Let’s make a new item!
……By the time she reached that conclusion, Geuru’s mind had been in chaos.
‘Geuru keeps getting scolded.’
At this rate, she wasn’t a dutiful daughter, just an undutiful one.
The more she sat in the thinking chair and quietly reflected, the more the desire to be praised—and the desire to be helpful—boiled up inside her.
And so Geuru made up her mind. She would prove that she wasn’t just a troublemaker!
When was the last time she’d received huge praise?
Geuru forced herself to shake off the memories of being scolded for this and scolded for that, and dragged up the memories of being praised.
‘The drone!’
That time when Geuru first made a drone and tested it with Gidan! She’d been praised, and she’d even been on the news.
‘They praised Geuru when she made fluffy cotton candy, too.’
New item = praise!
Geuru’s eyes sparkled.
Praise and filial piety required a new and amazing item!
She absolutely was not thinking of chasing fun.
‘And there’s somewhere to use it soon, too.’
Geuru took out her phone and searched for “exchange match.”
All sorts of articles were full of anticipation for the exchange match.
[The “Justitia Exchange Match” Opens Soon! Attention Focused on Selection of Korea’s Representatives!]
Justitia was an international private school foundation specializing in Awakeners, with campuses established and operated all over the world.
Thanks to that, it could regularly hold exchange matches with other countries.
And given Justitia’s nature as a gathering place for promising young Awakeners, the exchange match was practically a kind of national rookie tournament.
Because of that, public interest was enormous, to the point that it had even entered the ranks of national sports.
With its status that high, it was only natural that major guilds took turns coaching Justitia’s Korean representative team.
And this time, it was Hyeonak’s turn to coach the Korean team.
On top of that, there were a whopping three Hyeonak S-ranks attending Justitia!
Gidan, Serhi, Geuru!
As Geuru recalled the names, she drew an X over her own.
A whopping two!
So it was obvious that Gidan and Serhi would be chosen for the selected team!
Geuru clenched her fist tightly.
‘I’ll make an incredible item for my big brothers and get praised!’
Then Dad would be happy, too, right?
Just as Geuru was smiling at what she considered a perfect plan—
Jurim strode toward the study and said,
“Geuru, Dad has to go out, so stay home with Auntie.”
Geuru hopped down from the chair and headed to the entrance to see Jurim off.
“I’ll be back. Don’t cause trouble.”
“Okaaay. Come back quickly before Geuru falls asleep.”
Grinning brightly, Geuru clung to Jurim’s arm and used the filial piety skill “Geuru’s Hands Are Healing Hands.”
“Yeah, all right.”
Feeling his mana fill up, Jurim kissed Geuru on the cheek and straightened.
“Bye-bye!”
“Have a safe trip, Guildmaster.”
After waving to Geuru and bowing his head to Yeongran, Jurim hurried out of the house.
Bang, beep-beep—
As soon as the door closed, Geuru toddled quickly back to the study and stood before the workbench.
Snap! Snap! She put on gloves and goggles.
After equipping all her safety gear, Geuru took all the Critato Reactors out of her inventory and lined them up in front of her.
Then she lowered her gaze.
She would make a new item using the Critato Reactor!
Mana stones were the foundation of all items, and the higher the output, the greater the item’s effect would naturally be.
‘But the highest grade Geuru can make is still C-rank.’
Even at C-rank, its efficiency far surpassed existing high-grade mana stones, but—
‘It’s not enough.’
It would have to be an S-rank seed potato to receive sensational praise.
Geuru rubbed her chin.
The grade was rising little by little, but repeatedly planting and growing them was terribly inefficient.
Because she had to wait such a long time.
And even after waiting, improvement didn’t always succeed.
But what if she used the oven to inject filial piety points directly?
Wouldn’t improving the seed potato be possible?
‘I’ll know if I try!’
Geuru put a pitch-black C-rank seed potato inside and turned the oven dial.
She decided to go big and put in around 100,000 filial piety points.
Wooong—
As the oven began running, the black seed potato started heating up.
