Skyrocketing

Doha returned home with her new family member, Darami. Unlike the day she'd visited the convenience store, no suspicious figures came tailing after her.

She had teleported, leaving no trail whatsoever—anyone lying in ambush would have wasted their effort entirely.

Living alone meant she had a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spare room going to waste, and she handed it over to the squirrels.

Watching them huddle together in the corner of the empty room, Doha sank into thought. Every time their claws touched the linoleum, they made a little tik-tik sound. I suppose the feel of it is completely alien to kids who've only ever known dirt floors.

"Something feels kinda empty..."

She was still debating whether to rig up a nest out of a cardboard box or something when Daengdaengi padded over to the squirrels.

Squeak-squeak—?

— Nest, passage, want?

Squeak—!

It looked like she was actually communicating with them—and then Daengdaengi tore a huge crack into one of the walls.

Through the gap in the newly opened space appeared the wooden nests the squirrels had kept in the subspace.

"Oh...! Daengdaengi, you're OP...!"

Thanks to Daengdaengi's Jewel, the squirrels now had themselves a nice nature-friendly nest.

Gazing at the passage, which showed no sign of closing even as time passed, Doha felt an odd flicker of familiarity.

"This isn't a gate, right, Daengdaengi...?"

Grrr?

At Doha's words, Daengdaengi shook her head.

Anyone who didn't know better would totally mistake it for a gate.

And so the corner of her room now sported a pseudo-gate.

Well, free extra floorspace can't be a bad thing.

Doha resolved to put Daengdaengi's space-expansion ability to even better use.

"Daengdaengi, could you connect the subspace where you keep the magic stones to here too, like with the nest?"

The awkward-sized room she'd been using to store random junk got converted into a magic stone warehouse.

Vwooom—!

She stepped through the space that had opened in the wall.

"Whoawawa... how much is all of this even worth...?"

Daengdaengi's collected stones combined with the squirrels' hoard made for an absolutely overwhelming pile.

Sold off, they'd have let Doha hit FIRE—financial independence, early retirement—by the age of twenty.

Except selling them through official channels means getting a hunter license first...

Thanks to utterly crushing the record held by Korea's number-one S-Rank, the moment she set foot in the Association, every kind of attention would come latching onto her. Some of those people would genuinely help Doha grow steadily as a hunter—but a record too overwhelming is bound to summon envy and jealousy in equal measure.

So, was Doha strong enough to shake off that sort of hostile attention? She couldn't exactly answer yes with confidence.

Daengdaengi did carry the blood of the monster that brought a nation to its knees, but she was still a young specimen.

Doha mentally ran through the S-Ranks in Korea and the various hunter organizations. However mighty Daengdaengi was, that was a lot for one individual and her wolf to overcome.

Climb the Tower just a little further... and once I'm strong enough to be called S-Rank myself, then I'll register! By then neither the Association nor any other hunter group will be able to push me around!

Having realized that proper S-Ranks could make entire national governments grovel, Doha decided to put off hunter registration.

Which means the magic stones... they're monster chow for the time being... and I'll teleport in secret whenever I head for the Tower or a gate.

Crouching down, Doha scooped up a handful of stones from the pile and examined them.

"Hmm... they're all different sizes..."

Everything from low-grade to what looked like mid-grade was mixed together in a chaotic jumble.

The low-grade ones can go to the squirrels and the mid-grade ones to Daengdaengi... but when exactly am I supposed to sort all this?

While she stood there agonizing over stones piled higher than she was tall, Darami came scurrying up to her side.

— Master, sorting needed?

"Hm? Yeah... it's all just dumped in a heap, so I want to at least separate the small ones from the big ones..."

— Pack, experts of sorting.

Darami marched straight out of the room and returned leading the squirrel pack, who had been off scouting their new digs.

"Whoawawa..."

Living up to their billing, the squirrels set to classifying the magic stones at remarkable speed, paws and mouths both.

— Master, go back and rest.

"I want to help too...!"

— Rescue, repayment, master rests.

