What a Hassle

What a hassle.

This was the 5th Floor Safety Zone.

And I was, to put it mildly, a little overwhelmed.

I'd more or less expected the crowd to swell, of course. The woman I'd given a gift to had probably gone around blabbing about it to anyone who'd listen. Not that I'd told her to keep her mouth shut. And besides, it hadn't been so bad at first. Food had kept coming in. All kinds of it, too, so in the beginning I'd been genuinely happy!

But even a good thing gets old after a day or two.

At this point, I could live for another year just eating what was already piled up in my inventory.

I'd felt guilty about taking and taking, so I'd started handing out Inedia Pills in return—and apparently word of that had gotten around too. Thanks to which I was now being more or less forced to crank out Inedia Pills every single day.

But the way people were acting was just… off. No, it was downright suspicious!

"Goat-jjang! Looking good today!"

Some man walked right up and greeted me like we were old friends who hadn't seen each other in ages.

Who?

I didn't know this person. And the vibe was, how to put it… fake? I waved back on reflex, but still. Why was everyone suddenly acting like this? And what was he doing now? He'd said hello and then just… left, without even stating his business! He'd gone off to a corner and was staring at his smartphone, punching numbers like he was running some kind of calculation.

What on earth is he doing?

I hadn't even begun to figure that out when another man approached.

"Goat-jjang! Hey!"

Why was this guy coming over to say hello too? Hadn't he already greeted me?

"Why'd you come back?"

The man who'd gotten that answer turned around with a look of pure disappointment and started smacking himself in the head.

What is going on?

And it wasn't just one or two of them. The Safety Zone was packed so tight you could barely find a place to stand. Nine out of ten hunters either came over to greet me or shoved a gift into my hands.

Watching all this unfold, my masters in the chat started taking an interest.

I had no idea why they were acting like this, but it was a lot of pressure.

That was when Hyeolha Nojo, who'd been watching, chimed in with something unhinged. Again.

That ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠again.

Hyeolha Nojo apparently looked at people and saw ingredients. The man couldn't see a human being without bringing up Human Pills.

"I'm not making Human Pills! And you shouldn't make them either, Hyeolha Nojo. Be good from now on."

"Ever heard of turning over a new leaf? Just do enough good deeds to make up for it!"

"And those people are probably acting like that because of the Inedia Pills."

Well, they had called it a basic spiritual medicine, so from the chairmen's point of view I guess it was the trashiest of trash items?

The hunters seemed to love them, though. I'd overheard them going on about the 50th Floor this and the 50th Floor that. Was there something they needed them for up there?

That was when yet another male hunter walked up.

"Goat-jjang. Hey."

He greeted me all friendly-like and slid an envelope toward me.

This smell is…

I peeked inside. Jokbal. Braised pig's trotters.

I don't even like jokbal that much.

Samgyeopsal was way better. Pork belly all the way. This was not my thing. Still, it wasn't like I couldn't eat it. I took the jokbal and handed him an Inedia Pill.

"Eat this."

"Thanks, Goat-jjang!"

He carried the Inedia Pill off in both hands like it was some kind of treasure, then carefully tucked it into an airtight container. And then he pulled out his smartphone too and started hammering at the screen like a madman.

No, I genuinely did not understand this. If a high-level hunter came and asked, I'd get it—but why was everyone flocking over? Were they all already prepping for the 50th Floor? And they were all doing the exact same thing! Greeting, gift, smartphone.

I was starting to feel like they were the NPCs, not me.

That was when Hyeolha Nojo took an interest in the jokbal.

"Did you finish the fire chicken feet I sent yesterday?"

Ugh. They pick a fight over the smallest thing. I'd figured sending them food might get them to play nice… Not that it mattered, since my inventory was overflowing with food anyway.

At this rate I really won't be able to leave…

I wanted to go out, but it felt like someone was standing in the doorway blocking me. I was actually going to end up as an NPC at this rate. A pill-crafting NPC, no less.

I knew exactly what they wanted. And it wasn't like they were demanding anything—they were giving me gifts. I didn't even want to make Inedia Pills, so I handed over one for a regular gift and two if it was food I actually liked! But no matter how many I made, there was no end in sight.

I need some kind of image makeover.

And it wasn't just Inedia Pills, either! Grandma Binghu kept dropping additional orders, so I'd stockpiled a fair number of other elixirs as well. What I had on hand right now: Qi Restoration Pills, Calm Heart Pills, Hemostatic Pills, Detoxification Pills, and Internal Mending Pills.

Qi Restoration Pills replenished spent spiritual power on the spot. Calm Heart Pills suppressed inner demons. Hemostatic Pills treated external wounds. Detoxification Pills did exactly what it said on the tin—purged poison. Internal Mending Pills healed injuries from the inside.

According to Grandma Binghu, these were a cultivator's five foundational elixirs. Of course, the end goal was supposedly to start making Marrow Cleansing Pills and Qi Gathering Pills for advancing my realm—but I didn't need those, did I?

The real problem was the yield, if you could call it that. Inedia Pills came out at nearly a hundred per furnace cycle, so those weren't so bad. The other elixirs, though, produced far less. Ten pills on a good run?

Making Inedia Pills was already a chore. If word got out that these other medicines even existed, I genuinely would not be able to handle it.

They absolutely cannot find out about these.

