success.

However, no matter how determined Dang Gyu-young was, a rule violation was still a rule violation.

They couldn’t just leave the scene where prohibited items were openly traded.

Moreover, graduates weren’t only on the thieves club’s side.

Oh Se-hoon bowed his head to the woman who was sitting comfortably on the sofa.

“We would appreciate your help, senior-nim.”