The Brothers Who Came Home
"K-Kkureung...?"
Minhyuk's bewildered gaze flicked from the meerkat pack to Kkureung and back again. No matter how he looked at them, they were identical.
Am I still half-asleep and seeing things...?
The same adorable face as Kkureung's, copied down to the last whisker. The same fluffy fur. The same body, just a little on the long side. From this angle or that, the resemblance held. Had they not been about one and a half times his size—and had there not been seven of them—he never would have been able to tell them apart.
"What are these guys...? Where did they come from all of a sudden...?"
He was still murmuring when—snap!—the Little Wooden Soldiers leveled their rifles at the bound meerkat pack all at once.
"K-kkorong—?"
"Kyuryuryung—!"
"Kurung-kurung—!!"
The whole pack flew into a panic at the same instant.
The Little Wooden Soldiers request confirmation on whether to execute the intruders.
E-execute...?
They weren't actually going to kill them, were they?
"No, no! Cease fire! Don't kill them!"
Snap—!
Minhyuk flailed his hands in a panic, and the Little Wooden Soldiers lowered their muzzles as one. Whew. The reality of it hit him all at once. Cute toys, sure—on the outside. These things were actually terrifying soldiers.
"Kkureung, get over here and explain. Who are they? And what is this situation supposed to be?"
"Kkureung... kkureung-kkureung..."
"What? Your lost brothers? You finally found each other again?"
The sudden family reunion threw him for a second, but Minhyuk soon came around. Meerkats were animals that lived in groups to begin with. He'd always figured a day like this would come.
I just didn't think it would come this soon...
Tsk. He clicked his tongue, already wistful. He'd seen this exact scene in documentaries about wildlife sanctuaries. The lost family shows up in a crowd, and then it's time to go back to the wild.
He reached out and caught Kkureung's little paw.
"Kkureung. What do you want to do now?"
"Kkureung... kkureung-kkureung...?"
"Right. It was always going to be a goodbye we saw coming. I'm going to miss you a lot, t— huh?"
Wait.
Something about this conversation was off.
"You want to keep living here with me?"
"Kkureung!"
"Your brothers too? They're not going back to the wild? Here?"
"Kkureuuung..."
Kkureung gazed up at him with the shamelessly pleading eyes of Puss in Boots. Safer than the wild by a long shot, and a steady supply of delicious cucumbers besides—he wanted to stay in the Safe Zone. Caught in a plot twist he hadn't scripted, Minhyuk floundered.
"No, but... I should at least hear what your brothers think..."
He turned without thinking—
"Kurung..."
"Kkororong..."
"Kkuruk-kkuruk..."
"Kkururung..."
The meerkats trussed up in cucumber vines were watching him with the very same look.
If they join the Safe Zone... wait a second. This might not be bad at all.
If they were nothing but cute balls of fluff, he might have hesitated. Meerkats, though, earned their keep. Surveillance of the surroundings came built in, and unlike baby Kkureung, the adults made for decent labor besides. Perfectly serviceable workers, in other words.
And above all, meerkats live by digging burrows...
Putting the field back in order. Hand that off to them, and it'd be perfect, wouldn't it?
"Ahem. All right, gentlemen."
Minhyuk cleared his throat for no particular reason.
Snap—!
The Little Wooden Soldiers raised their rifles again in perfect unison.
"Not you. Meerkats. Do you all want to live together in the Safe Zone?"
"Kkorong—!"
"Kyuryung-kyuryung—!"
"Kkorurung—!"
The pack nodded so hard their little heads nearly came off.
"But. Our Safe Zone has one philosophy. He who does not work, neither shall he eat."
He'd made it up on the spot, of course. His conscience twinged, but if he was going to put them to work, there was no helping it.
"No exceptions for you, either. If you want to eat and live here, you do your fair share of labor. Think you can handle it?"
Nod. The meerkats dipped their heads as one, and Minhyuk's eyes narrowed.
Hmm... they're so cooperative it's throwing me off.
He'd expected at least one of them to look unwilling.
"Really? You can do it?"
"Kyurung-kyurung—!"
"Kkororong—!"
"Kkuruk— kkururuk—!"
The meerkats bobbed their little heads one after another, as if to say just leave it to us.
"Heh. Good. Welcome to the company."
Smiling with thorough satisfaction, Minhyuk pointed at the cucumber vines serving as ropes.
"All right, gentlemen. Untie them. The meerkats are family now."
Snap—!
Day thirty-three of being stranded. He'd gained some very reliable workers.
"Oh, found her!"
"There she is."
"Everyone, this way—hurry!"
The first floor of the Free Market. Female hunters who had spotted Elia's stall came rushing over, faces bright with relief. They already knew her—more precisely, they were the women who had bought cucumbers from her on the Tower's seventeenth floor, back when she had briefly worked as a wandering merchant.
