Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Severance Park
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“Ugh, ughhh...”
I’m so depressed. I got scammed. They said they were selling a high-quality magic stone on Temu for 200,000 won.
“Suri... what do I do...?”
Suri shook its head.
It’s already been three days since I ordered, but the package still hasn’t arrived. My precious 200,000 won. Of course, Mecha-Doggo earned it, and both Suri and Minium desperately tried to stop me from pressing the order button.
I did it all for Suri and Minium.
“Sob... this can’t be happening...”
Mecha-Doggo, who was sitting on my lap, turned its head and nuzzled its face against my stomach. Over the past three days, Suri had been going into the mountains near our house and catching a few monsters, but it was hard to find any proper magic stones.
Even after gathering all the tiny bits of magic stone dust and giving them to Suri, the completion rate only went up by about four percent. Suri does the hunting, Mecha-Doggo earns the money. Minium does all the house cleaning and even dries my hair.
So what have I been doing all this time? I ate six cookies-and-cream ice cream pouches, lost 200,000 won, spilled juice, and rolled around doing nothing.
I’m literally no different from a troublemaking child with zero productivity. A miracle of existence that drains the kingdom’s wealth just by being alive.
“How can this be the princess! The kingdom is doomed to fall!”
Wasting the national treasury that my capable vassals have earned, and then making other vassals clean up my mess. I can’t live so unproductively.
“Mecha-Doggo! Tell me what I can do right now!”
Super Artificial Intelligence Assistant Model: DangDang-E. Plus, it’s equipped with an autonomous walking function. Right now, Mecha-Doggo is the only one I can rely on.
—Beep!
“Is there anything else...?”
“Ughhh...”
I was pummeled by Mecha-Doggo’s brutal truth bombs and collapsed on the floor. I’m pretty sure I’m bruised from that. I mean, my heart is bruised, for real.
As I lay on the mattress, trying to soothe my gloomy heart, Suri, who had been watching from the side, started pecking Mecha-Doggo’s head.
—Beep?
—Kiiit.
What could they be talking about? Are they planning to abandon their foolish princess who gets scammed on Temu and go find a proper one?
A tear stain was left on my pillow. I don’t usually cry over things like this, but today, I think I need to. This is one of the three times in my life I’m allowed to cry.
—Peck, peck.
“Ow... What is it, Suri...?”
I turned my head to look at Suri, and it spread its wings, pointing towards the monitor. I followed its gaze and saw that Mecha-Doggo had plugged in its USB tail, taken control of the mouse, and was playing a YouTube video.
“What is this...?”
The screen was partially blocked by the chair, but soon, the audio from the video began to play.
—The moment I first saw you, I fell for you~
“Am I the right age to be watching Hachuping?! Are you trying to get in trouble?!”
—The Teenieping partner I’d been searching for~
Even if I grabbed the insolent Suri and tried to punish it with my tiny hands, my fist would be the one in pain, not Suri. In the end, with the tips of my knuckles red, I was blowing on my hand when a message came from Han Do-hee.
-Han Do-hee: wyd
-Han Do-hee: You’re awake during the day lately.
-Eve: I’m depressed.
-Han Do-hee: Well, why did you buy something like that lol.
-Eve: South Korea is doomed.
-Eve: How can people scam others so brazenly?
-Han Do-hee: If you’re free tomorrow,
-Han Do-hee: let’s go to Han River Park.
-Han Do-hee: Heard Maxy is in Korea. She’s going to Han River Park tomorrow.
-Eve: ??????
“Maxy is in Korea...?”
‘Maxy’ is a nickname; her real name is Camila Torres. If you were to ask who my favorite Hunter is, it would probably be her. She’s an S-rank female Hunter from Mexico, and her default outfit is quite revealing and incredibly cute.
—Beep-beep!
“Ah, Mecha-Doggo, could you answer the phone?”
“Hello? Eve, what were you up to?”
“Oh... just... nothing...?”
“Why do you sound so down again?”
“Y-you can tell...?”
“Loud and clear.”
I used to be incredibly skilled at hiding my emotions. I could have faced down 500 rude customers at once and still come out smiling.
“It’s just... nothing, really.”
“Anyway, I heard a ton of Hunters are coming for the regular Manchuria subjugation this time. Maxy came to Korea for that too.”
“Aha... so that’s why.”
Manchuria is currently suffering from the most severe terrain erosion on Earth. For the upcoming fourth-quarter erosion zone raid, Hunters were scheduled to gather, summoned by North Korea, China, and Russia, who had pooled their money to partially cleanse the Manchurian region.
Since South Korea’s image was much better than that of the three communist countries, quite a few high-ranking foreign Hunters chose to stay in South Korea before the Manchuria raid.
North Korea also readily opens its borders for anything related to Manchuria, so crossing from South to North Korea wasn’t particularly difficult.
“Haa... I want to see her, but...”
“Why, do you have plans?”
“No plans, but I feel like I’m just playing around all the time...”
“What... what’s a 10-year-old kid doing thinking like that?”
I could hear Han Do-hee chuckling in disbelief through Mecha-Doggo’s speaker. To be fair, if a 10-year-old said, ‘I’ve been playing too much lately,’ I’d probably tell them that’s what they’re supposed to do, but still....
“How about this? We’ll go see her, and if we have time in the evening, we can go to a gate together? A better one than last time.”
“Hmm... maybe...?”
