Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 231

Chapter 231

In the years before the Black-hearted Merchant came to Gray Mist Town, back when the little town was home only to its honest, simple natives, people made their living by going out to sea and fishing. They were self-sufficient, settled, and content.

The Gray Crystal in the mines had not yet been discovered by the outside world. Few people ever set foot there. Towering mountains rose in endless layers, shrouded in thick fog all year round, and sunlight could not pierce the dense canopy of those ancient, sky-piercing trees.

The Bandits’ stronghold was hidden within.

They were criminals from the outside world who had fled here after breaking the law. The Bandit Leader in particular was said to have once led a rebel army. After losing a battle, he could no longer survive out there, so he hid himself deep in the mountains.

He had a vicious face, and the bloody stench of years of slaughter seemed to cling to him.

In the past, the townspeople would go up the mountain to pick up pretty stones and sell them nearby. But after the Bandits arrived, anyone who dared venture into the mountains was killed on sight.

The Bandit Leader made the heads of townspeople into wine cups to drink from, strung skulls together as necklaces to hang around his neck, and would even come down the mountain to abduct beautiful young women… The townspeople could neither eat nor sleep in peace, and finally decided they had to deal with the Bandits.

Although the Bandit Leader burned, killed, looted, and committed every evil imaginable, he was extremely loyal to the brothers who had lived and died alongside him.

In autumn, when the trees withered and the mountains were filled with deadwood, several townspeople who had been robbed by the Bandits bought petroleum and explosives from the Chemical Factory and set the entire mountain ablaze.

The fire burned upward from the foot of the mountain.

The Bandit Leader led his brothers and fled toward the summit.

In the end, his brothers gathered around him and shielded him at the very center. Every last one of them was burned to death in that night’s inferno, and only he walked out alive from the ruins, stepping through sparks and embers.

He wanted revenge.

He rushed down the mountain, seized the people who had set the fire, flayed them, and made their skins into a Leather Drum. He beat the drum to console the spirits of his brothers in heaven.

But his bloody, brutal methods brought an even fiercer retaliation from the townspeople.

The townspeople issued a bounty to the outside world.

Wandering adventurers who came for the money captured the Bandit Leader, bound him hand and foot, and handed him over to the townspeople.

Those residents hated the Bandits to the bone.

The young and strong no longer dared go up the mountain to pick up stones. Their children would stop crying in terror at night the moment they heard the Bandits’ name. The pretty girls in town did not dare grow their hair long, for fear they would be kidnapped and taken up the mountain.

The townspeople wanted to smash the Bandit Leader’s head in with stones.

They wanted to trample his Leather Drum to pieces.

They shouted that he should be hanged from the Clock Tower.

A stone with an unusual sheen rolled to the feet of an Outsider Merchant. The merchant from afar watched the scene with great interest, then paid a heavy sum to ransom the Bandit Leader.

Although the townspeople hated the Bandits, most of them loved money even more. After all, the damage the Bandits had caused was limited; only a handful of families had truly suffered blood feuds.

They had vented their anger, most of the Bandits had burned to death, and taking some tangible benefits was the smart thing to do.

The merchant took the Bandit Leader away, let him recover from his injuries, and helped him bury his dead brothers.

After the mine was consumed by fire, the mountain became barren. It was as if the place had been cursed; not a single blade of grass grew there. After a rainfall washed away the ash covering the ground, glittering Gray Crystal Ore was revealed beneath.

The merchant bought those mountains at a low price, then hired the townspeople to mine the ore.

But those ores seemed cursed.

The people who had picked up stones before had never gotten sick.

Yet ever since that great fire, the Miner laborers who entered the mountains began contracting a strange illness.

Mist Lung Disease spread like a plague, impossible to bring under control.

Some said the burned Bandits had returned to claim lives.

Others said this was the price of greedily taking from the mountains.

The Outsider Merchant did not believe any of that.

Relying on that Gray Crystal Ore, he made an enormous fortune.

