Chapter – 05
The moment she followed my finger and looked behind her, an embarrassed expression appeared on her face.
Everyone was glaring at her frighteningly because she was standing in front of the shop, chatting instead of actually making her purchase.
“What are you doing? I don’t have all day!”
“If you’re not going to buy anything, move aside!”
“I even took a half-day off for this!”
See? I told you I didn’t have time for pointless small talk with you.
Ju-hee’s face turned as red as a carrot, and she bit her lip.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to move?”
“I-I’ll have one too!”
“…What?”
Ju-hee slammed the ten-thousand-won bill she was holding onto the counter. It was crumpled from how tightly she had been holding it.
“Give me one. Ahem, ahem. I’m in line too, so…”
Ah, so you wanted to eat bungeoppang after all?
She had probably heard everyone talking about bungeoppang so much that she became curious and joined the line, but once she realized that I was the shop owner, she couldn’t resist taking a few digs at me.
“You really want to eat bungeoppang made by an F-rank?”
“…No, that’s not what I meant.”
She probably expected people to cower whenever she said something, just like they had back in school.
But this was society now.
There was no reason to be intimidated by a girl who had only been able to throw her weight around among a bunch of high school students.
“Why is it taking so long?!”
“This is so frustrating!”
The impatient voices from behind came again, and a nervous expression appeared on Ju-hee’s face.
Even so, she stubbornly stood there waiting for her bungeoppang.
Knowing her personality, she would normally have left long ago if she wasn’t going to eat it.
She must really have been curious about the bungeoppang.
Good grief, she must have wanted one pretty badly…
She was a little annoying, sure, but it wasn’t like I was going to coldly kick someone out just because they wanted to eat one.
I stopped teasing Ju-hee and took out a bungeoppang, placing it in a bag.
Her expression instantly brightened.
“Here. Enjoy it. And our shop doesn’t accept cash.”
“What…?”
“We only accept Hunter Pay. Keep that in mind if you come again.”
With this many Hunters, accepting cash would obviously become impossible to manage.
So as soon as the number of customers increased, I immediately introduced Hunter Pay, a QR payment system.
“…Who said I was coming again?”
There was no point saying that while carefully hugging the bungeoppang as she walked away.
I glanced at the departing Ju-hee for a moment before serving the next customer.
I really couldn’t make anyone wait any longer.
Fortunately, even while talking with Ju-hee, my hands had continued baking bungeoppang, so I was able to keep taking orders without any delays.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”
It wasn’t until I had baked bungeoppang until late at night that I could finally close the shop.
My entire body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
The moment I arrived home, I collapsed onto my bed.
“If it weren’t for that skill, I really would have died…”
If I hadn’t received a skill that increased my stamina by 200%, I probably would have given up long ago.
“That’s why you should exercise regularly, nya!”
“Exercise… Yeah, I probably should.”
No matter how much my stamina was increased by 200%, it wouldn’t help much if my base stamina was garbage.
I looked at the cat as she continued nagging me.
Come to think of it, I still didn’t know the cat’s name.
I can’t keep calling her ‘Cat’ forever.
Our meeting had been completely unexpected, but we were business partners now, so I figured I should at least know her name.
“What was your original name?”
“My name, nya?”
“Yeah. We’ve already been together for quite a while, but I don’t even know your name.”
The cat grinned.
Then she proudly jumped up beside me and declared,
“Of course I have a name, nya. It’s an incredibly cool and magnificent name!”
After taking a moment to compose herself, the cat shouted,
“My name is (beeeeeep), nya!”
“Ugh! What kind of sound is that?!”
“(Beep)! (Beep)! (Beep)!”
A creepy, ear-piercing sound like fingernails scraping across a blackboard filled the room.
I could clearly tell that she was trying to say something, but all I could hear was a high-pitched, unpleasant noise.
After trying several more times, the cat finally gave up. Her body went limp as she muttered,
“Sigh. The human world has so many restrictions, nya…”
“The human world? Where are you from?”
The cat flopped down beside me and said that she had come from a very, very distant place.
Apparently, she was so capable that she had been sent to Earth on a special mission or something.
She obviously got into trouble and was banished.
That was definitely the feeling I was getting, but she didn’t seem like she would tell me anything even if I pressed her.
