After finishing the deal with the female doctor, I, Lee Ju-seong, had my blood drawn at the medical facility.
Then, I took the blood bags divided into six pouches and headed to the hall.
The hall was providing various basic supplies.
Sweet red bean bread and milk.
A blanket to cover myself at night and a styrofoam mat to lay on the floor.
It was an incredibly simple composition, as if telling me not to expect quality from the free supplies.
I approached the copper mask staff member who was distributing the supplies and stated my business.
"Food, a blanket, and a mat. Please give me one of each."
The copper mask staff member nodded without a word and placed the supplies in front of me one by one with standardized movements.
The emotionless movements were reminiscent of a robot.
It would have been a relief if the composition was merely shabby, but it was even worse than that.
The supplies distributed by the organization were not new products.
The bread and milk had an expiration date of today.
The blanket held the scent of many years, and the mat was dirty with unidentified stains.
Even after encountering the low quality, I conveyed words of gratitude.
"Thank you. Good work."
At the words I threw out with a smile, the copper mask staff member, who had been as motionless as a machine, flinched their shoulders.
Who wouldn't know that my gratitude was a pretense.
However, it was also true that someone who was at the bottom of life, burdened with debt, and had ultimately flowed into a place like this, shouldn't have the mental state to express gratitude even as a pretense.
There was a faint hint that they found my appearance, which differentiated me from the others, to be fascinating.
After offering my thanks and turning around, the sight of other players came into view.
Mouths sticking out like a duck's beak.
Hazy gazes that lacked focus.
Behaviors like scratching their bodies vigorously due to stress-related habits.
Everyone seemed like water balloons packed with dissatisfaction, as if they would burst immediately if touched.
"Is this milk spoiled?"
"What is this blanket? Ugh, the smell! Just how many years has it been used?"
"This stain on the mat... could it be blood? Or...."
Throughout the move to the gym, people complaining to themselves appeared one after another here and there on the playground.
They had been holding it inside the hall, fearing that the copper mask staff might hear.
It seemed the rumor that someone attacked a masked staff member at the shopping mall and died while vomiting blood from every hole in their body had already spread widely.
You must not attack organization members!
It effectively instilled a fear of the organization, just as the organization had intended.
I quietly crossed the playground while holding the sour-smelling blanket and mat in my arms.
'If you want to escape a poor environment, you have to spend money. Above all, the fact that you can easily feel a sense of superiority by spending money is huge. It's an environment that perfectly stimulates the tendencies of debtors thirsty for ostentation.'
Ostentation.
It's a word that has no connection with me.
Ostentation is ultimately the desire to receive attention.
As someone who has lived in indifference my whole life, I can say for certain that gaining 'petty attention' doesn't even make a dent.
The kind of ostentation that can be filled by spending money in units of millions or tens of millions just feels insignificant.
Honestly, 100 billion won isn't enough either.
So, I'm thinking of extracting a prize amount out of the organization that far exceeds the existing total prize money.
If it's me, it's possible.
If it's me, who has obtained the ability I wanted.
While drawing up a grand plan in my head, the Money Watch screen turned on and a message appeared on the LCD.
Ding!
[Doctor : I'll stop by the gym in a little while. If anything annoying happens, I'll leave immediately, so keep that in mind.]
I couldn't send messages to others with this Money Watch, but I could receive messages sent by others.
I was the only one among the players who knew this fact.
Of course, on the surface, I had made it look as if the female doctor... the woman I agreed to call Doctor for convenience, had told me.
I chuckled after sensing the aloof nuance permeated in the message.
'Playing hard to get. I didn't know because she hardly appeared in the drama, but she has a personality just as brazen as the dealers, doesn't she?'
Waiting secretly for one hour in the corner of the gym after work.
That was the requirement I presented to the Doctor.
It cost as much as 2 million won to buy one hour of her time.
Her own worth, overtime pay, and the price applied to players being tenfold... she set the allowance by presenting her own logical basis.
Examination fee 500,000 won, Doctor's compensation 2 million won.