"O-okay, fine..."

Persuaded by Darami, Doha stepped back out of the magic stone warehouse.

Just as Darami had insisted, she leaned against Daengdaengi's soft back for a rest—but one thing still remained to be done.

With a flutter of dread, Doha opened her banking app and checked her balance.

"Ugh... I have been stretching every won... but this is only good for about a month..."

Her plan had been to put streaming on hold and focus on clears until she'd secured a stable position as a hunter, but real-world expenses refused to leave her in peace.

"But I can't spend my parents' money..."

Out of habit, Doha swiped over to her stream's revenue tab.

"Huh...?"

Donations had come in even though she hadn't streamed a single minute. And as if the three Chairmen had coordinated it in advance, each had flamboyantly dropped a big one.

Doha checked the donation payout date.

Hmm... if I'm careful, I could hold out another two months?

The Chairmen's kindness had the side effect of stretching Doha's hiatus even longer.

S-still, they gave so much... I should at least post a proof-of-life video partway through...

Doha had at least some conscience, and she resolved to upload a video to her X-Tube channel in short order as thanks for the donations.

With her account cushioned and her heart considerably lighter, Doha turned to review the rewards from clearing the Gwanaksan Gate.

The Dungeon Core and the World Tree's Branch were stored away safe and sound in Daengdaengi's subspace.

Dungeon Cores fetch high prices on the market... and World Tree leaves are an elixir ingredient you flat-out can't get anywhere else, so they'll come in handy someday, right?

Not an item, but she had gained one more thing.

Whoawawa! An Exploration skill...! This is going to help in the Tower.

It would obviously come in handy for sniffing out hidden-dungeon-style elements like the one she'd stumbled on back on Floor 0. Granted, she could always just read a monster's memories with her own skill, but having a second verification method never hurt anyone.

And it should synergize beautifully with Weakness Detection too!

Below the skill description, one more short sentence was written. It was printed in red, like a caution label someone had slapped on at the last second.

So Darami is a loose-lipped squirrel...!

"Daengdaengi, when you've got time, please train Darami a little."

Daengdaengi, who had been peering at the status window beside her, answered without a moment's hesitation.

— Confirmed, obedience training.

"O-obedience...? Just... don't be too harsh with her, okay...?"

Deciding to trust her senior monster and let go of her worries about Darami, Doha moved on.

Wait, does Daengdaengi not have a skill...?

Perhaps because the Jewel didn't count as a proper skill, the text came through looking thoroughly mangled.

"Did Daengdaengi absorb something like a Dungeon Core...? But Yarnvidr...? What even is that?"

Daengdaengi answered Doha's question.

— Steel vegetation, iron chains, prison.

By the second day of the giant and the black mage's manhunt, they had failed to turn up so much as a trace of the hooded girl.

"...Boss, shouldn't we head back?"

"Hey, punk! If only for all the time we've sunk into this, we search to the end!"

"Tomorrow we have to see to the hideout's defensive barrier too..."

"...Tch. If we'd at least caught footage of her going into her home on CCTV, this would've been simple."

"You're telling me. But silver hair should stand out—it's honestly a mystery we can't find her. She's not holed up inside, is she?"

"Oh, come on. What kind of person doesn't leave the house for three days straight?"

Contrary to the giant's assumptions, Doha hadn't so much as touched her front door in three days. She had gone out once—to the Gwanaksan Gate—but thanks to Daengdaengi's teleportation, she had never once walked the streets.

"Boss, you don't think the magic barrier runs on perpetual motion, do you? Tomorrow we really do have to head back."

"I know... Let's wait just one more day. Really, just the one."

The giant had his own logic. A rookie Awakened would dive into the Tower the moment her entry timer reset. That would be right about when she'd tasted magic-stone money and was having the time of her life clearing dungeons.

By tomorrow, it would be day three of the Cheongryong Sect staking out the neighborhood—she was bound to show her face on the streets.

"So tomorrow, we keep a sharp eye on the roads and the public transit stops, and we'll find her. Guaranteed."

