==============================
CHAPTER 126 – UNMANNED CAFÉ
Late at night.
Ryu Min’s gaze was fixed on the abandoned warehouse.
From inside, chilling screams could be heard here and there, but Ryu Min smiled.
Because they were trash that deserved to die.
‘We picked the location well. This place is perfect as a trash incinerator.’
It was surrounded by mountains, and there were few people around, making it convenient to dispose of corpses.
And he also had a cleaner who listened well.
‘Honestly, I wasn’t sure whether Ma Kyung-rok would accept my request… but to think he’d move exactly the way I wanted…’
Ryu Min had asked Ma Kyung-rok to clean up trash.
Even at the risk of revealing that he knew his secret.
‘It was a kind of gambit. Once the secret was exposed, it wouldn’t have been strange if he showed hostility at any moment.’
If it came to it, he’d even planned to fight Ma Kyung-rok.
No matter how much you offered human trash as a supply to build black mana, no one would be happy that a shameful secret they’d hidden their entire life was being exposed.
That was precisely why he went straight at it.
He calculated that plenty of people must’ve treated Ma Kyung-rok with hypocrisy—so if he did the opposite, wouldn’t it work?
‘And it actually worked. Pretending to open up and speak frankly was the winning move. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t opening up—it was acting like I opened up.’
He was glad things had gone smoothly.
‘Well, it’s not a losing deal for Ma Kyung-rok either.’
Even if he hadn’t been able to win Ma Kyung-rok’s heart, he had confidence he could solve it.
He could see seven seconds into the future, so he could always correct things toward a better direction.
If it truly hadn’t worked out, he might have fought Ma Kyung-rok, but—
‘Either way, the trash cleanup is handled like this.’
Ryu Min immediately turned away.
The screams dragged on—apparently they weren’t being killed cleanly—but he didn’t bother going inside.
Even if they shared secrets now, he had no intention of interfering with Ma Kyung-rok’s private meal.
For now, hearing the screams was enough.
‘Five at a time—split into morning, afternoon, evening, and dawn. Twenty a day. If I supply that many, Ma Kyung-rok will be able to gather plenty of black mana.’
There were 28 days left until Round 9.
Even if he lured them and killed them for all 28 days straight, he’d only be able to clean up 560 people, but it couldn’t be helped.
‘Any more than that is risky.’
Overeating would likely be a burden for Ma Kyung-rok as well, so they agreed to draw the line there.
‘What should I do about the remaining 471…?’
They were going to be halved in the next round anyway.
If you were going to kill them, it would be best to strip their items first, then kill them.
‘Should I deal with the ones Ma Kyung-rok can’t handle?’
With that thought, Ryu Min returned home and picked up his phone.
While looking over the murder roster Yamtti sent and deciding who he should kill, he saw a familiar name.
‘This person is…?’
In the silent night, Ryu Min’s gaze gleamed coldly.
The summer of August.
It had been nearly eight months since the world started falling apart.
A period that could be called short if you wanted, but in that time, so many things happened.
As the economy shook, a financial crisis came, and the stock prices of all shares plunged to the floor.
A natural result, since most of the people in their twenties—who made up a huge portion of economic activity—had died.
Shop owners hurriedly replaced them with workers in their thirties, but the reality was that there still weren’t enough hands, and there weren’t enough customers.
Now, if you sent a single text, you could get a part-time job right away.
And because of that, not only unmanned convenience stores, but even unmanned cafés were exploding in number.
The café Seo Arin and Hong Seon-a stopped by was also an unmanned system.
“Alright, Arin. Caramel macchiato with two extra shots, right?”
“Mm-hm, thanks.”
“The world really has changed. Even cafés can be used unmanned.”
“You too. Anyone hearing you would think you’re an eighty-year-old grandma.”
Seo Arin smiled faintly.
These days, there wasn’t much to smile about.
Just coming out like this with a fellow actress and chatting peacefully felt like happiness.
That was how much the world had changed.
Hell wasn’t something far away.
It was close.
“Come to think of it, our main fanbase is in their thirties now. Most of the people in their twenties are dead.”
“Ah… why are you suddenly bringing up something depressing?”
Seo Arin had wished again and again.
That the reality she was trapped in was a lie.
That the survival game where you had to die and kill was all a dream.
“Even now, whenever I come back from a round, I think… what if this is all a dream? What if the actor colleagues I was close to suddenly contact me again, laughing?”
