Chapter Text
“What?” A person asked as they suddenly found themselves in another place.
One blink of an eye and suddenly, they were in a theater-like room.
…with an angry Lee Sa-young who looked like he was going to choke Jung Bin.
“Shit!!” Many people screeched as they moved to the other side of the room, anywhere, as long as they were far far away from the poisonous S-grade Hunter Lee Sa-young. Some even jumped over each other, hopping on the chairs and people’s heads, hoping that the S-grade Hunter wouldn’t literally be breathing out poison yet.
“Guild Leader! Calm down!” Bae Won-woo shouted, instantly jumping up to his feet to play peacemaker. Bae Won-woo could sort of guess what had happened considering how the entire guild was (were supposed to be) currently rushing towards Incheon Port under their guild leader’s orders after the sudden ranking change, but this was a bit too much. Especially because there were currently civilians (his beloved bestest favorite restaurant’s owner, the part-timer, and a little girl) in the room. “Now’s not the time! And we have civilians and low grade hunters here!”
Thankfully, Lee Sa-young easily snapped out of his mood and also noticed the others in the room as he scanned their change in surroundings. His eyes narrowed upon seeing hunters he knew were in very far apart regions also in the room and then lingered on the hangover soup restaurant part-timer for a moment.
But Lee Sa-young returned his gaze back to Bae Won-woo and his guild members that had gathered cautiously but faithfully upon seeing his earlier strong killing intent calm down to much more bearable levels.
“Seo Min-gi.”
“Yes, Guild Leader!” Seo Min-gi appeared out of the shadows instantly with a salute.
“Report. What happened? Where are we?”
“Wellll, even I don’t know that.” Seo Min-gi sheepishly answered as he scanned the room once again. “I was on the way to pick you up from Incheon Port, but the driver seat I was in suddenly became a theater seat.” Seo Min-gi’s eyes narrowed in contemplation as he held his chin. “I would say that we were dragged into a rift, but it’s unheard of for a rift to target individuals that are not even close to each other. Even if the West Sea rift had opened, it would only target Incheon the surrounding region and not people.”
“But it targeted people, didn’t it?” A blue haired man – the Mackerel – spoke up, eyes glimmering with intellect even as he shielded his shyer and lesser known twin from view from the others in the room. Even though the room was filled mostly with his regulars, it wasn’t well-known that the Mackerel were twins and the younger Mackerel didn’t look like he liked this situation of being dragged out into the open and exposed as twin information brokers rather than a single entity either. “Especially your guild. You have, by far, the most members in here out of all of us. Are you sure you have no idea of what’s going on?”
Lee Sa-young smirked. The Mackerel must be more tense and nervous because of the situation than he showed if he was making subtle accusations like that.
Lee Sa-young almost took off his gas mask to let the Mackerel see what he thought of that, but mindful of the little girl besides the part-timer (the part-timer’s niece, if he remembered correctly), Lee Sa-young instead just shrugged.
“No idea. While we have a lot of people jealous of us for being Number One for so long,” Lee Sa-young huffed a laugh when both Honeybee and, more subtly, Song Jo-heon puffed up in anger. “this kind of targeting is a first.”
“Yeah.” Bae Won-woo loyally nodded, speaking up to support his guild leader and also make his guild leader’s statement more believable. Holding up his hands pacifyingly, he supported. “We have no idea on what’s going on here too. In the first place, is there even a human that can do this kind of thing? Even our guild member, Romantic Opener, can only open a single door connecting two locations at a time. Not for as long as we have been in here either.”
A silence fell on all of them at that. The Pado Guild were the most aware of Romantic Opener’s capabilities and this was exceedingly far beyond that.
Kidnapping over fifty people from different locations and transporting them seamlessly into a room without any of even the S-grade Hunters’ awareness?
“It’s probably the system.” Hong Ye-song gave his input from where he had remained sitting in a theater seat… with a ceramic chicken. Rooster, to be exact, but all of them decided to ignore that for the sake of their sanity. “Did the system really break?”
“Yeah!” Honeybee shouted, suddenly reminded of just moments ago. “First, the error with J and now this?! Is the system broken?! Hey, system, answer us! Where are we?!”
Surprisingly, a white screen did appear before all of them.
[Would you like to check your current location?]
“Seriously?” A person whispered. “Since when had the system ever answered any of our calls?”
“Would it answer us if we ask more questions right now?” Another hunter asked bewilderedly and Lee Sa-young could see Nam Woo-jin’s eyes narrowing in contemplation.
But before Nam Woo-jin or anyone else could try, many people demanded.
“Tell us!”
And the system sent them a new window.
[Location: Memorial Dungeon (Creator: ???)]
All of them stared. A Memorial Dungeon? What did that mean? And what did it mean by Creator and the question marks by it?
Sure, a dungeon had to be formed by something, but this was the first time it had ever been mentioned that a dungeon had a creator.
Someone created a dungeon? And trapped all of them in it?
“Uncle?” The little girl, the only kid in the room, broke the silence, tugging at the part-timer’s sleeve. “What’s a Memorial Dungeon?”
The part-timer looked a bit discomforted by the attention that her words inadvertently drawn to their group of three, but began to answer,
“I don’t know…”
He didn’t need to say anything, however, as the system decided to be generous today and give them the answer.
A new screen appeared.
[Memorial Dungeon: A space recreated based on someone’s memories.]
No, seriously. What was up with the system today? First the ranking change and now this?
Testing their luck, a hunter cautiously asked,
“So, uh, system? What’s the clear condition?”