"Understood. Tomorrow I'll unleash every wraith I've been holding in reserve."

The two men hardened their resolve and waited for the next day.

The next day, evening. At some point the sky had flushed red and was sliding into darkness.

"…"

"…"

Having run themselves ragged all day without catching a glimpse of the silver-haired girl, the giant and the black mage stared at each other with hollow eyes.

"Let's head back..."

"Yessir..."

The two men trudged toward the Gwanaksan Gate on exhaustion-soaked feet.

"What the f— is this...?"

"Th-this was definitely the entrance...?"

Arriving at the spot where the Gwanaksan Gate belonged, they spent a long while hunting for the entrance—but there was nothing to find.

Only after hours of tearing the mountain apart did a single ominous hypothesis occur to them.

"Don't tell me it's... actually been cleared...?"

"B-boss...! You're the one who said the Gwanaksan Gate could never be cleared!"

"F—, that's impossible... This gate doesn't have a Dungeon Core!"

For a long while, the giant and the black mage simply stood there, staring blankly at the empty spot where the gate had been.

They flatly could not accept that the gate—and their slush fund along with it—had vanished into thin air.

The Hunter Gallery was already abuzz with news of the Gwanaksan Gate clear.

Once the OP added verification photos to the thread, high-rank hunters who'd been around since the gallery's earliest days began showing up.

Back in the early days of the Tower Incident, every hunter had made at least one pilgrimage there to grind levels—it was a gate steeped in nostalgia, and the word spread fast.

Hunters in the know about the Gwanaksan Gate's delicate circumstances started leaving comments too.

Around that time, the Hunter Association too had gotten its hands on the Gwanaksan Gate clear. They had access to data far more accurate than the rumors drifting through the Hunter Gallery.

"You're telling me Hunter Kim Doha cleared it...?"

"That's correct... We cross-verified it using the Association's own tracking methods."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Lee Seoa, receiving the report, very nearly grabbed the back of her neck.

"Did she find out the Cheongryong Sect was tracking her and wipe out their whole hideout...?"

"That is the Association's working theory... Otherwise, there'd be no reason to go and clear the Gwanaksan Gate out of nowhere, would there?"

"So in the end, private sanctions..."

A clash between unregistered hunters. Worse, one side was a rising star the Association had flagged as its very top recruitment target.

I was certain she'd place herself under the Association's wing right away...!

Just as Seoa was banging her head against Kim Doha's wildly unexpected course of action and the shocking video she'd watched that morning—

"Puhaha—! Is this for real?"

Go Jurang, skimming through the documents at the same desk, burst out laughing.

"Jurang, do you find this funny..."

"No, no, it's satisfying! Who creepily digs into people's pasts? You pay them back with a strike right at the source!"

At Jurang's words, the Association employee who had used an artifact to dig into Doha's background flinched hard.

"Haha! Not talking about you, mister, so don't worry. The Association only investigated to protect Hunter Kim Doha, didn't it?"

"Th-that's right..."

Just as Seoa—dizzy from Jurang's entire attitude—was about to give up on everything and move to the countryside to take up farming—

"Unnie, the Cheongryong Sect kids are all still in one piece, right?"

"What on earth is that supposed to mean..."

"They didn't evaporate along with the gate, did they?"

Instead of Seoa, who hadn't yet received that particular report, the Association employee answered.

"Correct. We have sightings placing the Cheongryong Sect's leader, an A-Rank warrior, and their B-Rank black mage in the area even after the gate clear."

"Hmm... losing one hideout or not, they're still alive and kicking, then?"

"I'd imagine so...? Jurang, don't tell me you're thinking..."

Jurang rose from her seat and drew out her main weapon: her bow.

"Before the Cheongryong Sect kids get their proper revenge underway, let's go bring her in first."

"If Hunter Kim Doha is wary of the Association, then showing up at her door—even for her protection—is a self-inflicted blunder."

"Aw, c'mon~ I've thought this through too."

