Hidden Rewards and a Sister's Plight
I'd found the first hidden room.
A massive boulder—easily dozens of times the volume of a human body, with a weight so staggering it was impossible to even imagine—had dozens of talismans stuck to its surface. The question was, why was there absolutely no information about this suspicious rock circulating outside? As far as I could remember, there had never been any public disclosure that the Tower contained hidden rooms. Whether no one had actually discovered one, or whether a select few were sharing the information among themselves, there was no way to tell.
"The talismans are blocking mana detection, huh?"
My mana radar could perfectly map the terrain within ten meters of me, but I couldn't see through the boulder plastered with talismans. For all I knew, an ancient god or a demon could be sealed behind it.
"You didn't find any device that could clear the rock?"
"No, ma'am. There's nothing like that in this area, at least."
The communication came from the paper airplane circling above my head, keeping watch over the boulder. It was a bit concerning, but fighter aircraft were structurally incapable of hovering in place, so there was nothing to be done about it.
"Should I search the entire cave thoroughly?"
"If you give me permission, I'll destroy the boulder itself."
"What?"
Which was more threatening—the hop goblin warrior, or the boulder? Obviously, a stationary rock was tens of thousands of times less dangerous than a hop goblin warrior. But if you asked which was harder to destroy? This massive boulder was undoubtedly far more durable. I'd already blown away a hop goblin warrior, which was impressive enough—now you're telling me I can unleash firepower even greater than that?
"Do it."
"Roger that. Please step back, ma'am. It'll be dangerous."
When the boulder was destroyed, debris would fly everywhere. I took Alex's advice and retreated a safe distance. Soon after, a mana missile shot out from beneath Alex's Paper Crow.
KWAAAAAANG!
It was the kind of firepower that made me wonder if it was even legal to detonate something like this inside a cave. The boulder shattered into fragments and scattered in all directions. I might have been dead meat if the cave had collapsed, but at least the result was good, so that was good enough.
I didn't expect firepower on this scale.
I'd assumed it would carve a passage through the rock for a person to walk through—not blow a boulder dozens of times larger than a human into pieces. If this had been an enemy force, it would have been pure terror. Is this what they call drone warfare these days?
On the surface, it looked like nothing more than a pathetic paper airplane. But the machine gun underneath could turn a top-tier hop goblin into a ragdoll, and its missiles could shatter a massive boulder into fragments. The latest intel about grenade drones and machine gun drones slaughtering infantry made me shiver a little. But that was outside the Tower. I was the only one who could bring drones inside. This wasn't modern weaponry—it was my ability.
"Search it. Does it lead to a larger cave?"
I didn't rush toward the area behind the boulder and instead left reconnaissance to Alex.
"It's a single room-sized space. And the only thing inside is a book."
So the hidden room wasn't the start of a new adventure—it was the reward itself.
"No traps?"
"No, ma'am. Nothing registered on mana detection."
After confirming safety twice, I finally headed toward the secret room that the boulder had been blocking. The book I found inside was written in characters I'd never seen before.
You have discovered the Goblin Dictionary.
Would you like to use it?
A choice suddenly appeared.
"If I use the dictionary, I'll immediately learn Goblin?"
Yes.
What would I even use Goblin for?
I hesitated for a moment. But the hesitation didn't last long. It was a hidden room reward, after all—there had to be some benefit. Maybe it would be a clue to the next hidden room.
"I'll use it."
Using Goblin Dictionary.
You have acquired Goblin!
As soon as I used the dictionary, the book vanished and the knowledge of Goblin was imprinted into my mind. The experience of having knowledge I'd never known before instantly seared into my brain was truly strange. At the same time, I was able to understand the words the hop goblin warrior had said to me just before it killed me yesterday.
Meat! Gotta eat it well!
"……"
I'd been pretty sure it had said something like "Not bad, human" or "Not bad, warrior." It turns out the hop goblin warrior had no concept of honor. It was just filming some weird drama on its own.
"Ma'am, the knowledge of Goblin has been injected into my mind as well."
"Same here."
Communications came in from Alex and Simona. It seemed my crew was directly affected by the knowledge I possessed.
"Well, that's good. This'll make reconnaissance even better."
