Daeheon Gallery
Daeheon Gallery
My plan to wake up lazily tomorrow, eat a meal, and look into my ability—went down the drain as soon as I woke up.
"Cough..."
I don't know what the heck happened because I ate well and slept well, but when I woke up, I had come down with a body ache fever.
There wasn't a single spot on my body that didn't throb, and my head was burning up to the point of dizziness.
Despite that, how cold was the breath exhaling from my mouth that pure white frost breath billowed out.
"Sia-ya. Are you feeling very sick?"
"I-I'm fine... Cough! Cough!"
Seeing Omma look so worried, I tried to force myself to pretend to be healthy, but fat chance of that.
The cough that burst out immediately right after only added to her worries.
"Honey. Is our Sia really going to be okay?"
"You don't need to worry. It's just because her body is in the process of adapting."
Ddeol-ddeol-ddeol-
Contrary to Appa's reassuring words, he was shaking his legs as if an earthquake had hit.
Since Appa, who possessed immense power, was bouncing his leg, the bed I was lying on shook entirely.
It feels a bit awkward to say this, but it's interfering with my rest, so I wish he would just step out...
"Cough... Father."
"......."
"Papa."
"Yes, my daughter. Is there something you need?"
I'm dying of pain here, did he really have to insist on hearing me call him Papa? Once I get completely better, I'm going to call him Father instead of Appa for a while.
"No. I'm telling you to stop shaking your legs. It's shaking the bed and making my head hurt even more."
"Ugh. You useless piece of work, seriously!"
Chalssak-chalssak— Omma smacked Appa's steel-like back, and Appa, looking sulky, left a sheet of paper telling me to read it later before stepping out of the room.
After that, Omma also left the room only after confirming that I had taken the fever reducer.
Left alone in the room.
Perhaps the medication kicked in quickly, as the dizziness faded a bit, so I picked up the sheet of paper Appa had left behind.
[Compensation List for Han Sia-yang Regarding the Kowloon Association Terrorist Incident]
Hmm... I completely understand.
Just skim-reading it, I could tell it was something incredible, but I'll have to hear the details through the Association later or ask Appa about it.
Reading such a long text when my head hurts isn't helping at all.
I neatly folded the paper, put it back down, and instead picked up my smartphone resting by my pillow.
Then I unlocked the pattern, connected to the internet, and shot right over to a familiar site—
[Korea Hunter Gallery]
A gallery that could safely be considered the most active forum in South Korea.
A place rampant with all kinds of rumors and hunter-related info.
And it was the place where I, who usually had to act like a polite little girl on the outside due to Appa's prestige, blew off some steam.
[Heading out on an expedition to the Eroded Land soon, is this breakfast top-tier?][3]
[Emeeeergeeeencyyyy! New Erosion! Just spawned!!][17]
[Looking for Party / Fire Mage / 26 / F][51]
[Regarding this Kowloon Association terror attack.let's_look_into_it][129]
[Praying for Hunter Awakening Day 1755][1]
Seeing the gallery filled as usual with shitposts dripping with all sorts of desires alongside news from the hunter world, I nodded satisfied.
I wanted to drop an embarrassing shitpost of my own right this second that I could never show anyone else, but that wasn't why I logged in today.
The words Appa said a little while ago.
'It's just because her body is in the process of adapting.'
Recalling Appa's words, which sounded as if he knew something, I came on here to figure out the exact reason why I was sick.
Pondering whether I should dig through related posts written by hunters, I soon found even that annoying and just decided to write a post myself.
[Title: The reason why a newly awakened hunter gets body aches]
Author: Anon
Title says it all.
Anyone know anything?
After posting the message to rest until comments came in, I turned off my smartphone and closed my eyes for a moment.
Then, thanks to the cozy blanket, when I closed and opened my eyes, roughly 2 hours had already passed.
Still, it wasn't bad; having rested for a bit, my body was in a considerably better state than before falling asleep.
With a slightly lighter body and head, I opened my smartphone again and checked the post I had uploaded.
[Comments]
-Anon: Search for that kind of stuff yourself.
-Anon: Hunter-related posts are everywhere, yet you don't even think about searching for it yourself... Tsk tsk!
Anon: Smells like boomer in the comments, but not exactly wrong though.
-Armchair Expert: Ooh, looks like someone around you is like that... Congrats for now.
Most of the comments were full of telling me to search for it myself, but at the very end, I saw one comment posted by none other than a fixed handle user.
Some might say, "What's up with a fixed handle? Are you guys playing buddy-buddy or something?"—but in the Korea Hunter Gallery, a fixed handle carries a different meaning than in other forums.
