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Chapter 137
[The ‘Shepherd Boy’ is curious about your intent.]
He was giving me the most respect a Guardian could express, as far as I knew. He didn’t get mad, nor did he browbeat me into coughing up the Red Eyes.
Apparently, it wasn’t all that difficult for a powerless Player to garner respect from a Guardian. The profit I could take away from this situation would change depending on my actions and attitude.
“I would like to look at the Red Eyes not as a simple quest item, but as an item to be traded.”
C’mon, Senia. Don’t be so anxious. And stop quivering your wings already. I knew the Shepherd Boy was a pretty big name, but my Play was justified, wasn’t breaking the rules, and wasn’t impudent.
[The ‘Shepherd Boy’ defers the quest completion.]
[The ‘Shepherd Boy’ sets the quest time limit to 999 years.]
Oho.
‘So this is how you want to do things?’
It could be that the Shepherd Boy already knew that I didn’t need the Red Eyes.
‘He’s pretending to be magnanimous in front of the other Guardians. Unconcerned.’
And yet, he wanted the Red Eyes. He just set the quest time limit to 999 years in order to avoid showing it.
‘If he didn’t need the Red Eyes
’
Being that the situation was one that might incur the Shepherd Boy’s ire, he would have canceled the quest. The fact that he only changed the time limit told me that this Guardian needed the Red Eyes.
“Thank you for kindly giving me plenty of time to think.”
For now, the trade with the Shepherd Boy was a bust. To be honest, I thought I’d be able to make off with a big profit here, but it didn’t look like it was going to be that easy.
‘In any case, I’m the one holding the knife.’
And this was just my gut feeling, but it was possible
 that I really did need the Red Eyes.
I didn’t know yet. I just had the niggling feeling that these Red Eyes might one day become something I really needed.
‘So now
’
With the Shepherd Boy taking a step back, the Silvanus Tome I thought I might be able to get if I manipulated him nicely slipped out of my grasp, at least for now.
I asked Senia, “If I break the Brown Clear Crystal, how will that affect the Early Adopter scenario? Will it be recognized as a clear?”
Senia’s wings trembled. This angel had it rough. She somehow ended up meeting me and was consigned to a fate of constant wing trembling. How many times had they trembled so far? A hundred?
“Please wait one moment,” she said. Shortly after, she gave me a respectful apology. “I was unable to find out.”
I could sense the words she left unsaid. ‘Obviously because I thought it would be a normal clear’. She clearly thought I would naturally be able to clear this place no problem and leave, but I wasn’t Superman.
A little time passed. I heard a machine-like voice coming from Senia’s mouth. Her eyes were completely white.
[Scenario searching.]
[Early Adopter is a sub-scenario.]
[It does not have a big influence on the overall scenario.]
[The clear can be decided by the authority of the Intermediate Administrator.]
After saying that, Senia’s eyes returned to normal.
“I can decide by my authority.”
“That so?” I hummed. “It’ll be hard to get the System to recognize this as a perfect clear. I only cleared the Gyeonghoeru field, not the entire Gwanghwamun Dungeon.”
“Yes. Player Kim Hyukjin’s words are very accurate.”
Senia nodded. She had realized it, too. The System was evaluating Senia’s ability as an Intermediate Administrator. She had indeed grown more perceptive.
‘If she recognized this as a perfect clear on account of her close relationship with me
 The System would begin to doubt Senia’s qualifications.’
The amusing thing was that this sort of ‘evaluation’ was supposed to happen when Players were above level 40, in the ‘mid-game’. The [System evaluation of Streamers] was happening far ahead of schedule.
‘Senia has picked up on it, too.’
She and I were thinking the same thing.
“I will recognize the clear. However, it will be a partial clear and the grade of the rewards will be reduced.”
I heard a notice.
[‘Early Adopter - ver. Gwanghwamun Dungeon’ has been partially cleared.]
[The partial clear of ‘Early Adopter - ver. Gwanghwamun Dungeon’ will bring the scenario to an end.]
The scenario was concluded. That meant the road to earn the full rewards for this scenario was permanently closed off. I would get a reduced reward in exchange.
[Distributing rewards for the partial clear of ‘Early Adopter - ver. Gwanghwamun Dungeon’.]
[‘Ancient Crown’ received.]
I got a single item. It didn’t come with much explanation to speak of.
[Ancient Crown]
A crown symbolizing the authority of a king. Though it is made of glittering gold, the passing of many years has greatly aged the relic.
