Truth is Owned by The Winner

As the party head out from the bar the party welcome the breath of fresh air that is missing due to alcoholic smell in the bar. Stretching out their body they feel relaxed after a good meal and drinks. They walked to a nearby fountain that is placed near the bar.

"Emery, Inn and Carriage post. Baranda go gather information and I market. Sounds good yeah? Lets meet here near the bar once the sun set"

The party nod and start splitting up. Currently the party did not realized that their movement is being tracked by the four cloaked people that followed them from the bar. They were looking at the party from a little alley.

"Those 3 people are for sure a summoned heroes. We can use them, it is about time the kingdom summoned heroes as well. This time they must be screwing it up as the heroes seems to escape and walking in the kingdom like this. Well its always a good thing for our group" Said one of the cloaked man which looks like the leader.

"How will we split our group up boss ? They seems to have split up, should we go one by one on their tails as a group or should we go split up as the usual procedure. I'm a bit hesitant to go for the red fire guy he seems to be tough" stated Cloak man B.

"We will go on them in 2 1 1 position. Me and #23 will go for the fire man. #21 will go for the boy, #22 you go for the girl. Remember our objective"

Not long after they started splitting up with the leader and #23 going up the roof to follow Baranda, #21 is going through pedestrian route following Sujin to the market and #22 following Emery from the roof as well.

....

[Hm let me see...which is the way to the market] as Sujin walked alone while figuring out the way to market, wouldn't it be convenient if he had map skill Sujin thought to himself. Unfortunately the blessing given to him does not include map function. Sujin shrugged and asked direction from nearby woman.

Arriving at the market Sujin is astonished at the bustling sounds of activity that seems to be endless. He though to himself [I'm in another world, this is so fantasy like. So let me recall what do the light novel said when people got transported like this...ah pickpocket event]

Remembering those fact makes Sujin a bit more careful with his pouch of money, as he browse the market he saw a lot of merchant selling strange color fruit, some weird beast meat, trinkets and odds that he doesn't know the function off, but Sujin is here for one most important thing he need, a skill. He realized that his skill need appraisal for it to work. He does gamble a little bit as he does not know whether this world have skill books or not but its worth the time coming to the market since he could check on other thing on the same time.

Walking around Sujin finally saw a stand where people are gathering sometimes screaming with envy sometimes laughing, he got curious on the source of the sound and went closer to it. There seems to be a bunch of people opening a closed card after paying a merchant money and then they either be happy or sad.

"Looks like gambling, I wonder what is that card" Sujin approached one of the people that is observing the games going on and ask "Excuse me, can you tell me what is that card ? I came from Eastern continent and I never things like this"

"Oh this is called card gambling, you pick a card that contain some picture here and pay a fixed price to the merchant, there is some rare items and a lot of useless items. I heard you can even get a Uncommon Green rated item"

[Oh, a random gacha...I should try once..] Said Sujin internally forgetting his initial task of finding a skill book. Gambling is addiction they say.

"Mr. Merchant how much for one time try?"

"It will be 3 silver for each try, no refund no take back, you take what you get. Don't cry to me if you get bad items but i guarantee a rare items exist here"

[If we follow the template i should be getting some legendary stuff, although i doubt that will happened] thought Sujin, "Sure i'll try once"

"money first"

Sujin daydream for a while imagining what would happen if his <Inequivalent Exchange> is successfully activated with money. As he gave his money to the merchant, he heard no sounds which disappoint him a little bit, but technically the item called money is not used its just traded hence why <Inequivalent Exchange> did not get activated.

Sujin shake away the daydream that he have as his thought focused on the card laid on the ground. He then chooses a card from the top right section of the options. The merchant picked the card and open it in front of him

"Ahhhh...too bad Mr you pull a useless card <Bag of Skewer Sticks> as he laughed and pass the a bag of Skewer made out of cheap looking metal which probably cost the merchant less than what he charge to Sujin.

The crowd behind Sujin also gave Sujin an amused look as they talked with mumbled voiced "another loss. no one won yet so far"

Sujin felt aggrieved and his soul for Gacha seems to flare right now. He knew it is a bad idea to continue doing so as he only has 3 silver left yet it is in the nature of Gacha to gamble. He told the merchant another one as he hands the money on the same time. The merchant smile with glee and he said with pleasure.