Though, more surprising than that was the fact that going from Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment normally took about thirty years?

Thirty years. That was insane.

In the world my masters came from, it took thirty years. And that was only for cultivators with generous backing—poor cultivators could spend their whole lives and never make it. When I asked how they trained, they said they sat in a cave all day, ate elixirs, folded into the lotus position, and recited mental cultivation mantras. They did that for thirty years? All day, every day?

Was there even a point to extending your lifespan like that? If all you did was work all day, living longer wasn't exactly a blessing. You needed to play games, watch movies and dramas, read comics, binge web novels. That was what made life fun, wasn't it?

They'd said I'd advanced so fast because this Tower was a spiritual land whose grade couldn't even be measured. I'd barely lasted two weeks, and they were talking thirty years. If it had taken thirty years, I never would have become a cultivator.

"Again? Stirring is hard, you know."

Ugh… I was this close to taking him up on it…

She was way too strict. I knew she didn't mean it out of spite, of course. Knowing that didn't make it any less exhausting, though. A little softness in the delivery wouldn't have killed her.

Was there really no other way right now, though? The viewers wanted it, the hunters wanted it, and if I said no to their faces, people would be disappointed.

"Okay, okay. I'll go find somewhere quiet."

I'd figure out a solution later. For now, I left the Safety Zone.

Except…

Why was everyone following me?!

I glanced back. The hunters who'd been in the Safety Zone were trailing after me in a little procession. I wasn't the Pied Piper.

"Ah, come on!"

This was so annoying! I felt like a celebrity with a pack of paparazzi on my heels! If I kept going like this, I was going to end up refining pills right in front of a hunter audience!

I had no choice. I reached into my inventory.

The Reversal Blood Sword settled into my grip, and gasps rippled through the crowd.

"Did you see that just now? She's definitely an NPC."

"How is she even lifting that with that tiny body?"

"Even a graze from that thing would be instant death, right?"

Their fussing carried all the way over to me. I ignored the murmuring, lifted the Reversal Blood Sword on a thread of spiritual power, and stepped onto the blade.

"Hnnngh—hup!"

And then I took off.

They won't be able to follow me now.

They were shouting something, but I was going too fast to hear a word of it.

I need to do something about this, and fast.

I poured on the speed and flew toward a rocky mountain rising in the distance.

Half a day later.

"Eugh—! Ugh!"

I was stirring the furnace with my usual dedication. The chat was dead quiet. I'd finally gotten to the point where I had enough bandwidth to stream while stirring, and this was what I got? Wicked viewers who assigned their streamer manual labor and then went AFK!

I was stirring away, wondering when this would ever end, when rainbow-colored steam suddenly began seeping out around the furnace. I had never seen anything like it in my life.

"What is this? It's not going to explode, is it?"

I flinched, terrified it would blow like last time.

"Binghu! Something weird is happening!"

Did she drop her keyboard?

Okhan Binghu's messages suddenly started coming in rapid-fire.

"Huh? What state?"

I focused and kept stirring, just as Okhan Binghu said. The Inedia Pill mixture, which had been sloshing loosely, thickened into a porridge.

I clapped the lid on. The rainbow steam grew denser, then slowly faded away.

Did it fail?

Then, all at once, something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like amethyst—no, like an aurora—a violet vapor like the aurora itself came billowing out.

Excitement poured through the chat from the other side of the screen. Yeah, the vibe was definitely "this had better not fail." I checked the spirit-ember flames one more time, making sure they were burning true.

And in that instant, the violet vapor seemed to gather—and then.

"Whoaaa…"

A gasp slipped out of me before I could stop it. Whether it was the sound that did it or not, the viewers who'd been lurking started popping back in one by one.

From the sound of it, Grandma had given me some kind of really good item.

Was she a tsundere?

So, to summarize: Earth mobs were cracked?

I'd gone ahead and hunted a few extra while I was at it and sent them over, and they'd been over the moon about it.

Well, the viewers have sent me all sorts of things. Sending stuff back isn't exactly hard.

While they were chatting among themselves, I finished the refinement and opened the lid. Inside was something that felt… sparkly, somehow? Different from before. Or at least it seemed that way.

I did as she said and rolled the mixture into pills. Once the work was done, I spread them out in a shady spot to dry and took a short break. I ate, we talked about this and that, and a few hours later Okhan Binghu placed another order.

I looked closely, just as she said, and spotted something strange on the surface—cracks that looked almost like symbols.

"There's a weird pattern on the surface."

Supreme-grade? That meant it was good, right?

It wasn't something I was used to, but I focused spiritual power into my eyes and looked at the Inedia Pill. A faint ring seemed to form around it—like the rings of Saturn.

"Uh… I can see some kind of band."

Pill Cloud? Mid tier, so… a level-up?

I brought the Inedia Pill to the tip of my nose. A fragrant smell wafted up. How to describe it? It was hard to compare to anything—just a signal in my brain that said, this is fragrant.

"It smells fragrant."

Mm. Hyeolha Nojo was Tsundere Number Two.

Judging by the mood, though… did this mean I didn't have to make Inedia Pills anymore? I just had to figure out what to do about the hunters?

"They'll come out mixed in?"

"How come?"

"…"

Too much work. I'd just sell them mixed. It had a bit of a gacha feel to it, actually. That could be fun?

Still, though… what am I even supposed to do with these?