3. That's My ID, I Swear
"...Ugh."
The first true suffering I experienced after turning into a little girl was, of all things, this.
"Open wide, say 'ahh'—"
"I can't eat it..."
"You mustn't be a picky eater."
A carrot, diced into the tiniest of pieces, sat on the tip of Raia's spoon. ...Right. Throwing a fit over side dishes at my age.
Swallowing my pride, I opened my mouth, and her spoon carefully fed me the soup. It was carrot—a flavor I would normally have barely registered beyond a mild sweetness.
"...Blegh."
Why on earth did it taste so awful now? I looked up at Raia with a teary, scrunched-up face, but her resolve was absolute.
"No. You're skin and bones as it is."
"...Can't I eat it a little later?"
"And by 'later,' you mean never."
As if turning into a little girl in my late twenties weren't humiliating enough, I had now gone and developed a vegetable I couldn't stomach.
My life. Just how much more wretched can it possibly get...?
In the end, Raia treated me like a child and slipped the carrots into my mouth one piece at a time. It was a warm soup I hadn't had in ages—so why, why did I despise those carrots so much?
"...I'm sorry."
"Hehe. It's quite all right."
When the soup was finished, I rose from my seat to help clear the bowls. As always, I stacked the two of them together.
...Why won't they lift...?
"Huh. Um. Okay, then."
This body was, unmistakably, less than human. No—hold on. If my awakening was proportional to my desires, then I supposed I had no choice but to accept it. What exactly had that lunatic—me—been thinking all those years he was alive?
While I wallowed in that vicious self-loathing, Raia made off with the bowls.
"I'll just do the dishes. Why don't you rest?"
"...Okay."
Watching Raia hum a cheerful tune, I felt oddly self-conscious and turned my eyes to my phone instead. I wasn't playing any game; about the only thing I ever did on it was occasionally watch a movie or drama—whichever ones were famous, anyway.
What I ended up opening, of course, was the Hunter community board.
Why did I even awaken, only to awaken into something less than human..
I want to die...
No, seriously. I did awaken.
And not just any awakener, either—one carrying a skill so far beyond the standard grading scale it couldn't even be measured?
I was in the middle of alternating between despair and grudging acceptance when a stray thought crossed my mind, and I clicked into the beginner tips section of the Hunter board.
Oh, welcome. Not that it matters—we're all bound for the same fate anyway.
1. Here is the one thing that's absolutely certain: just because you failed to awaken does not mean your life is wretched.
(...excerpts omitted...)
And here's one a lot of you forget—writing it down so you don't.
14. If you've awakened, for the love of god, go register within three days.
Back when the gates first appeared, the government couldn't control anything yet, so it was fine. These days, registration is mandatory, thanks to the lunatics who awaken and then go around kicking up trouble.
What's that? You got an F-rank skill and figure you can just hide it? "It's barely above ordinary-person level, why bother registering?"
Yeah. Do it.
Skip it, get caught, and they'll handle you like a gate monster.
Don't like that?
Well, the government doesn't want to put your name on the books either, F-rank. They do it just in case.
Anyway—do not skip it.
Register. Register, I say.
What if an incident breaks out near you and you never registered? If the investigation turns up that you're an awakener, they'll tie you to the incident and re-investigate a good fifty percent of everything around you. Sounds pleasant, right?
One beloved regular—a real sweetheart of this community—awakened, spent his days cosplaying a reclusive hidden master, got tangled up in some neighborhood villain's incident, and is now serving hard labor in the Busan Undersea Dungeon.
Please. Just. Register. Skip it and get caught, and a one-way ticket to Beloved Regular status is guaranteed.
"...Oh."
I had filed registration away as something that would never concern me—after all, there was never going to be an awakening in my future.
But a startlingly practical problem had been waiting for me all along.
"...I'm screwed..."
Cursing in a voice clear and refined as a bell—hmm. That much, at least, felt refreshingly new.
Perhaps it was because I could already picture the whole scene in my head.
You say you've awakened? May I see some ID, please? Your name is... oh, it changed after your awakening? And your resident registration number... ah, we'll need to correct that as well, won't we? And your photo, too... ah...
"STATUS WIIINDOOWWW!!!!!!!!!
I glared at the status window that had popped out with a brisk little snap. The rascal must have had a guilty conscience of its own, because it kept trying to sneak its edges over and rub against my hand.
Not that it could actually touch anything.
"Fine. What good would raging at you do, anyway..."
At my sigh, the status window bobbed as if nodding along.
"But they always say status windows are supposed to be emotionless constructs. Then why are you—"
"Roon? I've finished the dishes."
Raia, wiping the last of the water from her hands onto her apron, took in the sight of me and the status window carrying on together—and smiled.
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Don't mention it. In exchange, you'll eat all of your dinner without leaving a single bite, yes?"
"...I'll do my best."
"Promise?"
"Hey, a promise is going a bit far..."
