Dungeon bakery

Chapter 3

“Hey… don’t you think something’s weird?”

Baek Seol asked while wiping the beads of sweat from her forehead.

“Hmmm. What is it, ppi?”

The Bapsae took a long sip of his iced Americano through a straw and crossed his tiny legs. He was leaning against a golden statue that Baek Seol had no idea had even been in the bakery. With one leg casually swinging in the air, he looked ridiculously relaxed.

How does a bird even know how to drink through a straw that well?

It had already been a week since the mysterious Bapsae had started enjoying iced Americanos every day while watching her clean.

“……It’s been a whole week. So why is the cleanliness level still only 31?”

“……Ppi… ppi.”

The Bapsae slowly turned his head away while taking another sip through his straw. The iced Americano Baek Seol brought for him every morning was almost empty now.

And the quest was still <Beginner’s Quest ①: Entering the Bakery>.

In other words, she was still cleaning.

<Bakery Cleanliness: 31/100>

She had spent the entire week cleaning all day except when she ate or slept!

Why?! How is the cleanliness level still only 31?!

Baek Seol looked like she was about to cry.

Her happiness at becoming a building owner—and possibly becoming rich soon—had lasted only for a moment.

She had escaped graduate school only to face another nightmare just as terrible as it.

And on top of that, the system message window looked like something straight out of an ancient version of Windows. Every time she saw that outdated interface, she still couldn’t get used to it.

Baek Seol was used to sleek, modern screens.

Ugh. I hate it.

The Bapsae, who had been pretending not to notice her complaints, finally spoke.

“Can’t be helped, ppi. Considering how long this place was abandoned, the cleanliness level was bound to rise slowly.”

“How long was it abandoned? Like… more than a million years or something?”

“……Ahem.”

The Bapsae looked strangely guilty before pretending not to hear her and taking another sip of his iced Americano.

There’s no way it was actually abandoned for more than a million years… right?

A bad feeling crossed Baek Seol’s mind, but she quickly shook her head.

Thinking about scary things like that would only make her suffer.

She wanted to return to the bakery even now, but unfortunately, that was no longer possible.

The quests…

With a tired look, she opened the quest window.

Besides the current <Beginner’s Quest ①: Entering the Bakery>, there was another quest listed there.

It had actually appeared before the beginner quests, but Baek Seol had been too busy looking for the real estate agent grandma to notice it.

<Quest: Instant Same-Day Loan!!

Boss! You need money to run your store, but you’re worried about your lack of funds?

Don’t worry! We’ll take care of everything!

Graduate students get special treatment! Complete confidentiality guaranteed!

Warning: The loan must be used immediately to purchase Dungeon Bakery. If the debt is not repaid within 10 years, your body will become the property of the system according to the previously signed “Body Surrender Agreement.”

Remaining Debt: 999,999,999 P>

Mom… I think I got scammed. Right?

Baek Seol grabbed her hair in frustration.

When she had first discovered this quest, she had insisted that she had never agreed to anything like this.

But—

Apparently, it was included in the terms and conditions I agreed to at the beginning.

Thanks to the Bapsae patiently explaining everything to her, Baek Seol finally realized that she had actually agreed to bury herself under an absolutely ridiculous mountain of debt.

And the worst part was—

The warning was written in such tiny letters that she had barely been able to see it.

“Giving up my body if I can’t pay the debt in ten years? How is that even legal?”

Baek Seol muttered to herself while pulling at her hair in the middle of cleaning.

The Bapsae looked at her with pity.

“The system really did a great job designing this, ppi. It has taken human motivation to the extreme…”

“Ughhh…”

“You can’t become a building owner for free, ppi. Everything has a price. At least there’s no interest.”

The Bapsae finally let go of the straw he had been sipping from.

Baek Seol found his attitude so annoying that she wanted to flick him right on the head.

Or maybe she should just throw that golden statue he was always leaning against out of the bakery.

Every day, he sat there leaning against it, watching her clean.

And honestly, she was getting sick of looking at him.

“What’s with that look, ppi? You look like you’re up to something.”

“That’s just how graduate students look.”

Baek Seol answered irritably.

The Bapsae snorted.

“If you think about it, you’re not even a graduate student anymore, ppi.”

“……Why wouldn’t I be? I’m on leave. I didn’t quit.”

Baek Seol had taken a leave of absence from graduate school the day after becoming the bakery’s owner.

