BRH 36
by Sorai“Wait a minute. Then my photos…?”
Ha Do-heon’s face, recalling the request he’d made, turned as white as colored porcelain. He ended up collapsing to the side. Are my two balls still circulating on the internet, and I can’t erase them forever? It was absurd how his stomachache, which had been fine until a moment ago, suddenly flared up again. As he clutched his stomach and groaned, Lime hurriedly approached and patted his back worriedly.
“No… Lime, this is… an incurable disease called a mental illness…”
“Bullshit, bullshit. He’s acting pathetic like that. Where’s the dignity, damn it!”
Mut, who was sitting with his head propped up, watching Ha Do-heon’s antics, sneered at his pathetic behavior. Ren was just floating around, busy watching a drama. It happened to be the scene where the male lead was confessing to the female lead, and Ren’s cheeks were flushed red.
“Confess! Confess! Kiss! Kyaa!”
“Hey, let’s watch a variety show. There are crime scene videos. Give me the remote.”
“Ugh, get lost. Mut only watches crime shows. You crazy, insensitive Mut with no emotion or mood!”
“Oh, I’m insensitive. If it’s about strength! I! Win! Okay, crime show.”
“Noooo!”
A shriek that would have burst the eardrums of an ordinary person echoed through every corner of the apartment. Tomorrow, complaints would be flooding in. Ha Do-heon leaned his shoulder against the wall and smiled softly. As he closed his eyes with a gentle smile that seemed as if he would Ascend at any moment, the rampaging microorganisms disappeared from his sight.
…To think I was trying to prevent future crises with these guys. I still have a long way to go. I need to be more alert in the future… Ah, I suddenly feel like crying.
Wiping away the streaming tears with the back of his hand, Ha Do-heon hugged the Slime that burrowed into his arms. The wriggling, bright yellow solid smiled with its mouth wide open. You’re the only one for me, Lime.
Ha Do-heon leaned his head against the wall and blinked slowly. The figure, presumed to be a high school girl, he had encountered earlier as a Figuration flickered before his eyes. Golden eyes shining yellow from inside the Goblin mask. Curved horns sprouting from between the fine, black straight hair.
He searched his mind, but as expected… he remembered nothing at all. Ha Do-heon let out a soft breath and ran his calloused hand down the back of his neck.
Who was she? The being who was with Ha Do-heon at his end.
The space of empty memories. At this moment, he missed it and regretted it unbearably. It was as if one side of his chest was wide open, letting in a fierce wind.
He belatedly realized that the holes in his memory were not just one. It was like dozens of holes drilled into the surface of a round moon, or as many forgotten things as the number of monsters Ha Do-heon had slain.
If someone were to ask Ha Do-heon what he needed right now, he would say “information” without hesitation. Now that the contact with the Goblin had fallen through, the ways Ha Do-heon could gather information were limited.
However, it wasn’t as if there was no easy and quick way to get information. He had to go out and run around himself.
So, Ha Do-heon took Lime, who could distinguish lies, with him and searched for information pouring out of people’s mouths.
And as far as Ha Do-heon knew, there was no place like Hoehyeon-dong. Among them, the ‘Morning Star Cafe’, which was crowded with people 24 hours a day, was perfect.
“Here, give me one dumpling!”
“Excuse me, I’ll have Jajangmyeon!”
“Two orders of sweet and sour chicken for table number 3, please. Oh, and beer too!”
On Wednesday, the busiest day of the week, the cafe at lunchtime was so busy that most markets couldn’t even compare. People’s voices were as loud as pterodactyls, and they raised their hands like toothpicks here and there, shouting out their orders with voices trained in diaphragmatic breathing.
The call bells attached to the tables had long become decorations. Why? Because they had to come even if you pressed the bell.
Anyway, the lunchtime business at Morning Star Cafe was a competition of who had the loudest voice, who raised their hand the highest and fastest, and who ordered the simplest food.
And here, Ha Do-heon was skillfully darting between the Hunters sitting side by side like bean sprouts, delivering food.
In other words, Ha Do-heon was currently working part-time.
If you ask why it turned out this way, it was necessary to go back about fifteen days to explain his situation.
[Part-time job wanted (Full-time possible/Full-time preferred/Accommodation provided/Bonus provided)]
About fifteen days ago, Ha Do-heon was loitering in front of the Yakum Dungeon to find a job when he luckily spotted a flyer posted on the door of the Morning Star Cafe. It was, so to speak, a moment like fate.
‘Is this a revelation?’
The Hunter Management Bureau was thoroughly searching the area for Unregistered Beings, and a crazy perverted Goblin kept telling Ha Do-heon to watch his back, and thanks to Hoo Eui-sung, who suspected his identity, doing anything related to the Dungeon for the time being was like scoring an own goal.