Thump, thump.
Geuru watched the seed potato baking inside the oven with shining eyes.
Ding!
And at last, the moment she opened the oven—
Poot!
With a sound like a potato farting, potato juice splattered all over her goggles.
Baked potato batter dripped down over the round cheeks sticking out beneath the goggles.
“…….”
Geuru wiped her face with her gloved hand.
[Seed Potato with Exploded Filial Piety (F)]
‘Failure……!’
Geuru opened the application and scanned the exploded potato.
Soon, a 3D blueprint appeared on the screen.
But the part highlighted on the blueprint wasn’t the reactor in the center, but the potato skin wrapped around it.
When she pressed the skin, a window opened.
Seed Potato Skin (☠) → When synthesized with a higher-grade item, it can increase hardness and raise the reactor’s efficiency.
Below that, information about items that could be synthesized with it was written as well.
[Bones, horns, tusks, etc., of A-rank or higher plant-type monsters…….]
Geuru stared intently at her phone and tilted her head with a hum.
Byproducts of A-rank or higher weren’t easy to buy. Usually, you had to attend an auction.
Of course, a famous guild would have its own distribution channels.
Geuru imagined pestering her dad to buy this and that so she could make an item, then coldly rolled her eyes to the side.
‘No fun…….’
She wanted it to be a surprise.
Geuru wanted to see Dad’s eyes go wide in amazement as he asked when she’d made something like this.
The more surprised he was, the more thrilling the praise would be!
Geuru crossed her arms.
‘Then do I have to go to a dungeon?’
Now that she knew conquering an unregistered dungeon was a crime, she couldn’t just go to any dungeon she wanted…….
Geuru toddled over to the study desk and turned on Jurim’s laptop.
If she had to go through proper procedures?
‘I can go with the guild members!’
In large guilds, they often recruited applicants through the company homepage and temporarily formed teams to proceed with dungeon conquests.
[Recruiting Temporary Team Members for Dungeon Conquest]
Geuru checked a post that had just gone up and downloaded the application form.
The form was simple, so she was able to fill in the blanks without much difficulty.
Name: On Geuru
Rank: F
Department: Parachute
Desired position:
Then she got stuck on the final question.
When Geuru narrowed her eyes, Mephi beside her also tilted his head and stared at the screen with her.
What did “desired position” mean?
‘Desire…… future desire…….’
Future desire = dream
With her fluffy association method, the answer was quickly derived.
‘Geuru’s dream is……!’
Geuru wrote “Supreme Ruler” under “desired position” and looked proudly at Mephisto.
Mephisto clapped as if to say she had done well.
Giggling, Geuru sent the completed application.
And it hadn’t even been thirty minutes before she received a rejection email.
‘Instant rejection?!’
After that, she tried applying three or four more times, but…….
‘Rejected.’
‘Rejected again…….’
Geuru burst into the living room, huffing angrily as she tightened her grip on the phone in her hand.
“Rejected!”
Thud! Geuru collapsed onto the sofa as if falling over.
Why wouldn’t anyone take her?
Geuru had merely wanted to formally participate in a dungeon conquest.
‘Could this be…….’
Did it mean no one needed Geuru?
Having reached a dark conclusion, Geuru sprang up and hung her head.
How disappointing.
Geuru had only wanted to be helpful to the guild, to the world.
“Mephi, Beii…….”
“Pii?”
Mephisto perked his head, and Beilak, who had been watching TV, looked back as if annoyed.
“Geuru wanted to live good…….”
“Pip-pip!”
“……?”
“But the world wouldn’t let her.”
Geuru looked up at Mephisto and Beilak with a sullen face.
Then she stomped back into the study.
Beilak followed the back of his master, who was radiating a dark aura, with his eyes, then picked at his ear and asked Mephisto,
“Why’d she suddenly turn dark?”
Mephisto widened his eyes and covered his left eye with a wing.
“Pip.” (The world refused to accept us.)
A question mark rose above Beilak’s head.