Ham's Gift (Part 2)
A cheat item? Junil found it a bit hard to imagine.
He had never received anything like that across all seven of his lives.
‘I’ve found plenty of good items before, sure.’
He had discovered plenty of items that the world itself permitted. Thanks to the protagonist’s luck buff, his fortune had been absurdly good. Every dungeon chest he opened had spat out something useful.
But would a Story Fairy—one who controlled the entire story board—really call something a cheat?
‘What the hell is it?’
Junil braced himself, half expecting a Doraemon to pop out of Ham’s pocket.
“The Anything-Anytime Shop!”
With a dramatic flick of her staff, Ham struck a pose.
Nothing happened.
“...Shop?”
“You can now use a shop that sells anything and everything, anytime you want!”
Junil had been confident nothing could surprise him anymore.
That confidence had been in a positive direction.
This was surprising in an entirely different way.
“You said Pam gave you more money?”
“Yes.”
“And you spent it on this?”
“Yes.”
Using money to build a system for spending more money. It was the kind of corporate logic that made his head hurt.
“Is she insane?”
“Yes!”
“...?”
“Ah, no! She’s not insane! It just slipped out! And why are you insulting her?! You haven’t even listened to the explanation yet!”
“It slipped out for me too.”
After seven lifetimes of playing hero, it was impossible to have purely positive feelings toward the Story Fairies. After all, Pam was the one who had run him over with a truck every single time.
“Anyway, let me explain, Mr. Hero. This shop is actually incredibly useful. The Constellations are watching Julian, right? Just from that, currency is accumulating for him.”
“Currency?”
“Yes. Every time the Constellations feel something, this currency builds up. Feelings (FL), Hearts (HT)… there’s also Lingering Imagery, but you only need to know about the first two for now. Lingering Imagery can only be generated when a story is completed.”
“Hmm…”
“Anyway, Julian will receive this currency. With it, he can purchase whatever he wants from this shop.”
“This shop was originally only for Story Fairies. So in practice, when Julian presses the button, it sends a signal to me. I take the currency and make the purchase for him.”
“How much do you take as a cut?”
“A cut?! There’s no profit margin!”
Ham puffed her cheeks, looking genuinely offended.
“You said it had everything, but it’s all just music files?”
No matter how far he scrolled, it was mostly BGMs.
“How important do you think BGM is in Storyboard 3.0?! A cool scene can become hilarious, and a funny scene can become epic depending on the music!”
She wasn’t wrong.
But was the ‘cheat item’ she brought really just background music?
“If you play one, it changes the BGM for several kilometers around Julian. It’s a real cheat key! Perfect for interfering with the protagonist, right?!”
Junil had to admit that shorts with mismatched music could completely change the tone. If you played a childish tune over Ma Dong-seok beating someone up, it looked ridiculous.
It would definitely be effective at ruining a protagonist’s cool moments. Playing a cheesy trot song right as he struck a dramatic pose would be devastating.
Still—
“Hmm… Is that all it does?”
Junil still couldn’t quite see it as a true cheat.
“I know what you’re thinking. Right now the Constellations aren’t very interested, so not many options are unlocked. It can be upgraded later.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
His expression made it clear he wasn’t convinced.
“I knew you’d make that face. So I bought one expensive thing for you.”
“...Wait, really?”
Now that was something he wanted to hear.
“This one costs Hearts, so Julian probably can’t open it yet, but…!”
With a small explosion of light, a new window appeared.
◈ Stores anything, anywhere, in the most convenient way possible
◈ Size limit based on impact to the story board
“The Convenient Setting Inventory! As the name suggests, you can store anything, anywhere, in whatever way is most convenient! Of course, really huge things won’t work! The limit is measured by how much it would affect the story board!”
“That really is a convenient setting.”
“Right?!”
In short, you couldn’t store anything that would break the entire story system.
‘Still, this is pretty good.’
Despite his grumbling, Junil was genuinely impressed.
“Try using it now.”
When Junil thought about the inventory, it appeared in the perfect spot on its own.
‘It really is convenient.’
It was as if it could read his mind. His hand moved naturally to the ideal position.
He decided to test it with something simple. First, the headset from his room.
Whoosh.
It vanished instantly.
“See? When you want to take something out, just reach in and think about it.”
It was true. He reached inside, pictured the headset, and it slid perfectly into his grasp.
“This is good.”
“See? Hehe… Wait, what?!”
Ham suddenly yelped in surprise.
Junil had grabbed her by the torso and shoved her into the inventory.
She disappeared for a moment, but then the inventory began to squirm before spitting her out with a loud pop.
“Aaaagh! What was that for?!”
“Pfft—Hahaha!”
Junil burst out laughing at the sight of her disheveled face. She definitely had a different charm compared to Pam.
“It really won’t let you store living things.”
“It won’t. That’s what makes it the Convenient Setting Inventory.”
Ham checked the time and sighed.
“Ah. I don’t have much time left. Anyway… thank you for agreeing to save Pam. And for helping interfere with the protagonist in advance…”
She bowed deeply to Junil.
“...”
He hadn’t exactly done it out of kindness, but he didn’t correct her. Telling her the truth would only make her feel worse.
“Please keep interfering with the protagonist even more! And once you gather more Constellations than the protagonist, your mission will be complete.”
“Wait.”
“...Yes?”
“Where’s the down payment?”
