As Long as You Have the [Shop] Skill, the Dungeonized World Is a Breeze ~The Bullied Youth’s Payback

Chapter 16 – Door-to-Door Sales

“Nice to meet you. As I mentioned earlier, my name is Kaiba, and I am a door-to-door salesman of food ingredients.”
“H-Huh… door-to-door sales of… food?” (Man)
The man asked on their behalf. They clearly seemed to be on guard. Well, that was no surprise. In this day and age, no one would go out of their way to sell food. But the only way to gain their trust was to keep talking to them.

“If you don’t mind, I would encourage you to take a look first. How does that sound?” (Kaiba)
“In that box?” (Man)
“Yes. Now then…” (Kaiba)
I slowly opened the cooler box. Inside, there were a large amount of food ingredients, including fish and meat.

“It certainly looks like food, but… are you selling this? I don’t mean to be rude, but I think it would be better if you ate it yourself.” (Man)
“Your opinion is without a doubt, correct. I have connections with a number of food companies, so I buy pre-processed meat and fish and sell them door-to-door. The reason for this is simple―to make money.” (Kaiba)
“M-Making money?” (Man)
Of course you would be surprised. But this is only the start.

“Currently, the value of money has hit rock bottom. It may even be considered worthless. However, I believe that one day, Japan will… no, the world will recover again, and the value of money will return to its previous state.” (Kaiba)
“But that…” (Man)
“Naturally, that is a mere possibility, but that possibility cannot be so easily dismissed.” (Kaiba)
If my words had even a little merit to them, then they wouldn’t be able to easily argue with this point. After all, the probability of such a thing happening couldn’t be confidently declared as zero.

“I am doing this business with the intention of collecting a large amount of money for that day. Well, another reason is that such a surplus of food would go bad if I were to indulge in it alone. Since I have it, I may as well make use of it to earn money, gahahaha.” (Kaiba)
What the hell is this persona… I wondered to myself, breaking out into a cold sweat.

Was I too shady…?

“Then if I pay you for this food, you’ll give it to me?” (Man)
“Yes. It’s not just cash. I will also accept suitable barter in the form of precious metals or other valuable goods.” (Kaiba)
“I see… It’s certainly a profitable business method, as long as you have an abundance of food on hand. But… the risks are high.” (Man)
Exactly. There was no guarantee that the economy would return to normal. If this world continued towards the apocalypse, this business would instantly become worthless… no, it would amount to an enormous deficit.

To put it bluntly, it would be a foolish act. But that was exactly why those who wanted food would try to take advantage of my foolishness.

Money was no longer necessary either way. As long as they could get food in exchange, anyone would try to do such a thing.

“May I see what food you have on hand?”
The woman who had been silent up until now spoke. I gave them permission, responding with ‘please go ahead’.

“…It all looks really fresh. I can’t find a single thing wrong with it. You can’t get your hands on such fine quality ingredients nowadays.” (Woman)
“It’s natural for me to only prepare the best for my customers.” (Kaiba)
“…Is there no rice?” (Woman)
This was Japan after all. Rice was something that Japanese people never wanted to be short of.

“I do have rice. I can bring it to you right away.” (Kaiba)
“…How many kilograms of rice can you provide?” (Woman)
“If you want it right now, about 30 kilograms.” (Kaiba)
“Ooh, yes! We were just about to run out of rice! Can we buy some, dear?” (Woman)
“Yeah, of course. At least judging by the food he has on hand, he seems to be a decent salesman.” (Man)
….As I thought, this business could work. It was profitable, without a doubt.

“So would you be willing to buy from me?” (Kaiba)
“Yeah, we’re in a bit of a bind, actually. We have quite a few children, and they’ve been eating a lot. I have some connections and have been purchasing foodstuffs from them, but it was getting pretty difficult for them. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to ask you to come and sell to us regularly.” (Man)
“Of course, I would be much obliged. However, please understand that I am also in that very business.” (Kaiba)
“I understand. I’ll get you as much money as you need.” (Man)
“Thank you very much. I will be back shortly with the rice.” (Kaiba)
I said this and left, promising them to come back in 10 minutes.

I bought a 30-kg bag of rice, packed it in a cardboard box, and put it into the cooler box that I had originally brought with me. Then, I went back to the Ishibashi’s residence within 10 minutes.