The Tree on My Smartphone
I dug at my ear with a cotton swab.
It wasn’t because something felt stuck inside. It just had that odd sensation, like someone was talking about me.
And not in a flattering way, either.
It was ridiculous, but the itch had come out of nowhere with that kind of force.
It had been a while since I’d come home, showered, and settled in. It couldn’t have been from moisture, either.
So I stretched out comfortably on the sofa and gently worked the swab around.
When I rubbed the itchy spot directly, a thin shiver ran through my body at the obscene relief it gave me.
That almost addictive pleasure lasted until my phone, lying on my stomach, buzzed.
I dropped my gaze.
Since it only rang once, it looked like a message.
I stopped the index and middle fingers I’d been tapping on my stomach one after the other and picked up the phone.
Twisting the swab in my ear, I looked at the screen.
The message was from Director Bae.
[Hunter Baek Do-woon, this is Bae Soo-hyun.]
[The Minister has granted approval.]
[Please come to the Minister’s office at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.]
[The location is Galmay-ro, Sejong Special Self-Governing City....]
“Once you enter the building, someone will be waiting to guide you, so…”
I remembered the Hunter Management Department being next to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
I’d never actually been there. Only Do-hee and Tae-cheon had gone by for guild business.
And even then, the only thing I’d heard from them was that “the building was clean.”
[Yes, understood.]
[See you tomorrow.]
After sending a brief reply, I brought up World Tree Growing again.
Saessak and the elves were on the screen together.
The elves were sitting around Saessak, who cast a soft glow all around.
Their bodies, worn out from moving all day, were finally at rest.
Thanks to how diligently they’d been using Altera-Shonem, Saessak had changed a little.
Tap, tap.
I poked the changed part with my index finger.
It was the very tip of Saessak’s branch.
A bud had formed there, as if a leaf were about to sprout.
Maybe one more poke, or a little more Altera-Shonem, would do it.
I couldn’t be sure, but it felt like a new leaf would grow by tomorrow or the day after.
Ah, or was it because it still wasn’t fully grown?
My mana was still the same.
Once the leaf was fully grown, the mana would probably change too.
Buzz.
A message window popped up, blocking Saessak and the resting elves.
I thought it was Director Bae replying, but it wasn’t.
The sender was Yu Jae-i.
If it was Yu Jae-i, then it was definitely....
[I just cut the pine cone exactly one-third off.]
[I’ll take it straight to the smithy and make the shield.]
[It’ll take a few days.]
So it was about the pine cone after all.
I hadn’t expected it to take four days just to cut the thing.
Still, the pine cone was as hard as the shell of GuiSoo Mountain, one of the finest materials for defensive gear.
It made sense that cutting through it would take a long time.
And she had to carve out exactly one-third of it with no margin for error....
It probably would have taken even longer if she hadn’t worked at Ptah Blacksmith.
[Thanks. I appreciate it.]
[Once that’s done, let’s move.]
After I sent the reply, I waited a little.
I wanted to see whether she’d send another message.
Thirty seconds passed, but nothing came.
Good, then....
I closed the message window.
Immediately, World Tree Growing appeared again.
The resting elves and Saessak, scattering a gentle light, were back on the screen.
Looking at them, I nodded.
“Should I turn in early for tomorrow?”
I closed my eyes.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I’d gone to bed early, so I woke up early too.
Thanks to that, I could get there about thirty minutes before the requested time of ten.
I parked anywhere I wanted in the spacious lot.
Then I got out of the car with my smartphone in hand.
I looked up at the Hunter Management Department building in front of me.
Somehow, just looking at it gave me one impression.
“…It is clean.”
Just like Do-hee and Tae-cheon had said.
Well, that made sense.
It had only been about nine years since it moved from Seoul.
It’d be harder to get dirty in less than ten years.
At least, unless nobody was maintaining the place.
While I was having those thoughts, a car pulled into the parking lot.
It was a familiar-looking vehicle.
The compact car he’d driven around for four days.
An electric car with EV marked on the side.