Usually, students in other departments needed permission from both their academic advisor and the department head before taking a leave of absence.

But Baek Seol had been able to take hers immediately without going through any of that.

Maybe there are so many students taking leave that they stopped caring.

Or maybe it’s because of Professor Kim Gyo’s terrible reputation.

No.

It was probably because Kim Gyo was too lazy to bother with all those procedures.

Either way, it worked out perfectly for Baek Seol.

She suddenly remembered the teaching assistant who had looked at her leave-of-absence application with such pity.

Then the Bapsae suddenly shouted,

“You’re the owner of a bakery now, ppi! Throw away your graduate-student identity!”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s exactly why I’ve been cleaning all day long.”

“Good. Keep working hard, ppi!”

The Bapsae looked extremely proud of himself.

Ugh.

Baek Seol let out a sigh and washed the mop again.

The mop had clearly seen better days, and even washing it took forever.

She was about to begin her second life as a slave when—

CRACK!

“Whoa! You scared me!”

Apparently, the wooden handle had rotted from the inside, because it suddenly snapped in half.

Baek Seol almost fell over while pushing the mop across the floor.

After nearly losing ten years of her life from the scare, she wiped away her cold sweat and stared helplessly at the broken mop.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“What else? Buy a new one, ppi.”

“But…”

Baek Seol looked troubled.

After living here for a while, she had discovered something about this neighborhood.

It was way too quiet.

There weren’t even any proper restaurants nearby. She was lucky she could cook her own meals here.

And naturally, there was no large supermarket nearby where she could buy something as simple as a mop.

Besides—

Mops are expensive!

Baek Seol, who had no money to spare, mourned the death of her mop.

As she desperately tried to reconnect the broken handle with tape, the Bapsae clicked his tongue.

“Why don’t you just use the shop, ppi?”

“……The shop?”

“Yeah. Isn’t there a shop tab in the system window?”

Oh.

Right.

There was a tab where she could buy things.

She had been so distracted by the enormous amount of debt flashing in her quest window that she hadn’t bothered checking the rest of the system.

Actually, it was more accurate to say she had been deliberately avoiding it.

Let’s see… Here it is.

Baek Seol lightly touched the Shop tab.

A window immediately appeared, showing all the items she could purchase for the bakery.

For now, she could only buy cleaning supplies.

The other categories had question marks on them, so they would probably unlock later.

There’s the mop.

She had 500 points left.

These points weren’t the same as regular money.

Points were a special currency shared among Awakened people.

And I never thought I’d actually have to spend them.

She could also convert the points into Korean won.

One point was worth 1,000 won.

So 500 points would be…

“WHAT?! This mop costs 500,000 won?! I’d be better off buying one outside!”

“Ahem. Ordinary cleaning supplies can’t remove the grime that has built up here, ppi. And look at the description! It’s a reinforced mop, ppi.”

“……”

<+10 Mop>

A mop specially made for Dungeon Bakery. Its cleaning power is exceptional.

Who cares if it’s fully upgraded? Am I ever going to use a mop as a weapon?

Baek Seol let out a deep sigh and bought it anyway.

Ding!

<System: You have purchased the bakery-exclusive ‘+10 Mop.’ 500P has been deducted. Remaining balance: 0P.>

Her 500 points disappeared in an instant.

And now she had exactly—

0 points.

“Am I really going to spend an entire year doing nothing but cleaning? I’m not even making money. I’m going to end up deeper in debt at this rate.”

Muttering to herself, Baek Seol looked toward the bottom of the item window.

There was a button that said ‘Switch to Sell.’

So if I press this, it changes from the buying screen to the selling screen?

Feeling depressed, Baek Seol pouted and tapped the button.

She had played countless tycoon-style games in the past, and whenever she saw a shop where she could buy and sell things, there was always one thing she checked.

“Hey… Ahem…”

The Bapsae thought she was just mindlessly tapping the screen because she was exhausted.

He felt a little sorry for her.

So he decided to cheer her up.

“Hang in there, ppi. See that door over there? It’s locked right now, but once you open it, you should be able to make some money.”

“……Door?”

Baek Seol answered absentmindedly without taking her eyes off the screen.

There were several strange objects and mysterious areas inside the bakery.

That door was one of them.

There was no space connected to it from the outside, yet a completely random door had been placed on one of the walls.