But this time, even though the system gave another answer, the system’s answer was unhelpful.
[It varies depending on the dungeon.]
It was unknown whether the system was unhelpful in its reply because the person asking this time wasn’t a cute little girl or not, but no one looked at Lee Sa-young who had momentarily leaked some of his irritation to the world.
The weaker hunters of other guilds, who had immediately relocated themselves to the other side of the room from the beginning, were glad that they weren’t anywhere close to the annoyed hunter.
“What about this one?” A hunter asked instead, sweating and hoping that the system would be more helpful this time to prevent all of their possible deaths from being stuck in an enclosed room with a poisonous S-grade Hunter. “What are we supposed to do in this dungeon?” Looking around, there didn’t seem to be any monsters to fight and kill.
Instead of answering, the system sent a notification.
One that didn’t sound so good.
[The dungeon has finished being restructured.]
[Warning! All entities are to sit down. The system imposes a penalty of weakness for those standing for longer than five seconds.]
[5…]
Surprisingly faster than anyone else, the ‘civilian’ part-timer startled and ushered his grandmother and niece to sit in the chairs next to him.
Everyone else reluctantly sat as well, the hunters blinking when finding the chairs surprisingly comfortable even to their Awakener senses, but still discomforted because of the odd circumstances that made them naturally want to stand on alert.
They still had so many questions, but if the system sent a notification that the dungeon… was done being restructured (restructured? From what? How? Why? Into what?), then it likely meant that the dungeon was going to truly begin… And that wasn’t really a good thing. Just like how it wasn’t exactly good to disobey the system’s warning, especially when they didn’t know how bad the penalty of weakness would be.
Lee Sa-young huffed as he sat down, the Pado Guild members surrounding him doing the same.
In the rather large room, he could see those he recognized from the Awakened Management Bureau sitting together and everyone else organizing amongst themselves to sit with their friends and affiliates as well.
Nam Woo-jin and, surprisingly, only the marionette an Italian puppeteer had once given him were the only ones from the Seowon Guild. They looked around before choosing the seats closest to Pado Guild. It just so happened that the area around the Pado Guild was the most empty, most people choosing to sit away from Lee Sa-young just as Lee Sa-young himself preferred it.
“Tsk. I would have liked to ask more questions.” Nam Woo-jin muttered under his breath as his puppet sat next to him.
Lee Sa-young couldn’t help but think that he would have liked to melt the entire room down and see if they could escape the dungeon that way. He still wanted to check on the West Sea rift, watch the area a little longer and get the research data. His fingers tapped impatiently against the armrest of the theater seat. If it wasn’t for the little girl, he would have already done it.
“J…” Lee Sa-young thought, eyes narrowing on the ranking window he still had opened. “If this takes too long, I’m going to melt this dungeon.” He growled under his breath, making many around him and the room flinch.
“Um… Guild Leader… think of the children…” Bae Won-woo tried pointing out as he sweated from the intensity of his guild leader’s aura.
“Yeah! The granny and the children, Guild Leader!” Kang Ji-soo frantically added, flailing her arms. She knew her guild leader had killed people before, but she did not want to see ordinary civilian melt in front of her eyes. The little girl was so cute. And although she wasn’t a Hangover Soup Ghost like Bae Won-woo, the part-timer was such a good cook! It would be a waste to the Korean cultural world for him to die here!
“We have enough gas masks and poison resistant clothing in our inventory.” Lee Sa-young scoffed dismissively.
“Not the point, Guild Leader!!!” Many of the Pado Guild members cried.
Though they knew he wouldn’t do it, they couldn’t help but reach into their inventories to pull out their personal gas masks just in case. Everyone around them looked jealous.
Nam Woo-jin scoffed, not even bothering though he had a gas mask in his inventory, a necessity when dealing with that young guild leader, as well.
And then the lights suddenly dimmed, making all of them silence again. Before they could look around for potential monsters appearing out of nowhere though, the large movie screen in front of them suddenly turned on.
[Episode 1: Prologue]
All of them stared.
“Wait. What. Is this really a movie theater? Is this dungeon really going to show us movies?”
“What kind of dungeon is this?!”
“Episode 1 of what?” A hunter asked, sounding a little hysterical. “How many episodes are we watching? Of what show? What kind of shows does a system even watch? Since when was the system even into TV??”
“The system’s really broken isn’t it. What kind of dungeon plays movies instead of sends out monsters?”
Many people began talking over each other, so dumbfounded by the words on the screen, but only one Hunter growled at the sight of the words.
“Waste of my time.” Lee Sa-young growled, his energy flaring a little again. He was not interested in watching a movie or series of shows when J was possibly outside. “I’m going to destroy this dungeon after all.”
But before they could panic and try to stop him, the movie screen continued playing… And all of them stared as those who frequented a certain restaurant could recognize the supermarket front being shown on the screen.
And recognize the person that appeared from the local supermarket soon afterwards.
[“Thank you! Please come again!”
With a cheerful voice from the employee, the automatic door of the supermarket opened. A young man wearing a gray hoodie and carrying a strawberry-patterned shopping bag filled with various ingredients headed towards the bus stop.]
All of them gaped, even those who didn’t know about the hangover soup restaurant turning to the person in the room wearing that exact same gray hoodie.
“Isn’t that…” A hunter began to whisper, but was elbowed by another hunter as most everyone could see the part-timer’s stunned and pale face.
“It’s Uncle!!” The little girl shouted regardless, oblivious to the shock and growing anxiety of her uncle. “Uncle, look! You’re on TV!”