Seo Arin had been sincere about acting.
She loved her work, and she enjoyed the chemistry with other actors.
She’d been lucky to meet Ma Kyung-rok and receive support in many ways, and she’d risen quickly.
A successful life.
But that life was gone now.
Like most careers these days, the entertainment industry was also heading for ruin.
Sensing the mood drop sharply, Hong Seon-a apologized.
“Sorry. For bringing up depressing stuff.”
“No. It’s just… reality is like this.”
“It’s hard, right? Want to learn smoking while we’re at it? Should we share a cigarette?”
“Haha. Thanks—I can laugh because of you.”
Brushing off the joke with a smile, Seo Arin sucked up her caramel macchiato in a long pull.
As sweetness filled her mouth, her mood improved.
“Still, we’re better off than most. We survived. We’re Players.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m still shocked that Sunbae Gung died. Who would’ve thought he’d die in Round 1? And he was a man, too.”
“Stats are the same, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman.”
“True. If even a middle schooler can have the same strength as an adult, then it’s meaningless. Thinking about it now, goblins are total f*cking chumps, right?”
When profanity came out of her fellow actress’s mouth, Seo Arin scolded her.
“Even if there aren’t many people around, watch what you say.”
“So what? Isn’t this my charm? Fans wouldn’t know, though.”
Hong Seon-a put on an affected smile and lifted her nose slightly.
It was an unmanned café, but there was no one around besides the two of them.
“Since there’s no one, it’s got perks like this. You can walk around outside without needing to cover your face.”
“But your income dropped too.”
“Sure. But in this situation, does income matter? Surviving is the top priority.”
Since she wasn’t wrong, Seo Arin listened quietly.
What could be more important than survival right now?
“Arin, you’ve got it good. Your job’s good for survival.”
“Ah, you mean my summons?”
“Yeah. From what you said, it’s a total cheat job. The golem tanks for you, the fairy puts up a barrier for you. And past level 20, the fairy even helps in battle? They step up and do everything like slaves—how nice is that? I’m jealous, jealous.”
“Your job isn’t exactly weak either.”
“Me? No. I just hit a little hard. Turns out assassins are a dime-a-dozen job. There’s a skill called Invisibility, but it’s not even useful.”
“Why? You can use it in combat.”
“You can, sure. But it’s not great in a fight. One attack and it breaks. The cooldown’s long too. It’s basically only for survival when things get dangerous.”
“Then it’s good. What’s more important than survival?”
“Right. But in real life, there aren’t many dangerous situations, you know? It feels awkward to use. It’s not like I’m a voyeur, and it’s not like I can rob a bank—these days they’ve put measures in place so it’s pointless.”
“……”
“Even this café says it’s card-only payments. I guess they’re scared Players will just shake them down for cash.”
“Seon-a. You didn’t seriously think about it, did you?”
“Am I an idiot? You think I’d have a stupid thought like that? Seriously, you can’t even tell jokes from real talk.”
Even after being scolded, Seo Arin only smiled sheepishly.
Considering the friendship built from filming multiple projects together, even this kind of chatter felt good.
And she was the only actor friend who’d survived.
“But aren’t we seriously amazing? Surviving up to Round 8.”
“Yeah.”
“They say you can count on one hand how many people survived in the entertainment industry?”
“Did that many die?”
“Of course! You really don’t know yet, do you? Most seniors and juniors, singers, idols—almost all of them died. Like, 70% of entertainers are dead.”
“No way. I didn’t think it’d be that much…”
“You were running around funerals like crazy—guess you really were out of it.”
Hong Seon-a clicked her tongue.
“You don’t know this either? Our price tag shot up like crazy.”
“Huh? Price tag went up?”
It was inevitable that the entertainment industry—packed with people in their twenties—would collapse.
But what about the Players who survived?
They monopolized the public’s popularity as elite, rare entertainers.
That was the reality of the entertainment industry after the great upheaval.
When Hong Seon-a said that, Seo Arin looked like it was the first she’d heard of it.
“So our price went up, and we got even more famous than before?”
“You seriously didn’t know? You haven’t searched your name online?”
“I don’t really do ego-searching…”
“Then do it now.”
Seo Arin, deciding to just go along with it, typed her name into the search bar.
And then she let out a dazed voice without realizing it.
“Huh?”
There were more articles than she expected.
[List of entertainers in their 20s who survived Round 8? Seo Arin, Hong Seon-a, Gu Yeonseung, Jang Bok-chul, and a total of 19 people!]
