Chapter 9
O-tto starts her mukbang.
She opened her lunchbox and showed it to her viewers.
"All right, take a look! Does this look poisonous to you?"
The lunchbox held rice, kimchi, and beef.
ㄴ ?????
ㄴ Holy crap, steak as a side dish with your rice?
ㄴ O-tto, were you a chaebol heiress this whole time?
ㄴ Caught a chaebol heiress streaming as a hobby lolol
ㄴ Damn it, give me back my thousand won. I'm chewing on cup ramen right now.
"N-no...! I'm not some chaebol heiress!"
The chat caught fire in an instant.
O-tto waved her hands as she tried to explain.
"My family owns a butcher shop! I grilled some leftover cuts!"
ㄴ So you're not born with a silver spoon, you're born with a meat spoon lol
ㄴ No wonder you make such good meat broth
ㄴ O-tto's slimmer than I thought. She eats all that and doesn't gain weight.
ㄴ She's just big-boned.
ㄴ That's not fat, it's all muscle. I know lol
"I haven't gained weight! Anyway, just think of this as a mukbang and watch!"
O-tto snapped apart a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks.
But then a viewer threw out another bait.
ㄴ I saw someone else eating combat rations on stream. Why are you eating a lunchbox, O-tto?
"You're watching other streamers instead of mine? You know you're not supposed to mention other streamers!"
ㄴ My cat turned it on
"That's your first warning! Don't cheat on me."
=Thank you, Anonymous Viewer, for the 10,000 won donation.=
"Yes! Thank you, Anonymous Viewer, for the ten-thousand-won donation. Where were we?"
ㄴ O-tto, your big bro's having a hard time now, too
ㄴ When are you going to become a top-tier hunter?
ㄴ When you make it big, will you treat us, O-tto?
"Shut up! Anyway, one hunter's ready meal costs as much as omakase! How am I supposed to afford that?"
ㄴ Didn't hunters make good money?
ㄴ O-tto was an untalented woman? Dump her.
ㄴ Are you putting on an act because you're streaming?
"Seriously! To make that kind of money, you need proper weapons and armor, and you have to memorize the strategies inside and out."
ㄴ Then do it
"That's not all there is to it! Look! This is Korea! If you don't know what you're doing, you're out in no time!"
ㄴ Fair enough. Korea is the best at speedrunning.
The viewer was right.
You could say Koreans took things a bit too far.
They said expectations for Korea were high when the tower first appeared.
ㄴ Koreans are a people who cleared even the Great Demon in six hours.
ㄴ Don't confuse reality with fiction. Just look at how UFC fighters are distributed around the world.
ㄴ Korea is a country with its own dedicated server. Have you heard of the Land of the Morning Calm?
ㄴ Are you unable to tell reality from a game?
But nothing much happened in Korea.
Even when star hunters appeared, progress was sluggish.
The government came up with support measures, but they were vague policies that didn't help much.
It was the same no matter how you looked at it.
In the end, when the US and China pushed through raids to claim the world's first clear, Korea stayed quiet.
When Europe unveiled a new strategy, Korea stayed quiet then, too.
At first, plenty of people were hopeful, but when no real results appeared, they gradually forgot about it.
Then, out of nowhere, came speedrunning.
Overseas, people speedran as a gimmick. Korea was different.
A people with efficiency and the need for speed ingrained in their bones—masters of value for money.
Korean raid groups only picked floors other countries had already cleared at the cost of lives, then gathered as much information as possible.
After that, they recruited members.
The same familiar taste, every time.
Sometimes they let outsiders in if they were short on people, but the screening was strict.
< Didn't I tell you to match the gear rank? Why did you bring stuff meant for low-levels? >
After that, they somehow got the right people together and went in.
Then the hunters became machines.
< Buffs >
< Crowd Control >
< Sap >
< Focus Fire >
ㄴ Damn, are Koreans machines?
ㄴ Is that even fun?
ㄴ It's fun when you get paid
ㄴ There's no romance in it.
ㄴ Once you have a house, there's plenty of romance.
Overseas, they'd climb the tower like they were filming a movie, showing off human emotions with lines like 'Good job, Smith!' and 'You did great too, Charlie!'...
In Korea, if you show off, you get kicked out.
If you act clueless here or fail to do your job properly, you're out.
< Reset >
If the raid leader sees an opening and calls for a retreat, you'll die if you just stand there spacing out.
No matter how many people there were, they moved like machines.
You could say everyone just did their job in their assigned spot, like a part in a machine.
Of course, the lousy guilds were a complete mess.
Still, to earn at least as much as a big-company employee, you had to keep up without being a burden on the rest of the group.
"Anyway, it's hard for hunters to make a living, too! Do you think it's easy to earn more than a big-company salary?"
ㄴ I heard there are guilds that give women preferential treatment.
ㄴ You'll get corrupted if you join one of those
ㄴ I'll get corrupted, then
"I don't want special treatment just because I'm a woman! I want to be respected for my skill!"
ㄴ Our O-tto isn't going to weird websites, is she?
ㄴ You're not going to start talking weird, are you?
ㄴ O-tto! To your side!
ㄴ O-tto can't see anything but her lunchbox right now
ㄴ An idiot who only knows her lunchbox
ㄴ Look to your side!
ㄴ I said look to your side! If that had been a monster, you'd be dead, O-tto!
Only then did O-tto check the chat.
When she turned her head, the NPC was sitting right beside her... No, a little way off to the side?
The NPC sat there, gazing at a distant mountain.
"Huh?"
ㄴ Damn, can she really breeze through the mission like this?
