Chapter 3
As I stepped outside without thinking.
The familiar road I always took came into view.
“I made it out, but what now…?”
For now, I’d come outside on impulse.
Maybe because I’d rushed out, I couldn’t even figure out where to go or what to do.
“…Maybe I should sit down and think.”
After looking around the roadside for a while, I spotted a bench.
I sat down to rest and pulled the phone from my pocket.
[Hunter Gallery]
[Title: Complete List of Gates Open Today.]
For all you non-awakened Hunter Gallery regulars looking for day-labor gigs hauling stuff around, here are some Gates where you can make a little pocket money.
▶Seoul
▶Gyeonggi
▶Gangwon
▶Chungcheong
▶Jeolla
▶Gyeongsang
Figure out Jeju yourselves.
*Warning* If you’re awakened, you’ll need an Awakened Registration Card for every Gate listed here, so keep that in mind.
Also, all these Gates are under control, so be aware of that. Yeah.
(A black-haired character gives a thumbs-up)
ㄴ Info appreciated
ㄴ Wow, as expected, you’re a reliable source, sir!
ㄴ Heading out to make some pocket money right now
“Ah, of course they need a registration card…”
I’d searched the Gallery for a post like this, just in case.
But, as expected, it wasn’t going to be easy.
On top of that, I’d turned into a woman, so my ID was useless.
Even if that weren’t the case, from what I’d heard, getting an Awakened Registration Card took 21 days—almost three weeks.
And you needed an ID to apply for an Awakening Certificate.
So, two weeks to get an ID. If I figure about a month for the Awakening Certificate…
“Ah, fuck it! I’ll just live as an unregistered Awakened person.”
At least two months. And since I’d gone from not existing to existing, it might take a lot longer for me.
In other words, there was no way I could get a registration card before my quest deadline, which was only a day away.
“Sigh—”
I was, for all intents and purposes, an Awakened person who hadn’t registered my status.
The post said all the Gates listed were under control.
Whether they belonged to the government or a guild,
they were sure to have something like a mana detector on hand.
“That’s a dead end…”
I could probably sneak in somehow if I really tried, but if I got caught, I’d be screwed.
I was already at a loss about what to do.
That was when it happened.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
“Oh…”
My phone screen turned red.
Small letters appeared beneath the two large characters in the center of the screen: EMERGENCY.
“Emergency alert. A Gate has appeared. Please evacuate?”
Judging by the circumstances, it looked like there were signs a Gate was about to appear nearby.
The people around me began scattering all at once.
I got up from the bench and started to follow them away, but then—
“Wait… isn’t this actually a godsend?”
Thinking about it again, this might be a chance to enter a Gate without any of that screening.
And just then.
Rrrrrumble—
“Oh…”
A blue vortex of spacetime, about the size of five people, made its presence known right in front of me.
“Wow… Should I call that good luck?”
The Gate portal had appeared right before my eyes. At a glance, it didn’t look all that dangerous.
The high-rank Gates I’d seen on the news or in Gallery posts had been huge—big enough to fit several buildings inside without seeming strange.
Whoooooosh—
As I slowly approached the Gate, a cool breeze brushed past my ears.
Gulp—
“The Spacetime Storm really is the best!”
Savoring the breeze, I gripped my cheap kitchen knife tightly.
Then I charged straight into the Gate.
Rrrrrumble—!
“Huh? A forest?”
When I crossed the Gate, I found a gloomy-colored forest spread out before me.
I’d just been looking at a forest of buildings, so seeing a real forest laid out before me made my brain short-circuit a little.
“So this is what going through a Gate feels like… I like it.”
As a one-armed Gate porter, I’d never even dreamed of going through one myself.
Maybe that was why it felt even more amazing.
“Whew—so, shall I give this a try?”
I gave my head a quick shake, pulled my hood down, and casually raised my cheap knife.
Honestly, I had no idea where to go or what to do.
But I figured if I just walked around, I’d probably find a goblin or two.
With that thought, I started walking forward without a moment’s hesitation.
How long had I been walking?
“This is boring…”
No matter how far I pushed through the forest, I couldn’t find a single goblin, let alone a slime or anything like that.
On top of that, signals couldn’t get through from inside the Gate, so I couldn’t even browse the Gallery on my phone.
“Ugh, I really can’t stand being this bored.”
Just as my boredom grew so intense that my hands started trembling,
Kerrrk—
“Huh?!”
A hideous creature with green skin, long ears, and a long nose.
A goblin came into view.
‘I-is that really a goblin? It looks so weird.’