[Seo Arin, Hong Seon-a, and other entertainer Players established as billboard stars amid a grim situation! Advertisers’ inquiries pour in.]
[Jang Bok-chul, who appeared as an extra for 10 years, rises as a flash star after Seo Arin…]
[Unknown actor Player Jang Bok-chul gains fame. His ideal type is Seo Arin. A surprising confession.]
[Seo Arin and Round 8 survivor Players: overall advertising fees up 2.8x compared to before.]
Articles that came up from searching Seo Arin’s name.
Seo Arin’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit, as if she hadn’t realized her name was being mentioned this much.
“W-what is this? When did my price go up?”
“Because the number of entertainers dropped, advertising revenue actually went up, and prices jumped. And that Jang Bok-chul in the article—he was an unknown actor, but he survived Round 8 too, and he’s building recognition at a crazy pace.”
“……”
“And you had no idea at all that things were like this? You’re lying to mess with me, aren’t you?”
Seo Arin waved her hands in genuine panic.
“N-no. I really didn’t know. I haven’t been online in a while—not even searching my name…”
“Even if you weren’t online, your manager or someone at the company would’ve told you.”
“Manager…?”
Seo Arin thought of An Sang-cheol, then shook her head.
“No one told me anything…”
“With this many articles, you’re saying you never heard a thing? Who the hell is your agency’s CEO?”
It wasn’t an official agency, but if it was the representative of the company supporting her, that would be Ma Kyung-rok…
Still, she’d never heard anything.
With a bitter expression, Seo Arin shook her head.
“No one told me. About what things are like right now.”
“Ha. Does that even make sense? An entertainer who doesn’t even know her price went up.”
Seo Arin looked at Hong Seon-a, who was sighing.
Somehow, she looked like she was smiling—was it just her imagination?
“You need to quit your company fast. They’re f*cking awful, aren’t they? They hid the information completely so they could suck up your contract money.”
“…….”
“That price article popped three months ago. So that means they kept their mouths shut for at least three months even while knowing. How can they do that?”
“I mean… you didn’t say anything either. You didn’t contact me for months, and then suddenly you did today.”
“Hey! I obviously thought you knew! Who in the world doesn’t read internet articles? Especially an entertainer!”
Seo Arin went quiet like someone who’d swallowed honey.
She brought it up for no reason and didn’t even get anything back for it.
“I was busy. You know the world’s been so dangerous, so for a while I tried to avoid all incoming contacts…”
“Ugh, seriously! You’re dumb, dumb!”
After scolding her bluntly, Hong Seon-a spoke as if doing her a favor.
“Instead of that, come to our company. You have no idea how well our CEO treats us. If it’s you, Arin, you could get treated pretty well. You’ve got a bit of name value among rookie actresses.”
“No. It’s fine. What would changing now even do? I still have time left on my contract.”
“Break that contract. Want me to talk to our CEO? If it’s you, he’d probably even pay the penalty.”
“Stop. I don’t want to hop around everywhere like a migratory bird.”
Hong Seon-a’s eyes went cold for an instant.
“Are you saying that so I can hear it?”
“Huh? What?”
“No. Anyway, that’s too bad. It’d be nice if we could work at the same company.”
“Work? What work is there? An entertainer’s life is basically over now. I can’t even guarantee I’ll survive the next round—there’s no way I can do anything long-term, drama or anything…”
“You only know one thing and not the other, huh? How is there no work? If you land just one decent commercial, you earn the equivalent of ten years of a normal office worker’s salary. And is it just commercials? Even if you can’t film dramas or movies, you can still appear on variety shows and all kinds of programs.”
When she put it that way, it sounded reasonable.
“But you’re saying your company has been blocking even that kind of work? Since the great upheaval, you really haven’t worked properly even once?”
Seo Arin nodded carefully.
Because she didn’t want to get scolded.
“Mm…”
As expected, Hong Seon-a pressed her forehead with a smack.
“That company is seriously doomed. What kind of idiot place did you even join…”
“Seon-a. Even if that’s true, you’re being too harsh…”
“Let’s go!”
“Huh?”
Out of nowhere, Hong Seon-a stood up and grabbed Seo Arin by the wrist, yanking her along.
“I’m going because there’s someone I’m going to introduce you to.”
“Who?”
“Someone! Someone who’ll save you from the edge of the cliff!”