I'd safely acquired the first-floor hidden room reward, so now it was time to leave. With Alex's Paper Crow leading the way, I continued exploring the cave. It was a cave exploration filled with monsters and traps, but to me it felt no different from taking a stroll through the neighborhood. After all, Alex had already dealt with all the traps and goblins in advance.
Once I finished my walk to the exit gate, I stowed the battle-worn Paper Crow back into sub-space. As soon as I recovered the Paper Crow, the rewards from Alex's combat poured into me.
◈ Reward: 10 Points
That's it? Just that?
Whatever. As long as I leveled up, that's fine.
What new ability had I gained this time? When I'd reached Level 2, I'd gotten the Operations Department Communications Officer, Lieutenant Simona. Looking carefully at my status window, I saw that my crew had grown to three members and my aircraft to two.
"Paper Ghost?"
The Paper Ghost is a stealth aircraft equipped with full invisibility capabilities.
It can evade detection by visible light, ultraviolet, infrared, and even mana sensing.
A completely invisible paper airplane?
I didn't know what I could do with it yet, but if it was truly invisible, it was definitely overpowered. There was nothing more terrifying than something you couldn't see.
"Who's the pilot?"
"Loyalty. Captain Yerina, 103rd Special Duty Platoon Leader, 1st Fighter Wing. I look forward to serving you, ma'am."
The pilot was a woman with a voice that felt somehow sensual.
"Nice to meet you, Yerina."
"My life is for ma'am."
She'd delivered another line that made me cringe, but I was getting used to it by now. I was slowly having to accept the system's absurdity of turning me into an aircraft carrier. I was a little worried about whether having too many friends in my head would drive me insane, but I had an obligation to quickly establish myself as a proper hunter and bring my younger sister Haneul home to protect her. Because I was her older brother.
Kim Haneul had lied to her older brother Kim Bada a lot.
She didn't want to live in their wretched little home anymore. She'd told him she'd found an opportunity to make a lot of money and would manage on her own.
The truth was, she didn't want to see her brother working all day and then doing cyber labor at home, pouring every won he earned into her tuition. The "opportunity to make a lot of money" was a lie. Balancing university life with part-time work was nearly impossible. In the end, she submitted a leave-of-absence application.
She would scrape together money through part-time jobs and attend school on her own strength. Sometimes the temptation to make money easily came knocking, but she stubbornly chose to keep living the hard way.
"It's really tough living like this. If you'd just be my girlfriend, I could easily cover your tuition, you know?"
"That's not a normal romantic relationship."
Kim Haneul had gotten into Seoul's most prestigious university thanks to her brother's sacrifice. And there, she'd met a rotten golden spoon.
Han Seung-hyun.
He'd set his sights on the stunningly beautiful Kim Haneul and approached her, but she'd put up an iron wall, saying she had no time for romance. Han Seung-hyun was a venomous snake of a man with an obsessive streak. Eventually, he'd learned a lot about her circumstances against her will—her orphan status, the fact that she lived alone with her brother, and how desperately poor they were.
Seeing all that, he'd thought: This is a girl I can mess with. She'll fold if I throw enough money at her.
But the more he flaunted his wealth, the stronger Kim Haneul's iron wall became. She'd silently dropped out of school, but Han Seung-hyun used his connections and money to track her down. She hadn't hidden far—she was just hopping between part-time jobs in Seoul. Finding her wasn't difficult.
And then he'd come to her and relentlessly pushed his advances—now twisted into a "sponsorship proposal."
Calling the police was useless. No "incident" had occurred yet. Under South Korean law, there was nothing to be done until the victim was actually ruined. To Kim Haneul, it felt like they were practically pushing her toward being ruined.
That day was no different.
Kim Haneul stood alone at the convenience store, and Han Seung-hyun sat down casually beside her, bothering her with no intention of studying.
"Information gathering complete. That man is not a boyfriend—he's a stalker."
"Background check complete. He was involved in school violence four times during middle and high school, but his father's money smoothed everything over."
"He's a true piece of trash."
Bada, having acquired the stealth aircraft, had sent it to scout near her sister, discovered Han Seung-hyun, and used Communications Officer Simona's abilities to investigate his background.
"How should we deal with him?"