“Oh, right! For this contract, I can’t give you a down payment. If ten billion suddenly appeared in a college student’s account, the Constellations would get suspicious.”
She had a point. Before, the dimension receiving the money hadn’t drawn any attention, but now Constellations were watching everywhere.
If Moon Junil, a random college student, suddenly received ten billion won, it would raise every red flag imaginable.
“Instead, the contract is inside the inventory! Check it when you can. The Constellations can’t see the text, so don’t stare at it for too long.”
“Got it. How do I call you if I need help?”
“Me?”
“I’ll probably need backup. Eventually.”
“Then just shout this in your mind.”
Ham spun in a circle as she chanted the spell.
“Jaruru Jaruru Japaguri!”
With a final pop, she vanished.
‘What the hell was that?’
The Constellations hadn’t noticed Ham’s visit. They simply registered it as a brief skip in the stream.
The problem was that the gift Ham left behind was still there.
‘How are the Constellations perceiving this?’
After the buffering, an inventory had suddenly appeared. How would they interpret that?
The solution turned out to be surprisingly simple.
‘They’re perceiving it as a sponsorship.’
Ham must have pulled some strings behind the scenes.
“Oh. What’s this?”
Junil played along, pretending to be pleasantly surprised as he toyed with the inventory.
“Whoa~ Awesome. This just appeared out of nowhere~?”
“Should I open it~?”
Junil first looked for the contract that had been placed inside. That was the most important thing for the request.
‘Contract.’
He naturally pulled the contract from the inventory.
‘Hmm.’
I, the Story Fairy Pam, promise to pay 20 billion if the hero Julian receives more attention than the protagonist in Story Fairy Ram’s Storyboard 3.0 and destroys the story.
Sealed with magical stamp.
It was written in Pam’s characteristically terrible handwriting, complete with an official stamp.
‘Well… I guess I have to trust her like always.’
It was disappointing there was no down payment, but Pam had never broken a promise before.
“Hmm. This inventory is pretty interesting. Really convenient…”
Junil muttered to himself, giving the Constellations something to react to, then opened the most important window.
‘Quest.’
Reach Level 10 within 72 hours!
📍 Failure: Awakening revoked
🎁 Success: Random item provided
Not much time had passed while Ham was here, but it was still tight.
“Level 10… I need to hit it.”
Interfering with the protagonist was important, but he first needed to maintain his Awakened status to do anything at all.
Junil was still at the very beginning of level 9. Reaching level 10 while staying F-rank would require serious effort.
‘Hunting normal goblins is going to take too long.’
He sat down at his computer.
Tap tap tap.
He searched for information.
‘Any news about other monsters spawning?’
There was nothing on the regular news. As usual, the Awakened community How to Survive as an Awakened was much faster.
‘Of course it’s here.’
He checked to see if anyone was requesting rescue again.
‘Should I look at the popular posts first?’
That was when he saw an unexpected post sitting at the number one spot.
It was a screenshot of the masked man’s interview from the article written by reporter Do Juhye. The masked man had asked to be called Sagosul.
It was the classic community pile-on that Junil had never experienced in his seven lives as a hero.
“That guy was a dark mage, you idiots!”
How many times did he have to explain this?
Junil felt deeply wronged.
Fortunately, Junil’s own Constellations knew the truth.
‘Still…’
He couldn’t let this image solidify. The Constellations who didn’t know the truth would misunderstand.
Tap tap tap tap.
Junil began typing a comment.
“Hey, read the full article instead of just the screenshot (link) lol. That guy was a dark mage who kidnapped the kids. Sagosul saved them. They cut out exactly that part?”
When he posted the link to the full article, the misunderstanding began to clear.
The controversy seemed to die down, but as was always the case with internet communities, some people refused to accept it.
The debate continued with people arguing back and forth.
‘If I only had the protagonist buff…’
The reason Junil kept getting caught up in these unfair situations was because the story board was built around the protagonist. As long as Kang Hae-il remained suspicious, this kind of doubt would continue.
‘What a dirty world. Poor Sagosul, coughing up blood.’
It was the fate of an extra. If he didn’t like it, he just had to get stronger.
He would raise his level to 10 and survive.
‘Any incidents or accidents happening?’
As he scrolled down, one post caught his eye.
‘Huh?’
The post described how the writer had entered a goblin cave dungeon in Bukhansan out of curiosity, only to encounter something terrible. He had barely escaped with his life.
Attached were two photos.
‘It’s a Champion Goblin.’
The image quality was bad, but he could tell. It was definitely a Champion Goblin.
And he wasn’t the only one who recognized it.
A few brave Awakened who were hungry for levels left comments.
‘You’re coming too, huh.’
Kang Hae-il was among them.
How did he know who was Kang Hae-il when everyone was anonymous? Because he wrote like this:
The only person who would say he’d kill him on sight was that guy. The Constellations recognized him immediately too.
Some Constellations were worried he might die.
‘As if.’
No matter how much favoritism Kang Hae-il received from the world, no matter how many buffs he had.
‘You… are still on your first life.’
It was ridiculous. Who was threatening to kill whom?
Sigh.
‘He looks just like I used to.’
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
“Dumbass.”
After checking the location on the map, Junil headed out to hunt the Champion Goblin.
‘What can he do if I wear the mask and steal the kill?’
He had no intention of letting Kang Hae-il take down the Champion Goblin.