It was Han Jin-hwan’s car.
“Oh.”
Our eyes met through his driver’s seat.
He parked beside my car.
He climbed out immediately and said, “You got here fast.”
“I woke up early.”
“What, you nervous about meeting Aladin Miller today?”
“Not a chance. I’m not an elementary school kid the night before a field trip.”
“Right? You’re not the type to get nervous over this stuff.”
I hadn’t woken up early because I was nervous. I’d just gone to sleep quickly the night before.
I didn’t exactly feel worn out, either.
I’d been running all over the country for four days, taking out guilds, but it wasn’t that exhausting.
The only real fight I’d had was when I went up against Gong Woo-jae of the Dazol Guild.
Compared to wiping out guilds all over the country, sitting quietly in the passenger seat had been harder.
World-famous rock stars always said that traveling for the performance was more tiring than the show itself, and now I understood that perfectly.
Still, sleeping with a driver right next to me wasn’t exactly an option....
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
I went into the building with Han Jin-hwan.
He walked ahead of me with the easy confidence of someone who knew the place well.
His steps stopped when someone called our names.
“Hunter Han Jin-hwan! Hunter Baek Do-woon!”
It was a man I’d never seen before.
But Han Jin-hwan seemed to know him, because he lifted a hand and greeted him back.
Then he told me the man was the minister’s secretary.
So the guide they’d mentioned was the minister’s secretary after all.
The secretary jogged over to us and bent deeply at the waist.
“Hello, Hunter Han Jin-hwan, Hunter Baek Do-woon. I’m Shin Jeong-ho, Secretary to Minister Hwang Jeong-hee. Thank you for coming early.”
“Early? We just came on time.”
“That’s right.”
We’d only arrived about thirty minutes before the requested time.
It wasn’t something to thank us for.
Still, I could see why he’d say it that way.
There were a lot of hunters who lived entirely by their own rules.
So there weren’t many who bothered to arrive on time, and plenty showed up late for no reason at all.
They’d then go, “If you’ve got a problem with it, replace me with another hunter,” like that was the end of the matter.
He must have seen plenty of those shameless bastards, so a simple act like this probably felt worthy of thanks.
The secretary smiled politely and held both hands behind his back.
“The minister is currently waiting in his office. I’ll escort you.”
“Sure. Take care of us.”
“Yes!”
Under the secretary’s guidance, we went up to the fourth floor of the main building.
When he opened the door and we stepped inside, another room connected to the minister’s office came into view.
It was where the minister’s secretaries were seated.
“Please wait here for a moment.”
The secretary asked for our patience.
One of the other secretaries who had been sitting there lifted the handset.
He was going to tell the minister that Han Jin-hwan and I had arrived.
The moment the handset was lowered, the minister’s office door opened.
Someone inside had opened it.
It was Bae Soo-hyun.
“Hey.”
“Hello.”
She greeted Han Jin-hwan first, then gave me a quick nod too.
After that, she held the door and turned her body slightly aside.
We went in while she kept the door open for us.
I slipped my smartphone into my pocket.
Since he was the Hunter Affairs Minister, there was no reason to act rudely.
“Welcome.”
Hwang Jeong-hee, the Minister of Hunter Affairs, rose to greet us.
I didn’t know him well, but he was apparently the most popular minister in the history of the Hunter Affairs Ministry among hunters.
Wasn’t he known for taking especially good care of hunters? Something like that?
Anyway, to be seeing a man I’d only ever caught on TV in person....
I really had made it big.
All thanks to Saessak.
“It’s been a while, Jin-hwan.”
“Yeah, right. About a year?”
“Seems about right. Where have you been all this time?”
“Just playing around.”
Playing around.
At that, Minister Hwang just stared at Han Jin-hwan.
There was no way that could be true.
To Han Jin-hwan, most things in this world were just a form of play.
The A+ class association quest, the Two-Finger Project, probably qualified as play for him too.
It hadn’t been that hard for me.
It would have been even easier for Han Jin-hwan.
The minister shook his hand, then held one out to me.