Either I couldn’t read the complete description with my current abilities, or it wasn’t anything special.
‘Not bad.’
The unexpected boon was Observer’s Eye going up in proficiency, through which I acquired an extremely useful card, Unique Ability Fusion. I also still had the Red Eyes.
‘Though I didn’t get much from the other Guardians
’
Things couldn’t always go my way.
‘This is already a win.’ I decided to think positive. ‘I’ve confirmed that I can make the Guardians move as I wish. That’s enough.’
I destroyed the Brown Clear Crystal and was ported out of the Gwanghwamun Dungeon.
* * *
I got back home.
“What are you
 doing?”
Sunhwa was short. She hadn’t finished growing yet. Even the not-very-high sink was high for her.
“What do you think? I’m pretty, right?” she boasted. “Oh, right. Before you went into the Gwanghwamun Dungeon, I did everything you asked me to do! I wasn’t just playing the whole time, okay?! I did everything I was supposed to do, and even did all my school homework already. I only did this afterwards. Oh, and I even got praised by the teacher for being good at math today.”
“...”
“Oh, right. You didn’t answer me. I’m pretty, right? Right? I am, right?”
She was just in a scruffy t-shirt and shorts. But on top of that was an apron with a bunny on it.
As I stood there, I wondered what to praise as pretty to avoid hurting her feelings when all I could see was a kid rather than a woman. By my standards, being pretty and being cute were two completely different things. Though, well, it kind of felt like I was looking at my niece rather than my little sister.
“Uh
 Very cute.”
Thankfully, Sunhwa was fully absorbed in the act of making fried chicken, so she didn’t pay much attention to my response.
“So you’re saying
 you’re not satisfied with restaurant-bought fried chicken, so you’re making it yourself?”
“Yes!”
She went on to say she learned the method somewhere. In any case, she was extremely excited. The prospect of delicious chicken made her genuinely happy.
State: Genuine Happiness
Summary: Fried Chicken-Loving Brocon
I did think it was good that she could derive such happiness from such a small thing. The summary was still as strange as ever.
“Darong. Tongs,” Sunhwa said with familiar ease.
To my amusement, Darongi was actively cooperating with her. He scampered towards her lugging tongs far bigger than his body on his back. He could use his Inventory, but nope. He was clearly a clever idiot.
“Oppa. Just wait a little. I’ll make some super delicious fried chicken.”
“...Okay, do your best.”
For some reason, I didn’t feel much anticipation. When I observed the mess in the kitchen with Observer’s Eye, it looked like there was zero chance that delicious fried chicken would be the result. Sorry, but that was the result of my observation. I still decided not to cruelly crush my little sister’s dream.
“I’ll go wash up.”
Sunhwa was so focused on fried chicken making that she didn’t even hear me. On the way to the bathroom, I made an order at the fried chicken restaurant.
Unfortunately, my Observer eyes told me very clearly that Sunhwa’s fried chicken wouldn’t be tasty. She was definitely producing something more
 special. I ordered out in advance so that I could just tell her to eat the restaurant chicken and not be too disappointed.
I turned on the hot water. It poured out in a steamy deluge. This, too, was a novel luxury. When we were living partially underground, we rarely turned on the hot water to save on heating fees. The feeling of being able to simply entrust my body to the heat without worrying about the cost was amazing.
‘Home.’
This home, I wanted to protect.
‘Why did the Centipede Cave open in the central park in front of our house?’
It was the ‘same’ gate as the one on Plum Blossom Island. I hadn’t found the reason yet. It was a puzzle I still hadn’t solved.
That was an event from the past. The most imminent event from the future I knew was the official opening of the Gwanghwamun Dungeon.
‘The Gwanghwamun Dungeon is going to open properly soon.’
What I experienced was an ‘Open Beta’.
‘Inside the Gwanghwamun Dungeon, in the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion, we need to grind to level 40.’
There, the big question would be decided once and for all. Was I an early bloomer Player, or a real genius capable of continuous growth?
‘It was easier than I thought.’
I managed the fight more easily thanks to Isabel’s innate authority. My Absorption ability and 8 HP absorption rings also played a big role. Because my preparations were so complete, clearing the Gyeonghoeru was extremely easy. The actual difficulty I experienced was far lower than what I imagined.
‘I’ll be able to pull it off no problem with the others, too.’
