Gu Sinhu frowned slightly as he looked at Ham Honggi, who answered him with his nerves on edge after ending the phone call.
“Dana, what’s wrong with him? Isn’t he the Association Chairman’s youngest son?”
When Gu Sinhu mouthed, *That delinquent?* Gidan smiled lowly.
“I greeted him a bit the other time.”
“…Go easy on him. The kid’s completely lost it.”
“I didn’t really do much, but the senior seems to be a timid person by nature.”
“He does seem that way.”
Tsk, tsk. Gu Sinhu clicked his tongue.
Meanwhile, Seon Woo-gyeong let out a hollow laugh.
*It’s all ruined…?*
Now that he thought about it, it was strange. There was no way he would act this recklessly.
Until now, he had moved step by step, calculating everything thoroughly like a model student.
But why had it turned out like this all of a sudden?
Then, his eyes met with Mun Ira, who had been watching them from afar.
*Teacher?*
Seon Woo-gyeong opened his mouth.
“Te—”
Mun Ira placed her index finger to her lips.
*Shh.*
In an instant, his vision went pitch black and his eyes closed.
“U-Uh!”
“Huh? Senior.”
He heard voices calling out to him beyond his fading consciousness.
Irina, who was looking down at the fainted Seon Woo-gyeong, discarded the ID card with “Mun Ira” written on it.
When he woke up, he wouldn’t remember anything about her.
Even if he remembered something, she would have already left this school by then.
Irina walked away with light steps.
“Hmm.”
Shin Nayeon’s gaze had been fixed on her for a while. Seeing her contacting someone somewhere, she might be trying to dig into Irina’s identity.
She hadn’t expected her to catch on to the signs.
Playing teacher had been fun, and she had thought the experiments were going smoothly thanks to Seon Woo-gyeong’s help. But to think she had failed to gain anything once again…
How many times had it been now?
Recalling Serhi, who had left her side, she pressed her lower lip firmly.
“As expected, Korea is difficult.”
She had thought it would be different from Cyrus, but she hadn’t expected to achieve absolutely nothing.
Irina pulled her lips down sulkily.
It seemed she would need different preparations to get what she wanted.
Chapter. Santa and the Filial Piety Factory
[Suspicious Star Candy]
A suspicious aura of creation dwells within it.
“Hoom.”
Creation.
According to a search in the children’s encyclopedia, “creation” meant “making something that never existed before for the first time.”
If so, couldn’t this “Suspicious Star Candy” be an ingredient capable of making something incredible?
*Thump, thump.*
Gru, who had been staring intently at the rainbow-colored star candy received as a vassal quest reward, opened her bag.
Good ingredients were important for cooking.
It was the same for crafting.
While high skill proficiency was important, it was the most basic of basics that good crafted items required high-grade ingredients.
*So…*
Gru took out items from her inventory and “Stretchy-Stretchy Baggy-Bag,” setting them down before her with wriggling movements.
Master Detective Magnifying Glass, Magic Stone, Fork, Duck Tongs, Supreme Acorn…
Were these roughly all the good things she had?
If she excluded things that were impossible to extract because they were Gru’s crafted items…
The moment Gru was removing the crafted items one by one—
The white baby bird pecked the acorn with its beak, then suddenly kicked it and started rolling it.
Rattle, rattle. Thwack, rattle, rattle.
Having sat on Jurim’s shoulder yesterday evening watching a soccer match together, it seemed to be imitating a soccer player.
As Mephisto ran pitter-patter to kick the acorn again with his foot, Gru blocked him.
“Ssh, Meph. You can’t do that.”
“Cheep!”
Gru caught the troublemaker Mephisto and placed him back on top of her head.
The best thing here was undoubtedly the Duck Tongs that had extracted Mephisto, but—
*Since the Duck Tongs can’t be extracted again.*
Then was there only one thing left?
*Supreme Acorn!*
Gru placed the acorn before her and took a big breath.
“Whooop!”
[The skill ‘Pluck-Pluck Extract’ is activated.]
[The skill ‘Pluck-Pluck Extract’ has failed.]
[The skill ‘Pluck-Pluck Extract’ is activated.]
[The skill ‘Pluck-Pluck Extract’ has failed.]
.
.
