"…Seol-a? What in the world happened?"
The result of the shopping was so absurd that my voice came out colder and more interrogative than intended.
Various clothes laid out on the bed.
Half of them were inoffensive designs.
A black plain T-shirt, a white hoodie, oversized denim shorts.
But on the other side… were clothes that my body might fit into, yet my mind absolutely could not accept.
Skinny jeans, a lace blouse, a tennis skirt…
And a white off-shoulder frill dress straight out of a sports drink commercial.
No matter how much my body had become a woman’s, there was no way I could accept clothes like these.
"Didn’t you tell me to do whatever I wanted, Oppa?"
"Haa…."
It was a classic case of the thief playing the victim, but because of what I’d said earlier, there was no room for rebuttal.
I had clearly said, "Just pick whatever," so who else could I blame?
It was my fault for not keeping my sanity….
As I placed my hand on my forehead and let out a sigh, Seol-a frowned and roughly lifted the white off-shoulder frill dress in one hand.
In her other hand, she gripped the tag.
"Shouldn’t I dish out punishment to someone who goes back on their word?"
"Ah, no!"
Rip.
"Ah."
Seol-a’s rampage didn’t stop there.
Having confirmed the tag completely separated from the garment, she immediately grabbed another piece of women’s clothing and began tearing off tags at lightning speed.
Rip. Rip. Riiiip!
Despite her rough hand movements and speed, she didn’t damage the clothes at all—a sight that seemed to emanate a certain madness.
Looking at the women’s clothes with all their tags torn off, my head began to spin.
'Th-this means I can’t return them….'
Of course, they wouldn’t accept clothes that had their tags removed.
My empty wallet was nowhere near the level needed to afford this many clothes, so these were definitely ones Seol-a had bought me.
'If I owe that girl, who knows what she’ll demand from me later…!'
I didn’t know.
And not knowing made it all the more terrifying.
But as if I weren’t even on her radar, Seol-a hung all the clothes she’d bought on hangers and neatly arranged them in the wardrobe.
Among the clothes lined up in a row, the white dress displayed as if showing off stood out painfully.
It was nothing short of burdensome.
Seol-a seemed to sense my mood, approaching me cautiously in a very subdued state before opening her mouth.
"Sorry. I thought anything would look good on you…."
The voice brimming with grievance from earlier had vanished without a trace, replaced instead by a dejected tone.
She was just like a golden retriever.
"Don’t worry about the money. Pretty clothes are something I buy with my own money."
Considering my empty wallet, it was a fact I was all too aware of.
But that wasn’t the problem.
She might ask me to do a photobook shoot, or demand to pet my tail for twelve hours.
Keuk! I shouldn’t have let my guard down…!!
"Haaa…."
To console the miserable future awaiting me, I let out a sigh that welled up from deep within without reservation.
What had already become irreparable couldn’t be helped.
Now, I had to face an even colder reality.
My bank balance.
Even if there weren’t many clothes bought with my own money, I needed to know exactly how much I had left.
The moment I opened the banking app, my balance revealed itself boldly: a whopping 52,340 won.
It was enough money to play and eat for a lifetime.
If I died in two days.
"Huk."
Seol-a, curious about what I was looking at, crept over and ended up seeing my "proud" balance.
"Oppa. But what happened to your part-time job?"
"You ask fast. I thought you were too busy looking at my tail to care about my situation."
"No! I was going to ask from the beginning!"
"It goes without saying, but I already quit."
It had been an incredibly awkward and uncomfortable moment.
—Manager, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can work anymore.
—I’m sorry for quitting so suddenly.
Even though it was a text message, I wrote it as politely as possible.
It was the most courtesy I could manage in my current situation.
But what came back wasn’t a reply—it was a phone call.
Seeing the caller ID that read 'Convenience Store Manager,' I couldn’t help but hesitate.
But I couldn’t just ignore it, so I picked up after a few rings.
"H-hello?"
The moment my voice traveled through the receiver, a brief silence came from the other end.
"…Ah, are you Haneul’s younger sibling? Could I speak to Haneul?"
"About that. They’re unable to come to the phone right now…."
"Tsk, ha… That kid, seriously. No matter how urgent things are, they should at least call…."
The manager’s voice was mixed with irritation and disappointment.
He had a point. No matter how much 'it couldn’t be helped,' it wasn’t common sense for a working adult.
"I’m sorry. I’ll pass the message along…."
I could only repeat "I’m sorry."
"Oppa?"
"Yeah?"
"Why are you spacing out all of a sudden? I was asking what you think about trying acting."
An actor?
Wondering what she was talking about, I looked at Seol-a, who was staring at me as if appreciating an incredibly expensive piece of art.
"Honestly, in your current state, I feel like I’d be itching to take you everywhere."
No, no matter what, acting is just too….
In my mind, I fleetingly pictured myself being dragged around by various broadcasting companies. Whether I liked it or not, my every move would end up on social media.
For someone who was a hardcore introvert, becoming an actor was impossible. If they told me to stay still for a photo… No. That would be impossible too.
"That’s a bit much… I think being a Hunter suits me better."
Since I’d Awakened as a Dragon anyway, it was better to work as a Hunter. It might be a bit dangerous, but the income from selling magic stones was incomparable.
