Chapter 17 – Making a Decision

Theo, who had worked hard and run without even resting after selling out.

However,

“Buzz! Buzz!”

The baby poison honeybees drew their poison stingers and surrounded Theo. Since Theo was not there when the baby poison honeybees were born, they naturally regarded Theo as an enemy.

“Don’t do this, meow. We are on the same side, meow. Se-jun, please tell the poison honeybees not to attack, meow!”

Theo crouched down, covering his head with his front paws, and asked Se-jun for help.

“It’s okay. They are our family.”

“Buzz, buzz.”

At Se-jun’s words, the baby poison honeybees retracted their stingers and began to suck nectar from the cherry tomato flowers again.

“Whew. Brother Se-jun, thank you, meow.”

“What? Brother Se-jun?”

“Why, meow? Aren’t we family, meow?”

“Where do you think you’re matching me when you’re just an employee?!”

Se-jun immediately punished Theo by lightly pinching the cheek fat of Theo, who was trying to act equal, with both hands.

Squish.

“Ack! It hurts, meow! I’m sorry, meow!”

Theo was one to scream first even though Se-jun had not pinched him very hard.

‘How cheeky.’

Se-jun’s hands grabbed Theo’s soft cheek fat and stretched it harder.

Honestly, rather than being annoyed, he needed an excuse to hold on longer. As if proving he was indeed a cheese cat, his cheek fat stretched out like cheese, making it satisfying to touch.

‘Hehehe, feels good.’

No! Now was the time to be angry.

Se-jun barely let go of the magical cheek fat that was softening his heart and composed his mind. Holding back the corners of his mouth that were about to break into a silly grin, he put on a stern face again.

“Employee Theo, let’s settle the accounts first. Bring out the sales money for the cherry tomatoes.”

“Here it is, meow.”

Theo handed the money to Se-jun with his shoulders puffed up.

“It’s 75 Tower Coins.”

“Yes, meow!!!”

A thunderous voice.

“……”

Eyes meeting Se-jun’s gaze without avoiding it. Perked-up ears. He was overflowing with confidence. Something was suspicious.

At that moment,

[The tower administrator reports that Party B is lying.]

[The tower administrator reports that Party B sold the magical cherry tomatoes for 0.07 Tower Coins each.]

[The tower administrator is looking forward to the dread of Party A you will show.]

A message appeared just in time. The tower administrator was watching Theo as well. He learned a new fact.

‘Is that so?’

Se-jun examined Theo closely.

‘It’s not that he is trying to pocket it…’

With Theo’s personality, if he had pocketed the money, he could not have acted with such confidence. He was a fellow whose wrongdoings showed immediately.

‘Then what is it? Don’t tell me?!’

While Se-jun was thinking about Theo’s confident attitude,

“Ta-da, meow! Because the humans said they had been waiting for days to buy the magical cherry tomatoes, I received 0.02 more Tower Coins each, meow. Did I do well, meow?”

Theo said, pulling out 30 more Tower Coins. He aimed for a dramatic effect by pulling out the unexpected money.

But,

“Here, here is the incentive.”

Se-jun, who had already found out the information, was not surprised. Se-jun handed 4.2 Tower Coins to Theo.

“Huh?! Is there nothing else, meow? I did well, so won’t you make me Representative, meow?”

“This much is far from enough. Employee Theo, work harder.”

“Understood, meow.”

Theo decided that, as expected, becoming Representative was difficult, and that he should sell harder.

“Se-jun, I ran out of grilled fish, meow. Give me my weekly wage, meow.”

“Alright. Wait.”

Se-jun approached the edge of the dark pond. When the Black Rabbit hunted by swimming, he had the torch turned off to prevent the piranhas from gathering.

When Se-jun went to the pond,

Flap flap.

There was not a single piranha inside the pond, and the Black Rabbit was swimming alone.

Instead, ten caught piranhas were neatly stacked on the ground next to the pond. They were piranhas caught by the Black Rabbit’s swimming.

Shake shake.

As Se-jun approached the pond, the Black Rabbit came out of the pond and shook his body.

“Black Rabbit, it’s burning time.”