At that time, I could maintain the ‘Observer’ position and maximize our EXP gain. We would hit level 40 faster than anyone else and reach the mid-game. The ‘scenarios’ would start getting a bit more diverse from there onwards.
I finished washing up. Sure enough, Sunhwa’s fried chicken wasn’t tasty.
“That’s weird. I thought it would be tasty.”
Darongi was being a Karen. He stomped his feet, clearly saying, ‘Hand over the tasty chicken right this instant!’ Thankfully, the chicken I ordered was delivered just in time.
Sunhwa and Darongi satisfied their fried chicken desire with the box I ordered. I had two chickens delivered, but the two of them polished it all off.
“You done?”
Sunhwa and Darongi nodded vigorously. It was hard to tell which one was the human and which one was the squirrel.
“We’re gonna have a short meeting, so call all the others.”
“Got it.”
We really needed an office somewhere. It would also be good to have an official guild name. You could call it preparation for the mid-game.
For now, we met at the Players Association. I also had something to tell Song Kiyeol, so that was the ideal meeting place. We were definitely not meeting there because we didn’t have an office yet.
So Yoohyun. Choi Sung-gu. Jo Sunghyun. Shin Yeonseo. Kim Sunhwa. And me.
Typically, parties were made up of six Players.
‘For the beginner period
 this roster is more than good enough.’
If we were short anywhere, we could just enlist the cooperation of Taeguk Shield. But for now, this was the perfect composition for me to maximize efficiency while playing the sovereign role.
‘Though it would be helpful if we had Ahn Seohye’s barrier, if possible.’
It was too early for that. Seohye needed a lot of time to put up her barrier.
We borrowed a meeting room on the 3rd floor of the Player Center.
“We’re going to discuss the Gwanghwamun Dungeon.”
“Huh? How do you know about it, boss?”
“I’ve already been there.”
“Seriously? No way, you soloed it?”
Yeonseo’s eyes went wide. Sung-gu shook his head.
“Now he’s just soloing dungeons, huh? Is he even human? Hah, I hate this guy.”
I ignored Sung-gu’s nonsense and continued explaining. We wouldn’t clear the whole Gwanghwamun Dungeon. Our plan was just to grind and reach level 40 as quickly as possible.
Sunghyun hesitantly spoke up. “But Hyung.”
“Hm?”
Yoohyun was shouting, “Long live Hyungnim!”, and Sung-gu was loudly complaining. Yeonseo’s eyes were sparkling as she said, “This’ll be fun”, and Sunhwa was looking forward to the dungeon along with Yeonseo.
‘As expected. I knew Sunghyun would express his doubts.’
He was indeed the Typhoon I remembered. He was capable of calmly and quietly assessing the situation.
“Is our only goal
 to level up?”
Sung-gu flinched at that. “What the, is there some kind of hidden trap or something?”
I gazed at Sunghyun with eyes of slight satisfaction. He was still just a high schooler. Our future Typhoon was growing very nicely.
“No, it’s not. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have picked this place to meet.”
Of course, there was the teensy matter of not having our own office, but anyway, that wasn’t the whole reason. Really.
Sung-gu asked, “Eh? Weren’t we meeting here because we didn’t have an office?”
“...No.”
Sunghyun glared daggers at Sung-gu. “Can you please shut up for a moment, Hyung? Hyukjin hyung is talking.”
“Oi. You wanna go for real?”
“That’s exactly what I wanted.”
“Oi. You were like pissing yourself in fear in front of my Flame Whip last time. Don’t you remember?”
“You could make a living off writing novels.”
These two were squabbling more and more as time passed, it seemed. Well, it didn’t matter. As soon as the raid began, they were the ultimate combo anyway.
“In any case, the goal isn’t just to level up.”
Super fast leveling and hitting the mid-game were naturally big goals, but we had another goal in addition to those.
“Our other goal
”
From here on out, we had to adapt to the new culture age with yet another method.
Just then, there was a knock, and I shrugged.
“...is this.”
I had long since sensed the presence behind the door with Eye of Perception, and timed my words perfectly.
“Please come in.”
Someone entered the meeting room. Sunhwa had relayed the invitation nicely. Yoohyun and Sung-gu’s eyes widened.
“Th-That person is
!”
Yeonseo cocked her head. “What? Who is he? Do you know him too, Boss?”
Of course I did. If he didn’t show up here, I would have gone to meet him.
I greeted him first.
“It’s been a while, sir.”
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