The goblins I’d always seen in games, Gallery photos, or webtoons
felt far more unfamiliar in person than I’d expected.
‘No, get it together.’
I had no idea when an Awakened Hunter from the government or a guild might come in to clear the Gate.
I quietly crept toward the goblin, who seemed to be scouting the area, doing my best to keep my footsteps soft.
Kerrrk?
It had a pretty vacant expression.
I approached slowly and silently, and it didn’t seem to notice me.
Looking at the goblin, I recalled the skill description.
‘An ingredient… That’s an ingredient… It’s an ugly green bean sprout with a head.’
You might be wondering what I was doing.
But this was the only way I could use that Hellish-whatever skill.
It was a pretty flimsy method, but the only one my limited brain could come up with.
Self-suggestion.
“…Now!”
Just as the goblin in my mind began to take on the shape of a bean sprout,
Kerrrk—?!
I sprang forward and swung my knife at its neck.
Slice—
Ke…!
“Whoa!!!”
Its head came clean off in an instant, like I’d chopped the head off a bean sprout.
A huge amount of blood gushed from the neck, severed from its head.
Fortunately, I’d jumped back right after swinging my knife and hadn’t gotten covered in blood, but
I felt kind of strange.
That was when it happened.
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have defeated a low-rank monster for the first time!]
[You have acquired 1 free stat point.]
[Free stat points can be used to increase a stat of your choice by the specified number of points.]
[Self-suggestion is insufficient! The skill’s effect has been reduced by half.]
“Oh! There’s something like that?”
Something that could save my pathetic stats had appeared.
Free stat points.
Basically, it meant I could raise my stats by the number of points I had.
As you know, my stats were so abysmal that even one point felt like a welcome rain in a drought.
“Whew… No, more importantly, this skill is kind of weird.”
I calmed my excitement for the moment and looked at the goblin lying in front of me, its head severed.
Judging by my senses, my stats were roughly at the level of a middle school girl’s.
I couldn’t even use mana, and I had so little of it that I wondered if I had any at all.
And yet, with no mana and only my pitiful strength, I’d cleanly cut through bone and flesh like that?
Something about it had felt a little off,
“…There’s something extraordinary about this.”
The idea that I’d only gotten half the effect was ridiculous.
Maybe it was a little ridiculous to get worked up over killing one goblin,
but a strange sort of exhilaration rose in me, raising goose bumps on my skin.
“Ooh… And I can even increase my stats. Heheh.”
The thought of what lay ahead brought out a creepy laugh.
Smack!
“No, calm down!”
For a moment, I’d gotten so caught up in the excitement that I nearly forgot why I’d come here.
There was still one more goblin I had to kill.
I quickly closed the Status Window and
moved on to look for the next goblin.
Kerrrk!
‘Heheh, found one.’
Before long, I spotted a goblin by itself.
Like the one before, it was looking around the forest.
Just like before, I swiftly cut its neck.
Ke—!
Once again, its head came off as easily as the first one’s.
Looking at its neatly severed head, I felt like an incredible expert, even though all I’d done was kill a goblin.
“Yep~ That’s me~”
I was busy admiring myself when
the system window appeared again.
Ding—
[Congratulations! You have completed Quest No. 1!]
[You have acquired the recipe: Special Goblin Head Smoothie (E+).]
[You can check recipes through the System Window.]
“Wha… What? What smoothie?”
I understood that I’d completed the quest.
But a Goblin Head Smoothie?
I had no idea what that meant.
Then the contents of my Status Window flashed through my mind.
“Is it giving me this kind of thing because my class is Chef…?”
My class in the Status Window was Chef.
Maybe that was why I’d gotten a recipe for cooking a monster as a reward.
“No, but still, it’s telling me to make a smoothie out of that…?”
The two severed goblin heads lying right in front of me.
Why were there two?
Well, when I’d killed the first goblin earlier,
I’d taken its head along, just in case.
“Ahem…”
Honestly, I’d brought it along like some sort of trophy from a defeated enemy, but
let’s just move on.
“So how do I do it?”
NEW! [Recipes]
When I opened the System Window to check my Status Window,
I noticed a button labeled Recipes, glowing with an unmistakable presence.
“Oh… Is this the button that lets me see the recipe they mentioned?”
It was shining in rainbow colors, with a pretty tacky effect, but
I could tell one thing for sure: it was important.
Ding!
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
[Recipes]
NEW! Goblin Head Smoothie.
Effect - Permanently increases the user’s Agility by 1.
-Instant Preparation (Skips the cooking process. However, the effect is reduced by 50%.)
-Manual Preparation [Display Recipe.]