“We’re meeting for the first time, aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Hwang Jeong-hee. I’ll be relying on you for the next few days.”
“I’m Baek Do-woon. Likewise.”
“Good. Ah, sit down first. No need to stand around talking.”
At that, we sat down at once.
Minister Hwang took the seat of honor, Han Jin-hwan and I sat on the right, and Director Bae sat on the left.
The moment we were seated, Secretary Shin came in as if he’d been waiting for it.
He set iced Americanos in front of us and promptly left the minister’s office.
Click.
The second the door closed, conversation began.
It started with a question from Han Jin-hwan.
“When are we heading out today?”
“Around 3 p.m.?”
“What? Then why tell us to come at 2 instead of now?”
“I have a lot of things to do. Would it be all right if I stepped out?”
As he said that, the minister looked at me.
He neatly ignored Han Jin-hwan’s question about why we’d been told to come now.
The reason was obvious.
Many hunters liked to do whatever they wanted.
And Han Jin-hwan stood at the very peak of that kind.
Based on everything I’d seen so far, Han Jin-hwan was the sort of man who acted as freely as he pleased.
He didn’t say it out loud, but Director Bae seemed to think the same, wearing a faint smile.
He must have set the meeting time early on purpose.
“Yes. That’s fine.”
“Thanks for understanding.”
“But do we really not need to follow you? The mission we were assigned starting today is to protect you, Minister.”
“That’s fine. I’ll only be staying inside the building. I’d like the two of you to handle my protection once I leave here.”
“Once you leave?”
“Ah, are you not aware?”
“Minister.”
“...Well, there is such a thing.”
“......?”
At Director Bae’s call, Minister Hwang shut his mouth.
I nodded, taking that as his way of saying he couldn’t explain it.
Probably some confidential matter he wasn’t allowed to discuss.
Still, I could make a guess.
There was probably some kind of protective barrier around the minister, just like at Bangju Orphanage.
Since he said it would be fine as long as he stayed inside the building, he was likely receiving magical protection while indoors.
In that respect, it was different from Bangju Orphanage.
The orphanage was protected from the outside by using Auntie’s mana as the medium for the whole place.
As long as Auntie was there, the orphanage was safe.
Of course, that changed if someone stronger than Do-hee’s magic came in, or if a powerful enough attack was launched to break the barrier....
There weren’t many people in Korea capable of that.
“I’m planning to come back here around two o’clock. So I’d like the two of you to stand by until then.”
“...Until then, we’re free to move around as we please. Can I assume that’s what you mean?”
“Yes, exactly. Just don’t leave the building. You never know what might happen.”
“That much is.... Right?”
“Yes. I only need my smartphone anyway.”
“Hm? Smartphone?”
Minister Hwang tilted his head.
Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he let out an “Ah!” of realization.
He grinned and said, “Come to think of it, I think I was briefed on that. You’re the smartphone game addict, right?”
“......”
“...Ah. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’s not wrong.”
When people thought of Baek Do-woon, they thought of a smartphone game addict. When they thought of a smartphone game addict, they thought of Baek Do-woon.
It was just that the game in question wasn’t an ordinary one.
“If it’s that much fun, it must be famous.”
“No, not really. I’ve never seen anyone around me who plays it besides me. The download count is only around a hundred, too.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yes. You could call it the worst of the worst.”
Strictly speaking, the thing that had truly gone to ruin was another dimension called Yggdrasil.
Minister Hwang slowly nodded up and down.
“Well, as long as the people who play a game are having fun, that’s enough.”
“I agree.”
“May I ask what kind of game it is? I heard something about a game where you grow a tree....”
[Saessak the young World Tree says it is not “some tree.”]
[It demands that the Manager introduce it properly as the “World Tree.”]
That much was....
He’d probably just assume I meant a game anyway.
“It’s not just any tree. It’s the World Tree.”
“The World Tree?”
“Yes. I’m growing the World Tree.”
[The Manager said, “I’m growing the World Tree.”]
[Accordingly, a quest has occurred.]
...Suddenly?