“Y-yeah…” The part-timer barely managed to respond to the happy little girl tugging on his sleeve and pointing to the screen with awe and excitement. “I guess I am…” He sounded not anywhere near as enthusiastic as his niece.
“But why the part-timer?” A hangover soup restaurant regular asked to his fellow hunters and hangover soup restaurant comrades.
“Could… Could this be a documentary on the legendary hangover soup restaurant?!” Bae Won-woo suddenly exclaimed in excitement, causing many more hangover soup restaurant regulars to shine in reverence and awe. “I just knew everyone in the world would come to appreciate hangover soup! But to think even the system-“
“Please shut up.” The part-timer mumbled under his breath though every sensitive Awakener heard it.
Though Bae Won-woo did in consideration of his favorite part-timer, his eyes still shone as he stared at the screen, completely forgetting that he was in a dungeon under unknown circumstances.
Kang Ji-soo shook her head and felt a little pity towards the part-timer. Poor guy… He didn’t look like he liked attention and nothing was possibly creepier than suddenly appearing on a screen in a dungeon for everyone currently here to see. No, seriously, did this mean that the system was stalking and recording this poor guy? Wait… It said that it was a memorial dungeon created by someone… Was there something else doing so? A true Hangover Soup Ghost?
Though still annoyed at the potential waste of time, Lee Sa-young’s lips curled a little. He wasn’t going to do any more investigation on the part-timer than he already had, especially after having said his piece to him the other night after the Tomato Market incident, but maybe he could find out a little more about the mysterious unregistered Awakener.
Meanwhile, Cha Eui-jae was dying on the inside, mentally squirming from being seen on the screen and worried about what might be shown. That damn system… It wasn’t going to expose him, was it? Was this revenge for not clicking the damn button to claim his rewards from the ranking change earlier? Was this the system’s revenge?!
Unfortunately, he couldn’t show any of his thoughts on his face. Not with Park Ha-eun so excited next to him. He didn’t want to dampen her excitement, especially when they were in a dungeon that could become dangerous at any random moment. It was better for her to remain happy… though he wasn’t sure how long her happiness would last. Cha Eui-jae didn’t think his life was anywhere near interesting or exciting enough to be watched for long. He thought his current life was relatively slow and boring – nice for him, but not exactly television material.
As if correcting him, a warning that was familiar in this age of dungeons and rifts were heard from the screen.
[“A rift has appeared at the intersection, and traffic is being controlled. Please cooperate.”]
Cha Eui-jae tensed…
[The young man tilted his head at the unfamiliar scene unfolding on his usual route. Someone wearing a fluorescent yellow safety vest over a suit and a yellow safety helmet was blocking the passage, waving a red flashing baton. Over their head, the entrance of a shimmering blue rift was visible.
Below it, hunters were desperately fighting monsters that had squeezed through the rift.]
…before untensing, mentally sighing in relief that it wasn’t one of the times that he was the one secretly dealing with a monster on the way back from the supermarket.
This was better. Watching other hunters fight monsters was a lot more interesting than watching him do so.
Perhaps the system would focus on that.
Cha Eui-jae hoped.
[“Kyaaaa!”
“Ugh! Not yet?”
“Just a little more…!”
A lizard the size of a car swung its spiky tail fiercely, emitting a bizarre cry. A hunter with a shield blocked the attack, but the lizard, excited, thrashed its tail around wildly, as if sweeping the surrounding area. The hunter barely managed to fend off the relentless attacks and cursed.
“Damn it, die! Fireball!”
A bright red flame engulfed the lizard. Seizing the moment of hesitation, another hunter shot an arrow at the lizard. The arrow pierced the lizard’s eye, causing it to writhe in agony and scream.
“Kieeek!”]
While Park Ha-eun watched with excitement, cheering on the hunters fighting the big lizard, Lee Sa-young snorted at the scene.
“Weak.” Lee Sa-young drawled. “Does it really take that long to deal with a lizard?”
“Please do remember that not everyone is an S-grade Hunter, Lee Sayoung.” Jung Bin pleasantly defended the low rank Hunters and Rift Management Bureau members in the room. “Though…” Jung Bin contemplated as he stared at the hunters fighting on the screen in consideration. “It might be good to offer more practical combat classes to fighters.”
Although it was combat classes mentioned and not academic classes, many Hunters couldn’t help but groan at the thought of more classes. Weren’t the 60 hours of classes for the Hunter Exam enough? Why was it still increasing?
[“Wow, that was awesome…”
“Do not approach the barricade!”
“I’m gonna record it for YouTube Shorts.”
“Yeah, I’m already doing that.”
People stood a little distance from the barricade, filming videos and watching.]
“Ohhhh, I hate it when people do that. What about not approaching the monsters and running away from danger do they not understand?!” Yang Hye-jin, the A-grade Hunter from the Rift Management Bureau, groaned, her colleagues joining her and bemoaning some civilians’ lack of sense of danger.
“Ha-eun,” Cha Eui-jae looked down at his niece seriously, “Never copy them. When you see monsters, you run away and hide at a shelter.”
“Ehhh, but-”
“You listen to him, young lady.” Her grandmother agreed, staring down at her granddaughter with a strict look.
Park Ha-eun pouted but agreed. “Fiiiine, I will, Grandma.”
“Good girl.” Her grandmother said satisfied though she still casted a little look of suspicion towards her granddaughter. To be fair, her granddaughter didn’t have a very good record of staying still.
[The young man, not joining the commotion, walked briskly. The strawberry-patterned shopping bag swung as he moved.]