With the expenditure of 2.5 million won, my possession of money had decreased slightly.
[Current Balance : 67.5 million won.]
Inside the gym, where I arrived after moving, a musty air was lingering.
Players were laying out their share of mats.
The fact that they were laying out mats along the edges of the gym was impressive.
It was a movement reflecting the psychology of not wanting to have anyone behind their backs as much as possible.
I laid out my mat at a position slightly biased to the left from the center of the gym.
"...."
"...."
"...."
There was not a single person talking.
A silence mixed with fear and murderous intent floated through the wide space.
They had participated with a game-like mindset, but after feeling directly with their skin that all of this was reality, they had begun to change their perception.
Among those who had tried using their abilities in actual combat, those who clearly recognized their own limits were quickly attempting undercover operations.
Some people went out of the gym quietly in small groups of three or five.
Soon, 'crews' voluntarily created by players will be formed here and there.
I exercised my excellent peripheral vision and identified the number of people inside the gym.
'The number of mats laid on the floor is roughly 100. If I include the players who chose to stay at the hotel and the players who bought ship tickets, the survivors would be roughly 120-130 people.'
Time had reached a point where it could be called night without any lack.
A crescent moon was out today, and it was particularly dark as thick clouds intermittently swallowed the moon.
The lights on the gym ceiling turned on, and yellowish illumination faintly lit the interior.
January's voice flowed out from the indoor speakers installed in every corner of the gym.
[Players who have safely survived the first day, first of all, I will offer my congratulations. From now on, I will inform you of the sleeping procedures. In this facility, the time from 22:00 to 06:00 the next day is designated as sleeping time.]
January's announcement continued for about 10 minutes.
Although the explanation was dragged out as he added various rhetorical flourishes, it could be compressed into three lines if summarized simply.
The location where you can lay a mat and sleep is limited to inside the gym.
The shopping mall will be operated at night as well, but the price is double that of the daytime.
The next game is scheduled to be held at 10 AM tomorrow, and entry will be in a completely different way from the existing first-come-first-served method.
That was it.
Once it was officially confirmed that it was now sleeping time, players covered themselves with blankets and closed their eyes one by one.
Even though it was a situation where no one knew what might happen when or where, it was impossible to spend the night with eyes wide open when there was another game tomorrow.
Let's spend at least the first night quietly!
As if a tacit agreement had been made among the players, an atmosphere of everyone spending the night quietly was formed.
However, there was someone who did not permit a peaceful night.
The gym door was pushed back strongly and made a loud noise.
Bang!
The gym door opened as if exploding, and an echo rang out.
Through the gap, a man with blue hair and a nose piercing walked in while performing a shoulder dance.
His laughter was like a blade, and the energy he emitted was beyond madness, it was violence.
"Oh~! The night is deepening, you fools of Money Game! Did everyone earn a lot of money today? Or, did you fail?"
Putting an arm around a skinny youth near the entrance and talking as if they were close, or grabbing and shaking the shoulder of a middle-aged woman who had just fallen asleep to wake her up playfully, and so on....
He repeatedly touched the players' tempers with behaviors that lacked etiquette.
A middle-aged man who woke up because of Yoon Ji-ho shouted in anger.
"Hey, you bastard! You annoyed people by doing all sorts of things during the day, and now you're making a fuss at night too? Do you think you're the only one who knows how to use an ability? Get lost if you don't want to die!"
Yoon Ji-ho climbed onto the podium while performing a bizarre dance that was neither a musical nor ballet.
While making a laugh like a crazy person, to put it bluntly.
"Hehehe! Hehe~ he! Whew, so scary. You must be angry because you couldn't earn much money? But I earned 600 million? 600 million in just one day! I'm saying it's 600 million!"
It was Yoon Ji-ho, excitedly bragging while openly revealing the amount he had earned.
The players, who heard the specific amount, glared at Yoon Ji-ho with bloodshot eyes.
There are a few things that a person should never do, and one of them was 'don't deceive others with money.'
