The Fox Sees a Dangerous Person!
"Wahaha!"
After a long time, I had finally succeeded.
So much had happened along the way, but now I was an S-class Awakened, the most outstanding, charismatic, and richest being in this whole world.
Behind the throne where I sat, countless prey had piled up like a mountain, proof of my power.
Boss, too, was swishing his tail beside me as if proud of me, and even the ants who had been granted my glorious first prey had been so moved by my mercy that they became my subordinates.
"From now on, this world belongs to Lady Naru! Kraaah!"
The strongest Naru in the world let out a roar.
I was super strong, the strongest among all Awakened.
I beat monsters and strange people too. I won against anyone who came at me. Lady Naru was one of a kind.
Anyway, I roared.
"Agh, run!"
The parents who had abandoned me and the loan sharks who used to take their anger out on me fled. I was the best.
So everyone ran away.
The end.
"Heheh... heheh..."
"Meow."
"Kyaa?!"
Coming to my senses after Boss's kitty punch, I sat up with a groan, rubbed my eyes, and tilted my head.
"Huh? My throne? My meat? My subordinates?"
"Meow."
"...A dream?"
Only then did I realize it had all been a dream, and at once everything felt hollow. A gloomy feeling swallowed me whole.
"Yowl."
"Norangi?"
When I looked around, I saw not only Norangi but several other cats gathered around me, all taking a nap.
Thanks to them, I had slept warm. It was because the cats had huddled together.
"Feels like there are even more of them here than the last time I saw this group."
"Meow."
"You mean there are rumors about me?"
According to Norangi, cat rumors could spread all the way to the other side of the Earth, but no matter how I thought about it, that sounded like a lie, so I refused to believe it.
Still, since they had helped me sleep warmly, I decided to let it go without saying anything.
I got up at once, moved the cats sleeping on the clothes I had hung to dry out of the way, and put my clothes back on.
I tried to wear the top I had been wearing before and pull on the pants, but my tail got in the way, making it unbearably uncomfortable.
In the end, the thing I could wear was a skirt.
It felt like my dignity as a man had disappeared, but as long as my tail was comfortable, I didn’t care.
I wore three layers of socks instead of shoes, but that was still way better than having nothing at all!
I had started with nothing and even gotten equipment, so I was basically invincible.
And now, just like in the dream I had just had, all that was left was to become the best.
"Then today, I’m going to start making money for real!"
For my legend of success, I was about to head out and earn money as an Awakened in earnest, but...
"How does an Awakened even make money?"
I hit a fundamental problem and got stuck.
At a time like this, the internet could be called the pinnacle of human science...
...
Ah. Right now, there was nothing like that anymore.
Grrr...
And I was hungry.
So, first things first, I headed down the mountain to deal with my empty stomach, and thankfully the feed bucket from before had been refilled.
Could this be a magic feed bucket that automatically filled itself after some time?!
Boss really was amazing... So this was the territory he had claimed...
Looking at it now, it didn’t seem strange that I had lost at all.
I gobbled down the feed and started making my next plan.
First, as I had heard before, Awakened went into a place called the Tower, fought monsters, and sold the byproducts they got from them to make money.
But I had no idea how to enter that Tower in the first place.
"Besides, I don’t even have a weapon. How am I supposed to fight?"
Honestly, even if I did go into the Tower, I wasn’t confident I could win against a monster.
Then the way for me to make money was...
...
...
...
No matter how hard I thought about it, no answer came, and sweat started beading on me while the cats looked at me strangely.
Right now I had no identity, so I couldn’t even get a part-time job. And even if I wanted to do manual labor, realistically, I didn’t think this body could handle it.
Then there was only one primal method left.
"Coin search!"
That was the legal way to find and take money that had been dropped!
Of course, it wasn’t exactly legal, but I decided this much was legal enough for me.
To find money, I’d have to go down to where dangerous strangers lived, so it would be risky. But now was a time to take risks.
Besides, I was dressed properly this time, and my stomach was full, so my combat power had gone up too.
"Let's go!!"
With solemn resolve, I ran back into the neighborhood full of human smells.
This is how a brave fox gets prey!
At the same time.
"Hmm, she definitely ran this way..."
A woman was walking around the neighborhood where Box Fox had appeared, holding a selfie stick.
She had beautiful long black hair that glittered in the sunlight and wore a purple butterfly hairpin.
