Chapter 15
[LifeIsMessedUp : I bought mana stone, but the package hasn't arrived
They said high-quality mana stone was on sale for 200,000 won, so I bought it, but the package still hasn't arrived on day 3. What the heck is this;?
-ㅇㅇ : Ugh
ㄴ LifeIsMessedUp : Why;?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : If it were you, would you sell mana stone for that price
ㄴ LifeIsMessedUp : Is this a scamㅠ?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : (Are you a baby?)
도슝좍 : Agh, you brainless idiot
ㄴ LifeIsMessedUp : ㅠㅠ
ㄴ 도슝좍 : Then let's go to a gate together lol
유부야스킹 : Why would a civilian need mana stone
ㄴ LifeIsMessedUp : I'm not a civilian, I'm an Awakened
ㄴ 유부야스킹 : This roleplay's been going on for a long time, ㅇㅇ
“U,uuuh….”
I'm depressed. I got scammed. They said Temu was selling high-quality mana stone for 200,000 won.
“Suri.. what do I do..?”
ㅡShaking its head
Suri shook its head. It was already day 3 since I ordered it, but the package still hadn't arrived yet. My hard-earned 200,000 won. Of course, Dangdang earned it, and Suri and Minyum had desperately tried to stop me from pressing the order button, but still.
I did it all for Suri and Minyum.
“Sniffle.. This can't be happening….”
Dangdang, who was sitting on my thigh, turned its head and rubbed its face against my stomach. Over the past three days, Suri had been going in and out of the mountains near the house to hunt a few monsters, but proper mana stones were hard to find.
[ {Synthesis-compatible entities : 2 / Completion : 43.4%} ]
Even after I gathered up tiny mana-stone dust-like bits and fed them all to Suri, it only went up by about 4 percent. Suri does the hunting, Dangdang earns the money, and Minyum does all the housecleaning and hair-drying.
Then what have I been doing all this time? Eating six Seolraeim cookies-and-cream bars, losing 200,000 won, spilling juice, and flopping around.
Literally no different from a troublemaking kid whose productivity is approaching zero. A miracle in which the kingdom's assets keep draining away just from me being alive.
“This is a princess?! The kingdom is going to collapse!!”
Smashing the treasury earned by capable retainers and making the other retainers clean up after me. I can't live this unproductively.
“Dangdang! Tell me what I can do right now!”
Super Artificial Intelligence Assistant Model: DangDang-E. Plus, equipped with autonomous walking. Dangdang is the only one I can rely on right now.
ㅡBeep!
[Brushing teeth]
“Is that the only thing..?”
[Bathing]
“Uu….”
Dangdang's brutal fact-bashing left me sprawled on the floor. This is bruised, okay? My heart is bruised, seriously.
As I lay on the mattress and tried to calm my gloomy mood for a moment, Suri, watching from the side, kept pecking at Dangdang's head.
ㅡBeep?
ㅡKiit
What were those two talking about? Maybe they were plotting to ditch the stupid princess who got scammed on Temu and go find a proper princess instead.
A tear stain was left right on the pillow. I don't usually cry over things like this, but today I think I'll cry a little. This is one of the three times I'll ever cry in my life.
ㅡPoke poke
“That hurts.. why are you doing this, Suri..?”
When I turned to look at Suri, it had spread its wings and was pointing toward the monitor. I followed its gaze too, and Dangdang was using its USB tail to move the mouse and had opened a YouTube video.
“What's this..?”
The chair blocked the screen so I couldn't see it properly, but soon the video's audio started playing.
ㅡThe moment I first saw you, I fell for you~
“I'm too old to be watching this!! Do you want to get punished!?!”
ㅡThe partner TiniPing I've searched for and searched for so long~
Even if I grabbed the cheeky Suri and thumped it with my tiny hands, the one getting hurt was my fist, not Suri. In the end, with the tips of my knuckles turning red, I was blowing on my hand—hoo, hoo—when Han Dohi contacted me.