Lee Sa-young yawned, feeling bored. What. Though he expected it, the part-timer wasn’t going to do anything? Maybe he should melt down the dungeon.
Meanwhile, Yang Hye-jin beamed as she watched her favorite restaurant’s part-timer walk away from the scene. As expected of the part-timer! What a model civilian! Everyone should be like him-!
[As he stepped into a deserted alley, he encountered a gigantic figure blocking the narrow path. A purple toad was rummaging through a pile of trash and turned its head sharply toward the young man, sensing his presence. A long green tongue flicked out of its mouth, snatching up an empty plastic bottle and swallowing it. It was clearly a monster that had leaked from the rift.]
All of them stared before some of them stood up instinctively.
“What?! Isn’t that a Swamp Toad?!”
“Shit!! Is the part-timer going to be alright?!”
“Every hangover soup restaurant regular gather around!! We must form a bodyguard group to protect our part-timer!! How could we have allowed this to happen?!”
“Protect the part-timer!!” One hunter roared, making his way over to the other regulars, before suddenly slumping. “Oh, wait, why am I suddenly so tired?”
Other hunters also slumped, making some of their nearby colleagues realize and pull them back down to their seats.
It was then obvious to everyone that it was the penalty for standing longer than five seconds.
“It’s not that bad.” Nam Woo-jin observed, critically scanning each person’s body and how they seemed to have recovered after a little bit of rest in their seat.
And quickly recover they did, especially when they all were still determined to protect their innocent, amazing part-timer from all dangers in the world! Without him, who would manage the restaurant?! They all knew the grandmother was getting old! If the part-timer was gone too…!!!
Meanwhile, Cha Eui-jae wanted to hold his head, cover his face, shrivel up and curl in a corner. He was hoping that his movie self would do something else, but it wasn’t looking so good because Cha Eui-jae knew exactly what he would do when faced with a low-grade monster in an alley.
Shit…
“Uncle? Are you going to be alright?” Park Ha-eun asked, eyes shining in worry and fear unlike earlier when the hunters had fought the lizard. Her hand trembled as she held his sleeve-
-And Cha Eui-jae sighed, wrapping his arm around her in a hug that she was all too eager to reciprocate as she burrowed herself into his side despite the armrest between them.
Cha Eui-jae wanted to complain and curse, but he couldn’t worry the little girl next to him.
“It’ll be fine.” He grumbled, still feeling a little annoyed and bitter at the system even if he didn’t want to show it to the little girl. “Don’t worry.”
“Okay.” Park Ha-eun mumbled into his hoodie.
Regardless of what they all had to say, the screen, that had momentarily paused at their interruptions, continued.
[“Damn those rift management guys. Can’t they do their job properly…”]
Yang Hye-jin didn’t care that she was part of the people he was cursing as she too teared up and cursed at herself and her colleagues for not being there for the part-timer.
Not the part-timer!
Was this the future?! Was the system giving them all a chance to rescue the part-timer in the future?!
Although the system had never given them a warning about someone’s impending doom before, good job system for letting them know about this one! The part-timer must not die!
Many hunters mentally agreed with her as they watched the screen intensely, glaring at the toad that was going to be made into toad stew in the future once they got their hands on it.
That is, until-
[The young man grumbled, rummaging through his shopping bag and drawing out something long like a sword. From the soft curved tip to the straight stalk and the solid root at the bottom.
In his hand… was a fresh green onion.]
Uh. Although they were all planning to avenge him already, was the part-timer not going to at least run away…?
Uh, part-timer, why are you holding a green onion stalk like a sword against a Swamp Toad?
This was the common green onion from the grocery store that could be snapped in two even by a toddler, right?
[The toad croaked and turned towards the young man. Each step of its heavy legs shook the entire alley like an earthquake.]
“I can’t watch!” Someone covered their eyes. Whether it was from secondhand embarrassment or fear of seeing a civilian get eaten was unknown.
Park Ha-eun shrieked, but knowing he had nothing to fear from a Swamp Toad, Cha Eui-jae decided not to cover her eyes.
…But maybe he should cover his own eyes from his impending doom (of being discovered).
[The young man carefully set down his shopping bag, skillfully twirled the green onion, and gripped it firmly. Then,
He leapt onto a trash can lid and soared like a butterfly—
Whacked the toad’s head with the green onion!
Bam!!
The clear, sharp sound of impact echoed loudly in the alley. The toad, unable to even let out a death cry, flipped its eyes and trembled all over. Sadly, the center of its head was deeply indented in the shape of the green onion.
The young man caught his breath and dusted off his hands. As the hoodie slipped off from the recoil, his cool face was revealed.
“Green onions are expensive… What a waste.”]
“…”
“…”
“…………….”
While Lee Sa-young, one of the only ones in the room who knew that the part-timer was an Awakener, snorted, Cha Eui-jae gave in and held his face with a free hand.
[He squatted in front of the toad, stuffing the remnants of the green onion into its mouth with his bare hands while taking out his phone. After some time, when someone answered the call, he spoke.
“He- Hello… There’s a dead monster in the alley here. It looks like a hunter killed it and just left…”
The young man’s voice trembled at the end, as if he were scared and even on the verge of tears. However, unlike the voice that seemed as if it would faint at the slightest touch, his current actions were indifferent.
“This is the alley going to Deukero Mart… The monster? It looks like a toad, but it’s too big and gross to see clearly. Please handle it. Yes, no need to contact me… Uh, you’ll be here in 5 minutes? Thank you, no problem. Yes, thank you…”
The young man sniffled and ended the call. Even after hanging up, he remained crouched, shoving the green onion pieces into the toad’s wide-open mouth. Despite claiming the monster was too gross to look at, his eyes were fixed on the toad.
