Peek Your Tongue at Me
I stuck my tongue out, gave it a few experimental swirls, and let it hang there for a second. Beeeee...
There was no backbone in the act at all.
Peeking your tongue for me?
It just made me lose all interest in the whole thing.
And that weird little sound coming from behind—what on earth is that supposed to be?!
Me, Kim Deokbae.
I had spent my entire life marching thousands of kilometers, serving in the Middle East, and grinding through airborne and special-forces training.
But right now, while I'm standing here like this, you're sticking your tongue out at me and making that beee sound?
Would I do that?
“Beeeeee...”
I had no choice but to play along.
How long was I supposed to keep this up?
My mouth was already watering...
This was total cheat-code cheating, wasn't it?
But a skill cheating against a person?
That couldn't be real—
Ah...
Damn it!
So you had to stick your tongue out and activate the skill to turn it on?
“Eh... kugson geunbeul deung...”
[Jacobsen Organ activated]
[The current activation mode is hold. Inserting the tongue will automatically turn it off. Settings can be changed at any time.]
—Click.
Crap... my saliva is dripping down my chin...
So what kind of ability is this, anyway?
While I was still thinking that, I felt every kind of chemical taste flooding in through my tongue.
“Ewww!!”
[Jacobsen Organ deactivated]
It had been only a brief moment, but it was like my entire brain had just been shown every possible route, complete with that bitter aftertaste.
I didn't understand half of it, but it definitely felt related to snakes.
But did I really need to worry about any of this right now?
The internet was right there.
I shot up from my seat.
Search for Jacobsen Organ.
Whoa, what is this?
A photo of a dissected snake head popped up.
The explanation followed.
—This is an organ that detects chemical substances like pheromones...
The text dragged on with dry, pretentious jargon.
So basically, it was an organ attached to snakes.
Snake eyes. Snake tongue.
Did that mean I was turning into a snake?
Was my whole body going to become snake-like later?
I didn't want that.
It sounded disgusting!
Let me test it.
Hah...
Slowly I stood up.
I dragged my legs over to the mirror with real effort.
Yeah, this was just a quick check to see if I was turning into a snake or not.
Step by step.
Of course I knew that even if I changed, there wasn't much I could actually do with it.
The bathroom door was getting closer.
I knew I couldn't stop myself, but knowing in advance would at least let me mentally prepare.
Sigh...
I wasn't going to the mirror just to admire my own face again. This was only a test.
Here I was again.
In front of the mirror.
I turned my body boldly.
A silver-haired beauty with an embarrassed little smile appeared—only the upper half of my body visible.
It was starting to feel familiar... but that didn't matter.
I activated the skill.
My eyes didn't turn vertical or anything.
Next up, the tongue.
Tongue... let's stick it out.
I remembered that a snake's tongue splits into two.
I just wanted to confirm whether it split or not.
“Eeee...”
“Ar... kugson geunbeul deung...”
Swish!
The taste of the bathroom smelled five thousand times more concentrated.
“Gwaaaaak!”
“Gas! Gas! Gas!”
Saliva poured out of my mouth in a steady stream.
“Kek... hah...”
Damn it...
I had to research the proper way to use it before I could test it again!
Fortunately, my tongue looked exactly the same as before.
The shape hadn't changed at all.
Thank goodness...
***
I rested my throat a little and flopped back onto the bed.
The chemical aftertaste didn't last long.
If it had stuck around forever...
Ugh... just imagining it was horrifying.
I could enjoy infinite ammonia at five thousand times concentration.
Suddenly everything clicked into place.
They said that when you take an enormous shock, you hardly feel the pain.
My condition felt exactly like that.
Turning into a girl, becoming a hunter, clearing the tutorial—everything had that unreal, dream-like feel.
It was like a dream.
Was it even real?
No way... I was probably just waking up from a nightmare.
It couldn't possibly be real.
Ah, I was starving.
I scratched my extremely soft belly without thinking.
It was so plump...
Khhhm...
Wait, why did I feel like I was doing something wrong while touching my own body?
Crap.
Did I have to live watching my own male eyes?
Just once... no, absolutely not!
Let's eat something.
Yeah, first things first—food.
I was hungry.
I sprang out of bed.
Oh, I needed pants.
I'd completely forgotten again.
The waistband stretched tight but wouldn't stay up.
The pants slipped on, but the problem was the panties.
Since it was just a brief pair of trunks, they kept falling right off.
Hah...
I couldn't keep going commando forever.
Sigh...
One day I'd have to make a big decision.
I wasn't ready yet.
Just a little... just a little longer...
The chicken would be ready in twenty minutes.
This was the perfect excuse to grab some drinks too.
Crap... when was the last time I had chicken and liquor?
I'd earned one hundred grams of marble, so I had to eat something decent.
In the end, getting fired from the part-time job had turned out to be a lucky break.
I got caught, but if I didn't show up for a full day, that would be suspicious.
Hehe...
I hadn't laughed like this in a long time.
Could I finally spin the gacha as much as I wanted?
Hahaha!!
“Wahahahaha!”
That sounded good.
***
I loaded the basket with drinks and snacks.
Huh? Had the counter always been this tall?
“Calculation.”
Jeonsoon-i looked at me with eyes full of worry.
Was she asking for ID?
I opened my wallet.
