In truth, it was the first time he had ever spent such an enormous sum, and his heart was pounding as he reeled about like a balloon doll.
If Gru made one more purchase like this, his heart might not survive.
Come to think of it.
‘Is my life as a nouveau riche over now?’
Two billion won earned at the auction house, plus another billion received under the pretext of renting out the chick drones—for a total of three billion won.
‘I spent it all…….’
Gru wasn’t a nouveau riche anymore. Just as Gru was sinking into a hollow reverie—
Suddenly, a fanfare rang out.
‘Huh?’
[An achievement is being attained by means of (Unknown Title).]
[Achievement: ＜First Splurge＞ achieved!]
[The function ‘The More You Spend, the More You Become a (Self-Proclaimed) Nouveau Riche!’ has been unlocked.]
-Whenever a child spends money, their hidden stat, ‘Fortune in Wealth,’ increases in proportion to the amount spent.
Experiencing various forms of consumption also helps a child’s development. From now on, continue experiencing various kinds of consumption under the guidance of a guardian!
Gru’s mouth fell open.
‘That’s right. It’s not time to seal away Gru’s wallet of justice yet!’
Playing at being a nouveau riche helps a child’s development!
Let’s make tons of things like drones!
And become rich again!
Firmly steeling himself, Gru turned his gaze toward Kang Je-i.
Startled, she flinched and raised her shoulders. Gru approached her and patted her legs.
“Unnie, you mustn’t ignore the children anymore.”
“……!”
Kang Je-i, nineteen years old, wore an indescribably complicated expression after being lectured by a five-year-old.
Then Gru turned his head toward Hang Hang-gi.
“Hang Hang-gi. Let’s live goodly together.”
“Yes!”
Ham Hong-gi bowed at the waist.
Gru spun around in style, his skirt fluttering.
“Mm!”
“Where are you going?”
“Gru has to go to the toilet. Then, that’s all for now……”
He drew out his final words, leaving an aftertaste, and toddled off toward the restroom…… only to come back and whisper in a tiny voice.
“It’s not that Gru needs to pee. There’s someone Gru needs to find.”
“Understood!”
“Ahem!”
Ham Hong-gi answered with intense determination.
Gru cleared his throat and toddled back toward the restroom.
‘Is Brother Serhi still not done?’
Could something really be wrong?
He couldn’t enter the men’s restroom, so he was hovering around outside when……
Suddenly, the bag began to writhe.
It was a sign that Beilak was turning into a human.
Gru hurriedly moved to a corner and took Beilak out.
The hamster quickly became a young boy and looked toward the restroom.
“Whew-”
He had barely managed to get the timing right. The bag had almost burst.
But why was he staring at the restroom the moment he came out?
“Beii, why?”
Was it because of Serhi?
“Could it be that Brother Seru-hi fell into the toilet?”
No wonder he had been in there for so long.
Beilak turned to look at Gru with an expression that seemed to wonder what on earth was going on in his head.
“That’s not it. The human talking to that guard named Serhi inside has my ‘star.’”
“Star?”
Beilak’s star!
Gru’s eyes grew round.
“What’s a star?”
“The thing humans call a mana stone. I thought it had disappeared when I was sealed, but it was here.”
Then Beilak calmly dropped another bombshell.
“If it’s left like that, that human looks like he’s going to die……”
“What?!”
*
A boy emerged from a restroom stall, his face pale as he breathed heavily.
Serhi, wiping his hands with a paper towel, glanced at him through the mirror.
He had been watching because he sensed unstable mana, but the boy he finally saw was a familiar face.
“……”
Lee Tae-min. Sixteen years old. An A-rank Awakened.
He was apparently a first-year rookie whose amount of mana surpassed even that of S-rank Awakened despite being only A-rank.
They were in the same class, but as someone who prided himself on being a loner, Serhi had never properly exchanged a word with him.
Perhaps Tae-min had noticed Serhi as well, because he furrowed his brow.
“You see that?”
Serhi answered sarcastically as he chewed his gum noisily.
“You know what? I’m blind.”