-Han Dohi : What are you doing
-Han Dohi : You've been awake during the day lately
-Eve : I'm depressed
-Han Dohi : So why did you buy something like that lol
-Eve : South Korea is doomed
-Eve : How can they scam people so brazenly like that
-Han Dohi : If you don't have anything to do tomorrow
-Han Dohi : let's go to Hangang Park together ㄱ
-Han Dohi : I heard Maxi is in Korea. She's going to Hangang Park tomorrow
-Eve : ??????
“Maxi is in Korea..?”
'Maxi' is kind of a nickname, and her real name is Camila Torres. If you ask who my favorite Hunter is, I think it would be this woman. A Mexican S-rank female Hunter, whose default outfit is very revealing and who is unbelievably cute.
ㅡBeep-beep!
“Ah, Dangdang, can you answer the phone?”
“Hello? Eve, what were you doing?”
“No.. just.. nothing..?”
“Why does your voice sound so down again.”
“Y-you can hear that..?”
“I can hear it perfectly.”
I was originally incredibly skilled at hiding my emotions. I mean, even if 500 nightmare customers swarmed in at once, I could crush them with a smile.
“It's just... just okay.”
“Anyway, I heard a ton of Hunters are coming for the regular Manchuria subjugation this time. Maxi came to Korea because of that too.”
“Ah.. so that's why.”
Manchuria is currently in the worst state of terrain erosion on Earth. Soon, the Hunters hired with funds pooled by North Korea, China, and Russia to purify part of the Manchurian region would be gathering for the fourth-quarter terrain-erosion raid.
Since the image of the communist bloc countries is much worse than Korea's, quite a few high-rank foreign Hunters choose to stay in Korea before the Manchuria subjugation raid.
North Korea also opens its doors easily if it's something related to Manchuria, so crossing from South Korea into North Korea isn't particularly difficult either.
“Sigh.. I do want to see her though….”
“Why, do you have plans?”
“I don't have any plans, but it just feels like I'm only playing around all the time….”
“What.. what kind of 10-year-old kid thinks like that?”
Han Dohi's baffled giggling came through Dangdang's speaker. Sure, if a 10-year-old brat said, 'I've been playing too much lately,' you'd tell them it was about time, but....
“Then if you see her and have time in the evening, want to go to a gate together? Somewhere a bit better than last time.”
“Hmm.. maybe..?”
Minyum has turned into Titanium Alloy Minyum now, so it should be insanely strong in combat too. Suri has probably gotten a little stronger from eating mana stones, and Dangdang.. still earns money well.
Honestly, even considering it was my first time on the Goblin Plain, it was way too easy.
“Hey, but what song is this.”
“Huh? A song?”
ㅡI'll fly through that night sky where the stars shine brightly~
“Isn't this a TiniPing song? You're seriously such a little kid.”
“N-no! Suri turned it on by itself!”
“Sure, let's go with that. I'll pick you up by 12 tomorrow. Let's head to Hangang Park after lunch.”
“I-I said it's not true!?”
* * * * *
“O-ohh..!”
“Pfft, what's with that reaction? First time at the Han River?”
“I-it is my first time….”
“Ah.. really? Sorry, I didn't know. That's fair. I don't come here that often either.”
After meeting Han Dohi and grabbing some snacks, we came to Hangang Park. This time, a total of two foreign S-rank Hunters had entered Korea for the Manchuria subjugation raid.
“She's extremely popular, after all. That's probably why so many people gathered.”
“I think Maxi is prettier though..”
Tennoji Utaha. One of only four S-rank Hunters in Japan, and surprisingly, an actual JK—an 18-year-old high school girl by Korean age. Her popularity in Japan goes without saying, and she's hugely popular worldwide too.
She's pretty, that's true, but I like Camila a little more. I don't really know why; I guess I just like her.
