The Night Hunt

Of course, things didn't go the way I wanted. Yeon never logged out.

Whether it was because today was a holiday and she could play for as long as she liked, or because Yeon herself was a shut-in in training just like me, I couldn't say — but we hunted, and hunted, and then hunted some ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more.

We didn't skip the rest breaks, either. Not that I wanted to rest. Yeon would get tired of hunting, scoop me up, and roll around on the ground with me in her arms. I didn't have much of a choice.

And then, during what must have been the who-knows-how-many-th break—

"Huh? The sky..."

I followed Yeon's voice and looked up. The sun that had been hanging dead-center overhead was creeping toward the horizon, and as it moved the heavens flushed redder and redder, bleeding into something that looked for all the world like a real sunset.

"It's so pretty..."

Yeon murmured it blankly, staring at the sky as it slid toward twilight. She wasn't wrong. An Al Fantasia sunset was a spectacle that could hold its own against anything in the real world. I'd been looking at this sky for years, and even I still got sentimental about it from time to time.

But this wasn't the moment to sit around admiring the view. A sunset meant night was coming.

Night arrived on a twelve-hour cycle and lasted four hours. During that window, every monster's stats jumped by 1.5 times and experience gains doubled.

In a way, you could call it burning time. The enemies got stronger, sure — but you earned that much more EXP for it. Plenty of people hunted exclusively at night on purpose. Do the simple math and two hours after dark was roughly equivalent to eight hours in daylight. Of course they did.

But that was a story for people who actually knew how to play the game. For Yeon and me, it was still a long way off. I spat out the forest snake I'd been holding in my mouth, trotted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over to Yeon — who was still staring at the sky like an idiot — and tapped her leg with my paw.

"Hmm? Oh, you already finished them all?"

Yeah, while somebody was off staring at the clouds. I ducked the hand that reached for my head — I was used to that by now — and scratched letters into the dirt.

"Mmm... the way Choco talks is always like a riddle."

It's not like I want to talk in riddles. Yeon folded her arms and thought for a moment, then opened her mouth.

"Night and danger... if I think about it simply, that means nights are dangerous, right?"

"Keng."

"Well, the sun's setting, so of course night's coming... so you want us to go back to the village?"

"Keng!"

"Good girl, good gir— ah."

There she went again, sneakily trying to pet my head. I clamped down on her hand and shook it, but she just giggled like she loved it. Of course she did. It didn't even hurt, so to her this was just more of my adorable little act. In the end, I was the one who got tired first and let go.

Life. How did I end up like this.

I spat her hand out, and Yeon immediately went right back to stroking my head, as if she'd only been waiting to finish what she'd started. And she didn't stop there. She ran her hand down my neck and along my back with the practiced motions of someone who'd owned a dog before. Which, put another way, meant I was being treated like a dog.

She's going to pick me up any second now. The thought had barely formed when all four of my legs left the ground. Just as I'd predicted, Yeon scooped me up like a stuffed animal.

"So that's it for hunting today, then?"

"Keng."

Honestly, if my situation had been different, I would have pushed through and hunted at night no matter what. The EXP you got from night hunting was that good. Even if you only lasted two hours before dying, you'd still come out ahead. But over here, dying might mean actually dying. I had no idea.

Spending the four hours of night sitting around doing nothing was definitely a waste — but I wasn't desperate enough to gamble on that kind of uncertainty. Besides, it didn't even matter if I could never log out. I just needed to get my original character back.

"Ah, it's getting dark."

Yeon's mutter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pulled me out of my thoughts. Sure enough, the sunset-stained sky had gone dim, and a crescent moon had risen among a scatter of glittering stars.

Yeon had been running toward the village as fast as she could, but we didn't make it. Night caught us in the forest. The silver lining, if you could call it that, was that we'd at least reached the outer edge, close to the entrance.

"Kiiik!"

"Huh?"

A sharp cry rang out nearby. Yeon and I both turned toward the sound. A rabbit — the same kind that had worn such a gentle face during the day — was crouched and ready to attack, its eyes glowing a demonic red.

Now that night had fallen, even the rabbits, which had been non-aggressive neutral monsters, seemed to have flipped to hostile.

It was still just a rabbit, though. It charged at Yeon like it had a personal vendetta, and Yeon's kick put it down on the spot.

Well, of course. Yeon had hit level 10 after a full day of hunting. Even with a 1.5x stat boost, the base stats were on completely different levels. This result was only natural.

"The kick felt kind of heavier than usual. Is it just me...?"

"Keng..."

What kind of bloodthirsty thing are you saying so casually? Whether I thought that or not, Yeon shook her foot a few times, tilted her head, and started walking again.