Se-jun said to the Black Rabbit, lifting two dead piranhas.

“Pyak!”

At Se-jun’s words, the Black Rabbit stood in the pond and took a stance with a solemn expression.

Although there was a method to attract piranhas using a torch, there was a method that attracted piranhas faster and more intensely than a torch.

Se-jun stabbed another piranha’s body with a piranha’s tooth and pulled it out. Pressing the body of the piranha where the tooth had been stabbed, he dropped a few drops of the blood that came out into the pond and waited.

And in less than a minute, dozens of piranhas that smelled the blood entered through the hole in the pond. In no time, the pond turned half water, half fish.

Next, as usual, Se-jun waved the torch,

Splash! Splash!

and the Black Rabbit quickly hunted the piranhas that jumped up upon seeing the torch by hitting them with his hammer.

While he was making grilled fish by the campfire with the piranhas caught in that manner,

“Slurp, slurp, slurp. Slurp, slurp, slurp.”

A strange sound was heard. When Se-jun looked at the place where the sound came from, Theo was licking something diligently.

“Theo, what is that?”

“This, meow? It’s Churu, meow.”

“Churu?! Where did you get that?”

“I received it after taking pictures for humans, meow. This is tuna flavor…”

Theo said, pulling out the Churu he received from his bundle by flavor and starting to show off.

They were all Churu. All of them!

There was not a single thing for himself.

To think he had traded with people and brought back only Churu…

“Slurp, slurp, slurp. Slurp, slurp, slurp.”

Eating something delicious all by himself. For some reason, Se-jun felt angry.

“Churu confiscated.”

Se-jun confiscated all the Churu pulled out of the bundle.

“Huh?! Why, meow? This is what I received for taking pictures with humans, meow!”

When the Churu was confiscated, Theo frothed at the mouth and strongly protested to Se-jun. To think it made even the naive Theo talk back. As expected, Churu was a drug exclusive to cats.

However, Se-jun had a legitimate right to confiscate the Churu.

“Right. You received it as a transaction for taking pictures, didn’t you?”

“Yes, meow!”

“Special Provision 3. Party B cannot create additional clients without Party A’s permission. This is a clear breach of contract.”

Se-jun said, showing the contract.

“Heck! Is that so, meow?!”

“Yes. You lined your own pockets behind my back.”

Theo was greatly shocked by the fact that he had to lose his Churu helplessly.

“Don’t be too disappointed. Representative Theo, rather than that, let’s talk about our new client.”

“Huh?! Did I become Representative, meow?”

“I will let you be for just one hour. If you perform well in the new transactions in the future, I will give you a one-hour Representative Theo ticket.”

“Good, meow! Please call me that one more time, meow.”

“Representative Theo.”

“Hehehe. Please do it one more time, meow.”

“Representative Theo.”

Theo was happy that he could sit in the Representative’s seat even for just an hour. Theo hurriedly settled down on Se-jun’s lap.

“I also want to eat Churu, meow.”

“Alright.”

Se-jun pulled out a Churu and held it out in front of Theo.

“Slurp, slurp, slurp.”

To think he was even feeding him, the Representative was indeed good.

Stroking the head of Theo, who had completely come around, Se-jun talked about a new business utilizing Theo’s portrait rights. It seemed that a way to bring in items from outside would appear sooner than expected.

There were two ways that items from outside entered the tower.

One was vanishing. In this case, one could bring the items they were holding directly into the tower. However, since no one knew when and where they would vanish, and they would be summoned to the 1st floor, transactions ended right there.

The other was items brought in by Awakened Hunters when they entered the tower.

When a hunter entered the tower, they could only bring in about 1kg of goods. Items were excluded from the weight limit. And when leaving, they could carry things out without limit.

The things hunters usually packed when entering the tower were hunter phones, which were smartphones for hunters, and simple snack foods.

A hunter phone was an essential item that hunters always packed because of its solar charging function considering the tower’s environment where the sun was always up, and its short-range communication function with team members, along with the functions of existing smartphones.

“Although they can’t bring in much due to the weight limit, they will pack simple seasonings or coffee. Do you understand? Employee Theo?”

