01-20 · 020

Chapter 19: Item Box

The next afternoon.

While I was browsing the sea of online auction listings from my tower apartment room, my smartphone made a cheerful pling! ♪ sound. A D-Chat notification.

『Thank you, Toru-san!! When I opened the box, the beautiful magic power moved me! I just got back from an expedition, so I'll put it on right away!! (´▽｀)』

The screen was filled with a barrage of stamps from Seira-san. It seemed the 'Star Spirit Choker' I'd sent via VIP-exclusive drone delivery had arrived safely. From her message, I could tell Japan's strongest explorer was excited like a normal girl her age.

“I'm glad she's happy.”

I relaxed my cheeks slightly and returned a single stamp. I really owed her for everything, including the recent contract trouble. This was the least I could do as thanks, and I hoped it would help ease some of the fatigue from her demanding work.

Ding-dong.

Then the intercom from the tower apartment's concierge rang. A package seemed to have arrived.

“It's here, it's here!”

I hurried to the entrance and opened the cardboard box in the living room.

Inside was a pitch-black lump, crudely wrapped in 100-yen store newspaper. It was about the size of a softball, heavy in the hand. The surface was rock-hard, and it looked like nothing more than a dirty stone. I could understand why Goda and the others had judged it “just a heavy piece of junk” and sold it off.

“Alright, let's do as Lord Appraisal commands.”

I moved to the kitchen and filled a bowl with lukewarm water. Then I generously added the familiar cleaning supplies I'd bought at the drugstore—baking soda and citric acid.

Fizzzzzzzzz!!

Vigorous carbon dioxide bubbles rose up. I dropped the pitch-black lump into the fizzing liquid. The firmly caked-on ‘magical sludge’ began to dissolve with a crackling sound, and the water turned murky black.

“Oh, it's dissolving, dissolving. Following Sanpol and kitchen bleach, the household heroes come through again.”

A few minutes later.

At the bottom of the bowl, where the sludge had completely dissolved, a dazzling light reflected. I put on rubber gloves and scooped it up.

“…Amazing.”

What emerged was a beautifully crafted ring with a platinum-like luster. A jet-black gem, evoking an unfathomable abyss, was set into its center.

《Repair Complete: The Ring of Subspace has awakened.》

A system message echoed in my mind, and the ring pulsed faintly as if resonating with my magic power. I put it on my finger and, as a test, concentrated on the empty cardboard box in front of me with the thought “store.”

Shoop!

The cardboard box vanished, absorbed into space without a trace. A list of stored items floated up in my mind like an AR display. If I wished to retrieve it, I could summon it instantly at any time. Moreover, time was stopped inside, so if I put in a piping hot pizza, it would still be piping hot a year later.

“This… for both a merchant and an explorer, this is game-breaking equipment.”

From now on, even if I bought up huge amounts of junk online, I wouldn't have to worry about cluttering my room. This was truly the ultimate tool to accelerate my alchemy lifestyle.

“Thanks, Goda. Thanks to you, my business has taken another step forward.”

I gazed at the ring on my left hand and couldn't help but grin.

◇

—At the same time.

At a cheap, sticky-floored Chinese restaurant near the dungeon.

“Hell yeah! The money really came through, Tashiro! Some idiot actually paid 10,000 yen for that junk! I don't know who it was, but what a moron!”

Goda was showing off his smartphone screen and laughing vulgarly. In front of him sat the cheapest bean sprout ramen and a half-size fried rice.

“Right, Goda-san! That thing got rejected at the guild's buyback counter as ‘just a lump of mud, not purchasable’!”

“Yeah! I don't know who it was, but there's a sucker born every minute! After fees, it's still a profit of over 9,000 yen!”

Tashiro clapped his hands in delight. Their weapons had been damaged in the last expedition, and they literally had only a few hundred yen to their name. Without this 10,000 yen sale, they wouldn't even have been able to afford tonight's meal.

“That's enough for today's food and tomorrow's potions. Hey, old man! Add an order of gyoza!”

“You got it!”

Goda was in high spirits, gulping down his beer as he declared loudly.

“See, we're lucky! Even with Rin gone, as long as we don't have dead weight like Soma holding us back, we can still make money like this!”

“Exactly! Cheers to the idiot who pays 10,000 yen for a pebble like that!”

“Gahahaha! No doubt!”

They chowed down on the cheap gyoza, drunk on the wine of victory.

Utterly unaware that they had just let go of a rare item worth no less than 2 billion yen for pocket change just to enjoy a small luxury.

If they ever learned that truth, they probably wouldn't even be able to swallow the gyoza they were eating now.