Her purple eyes were captivating, and every time she walked forward, they shimmered as if touched by violet moonlight.
Her name was Han Yerin, a B-class Awakened who was currently gaining fame through her personal broadcasts.
The reason she was here today was to find the recently trending Box Fox.
Of course, trying to find a wild animal in sprawling Seoul was like looking for a needle in a desert, but she was no ordinary person. She was an Awakened.
And her ability was...
"Hoo!"
Han Yerin gathered mana in one hand, blew out a breath, and the mana that drifted away took on the shape of a butterfly as it rose into the air.
Her ability was Butterfly Swordswoman.
She didn’t command real butterflies, but rather shaped her own mana into butterflies and controlled them.
However, her ability was more suited to scouting than combat, so Han Yerin had given up on climbing the Tower.
Instead, she started personal broadcasts, using the beauty of the butterflies she created with her ability.
As she had expected, she gained popularity by introducing the Tower to people who couldn’t go in themselves and by doing all kinds of content, but recently she had run out of material and fallen into a slump.
And then Box Fox had caught her attention.
The video had gone viral because the fox was unbelievably cute, and rumors that it was a beastman had only drawn even more attention.
And now, with nothing confirmed, if Han Yerin found the truth and made a video out of it?
That would be excellent material.
What's more, her ability was specialized for searching, so she felt this whole thing was fate.
"All right! Find the fox around here and let me know!"
The purple butterflies scattered sparkling particles as they took flight at her command.
She also sent up a filming phone using a few of the butterflies and began her broadcast.
"Welcome to Butterfly Garden, butterfly viewers!"
Han Yerin launched into her opening line with a completely different air than before, then continued as if this were the most familiar thing in the world.
"Your honey jar, Luna, is here!"
Her broadcast name was Luna, and the moment she started the stream, her viewer count shot up as if proving just how popular she was.
"Today’s an outing stream after a long time! Did I go back to Tower raiding? No way! Have you heard about the hot topic lately, Box Fox?"
At the mention of Box Fox, viewers quickly realized she had come to look for it, and the chat exploded with reactions.
"Wow, I didn't know the response would be this hot. Anyway, just as everyone guessed, I’ve come here today to find Box Fox myself!"
Han Yerin... no, Luna, enjoyed the viewers’ heated response for a moment before continuing.
"I watched the video too, and it was incredibly cute. But apparently some people say it was staged, while others say it was real. And the hottest debate of all is whether this fox is not just a wild animal, but a fox beastman! Ah, the editor will put in photos so the YouTube viewers can see them clearly."
Walking slowly down the street, she continued her small talk, then gathered up her mana to begin in earnest.
"All right! Anyway, today I’m finding Box Fox! Oh, a mission just popped up. Ten thousand won if I find Box Fox? Ah, of course I’m going to find it, so thanks in advance!"
She had already used her ability once to start searching for the fox, but after the broadcast began, presentation mattered, so she broadcast the sight of her sending the butterflies out again.
The viewers loved watching the always-beautiful butterflies flutter away, and Han Yerin smiled with satisfaction as she gradually widened her search range.
As she focused, the viewers started teasing her by bringing up that time she had confidently gone looking and then failed.
"I’m definitely going to find it this time, so knock it off!"
Then, just as a signal came from the butterfly she had sent out, Yerin smiled with confidence and said, "Found it!"
She herself found it hard to believe that she had tracked it down far faster than expected, but she said it boldly all the same.
The viewers responded with disbelief, and she only put on even more of a show.
"Heh, if I get serious, this is nothing."
So with confidence, she headed to the place where the signal had been picked up, but what was waiting there was a yellow-furred cat.
"...A cat?"
"Meow."
The cat was Norangi, resting there. When a stranger came near, he lazily slapped at the butterfly hovering in front of him with one paw.
Yerin broke into a cold sweat and glanced sideways at the broadcast screen.
And just as she expected, the chat was mocking her bravado and laughing at her failure.
Getting angry or denying it here would make her look inexperienced.
Han Yerin proved that her streaming experience had not gone to waste and smoothly held up the cat while saying, "When did I say I found a fox? It’s no fun if you find it immediately!"
But despite her efforts, the chat filled with words about going to hell, and she continued speaking with an expression she was desperately trying to keep smiling.
"Fine, I won’t joke around. I’ll look properly."
Han Yerin immediately sent the butterflies out again to start looking for the fox, and Norangi stared at her for a moment before wandering off somewhere.