Five minutes until the hunters arrive.
‘It’d be troublesome to encounter them.’
The young man stood up and erased his footprints from the trash can lid. The toad seemed to have died instantly with only the green onion-shaped dent in its head as an injury. With no other traces left, it would be hard to track down the person who dealt with the monster.
Having cleaned up the evidence, it was time to flee. The young man picked up his shopping bag, lightly bounced a couple of times in place, and reviewed the phone call he had just made.
‘…Should I have sounded more shocked when I reported it?’
Well, it was too late to regret it now. The young man easily jumped over a wall taller than himself.]
“…………………….”
All of them gaped, staring and pointing at the screen.
“Uncle! Uncle, uncle! You’re so cool!!!” Park Ha-eun, the first to snap out of her shock, shouted, throwing her arms up in a cheer and then around her uncle in awe and happiness that he was alright. He defeated the ugly toad!! He even killed it in one hit with a green onion! That was so cool!! Even better than anything that she had watched on Youtube and TV!! “Can you teach me how to do that?!”
“Haha… ha…” Cha Eui-jae said weakly as he hugged her back. “I don’t think I can…” Park Ha-eun would have to awaken first.
“Did you just… Part-timer, you were an Awakener?!” Many people, his restaurant regulars, shouted. “Were you an Awakener this whole time?!”
“That strength and skill… Are you an unregistered Awakener?” Jung Bin asked, narrowing his eyes in Cha Eui-jae’s direction.
Cha Eui-jae sweated. Although it was half-shown on the screen, he still wanted to deny it. His mind thought up excuses rapidly, going through many possible things to say. Although he remembered this happening already, there was no mention of a date in the screen so maybe… “No? I think this can be the future.”
Cha Eui-jae sweated as they all stared at him in silence. Then he mentally sighed in relief when most of them believed him.
“Our part-timer awakens in the future!!” Many restaurant regulars cheered, throwing their hands up in the air, especially after having been scared for the part-timer’s life.
“I just knew that he was going to be strong!” Team Leader Han grinned as he elbowed his fellow colleague and restaurant regular. “I told you he was going to be good! Look at how he already has a sharp eye for who tries to sneak more than two soju bottles at once.”
“As expected of our part-timer!”
“Look, Guild Leader! That’s the guy I was telling you we should recruit after he Awakens! Defeated a fourth-grade monster in one hit!”
While others cheered, those who did not know the restaurant and were more skeptical, asked, “But is it possible for the system to know the future? And be willing to show it to us with, as we know so far, little penalty?”
Nam Woo-jin, who had the color bleached out of his eyes for trying to surpass the system, agreed, staring at Cha Eui-jae with a frown.
“While there are other worlds…” Nam Woo-jin mumbled under his breath, looking to a certain high school girl sitting next to Jung Bin. “The future?”
“Well, who knows what’s going on with how new everything in this situation is!” Hong Ye-seong said after looking around and then at the part-timer in the room. Holding up a pen he had retrieved along with a notebook from his inventory, Hong Ye-seong beamed. “But that was fun to watch! A green onion! What if I make the next S-grade weapon a green onion!”
“No matter what you see on TV, please don’t.” Jung Bin let go of his wary gaze towards Cha Eui-jae to turn and dissuade the master artisan. “Please do not copy what you see on TV at home.” He repeated, incidentally sounding like the spokesman of a public service announcement he was.
Cha Eui-jae secretly agreed, hoping that the guy wouldn’t and no one would hate him if he did make one of the few S-grade weapons… a green onion.
While Cha Eui-jae also heard that bit about ‘other worlds’ from Nam Woo-jin with his S-grade hearing, Cha Eui-jae was more concerned about what he was going to do if the movie showed more and exposed him.
…Was there nothing he could do?
Cha Eui-jae desperately looked for a boss monster to defeat. No one died yet so it wouldn’t matter if he defeated the boss monster and caused the dungeon to collapse, even if it was actually a rift.
Unfortunately, there was no monster in the room.
Well, there was a dangerous S-grade hunter still looking in his direction, but Cha Eui-jae was a little relieved because didn’t being revealed as a ‘potential’ Awakener here mean that the deal couldn’t be done? Lee Sa-young needed an unknown Awakener and now he wasn’t unknown. While this also meant that Lee Sa-young wouldn’t introduce his grandmother to Nam Woo-jin, maybe Cha Eui-jae could secretly talk to the doctor when the room was distracted by something else or the doctor would take pity on his grandmother and offer to look at her leg?
Though Cha Eui-jae wasn’t sure why the hunters in the room were making such a big fuss. Wasn’t a Swamp Toad weak? How did defeating one make one seem like a strong Hunter? It only took one hit from a green onion. He didn’t even have to pull out the celery or radish in his grocery bag. Surely, even a D-grade Hunter could do it.
As if answering his thoughts, the movie surprisingly changed perspectives.
[“Is this the right alley?”]
“Hey!” Yang Hye-jin beamed and looked up. “Isn’t that my voice?”
[“Yes, it is!”]
“And mine.” Her colleague looked bewildered. Once he had thought about theater and becoming a stuntman with his Awakened abilities, but he never would have thought he would be on a screen at some point in time after having given up on the thought and becoming a civil servant.
[A few minutes after the young man leisurely disappeared, two people arrived at the scene— a man and a woman wearing fluorescent vests over their shirts. The urgency on their faces melted away upon seeing the toad’s corpse.