I poked the cat’s belly, which had spread out like a blanket across the bed, and said,
“I don’t know what your original name is, but since I don’t think I can pronounce it, I’ll give you a new one.”
“You’re going to name me, nya?”
“Yeah. Hmm… Since my name is Ha-neul, how about ‘Ha-nyang’ to match?”
It was a combination of my name and the “nyang” that the cat always used when she spoke.
I’d just come up with it on the spot, but now that I thought about it, it was actually pretty decent.
The cat hissed as though she didn’t like it, but I didn’t care.
They say animals with humble names live longer, anyway.
“It’s a little late, but let’s get along from now on. Jeong Ha-nyang!”
“Hyaaak!”
I forcibly hugged Ha-nyang, who was twice as fat as an ordinary cat, and rolled around on the bed with her.
She was warm and soft, like a bag filled with hot fish-cake broth.
“Gaaah! I can’t breathe, nya!”
Ha-nyang struggled and made a choking sound.
She was really overreacting!
Then I suddenly remembered the shop.
“Ha-nyang, there’s a really big problem with our shop.”
“A problem? What is it, nya?”
“Our customers keep increasing, but I can only make two at a time, so I can’t keep up.”
If I only had more bungeoppang molds, I could bake several at once.
But right now, it took an enormous amount of time while producing far too few at once.
That’s why the line kept getting longer and longer.
“Sigh. Since it’s a tool for making items, I guess I can’t just buy another mold separately, right?”
“Hmm… There is a way, nya.”
“There really is!?”
Ha-nyang nodded and added indifferently,
“But it will be difficult for you to buy it right now, nya.”
“Is it… the Hunter Market?”
The Hunter Market was a specialized item shop for Awakened people that no Hunter could possibly be unfamiliar with.
Not only did it sell all kinds of items, but the prices varied tremendously depending on their functions.
I’d been curious about the Hunter Market even before awakening.
Could I finally visit it now…?
“The Hunter Market? It’s not some strange market like that, nya.”
“Then where?”
Ha-nyang proudly declared,
“It’s none other than Jeoseung-i.com, nya!”
“Jeoseung-i.com…?”
What kind of ominous name was that for a website?
With a dubious expression, I turned on my laptop and searched for Jeoseung-i.com.
“Nothing comes up.”
“You won’t get anywhere using ordinary methods, nya.”
Ha-nyang leaped onto the laptop keyboard and began tapping away at something with her stubby paws.
I followed her instructions, clicking whenever she told me to click and pressing Enter whenever she told me to press Enter.
We went in and out of various unknown websites several times.
Then, finally, a normal-looking website appeared.
[Enter Jeoseung-i.com ⇒]
When I entered, a long list of products appeared.
Without hesitation, I clicked the bungeoppang category.
Amazingly, there was an entire category dedicated to bungeoppang!
And then my eyes widened.
“Wow! It says this mold can make six bungeoppang at once!”
“An infinite-capacity storage box? That’s incredibly useful!”
“Wait, what is this? A versatile robotic hand?!”
The more product descriptions I read, the more I felt that every single one was something I desperately needed.
Ugh, I want to buy everything. This is a problem…
“But what does the price unit ‘P’ mean?”
The bungeoppang mold cost 300P.
The storage box cost 700P.
And the versatile robotic hand cost 1,300P.
It couldn’t mean 300 won…
“It’s points, nya.”
“Points?”
Apparently, points were a virtual currency used on this website.
If I wanted, I could exchange money for points.
“The value of human currency is insignificant on Jeoseung-i.com, so you should give up on expecting much, nya.”
The value of human currency was insignificant?
Just how bad could the exchange rate be?
I checked the conversion rate so I could exchange the money I had into points.
And then I was horrified.
“…Is this right? One million won for just one point?”
Then the bungeoppang mold alone would cost…
300 million won?!
What kind of ridiculous price was that?!
“So that’s why I said you can’t buy it right now, nya.”
“Not right now? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to buy it!”
Three hundred million won wasn’t exactly pocket change.
It would take me a lifetime to earn enough to buy a single bungeoppang mold…
“Don’t worry about it. Just go to sleep for now, nya. You’ll have an opportunity to obtain points soon.”
Ha-nyang said she didn’t know exactly when, but the opportunity shouldn’t be too far away.
And just as the clever cat had said, before long, an opportunity to obtain points really did come along.