This time Sujin pick a card from the middle left row, the merchant once again goes and pick the card Sujin is pointing at before he said "Another bluff Mr, ahahaha let see..Oh a bag of marble" As he handed a bag full of marble with no pattern its simply a small glass bead. Sujin frowned knowing that he blew his money. The crowd once again murmur the same thing.

"OI THIEF ! COME BACK HERE!" as someone from distance shouted to a small shadow running through the market. Due to multiple coincidence the thief hit the card merchant who open a gambling site, it knocked him down his chair due to the accidental impact. "Ah ! Oi you little punk watch your way, damn beast man" As the merchant tries to get back on his feet.

The crowd around the merchant was staring at the ground after the merchant was knocked to the ground by the thief. On the bottom of the seat of the merchant which is covered by his long garment before there is a lot of card stacking. The merchant looks shocked and said to the crowd "its unlaid card ! I'm not cheating !". At this point though a lot of people from the crowd seems to not care on what the merchant said, what they know is this is a chance to blame the merchant for unfair gambling and get their money back or even rob the merchant clean. The end justifies the means and the merchant gave them the means despite the truth of the matter.

Sujin is conflicted inside as he didn't know who to believe. The crowd though start rampaging on the merchant and start ransacking his place while pillaging the content of the stall. I guess the opportunist mentality in this world remains roughly the same and the people who gamble can't be called a role model either. Sujin shrugged and watch the pillaging play on, the merchant who is beside the crowd start crying out his eyes as he felt wronged.

Not long after the guards came with a shout "HOLD IT ! What is this barbaric act ? Care to explain ?!". The people explained the behavior of the merchant on how he run a gambling parlor that cheats, the merchant cried out to protest but what can 1 person do against 20++ people. The guards shake his head saying to the merchant "You should come with us to the barracks". They pull the merchant out of the place despite the desperate plea of the merchant "Please sir, I have debt to settle or else my daughter won't be able to eat..please…please" as the merchant repeat the phrase while being taken away pulled by the guards with force.

As the crowd disperses Sujin who watched the scene with a frowned saw the remain of the stall. Some of the item remains on the ground not taken due to their price or their lack of use. "Might as well as take something I guess, it's not like the merchant is coming back". On the ground there is multiple left overs item

1. Waterbag

2. Rope

3. Little Oil bottle

4. Forks and spoon made out of cheap metals

5. Belt pouch made out of cheap leather

6. Trinkets and odds that made out of shells

7. A weird black necklace with a strange pattern and moss

Well, its better than nothing I suppose as Sujin take items 1-5 while looking at the necklace and trinkets. Sujin entertained himself that a random necklace not taken by everyone from the merchant is a legendary necklace that is usually taken by protagonist in story, he picked it up and look at it for a while smiling to himself [what a childish thought] Still he brought the necklace with him and walk away from the market with an afterthought of the event.

As he walked deeper and deeper in the market area he didn't realized that he walked to a quite deserted market area where the stall owner is Oldman and woman or a beastman. He realized that and turned around to come back to the fountain near the bar since he feels like that he saw all the necessary things in the market and its not like he still have money to spent. As he turned around he saw a man in a cloak in front of him slightly smiling.

"Finally in the right place, that took you look enough" as the cloaked man opened the hood covering the face. Sujin showed a shocked face as he saw the face of the cloaked man who seems to follow him from the bar without him knowing. It was a woman with red hair, golden eyes and a body that looks well grown, with a peculiar green hand and green legs like it was made from healthy vine. "I'm #21 nice to meet you" as she bowed gracefully to Sujin.

"Who are you ? From your words you seems to be following me ? For what purpose ?" Sujin said while readying himself into battle pose as he pick his machete from his common pants. He also did not forget to equip skewer he just got from the market on his left hand.

The girl stay silent and pull out a whip made out of vine, the whip seems to be full of thorn and there is an occasional rose blooming from it. "Let's see what you are made off, other world heroes" As she smiled sweetly to Sujin. Sujin only felt bloodlust from that smile and eerie feeling creeped up on him as he rush towards the girl.

....