Chapter 5
Chapter 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: A Small Price to Pay
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Something
“Wh-what is this...?”
Last night... no, wait. Just this morning, my bank balance was 80,000 won, and now it had suddenly jumped to over 470,000 won.
“M-Mecha-Doggo! What happened?!”
I was so surprised I bit my tongue. But I was too stunned to even register the pain. It wasn't payday, and my salary wasn't this small anyway. Besides, I wasn't even sure if I'd get paid at all now...!
In response to my question, Mecha-Doggo wagged its USB tail excitedly and displayed a word on its screen.
“S-Stocks...?! You invested in stocks...?!”
Mecha-Doggo used my money to play the stock market! And it even made a profit! It multiplied my initial capital several times over while I was sleeping!
“H-How?! I turned one million won into 210,000 won...!”
So... you don't just lose money in stocks? It's actually possible to make money from them? For real?
“Th-that's amazing... You're amazing, Mecha-Doggo... You're the best, really...!”
The Mecha-Doggo that ate my phone was gone. Only my love, my companion, my pet, Mecha-Doggo, remained.
“*Sniffle*... Good job...! This isn't from some voice phishing scam or anything, right?!”
Mecha-Doggo shook its head vigorously, as if to say no. Was it really possible to multiply your investment several times over in a single night through stocks?
If only I had more capital to begin with...
“Aaargh! Why am I so broke!!”
I could have become filthy rich overnight, but my poverty held me back.
“*Sob*... Still, you did great, Mecha-Doggo... Should we have chicken for dinner tonight...?”
Truthfully, there were a lot of things I needed right now besides chicken. First, clothes for my new female body, underwear, and money for the Hunter qualification exam...
“Ugh... It's all going to be spent in a flash...”
If I just wait one more day, Mecha-Doggo might turn these hundreds of thousands into millions. I don't think I should spend the money right now.
“Haaah... But I still need to eat...”
Normally, I would have gone to the convenience store last night and brought back a bunch of expired food. Then I'd come home in the early morning, eat one of them, go to sleep, wake up in the evening, and eat another...
But since I couldn't go to the store, my food supply chain was cut off. And there's nothing left at home...
“Ugh... What should I do...”
—*Beep!*
“Hm...? What's this...?”
A notification window popped up on Mecha-Doggo's screen.
“Ah, a message...”
A message from Do-shyung-jwak. A DM on Huntweet. And... I should start calling her Han Do-hee instead of Do-shyung-jwak. Her username is just... weird.
I connected Huntweet to the account I'd downloaded onto my computer via Mecha-Doggo's USB tail and pulled up the chat window with Han Do-hee on the monitor.
My phone was a pretty new model, but the PC was ancient. Apparently, I had to do it this way because desktops don't have a magic detection function.
Besides, it would be awkward if I made a typo by having Mecha-Doggo send the message. Its touch input wasn't very responsive.
-Han Do-hee: You up?
-Han Do-hee: Still sleeping?
-Han Do-hee: Guess you sleep a lot cuz you're a kid
-Han Do-hee: The package should've arrived, go get it
“A package...?”
I had no idea why she'd suddenly send a package, but I did remember Han Do-hee saying she'd send me something. To be honest, I was hoping for a Cy-Burger gift card.
Huntweet was a global app exclusively for the Awakened, so it had all sorts of features. One of them was the ability to have a third-party delivery service handle packages without revealing your address to the other person.
It was like a megacorp, in a way. Not exactly cyberpunk, but... Huntweet employed a good number of S-rank Hunters.
“Ugh... I hope no one's out there...?”
When I went out yesterday, it was the middle of the night. So I just threw on a hoodie and went. But now it was broad daylight...
“Mecha-Doggo... No, wait. It doesn't have hands.”
Wait, if Mecha-Doggo can't do it because it has no hands...
“G-Golem! Minium!”
—*Krrk!*
Soldier No. 1, which I'd named before going to sleep last night. I called it Minium because it's made of aluminum. The name has a nice, cute ring to it.
“The package is outside... I guess I have to open the door...?”
—*Krr-krrk...*
“A-Alright. Let's go together...”
I wrapped a blanket around myself, went to the front door with Minium, and brought the package inside. It was heavier than I expected, and there were two boxes.
“What did she send me...?”
One came in a long, thin box. It looked like an umbrella from the outside, and the contents weren't listed.
And the other one was...
“Why is this so heavy...!!”
It was the size of a new smartphone box, but there's no way it should be this heavy unless it was filled with bricks. My body might be weaker now, but this was just too much...
—*Thud!*
“Phew... I'm exhausted. I just woke up, but now I feel sleepy again.”
After somehow managing to lift the heavy box and place it in the middle of my studio apartment, I felt a sense of excitement.
“I'll open this one first.”
The long one intrigued me more. Did she really send a weapon? What kind of weapon does Han Do-hee use?
—*Rrrrip—*
Since I didn't have a proper knife, I struggled to cut the tape with a plastic knife I found lying around. You know, the small, serrated one you get with food deliveries.
“Whoa...!”
But now I have one. A real sword.
“Wh-what is this...?”
It was a futuristic-looking sword made of a pristine, pure white metal. A straight, single-edged blade, with something like a blue, light-filled crystal embedded in the center of the blade near the hilt.
“This is the legendary magic stone...!”