The woman, Yang Hye-jin, an A-grade hunter from the Rift Management Bureau, gasped as she looked at the toad with its tongue sticking out.
“Wow, this is insane.”
“Why, ma’am? Let me see… Whoa.”
The newcomer, who had followed closely behind, was startled and whispered to his senior.
“Wow… Can someone really take down a swamp toad this cleanly, ma’am?”]
“Not just cleanly, but with a green onion.” A person in the room commented, still stunned by that. Seeing a Swamp Toad get defeated so cleanly was amazing, but seeing it happen was another story.
That part-timer-whatever-dude was seriously amazing. It was the first time he had ever seen a monster defeated in an instant without leaving any blood or traces. Even Honeybee, who targeted vital parts of a monster with her rapier, would leave blood! And of course, Lee Sa-young, who melted his opponents, would at least leave a black spot or puddle on the ground.
But the only thing the Swamp Toad had was a small green onion tip-sized dent on its head!
Yang Hye-jin nodded… until she realized. “Hey! Wait a minute! I remember this-!!”
“I do too!” Her rookie partner said with wide eyes as they both looked at each other and then at the part-timer who was sweating imperceptibly.
“It’s not the future?!” They shouted.
“No, I think it is. It could be another toad that you are thinking about.” Cha Eui-jae stubbornly attempted though inwardly he was sweating buckets and thinking rapidly on more potential excuses.
[Trait: Poker Face (B) activated.]
No one was easily dissuaded.
What other toad would be defeated this cleanly? How many hidden experts could there be in this world??? The others in the room couldn’t help but think, though most of them gave the guy some benefit of doubt.
Well, if it was the future or not, they would probably soon find out because the episode didn’t seem to be anywhere close to being over yet.
[“It doesn’t make sense. This thing was taken out in one hit. If you’re even slightly off in timing, it sprays strong acid everywhere. It’s a nightmare, melting buildings and people alike…”]
Many hunters nodded in agreement. None of them, except maybe Lee Sa-young, liked monsters with poison or acid attacks and this monster was particularly troublesome because of it.
Some hunters shuddered as they remembered the wreckage and bodies a Swamp Toad would leave on its trail.
Even worse, some hunters held certain parts of their body, remembering when they got sprayed on before. Fortunately, potions existed nowadays, but Song Jo-heon especially shuddered as he remembered being a second too late and getting sprayed in the olden days.
Horrible.
[“It’s really impressive.”
The newbie, once again in awe, straightened his yellow safety helmet that had gotten crooked in the rush. Yang Hye-jin, with a sharp look, inspected the surroundings and gave instructions.
“Check if there’s any trace left. Someone this skilled is no ordinary person.”]
Cha Eui-jae couldn’t help but stare a little in denial and shock. Really? Surely, this could be the act of an ordinary hunter. The toad that Yang Hye-jin and that newbie already met in the past could surely be the corpse of another hidden hunter!
He did a normal thing. He wasn’t going to be found out.
[“Yes, ma’am!”
The newbie rummaged through the trash can and the surrounding garbage.
“Whoever did this… They did it so cleanly that the post-cleanup isn’t difficult.”
“Right. It’s so clean we could donate this to the monster research team. I wonder why such a skilled person didn’t dispose of the body and just left.”
Speaking sarcastically, Yang Hye-jin put on white gloves and opened the toad’s thick mouth. Toad-type monsters swallowed anything that touched their tongues and spat out poison or strong acid. A helpful toad, like in fairy tales, was a unicorn in reality.]
“Do you think there’s a toad monster that you can kiss and it becomes a princess like in the fairy tales?” Park Ha-eun asked suddenly, making some people laugh at her innocence. There was no such thing as a monster becoming human, but that would be funny.
“…Wait.” A hunter just realized. “That wasn’t something Yang Hye-jin-ssi said. Is the system-dungeon-whatever also going to have our thoughts displayed?!”
And then many of them realized that even earlier, the part-timer’s thoughts were also thought aloud. They hadn’t noticed because they had thought that he was just speaking to himself again, but those were thoughts as well!
While Cha Eui-jae mentally cursed and felt even more nervous, trying to think back to what he might have been thinking in the past and seeing if anything was incriminating (an impossible task because even he couldn’t remember any of his thoughts), many hunters looked at him with pity. What an invasion of privacy. They decided to give him a little more benefit of doubt… though they were honestly starting to agree with Yang Hye-jin and her junior that this was probably… not the future if they could remember it.
No other hunter could kill a Swamp Toad that cleanly. They didn’t think there would be such a person in the future besides the part-timer either.
“Was that how the part-timer always caught them expert hunters when they tried to sneak extra soju bottles?” Some hangover soup restaurant appreciators began to wonder with wide eyes.
[In any case, it was necessary to check thoroughly as the toad might have swallowed a person on its way from the rift. Yang Hye-jin took out a flashlight and inspected the inside of the toad’s mouth.]
Jung Bin and some other senior management members nodded as they watched Yang Hye-jin go through the correct procedures even if outwardly everything seemed alright.
[Fortunately, she found no human remains, just a few partially melted plastic bottles. Relieved, she sighed.
“Looks like it didn’t swallow any people…”
Meanwhile, the newbie, using a radar-equipped device to scan the alley, called out to Yang Hye-jin with a distressed look.
“Ma’am, whoever took down this toad must be a real pro. There’s no trace left.”]
Quite a number of hunters perked up.