Then, suddenly feeling something strange, I raised my head to look at Seol-a. She was tilting her head with an "Oh…?" expression, looking down at me.
What is it. It’s scary…?
"Wh-what?"
Yun Seol-a strode toward me.
Seeing her slowly approach, I felt like I was about to be gaslit into becoming an actor. In my head, I imagined shouting that whether I became a Hunter or an actor was my decision to make, but in reality, I was simply backing away.
Now that there was a bed behind me and nowhere left to escape, Seol-a suddenly rushed forward and hugged me tight.
"Then these squishy cheeks are mine!"
"Uwaaah…! What?!"
The moment she held me in place so I couldn’t move, she grabbed my cheeks and stretched them out. Were cheeks always this stretchy…?
So Seol-a was determined to make me an actor…! I struggled in the shock of betrayal, but breaking free seemed far away.
…it was quite a while later, after she had calmed down, that Seol-a finally said something normal.
"Anyway, I’ll help you as much as I can. I may not look it, but I’m a Hunter Association employee."
"Yeah… Thanks…."
"So you’re thinking of starting with the White Tower?"
White Tower.
Having been a lurker on Hunter forums, I’d heard the name before. A tower regarded as a tutorial among Hunters. To the point where they said anyone who couldn’t clear this place shouldn’t set foot in a tower.
With no real combat experience and no intention of entering a Hunter training academy, it was perfect for me.
"Of course. Most towers have clearing the White Tower as a condition for entry in the first place."
It was a rule set by the Hunter Association rather than the Tower System itself, but if I wasn’t planning anything illegal, it amounted to the same thing.
It was probably because rookies who didn’t know better entered high-difficulty towers and came out a mess. All safety rules were written in blood, after all.
"Then leave the Hunter registration to me. I let you heal to your heart’s content, so the least I can do is this!"
Seol-a raised her thumb, her eyes gleaming with confidence.
…What department was she in that she could just manipulate the system like that?
"Then when are you leaving?"
"Right now."
"R-right now?"
An account with barely fifty thousand won held no future.
I needed to acquire magic stones as quickly as possible to grow, so there was no reason to waste any time.
"Got it. Then I should head to the Association too. See you later!"
Seol-a quickly grabbed her handbag, took about ten photos of me waving goodbye, and left my studio.
The moment the noisy girl was gone, the atmosphere instantly turned cold.
"Alright. Time to start my own research."
Sitting at my computer desk and stretching once, I searched "White Tower" on the internet and began scraping together information from galleries, blogs, and wherever else I could.
***
When I arrived near the White Tower, the first thing I felt was a sense of incongruity.
Even though it was in the heart of Seoul, there was nothing much around the tower. Just an empty space carved out between forests of buildings. One glance was all it took to realize I couldn’t even begin to estimate the land prices here.
"And here in Seoul, they’re letting perfectly good land go to waste…."
Thinking that if they were going to use it like this, they could at least share some of it, I approached the barrier gate the Hunter Association had installed.
I figured I’d just walk in if no one stopped me.
"Huh? Wait, kid!"
Looking in the direction of the voice, I saw a man quickly approaching me.
The man crouched down to my level the moment he reached me.
"Are you lost? Where are your parents?"
"Excuse me…? I’m a Hunter."
"Then do you have your Hunter registration card?"
He was still treating me like a lost child, speaking to me as one would to a little kid.
I had Awakened as a Dragon. And I wasn’t even a child.
To prove my words, I held out the Hunter registration card Seol-a had given me.
Since it hadn’t gone through the Association’s proper procedures, the card bore the most common grade: F-Rank.
It should be fine since Seol-a vouched for me, but my hand trembled slightly at the worry that it might be rejected or reported as a forgery.
The man took the card with a puzzled expression, skimmed over it briefly, and spoke.
"Ah, my apologies. There have been a lot of teenagers sneaking into towers lately. I mistook you for one."
An Awakened should be able to enter towers even if they were just high schoolers.
Did he mean non-Awakened were sneaking in?
Young people these days had lost all fear.
"Your registration is confirmed. Please be careful in there."
"Yes, thank you."
Passing the barrier and walking toward the tower, I began to truly feel that I had become a Hunter.
And the fact that I had to enter that ominous structure.
A tower built of stone, prominently displaying European-style arch structures.
But it felt alien, with parts melted and dripping like a candle that had been lit too long.
'Honestly, it looks like a place I’d never want to come back to, but I’ll have to get used to it.'
Steeling my resolve, I placed my hand on the tower’s only door.
[ Welcome to the White Tower. ]
[ Please select a difficulty. ]
[ Easy ] [ Normal ] [ Hard ]
A hologram similar to the one when I opened my status window.
A true man who’d just jump from the third floor or lower if things went wrong would choose Hard, but I had already cross-referenced various pieces of information online and reached my conclusion.
Easy, which was far too simple with meager rewards, was obviously out.
Hard, which supposedly required B-grade stats or a pair of D-grade Hunters to clear smoothly, was also out.
"As expected, middle of the road is the way to go."
Just as my finger was about to press the [ Normal ] button, a new hologram appeared, covering the difficulty selection.
[ A Mythical existence has been detected. ]
[ Automatically locking difficulty to 'Mystic.' ]
"Eh?"
Three seconds to read the words.
One second to understand the situation.
Before I could even react, I was sucked into the tower.