Moving now was utterly absurd.
But Ha Do-heon was a penniless orphan who couldn’t make a living without working. He had to pay the apartment rent, and he also had a strong sense of duty to feed the gluttonous trio who peeked into the refrigerator every morning.
In this situation, the job posting at Morning Star Cafe was like a benefactor who grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled him out of the water.
He even thought that the rejections he had received so far were the driving force for today.
Ha Do-heon headed straight to the cafe without hesitation and confidently pointed to the job posting. The part-time employee looked back and forth between Ha Do-heon and the job posting, then beamed and immediately ran into the kitchen.
Soon after, the owner of the cafe came out in a hurry and led Ha Do-heon to a private room on the second floor, and the interview proceeded quickly.
“You’re hired!”
“…Yes?”
I haven’t even done anything yet? The owner even notified him of his acceptance as soon as Ha Do-heon sat down in the chair. The owner’s eyes, with his arms crossed leisurely, flashed a fierce look, saying there would be no turning back. In the midst of the awkward atmosphere, the owner cleared his throat and scratched his head awkwardly, which was covered with a headscarf.
The owner of Morning Star Cafe was a famous person, but the interview was the first time Ha Do-heon had seen him in person.
He was a simple young man with long hair braided down. Five cubic zirconia-studded hairpins were inserted across his temples, as if to fix the headscarf in place. In the old days, people would have said, “What’s a man doing with long hair?” but in the 21st century, the age of great Hunters, where individuality was overflowing to the point of bursting, there were tons of guys walking around the streets dressed in fantasy cosplay.
The owner’s appearance happened to be pretty, and the hairpins suited him so well that they were admirable. Anyway, the world was full of open-minded thinking, so it was pointless to talk about the owner’s taste.
“Ha Do-heon, ahem… I really want you to work at our store. I’m in danger of closing down because I don’t have enough staff right now. Because of those damn Hunters outside.”
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
“Part-time is good, but full-time is even better? I’ll take care of your room and board, so you’re hired! Uh, let’s get hired!”
The owner shouted “You’re hired!” in a loud voice and grabbed Ha Do-heon’s hand. He was smaller than Ha Do-heon, but his hands were much bigger. Ha Do-heon nodded diligently as well. Of course, that’s what I’m here for.
And so, from that day on, Ha Do-heon was in charge of serving in the first-floor restaurant of Morning Star Cafe from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., 7 hours a day including breaks. There were a total of 3 employees working in the hall, and the part-timer who had spread Ha Do-heon’s confession attack to the world was nowhere to be seen.
He had been considering catching that guy and tearing him to pieces, but the part-timer seemed to have left on his own three days before Ha Do-heon started working.
“Oh, don’t even mention it. As soon as some Hunter came and swore at him, he threw his apron and ran out as if he had been waiting for it.”
“What about the owner? Did he just let it happen?”
“Would he? Everyone leaves without even lasting a week, so he completely lost it there. I heard he grabbed a ladle and chased all the Hunters out, saying he was going to close down.”
“With that personality, that’s… well, he held back a lot.”
“And then he cried his eyes out inside.”
“Tsk. Come on, let’s increase our sales.”
It was a complete madhouse. If you look at the core, Morning Star Cafe was indeed a place for information. Every time Ha Do-heon moved, fresh information he had never heard of poured out like a cornucopia.
“Hyungs, they still haven’t caught the Hunter who broke through the Yakum Dungeon Boss room. Does that make sense?”
“That was said to be an error a long time ago. Hey, just eat your food.”
“No, it’s not! My friend works at the Hunter Management Bureau, and they said they can’t catch him because he’s an Unregistered Being.”
“What? Two S-class Hunters were deployed, but they still can’t catch an Unregistered Being? Huh… is he an SS-class?”
“Oh? Maybe there’s a possibility?”
“Hey, does that mean Korea will be the first country to have an SS-class? The Hunter Management Bureau must be grinning from ear to ear.”
The conversation as they clinked glasses and chuckled clearly passed by Ha Do-heon’s ears. Not only heroic tales, but also recent gossip and mysterious incidents in the Dungeon with unclear origins were inflated and returned with limbs attached after circulating around the store several times in 10 minutes.
As a result, it was not easy to distinguish whether the source of the information was reliable. Of course, this was a separate story from Ha Do-heon.
Wriggle-.
‘It’s a lie? Damn it….’
Tingle-.
‘That’s true? Oh… that old man really struggled.’
This was because Lime, who had the ability to distinguish the truth, personally identified it. According to the information filtered out in this way, the Hunter Management Bureau had not yet grasped any clues about the Unregistered Beings Ren and Mut. This included Ha Do-heon, and when they couldn’t find any significant clues, they began to rack their brains in other directions.