After being lectured by the teacher about not picking on his friends, Gru returned to his seat and sat back down.
Despite the teacher’s scolding, Gru didn’t back down and gripped his trowel tightly.
“Gru, this time the goal is to make friends with Huiyeon.”
“Really?”
Uju answered listlessly.
“Yeah! I’ll show her tons of earthworms too.”
Uju recalled the slimy earthworms and swallowed the bile rising in his throat.
Gu Huiyeon probably didn’t want earthworms either, but Gru didn’t seem to care much about what she wanted.
Then, Uju suddenly noticed a fox keyring attached to Gu Huiyeon’s trowel.
A chick keyring was attached to his own bag.
They were character goods modeled after the Hyeon-ak guild members.
Ever since Gru had learned about Hyeon-ak, he had joined the fan club, searched for videos, and saved every photo…….
Uju, who had recently started what people called “stanning,” recognized it immediately.
That keyring was a brand-new, hot-off-the-press piece of Hyeon-ak merchandise.
Jurim was the black wolf, Gru was the light yellow chick, Nayeon was the brown rabbit, and…….
‘If it’s the fox character…… is it Gidan-hyung?’
So that’s why he kept staring.
Since Gidan-hyung adored Gru so much, he must have wanted to befriend him.
But after several days without the courage to speak, he must have just been sneaking glances.
It was none of his business anyway. Uju turned his head back to Gru.
Gru was diligently continuing to speak, hoe in hand.
“And…… I’m gonna become a Supreme Hunter. That’s how I’ll be a good son.”
“Supreme?”
Gru poked the field with his trowel.
“Yeah. Supreme!”
As Uju was recalling the meaning of “supreme,” Gru spoke in a solemn voice.
“Gru can do it too, just like Dad. Helping people who are struggling!”
‘A Supreme Hunter, huh.’
A halo seemed to shine behind Gru.
Uju opened his trembling lips.
‘That’s so cool……!’
As Gru snorted huffily, Uju turned his bright red face toward the vegetable garden.
“Oh! Uju, Gru made Mepi No. 1 again! Look!”
When Gru took out the chick drone he had made during craft time, Uju checked it. They had modified the drone together at home before.
‘Though I mostly just watched.’
Uju calmed his slightly intimidated heart and asked.
“Is it stronger now? Why was it weak before?”
“Daddy said mana energy gets weaker when it changes into ’lectricity, ’cause some gets lost.”
Uju nodded with a troubled expression.
He had no idea what that meant.
As if understanding, Gru drew a picture with a twig to show him.
“The circle magic stone becomes a triangle electricity.”
Gru drew a small triangle inside the circle.
“It means the rest disappears.”
“Ahh…….”
Having finally understood, Uju asked back.
“Then what should we do?”
“Umm, use a super expensive magic stone, or make the triangle bigger…….”
“An expensive magic stone…… wouldn’t that cost several hundred million won……?”
Then Gru let out a soft, low heh-heh-heh laugh.
“That’s why Gru made an amplifier!”
Ta-da! Gru opened the chick’s chest and showed the magic stone placed inside the capsule.
“But another problem came up.”
Gru activated the Mephisto Series Prototype mk.1.
Crackle!
The range of the electric attack the chick discharged had widened, but it was only at the level of static electricity; it still hadn’t produced a convincing power suitable for dungeon use.
‘Is equipment crafting still too difficult for Gru?’
Gru scratched the dirt with his hoe and let out a deep sigh.
Equipment was the undisputed flower of the crafting world!
The romance of one’s own creation roaming freely through dungeons!
And yet, the only thing Gru had made so far was excellent syrup, and even that was only C-rank!
While Gru was sulking, Uju, who had been lost in thought, asked.
“What if you gather the electricity and shoot it?”
“Gather?”
“Right now, the electricity spreads out in all directions like this, right?”
Uju, holding a twig, drew wavy lines around the triangle like steam rising.
“Yeah, like Pikachu.”
“But if you gather that energy in one place and shoot it, wouldn’t it get that much stronger?”
“Like a gun?”
“Yeah.”
“Hoo…….”
It was an interesting idea.
Gru poked the dirt repeatedly with his hoe and fell into thought.
*
Hyeon-ak’s Training Room.
Having changed his clothes, Gidan received a sports drink from the PR team’s in-house content filming staff who had been waiting.
“Dani, should we film the training video after a short break?”
“Yeees~ Dani is on the move~”
Gidan answered playfully while wiping his face with a towel.
He had just returned from filming a raid video wearing clothes with sponsor logos.
The filming hours were specified in the contract, so he had to diligently shoot whenever he had spare time.
That was why he planned to film the training video after a short rest.
Gidan draped the towel around his neck and asked PR team leader Hwang Yumin.
“That sniping by Ms. I Soyeon. Is the company situation bad because of that?”
Hwang Yumin let out a small sigh.
“It is bad, but this isn’t the first or second time something like this has happened. It’ll all pass. It’ll die down eventually, but it’s a headache because it happened right during the sponsor contract renewal period.”
If a swarm of contracts got cut at once, and new contracts froze until public opinion died down, this quarter’s revenue would…….
Hwang Yumin cursed I Soyeon and ground her teeth.
When a terrifying sound like teeth breaking came from Hwang Yumin’s mouth, Gidan nodded, thoroughly intimidated.
“I see…….”
“You don’t need to worry too much. Demand for S-rank idols always overflows.”
Idols, he says. Gidan smirked and retorted sarcastically.
“So you’re saying you’ll work even me to the bone to cover the losses?”
“Hm, smart. As expected of a man who avoided repeating a year.”
“Ah, noona! I told you, it was because of my attendance!”
Hwang Yumin giggled and stepped back from Gidan, who was fuming.
“Well, don’t worry. We’re fucked because they told us to get fucked. We’re just fucked.”
“Who says something like that and then tells you not to worry?”
She crossed her arms and scrunched up her face.
“That’s why I’m saying, in difficult times like these, if only our Jjapsso Hunter-nim would step up. Show his face in Hyeon-ak promotional videos, huh?”
Gidan chuckled softly at Hwang Yumin’s wish.
“That’ll be difficult.”
“Or at least Sereuhi…….”
It was a difficult time, and Hwang Yumin was trying to increase Hyeon-ak’s promotional ambassadors by any means.
Ring-ring, ring-ring—
A quadracycle entered the training room energetically.
“—Gidan! I have a proposal…….”
The mechanical voice trailed off and stopped.
The staff preparing for filming, Gidan, everyone’s gaze turned toward the teddy bear doll pulling the quadracycle.
“……Jjapsso?”
As soon as someone spoke, the quadracycle spun around.
Ring-ring, ring-ring—
The quadracycle was heading back toward the training room entrance at considerable speed.
‘Busted!’
Gru tried to quickly pedal his way out.
But.
Clack!
‘Urk! Urrk!’
The pedals wouldn’t move.
‘They won’t move!’
The unfinished bear doll’s face slowly turned around.
The elongated rear handle was being held by a woman.
“Hunter-nim! We were waiting for you! Today, we’ll serve you properly!”
PR team leader Hwang Yumin was beaming as if to say, “You walked right into this.” The staff also gathered in groups of threes and fives, surrounding Gru.
‘S-scary!’
Among the long shadows, Gru’s shoulders trembled.
Gidan pressed his forehead with a troubled expression.
‘I knew it was Gru from the bicycle sound, but who knew he’d come fully equipped.’
‘This is bad.’
The PR team’s hyenas would never let Jjapsso, who had rolled in on his own, escape.