The kind that drops from monsters. The stronger the monster, the bigger and better the quality of the magic stone. Weaker monsters either don't drop one at all or only yield a low-quality one.
“Wow... I'm actually seeing one in person...”
Actually, I'd had a few chances to see them before. Sometimes when a gate broke, they'd haul out piles of monster corpses, and I could watch them extract the magic stones.
But is it okay for Do-shyung... no, for Han Do-hee to just give away something this expensive? Even for a B-rank Hunter, a weapon like this must cost a fortune.
-Eve: omg thank u so much T_T got the sword heh
-Eve: but is it rly ok for u to just give this away??
I didn't expect an immediate reply, so I got off my chair and was about to open the next box.
—*Ding!*
“Huh, was she watching the chat?”
-Han Do-hee: I'm on duty, was wondering why you weren't replying
-Han Do-hee: Unboxing? The other thing is probably more expensive than the sword
“Huh...? Something more expensive than the sword is in here...?”
It was Do-shyung-jwak, after all. I wondered if she'd sent a brick as a prank. Well... it wasn't cash on delivery, so probably not.
-Eve: haven't opened that one yet, about to do it now
-Han Do-hee: go go
A box that seemed to contain something very hard and heavy. For a smartphone-sized box to have this much weight, I was curious what was inside.
—*Th-thump...*
After tearing off the well-sealed tape and opening the cardboard box...
“Wh-what is this...?”
An ingot.
A metal ingot. In other words... a solid chunk of pure metal. A heavy, white-colored metal ingot.
“No wonder it was so heavy...”
-Eve: what is this?? a hammer head or something
-Han Do-hee: lol
-Han Do-hee: You said you made a golem out of aluminum. Try using that
-Han Do-hee: Swiped it from a blacksmith I know
-Eve: wtf
“Aha!”
Since I told her I made a golem from aluminum cans, she must have sent me a different metal. To be honest, aluminum isn't a particularly strong metal, right? It's used for things like foil.
I don't know much about it, but it's got to be better than the easily bent material of a can.
-Eve: thank you so much T_T how much is this??
-Han Do-hee: You gonna pay me back if you know?
-Eve: well yeah; I could pay you back when I make money laterㅡㅡ
-Han Do-hee: 400 million lol
“No way.”
-Eve: no way
-Han Do-hee: It's true
-Eve: >_>
400 million. That can't be right.
“This thing... which is a bit bigger than my fist, is worth 400 million...? Does that mean if I sell it, I could eat hundreds of millions of Cy-Burgers...?”
-Han Do-hee: not that much
-Han Do-hee: about 8 million won lol
-Eve: oh for real
-Han Do-hee: even that's expensive
-Han Do-hee: You think money grows on trees just cuz you Awakened?
“W-Well, true...”
8 million won isn't an amount you just casually give to someone. Although, seeing as Han Do-hee handed out 100 Cy-Burgers at once, she must be loaded.
No, she really is rich. When she verified her bank account, her monthly income was a nine-digit number.
-Eve: thank you so much T_T..
-Han Do-hee: wanna know an easy way to pay me back
-Eve: what is it.. no organs;
-Han Do-hee: does a cornea count as an organ?
-Eve: you're joking right;?
After her creepy joke, Han Do-hee got to the point.
-Han Do-hee: u send a pic too
-Eve: hmmmph..
-Han Do-hee: or deposit 8 million
-Eve: I'll send the picture T_T
“Ha, so this was her plan all along.”
And I got the sword, too. Honestly, it's absurd for a complete stranger to give you over 10 million won's worth of stuff. Even if she's a Hunter who earns a lot, if I've received this much, shouldn't I pay her back in kind...?
“M-Mecha-Doggo. Can you come here?”
—*Beep!*
When I called for Mecha-Doggo, Minium, who was riding on its head, came over as well.
“Can you take a picture of me?”
—*Beep?*
“Uh... I'm going to send it to Han Do-hee. Just a second, okay?”
First, I went into the bathroom to check my face. It was still cute, but it didn't feel like it was *my* face yet. It felt like I was looking at a stranger.
‘Hm. Cute.’
I'm starting to feel a little narcissistic. I shouldn't look in the mirror for too long.
—*Rustle, rustle.*
After roughly tidying my hair, I sat on the floor, using the cleanest wall in my messy studio apartment as a backdrop.
The computer desk was too messy, so the chair was out. The mattress was a definite no. After moving some things around, I found a spot that looked relatively tidy.
“What pose should I do? Do I need to hold up a sign for verification...?”
After mulling it over, I came to a conclusion.
“Just in case, I'll cover my face a little... Alright! Take the picture, Mecha-Doggo!”
—*Beep!*
With Mecha-Doggo's energetic reply, a *click* sounded, and a flash of light from its lens spread through the small studio apartment.
“Let's see how it came out... What?”
—*Beep!!*
“Hey, you already sent it...?! I was supposed to check it first before you sent it!”
Mecha-Doggo's camera quality was good, but the resolution of the screen on its face was too low to see clearly. Worried that something weird might have been captured, I rushed to the computer.
“Hmm...”
A photo taken in a slightly dark room, brightly lit by the flash. My eyes were properly covered, and there were definitely no parts that shouldn't be seen.
-Han Do-hee: oh lol
-Han Do-hee: hmm
-Han Do-hee: feel like i shouldn't post this anywhere else.. lol
“Haaah... I hate this...”
A wave of self-loathing washed over me.