And then she had no choice but to stop. Rabbits were blocking the path. But unlike a moment ago, it wasn't just one. A pack of them — thirty, give or take. I had no idea where they'd all come swarming from.

At this point I'm pretty sure every rabbit that respawned in this forest just showed up.

"Ugh, that's disgusting..."

Yeon muttered it, looking thoroughly put off by the writhing mass of rabbits.

There were a lot of them, sure, but they still looked like ordinary cute rabbits. Hearing a girl call them disgusting was almost hard to believe. Not that I disagreed. Dozens of pairs of red eyes staring at you will inspire disgust and fear no matter how cute the packaging is.

And Yeon saying that was good news for me, too. At least it meant she wasn't going to get scared and run.

"Keng!"

"Hmm? What is it, Choco? ...You want me to put you down?"

"Keng!"

"Mmm... okay."

I patted her arm with my paw, and Yeon made a reluctant face but didn't argue. I planted my feet on the ground, lifted my head high, and surveyed our surroundings.

Fortunately, we weren't surrounded. The rabbit pack was just milling around in front of us, blocking the path, and nothing else seemed out of the ordinary.

So is this just a gimmick where leftover players get focused down once night falls? I'd never seen or heard of anything like this when I first played, so I couldn't say for sure — but if that was all it was, it was an obstacle we could push through.

They were just rabbits, after all. Between the two of us we were level 19 combined. No matter how many of them there were, the gap between a player who kept growing and a monster that didn't was not something numbers alone could close.

"Grrrr..."

"We're fighting, huh. Right?"

Watching me puff up my fur and gather my fighting spirit, Yeon drew her dagger. All that time spent hunting together today hadn't been wasted. She read me instantly.

And the way she showed zero tension even with this many monsters in front of her, the way she was actually eager for the fight...

Yeon might be a better partner than I'd thought.

"Keng—!"

I barked loud and launched myself forward, all four paws kicking off the ground. And in that same instant, I felt something off.

Too fast. I was running on my own four legs, but I was moving so quickly I could barely control it. As if my stats had gone up—

"Kkyut—!"

Ah. So that's what it was.

I sank my teeth into the lead rabbit's throat, wrenched my head with everything I had, and flung it into the sky. Then I dove straight into the center of the pack and tore through them. Half the rabbits shrieked and fled; the other half kept their fighting spirit and came at me anyway.

But I was handling them just fine.

This wasn't the approach I'd planned when I first charged in. Even with a stat gap, numbers like these made the difference practically meaningless. So I'd intended to circle the outside of the clustered pack and pick them off one by one.

That had been the plan, originally.

But I'd figured it out. Or rather, I'd remembered something I'd forgotten.

The fact that I, too, was a monster.

My level was only 9, but looking at the stat boosts alone, I was effectively closer to 18. Thirty rabbits, forty rabbits — to me right now, they were nothing but walking EXP.

A slaughter born of an overwhelming stat difference. My only attack was biting with my jaws, so the numbers didn't drop as fast as they could have — but each strike was essentially a one-hit kill, and the rabbit count began to fall.

"Hah—!"

And then there was Yeon, quietly butchering any rabbit that tried to sneak up on us. It didn't take long for that enormous pack to dwindle to a handful.

Even at a low level, numbers were numbers, so I leveled up. Finally cracking into double digits. At this rate, when am I ever going to hit max level?

Grumbling to myself, I charged the ones that were left. I saw them turn their backs, trying to flee a little too late — but they were already far, far too late.

That night, Yeon and I earned a title.

"Hrmm. Asking that girl to bring me fox pelts really was thoughtless of me, wasn't it."

Ogle sat at the counter, muttering as he stared at the firmly shut door.

Well, of course. If she was walking around with a tamed fox, she clearly liked foxes a great deal. And he'd asked someone like that to bring him twenty fox pelts. He'd probably earned himself a permanent spot on her shit list.

He'd meant it as a kindness, in his own way. But Ogle wasn't so oblivious that he'd say as much to a girl whose feelings he'd already hurt. He'd pulled that kind of clueless stunt in his younger days and gotten thoroughly chewed out by his wife for it. Recalling those old memories, Ogle let out a low chuckle.

He didn't know if she'd come back. But if she did, an apology would be in order. He thought this as he gazed at the still-closed door.

And not long after, the door creaked open.

"Welcome! ...Hm? You're—"

Before Ogle could finish, a heavy sack landed on the counter with a thud. Inside was a considerable quantity of gold.

To be precise: about 30,000 gold.

"This is..."

"The items you showed me this afternoon. You're still selling them, right?"

At the bold young girl's voice, Ogle smiled.

"Of course I am!"