"Why are you only showing up now? Do you know how long I've been looking for you?"
"Is there a set time the stall opens? How often do you open?"
"Beats me. It's up to the boss."
They were the lucky few who had felt the full effect of the cucumbers Elia sold. All they had done was eat them. Dry skin turned silky-smooth, acne scars vanished without a trace, and even the wounds picked up mid-raid wiped clean away. The results showed up faster, and more surely, than any expensive dermatology treatment or cosmetic.
"And the location? Are you going to keep selling here?"
"Mm-hm. That's the plan."
Which was why it wasn't only the women.
"Oh, that's the kid, right?"
"Yeah. My wife's been raising hell, telling me to buy some. Good thing we found her."
Even the male hunters who had watched those effects with their own eyes had spent day after day camping the opening, waiting for Elia's stall to go up.
An extremely limited supply, and a demand that had swelled past all reason.
The result—
"Cucumbers, please! Thirty! Two coins each, right?"
"Forty for me! Here's eighty coins!"
"Just ten for now, if you would."
The moment they opened, the cucumbers started flying off the stall. A hoarding frenzy was underway.
"Umm? Oh, okaaay. Everybody line up."
And so the Great Cucumber Rush began. Elia, flustered by the ferocious response and yet calmly selling cucumbers all the same, was in the middle of it when footsteps approached.
Step. Step.
A man who looked to be in his mid-forties walked straight up to Elia, ignoring the line entirely.
"Excuse me? Why are you cutting?"
"Can't you see people are waiting?"
"Hey, mister! Get in line!"
The waiting customers snapped at him all at once, but the man only smiled calmly and shook his head.
"Everyone, I didn't come to buy cucumbers. I have something to deliver to the seller, so I'd appreciate your understanding."
"Hm? Me?"
Elia tilted her head, eyes bright with curiosity.
"Yes. Here. Please take this."
And the man held out an envelope.
"Mmm. Very nice."
Hands clasped behind his back, Minhyuk surveyed his field with deep satisfaction. He felt like the owner of a small company gazing at a factory that had only just gotten its systems in order.
Tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk. The meerkats moved in perfect coordination, stripping away the cucumber vines that hung in heavy clusters. Pat-pat! Patapatapat—! With the practiced forepaws of career burrowers, they tilled the field, and once he had walked them through it step by step—shok, shok, shok, shok—they were even settling cucumber seeds and seed potatoes into the soil with painstaking care.
Heh heh. Now this is healing.
He wasn't lifting a finger, and the fussy work of putting the field back in order was getting done quickly and precisely. Yields were up. Labor, somehow, was down. A transformation as revolutionary as the Industrial Revolution!
Applied to Minhyuk's particular circumstances, you might call it the First Deserted-Island Revolution. But every change comes with side effects, and the Safe Zone was no exception.
But the food... what do I do about that?
Seven more mouths to feed, just like that. The food required had grown with them, of course. Worse, not knowing Kkureung's brothers would show up, he had handed every cucumber but a neat two hundred over to Elia—so he no longer had enough to last until the next harvest.
Foraging at the edge of the jungle, the way I used to...
That was impossible too. Not long ago, in the dead of night, a colossal monster had appeared and turned the jungle's edge into a wasteland. The thing had stomped the trees flat under an enormous foot, and the wild cucumbers growing there had been crushed along with them.
Then the only option left...
Minhyuk looked at the Little Wooden Soldiers standing sentry.
Really is just these guys.
S-rank summons, no less. Lead them deeper into the jungle, open new ground, and secure more food. Honestly, it was a little scary—but with a full ten S-rank soldiers, wouldn't he be safe enough?
Ahem. Minhyuk cleared his throat.
"All right, gentlemen. Attention. From this moment, we advance into the jungle with me."
Snap—! The Little Wooden Soldiers cracked off razor-sharp salutes, as if to say understood. Good. No problem here.
"Kkureung, you're coming too. You can do this, right?"
"Kkureung-kkureung—!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Kkureung scrambled up onto his shoulder, poked his head out, and dropped into combat readiness.
The baby meerkat enters Surveillance Mode.
A solid security detail, plus a high-performance mobile radar. With that, every preparation was complete.
"All forces—advance!"
Escorted by the Little Wooden Soldiers, Minhyuk stepped forward with care.
"Kkureung, if there's a magical beast nearby, you tell me right away. Got it?"
"Kkureung!"
Out of the Safe Zone. Past the jungle's edge, where he had first foraged cucumbers and which was now a bare, stripped hill. Deeper, where the trees stood packed tight.
Cheep-cheep. Cheep-cheep. Cheep-cheep.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves and settled warm over the jungle. It was perfectly peaceful, and that only made it more ominous.