Because the only people who could use fixed handles were those who had verified themselves as hunters.
In short, the person who commented at the end was someone actively working as an active-duty hunter.
I painstakingly wrote a reply to the comment left directly by the mighty Hunter-nim.
-Armchair Expert: Ooh, looks like someone around you is like that... Congrats for now.
Anon: I'm dying of pain here, what the fuck do you mean congrats? So what's the reason?
"Mmm!"
Just as I checked my reply with satisfaction and was about to calmly wait for another response...
Even though barely a minute had passed since I replied, another reply popped up on my comment in that brief moment.
Armchair Expert: ...No, this little bastard is throwing a fit even when given congratulations. Hey, where do you live? Want me to trace your iq?
Ooh. Looks like he was so moved by my thoughtful reply that he came back with a super enthusiastic comment.
Well then, I couldn't lose either.
Anon: iq my ass Lmao, trace it if you can.
Armchair Expert: Just you wait. I'm gonna trace it right now.
Ooh, is this guy actually pretty good?
Since this was the Korea Hunter Gallery of all places, where so many hunters were active, there were indeed fixed handles—hunters who were actually hackers or had connections with people in that field.
In fact, there had been several cases where people acted tough against hunters without knowing anything and almost got permabanned from real life, so unless a hunter was really confident in their skills, they tended to restrain themselves.
In a way, since I was just a nobody who had newly awakened as a hunter, it was right for me to exercise self-restraint, but... who am I?
Owner of an executive father from one of the Big 5 Guilds.
Will our dear Armchair Expert-nim be able to trace our house's iq (lol)...?!
How long did I wait with such anticipation?
Roughly 5 minutes had passed.
Armchair Expert: ...Can't we just call it a draw?
Anon: Does it look like we can?
Armchair Expert: Aigoo, I failed to recognize an esteemed high-ranking personage...
Anon: Still, it was fun, so I'll let it slide if you find out what I originally asked about.
Armchair Expert: Yes, sir! I'll go find out right away!
He seemed brimming with confidence, so he really was a hunter with skill or connections.
However, the skill matching that confidence had pulled back a curtain that should never have been lifted; thanks to that, Armchair Expert—who found out our house location and who lived here—changed jobs in just 5 minutes from a genius hacker who could trace an address to a front-yard servant.
Oh dear, he should've been careful.
Pulling the blanket over my head and giggling softly, I waited for the info our servant would bring back.
Armchair Expert: Aigoo, have you been waiting?
Anon: Enough chit-chat, just recite the info you brought.
Armchair Expert: Yes, sir! According to the revealed information...
I read through the content Armchair Expert had uploaded without missing a single detail.
Among newly awakened individuals, cases of suffering high fever and body aches were extremely rare. According to all cases reported so far, every single one belonged to hunters who possessed unique traits—and at least A-rank unique traits at that.
Awakened individuals with high-grade unique traits also demonstrated absurd levels of mana manipulation abilities right when they newly awakened, which was mostly true for those who awakened amid a crisis.
However, if they handled mana in a state where their body wasn't accustomed to mana yet right after awakening, they would suffer from much more severe body aches for several days compared to people with other unique traits.
"So it was this."
The moment I saw it, I knew I belonged to this case.
[Mahabaltukma (EX)]
An absurd-ranked unique trait visible right now just by opening my status window.
I had heard of S-rank traits before, but EX-rank was a first since I was born.
Besides, just looking at the description rambling about hell this and severe cold that, it would certainly be higher than S-rank, definitely not lower.
And right when I awakened my power.
I felt as if all the surrounding mana was dyed in my color and placed under my absolute dominion.
A sensation as if I had become some entity transcending humanity.
Thanks to the mana moving as I willed, I killed that flame villain, but in exchange, I was scheduled to be in pain for the next few days.
Ehyu.
I'm not exactly a masochist who likes being in pain, but... what could I do?
In that situation, there was no other way to stop it.
And back then, I didn't know there was a penalty like this either.
Thanks to that, I protected the school and the students, so I don't regret it.
Armchair Expert: That is all. If by any chance you're not satisfied...
Anon: Nah, it's fine. This is enough, so you may go now.
Armchair Expert: Thank you! If there is anything else you need, please call on me anytime!
After releasing Armchair Expert, who had entertained me for a while, I set down my smartphone and lay on the bed.
Still, they said resting well without using mana as much as possible helps one recover faster, so what choice did I have but to follow that advice?
And that evening.
"Daughter, Appa brought an elixir for my daughter. If you take this and get plenty of rest, you'll get better in no time."
"Yay! Papa, I love you!"
With the power of capitalism, my body ache was completely washed away in just one day.