The One-Million-Won Librarian

"Eat up, little guy. Eat lots and grow nice and big."

Pyurrr.

Its leaves gave a happy little shiver, fluttering in pure bliss.

"Aww, look at how adorable you are."

Gently stroking the quivering leaf, I sidled over to the next pot. Sensing my approach, the second plant flung its bud wide open. Nestled right between its vibrant petals was a tiny, hungry mouth.

This little fellow had a rather peculiar palate.

Reaching into the utility cart I had been wheeling along, I took out a pinch of finely diced pork belly and dropped it straight into its eager maw.

Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp.

Overjoyed, it chewed through the pork while swaying its stem rhythmically from side to side. Well, swaying as much as a slender green stalk could manage, anyway.

"Haha! Yummy, isn't it?"

Pyuru, pyuru.

The up-and-down bobbing of its leaves looked for all the world like an enthusiastic nod.

"Good, good. Enjoy your meal and play nice, okay?"

I made the rounds across my studio apartment, doling out specialized feed to the bizarre flora crowding every available square inch before finally stepping back.

Yes, plants.

And as anyone might have guessed by now, the greenery under my care strayed pretty far from your everyday houseplants. Normal potted ferns, after all, don't typically devour pork belly or crunch on fragments of mana stones.

The whole reason I ended up tending such an outlandish indoor jungle was entirely thanks to my recent Awakening.

Right on cue, a translucent blue window shimmered into view before my eyes.

"A Dark Lantern Flower? Wonder what kind of charm this little guy has."

A fond smile touched my lips as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I inspected the sleek black seed tucked away in my dimensional inventory. I wanted nothing more than to plant it right this second!

Unfortunately, that was completely out of the question. For starters, I had entirely run out of floor space to squeeze in another pot. More importantly, the grocery bill for my current botanical roommates was already catastrophic. It had gotten so absurd that despite being an Awakened, my expenses outstripped my earnings by such a wide margin that I had to hustle through part-time jobs just to stay afloat.

It was infuriating, but what choice did I have? I may have Awakened, but my Trait was completely useless for combat.

Behold: my status window. As plain as day, not a single combat skill in sight.

Consequently, while I was officially registered as a Player, climbing the Tower was out of the question.

Hold on a second—don't get me wrong. It wasn't like I hadn't tried.

I just couldn't clear it.

The monster roaming the Tower's 1st floor was the 'Hardened Snail.' True to its name, every single one of its stat points had been dumped straight into defense. Because of that, its danger level was practically zero; the real catch was that without a skill-based attack, there was no realistic way to kill it.

If I had been high enough level for basic attacks to pack a punch, maybe it would've been a different story, but at Level 1, beating on its shell didn't leave so much as a scratch. Seeing no way forward no matter how hard I tried, I abandoned the climb altogether.

Still pisses me off every time I think about it.

I was probably the only registered Player on planet Earth to flunk the 1st floor of the Tower.

Anyway.

So how on earth was I raising these plants?

It had been twenty years since mysterious Towers sprouted up across the globe like bamboo shoots after rain. Over those two decades, all manner of otherworldly goods found their way into human society. Mana stones—the primary staple of my botanical companions—were no exception.

Granted, I can only afford the absolute lowest-grade mana stone shards...

Still, the point remained: as long as you had cold, hard cash, you could raise ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠these plants just fine!

Which brought us right back to why I was working multiple part-time gigs and still constantly broke.

So why keep raising them if it drove me to the brink of poverty?

Isn't the answer obvious?

Because they're ridiculously cute!

The way their lush green leaves fluttered excitedly whenever I stepped through the front door. The way their gorgeous petals trembled with glee whenever I brought them food. If you spoke to them, they even did their absolute best to react.

Long before I ever Awakened, I was already a notorious plant butler. If I loved ordinary houseplants that couldn't interact with me in the slightest, imagine having flora that responded to my every gesture. To put it into perspective, this was like a military fanatic getting handed an authentic enchanted rifle, or an anime nerd coming face-to-face with their favorite character in the flesh.

To me, these little guys were my sole healing sanctuary in this harsh, unforgiving world.