Dangdang and Minyum are waiting in Han Dohi's car. They're smart enough to open the door and come out themselves, and Suri is probably flying around somewhere in the sky. It's probably too far away to see.
“But there are so many people holding weapons.”
“Didn't you read what I sent? Apparently Maxi and Utaha are doing an exhibition match today.”
“Really!? I didn't see that!”
These days I'm on a forced dopamine detox. Dangdang, my phone, just trots around wherever it wants, and if I try to hug it it struggles. And if I sit in front of the computer all the time, the chair is too high and the keyboard doesn't fit my hands well.
I wonder if there's a kid-sized keyboard or something. My hands got smaller, so I can't type at my usual speed. Even games aren't really fun anymore.... So I just watch a little of whatever's okay to leave on.
Even posting on the gallery has become hard.
“You've been staying awake until dawn lately, have you? Living a proper life after awakening?”
“Mm….”
This body gets ridiculously sleepy as soon as 9 p.m. rolls around. I don't know how I used to stay up until dawn. I even thought about drinking coffee, but it was so bitter and tasteless that I poured it straight down the toilet.
When I drink Monster, my heart starts pounding too hard and I get short of breath, so.. caffeine doesn't seem to suit this body.
“Yeah, you're staying up all night, so that's why you didn't grow taller.”
“H-the height doesn't matter….”
“Eve, you dress pretty well?”
“Huh? Clothes..?”
“Do you buy your own clothes and wear them?”
“N-no.. it's just….”
Most of the clothes I wear whenever I go out are chosen by Suri. I don't really know much about girls' clothes, so I can't help it. Honestly, I feel like anything would be fine, but thinking about it is a hassle..
“It's because you're cute. Don't tell me the golems even handle that too?”
“They do, though….”
“What, it really was? Those golems are seriously capable. Look over here.”
“Huh?”
ㅡClick!
“W-what, all of a sudden?!”
“I took a photo because you're cute. Why.”
“No, you can't just take pictures like that.. m-my portrait rights….”
“I ordered chicken for you. Eat it while it's hot.”
“Uu….”
I'm only putting up with it because of the chicken, seriously. And now I can even stand in the Cyburger line myself, instead of running a macro like before.
Sitting there feeling the breeze and eating the chicken that arrived afterward, my mood started to lift a little. Was I maybe just cranky because I was hungry? Once my belly was stuffed, it felt like whatever happened to the world wouldn't matter.
After I closed my eyes and lay on the ground for a bit, the phones around me suddenly started ringing all at once.
ㅡBeep-beep-beep
ㅡDing, ding,
ㅡBwooo- bwooo-
“What..? What's going on?”
“This.. is an open gate warning sound. Get up.”
“R-really?! I didn't get an alert..! Ah! Dangdang!”
Come to think of it, I don't have a phone that can detect mana right now. What do I do..?!
“I'll carry you and run!? Bear with it even if it hurts a little..!”
“O-okay..!”
The crowd that had been gathered there broke apart in an instant and started fleeing in panic. Then, from the riverside, with a sound like space being torn apart, a gate split open in the air and appeared.
“It's huge too..!”
A circular hole tinted a deep navy blue. It flickered as if flames were burning and then, in an instant, began spewing monsters.
“H-Han Dohi! Aren't you supposed to fight?!”
“I'm not part of a guild! Besides, I don't have a weapon right now! I have to go to the car trunk!”
There were tons of elderly people too, but I couldn't save the people who were close to the gate.
A huge goat-headed humanoid monster that had been spat out of the gate crashed to the ground with a thud and rolled around. After a moment it came to its senses, looked around, and just as it was about to charge toward an elderly person who hadn't managed to evacuate.
“No..!”
ㅡSlash..!
“Gasp!!!!”
“Why!! What happened!!”
Han Dohi, who had been running backward and hadn't seen what had just happened, shouted.
“Suri!! Suri did it!!!”
Like a high-speed missile, Suri flew in from somewhere and chopped off the giant goat-headed monster's neck!!!