“Gyaaah!”
As Gru banged his head against the desk and grumbled irritably, Serhi and Gidan glanced over at him.
“Hmm, what are you doing, Gru?”
“Filial piety……”
“Filial piety?”
Serhi tilted his head with an expression that clearly said he had no idea what that was, while Gidan snorted with laughter.
“What kind of filial piety has you acting like that?”
Gru puffed out his cheeks and mumbled,
“People don’t like Hyeonak, so they lie and say mean things. Gru is scolding all the nasty comments on the articles……”
“Huh.”
It was a good thing this was happening online. If the Bamboo-Spear Man had been right in front of him, he might have pulled out a fork and stabbed someone in the heat of the moment.
Just then, Gidan plucked the phone Gru was clutching tightly in both hands away from him.
“That’s enough, that’s enough. Confiscated.”
“Nooo—”
“Begging won’t work, either. If you use the internet too much, you’ll turn into your big brother Serhi.”
“What?!”
Serhi’s face twisted.
“Gasp!”
Gru clapped both hands over his mouth, suddenly terrified.
Turn into Big Brother Serhi? How could such a horrifying thing happen?
“Got it? You’re done now.”
“Uuung!”
Nod, nod.
“You two are seriously annoying, you know?”
“Wow, you don’t say ‘I’m pissed off’ anymore. Good job, Serhi. Keep that up and you might even beat Gru at dictation.”
“Ah—Gidan. I really want to kill you.”
Serhi covered his face with both hands, and Gidan burst into cackling laughter.
Meanwhile, Gru drooped his shoulders gloomily and picked up his pen again.
That was when it happened.
Bzz—bzzz—
Ding-a-ling—
Serhi and Gidan’s phones rang at the same time.
They checked their phones and immediately stood up. Serhi patted Gru on the head, while Gidan rubbed his soft cheeks.
As the two of them crowded around and fussed over him, Gru furrowed his brow.
After enjoying that brief healing session, Gidan and Serhi spoke one after the other.
“We’ve got work, so we’d better go. Go home safely with the manager.”
“Go on home, Yellow Gru.”
“Uuung.”
Nod, nod.
Just then, Seol Yeo-jin suddenly poked her head out from beside them.
“Another raid? You two are having a hard time, too.”
With lower-ranking hunters avoiding raids because of the potion shortage, high-ranking hunters had been covering more dungeons than usual these days.
Naturally, Hyeonak’s Team One had also been running dungeons nonstop, and Serhi and Gidan were spending every day so busy they barely had time to breathe.
“These are difficult times. We’ll be going first today.”
“All right. Be careful.”
Seol Yeo-jin spoke with concern.
Since they were short-handed, Team One had been split into two, with Gidan and Serhi operating as a team by themselves.
Of course, the two of them actually preferred it that way, but as an adult, it was impossible not to worry about sending two minors out together.
“It’s nothing serious~ Whenever Serhi shoots his sand-sand, everything dies~”
“You should die already.”
Gidan snickered and waved, while Serhi gave a small bow of his head.
Gru propped up his chin and stared fixedly at their retreating backs.
‘Everyone’s so busy…….’
He could really feel that they were in the middle of a crisis.
Even Jurim had been so busy while taking Gru to school that he hadn’t had a moment to put down his phone.
Not only that, but he was also hard to see at either the company or home because he had to attend meetings and events here and there.
Still, he somehow made it in every morning with dark circles under his eyes to help Gru get ready for school.
“The potion crisis……”
Gru pursed his lips as he recalled the headline of the article.
It had been such a hot topic lately that even Gru had a rough idea of what was happening.
The medicinal herbs used as potion ingredients had run out, causing a potion crisis. Because of that, Hyeonak had donated all its potions, and everyone was running around so frantically that they barely had time to breathe.
‘Even if people don’t recognize them……’
That was disappointing, and it made his heart sting a little, but what worried him more was the fact that the people of Hyeonak were being exposed to danger.
‘Should I secretly stock them up with syrup?’
Gru’s syrup didn’t use medicinal herbs, so he could make as much as he wanted even in the middle of this crisis.
As much as he wanted……
“……?”
Huh? Gru suddenly raised his head.
A realization flashed through his mind out of nowhere.