It was actually a pretty nice-looking brown door.

Until now, Baek Seol had simply assumed it was decoration.

“How do I open it?”

Seeing how exhausted she looked, the Bapsae answered in a gentle voice.

“You need to spend 10,000 points, ppi. If you check the system window, you should see a lock next to it.”

Just as the Bapsae said, a lock appeared around the door in the system window.

And above it was written:

‘Unlock Price: 10,000P’

“You’ll be able to collect 10,000 points pretty quickly as you complete quests, ppi. Just hang in there until then.”

Of course, you’ll have to complete quite a lot of quests to get there, ppi.

The Bapsae added the last part quietly.

But Baek Seol heard every word.

10,000P.

If she converted that into Korean won, it was 10 million won.

Baek Seol asked softly,

“10,000 points? That’s all I need?”

“Huh? Yeah, that’s all you need. That’s the only condition—”

PPI?!

Suddenly, the sound of coins falling rang through the bakery.

The Bapsae blinked.

And then he realized something.

The golden statue he had been leaning against had suddenly disappeared.

And he realized this only after he fell backward because there was nothing left to support him.

“PPIIIK! W-What is going on?!”

Clink! Clink!

The Bapsae couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Every time he blinked, another piece of furniture disappeared.

No.

To be precise—

They were being sold.

“Wait! What are you doing, ppi?!”

“What else? I’m selling them.”

Baek Seol continued tapping the air with a completely blank expression.

“The selling price is way too low compared to what they originally cost, though. Tsk. That golden statue was originally 999,999 points, but I only get 999 points for selling it.”

One piece of furniture after another disappeared.

The Bapsae watched in horror.

“……”

“……”

Then Baek Seol suddenly said,

“Yep. Just as I thought.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Look. The cleanliness level is going up.”

“……?”

The Bapsae stared at her blankly.

Ppi…?

He didn’t understand at first.

Meanwhile, Baek Seol was already checking the quest window.

<Bakery Cleanliness: 71/100>

She had only sold a few pieces of furniture.

And the cleanliness level had already jumped to 71.

Not only that, but her points had already climbed close to 8,000.

So that’s why.

The furniture itself was so dirty that it was preventing the cleanliness level from going up.

In that case, it would probably be better to sell everything and just buy new furniture later.

Baek Seol had played enough tycoon games to know exactly what to do.

Whenever she started a new game, there was one thing she always did.

First, she checked whether there were any unnecessary items.

Game developers might add certain items because they thought they were useful, but in reality, a surprising number of them were completely useless.

For example, decorative items that did nothing except take up space.

And once she found the unnecessary items, she always checked one more thing—

Could she sell them regardless of quest progress?

That was what Baek Seol had checked just now.

Perfect. If I keep doing this…

While the Bapsae lay sprawled on the floor in complete shock, Baek Seol continued working smoothly.

Clink! Clink!

The sound of coins piling up continued throughout the bakery.

Then—

<System: Congratulations! Bakery Cleanliness has reached 100. Beginner’s Quest ① has been completed. Rewards will be granted.

Reward: A Bakery Uniform Made Just for You

Connection with ‘World’s Staff ???’

Beginner’s Quest ②>

Ding! Ding!

The system announced that the quest had been completed.

And after confirming that she had finally collected 10,000 points, Baek Seol unlocked the brown door she had previously assumed was nothing more than decoration.

<System: Congratulations! You have spent 10,000P to unlock the ‘Door of Beginnings.’>

Oh. It really unlocked.

The moment she had that thought, system windows began popping up one after another.

<System: You have completed a quest far above the level of your current quest. Lower-level quests will be completed automatically.>

<System: Congratulations! Beginner’s Quest ② has been completed. Rewards will be granted.>

<System: Congratulations! Beginner’s Quest ③ has been completed. Rewards will be granted.>

<System: Congratulations! Beginner’s Quest ④ has been completed. Rewards will be granted.>

.

.

.

Baek Seol had always been too broke and too busy to spend hours playing games like everyone else.

So whenever she played, she had learned every trick and shortcut she could find.

……She just never expected those tricks to work this well.

Wait. There were ten beginner quests?

If I had actually done all of those one by one, how much time would I have wasted?

Ugh.

While Baek Seol stared at the quests being completed one after another with an exhausted expression, the Bapsae could only stare at her shortcut in disbelief.

“Ppi…… Oh my god……”