20
After parting ways with Geum Na-hee, Baek Woo-jin bought some simple snacks and stepped through his front door for the first time in days.
"I'm home."
There was no response even as he took off his shoes and entered. It wasn't until he reached the living room that Baek Woo-jin realized no one was home.
He placed the bag of snacks on the kitchen table and looked around briefly. True to her title as the queen of housekeeping, there wasn't a single spot that needed touching.
"Home really is the most comfortable, after all."
No matter how good a hotel is, it can't compare to this unique sense of relief you could call it.
After changing into comfortable sweatpants, he sat in the chair at his desk and opened the notebook where he had been recording various things like a journal since his regression.
'At least I won't have to suffer through dungeons for a couple of months.'
He had offered to handle dungeons that had been virtually abandoned because their byproducts were so worthless that hunters rarely visited them. The government, already struggling with insufficient manpower, had no reason to refuse his offer, and as expected, the higher-ups who heard a rough summary of the situation from Gwak Do-seok accepted all his proposals.
"The question is what to do about a weapon..."
Baek Woo-jin's index finger drummed against the innocent desk.
Since he had been using a sword all along, the most natural choice would be to purchase a sword within the budget provided by the government.
Setting aside his personal preferences, he had grown somewhat accustomed to it through repeated use, and his wielding stance had started to take proper form, making it an undeniable fact that it was the weapon he could handle best at this point.
Unable to easily reach a conclusion, Baek Woo-jin took out his smartphone to check something.
[Time until the Tower opens: D-133]
"June 13th, huh."
It was such an important detail that he wouldn't forget it even without writing it down separately, but since you never know with such things, he set his smart calendar to alert him in May, a month before the opening.
"With this much time, I think I can afford to be a bit more careful in choosing."
Since all his stats had reached their rank limits, he couldn't expect any stat increases no matter how many monsters he killed now.
Therefore, he revised the framework of his plan to acquire as much knowledge about monsters as possible and find the most satisfactory weapon until the 'Tower' he needed to enter for a rank breakthrough opened.
"Ah, I should write down the stocks too."
It was information he'd have to wait two more years to use, but its value was tremendous, so he recorded all the companies and hunter-related stocks that would skyrocket in the future.
[Things to do before the Tower opens.]
1. Choose a weapon.
2. Meet Schrodin.
Having freshly updated his goals, Baek Woo-jin gently set down the pen he had been holding. Then, after counting silently.
"Boo!"
"Kyaa?!"
Whipping around, Baek Ah-yeon, who had been sneaking up like a cat, jumped in surprise and let out a shriek.
She must have thought she had opened the door secretly, but unfortunately, he had heard her coming from the moment she approached outside the door. Unless she awakened the same way, he would probably never be surprised by Baek Ah-yeon in his entire life.
"Could you please knock before coming in?"
"No! I thought you were sleeping..."
"Sure, nice excuse."
"Ugh!"
Baek Woo-jin lightly rapped Baek Ah-yeon on the head with barely any force.
"Did you not see the macarons I bought for you?"
"Macarons?"
"Yeah. From the bakery at Yongsan Station."
"Crazy."
Rubbing the top of her head while glaring at Baek Woo-jin, Baek Ah-yeon seemed to have completely forgotten about getting rapped on the head at the mention of macarons and ran to the living room without looking back.
"You should really thank Mom."
Low activity levels combined with an insatiable appetite.
With eating habits that should have turned her into a pig long ago, Baek Ah-yeon had inherited Lady Jang's innate constitution completely, blessing her with a body that no matter how much she ate and lounged around, she wouldn't gain weight or even an ounce of flab—a constitution that would be the envy of anyone, regardless of gender.
"Hey. I didn't buy those for you to eat alone, so don't eat them all."
"Okaay."
Coming out to the living room, Baek Woo-jin clicked his tongue at Baek Ah-yeon, who was already stuffing one of the individually wrapped macarons from the fancy box into her mouth, and approached Lady Jang who was preparing dinner.
"You're back?"
"Yeah, give me that."
"I'm fine. If you really want to help, you're just in the way, so go clear your sister out of the living room."
"Did you hear that?"
"Okaay."
In that brief moment, Baek Ah-yeon had torn open another wrapper and jumped onto the living room sofa with the box full of macarons.
"I have no idea who she takes after."
"Who me?! I take after our Lady Jang!!"
"Didn't I tell you not to talk with your mouth full?"
Baek Woo-jin chuckled at the mother-daughter duo's comedy routine and took out the ID card from his pocket, showing it to Lady Jang.
"What's this?"
Lady Jang, who had closed the refrigerator door and turned around, looked at the ID card in her son's hand.
"Oh my."
"That's how it turned out."
Baek Woo-jin put the ID card back in his pocket and continued.
"It's not dangerous work. Just a driver? Something like that."
"So you're going down to Busan?"
"No. I'm affiliated with them, but I'll be active in Seoul. I might go down occasionally."
"......?"
