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The more satisfied the guests are, the stronger I become
200% increase in stamina?
This was no different from the effect of eating an intermediate vitality potion.
Han Woohyun stared at Junghyo’s dark eyes as if he were being sucked in, with a mysterious expression in front of it.
It seems he knows a little bit now.
That expression—.
“….So there is something. This food.”
Junghyo put down her chopsticks with a slightly embarrassed face.
Junghyo’s expression doesn’t change very well.
However, there were times when facial muscles or eyes showed emotions. It was only when Junghyo wanted to reveal it.
“Is it because my class is the hotel management? I often get a bit of strange quests… It’s kind of a quest to treat you to a meal today?”
A quest of serving a meal?
“Then do you serve meals to these hotel guests, and you become strong every time you do that?”
“It’s a little strange, but sometimes it does.”
Junghyo nodded.
“The more satisfied the hotel guests are, the stronger I become.”
What a strange thing to say.
Hunters’ abilities are generally evaluated numerically.
What a high-grade dungeon they can get into, how many monsters they can catch, and what a good item they have.
In such a hunter’s world, there is a person who is strengthened by the subjective concept of ‘satisfaction.’
Han Woohyun somehow understood the strange words at once.
If that’s Junghyo.
“It suits you.”
Junghyo’s eyebrows went up.
Her eyes were shaking in a way that was not like Junghyo’s.
“I’ve never thought that much. I don’t have the talent to make others laugh. I’m not good at talking.”
“You know what people need, whether it is for you. Or not. There is no better skill than making that person realize that.”
“…Is that so?”
Junghyo tilted her head and raised her chopsticks again.
Six years ago, when he graduated from high school, he thought he would never see Junghyo again.
In fact, it was a life without any leisure at all.
His life changed completely when he suddenly signed a contract with the Baekho Guild in his senior year of high school.
Han Woohyun made a pretty successful debut in the dungeon he entered and cleared his S-Class dungeon solo at 20.
He became the strongest hunter in Korea, and many things changed.
What changed the most was the relationship with the family.
Until the first year of high school, his uncle ruled the family like a tyrant.
On the outside, he was a kind and friendly office worker, but when he got home, he yelled and cursed for three hours because no one was there to greet him. He threw things at his aunt, Jinsoo, and himself and acted badly.
He even kicked them out naked, saying that he would punish them.
Then, Aunt took off Jinsoo and Woohyun’s clothes one by one and hugged them tightly.
‘Sorry… I’m sorry…’
Blood flowed from the head that had been hit on behalf of Woohyun.
At such times, Aunt would act as a windbreak protecting the weak souls of Woohyun and Jinsoo.
Woohyun felt an infinite sense of responsibility in Aunt’s care.
He felt the same responsibility she felt.
One day when he becomes an adult and has the strength, he will let her out of this life.
This time, he will save her, just like when she took the 6-year-old boy from the orphanage after his parents died.
However, that relationship changed when Han Woohyun awakened.
To be precise, it was from the day Woohyun bent the broken hanger that his uncle had been wielding as a weapon with one hand.
The man who always looked like a mountain to Woohyun shrank like a deflated balloon instantly.
Unable to comprehend his overflowing emotions, Woohyun caught a glimpse of his most intense emotions for the first time that day.
Fear, anxiety, horror.
And the next day, Woohyun received an awakening test.
The grade is S-Class.
For the next two years, his uncle was quiet.
He became as obedient as a dog with a muzzle on, and sometimes he even pretended to be a good father by buying a whole chicken on the way home from work.
When the four family members were sitting around the table and eating, Woohyun sometimes felt the eyes of the other three staring at him.
It was a precarious peace.
That peace was broken again in the third year of high school.
He had reached the legal age to sign a contract with the guild.
When that time came, it was funny that his aunt, not his uncle, was the first to change.
The aunt who once hugged him more warmly than anyone else.
‘If I hadn’t brought you from the orphanage, that person wouldn’t have changed like that. Jinsoo would have enjoyed life more than he does now. You should know because you are grown up now. ‘We’ gave up so many things because of you.’
He was not part of the “us” she was talking about.
Even his uncle’s violence and poverty caused by his business failure were all because of Woohyun.
‘You… Aren’t you sorry for me? You’ve seen it. Knowing how I endured, can’t you do something like this for us?’
Looking at his aunt’s shiny eyes, Woohyun felt he could never return to the moment when ‘we’ were ‘us’ again.
Could the enormous down payment offered by Baekho Guild have changed her?
Or was the reality too harsh?
No. That might be why she’s changed like that.
‘You have a debt to pay back to ‘us.’ What you’re doing is a national loss. That you’re not doing your part. You’re ignoring the people who need you.’
Because he became stronger.
As his aunt said, he suddenly became strong and couldn’t do his part with that power.
So he was left alone.
But no matter how much money he made, it wasn’t enough to do his part.
Aunt and Jinsoo were very wasteful, and his uncle sometimes had big accidents.
He almost went to prison three times, and each time Woohyun risked his life to go on a raid and make up for all the money.
It was an astronomical amount, but no matter how much money he poured, they never returned the ‘us.’
Even if they seem to accept him as a family member for a moment, if they are not saved in a crisis, he is seen as a person who “cannot do his part.”
Then again, he had to go on a dangerous raid that the Baekho Guild said.
He was so used to it that he didn’t even feel tedious.
