Only I Am A Reader



The first thing Leo did was visit a low-end clothes shop. After making sure there were no cameras, he picked out an outfit at random before going into the changing room and coming out as a completely different person!

The look that Leo chose was a visual mix between his face as Baekho and Yong's, maintaining a sharp look with a hint of ferocity. He also adopted Baekho's black pony-tail tied hair.

'I guess I still need the lenses.'

One thing that perplexed Leo was that the Skin Altering Technique didn't seem to be capable of changing his eyes on Earth despite it working more than once back in Murim.

Such peculiarity piqued his interest, but time was too tight to look deeply into it. For the time being, he used his blue lens to keep his eye color uniform.

'Goodbye Leo, and hello Tiga.'

Reversing the naming situation, Leo walked to the next public bus station before getting on.

Although it was the weekend, shady places never truly took a break. The chance that someone would come dropping their score at any time made things worth it.

During the vacation when he roleplayed as a vigilante, Leo had already searched and read up about many illegal outlets so he could track one of the criminals who funded his stunts using stolen goods, that information just happened to come in handy.

'It shouldn't be too complicated.'

There were two approaches that stolen jewelry stores or pawn shops took. Either keep the place looking so busy that no one would suspect anything, or make it far too quiet that the occasional customer's entrance made sense.

The place that Leo was heading to was a quiet one, for no other reason than it being at a moderate distance from his home, not too far and not too close.

While he might have completely changed his looks, Leo still took extra precautions so that it wouldn't be possible to pinpoint his home based on the place he visited.

He still didn't want to get into any problems with the law while the scope of his abilities was still so limited, especially when he didn't actually steal anything.

'I'm sure there is no World Customs Tax as far as I'm aware.'

Most importantly, judging by the kind of place he was going to, Leo was already expecting trouble. He could handle himself quite easily, but he didn't want to get his family involved.

Ring…

After an hour and a half of changed rides and detours, the bell tied to the Jewelry Store's door let out a hum as Leo pushed it open and went in with a little backpack on his back.

"Hello, what can I do for you today?"

"I was looking to sell these."

Without further ado, Leo took his backpack off and opened it up before pouring its contents into the counter.

'Oh!'

Almost two dozen golden bracelets laid bare in front of the bald storekeeper!

"How much do you want for them?"

The storekeeper didn't bother to ask where such a great bounty had come from. He hadn't tested them yet but his eyes could almost tell that they were real, so he immediately wanted to see if he could scam the kid in front of him!

If the kid spouted a random low number like a pushover, then he could take his time testing everything so he could lowball him even further!

"Shouldn't you test them first? Do I look that trustworthy?"

Unfortunately, Leo was anything but a pushover. He wasn't going to overprice his stuff and take more using his strength. However, he had no plans of getting scammed today.

"Ah right, pardon me. My memory isn't good these days."

The old storekeeper took out a handkerchief to wipe his shiny forehead before getting the testing kit. It only took a few minutes to do the Scratch Test for all the bracelets, but checking the carats using the Acid Test took more time.

"22k gold?"

Just by knowing how many carats the bracelets were, the storekeeper could tell that this wasn't the original shape that this gold came in. The lack of stamps made even more sense now.

"So, how much will you give me for those?"

Leo didn't wait for the cunning old man to think before flipping the question back on him. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

"15 grand?"

"Sure, but that only gets you that much."

Seeing that the storekeeper was still trying to trick him, Leo split the pile up, leaving only 15 bracelets. However, just as he was about to put it back into the backpack…

"Wait! Why are you in such a hurry? I wasn't done calculating everything."

The storekeeper took one more gaze into Leo's eyes before deciding to give up. If he could, he would just take everything without paying the kid a single penny, but they had a reputation that they had to keep.

Leo had come in with a minimal estimation of 1k per bracelet, and he wasn't going to go any penny lower!

'My reserves are limited.'

Although this was just a portion of what he had gotten from the Sword Continent, Leo hadn't been able to exchange the wealth that he had in Murim since he was a little tight on points this time around.

Naturally, he wasn't going to waste his money just to satisfy the shady storekeeper's greed.

"Hmmm, in total, I can give you… 23k. Before you say anything, I'm not going any higher, this is a fair price!

"Sure, that much would do."

"Uh… Give me a second."

As if he was just toughing it up, the storekeeper took a second to swallow back the rest of the words that were on the tip of his mouth before finally opening the register and counting the money.

"Here you go. Twenty-three thousand, no more no less."

'You are probably going to lose it soon anyway.'

"Thanks."

Ignoring the storekeeper's insidious smile, Leo stuffed the money into the backpack before marching out of the door in silence. There were still a few things that he…

"Hey, mister. Mind sharing a little of that with us?"

'... Seems like free errand boys have come.'

It looked like Leo was finally having his first chance encounter back on Earth!