*
Geuru awakened in the middle of a toothbrushing lesson at kindergarten.
As the children stood huddled together in front of the mirror, brushing their teeth, a status window appeared before his eyes.
[To ensure smooth communication between the caster and the system, the caster’s cognitive abilities will now be adjusted.]
[Update 85% in progress…….]
Startled, Geuru opened his mouth wide, and the homeroom teacher watching him hurriedly wiped away the toothpaste and drool that came spilling out.
“Teachew, Geuru, there’s something weird in fwont of—”
He tried to say he could see something strange, but—
“Teachew!! I gotta poop!!”
“Teacheeeeeer— he’s gonna poop!!!”
“Teachew, Bini’s sleepy—”
The kindergarten homeroom teacher was far too busy a person for Geuru to consult about his situation.
Thanks to the system’s influence, Geuru had become rather smart, so he decided not to bother the teacher as she ran around busily.
Geuru was four years old this year. He was old enough to solve his own problems.
[Update complete.]
The update finished just as nap time was about to begin.
Lying down in his bedding, Geuru quietly stared at the status window.
[Opening system.]
‘Thump, thump.’
Geuru waited for the status window to open, his palms sweating.
Geuru knew at least that he had awakened.
After all, there wasn’t a single child in kindergarten who didn’t know about Awakened people, and there were plenty of friends who said they wanted to become Hunters when they grew up.
Geuru’s dream was not to become a Hunter, but Gudetama, so his dream hadn’t come true, but he had no complaints about gaining a job everyone admired.
[Skill unlocked]
[Crafting with a Broken System Engine (L): Oh no! The system engine is broken!]
Crafting: production
‘L?’
The alphabet Geuru had learned so far only went up to S. He had heard that S-rank was the highest for Hunters, too.
But the letter in front of him was L. Then where was that supposed to be?
‘A, B, C, D…….’
As he went back over the letters he had learned one by one, the system added an explanation at his eye level.
[Legend: One rank higher than S, meaning the highest grade.]
The system even kindly wrote down how to read it.
[Caster’s age confirmed.]
[Child protection system activated due to (unknown title).]
[Quest: A child needs a reliable guardian. Let us find a sound guardian.]
[Reward: Child Protection skill unlocked]
Looking at the quest window, Geuru opened his mouth wide.
Guardian? Mom? Dad? Those words drifted through his head.
As he blinked his sleepy eyes, fluffy clouds bloomed in his mind.
From the milky-white clouds, hands and feet popped out one after another, turning into two sheep.
The mommy sheep and daddy sheep pulled off bits of their own wool to make a tiny baby sheep, then hugged it tight.
‘Mom, Dad…….’
The reason he needed a guardian. It was probably because Geuru had no mom or dad.
Geuru had grown up in an orphanage since he was a newborn.
From what he had experienced so far, there were two ways for a child raised in an orphanage to be with a mom and dad.
First, being adopted into a new home.
But only a limited number of children could be adopted, and it wasn’t as if you could be adopted just because you wanted to be.
‘That won’t work.’
Second, their birth parents coming back to get them.
At the orphanage, there were sometimes children whose parents came to find them. They would cry, saying they had been so poor they had no choice but to abandon their child, and that they were sorry for only coming now.
‘Maybe Geuru’s mom and dad are like that too…….’
Maybe they were having a hard time right now and couldn’t come to get Geuru.
Geuru wiped away the tears that had welled up.
If Mom and Dad were too poor to come find Geuru, then there was only one conclusion.
‘Let’s make money!’
On TV, they said every day that Hunters made money.
Some programs even spent the whole time broadcasting how much Hunters earned and what kind of nice houses they lived in.
‘Geuru can do it too!’
If he became a Hunter and made lots of money, he would be able to live with Mom and Dad.
‘Hehe.’
Geuru smiled as he imagined happily living together with his mom and dad.
At the same time, he set a few rules first.
Keeping it a secret that Geuru was making money.
Good children sometimes received allowance from adults, but in the orphanage, children who had a lot were bound to have it taken away.
Especially the older girls and boys who had to leave the orphanage soon were even more obsessed with money because of their anxiety about life outside.
Remembering the time his allowance had been taken away, Geuru groaned softly.
‘Yeah, let’s make it a secret only Geuru knows.’
The fact that he had become a Hunter, and the fact that he was making money—everything!
Because of that, he had to receive as little help from others as possible.
Whew. Geuru let out a sigh of relief, thinking it was lucky he hadn’t told the kindergarten teacher.
And then—
“Geuru, what are you doing instead of sleeping?”
“Hic!”
It was the homeroom teacher.
Geuru pulled the blanket up to his neck and squeezed his eyes shut.
He had only meant to keep his eyes closed until the teacher left, but he could not overcome the hand patting his body.
His mind was growing hazy. Was the teacher perhaps Awakened too?
Struck by the powerful Sleepy-Sleepy skill (probably L-rank), Geuru soon drifted off into sleep.
*
After awakening, Geuru began gathering all kinds of information through the orphanage library, TV, and the internet.
Thanks to the system’s adjustments, he had become rather smart, so he did not forget what he learned, and he could easily study even difficult and complicated subjects.
Geuru opened his status window quite skillfully.
Name: Han Geuru
Level: LV. 1
Title: ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■ (Unavailable for viewing)
[Quest]
Top-priority quest: A child needs a reliable guardian!
[Passive Skill]
Crafting with a Broken System Engine (L): Oh no! The system engine is broken! (Helps the child exercise creativity and provides the first step toward excellent growth.)
[Active Skills]
Knead-Knead (F): Freely mix and combine things to make various toys.
Pluck It Right Out (D): Extract what properties each material possesses.
The Dungeon Is an Open Door (A): Open the door, go inside, and explore the dungeon.
At a glance, Geuru’s active skills were ordinary. They were merely the basic skills production-type Hunters possessed.
But there was something that made Geuru special, and that was his passive skill.
Geuru’s passive skill made it possible for him to extract and synthesize not only dungeon byproducts, but everything that existed in the world.
The very first thing Geuru extracted with “Pluck It Right Out” was a PoroX chewable vitamin.
[Activating skill “Pluck It Right Out.”]
When he cast extraction, it turned into a star-candy-shaped item and landed on his palm.
[You have obtained “Vitamin (F).”]
‘Oho.’
He couldn’t gauge how amazing it was, but for Geuru, it couldn’t have been a more optimal skill.
After all, Geuru was a kindergartener who couldn’t run dungeons and had no money to buy dungeon byproducts.
After that, he attempted various extractions and syntheses. As his proficiency rose accordingly, the rank of “Knead-Knead” rose to E.
Thanks to that, Geuru was able to make a few fairly fun toys.
Just as he was happily imagining what he should make this time, Geuru covered his mouth.
‘This isn’t the time!’
He shouldn’t be getting excited and playing—he had to make money!