.
[The skill ‘Pluck-Pluck Extract’ is activated.]
[The skill ‘Pluck-Pluck Extract’ has failed.]
“Hng.”
Was it because she wasn’t familiar with the item yet?
It had taken quite a long time to extract the Duck Tongs too; she couldn’t know how much longer it would take to get friendly with the Supreme Acorn.
Of course, there was one way to extract quickly.
*Leveling up, of course!*
Hmph! Gru snorted and clenched her fist tightly.
*For a Supreme Hunter, it’s all about growth.*
Just as she was wondering whether to use filial piety points to level up her skill, while wrigglingly putting the items away—
Ham Honggi suddenly came to mind.
While his sentence had been considerably mitigated by his voluntary confession and submitting the list of people who had purchased the potions together, the problem lay elsewhere.
An unknown component had been discovered in the potions sold by Glasses, who imitated Jjapsso, causing people to be hospitalized en masse.
Gru sat cross-legged and tilted her head quizzically.
Who exactly was Jjapsso, that a bad guy would even imitate him?
*He might be an incredibly amazing person…*
Curiosity bloomed in puffs.
*Hmm. There’s no way Gru should be the only one who doesn’t know such a person.*
Gru picked up her phone and tapped out the letters “Jjapsso” one by one to search.
A teddy bear syrup bottle and a poorly made teddy bear doll picture.
Following that, an explanation about a toddler bicycle was attached.
“Hm?”
Gru, who had been staring holes into her phone, opened her mouth wide.
Soon, cold sweat trickled down her back.
*
Jurim shifted his gaze to the living room window and held the phone to his other ear.
To the voice apologizing endlessly over the phone, he responded once more like a machine.
“Yes, please supply to the hospitals first. We’re fine. No. Our side isn’t urgent. Yes, we’re really fine.”
The moment he finished appeasing the distributor and ending the call, the phone rang frantically.
This time it was Go Gang, the Bureau Director.
Jurim left a message saying he was busy with the morning school prep right now and would contact him later, then let out a sigh.
*No time to think.*
It wasn’t just Jurim right now—everyone must be in an emergency situation.
The Potion Crisis.
It was an urgent matter that required setting aside everything else to focus on.
The starting point was when two dungeons that were the largest natural habitats for Silverlight Grass, the main ingredient of potions, were suddenly predicted to become depleted.
Korea boasted a robust supply system with raw material self-sufficiency for potions approaching 80%; however, precisely because of that, it was inevitably vulnerable to sudden supply shortages.
As reports began to emerge that a potion shortage would occur due to the lack of Silverlight Grass, anxiety spread in an instant.
Potion panic buying—the act of purchasing items excessively out of anxiety—and the depletion of Silverlight Grass occurred faster than expected, driving the situation even further to its worst.
Potion stock was depleting by the day.
In response, everyone agreed to prioritize potion supply to hospitals and such, and large guilds with many high-ranking Hunters were naturally pushed down the supply priority list.
Truthfully, Hyunak had quite a few support-class Hunters, so they could probably get through the crisis without potions for the time being.
The problem was the fact that it was obvious he would be called here and there, too busy to even blink an eye until the supply shortage was resolved.
Bzzzt— Bzzzt—
“…Haa.”
Jurim shuddered at the phone ringing again, then suddenly turned his gaze to the floor.
*Paper?*
On a piece of paper that looked like a page torn arbitrarily from a notebook, crooked writing was scrawled.
It was Gru’s.
[To Grandpa Santa.]
Jurim smiled as he looked at the list written below it.
It was a wish list for Grandpa Santa. Of all the items, Gru only wanted a few things written at the very beginning; the rest were all things she wanted to give to the people around her.
Bursting into a chuckle and examining it carefully, he saw that she had erased “Guild Master” and written “Dad” above it.
He kept smiling and staring at the word “Dad” for a long while, but when he heard the dressing room open, he covered his mouth sheepishly.
The sitter’s voice was heard.
“No, Gru. Let’s take that off before going, okay?”
“No way. I’m going wike this.”
“…?”
Jurim rose from his seat at the sitter’s tone, which was almost pleading.
Wondering what the fuss was about, he soon discovered Gru, and the hand holding the paper dropped limply.