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
“This is… good enough to die for, isn’t it?”
I’d thought I’d get something like a potion that gave me a slight buff at most.
But a permanent increase?
It was far better than I’d expected.
“Then I’ll start with that manual preparation…”
I tapped the button that said Display Recipe beside Manual Preparation.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
Goblin Head Smoothie.
1. Separate the goblin’s head from its neck, then place it in a blender.
2. Add a small amount of mana stone powder (20 g) and a drink or yogurt (250 g or ml) to the blender, then blend with ice.
3. Pour the finished Goblin Head Smoothie into a bottle or cup.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
“Hmm… I expected as much, but this is insane.”
Looking over the recipe, this was nothing but some kind of vile concoction.
Of course, I’d already guessed as much from that apocalyptic name, but the details were still pretty shocking.
But there was another problem.
“A blender…”
I didn’t have a blender at home to make a smoothie.
I’d been struggling just to earn enough to get by day to day.
On top of that, I’d used up all the mana stone powder when I made that Pasta from Hell, so I had no other options.
“Ugh… Can’t be helped. It’s a little wasteful to lose 50% of the effect, but…”
“To hell with it!”
Ding!
Mustering my resolve, I pressed the Instant Preparation button.
The goblin heads on the ground turned into blue particles and began to flow into the System Window.
And a moment later,
Ding—!
“Ooh…”
With a microwave-like chime, two glass-bottle-looking things fell from the System Window into my hands.
“I’ll keep one for now.”
Just in case, I decided to try only one and keep the other deep in my pocket.
I carefully tucked the smoothie(?) and my cheap kitchen knife into my pocket.
I didn’t have any cloth or anything to wrap the knife in, so I just stuck it in handle-first.
Even I had to admit I looked kind of stupid.
“What the hell? It’s called a smoothie, so why does it look like this?”
I started examining the other smoothie in my hand.
It looked more like a potion bottle than a drink bottle.
And since the liquid inside was green, it seemed more like medicine than a beverage.
But there was an even bigger problem.
“Ugh… That color kills your appetite…”
I didn’t want to put it anywhere near my mouth.
There were weird green chunks floating in the liquid, too. It just looked strange.
No, fuck, this is supposed to be cooking…
I’d expected as much, but no matter how I looked at it, there was no way I could drink this.
“But… I have to, right?”
But I was a Korean with a will of iron.
I squeezed my eyes shut and gulped down the Goblin Head Smoothie(?).
“Ugh…”
Even with my nose pinched shut, the nauseating smell still came through.
My instincts nearly made me spit out the smoothie I’d taken into my mouth, but I held it in.
Gulp—
And swallowed it whole.
“…Ugh!”
“I-it tastes good?”
Unlike its nauseating smell and appearance,
for some reason, the smoothie tasted pretty good.
***
Meanwhile, outside the Gate.
“I was passing by when I got a text from the Association, so I came to check. What?! A little girl?”
“How are you people handling things?!”
“P-please wait! I don’t know either! Please, stop…!”
A brown-haired woman wearing a casual blue jacket held an iced Americano in one hand
and shook a man in a suit and sunglasses while interrogating him.
“And where are the D-ranks?!”
“W-well, the F- through D-rank Hunters are all at other Gates…”
At the man’s words, Yunha looked dumbfounded and gripped his collar even tighter.
“Huh? Then where are the C-ranks?”
“……They’re climbing the Tower. N-no, more importantly, you know this too, don’t you, Ms. Yunha? The number of Gates appearing lately has increased.”
“On top of that, the Association took the Gate mana detector to inspect it, so we can’t even measure the mana…”
“……Tsk.”
Yunha didn’t argue any further. She let go of the man she’d been holding.
She knew all of that well enough herself.
The Association had even sent her a message about a Gate she shouldn’t have needed to handle as a B-rank.
“Damn Association. Then at least let us use firearms…”
An awkward silence fell between Yunha and the man.
“Calm down, Yunha. The Gate only opened a little while ago, so we can go in and rescue them.”
A black-haired woman appeared behind the two of them.
Wearing a black, Chinese-style martial artist’s outfit, she calmed Yunha and approached the Gate.
“The good news is, it doesn’t seem to be a very high-rank Gate…”
“Still, it might be too late to wait for the D-ranks.”
She looked at the Gate as though assessing it, then
glanced at Yunha before stepping inside.
“Ah, Lady Cheonhwa! Please don’t go in first! The gu— I mean, the guild master will be angry with us!”
Yunha, who’d seen her go in, shot one last glare at the man in the suit, then
quickly followed the woman into the Gate.