Is there a reason why people say not to brag about cars, houses, or stocks for no reason.
Let alone bragging about money in a place where only the people most sensitive to money are gathered, it wouldn't be strange even if he were stabbed right now.
But Yoon Ji-ho was a crazy person beyond imagination.
"Hey, it seems you can't believe it? Will you believe it if I do this~."
In Yoon Ji-ho's hand, a shopping bag was held.
On the front of the shopping bag, the brand name 'Luxury Restaurant' was printed.
While everyone else was eating sweet red bean bread, he had not only eaten a grand meal by himself but even had it packed.
But what was truly important was the content of the shopping bag.
Yoon Ji-ho grabbed the bottom of the shopping bag and swung it widely toward the bottom of the podium.
The contents came out as the shopping bag drew a large arc.
What came out was banknotes.
50,000 won bills, reaching at least four digits, scattered in the air and fell here and there in the gym.
The players, their eyes rolling at the scattering banknotes, went around picking up the money.
"M-M-Money!"
In an instant, everyone's eyes rolled.
"Move! I'm first!"
"Get out of the way, it's all mine!"
Those crawling on the floor, those throwing punches while pushing each other, those clutching bundles of money like crazy.
It became a pandemonium mixed with curses, screams, and cries.
The appearance of envying and being jealous of Yoon Ji-ho until just now could no longer be seen in those picking up the money.
Yoon Ji-ho looked down at the players crawling on all fours and laughed hysterically.
"Hehehe, hehehehe! Kyahahaha!"
The scattered banknotes were roughly 2,000 bills.
Throwing 100 million onto the floor right away was already out of one's mind.
The terrifying thing about Yoon Ji-ho was that he didn't scatter it thoughtlessly for entertainment purposes.
Around the time the players had picked up most of the banknotes, Yoon Ji-ho's face suddenly changed into an expression as evil as a devil.
"You guys. Do you know what my ability is?"
At the significant remark, all the players stopped their movements.
There was even an illusion as if someone had arbitrarily pressed the stop button and stopped time inside the gym.
Yoon Ji-ho's words continued.
"My ability is the ability to explode currency, you see? The more expensive the currency, the greater the explosive power. With the amount I just scattered, it would be enough to blow all of you away and then some, right?"
Even knowing they were explosives, the players could rarely throw away the banknotes in their hands.
Even knowing it was an object leading to death, the magic of money was so great that they couldn't throw it away because it was a waste.
Yoon Ji-ho brought the thumb and middle finger of his right hand together, getting ready to snap his fingers at any time.
"I'm telling you in advance, don't even dream of doing anything stupid. If I snap these fingers, you all die."
They had picked up the money happily, but the reality was that they had transported the banknotes evenly throughout the entire gym.
In fact, it was no exaggeration to say that Yoon Ji-ho held the lives of everyone in the gym.
A few players, frightened beforehand, attempted to leave the gym.
"H-Hieeeek! I-I don't want to die! Why do I have to risk my life again when I barely survived the game!"
"D-Dealers! There's a crazy guy here! I'm telling you there's a crazy guy! Your test subjects are about to be annihilated, aren't you going to impose any sanctions!"
Yoon Ji-ho snapped his fingers in the sense that he would not permit escape.
Then, a single banknote that had fallen on the floor emitted light, and an explosion occurred.
Boooom!
The power of the explosion was intensive and powerful enough to pulverize five or six people on the spot.
Those who were trying to run away were bounced back and fell to the floor due to the aftermath of the explosion.
The performance conducted as an example produced a profound effect.
Although the injuries were not serious enough to lead to death, the miserable state of a few players, who were left in a wretched condition with floor debris embedded in them, was enough to instill fear in the rest of the players.
Yoon Ji-ho looked down at the terrified players.
"If you want to live...."
A smile spread across Yoon Ji-ho's mouth.
"Hand over ten million won per head. Right now. Here."
His fingers moved as if dancing in the air.
"You can't pay? Then... one by one, kaboom! You know what that means, right?"