I was just finishing wiping down the feed cart when my phone suddenly rang.

Trrrr-ing.

The caller ID showed the owner of the barbecue restaurant where I had recently started working. A sudden pang of unease shot through my chest, but I swiped the screen to answer anyway.

"Yes, Boss?"

Sure enough, ominous premonitions had a nasty habit of never missing.

"Hey, Jisoo. Busy right now? Can you talk?"

"Yes, Boss, I'm free."

"Ah, man... I'm really sorry about this. You barely just started, too."

"Pardon? What do you mean?"

"Well, you see... I woke up this morning and found out I Awakened! And get this—as a Pyromancer, of all things! Supposed to be one of the lucrative combat classes. Guess standing over briquette embers grilling pork every single day finally paid off, haha!"

"Oh... wow..."

"So, yeah, I've decided to close down the restaurant and retire the grills... Man, I really don't know what to say to you. I feel awful."

"No, no, it's fine. Completely understandable, Boss."

"Still, I threw a little extra on top of your pay for this month's shifts and wired it over. Really sorry about how things turned out."

"Understood, Boss. Congratulations on your Awakening, and stay safe out there."

The call ended. Immediately afterward, a ping chimed on my phone.

"A little extra, and it's a measly fifty thousand won?!"

I couldn't even muster a hollow laugh. With this pittance, I could barely buy three kilograms of lowest-grade mana stone shards. And three kilograms would barely last a single week.

I needed to buy more meat and mana stones for the plants soon, not to mention rent was coming due. My current income wasn't just short—it was an outright joke.

To make matters worse, these mystical plants required three square meals a day on a strict schedule. That meant taking a typical full-time nine-to-five was out of the question. But there was no way in hell I was abandoning my adorable babies.

In the end, I was left with only one choice.

My thumb scrolled past countless listings cluttering the small smartphone screen. Since I had to work anyway, I resolved to find something that paid serious money.

Then, after endless scrolling, that single eye-popping recruitment banner caught my eye.

"A library assistant? For a million won?!"

It was impossible not to stop and stare.

What kind of library pays a million won for a single day's work?

Even while sensing the pungent stench of a scam radiating off the screen, my fingers were already instinctively hammering out an application.

"One million won..."

A whole million! To someone as financially cornered as I was, a million won in a single day was nothing short of an emergency oxygen mask. Better yet, the shift ended before dawn! That meant I could easily make it back home to feed the little guys tomorrow morning.

"I'm doing this. No questions asked."

I hit submit immediately. Moments later, my phone buzzed with an incoming call from an unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mr. Yu Jisoo? You applied for the librarian position, correct?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Can you come over right this second?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"I'll text you the address."

A text message arrived shortly after. Fortunately, the location wasn't terribly far. A round-trip taxi ride would run around a hundred thousand won.

Watching a hundred thousand won vanish from my balance was gut-wrenching, but I boldly wrote it off as an investment—the bait needed to reel in that million-won catch.

Which brought me to my present situation: sitting in the back of a cab plunging deeper and deeper into a dark mountain range, watching my dread skyrocket by the second.

Wait... am I about to get kidnapped?

Grim plotlines from thriller movies I had watched recently began flashing through my mind.

Just as I was seriously debating asking the driver to turn the car around, the taxi came to a sudden halt.

"We're here."

"Ah, right..."

Before my brain could catch up, my feet were already carrying me out onto the pitch-black gravel road. Realizing this felt completely wrong, I turned around to call out to the driver—

Vroooom!

"Wait—!"

The taxi peeled away down the mountain at breakneck speed, its red taillights vanishing around the bend.

"Damn it... there's zero cell service, too."

To add insult to injury, my phone showed no signal bars. Since hiking all the way back down on foot wasn't an option, I decided I might as well see this through, trudging along the path described in the text message.

After walking for about five minutes, a warm light peeked through the trees, followed by the silhouette of a building.

"...Is that it?"

It looked utterly out of place for the middle of a secluded forest. Looming before me was an imposing structure that bore an uncanny resemblance to a miniature Tower.

Creeeeak.