He seemed to be able to portray the rest of his life as if he were watching an obvious movie.
He will live with the self he can’t even love.
No, rather than living, he will die little by little.
As he thought so, his uncle had another big accident.
He remembers that day very vividly.
It was Han Woohyun’s birthday that day, and the family of four was promised to have a meal.
But suddenly, his Aunt and Jinsoo, who came out to dinner, delivered the news that numerous complaints had been sent to his uncle, who had committed a fraud of 20 billion units.
‘This is a birthday present…’
The Aunt looked at Woohyun, gave him a birthday present, cried for a long time, and pressed him repeatedly.
Even though Woohyun didn’t have a car.
Woohyun remembered seeing the same diffuser in Jinsoo’s car the other day.
He silently sliced and chewed the steak in front of his aunt, whose eyes turned red and poured out words of resentment.
The expensive meat was rubbery in the mouth.
He naturally thought of the Death Valley Raid, which the Baekho Guild had recently suggested.
Officials used to say this about the Death Valley Raid.
An unstable S-Class dungeon.
A dungeon where the final boss continues to change even after clearing it.
It’s just suicide to jump into Death Valley, where a hunter who died after jumping in only for money is a truck.
However, he took the word very gladly with his birthday present in front of him.
That wouldn’t be too bad, either.
Han Woohyun thought so.
It might be better to end his life like a thunderbolt than to die slowly.
‘Because leaving work is precious… So… I have to come back. To home.’
Around that time, he met Junghyo.
At the Hunter Association President’s house, she looked up to Woohyun with a face no different from five years ago.
A lonely and hopeless face like Woohyun’s, but unlike Woohyun, she has no intention of relieving that loneliness from someone else.
A face that is scary because there is no expectation in the world, but it is still hard and even admirable.
When he saw that face, he realized.
That I still remember your name.
There was a time when I was restless looking at your dark eyes, nervous all the time for a chance to call out your passing name, expecting something from it.
That there was a reason… for wanting to come back from the dungeon.
Remembering that fact was what he needed most at the time.
Woohyun rejected the Death Valley Raid.
His Aunt and Jinsoo came to the house every day, but he didn’t open the door.
He got a new cell phone and moved to a new house.
There was no need for the doorbell to ring every day in an apartment with a stronger security system.
Tens of billions of settlement money, which would normally have gone to his uncle, was spent on terminating the contract with the Baekho Guild.
After that, he no longer went on dangerous raids.
Working with reliable colleagues, he worked moderately, went home moderately, lived moderately, and took moderate care of himself.
He sat in a daze in his new house and looked down at the Han River.
When he got home, took a shower, and sat on the couch, he could forget the times when he was very lonely and when he had to hug his aunt and Jinsoo while leaning against the cold wall and feeling a lot of responsibility.
Moderately lonely moments followed.
He still missed the feeling of being so close to someone that it hurt, but when that feeling came back, Woohyun didn’t think about his aunt or Jinsoo.
Woohyun remembered Junghyo.
In order not to enter the abyss again.
He keeps thinking about her name like a habit.
Even though he was saved from the abyss, he was still a mess. He kept thinking of the person he shouldn’t have dreamed about.
How crazy she will be when she finds out about this.
If a passing remark saved his life.
Then…they won’t be able to sit down and eat together like this.
Han Woohyun looked up at Junghyo, who removed the empty plate in front of him and served warm rice, some side dishes, and seaweed soup.
There was a proper distance between him and her now.
Protecting this was the most important thing now.
Junghyo went back to sit on the other side, and she stared at Woohyun.
He lifted his spoon, suddenly realizing he had been looking at her for too long.
Yeah, she said it was a quest.
Then it will be good for her if he enjoys this food.
Han Woohyun liked the fact that his satisfaction correlated with her becoming stronger.
Because of that, he became what she needed.
He was willing to be used more and more.
It would be nice if he could be used more fully.
So I hope you need me.
It would be nice if you wanted to keep me by your side even at this distance.
Han Woohyun put his spoon into the seaweed soup and tried to sort out the many thoughts that were tangled up in his head.
Then Junghyo said.
“Happy birthday, Woohyun-ah.”
He raised his head. After hearing that, he just stared at her stupidly for a moment.
Birthday? Whose birthday is it…?
He had no idea what day it was until he heard the next word.
“There’s still a little time left until your birthday… but it’s a relief. Because I can be the first to congratulate you. I hope you had the happiest birthday than anyone else.”
The moment he heard those words, it became difficult for him to control his heart any longer.
It’s not that you need me, but I need you.
He lowered his head with a flushed face and ate seaweed soup.
It tasted completely different from the chewy meat he ate around this time last year.
She said, ‘I hope you had the happiest birthday than anyone else’. And he already has.
“…It’s delicious.”
Han Woohyun said sincerely and raised his head.
At that moment, a window appeared in front of Junghyo’s eyes.
The characteristics of ‘Ultimate Recipe— Abalone Seaweed Soup’ meet ‘Customer Satisfaction Service’ and achieve 1,000% satisfaction.
10,000G is given for exceeding 1,000% satisfaction.
Junghyo hid the admiration that almost leaked out when she saw the word ‘10,000G’.
Han Woohyun was still quietly eating in front of her.
‘I can’t show excitement over money in front of guests!’
However, her hands were shaking slightly because of the 100 million won.