Snow Golem Disaster and the Perfect Pork Belly Gig
It's too big! It's... just ruined. I couldn't even muster the energy to clean up the debris from the exploded computer, and now out of nowhere, my room was buried under a freak blizzard.
I had no idea where to even start....
"This isn't right, yo...."
Honestly, I wasn't great at cleaning even on a normal day. Life's tough, you know? It's just me living here, so why bother...? But that doesn't mean I deliberately trash the place, right? Even messy people like clean stuff deep down. In short, my place wasn't just ordinarily dirty—it was so packed that there wasn't even room for my tiny body to lie down. The room was literally filled with snow.
"S-Since I'm a Snow Woman, it'll be fine, right?"
Thinking about it, my job class is Snow Woman. Don't Snow Women have resistance to cold? With that in mind, I decided to lie down on the snow and test it out.
"Oh...!"
Surprisingly, it really wasn't cold. More than that, I couldn't feel the chill at all. It was like I knew the temperature was lower than around me, but it didn't bother me—it felt nice. Plus, since it was snow made from my own mana, it wasn't melting. And ever since my body changed, my own body temperature seemed super low too.
"I could probably sleep lying here.... It's cozier than I thought, yo...."
I lay there with my eyes closed for a bit, then bolted upright. I knew it—this was just escapism. I had to clean it up.... Even if it wasn't melting now, if it did later, it'd be a total disaster. My place is semi-basement, so no downstairs neighbors, but mold would spread through the whole building.
"Can't let that happen, yo.... Especially when I still owe wall repair fees."
Anyway, I resolved to clean, but the problem was my hands were ridiculously small. They were too tiny to even properly swing a towel. Feeling down and teary-eyed, I suddenly remembered I had one more skill: Snow Friends!
"...!"
The moment I realized it, I could sense how to use the Snow Friends skill and what it did. If I used this right, I could clean the house in no time. Like in Frozen, when Elsa makes Olaf. Exactly that skill—creating living things from ice and snow around me!
"Let's do it right now, yo...!"
No point holding back. I spread both arms wide and thrust them forward. But since snow was everywhere, I had to stretch them out super wide. That tickly feeling deep in my heart again. Using the skill felt like a satisfying sneeze—pretty pleasurable, actually.
"Snow Friends...!"
Come out, my friends...!
I wasn't sure what creature to make first, so I imagined Olaf and activated the skill. My main intent was to gather up all the snow filling the house. Whoosh—a wind started blowing again, and the scattered snow began swirling back into one spot.
"Ooh!"
It's working! Even the black debris from the computer explosion was getting swept up and packed in...! I might just become the goddess of cleaning.
"Ooh...! Uh, wh-what?!"
But wait—the room was full of snow, right? If it all clumps together into a shape, that means something huge comes out, doesn't it...? It started as an Olaf silhouette but quickly evolved into a massive golem like the ones from the main story. Boom, thud—the floor groaned under its growing weight.
Soon, the black debris settled into patterns on the pure white snow, forming a gigantic snow golem that loomed over me like a boss monster. It was so enormous that, like a basketball player crammed into a compact car, it hunched over with its back pressed against the ceiling, staring down at me.
"...Gasp."
I was so shocked that the tears welling up in my eyes finally spilled down. They landed right on my foot, so I couldn't even pretend I wasn't crying. After everything that happened today, having a monster suddenly staring at me was just too much—I felt so wronged. And with it blocking the ceiling light, its shadow draped over everything.
The golem, panicking at my tears, flailed its arms around clumsily. It seemed like it wanted to tell me something, but it just caused more floor-shaking noise.
"T-Talk to me, yo!"
Frustrated and upset, I yelled like a total elementary school kid. Shockingly, mana drained from my body, and whoosh—a mouth formed on the golem's face.
I thought it'd talk, but nope—it just kept puffing out snow like some rice cake vendor...! Seeing that made me even sadder, tears trickling out. The golem stared at me for a while, dripping icicles like sweat onto the floor as it pondered, then scooped up the snow it dropped, packed it tight, and pointed at it with pecks.
"...Hic, like this? With you?"
The golem nodded vigorously, thrilled that I got it. It wanted it so bad, I couldn't say no. I focused my intent deep in my chest. Tickly—that check showed way more mana left than I expected. Guess all the strength that went to my body got redirected to mana. Plenty to spare, so this time I decided to consciously use a lot and reached out my hand.
