Chapter 36
“Huh? What’s that? What did Ryu Minho do?”
“No, wait..”
“What are you doing, Ryu Minho? Hurry up and apologize.”
“Minho, what did you do to Eve?”
People who didn’t know what had happened at the gallery voiced their confusion, and as Han Dohee urged Ryu Minho to apologize, Chaea unnie became curious.
As Han Dohee explained what had happened earlier to Chaea unnie, loud enough for everyone around them to hear, Chaea unnie gasped and hugged me tightly.
“Ryu Minho! How could you do that to such a cute kid?!”
“No, I didn’t know she was this little when I did it..”
“Wow, Minho’s seriously trash. This is a bit much.”
“Die, Minho. Why are you even alive?”
“He’s ugly too.”
“Exactly.”
It was surprisingly easy to drag someone through the mud. To be honest, I hadn’t expected that rotten anonymous user who’d cursed at me to be here either.
“It’s okay. I’m fine.”
“Whoa~ You’re forgiving Eve? You’re so kind..”
“Ryu-hwang is seriously total trash.”
“Just go home already.”
Even if the person involved says they’re fine, what matters more is whether the people throwing stones are satisfied. They’re all just kidding anyway, but you can’t help but find it amusing.
But we still had to clear the gate, and we needed to work together, so maybe I should tell them to stop here.
“I’m really fine. I... Minho ajusshi said he’d show me something fun as an apology.”
“What, Minho said he’d do what?”
“Ah, well..”
“Didn’t Ryu Minho say he’d go to Sosa Station and do a windmill there to prove it?”
“Sosa Station? Wow, that’s seriously lame. If you were going to go to Sosa Station, why not just do it at home? The number of people watching would be the same anyway.”
“Then just do it here now. There’s even a kid here, and it’s better to make an apology in front of the person receiving it.”
“Do it here now? Seriously?”
Ryu Minho looked at me, clearly hoping I’d refuse again this time, but not this time. I also thought an apology should be made in front of the person receiving it.
“That’d be cool.”
“Hey, you heard her? Eve said she wants to see it.”
“Ugh, that’s too much. There are way too many people here.”
“Minho’s talking way too much today, seriously. Hurry up and get on with it.”
After a brief moment of hesitation under the relentless criticism that left Ryu Minho unable to even breathe, he came up to me, knelt on one knee to match my eye level, and asked me.
“Hah... sssht, let’s do it inside the gate. Okay? Kiddo, can’t we do that?”
Truthfully, I wasn’t that angry anyway, and to be honest, because he reacted like that, the gallery chatter about it kept going even longer. I didn’t really hold any bad feelings. Still, I did want to see the windmill.
“Yes, okay.”
“Whoa... Eve is so kind.”
“Minho should bow toward the kid’s house three times a day, seriously.”
* * * * *
Gates that require a raid party to enter charge the entrance fee for the party as a whole, not per person.
“Boo, trash. Pay the gate fee.”
“Boo.”
“Ah, okay already. Can you guys be quiet?”
“Haha, that’s it. Today the kid saved the whole raid party.”
As the price for cursing at me on the gallery, Minho paid the entire 200,000-won gate entrance fee by himself and, once inside, even did the windmill on a stone floor with no dirt on it.
There were about four other raid parties near the entrance watching us too, so I’m guessing there were probably more people watching than at Sosa Station.
“Wow, nice.”
“Minho does one windmill and even gets praised for it.”
But he really was good at windmills. As expected from an Awakened, his speed was ridiculously fast.
“Ow, this stone floor is giving me a fucking headache.”
“But if you’re going to post proof on the gallery, wouldn’t you have to go to Sosa Station and do it once more anyway?”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, he said he’d post proof on the gallery, but he just did the windmill right in front of me. Of course I was fine with that, but would the 50 million Hunter Gallery users in Korea really be satisfied with that?
The windmill talk was still coming up here and there, and there were even people saying they’d go all the way to Sosa Station to watch it. Among the raid party members, there was even a former sub-mod. He was the guy who got kicked after racking up 31 strikes from the head mod and writing “Bucket list accomplished” as the reason.
“Was it Eve? I think it’d be fine if Eve went and told the mod.”
“Kiddo, do me a favor..”
After Ryu Minho finished spinning his windmill to his heart’s content and came back, he tidied up his tousled hair and came over to me, saying,
“Then please listen to me.”
“What is it?”
“F-first, you can’t call me kiddo.”
“Ah, sure. And?”
And one more thing, the first step in my grand Hunter Gallery terraforming princess plan..!
“Heehee, and.. please just write one post on the gallery, Minho ajusshi.”
“Uh.. sure, what am I supposed to write?”
* * * * *
[ㅇㅇ[나한테욕햇음나쁜놈] : My life ain't ruined << Praise the princess, yep..
There probably isn’t anyone in Korea as cute and great as this person]
-ㅇㅇ : What the hell is this bastard doing?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ[나한테욕햇음나쁜놈] : Shut up and just praise the princess
-Ciortos : Damn, what is this, some kind of hypnosis app?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ[나한테욕햇음나쁜놈] : No, seriously
ㄴ Ciortos : Guess he was a brainwashing Awakened ㄷㄷ
-ㅇㅇ : I’m not watching the windmill because of this
ㄴ ㅇㅇ[나한테욕햇음나쁜놈] : Get lost
“Wheehee.”
“Is this enough?”
“Yep.”
That rotten semi-anonymous user EungEungi, who had cursed at me, was now a loyal subject diligently praising the princess. Besides, I’m an A-rank Hunter? I’m such a big deal I could totally become a big name, right???
Anyway, the windmill thing is settled. Later I’ll go to whatever mod I can spot and get an apology in person, then say I’m fine. We’re already inside the gate, and the gate time limit is three hours, so we need to move quickly.