“Quit being a smartass. I know you speak Korean well, you bastard. Isn’t it ridiculous that you can’t say a single word in Korean but your listening is fluent?”
“Hm.” Serhi blew a bubble with his gum.
Serhi had adopted the persona of a foreigner who couldn’t speak Korean, and used only English at school.
“So?”
“You pretentious chuunibyou bastard.”
Yeah, whatever.
Serhi had already earned a reputation as a chuunibyou at the company, so the remark barely affected him.
“You’re strong, right? That’s why you’re at Hyeonak.”
“Fucking I don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Forget it, you piece of shit.”
Faced with Serhi’s formidable loner energy, Tae-min ground his teeth.
At that moment, unstable mana rippled from Tae-min once again.
Perhaps afraid Serhi would find it suspicious, Tae-min hurriedly left the restroom.
Serhi narrowed his eyes as he watched him go. There was something dangerous about that kid.
‘A mana-stone item?’
It looked to be high-grade, but perhaps the maker had been mediocre……
There were poorly made items in the world, too.
No matter how superior the materials were, an item’s utility inevitably varied depending on the craftsman who handled them.
No matter how good the materials, an item that ran wild at its own whim was practically useless.
Just like the earring Lee Tae-min was wearing now.
That was why the creator was more important than anything else.
Serhi recalled the earring that looked like black obsidian. It was clearly consuming the wearer’s stamina and continuously pumping mana into his body.
He had seen a few items like that in Gnosis.
After all, one of the easiest ways to raise one’s abilities was to use a high-grade item.
But something like that……
“That thing’s garbage.”
Irina had explained it that way.
They were items with berserker-like effects, artificially amplifying a large number of other stats in exchange for consuming stamina and the like. But almost no craftsmen could properly handle that mechanism, so they were generally nothing more than garbage.
Either they failed to produce satisfactory effects compared to what they consumed, or their grade was so high that they continued pumping power into the body until the wearer died.
Those were generally the two types, and the one Tae-min possessed seemed to be the latter.
It would be even more lethal to a sixteen-year-old whose body had yet to finish growing.
His vitality must be draining in real time even now.
‘Doesn’t his guild stop him from using something like that?’
From what Serhi had overheard, Tae-min belonged to a guild called ‘Chase.’
‘As far as I know, Hyeonak had an internal rule prohibiting the use of excessive items so people wouldn’t strain their bodies…….’
Before long, Serhi shook his head.
There were countless people who wanted to become stronger.
Na O-hyeong had been the same, as had the people who had gotten their hands on the suspicious medicine sold by Seon U-gyeong.
They yearned for something they couldn’t have, then convinced themselves that the foolish choice they made was the best one.
Lee Tae-min might end up being devoured by the item, too, but that had nothing to do with him.
It didn’t look like it was going to explode right away, so it shouldn’t cause Gru any harm.
But.
Why was that little kid over there?
*
Tae-min leaned back against the sofa.
Was his name Serhi? The girls gossiped about him so often that Tae-min knew his face very well.
A boy who was as sensitive as he was handsome, and who rejected other people to an extreme degree.
Tae-min was irritably opening and closing his eyes when something was thrust in front of him.
A twig and a fork.
A boy and a girl who looked about five years old were each holding out a twig and a fork, threatening him with them.
The beige, platinum-blonde girl spoke in an oddly distorted voice.
“If you do not hand over that earring, I shall stick this fork in you.”
“Bbi!”
The cry that followed came from atop the fork.
A plump white bird narrowed its eyes into crescent moons and, as if chiming in, pointed its wing feathers at him.
“……”
The girl poked the silent boy beside her.
The boy spoke as though he had no choice.
“I’ll do that too.”
The girl whispered.
“Beii doesn’t have a fork.”
“Uh…… I’ll stab you with this.”
“Hmph!”
The girl raised her eyebrows high, as if to say, ‘How about that?!’
Unable to believe the reality of being extorted by five-year-olds, Tae-min was rendered speechless.
“……”
The fork was thrust toward him again, this time even more threateningly.
“Hand it over.”