Like flexing muscles... Yeah! Like pressing your tongue hard against the roof of your mouth and feeling saliva squirt from under it—I concentrated mana at my fingertips.
"Compress!"
Sploosh—The problem was, I overdid it. Half my mana vanished in an instant. Roughly calculating, it was over a hundred times more than what I used for the breath and the giant golem.
"Hwahhh—!"
The wind—no, the very mana—whirled violently through the room, beyond mere air currents. I even saw the tattered wallpaper rip right off the wall in a big sheet. Oh no....
As I stared in dismay, the cramped room and the massive golem started shrinking. But... way smaller than expected. It went from giant golem to Olaf size, then kept going until it stopped at cola can dimensions. It looked just like...
"A s-snow bunting?"
A pure white snow bunting. The black debris had turned into tiny pebble eyes and beak. As a golem, it looked like a kid's sloppy snowball mess, but now the sync was spot-on. Anyone who didn't know it was made would mistake it for a real live bird.
"Whoa!"
It even flapped its wings, scattering sparkling snow dust as it flew into the air! Whether from the skill or mana, the sparkles kept falling, but its size stayed perfect. It zipped around the room before landing on my head. Peck peck—its beak tapped my crown, not painful, just a little tickly.
"S-So cute, yo."
At first it was scary and sad, but now with this cuteness, I felt better. Must be the Childlike Innocence skill at work. I really had a kid's heart and mind now—bummed one second, thrilled the next at something fun.
"...But what about the wallpaper?"
The snow and black debris were getting cleaned up nicely as Absolmi—wait, yeah, let's call it Absolmi since it's from rice cake snowman vibes—kept sprinkling powder. But the wallpaper was the issue. It was torn like a poster ripped off too roughly. No way around it—I'd have to replace it all. Not just the big rips; the whole wall facing that direction was frayed from the blizzard's aftermath. Patching one side wouldn't cut it.
"But I have no money, yo...."
I checked my phone balance: 205,300 won. Oh, and the overdue electric kick scooter payment just hit—down 1,310 more. Would they believe me if I insisted it wasn't my fault? And what would the landlord think if a random elementary girl showed up claiming to be the tenant...? My head hurt.
With this childlike body, dwelling on stuff like that made my heart pound. No answers no matter how long I thought. No good.
Absolmi bobbed its head like it was saying something, but we weren't close enough to understand yet. I pondered, then grabbed a pencil rolling on the desk and let it grip it in its beak.
"Can you... write?"
I gave it paper too and watched with arms crossed. Absolmi waddled over with the pencil in beak—which was longer than its body. Maybe I should've sharpened it shorter, but I believed my creation could handle it...
"??"
I couldn't make heads or tails of it. When I gave it a "What, Hangul?" look, Absolmi nodded proudly. What do you have to be proud of? Well, yeah. If someone handed me a pencil taller than me and said write, I'd fail too. Realizing I'd asked too much, I felt bad.
"Sigh. Just rest, yo."
Absolmi gave up on talking too and hopped back to my head meekly. Good thing I'm like this now— if I were still a guy, Absolmi would've keeled over from my scalp smell. Anyway, time to figure out next steps with that pencil Absolmi used.
I grabbed paper and pencil and jotted down a list... all crooked and messy. Honestly, on par with—or worse than—Absolmi's.
"...."
No! I can read my own writing. Bad handwriting always looks fine to the writer, so it's okay. And I'm nine—what's the big deal? Anyway, prioritizing wasn't hard since a ton of issues popped up.
ID problem, money problem, clothes problem. Those three loomed largest.
Han Gyeol the guy vanishes, and suddenly Shiro the girl appears. I'm broke as a beggar, and I have nothing to wear in this house.
"What am I gonna do, yo...."
Biggest issue: unclear identity meant no Awakener Association registration. Can't hunt Gate monsters or climb the tower without it. I had some plans, but now I just felt depressed.
I sniffled for a while, then opened my phone and logged into the Gamja Market app. I could at least do some local gigs, right? It's just helping neighbors—no one's gonna be picky. An elementary kid earning pocket money should be fine. They'd probably pay extra if a kid shows up for errands.
"Any decent ones?"
Scrolling through, one job jumped out—perfect for me right now...!
Earn money and eat? Best of both worlds!