"And that would be?"

"When Kim Doha and the Cheongryong Sect clash, we slip right into that gap and save Kim Doha! How's that?"

"…"

Assaulted by one shocking remark after another, Seoa gave up on thinking altogether.

The evening before the Cheongryong Sect wailed in front of the Gwanaksan Gate, and before Go Jurang resolved to blow them to smithereens.

Tomorrow's the day Floor 1 of the Tower opens!

With her preparations complete, Doha resolved to head for the Tower the next day.

She decided to repay the Chairmen's kindness before she left.

A live stream is... kinda off the table, since I have to head to the Tower tomorrow...

For the sake of her condition, she settled on uploading a short proof-of-life video.

Hmm... what kind of video would be good...

Having always run a no-cam stream, she had no clear idea what to upload.

Singing would be pushing it, right...?

She remembered doing a singing stream once, long ago, and having the Chairmen beg her, Please, we ask only that you stay healthy.

"Hmm..."

As Doha lay on the sofa mulling it over, the squirrel pack paraded past in front of her.

"Sooo cute..."

Maybe because they were four times the size of ordinary squirrels, their cuteness points were extra pronounced.

"Should I try monster content for once?"

Weren't animal videos the universal crowd-pleaser, the content that worked on everyone young and old and reliably pulled steady view counts?

Cute monster videos wouldn't just ladle themselves into that comfort-food staple—their sheer novelty was bound to rake in aggro on top.

Calculations complete, Doha climbed into the wooden nest with the squirrel pack and kept filming.

"...Darami, you look kinda different from the other squirrels, you know?"

— Thickest teeth in the pack. Blessing of the World Tree.

"Hmm... Darami's cute too, so it should be fine?"

There was the minor issue that Darami, the pack's leader, had a rather unique face—but wasn't that exactly the sort of feature that helped with aggro?

Doha finished nothing more than a quick trim edit and uploaded the video.

On the X-Tube creator page, your stats sit right beside the upload button.

"I shouldn't look..."

Doha moved her mouse and pulled up the statistics for three years' worth of uploads.

A growth curve so gentle it might as well have been flat plains.

Even that meager rise existed only thanks to her very first video, which had scraped together around 3,000 views.

Every other video sat in the double digits. At best.

I uploaded consistently hoping the Algorithm would choose me! I studied thumbnail aggro with all my might! I studied video editing after every stream with all my might! I pored over overseas videos trying to give mine some flair! I searched an hour every single day to find classy BGM! I unified my whole concept around strategy review videos! I ground my terrible English into some kind of shape and even added subtitles to court overseas viewers!

"So why do my view counts look like thiiis..."

Heart bruised by the statistics, Doha slumped bonelessly against her chair.

This is exactly why I don't look at stats...

As the depression came crashing in, Doha hurriedly scrolled away from the creator page.

"Guess I'll just sleep..."

When the blues hit, a nap could wash the gloom right off. She sank into Daengdaengi's fluffy fur and drifted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off on the spot.

The next day—the very day she was due to set out for Floor 1 of the Tower.

"Wh-what is this...?"

The moment she woke, Doha doubted her own eyes at the notifications packed wall-to-wall across her phone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠screen.

Doha rubbed her eyes and looked at the screen one more time.

The numbers stayed put. One refresh, and the view count had only climbed higher.

"Eh? Uh...?"

Daengdaengi rolled over—Doha had sprung upright on top of her, after all.

With trembling fingers, Doha tapped the notification.

"Th-three hundred thousand...?"

Doha clicked into the video and scrolled through the comments below.

"Wh-what...! I've been chosen by Mr. Algorithm, sir-sir-SIR!?!?"

Unable to contain her joy, Doha busted out a forward roll across the living room.

"Whoa—!"

She cracked into a drawer and sprawled across the floor, but the grin wouldn't leave Doha's face.

Three years of no-name small-fry life. All that effort, repaid in a single night.

Buried under the flood of comments, where Doha would never spot them, the Chairmen had left comments of their own.