Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Failure?
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Failure?
A whopping 6kg for 8 million won. To be worth that much in its pure ingot state... it seemed incredibly, ridiculously, absurdly expensive.
“Rare metal...?”
It was a rare metal, a precious mineral said to only be found inside Gates. Though each type of rare metal has different properties, they are all collectively referred to as such.
“Wow... I see....”
According to Han Do-hee, it was an extremely high-quality item. That made sense; something this expensive had to be worth its price.
- Han Do-hee: Go for it.
- Han Do-hee: Make the golem and send a video.
- Eve: Okay, okay.
It seemed Han Do-hee was also quite curious about my abilities. To be honest... my heart was pounding with excitement too.
“W-what kind of golem will appear...?”
Surely, it wouldn't be some incredibly cool armored knight that would suddenly appear... turning me into an S-rank Hunter just like that, right...?
Considering its size, that seemed unlikely, but its value was about twenty times that of Mecha-Doggo. You never know.
“Please, I beg you... People of the kingdom, lend me your strength..! Golem Creation!”
Swoosh...
The ingot my fingertips touched floated into the air, instantly enveloped in a blue light. This might have been the first time I'd witnessed the object I sacrificed actually transforming into a golem.
Unlike before, the rare metal ingot flowed like a liquid, gathering into a sphere. Soon, it took on a specific shape and slowly descended onto my palm.
“Th-this is....”
“Huh...?”
It wasn't a golem.
It looked like a rhombus-shaped crystal, though it was made of metal. And it didn't seem to move at all. It felt lighter, though...?
Besides, a notification had popped up in the status window. One was that my Golem Creation skill had leveled up.
“Fragment of the Ruined Kingdom...? What does that mean? It says there are two synthesizable entities?”
Looking around, I could certainly see two golems available for synthesis. Minium and Mecha-Doggo....
“Synthesize Mecha-Doggo...? That feels a bit wrong....”
It had only been one night, but he was a precious doggo who had earned me a huge amount of money. He was my pet. Getting rid of him through synthesis just felt wrong.
It was definitely not because he was good at making money. Really.
- Eve: It's ruined.
- Han Do-hee: What happened?
- Han Do-hee: Did it fail or something?
- Eve: I don't think so; it's not a golem, its shape just changed.
- Han Do-hee: That is a failure.
- Han Do-hee: So even an EX-rank skill can fail.
- Eve: No, but something popped up in the status window, saying 'Fragment of the Ruined Kingdom?';;
- Han Do-hee: A notification popped up in the status window?
- Han Do-hee: Hey, you have to get that.
- Han Do-hee: Answer your phone, hurry.
Ring! Ring!
Han Do-hee's call rang out. I wasn't sure what was so urgent, but I answered it anyway.
“Eve! For real!? What popped up in the status window!?”
“Y-you scared me....”
I quickly explained the situation to the frantic Han Do-hee and read the notification from the status window aloud to her.
And Han Do-hee's response was...
“That... no matter how I look at it, it seems like a Hidden Piece...?”
“Hidden Piece?”
I only knew the term. It was something... hidden. Right? I'm not an idiot.
“You idiot, Hidden Pieces are the most important thing for a Hunter. The fact that the status window went out of its way to show you a notification means that what you just did is a step toward a Hidden Piece, you know?”
“Then... what should I do...? It says the completion is at 26%....”
“Then... if you reach 100%, something truly amazing might appear. From the looks of it... it's the Hidden Piece of an EX-rank skill, right? You could become a National-level Hunter!”
A National-level Hunter. Just hearing those words sent shivers down my spine and made my hair stand on end.
If I really sacrificed my Mecha-Doggo and Minium, offering them as tribute to this rhombus-shaped fragment... I could obtain this 'Hidden Piece'?
“But... Mecha-Doggo is....”
Beep?
“Th-the money increased again...!”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
My muttering reached Han Do-hee during our call, and she asked, curious.
“Well... I made a golem called Mecha-Doggo out of my phone, right...?”
“Ah, right, I heard. What about it?”
“He has functions similar to my phone... and he used my bank balance to trade stocks?”
“A golem trading stocks? With your money? Did you tell it to?”
“N-no! I didn't! It just... just...? Did it on its own?”
“Hmm... So, you're saying the money just increased again?”
“Yeah, that's right....”
Han Do-hee fell silent for a moment before continuing in a cautious tone.
“I'm not entirely sure, but there's a law that says Hunters can't use their abilities to trade stocks...?”
“R-really?! Why?!”
“Where was it? India, I think... Anyway, yeah. There was a Hunter who could see something like the future. When that person made a fortune through stocks... the United States created a law.”
“Ah, ahh....”
I was screwed. I had just broken a global law established by the United States, which was basically the moderator of Earth. The CIA, FBI, SWAT teams, and so on would investigate... I'd be thrown into an underground prison, instantly becoming a criminal.
Designated a villain, assets confiscated, electric torture....
“H-help me! What do I do?!”
“F-first, calm down. You... don't have an ability to see the future or anything, right?”
“Right...? If I could see things like that, I'd immediately trade stocks... ah, you said I couldn't.”
“Your Mecha-Doggo...? If that phone golem is just really good at stocks and grew the money, it should be fine. Still, just in case, you probably shouldn't let it earn hundreds of millions of won all at once.”
If that happened, the guys from the world moderator's office might come to get me. If I, with my amazing foresight that turned one million won into 210,000 won, suddenly started making hundreds of millions...
That would be completely strange.
“O-okay. I'll be careful....”
“Still, a few tens of millions of won probably won't be a big issue. For one, it's not foresight... and the amount is small, so that'll be taken into account. And your golem could just be a stock genius.”