At Lady Jang's gaze, which held the doubt of whether it was possible for a public official to operate outside their assigned region, Baek Woo-jin was about to say something when.
"What is it? What? Why are you two excluding me?"
In that brief moment, Baek Ah-yeon, who had devoured 2 more and disposed of a total of 4 macarons, returned to the kitchen with the noticeably lighter box and inserted herself between them.
"Give me half and I'll let you in on it."
"Come to think of it, being excluded suits me."
"Hand it over."
"What?!"
Without even taking her eyes off it, the box moved from Baek Ah-yeon's hands to her brother Baek Woo-jin's as swiftly as beans before a locust, and Baek Ah-yeon blinked in surprise, alternating her gaze between her empty hands and Baek Woo-jin.
"I told you to eat in moderation, but you've already eaten half."
"Why are you so negative? I didn't eat half, half is left."
"You're both in the way, so would you mind leaving the kitchen?"
The Baek siblings were eventually kicked out of the kitchen by Lady Jang.
"So what is it?"
"I got a job."
"Oh~ For real?"
"What, you think it's fake?"
Baek Woo-jin returned the confiscated macaron box to Baek Ah-yeon's arms, and without even a second of hesitation, Baek Ah-yeon reached out to tear the wrapper of her 5th beautifully packaged macaron.
"But where did you get a job? You didn't go to college and don't have any certifications."
"Little sister, certifications aren't everything in this world."
"Yes, next F-rank Awakener~"
"That's your last macaron."
"...let me recite a ten-line poem starting with F."
Her solemn face suggesting she would actually do it if told finally made him burst out laughing.
**
Thwack!
The rapidly spinning hand axe flew and buried itself precisely into the forehead of a wolf well over 2 meters tall.
With a sound like a watermelon splitting, the Dire Wolf's head shattered, and it collapsed with the momentum of its charge, rolling along the ground for quite a while before finally stopping.
"...Please, just drop one."
The owner of the hand axe embedded in the Dire Wolf's head, Baek Woo-jin, crouched beside the limp Dire Wolf, drew the dagger strapped to his thigh, and skillfully slit the Dire Wolf's belly open to examine its interior.
"This is driving me crazy."
It had already been two weeks since he came up to Seoul. Thanks to the contract with the government resolving the dungeon issue, he was able to monopolize the use of 8 dungeons under the convenient pretext of official duty.
Thanks to that, the number of monsters Baek Woo-jin had killed in two weeks had long surpassed three digits.
The problem was that the number of magic stones obtained while killing monsters numbering in four digits was only in the single digits. And not both hands—one hand was enough to count them all.
"At this rate, I'm actually going to end up buying them with money."
He retrieved the hand axe from the head of the Dire Wolf, which was exactly the 100th kill, and cleaned up the surroundings.
'It would have been a bit better if I had found a weapon I liked.'
The types of weapons available for rent at the management office were limited, so Baek Woo-jin had personally made the trip to the Association to borrow weapons.
The weapons he borrowed and tried using started with a spear, then hammer-type weapons like the ones Jang Hye-na used, and even ranged weapons like bows—10 types in total.
And all 10 types, before even considering proficiency, simply didn't feel right the moment he held them. Among them, especially the battle axe.
The so-called tactical axe had a shape similar to a pickaxe at first glance, making him think, 'Ah, I might get a feel for this one,' but when he actually held it and swung it, it turned out to be the worst of the 10 weapons.
"I need to revise the plan when I get back."
At this rate, he wouldn't even be able to fill half the magical power needed for the ring, let alone meet Schrodin before the Tower opened. He needed to take some measures.
"Good work today."
"Not at all."
After exiting the dungeon, Baek Woo-jin had only the brief, business-necessary conversation with the public official guarding the management office before walking down the trail leading down the mountain.
Bzzzt.
When he was about halfway down the trail, a phone call came in.
[Assistant Manager Heo Sang-min]
Seeing the name of the man he had exchanged positive conversations with a few days ago regarding Geum Na-hee, Baek Woo-jin brought the smartphone to his ear.
"This is Baek Woo-jin."
-Haha, have you been well?
"Yes. I've been doing fine on my end."
-I'm glad to hear that. And regarding the alchemist's potions you recommended last time, if there are no major issues, we should be able to give you good news sometime next month. I'd like to give you an answer sooner, but side effects and somewhat sensitive factors must definitely go through verification.
"I merely gave you a recommendation. What happens after that is up to the parties involved. More importantly, did you contact me to talk about that?"
-Of course not? I'm a busy man too.
It was common knowledge that Association officials were busy, so Baek Woo-jin nodded once.
"Then?"
-Ahem, well, you see.
As Heo Sang-min's voice gradually grew quieter, an image formed in Baek Woo-jin's mind as if the man was right next to him, looking around cautiously.
When the imaginary Heo Sang-min covered his mouth as if conveying a very secret story, an extremely cautious voice came through the speaker.
-An incredible honey dungeon has appeared, so I contacted you.