And so, with her laughter still ringing, I ended up hooking my pinky around hers anyway. But seriously, I really, really didn't want to eat those carrots...
Wait.
No. Just because my appearance had turned into a child's did not mean my brain got to follow!
"By the way, you were looking at something earlier, weren't you?"
"Yeah."
"You suddenly cursed and startled me. Did something happen?"
"Well..."
I earnestly explained everything to Raia. Not that she wouldn't already know most of it—we shared my memories from before the awakening, after all.
"So in short, you're worried because your current appearance doesn't match your old identity?"
"Yeah."
"Then I think it will be just fine."
Her words made a few of my neurons flicker to life.
"The danger only comes from awakeners who never report in, yes? Then this is simply a problem that registration solves."
"But, Raia..."
"Things have already changed. One cannot simply go on living in the past, can one?"
Except that "past" was less than twelve hours old, for your information... As if she had read my mind, Raia reached out and patted my head.
"Go and come back safely, and I'll make you something sweet for dessert."
"...You think something like that is going to work on me..."
Yes. It worked.
Think you can buy me with dessert?! I, Lee Hoon, refuse to be so easily swayed!
But little Roon wanted that sweet dessert very, very much.
And so, dressed in clothes Raia had procured from somewhere, I set out into the world.
"Wow... look at that kid. She's tiny, but she looks so soft and squishy."
"Right?.. Adorable, honestly..."
Unlike my unremarkable old looks, my current appearance turned heads without fail. The whispers people traded about me on the street reached my young ears with perfect clarity.
Awakening was supposed to enhance my physical abilities—why of all things did my hearing have to sharpen...
For the record, Raia had temporarily released her summon. Using a skill after awakening without registering is illegal, and getting caught meant instant branding as a villain, so I had begged her understanding and sent her back for the trip.
A great deal happened along the way. An elderly lady pressed candy into my hand for being cute, a baby stared holes through me, and I collected no fewer than three business cards from people asking whether I had ever considered idol training. One stranger even offered to be my "secret friend"—when I silently glared at them, they fled.
"Such is my fate..."
Still, I arrived. The place anyone in South Korea absolutely must visit to become a Hunter. The place every newbie huntress on the Hunter board dreams of reaching.
The Korea Hunter Management Department.
When I was little, my dream had been to push open these very doors after awakening and take my rank assessment with my head held high. Now, carrying an incredible skill, I dreaded opening them more than anything.
But retreat would make me a villain, and advance spelled the end of my life as I knew it. Ambivalent and cowardly as ever, I quietly pushed open the doors of the Hunter Management Department.
The moment they swung open, gazes I couldn't see but could keenly feel raked over me. Eyes poised to pounce the instant I proved to be a promising high-rank prospect took my measure and filed me away.
"Ooh... even if her rank runs low, at that level she'd make a perfect lead model for a guild..."
Evading the scouts hovering around like they were hoping to buy the dip on some bargain stock, I made a beeline for the assessment office. I pulled a numbered ticket and began to wait. Before long, a mechanical voice called my number; I stood, dropped the ticket into the basket, and drew my ID from my pocket.
"Um, excuse me..."
"Oh, yes! Are you here to file an awakening report?"
"Yes... here."
I cautiously held out my ID. Perhaps plenty of people come here claiming to have awakened. The clerk accepted it with practiced indifference and ran the search—then raised her eyes to my face.
Her gaze swung to the ID. Then back to me. The ID. Me.
"I think you've pulled out the wrong card. This must be an older brother's?"
"...It is not."
"Ahaha... you really shouldn't joke around. This is the Hunter Management Department. Keep that up and some very scary people might come out, you know?"
"It's me. It's really me..."
I stared at the clerk with the hollow eyes of someone who had lost the entire world.
XX0516-3XXXXXX
A resident registration number I knew by heart, without missing a single digit.
"Lee Hoon. That's me. I'm telling you..."
I buried my head and prayed for this one moment, and this moment alone, to simply pass.
"...One moment, please. I don't believe this is something I'm authorized to handle."
The clerk soon rose from her desk, sketched a quick map onto a memo pad, and handed it over. There was something curiously hollow in her eyes, but if I spared that a single extra thought, I would be the one to die.
"Um... hang in there."
With that heartfelt consolation, she carefully offered back my ID. I snatched it from her hand like a pickpocket in reverse and bolted out of the assessment office at full speed.
Look, I'm a HunterAnon who's half newbie-huntress myself, having only gone and awakened a measly E-rank strength-type skill, and today I saw something incredible at the Management Department.
Some of the HunterAnons who were there today have probably seen it too. This seriously cold-looking girl came to the assessment office all by herself.
Young ones aren't really my type, but her looks passed inspection, so I was quietly watching, and then—it must have been her turn? She got into some kind of back-and-forth with the clerk, the clerk handed her something that looked like a memo?, and she slipped out of there in a hurry.
The clerk even handed the girl her ID with insane politeness. What was that about? Did I just witness a future S-rank Hunter with my own two eyes???