Minium has become Titanium Alloy Minium, so it should be great in combat now. Suri has also been getting stronger, bit by bit, by eating magic stones, and Mecha-Doggo... is still great at making money.
Honestly, even considering it was our first time, the Goblin Plains were way too easy.
“Hey, what’s this song?”
“Hm? A song?”
—I’m going to fly across the brightly shining night sky~
“Isn’t this a Teenieping song? You really are a little kid.”
“N-no! Suri turned it on by itself!”
“Right, we’ll go with that. I’ll pick you up by noon tomorrow. Let’s grab lunch and then head to Han River Park.”
“I-I’m serious, it wasn’t me!?”
“Whoa, whoa...!”
“Pfft, what’s with that reaction? First time at Han River Park?”
“I-it is my first time...”
“Ah... really? Sorry, I didn’t know. That’s understandable. I don’t come here that often either.”
After meeting up with Han Do-hee, we grabbed some snacks and came to Han River Park. There were a total of two S-rank Hunters from overseas who had entered Korea for the Manchuria subjugation.
“She’s super popular, isn’t she? That must be why so many people have gathered.”
“I think Maxy is prettier...”
Tennoji Utaha. One of Japan’s only four S-rank Hunters and, surprisingly, an 18-year-old active high school student by Korean age. Her popularity in Japan goes without saying, and she’s incredibly popular worldwide.
She was pretty, but I preferred Camila a little more. I’m not sure why, I just liked her more.
Mecha-Doggo and Minium were waiting in Han Do-hee’s car. They’re smart, so they can open the doors themselves. Suri was probably flying around in the sky somewhere, but it was too far away to see.
“There are a lot of people carrying weapons.”
“Didn’t you read what I sent you? Maxy and Utaha are holding a public sparring session today.”
“Really!? I didn’t see it!”
I’ve been on a forced dopamine detox lately. My phone, Mecha-Doggo, just wanders around on its own, and sometimes it struggles when I try to hold it. And if I sit in front of the computer for too long, the chair is too high and the keyboard doesn’t fit my hands well.
I wonder if they make keyboards for children. My hands have gotten smaller, so I can’t type at my usual speed. Even games aren’t that fun anymore... so I just watch videos that are fine to have on in the background.
It’s gotten harder to write posts on the gallery, too.
“You haven’t been up late at night recently, have you? Living a healthy life after Awakening?”
“Umm...”
This body gets incredibly sleepy as soon as it hits 9 PM. I don’t know how I ever managed to stay up until dawn before. I tried drinking coffee, but it was too bitter and tasted awful, so I poured it down the drain.
Drinking a Monster made my heart pound too fast and left me short of breath... it seems this body doesn’t handle caffeine well.
“See, that’s why you’re short. You were always up late.”
“My height... my height doesn’t matter...”
“Eve, you dress really well, by the way.”
“Huh? My clothes...?”
“Do you buy and pick them out yourself?”
“N-no... that’s...”
The clothes I wear whenever I go out are mostly chosen by Suri. I don’t know much about girls’ clothes, so I can’t help it. To be honest, I think I’d look fine in anything, but it’s a pain to think about...
“It’s just that they’re cute. Don’t tell me your golems do that for you too?”
“Well, they do, but...”
“What, really? Your golems are seriously talented. Look over here for a sec.”
“Huh?”
—Click!
“Wh-what was that for all of a sudden?!”
“You were cute, so I took a picture. What’s the problem?”
“Hey, you can’t just take pictures like that... what about... what about my portrait rights...?”
“I bought you chicken. Eat up.”
“Ughh...”
I’m only letting this slide because of the chicken. And for the record, I can order chicken whenever I want now, you know? I don’t need to use a macro for the Cyburger queue anymore; I can participate with my own two hands.
As I sat there, enjoying the breeze and eating the chicken that arrived, my mood started to improve. Was I just irritable because I was hungry? With a full stomach, I felt like I wouldn’t care what happened to the world.
I closed my eyes for a moment and lay down on the ground. Suddenly, the phones of everyone around us began to ring in unison.
—Beep-beep-beep!
—Ding, ding!
—Bwooo- Bwooo-
“What’s going on...?”
“That’s... the warning for an open-type gate. Let’s get up.”
“R-really?! I didn’t get an alarm... Ah! Mecha-Doggo!”
Right, I don’t have my phone with me to detect magic. What do I do?!
“I’m carrying you! It might be a little rough, but hang on tight...!”
“O-okay...!”
The large crowd of people instantly broke apart, scattering in a panic. Moments later, a sound like space itself was tearing came from the direction of the river, and a gate materialized in the air.
‘It’s huge...!’
A circular hole glowing with a deep indigo light. It flickered as if a flame were consuming it, and then it began to pour out monsters in an instant.
“H-Han Do-hee! Shouldn’t we be fighting?!”
“I’m not part of a guild! Besides, I don’t have my weapon! It’s in the trunk of the car!”
There were so many elderly people, and there was no way to save those closest to the gate.
A giant, goat-headed humanoid monster tumbled out of the gate, crashing to the ground with a loud thud. After a moment, it shook itself, looked around, and was about to charge towards an old man who hadn’t managed to evacuate when—
‘No...!’
—Slice...!
“Gasp!!!!”
“What!! What happened!!”
Han Do-hee, who hadn’t seen what just happened because she was running away, shouted.
“Suri!! It was Suri!!!”
Suri, appearing from nowhere like a supersonic missile, had sliced the giant goat-head’s neck clean off!!!