"Excuse me...?"

I pushed open the heavy double doors and stepped inside, my jaw instantly dropping slack.

The most famous library in South Korea was undoubtedly the Starfield Library. But the colossal mega-libraries in Gangnam and Suwon looked like children's playrooms compared to the spectacle before my eyes.

Bookshelves soared impossibly high toward the vaulted ceiling, crammed to bursting with countless ancient tomes. And right in front of me sat an apocalyptic mountain of unsorted books.

"So that's why it pays a million won..."

Well, at least it wasn't an illegal organ-harvesting ring. For a million won, there was no pile of books I couldn't haul.

Just as I rolled up my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sleeves and stepped toward the mountain, something suddenly burst out from beneath the paper avalanche.

"Phew—!!"

"Whoa, holy crap!"

Snow-white hair and ruby-red eyes. A young girl with a bob cut that barely grazed her shoulders popped out, took one look at me, and clapped her hands together with a bright grin.

"Ah! You're here! You got here fast!"

"Uh, hello...?"

She hopped nimbly out from the pile and strolled over, her footsteps echoing crisply across the polished floor.

She's way younger than I expected...?

She looked barely 150 centimeters tall. Dressed in a neat white dress shirt and black trousers, her youthful, delicate face gave off an oddly theatrical vibe.

Looks like a kid dressed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up for a school play.

A distant memory from my own childhood briefly flickered past.

"Pleased to meet you! I'm Mary, the librarian here."

"Ah, are you a foreigner by any chance?"

"Hehe, let's just say that's close enough."

"?"

What kind of answer was 'close enough'? Either you were a foreigner or you weren't.

What a strange kid.

Noticing my bewildered stare, she cleared her throat with an exaggerated little cough and continued.

"Normally this never happens, but an urgent schedule came up today. You just need to hold down the fort until 6:00 AM tomorrow."

She glanced back toward the colossal wreckage of books behind her.

"And, um, if you could tidy those up as well, I'd really appreciate it. Ever worked in a library before?"

"Yes. Back in school, I was part of the library club..."

To be strictly accurate, I was the designated plant-care guy for the library club, but close enough.

"That's wonderful! In that case, I don't think there's much else to explain... Oh! If you have spare time left over, feel free to read any books you like."

Now that was a huge relief. I had been wondering how on earth I was going to kill ten hours in this place.

I nodded in agreement, and Mary flashed a cheerful grin before turning toward the exit.

"Well then, see you at six! Fighting!"

And just like that, my one-day shift as a library assistant began.

"This one goes on the fifth shelf to the right... and this one goes right next to it."

My philosophy in life had always been to get painful chores out of the way first. A freak who washed the dishes the exact second the meal ended—that was me. Naturally, my plan was to blaze through sorting the books and spend the rest of the night relaxing with some reading.

After a grueling five hours of non-stop hauling, the towering mountain had finally vanished into its proper places.

Then came the very last volume. Picking up the lone book resting on the floor, I froze solid in place.

"Wait... what...?"

There was no way in hell I could ignore a title like that. In fact, hearing that plants even grew inside the Tower was unprecedented news in itself.

Well, I had a hunch, but...

Given that my Awakened ability revolved entirely around botany, I would have had to be an utter fool not to suspect something. Still, no matter how deeply I scoured the news archives of every country on Earth, not a single article ever mentioned flora native to the Tower. Eventually, I had chalked it up to me just being an odd anomaly and gave up digging.

"...So I was right after all."

And now, right here in front of me, this miraculously discovered tome offered definitive proof.

With trembling hands, I flipped open the yellowed pages—and stopped dead at what I found.

And that wasn't all.

Alongside the concise description, the page featured detailed sketches of the seed, its appearance in full bloom, its medicinal and alchemical properties, cultivation techniques, and management tips.

My heart pounding, I frantically flipped back and forth through the pages, searching for the other plants currently living in my studio apartment.

Rendered on the aged parchment were illustrations identical to the lively specimens occupying the corners of my room, accompanied by the exact names the System had assigned them.

"Holy shit..."

In plain English:

I had just struck the mother lode of all lifetimes.