“Seriously, none? Then it really was just pure strength?” They asked with wide eyes. They really couldn’t imagine anyone else taking down a Swamp Toad with a green onion with just their strength.
Not even one ability was used?
On the screen, the movie Yang Hye-jin was in similar disbelief.
[Yang Hye-jin, dusting off her hands, tilted her head.
“They must have used their ability, right? No trace of it? Look carefully.”
“I’m looking! But there’s no sign of any ability or any trace. Nothing at all.”
“What, did they take it down barehanded?”
Although she accidentally guessed close to the truth, unaware of this, she shook her head.
“Phew, must be another of those hidden strong ones. Why are there so many hidden powerful hunters? Cartoons and novels have ruined everyone.”]
Cha Eui-jae sweated as he felt people’s stares. He swore he was not trying to be like a cartoon character! He was genuinely trying to live a quiet life!
He was not chuuni!
[After turning off the flashlight and getting up, Yang Hye-jin stretched to relieve her tired body.
“Anyway, a 4th-grade monster came out, but it didn’t eat anyone or destroy any buildings, so we should be grateful. Let’s take the toad and head back. You write the report today.”
“Yes, ma’am. Who should I list as the one who dealt with the monster?”
“List it as unknown.”]
Unknown to Cha Eui-jae who mentally sighed in relief thinking it could be over, Yang Hye-jin eyed the part-timer and decided not to tell her partner to go back and correct the former listing from ‘unknown’ to the part-timer. For all the delicious hangover soups she ate in the past, she would give him a little more benefit of doubt.
But a fourth-grade monster with an acid ability being defeated in one hit by a newly Awakened one in the future… Hmmm… It would take hangover soup to convince her a little more…
[“Understood. By the way, ma’am…”
“Yeah. What?”
The newbie, looking awkward, asked.
“Do you smell green onions?”]
Lee Sa-young snorted as he noticed the part-timer he had been keeping an eye on this whole time stiffened. Idiot. If he really did want to stay hidden, then he should have just tossed the green onion somewhere else. Who told him to put it in the toad’s acidic mouth? Everyone knew that when you boiled an onion, it smelled. While green onions were less smelly than regular onions, to an Awakener’s senses, it was almost no different.
Meanwhile, Cha Eui-jae was having regrets. He sadly made a note to not get rid of edible evidence the same way ever again.
[“…Now that you mention it?”
Sniffing around for a while, Yang Hye-jin shrugged.
“Maybe the toad picked up some green onions off the ground. Anyway, we’re going to have dinner together after work, right?”
“Yes. The usual place?”
“Yeah, the hangover soup restaurant.”]
Some people snorted at how the two Rift Management Bureau workers were unknowingly heading towards the culprit behind the Swamp Toad corpse.
Others were excited to see the hangover soup restaurant. Ahh, how much they wanted to go to! Just hearing those three words gave them cravings. Like Pavlov’s dog, they couldn’t help but drool and dream of eating more hangover soup. It was just too bad it didn’t seem like there was a kitchen in this dungeon.
But after however many episodes there were, maybe they could all go!
They’d even ignore the part-timer’s sus status (or pay the fine for him) if they could eat it! After all, how could they have their part-timer arrested and waste time away from the restaurant. Not reporting his status wasn’t that bad of a crime compared to many other things people did since the Day of the Rift.
They could overlook this one for the sake of hangover soup.
[At that time, in an old, decades-old hangover soup restaurant…
—I’m against this marriage!
—Father! How can you say that!
—Actually… You two are siblings!]
“Oh! I know this show! Couple Clinic: Love or War!” Some of the older generation nerdily identified as soon as the screen changed scenes to the restaurant.
“It’s been so long since I watched it.”
“The twists are so over the top and cliché, but somehow it’s still fun and addicting.”
“Maybe I’ll watch it again after this.”
[“Oh dear…”
The old brown TV was showing a rerun of ‘Couple Clinic: Love or War’ on a cable channel. Someone, sitting in the prime spot where the screen was clearly visible, was peeling garlic with their eyes fixed on it.
—Don’t scold the kids! You’re no saint either!
—Mother-in-law, don’t intervene! This is about my child’s marriage!
—I never intended to reveal this secret, but given the circumstances, I have no choice. The truth is… we’re siblings too!
“The mother-in-law and son-in-law are siblings?”]
The older generation hunters snickered while the younger generation hunters were wondering what they were listening to.
Nam Woo-jin sighed. This really wasn’t his choice of entertainment. Though it had been a long while since he had watched anything, he preferred medical and detective dramas over this.
While Lee Sa-young also didn’t like these kinds of dramas, he couldn’t help but snort a little at the way the part-timer had said that. The utter shock in his voice when the mother-in-law revealed that was oddly amusing.
For some reason, the part-timer’s reactions were almost always fun to watch. Just as fun as the graceful way the part-timer had taken down the toad, unlike the horrible fight before that between the amateurish hunters and the overgrown lizard. It made him forget a little about how much he wanted to go outside the dungeon to find J. There was just something about the part-timer that always drew his eyes.
[The busy hands dropped the garlic they were holding. Without paying attention to the next scene, the person came to their senses to find a bald lawyer declaring, “See you in four weeks,” and announcing a mediation period. The hands, which had been stiff as stone, only started to move again with a rustle after a few commercials had passed. Once a considerable amount of garlic peel had piled up, the body that had been sitting down stood up straight.
“Taking out the trash~”
The voice, humming a tune while looking for the trash can, was slightly low but pleasing to the ear. The figure walked across the hall with long strides, although he was significantly taller than average, his head did not quite touch the ceiling, so there was no difficulty in moving.]