Still, I decided not to make large sums of money for the future. It would be a bit awkward if I became a really high-rank Hunter with these skills, and then word got out that I made my money through a stock-trading golem.
“Anyway, back to the main point! You absolutely have to get that Hidden Piece.”
“Then what should I do...? I don't have a way to raise the percentage right now.”
“Well... there's no time limit or anything, right?”
“Yeah, doesn't seem to be.”
“Then you can take your time. Sometimes Hidden Pieces are triggered by a sudden realization in your head, but that's not the case here, right?”
“I see....”
Hearing that I didn't have to rush put my mind at ease, at least a little. But I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed.
“Haa... then when will I get stronger....”
“Can't be helped. Just get some allowance from your parents. They'll support you now that you've Awakened, right? It's a shortcut to saving the family.”
“P-parents...?”
How should I explain this? I don't have parents. But Han Do-hee thinks I'm a 10-year-old kid, so she wouldn't have even considered the possibility that I live alone.
Since I spent every day holed up on the internet, writing posts late into the night, she probably thought I wasn't in an orphanage either.
“What's with that reaction?”
“No, it's just....”
“...Don't tell me. You don't have any...?”
“...What if I don't.”
A long silence. A long, awkward silence passed, and maybe about three minutes went by.
“S-sorry... No, but how...? You're 10, right? Wait, now that I think about it, it was weird. Can a minor even trade stocks?”
Even if I managed the stock trading somehow, there were too many parts that didn't make sense. After piecing together all the information, the absurd conclusion Han Do-hee reached was that 'Eve' was a 10-year-old orphan living alone.
“What on earth is going on? Explain it to me, now.”
“S-sorry... There are too many things I can't explain....”
It was true. How was I supposed to explain the fact that a 27-year-old unemployed high school graduate man suddenly fell into a bathtub with a short-circuiting hairdryer and became a 10-year-old, white-haired, blue-eyed beautiful princess of a ruined kingdom?
It was a plot you'd believe was the title of a manga I was holding right now.
“J-just! Don't ask! There's just too much to say...!”
The easiest and most certain way was to tell the truth. Hairdryer *plop*, I also *plop*. And then suddenly, *tada*.
There would be no lies, and the explanation would be simple. Whether Han Do-hee believed it would be up to her, but what could I do if that was the truth?
But what if she actually believed it? The next part of the story would be Han Do-hee's reaction.
‘She thinks I'm a girl and even gave me her picture....’
I could already feel the disgust and scorn that would follow. My heart was already aching so much that I felt like crying.
“Fine... I get it. Then where are you getting money from? You're not in an orphanage, right?”
“A-a part-time job kind of thing... though I couldn't go recently....”
“So you have no way to earn money now?”
“I don't...? Other than Mecha-Doggo trading stocks....”
“That's legendary, really.”
“*Sniffle*.”
I still didn't have enough strength to act as a Hunter. The rare metal ingot I had high hopes for had turned into a 'Fragment of the Kingdom?', so I still didn't have a powerful golem.
Eight million won worth of rare metal had only yielded 26% completion. Would adding Mecha-Doggo and Minium even add 1%?
As I looked around for anything that could increase the completion percentage, something caught my eye.
“Ah, this....”
The sword Han Do-hee had given me. She said it was made of rare metal, though the exact composition was different. It was probably worth a lot, and it even had an expensive magic stone embedded in it.
Besides, I couldn't even wield a weapon right now, and I had no golem to wield it for me.
Looking at the skills I had, it seemed nearly impossible for me to become a combat-oriented class myself.
“Um... about this sword.”
“Yeah? What about the sword?”
“Would it be... okay if I turned it into a golem...?”
“Hah, honestly.”
Han Do-hee sighed deeply and said.
“Why are you asking for permission for something like that? Do whatever you want. I gave it to you, after all.”
“R-really?! I can't even swing a sword anyway! Thank you so much!”
“Well... sure. I'll just consider it helping the needy.”
One moment I was a princess, the next I was digging through trash. Now, I was one of the needy. Surprisingly, I had no memory of actually being treated like a princess; it was just an empty title.
“Okay! I'll give it a try!”
“Ah, but can you do a video call this time? I want to see how it happens, too.”
“A video call? I don't see why not...?”
I brought over Mecha-Doggo, who was lying on its back with its belly exposed, and sat it in front of me. As long as my voice went through, it would be fine.
The tiny monitor was showing the unbearable state of my house, so I figured I should probably adjust the angle a bit.
“Here, like this. Done! Call me back on video!”
Beep!!
“How is it? Can you see well?”
“Yeah, I see it. Is that the 8 million won worth of rare metal?”
“Yeah. It turned into that.”
“It's fascinating. That stuff is so hard it usually doesn't even get chipped. The fact that it was processed into that shape is amazing in itself.”
“You think so... hehe, well, I'm starting now?”
“Okay. I'm ready.”
With Han Do-hee's okay, I pressed my fingertip against the sword lying on the floor and said.
“G-Golem Creation!”
Fwaaat!
Enveloped in a very bright, intense, pale blue light, the sword's form began to change. The blade split left and right, the hilt crumpled, and everything started to converge in a circle toward the center where the magic stone was embedded.
“Ooh... spectacular.”
Han Do-hee's admiration came from Mecha-Doggo's speaker. To be honest, I was a little surprised too. Was the light always this bright? It was so bright the camera couldn't capture it all....
“U-urgh?! Why is it so bright?!”
It really was bright. No, it was three times brighter than the rare metal ingot! I worried something might be going wrong, but thankfully, no problems occurred.
FLASH!
“Agh!”
After an incredibly bright flash, the sword-golem fell to the floor with a clatter.
“Th-this time, too...?”
Again. The sword failed to become a golem, merely transforming into a lump of metal.