The grizzled, one-armed Kim Deokbae greeted me with a bright smile.
Huh.
I wasn't that Kim Deokbae anymore.
Hah... it was like the old days when I kept searching for my missing right arm.
I carefully pulled my hand out of the basket.
Let's quietly slip away.
“Hey! Wasn't it you earlier? The kid lying in the park?”
“No, I wasn't. Excuse me.”
It was me! Come here! You can tell your auntie! Was your dad or mom asking you to go buy it?! Hey! Where do you think you're going!”
That wasn't it.
I'm really sorry!
“I'll help you!!”
Jeonsoon-i, the kind big sister with a pink ponytail.
Thanks for caring, but you didn't have to help me at all!
I had better avoid the convenience store for a while.
“Haah... haah...”
I got a real workout with my cardio today.
Exercise was good for you.
I cooled off under the fan and sorted out my thoughts.
Should I register as a hunter?
Honestly, if I had awakened normally, I would have done it on the spot.
Not registering was illegal, and the advantages of registering and working as a hunter were far greater.
Generous support, guaranteed status.
Even a C-rank hunter earned an insane amount.
From B-rank onward, I would never have to worry about money.
But.
EX-rank was EX-rank, but with that strange EX-rank trait and the extra difficulty that didn't exist in the official rankings... could I even register?
Even if it was just a city legend, weird hunters got turned into lab rats and things...
Ugh...
—Ding.
“Delivery!”
“On it.”
Hehehe, I could eat chicken while thinking.
—Sizzle.
Kyaah...
The freshly fried, super-crispy skin, juicy thigh meat bursting out...
This was it. This was exactly what I had been missing.
All the worrying I'd done up until now felt completely pointless.
People could live forever on chicken alone, right?
I chugged the cola.
“Kraaaaa!”
Cola was sweet, so sweet.
Anyway, I needed to think more about registering as a hunter.
The thought that just came to me was that my identity was ambiguous.
What would even happen to my identity?
The 185-centimeter former special-forces member Kim Deokbae?
Or the 145-centimeter petite girl Kim Deokbae?
No matter how much I thought about it, I wouldn't get a clear answer right away.
I should go browse the gallery.
Towers only let you climb one floor a day.
Since I cleared the tutorial today, I could start climbing tomorrow.
Before that, though, there was the Constellation Selection Ticket.
I should use that first.
It was an item every climber got after finishing the tutorial, no matter the difficulty.
In other words, it was literally a ticket to choose a constellation.
The funny part was that no one knew what abilities each constellation actually gave.
Even S-rank hunters didn't know the properties of constellations.
They also gave out change tickets every five floors, which made it feel more like a decorative keychain than anything important.
The most popular choice was the twelve zodiac signs.
Well... people basically never picked the other constellations.
Even though the powers of the constellations hadn't shown up yet, everyone was secretly hoping they would.
That they had some special ability.
So of course everyone would pick a major constellation.
What should I choose?
I ended up worrying about this kind of thing more than I expected.
“Use Constellation Selection Ticket.”
[You have already chosen your constellation. The item has been removed.]
What?
I hadn't chosen anything yet?
What kind of nonsense was this?
It didn't matter anyway.
I could just check it.
If I didn't like it, I could change it later.
[Constellation - Snake Constellation]
What the hell? The snake again?!
Following the trait, the snake's bodily organs, and now the constellation itself was also snake-related.
Ugh... fine.
I shouldn't get mad.
I needed to go browse the gallery instead.
Domestic Hunter Gallery.
The place where all kinds of hunters gathered.
From awakening certification posts to fake news and even murder cases—every kind of post imaginable.
I used to net a ton back then.
I never imagined I'd come back as a hunter and be able to visit it again.
What kind of pointless topic was everyone raging about today?
—
The guys who run the gallery must have gotten lied to by the system too! [24]
I'm going to eat dinner, could you pass the... [1]
Extra difficulty is completely fake.EU [7]
I cleared the tower myself, so I'm the one who can certify! [4]
—
What the hell...?
It looked like a big bait had dropped.
I clicked on one of the posts.
—
I cleared the tower myself, so I'm the one who can certify! [4]
Yeah (139.43)
(A photo of a frog staring straight ahead with a deep, solemn expression)
Hehe~
Pengdol: Idiot
PoopControl: I knew it would be like that
Yeah (139.43): I knew, but why did you press it?
PoopControl: It's your face
—
Just from the post, it was exactly like the old gallery.
I checked the concept post.
★ Extra difficulty first appearance. Official [1278]
What is Extra difficulty?
...Was this about me?
I clicked it open.
There was a photo of the ranking system, and underneath it was a single line of text.
- If you don't believe me, just verify it yourself. Yeah
Sudden cold sweat ran down my back.
This really sounded like my story.
I scrolled through the rest of the normal posts.
The comment regeneration speed was insane.
—
Deokbae girl possible, I'm in the women's gallery and I always use that nickname lol [17]
How did a person's name turn out to be Kim Deokbae? lolol [4]
Extra difficulty must give better rewards than Hard, right? [5]
—
These crazy people... I was definitely delaying hunter registration.
I absolutely had to delay it!
But who the hell was this? How could a person's name be Kim Deokbae? How dare they ignore the precious three characters my parents had given me?
You're dead!!
I squeezed my anger until it hurt and slammed the mouse button hard.