Chapter 4

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Translator: MadScientist

Chapter: 4

Chapter Title: Quest

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1.

Yoon Young stared at the message for a good while.

It wasn't out of resentment or anything like that.

'A ch-change. Finally, after a whole week...'

He was just amazed and tense.

It was the first real change he'd experienced since arriving in this absurd world.

A week might sound short, but to Yoon Young, it had felt like an eternity.

'Looks like things are finally about to get started properly.'

Praising himself for holding out so well until now, Yoon Young took a deep breath and selected the keyword.

"Hmm, something bothering you?"

Ria's reaction changed in an instant.

"I wonder if there's anyone who could help..."

A new keyword appeared right next to her.

Keywords could be selected verbally too.

To make it feel more like a conversation, he spoke it out loud.

"What's wrong?"

"Ah! Adventurer, great to see you!"

As soon as he chose it, Ria clapped her hands and smiled brightly.

After hearing the same lines day in and day out, this new dialogue and action felt fresh.

"You looked like you had something on your mind..."

"Yeah, I've got a lot of worries. My little sister has been singing about wanting mushroom hotpot for days now, but it just so happens to be the season when the mushrooms get aggressive, making it hard to gather any. By any chance, Adventurer, do you plan on hunting near the forest?"

"I do, yeah."

"Really!? If you happen to hunt some mushrooms, could you bring them to me? If you do, I'll make you a delicious mushroom dish!"

'Hmm...'

This felt intensely like a proper game all of a sudden.

Though it had been that way from the start.

'Not quite what I was expecting.'

He'd hoped for something more pivotal, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

It just seemed like a very rural maiden's kind of request.

'Well, a quest from Ria couldn't be anything more than this anyway.'

He accepted it for now.

Having some purpose like this would motivate him, even if it was something like this.

'Maybe completing this unlocks the next quest, or there's a chain of them.'

Above all, if he didn't take it, there was nothing else to do.

A new path had opened up, and with nowhere else to go, he had to take it.

"I'll do it."

"Thank you, Adventurer! The mushrooms should be in the Mushroom Field beyond the Forest Path. I'll be waiting for good news!"

Seeing Ria so delighted made him feel like he'd made the right choice.

'By the way... beyond the Forest Path, huh?'

Up until now, Yoon Young hadn't been able to go past Forest Path 2.

As always, it was because of the prerequisite quest.

'Did accepting the quest unlock it? Guess I have to check.'

Of course, he was exhausted today, so tomorrow.

A person had to know when to rest.

He desperately wanted that delicious mushroom dish, but pushing too hard could lead to disaster.

'Tomorrow, I can finally eat some proper food. Looking forward to it.'

If Ria said it was delicious, it surely would be.

Yoon Young busied himself with what he had to do while waiting for tomorrow.

That was going around the whole village and talking to the NPCs.

"Eeeeng... Am I getting old? I can't hear well."

"Whoa, an adventurer! How's the outside world? I wanna go play beyond the village."

"Lately, it feels like the monsters are getting fiercer day by day... What do you think, as an adventurer?"

"An adventurer? Even in a place like this."

"Rubean Village might not have much, but it's peaceful and nice."

Most gave no reaction, but besides Ria, there was one more NPC with a quest.

The village chief, an old man.

"Hmph, we need to take measures..."

"Something troubling you?"

"Oh, you. An adventurer, eh? Well, lately, the wild grasses outside the forest have been multiplying like crazy. Those wild grasses devour the soil's nutrients and steal vitality from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠normal crops, making them a real nuisance to the farmers. If this keeps up, we might have a famine. Could you help? Of course, there'll be a reward. How about 1 plain coin per 10 trophies?"

'This one's ordinary too.'

Yoon Young had encountered those wild grasses before.

Usually, he ran away the moment he saw them.

Not because they were dangerous, but because they were filthy—better to avoid them.

No point wasting energy on something that only dropped useless items even after a hard fight.

But now he had a reason to hunt them.

He opened his inventory to check.

There was an icon that screamed "weed" at first glance.

Focusing his mind on it...

At least he'd gathered two already—lucky.

'Weaker than fruits, so it should be doable.'

10 of them for 1 plain coin as reward.

Those plain coins were probably this world's currency.

'Wonder what I can do with money. Buy weapons maybe?'

Either way, it seemed like something worth checking out.

'Alright... looks like I've done about all I can for now.'

From here on, it was rest time.

But rest wasn't all that great.

It was incredibly boring.

This village had only one being you could call a normal human: Yoon Young himself.

A world that ignored even the basic rule of dying if you didn't eat.

Sitting alone in a house was eerily silent.

What was there even to do here?

'Thinking about it, this is fucking hilarious. Ria always talks about her little sister—where the hell is she? I've never seen her once. And farmers in this village? If there were any growing crops, I'd have stolen them all, damn it. No one's around. What quest did I even accept?'

At best, he could only indulge in random thoughts, fantasies, or sex with Ria.

"Haah."

Yoon Young let out a big sigh.

'I wish I could at least train or something...'

Sword swinging practice.

Or bodyweight exercises.

There was a reason he gritted his teeth and avoided them despite having time.

He'd gotten burned badly once.