“But, kiddo, are you really A-rank?”
“Eve really is A-rank. If you guys see Eve fight, you’ll be shocked.”
“No.. I don’t actually fight though....”
“But hey, why didn’t you bring Ophelia and the golems today? Where’d they go?”
Chaea unnie noticed that Dangdang, Suri, and Minyum, who were always around me, weren’t here and asked. A few of the other unnies nearby reacted to Chaea unnie’s question too, since they were people who still didn’t know much about me.
“What golem? Eve’s a summoner?”
“Eve’s an A-rank summoner. Isn’t that amazing?”
“Whoa, she’s still this young and already?”
“Heheh....”
Ophelia couldn’t come today because she had something else to do, which was a shame. As for Minyum, Suri, and Dangdang, they were probably at home by now. But it didn’t matter.
I stood up from the waiting bench I’d been sitting on and stretched out my arms before saying,
“Summon all golems except Ophelia!”
ㅡWhirrr!
The moment I gave the command, the golems who’d been lazing around at home were summoned by the ‘Call’ skill. Flashing with blue mana, they burst into light and then stood in a row in front of me.
“Good job! Now it’s time to work!”
“Wow, you summoned three at once?”
“Ah, I’d already summoned them and brought them along....”
“Really? That’s a little different from other summoners.”
Anyway, even if I don’t carry them around like this, I can summon them easily. I’d already told Suri and Minyum to wait at home, since I’d call them when I went to the gate today.
Dangdang had been dragged out without even knowing what was going on, but there wasn’t really anything it could help with in gate clearing anyway, so it was fine. The one with the best reaction, as expected, was Minyum.
“Whoa, what is this? It’s a mech?”
“It looks cool, damn that’s awesome.”
The guys’ reaction to Minyum was really good. Sensing the crowd’s reaction, Minyum nodded, did the moonwalk, pulled off a backflip, and then started swinging the sword around.
“Wow, this is insane.”
“Eve. You should post things like this on the gallery.”
“Huh? Really..?”
Sure enough, if I posted Minyum on the gallery, the reaction would probably be great. But would that help me..? I think Ophelia once said that getting famous just for a face wouldn’t help me.
“Can I film this?”
“Ah.. yes, sure. Do whatever.”
Once I gave my permission, the guys one by one pulled out their phones and started filming Minyum’s fan service in earnest. The dynamic movements, 100 consecutive aerial somersaults, and everything else..
‘Minyum’s really popular.’
Minyum is cool, after all.
“Hey, hey, enough. Stop it now. Let’s get moving. We’re running out of time.”
“It’s fine. If there’s an extra fee today, Minho will pay it.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Hah, says who?”
* * * * *
Clearing the interior was much easier than I’d expected. Minyum had gotten stronger, and with a sword in hand, Minyum cut monsters down left and right, while Suri’s mobility and scouting abilities were incredibly useful.
Of course, only I could understand what Suri was saying, and unfortunately I had a pathetic vocabulary, so I wasn’t very good at explaining it.
“Ah..! I’ve got a good idea!”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Suri, come here.”
ㅡKiiit
After fastening Dangdang, who I’d been holding in my arms, to Suri’s foot, I sent Suri out to scout.
“Dangdang, you heard me, right? Use the camera to film everything around here, and record anything that looks like a monster or anything dangerous.”
ㅡBeep!
“Mm! Good, go on! I’ll call you back with my skill in five minutes, so don’t worry about coming back—scout as much as you can, as wide as you can. Got it?”
ㅡKiiit!
After attaching Dangdang, who had become a living camera, to Suri’s foot and making it record, I could just call it back with my skill once the scouting was over.
Dangdang’s face monitor was tiny, so the resolution was low, but with my slightly more refined ability I could make it bigger. If I took a tiny sliver of the low-grade magic stone Minyum had and gave it to Dangdang..
ㅡWhirr!
“Oooh..!”
“That’s amazing, seriously insane.”
Dangdang’s body flattened and shrank, and in an instant it changed into a tablet-sized screen.
“How’s that? Our Eve is amazing, right?”
Thanks to that, Chaea unnie’s shoulders somehow seemed to puff up proudly. Inside the ruins there were weird snake-like monsters called Naga, and when Minyum went over and sliced them up with a sword, they were all chopped to bits and turned into snake meat.
Of course, the other unnies and the tank ajusshis were all good too, but still, without Suri’s scouting, Dangdang’s recording function, and Minyum’s combat power, there’s no way we could have broken through this fast.
“Hey, Minho. Just what the hell were you thinking, saying that to a kid?”
“No, I mean, I thought it was a little sister or something.. I never imagined it’d be the actual person...”
“Heehee, it’s me.”
Thanks to the scouting results we could see with our own eyes, we cleared the gate much faster and more safely than usual.
Normally, with a three-hour gate, we’d spend about an hour to get back and then push forward for two hours, but this time, thanks to me, our speed was apparently even faster than expected.
“Oh, hey. This is....”
“Yep. It’s the mid-boss area.”
“The mid-boss?”
On Dangdang’s monitor screen, there was an area that was clearly divided into a square-like shape. It was hard to see on the screen, but by depth and width alone, it was definitely the mid-boss area.
“Then what do we do..?”
“Hmm, Eve has to decide.”
“M-me?”
“What do you think? Want to go in? It’s not that dangerous.”
“It’d be easy with Eve here.”
“E-ehehe..!”
“I agree, with Eve here a mid-boss is nothing.”
“Heheh.. really?”
With so many subjects relying on the princess, I had no choice.
“W-well, it can’t be helped! Shall we go take a look..?”
“That’s the stuff.”
“Eve is the best.”
“See?? As expected, I’m the best.”