No telling what might jump out, or when, or from where...
Minhyuk didn't let the tension slack. He advanced slowly, scanning his surroundings with care. Soft footsteps, and fortunately nothing else—no presence in the jungle beyond the sound of his own steps. He was glancing around in case there was anything worth foraging when—
"Kkureung!"
The baby meerkat has detected Danger.
Kkureung pointed at a tree. Minhyuk shifted his gaze at once, but—
"...Huh?"
There was nothing on the tree. A few mushrooms, to be precise, and that was all. Their colors were so gaudy they were obviously poisonous—hardly something he could eat.
"No, Kkureung. Eat those and you'll die."
"Kkureung-kkureung!"
"Huh? There's something else there? No. There's nothing."
"Kkureung—!"
A roar... if you could call a cry that was still thoroughly unimpressive a roar.
The baby meerkat activates the skill Clairvoyance.
At the same time, a transparent silhouette clinging to the tree flickered faintly into being, and before long its identity was laid completely bare.
A lizard. A lizard nearly the size of a person. Covered in rainbow scales, it fixed its vertical pupils on Minhyuk and flicked its tongue.
"Wh-what is that?"
The startle lasted only a moment.
"A-all units, attack!"
The moment the order left his mouth, the Little Wooden Soldiers opened fire without discrimination.
Pap— papapapang—!
Bullets poured down like a meteor shower.
Shashak—! Shashashashak—!
The lizard was no slouch either. It shot between the trees with a speed the eye couldn't follow and slipped the bullets—but pap, papapapang—! Cute as they looked, the Little Wooden Soldiers were S-rank. And not one of them. Ten. No matter how the lizard flew and darted, dodging the overwhelming firepower of ten S-rank summons was more than it could manage.
"Keh... khek..."
Before long, its body riddled, the lizard toppled to the ground.
You have slain the Blink Lizard.
◈ Obtained for slaying the Blink Lizard
The corpse vanished in a wash of light, and the hide rose to float in the air.
"Oh..."
Minhyuk let out a small breath of admiration as the Little Wooden Soldiers returned from firing stance to attention. The firepower really was something else. He wasn't sure whether this counted as an awakening, but Kkureung had more than pulled his weight too.
"Good job, Kkureung."
"Kkureung-kkureung!"
He stroked Kkureung's head in praise.
"You all worked hard too."
Snap—!
He shot them a thumbs-up, and the Little Wooden Soldiers answered with a salute.
The hide can wait until later.
After gathering up the lizard hide, Minhyuk pointed deeper into the jungle and called out.
"All right—forward march again!"
The Little Wooden Soldiers and Kkureung, one unit. Time to move out.
...Meanwhile.
The Hexagon, headquarters of the United States Federal Hunter Management Bureau.
The place that oversaw humanity's elite team's climb of the Tower had fallen into complete chaos, because a Tower-wide announcement had rung out without warning.
A Tower-wide announcement sounded in only three cases. When a new record for the highest floor was set, regardless of race. When a first-ever achievement was accomplished. Or when a boss-class monster of the hundredth floor or higher was slain.
"Th-the Blink Lizard...?"
For reference, the Blink Lizard that had just appeared in the announcement was the stage boss of the 133rd floor. On the surface it looked like nothing more than a slightly oversized lizard wreathed in rainbow light, but the reality was nothing of the sort. A stealth ability difficult to expose even with S-rank detection magic. Evasion and agility that made a proper hit nearly impossible unless it was bound first. A deadly poison that melted barriers as if they were nothing.
Even humanity's elite Tower-climbing team—seven S-rank hunters and twelve A-rank—had struggled for roughly seven months before they barely managed to kill it.
And yet a notice that a boss monster like that had been slain was now broadcasting across the entire Tower.
"Wh-what is this?"
"What happened?"
"Why was the Blink Lizard suddenly defeated?"
From the hundredth floor upward, where boss monsters appeared, ordinary guilds were barred from entry. Only a race's elite team was permitted. Humanity's highest record in the Tower was the 135th floor. Naturally, they weren't going back to rechallenge the 133rd, where the Blink Lizard appeared. If they had that kind of time and leeway, they would be challenging the highest-floor record instead. The same would be true of the elves, who held first place at the 138th floor.
Then the remaining possibility...
"Don't tell me..."
"The d-demon race...?"
The demons, sitting in third in the Tower-climbing race. But there was intelligence that they were still floundering on the 131st floor—information secured relatively recently.
And yet they had already cleared all the way to the 133rd?
"What the hell did they pull?"
"Did they pick up some new player in the meantime?"
"What are you all standing around for?! Contact the agents in the Demon Realm right now! Bring back proper intel!"
And in the Hexagon, the starting gun for overtime was fired.