The day he first succeeded in hunting, he got cocky, thinking he was something special, and trained until he was half-dead.

The very next day, he realized.

It was a monumentally stupid thing to do.

—Argh!

Muscle pain so bad he screamed the moment he woke up!

—No strength in my body...

After skipping meals all day the previous day and barely eating one the next, there was no way he'd have proper energy.

A vicious cycle.

In that state, after starving another day just sitting around, he felt like he'd waste away, so he went hunting—and got utterly wrecked by an apple on the way back.

He thought, 'Ah, this is it, I'm done.'

He even considered just closing his eyes and eating a villager.

Thanks to his inner human dignity, he barely held back from that.

How he survived from there... it was hard to explain without tears.

Not even a rabbit, but he gathered every random grass near the village, boiled it, and forced it down.

Only after stuffing his stomach like that did he regain enough energy to squeeze out the strength of a nursing infant.

Afraid he'd really end up eating villagers if he missed that chance, he dragged his sickly body to the hunting grounds with grim determination.

Soon, he encountered a potato.

At that moment, Yoon Young had a gut feeling.

This duel with the potato was his last chance to remain human, physically and mentally.

—Uwaaaah!

—Kweeeek!

The outcome of the duel was evident from the fact that Yoon Young was still alive and well.

Wait, doesn't eating random stuff like that cause stomach issues?

It did.

Maybe because his Cleanliness recovered, he didn't have diarrhea or anything, but his stomach burned fiercely for some reason.

He was at the point where he could feel phantom pains of slight belly aches even now.

By now, you can probably understand why Yoon Young had grown so cynical toward this world that he could trash-talk the heavens.

For roughly these reasons, Yoon Young avoided wasting energy needlessly whenever possible.

"Hah, ngh! G-Got... any... jobs... for me...?"

"Hng, so... tight..."

Except for sex with Ria.

Anyway, training could wait until he had a solid foundation and plenty of food. That was Yoon Young's conclusion.

2.

"Ugh...!"

The moment he woke up, he stretched big.

For some reason, the morning felt refreshing today.

Thanks to the good rest, his body felt full of energy.

Yoon Young got out of bed and started stretching.

Arms straight up, fingers interlocked palms facing out—to the left.

"Hng."

To the right.

"Ugh."

Still some muscle soreness lingering.

But it wasn't enough to hinder fighting, so it was about time to gear up and head out.

He flung the door open energetically.

"Ria, I'm heading out."

Mwah.

He lightly kissed the cheek of Ria, who stood there blankly.

It felt no different from talking to a sex doll, but for Yoon Young now, this was his only comfort.

'Just in case, let's try talking to her with the quest.'

"Did you get lost by any chance? The mushrooms should be in the Mushroom Field beyond the Forest Path. I'll be waiting for good news!"

Recycled dialogue.

Yoon Young shrugged alone.

'Yeah, figured.'

Today too, he left the peaceful village for the hunting grounds.

3.

'Let's see, the portal... Ah, here it is.'

He found the portal leading to the next map from Forest Path 2.

Normally, some prerequisite quest had blocked him from going through.

But today, with the map unlocked by the quest, it might work.

Yoon Young entrusted himself to the portal.

'Oh? It's moving.'

Whoosh!

A pillar of light surged dramatically, swallowing his vision.

When the light pillar receded, Yoon Young stood in a different space.

'Ooh, Mushroom Field. Did I just stumble into it?'

That prerequisite quest must have been Ria's request.

But he couldn't just be happy about arriving.

Mushroom Field sounded peaceful, but once he met the mushrooms, they'd surely rampage with their ferocious tempers.

'Careful, careful... Gotta check the monster behaviors first.'

The monsters here were divided into aggressive and passive types.

As the names implied, classified by whether they attacked first or not.

If they glared and charged while he stood still, aggressive.

If they ignored him blankly no matter what he did, passive.

Yoon Young naturally preferred passive ones.

If an aggressive one charged while he was beating on a passive monster, he'd have to abandon everything and flee.

Get swarmed wrong, and he could really die—had to run for his life.

Experience it once, and you'd know how shitty it was.

Yoon Young knew from personal experience.

'Oh, something there.'

After walking cautiously for about three minutes, he spotted something.

A large mushroom with a big brown cap and white stem.

It had pointy, stubby limbs attached.

'Fuck, looks tough.'

Getting poked by those arms or legs would hurt a lot.

For anyone wondering about a mushroom being tough—monsters had pretty sturdy bodies.

Think of swinging a wooden sword full force at a strawberry and only getting a trickle of juice.

Guys with naturally hard shells were even tougher.

'A mushroom... probably decent defense?'

Yoon Young exposed himself slightly and approached carefully.

Swish...

As soon as he revealed his presence, the mushroom whipped its head around.

Ready to bolt at any moment, he watched the mushroom's reaction.

'It's looking this way.'

The mushroom blinked its eye on its stem and smacked its mouth.

Staring blankly—it clearly recognized Yoon Young.

'If you're gonna charge, do it quick!'

As if it heard him.

The brown-capped mushroom turned away abruptly.

Seemed not aggressive after all.

"Phew!"

Yoon Young breathed a sigh of relief.