Gru could make tons of potions!
‘With the filial piety factory!’
His fist tightened with determination.
Getting a huge mana tank with filial piety points would be nice, but if he chose the filial piety factory, he could help not only Hyeonak but other people as well.
Which meant—
‘Gru will become Santa.’
His coral-colored eyes sparkled.
[(Unknown Title) has caused an achievement to be attained.]
[Achievement: Complete!]
-Children gain satisfaction when they are praised. Whenever a child is praised by someone, filial piety points will accumulate in the piggy bank. The child may check the piggy bank at any time and use the filial piety points.
Gru gave a brief, smug laugh.
‘Even the system is praising Gru’s growth.’
Gru soon stood up and climbed onto the bicycle he had left by the entrance.
All right.
“Let’s go, Rudolph!”
Creeeak—creak, creeeak—
As Gru tried to leave the office on his bicycle, Seol Yeo-jin followed along behind him.
“Are you going home too, Gru?”
“Yeees.”
Creeeak—creak—
Seol Yeo-jin smiled and opened the office door for Gru.
Gru raised his eyebrows high and thrust one hand into the air.
“Gru is going to become Santa!”
“Hm? Santa?”
“Bye-bye!”
“Okay~ Bye-bye~”
Seol Yeo-jin waved goodbye.
*
[Wham-Bam Filial Piety Factory Blueprint]
Gru rotated the 3D blueprint that had appeared before his eyes.
Whenever he imagined the design he wanted in his head, the blueprint changed shape accordingly.
It was about the size of a medium dollhouse.
Inside, a conveyor belt ran in an oval loop.
There was an area for making syrup bottles, an area for filling the syrup bottles with potion, and an area for packaging the syrup bottles.
Once he divided it into those three sections, a splendid toy-factory layout was complete.
Gru took a quick look at the blueprint displayed in his status window, then lined up three partially unfinished teddy bears the size of his palm.
“Umm.”
Everyone around him knew how much he loved dolls, and the dolls he had received as gifts over time filled his room by size and type.
So he had no shortage of workers, but……
Compared to that.
With the LEGO blocks Gru owned, he could barely assemble part of the filial piety factory’s framework.
There were still countless rollers for transporting the products, worktables for the dolls to work at, and many other important things left to prepare.
While he was lost in thought, Mefi spread both wings in the center of the structure and spun around as if to show off how spacious it was.
“Pip!”
Gru pouted.
‘There aren’t enough parts.’
Should he go out and buy some?
Gru was a nouveau riche now, so he could buy as much as he wanted.
Puffy clouds gathered in his imagination, forming endless rows of LEGO displays.
The baby sheep, wearing a huge gemstone ring on every finger, cleared its throat pompously before pointing from one end of the display to the other.
The eyes of the startled sheep employee filled with hearts.
‘Mm, good. Absolutely magnificent.’
I want everything from here to here!
Gru was just about to pester his sitter into taking him shopping when—
Ping!
A notification chimed at precisely the right moment.
“Hmm?”
On Suhyeong
Your birthday is coming up soon, Gru.
Is there anything you want?
*
“Then, Chairman On, I hope you enjoy your shopping.”
The department store manager bowed deeply, and On Suhyeong nodded.
It was abundantly clear that the chairman wanted him out of the way so he could enjoy some quiet time with his granddaughter, so the manager quickly offered his farewell and moved away.
Meanwhile, Gru was struggling to pull out a box of LEGO’s Wham-Bam Factory, which was larger than his torso, from a display shelf lined with LEGO boxes.
Seeing this, On Suhyeong came up behind him and effortlessly lifted the LEGO box down.
A bright smile spread across Gru’s face.
“Will this be enough?”
“Yeees.”
“Grandpa will…… Ahem.”
On Suhyeong cleared his throat unnecessarily, trying to hide his awkwardness.
The moment he referred to himself as Grandpa, his blatant desire had been exposed, leaving him embarrassed.
But after recalling the photo Jurim had sent him and steeling his resolve, he returned to his iron-blooded expression and continued,
“Grandpa can buy our Gru anything you want, so why don’t you pick out some more? It’s the first Gru’s birthday we’ll be spending together, and there are so many things Grandpa wants to do for you.”