The recovered Bandit Leader had already lost his stronghold. To repay the merchant’s kindness, he helped the merchant watch over the mines.
To get rid of the large number of sick Miners, the merchant ordered the Bandits to blow up the Mine Tunnel after the mountain had been hollowed out.

He not only buried the sick Miners, he also deceived the Bandits and buried every last one of them inside the Mine Tunnel.

As boulders came crashing down, the merchant left with his fortune. All the blood and tears were buried beneath layer upon layer of rubble, never to see the light of day again.

As for the group of Miners who had fallen ill earlier but had not yet been dealt with, the merchant worried they might cause trouble, expose the ugliness of what had happened, and affect the price of Gray Crystal Ore.

Dealing with the dead was always simpler and faster than dealing with the living.

The merchant partnered with a local chemical plant and, under the pretense of arranging follow-up work for them, placed that group of Miners whose conditions were steadily worsening in the factory.

That was what led to the chemical plant explosion later on.

The Miners had been squeezed dry.

And then they gave birth to little beasts of burden of their own.

The children who lost their parents became a headache for the town.

After leaving the chemical plant, the Library Director saw enormous profit in those children. He put on a kindly face for the outside world, adopted them, and then took out massive insurance policies on each of them.

To show just how much he loved the children, he gave every adopted child a glittering Gray Crystal Gem.

When one died, he took the gem back and gave it to the next one.

Those children died in the Library in all kinds of accidents.

He claimed to the outside world that the lingering souls of the children’s parents refused to let them go and wanted to take them along to paradise.

But in truth, the children’s deaths were not natural disasters at all. They were man-made calamities.

The Library Director, who had committed every evil imaginable, received his retribution for it.

He, too, became infected with Mist Lung Disease.

…

This was the beginning of the town’s contamination.

If a Trial-taker wanted an S-Rank Clear, they had to resolve this contamination.

Clearly, that was very difficult.

Gu Huaiwei’s approach was much simpler and more brutal.

The man from the Bandits covered his ears, unwilling to communicate with Gu Huaiwei, who did not need to obey the Rules.

He was a principled member of the Bandits, diligently harming people inside the Instance. When he encountered someone like Gu Huaiwei, who existed as if she had jumped outside the Instance, he could not understand her. All he could do was keep his distance. And then put even more distance between them.

Gu Huaiwei amiably pulled down the hands he had clapped over his ears.

Anomaly beings were already strong to begin with, and on top of that, this member of the Bandits was powerfully built. When Gu Huaiwei tugged at his wrists, she could hear his wrist bones creaking.

She needed to use a little less strength. She couldn’t accidentally snap them.

“Let’s discuss this. Take me and my little friends to pay respects to your brothers, okay? Staying in a cave every day is bad for your mental health. You’ll lose all your sunshine.”

The man from the Bandits shook his head.

So Gu Huaiwei took away his Leather Drum. “Please? Do you like watching singing and dancing? If that won’t do, I can perform a song for you too.”

The man from the Bandits shook his head repeatedly.

He would not listen, and he did not want to watch.

Bai Yuzhen, who had been silent off to the side the entire time, saw that Gu Huaiwei could simply snatch the Leather Drum away. A flash of shock passed through her eyes.

She immediately hummed a little tune, hinting for Gu Huaiwei to beat the Leather Drum according to that rhythm.

“No. You want to listen.”

Gu Huaiwei understood at once. Following the rhythm Bai Yuzhen hummed, she struck the Leather Drum.

The feel of the Leather Drum was extremely strange. Its pores were fine and delicate; it did not feel like cowhide, nor did it feel like pigskin.

As the drumming rang out, the Bandits who had originally been dancing around the bone rack began gathering in Gu Huaiwei’s direction.

The Mine Tunnel started to tremble.

The man from the Bandits stiffened, and the human skull necklace around his neck gave a rustling clatter.

He was probably a little angry.

Although his expression remained rigid, he snatched the Leather Drum back with astonishing speed.