Time for Meat!
Let's eat meat!
Standing there with a dazed look on her face at the spot where the red-tailed boar had collapsed, Ji-hye snapped out of it and clenched her fist, shouting.
"Whoa, wowaaaah!"
Dopamine was flooding her system. It was because she'd successfully taken down what had seemed like a recklessly dangerous boar hunt. The higher the goal and the more impossible it seemed, the greater the sense of accomplishment—and that was exactly what had happened. Hit with a dopamine bomb, Ji-hye turned to Ha-yeon amid her whirlwind of excitement.
"Wait, you just started climbing not long ago, right? How are you this good at fighting?"
"Huh?"
"You dodged the tail perfectly, and that pattern—I'd never seen it before either. It was so fast it should've been hard to avoid—"
Not just Ji-hye—the chat was buzzing about Ha-yeon's display. Some compared her to upper-floor rankers, others said it wasn't that impressive. It was more attention than a newbie just starting the Tower deserved, but Ha-yeon herself remained unfazed.
After all... 'Reaction speed goes up after TS—it's common sense.'
In the creative works Ha-yeon used to enjoy, protagonists were like that. TS girls often saw massive boosts in reaction speed and overall physicals, sometimes reaching superhuman levels. Sure, most of it was from stories she'd encountered during her hospital stays, so what did she know? But now that something similar had happened for real, she couldn't just dismiss it as fiction.
'My physicals really have improved.'
Ha-yeon looked down at her hand, clenching and unclenching it. This small, pale hand—completely different from before—moved at her command. Her previous life hadn't been blessed with great physicals. Slow reaction time, poor real-world athleticism, terrible at games. She had to chalk up those moves from earlier to TS buffs.
Watching Nelly and now Ji-hye marvel at her, Ha-yeon realized her skills weren't ordinary. The one downside? Her real-world physicals hadn't improved. If she could move as freely outside the Tower as she could here... she could've roamed freely, eaten whatever she wanted, and enjoyed life as the cherished heiress of a chaebol family instead of being cooped up in the hospital.
It was regrettable in many ways. But thank goodness for the Tower. Here, she could run, fight... and above all, eat.
That was a long preamble. For now, it was time to savor this victory.
"Wow!"
With the hunt over, Ha-yeon cheered and stood before the boar carcass. In her own way, she shouted in excitement.
"Meat! It's meat!"
Sweet victory naturally came with spoils. For most climbers, good rewards meant rare materials, enhancement stones, or EXP. Even Ji-hye next to her cried out in shock.
"Whoaaa! Red-tail feathers dropped! This is total rare material!"
"Is that good?"
"Of course! You need this for smelting later on upper floors. Some people grind floors just for it—"
Ji-hye excitedly kept explaining. How it was super rare but they'd gotten lucky, how it sold for millions of gold at auction, how people looped floors endlessly for it, and so on.
Ha-yeon nodded along, then said,
"Then you take it."
"—people even make a living off it just by—. Huh?"
"Ji-hye...-nim? Is that how you read the nickname? You pulled aggro, so it should go to you."
Ji-hye's face went blank at Ha-yeon's matter-of-fact words. Loot distribution was a never-ending debate among hunters. In raids or parties, it was one thing, but for impromptu teams like this, shares got murky—and fights weren't uncommon over who deserved what.
Ji-hye, being an upper-floor ranker, hadn't brought it up. But if she were Ha-yeon's level? She'd have been tempted for sure.
"No, I was gonna yield anyway!"
"...?"
"Oh, sorry I didn't mention earlier, but I'm actually streaming."
"Streaming?"
Ji-hye explained that she was an upper-floor ranker who'd come down to low floors for content and hunting.
"The Tower has streaming? That's wild."
Ha-yeon asked in surprise.
"So you've been chatting with viewers? Reading the chat window and stuff?"
"Pretty much. Sorry for not saying sooner."
"Nah, it's fine..."
Ha-yeon didn't press. The situation had been too hectic to bring it up, and she didn't mind her face being on stream anyway.
"So how many viewers right now?"
"Around 3,000... wait, why'd the count jump?"
Ji-hye's eyes darted in confusion. 5,213. Current viewers.
"A bit over 5,000. Usually around 3k, guess today's popular."
"That's a ton."
Ha-yeon looked impressed, and Ji-hye scratched her head sheepishly.
"Wanna say hi? Viewers are super into you."
It wasn't empty flattery. From her non-newbie skills to yielding the loot—they'd seen it all, and Ha-yeon came off as likable. But Ha-yeon just shook her head.
"I'm good. So I can take the rest then?"
"Yeah, yeah—I don't need 'em anyway."
No reason to turn down a gift. With the loot secured, Ha-yeon stood before the boar again. Now for the real spoils.
*
"Not into streaming, huh? Right, guys?"
After successfully hunting the red-tailed boar, Ji-hye farmed near the deep mountains while chatting with viewers. Even after parting with Ha-yeon, talk of her dominated the stream—her performance had been that memorable.
"Guild recruitment? Yeah, guild master said to snag anyone decent. Should've mentioned it."
Most top rankers were in guilds or ran their own. Ji-hye too—but hers was a new guild short on members. The master had told her to recruit talent on sight.
"Level whatever, if they're cracked it's fine. Kinda regret it now. Talent like Ha-yeon's isn't common."
Things had moved too fast; she'd forgotten about the guild in the moment. Ji-hye scratched her head and played it cool.
"Eh, if it's meant to be, we'll meet again!"
...
A bit later, finishing her farming and heading back, Ji-hye ran into a familiar face.
"...What are you doing here?"
Ha-yeon swallowed the meat in her mouth and beamed innocently.
"Eating meat!"