Some restaurant go-ers nodded their heads. The part-timer’s voice really was soothing. Listening to him take their orders and hand them their meals was like listening to ASMR. It was so pleasing after a long day hunting monsters in the dungeons.
Going to the hangover soup restaurant made them appreciate again that they were alive. It made them appreciate the normalcy that seemed to disappear after the Day of the Rift changed everything but had somehow not disappeared in the decades old traditional hangover soup restaurant.
They wanted to ask the part-timer to speak again but knew that the part-timer wasn’t the kind of person that liked a lot of attention on him. A pity. Sometimes, they thought he could easily make it as an idol.
[The young man, having thrown out the garlic peels into the trash can, glanced at the clock. There was still a little time left before the evening shift began. His gaze drifted to one corner of the shop, and he momentarily frowned.
“Ah, I should have hit it with something else…”]
Some people couldn’t help but cough or laugh. Did the part-timer only just realized that now?! A normal person would never think of using a green onion stalk to hit a monster in the first place! Especially not a fourth-grade monster! And yet, to think, he was only mourning how he didn’t have more green onions for the store…
“Wait! Does that mean that day we will have no green onions in our hangover soup?!” Bae Won-woo asked in horror. He liked green onions!
Some other restaurant go-ers were also in belated shock and horror, but one person quickly spoke up.
“No, wait, this isn’t the future, remember? It’s likely the past if Yang Hye-jin and her rookie remembers the toad-”
“Shh!!” A hunter jabbed him, giving an exaggerated nod to the Awakened Management Bureau. “Do you want our part-timer to get fined?! Do you not know how big the fine is nowadays?! What if our part-timer goes bankrupt and the restaurant goes under?!”
More gasps of horror echoed in the room, proving that his whisper-shout was not at all silent, especially when most in the room were Hunters.
Jung Bin smiled as if he was not the one most hunters were looking at in horror. “Unfortunately, as a public servant, I can’t make exceptions or promises of deals if you confess now instead of be caught later.”
While many hunters cursed at the public servant hunter, Cha Eui-jae sweated, mentally cursing, having hoped that everyone would have forgotten about earlier. He re-activated his Poker Face trait.
[Trait: Poker Face (B) activated.]
“It could still be the future.”
Jung Bin was not the only one to look at the part-timer with pity, but he nodded pleasantly as if he agreed.
“It could.”
“Just like how Honeybee could get a higher rank than Gyu-gyu.” Someone surprisingly said in a bitter voice.
“HEY!!” Honeybee shouted, pointing her rapier at… one of her guild members with a face flushed with red. “I was really close! Like this close! I was so close to finding out who that person with the magic stone was to get my S-grade weapon from Hong Ye-seong!”
“My magic stone!!!!” Hong Ye-seong suddenly shouted at the reminder, wailing and causing those around him, particularly his bodyguards, to groan and mutter things like “Not this again”, while some of Honeybee’s fellow guild members surprisingly mutinously mumbled about the enormous amount of resources and time and effort they had placed into finding a lead only to not have found the magic stone at all.
To her credit, Honeybee was more embarrassed about the trouble she caused to her guild than truly angry.
Though she was peeved because damn, she wanted to beat Gyu-gyu.
The only good thing about the dungeon so far, besides the awesome skill the part-timer showed against the Swamp Toad, was that Gyu-gyu was the only ranker in the Korea rankings that was not in the dungeon.
Ha! That guy just got excluded and was missing out! Wasn’t missing out on much, but still missing out! That’s what he got for not staying in Korea!
Obviously, the system said NO to traitors to Korea!
There might have been another reason why Gyu-gyu wasn’t here with them, but Honeybee angrily cursed at the ranker in her mind, pouring all her frustration and rage from sleepless nights spent on that photograph of a magic stone on the missing ranker.
Meanwhile, Cha Eui-jae sweated profusely and hoped, hoped, hoped the system wouldn’t reveal anything about the magic stone. He didn’t remember when he had defeated a toad in the alley (he defeated a lot of monsters, okay?! Damn rift management guys never doing their jobs!), but hopefully, however many episodes of his life the dungeon wanted to show, the magic stone wouldn’t appear.
Cha Eui-jae ignored the way Lee Sa-young watched the chaos languidly and then huffed, returning his eyes back on his back.
He really didn’t know that it would become such a big deal! In fact, how was it still such a big deal in here?!
…But hopefully, this would cause people to forget his earlier stunt? It seemed to. And maybe the dungeon would take pity on him and only show one more episode of nothing and let them all out. Seeing himself work in the restaurant just reminded him that he still needed to finish taking out all the trash.
[With a sigh, the young man tidied up the area where he had been sitting and headed toward the door. He took down the break time notice and casually tossed it to the spot he had been eyeing earlier.
[Ingredient preparation time from 2 PM to 5 PM.]
Underneath the haphazardly discarded sign lay a crumpled strawberry-patterned shopping bag, completely empty.]
When the screen turned black for a prolonged period of time, signifying the end of the episode, Cha Eui-jae hoped that if he was one of the main characters, nothing but his ordinary life would be shown.
He didn’t like the idea of documentary anything, but please be a hangover soup restaurant documentary like Bae Won-woo suggested earlier if he was going to be forced to watch it with the others in the room.
(His prayers were never answered.
And although Cha Eui-jae didn’t like agreeing with Lee Sa-young, he also thought many times of punching the theater walls with his fists and destroying the room to see if that could be a way out.)