ㄴ She clears the mission just by eating
The NPC seemed to deliberately avoid looking at the lunchbox, keeping their eyes averted.
"..."
"..."
An awkward silence settled between them.
Uncomfortable with the silence, O-tto spoke first.
"Have you eaten?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Go ahead and eat."
"Oh... Okay."
It's the same person, right?
She'd seen the NPC in videos, but the NPC definitely looked different from before.
The NPC seemed stronger somehow, too.
Just as O-tto was about to scoop up some rice with her chopsticks...
The chat went wild again.
ㄴ O-tto, to your side!
ㄴ Hey! Don't you know to keep your guard up?
ㄴ Can't you see the NPC?
ㄴ Do you know this child?
Why were they making such a fuss now?
"I've confirmed the NPC is here! I'll just eat and finish the mission, right?"
"Are you talking to me?"
"Sorry, I'm talking to my stream. Don't you stream? Oh! Since you're an NPC..."
"Stream?"
"Low-level scrubs like me have to stream to make a living..."
"I thought only famous hunters streamed."
"I think most of them do? See that drone up there?"
The NPC looked up at the drone, intrigued.
Well, a drone and streaming smart glasses (AR glasses) did require a pretty substantial initial investment.
But it was hard to stream in places where O-tto was pushing her limits, since she had to keep an eye on the chat, too.
"So all hunters stream, then."
"Yeah..."
"Sorry for interrupting your meal. I'll get going."
"No! After I finish eating, a photo! No, right now! Could I take a picture with you?"
"Sure. Then I'll wait."
"Still, it feels weird to eat alone..."
"It's okay. I'll wait."
O-tto was about to pick up her chopsticks again.
Then the chat went wild once more.
ㄴ O-tto! To your side!
ㄴ Can you even swallow your food?
ㄴ They're right beside you and you're going to eat alone? What a lack of manners.
ㄴ The commander is disappointed in you, O-tto.
"I told you I'd confirmed the NPC! We finished talking already."
ㄴ The screen! Look at the screen!
ㄴ The stream!
Wondering what on earth was going on, O-tto checked the stream.
On the screen, the NPC was staring this way with drool dripping from their mouth.
O-tto hurriedly turned her head.
ㅡ Whip
But the NPC was just gazing at the distant mountain.
The NPC looked exactly as before.
'That's weird.'
When O-tto looked back at the screen, the NPC was drooling as they stared at the lunchbox,
but when O-tto turned around, the NPC was gazing at the distant mountain,
so this time O-tto checked the screen, pretended to turn away, then quickly turned back again.
For an instant, she caught the NPC's head just as it was turning back.
'I saw that... I definitely saw the NPC turn their head.'
It seemed the NPC wanted to eat her lunchbox.
By the way, didn't people know that drones these days could film automatically?
They used AI to automatically track their subjects.
Oh! Of course the NPC wouldn't know that!
More importantly, if the NPC had just said they wanted some, O-tto would've given them some.
Did even an NPC have something like pride?
ㄴ The kid's hungry, and you're just eating by yourself
ㄴ I'm disappointed in you, O-tto.
ㄴ That cute kid's hungry and you can still swallow your food?
"All right, I get it! I get it!"
O-tto held out her lunchbox to the NPC.
"Would you like some?"
"I'm not hungry."
"I brought it with me, but I don't have much of an appetite... It'd be a shame to throw it away... I haven't touched it."
"Ahem. Well, it'd be a shame to throw it away, so I'll eat it."
The NPC took the lunchbox and began eating with gusto.
The NPC used the utensils with practiced ease.
'The NPC's good with chopsticks.'
Even while eating, O-tto occasionally made brief small talk so things wouldn't get awkward.
After a little while, the NPC finished the meal.
O-tto took back the empty lunchbox.
She was hungry, but the mission was a success. Maybe she should be satisfied with that.
She could end her stream early today and go home to eat.
But her stomach didn't agree.
ㅡ Grrrrr
The sound rang out, oblivious to the awkwardness.
The NPC's eyes went round.
"Are you hungry?"
"Oh... No... Hahaㅡ I suddenly got hungry. Maybe because you were eating so well right beside me? I think I could do a mukbang, too..."
Something suddenly appeared in the NPC's hand.
'Herbal medicine?'
"Eat this."
"Huh? What is... this?"
"Um... It's food."
"Food?"
O-tto looked at the pill in the NPC's hand.
'Surely an NPC wouldn't give me poison, right? Maybe it'll boost my stats or something?'
ㄴ Is O-tto going to awaken after eating that?
ㄴ Damn, the NPC gives out stuff like that, too?
ㄴ There are NPCs that give you items if you meet certain conditions
ㄴ Maybe it'll improve her stats?
With her heart pounding, O-tto chewed and swallowed the pill.
'Hm? Pork? It tastes a little gamey. Doesn't seem like farm-raised pork.'
As the daughter of a butcher, she was sensitive to the taste of meat.
'I don't feel any different, though.'
At that moment,
her stomach suddenly filled up as if she'd eaten a proper meal, and she felt a surge of energy.
It was like she could stay up all night right now without batting an eye.
She felt full of strength, too. Could doping even do this much?
"Uh... Huh? Wh-what is this?"
"Um... It's emergency rations. Do you like them?"
O-tto nodded.
Then a jar suddenly appeared in the NPC's empty hand, and the NPC held it out.
"I enjoyed the lunchbox. This is a gift."
"Huh?"
She opened the jar and roughly counted about thirty pills inside.
"Are you really giving this to me?"
"Yeah. Eat them when you need them."
"Oh... Okay! Thank you!"
After handing over the strange pills, the NPC disappeared somewhere.