“Huh? What do you mean, meow? And why Employee Theo all of a sudden, meow?”

When Se-jun’s touch stopped, Theo, who was dozing off while eating Churu, asked.

“The hour is up.”

“Already, meow?”

Disappointed, Theo came out of Se-jun’s arms while holding the remaining Churu. Theo had misunderstood that sitting on Se-jun’s lap and receiving strokes was a privilege of the Representative.

“Next time, bring a useful item. Then you will become Representative Theo again.”

“Understood, meow!”

At that moment,

“Theo, but how are you able to go to the 38th floor without fighting monsters?”

He had been curious sometimes, but he tried not to care.

He did not want to pay attention to the outside. Because he couldn’t go out anyway.

So he was trying to ignore it, but when the thought of obtaining items from outside arose, curiosity about the outside burst out unconsciously.

“That’s because I have a traveling merchant license, meow.”

“Traveling merchant license?”

“Yes, meow.”

Theo said proudly with both hands on his waist.

To maintain the traveling merchant license, a high membership fee had to be paid to the Traveling Merchant Association every year.

And as the rank went up, the membership fee that had to be paid every year also increased. Instead, the benefits received grew that much larger.

Traveling merchants who paid the membership fee were protected by the Traveling Merchant Association and could use various convenience facilities. That was why they were not attacked by monsters.

“Then, Theo, can’t you bring the hunters here?”

“That is impossible, meow. Monsters only refrain from attacking traveling merchants, meow. On top of that, hunters cannot use the merchant passage, meow.”

“Merchant passage?”

“Yes, meow. It’s a shortcut that merchants take, meow. The merchant passage also requires a traveling merchant license, meow.”

“Shortcut…?”

“Yes, meow. Coming from the 38th floor to here in five days is impossible unless it’s the merchant passage, meow.”

“What floor is this?”

While asking, Se-jun realized his mistake. He asked something he should not have asked.

“It’s the 99th floor, meow.”

Theo replied in a bright voice.

“What?!”

In the end, he found out the thing he least wanted to know.

“It’s the 99th floor here, meow. Didn’t you know, meow?”

Theo was confirming the blow, kindly telling Se-jun once again in case he had misheard.

Se-jun had felt relieved that Theo went to the 38th floor in five days.

He had thought that if Theo, who couldn’t use waypoints, could make a round trip in ten days, this place was only a few floors away from the 38th floor.

So he had asked without much thought… but he was completely caught off guard.

His motivation, for new clients or anything else, vanished.

While Se-jun stood blankly like that for a moment,

“Slurp, slurp, slurp.”

“Se-jun! My weekly wage is burning, meow!”

Theo, who was quietly licking the remaining Churu, urgently called Se-jun at the smell of the burning grilled fish.

“Huh?! Oh!”

At Theo’s cry, Se-jun regained his senses.

‘No! Get a grip, Se-jun Park!’

Nothing had changed. He had only found out what floor this place was.

Se-jun pulled the grilled fish away from the fire as he calmed himself down. He suffered a minor burn on his hand while pulling the grilled fish out, but he did not even feel the pain.

And he thought of another breakthrough.

“Theo, is it possible for me to become a traveling merchant?”

According to Theo’s words, if he only became a traveling merchant, it meant he could safely go down the tower.

However,

“You cannot become one, meow. Only beings born in the tower can become traveling merchants, meow.”

The breakthrough blocked once again.

“Damn it! Damn it!”

Se-jun shouted in anger at the reality where nothing went his way.

“Hic! Why are you… Hic! meow?”

Theo, startled by Se-jun’s shout, hiccuped. The rabbits and poison honeybees were no different in being startled.

The rabbits perked up their ears and looked at Se-jun with round eyes, and the poison honeybees also flew around in all directions, busily flapping their wings. Even the Queen Poison Honeybee poked her head out of the hive to inspect what the situation was.

“Whew. Sorry for shouting.”

Se-jun apologized to his cave family. Still, shouting calmed his heart down a little.

And Se-jun made a decision.

“I will eat well and live well here!”