“Whew. Finally got it.”
I unlocked the smartphone with a satisfied smile.
Thanks to the Active Skill Memory Search, I had been able to dredge up memories from the past. Without it, I might have had to factory-reset the phone.
“Let’s see. My remaining balance is…”
It was a pathetically small amount, but I still breathed a sigh of relief.
“Th-Thank goodness.”
I had enough money left for a single packet of spicy mixed noodles. I couldn’t exactly expect much from my impoverished past self.
For now, I was satisfied.
I had also remembered that the smartphone could completely replace my physical cards.
I shoved it into my pocket and headed for the large supermarket in the neighborhood.
Then I might as well organize my plans while I’m on the way.
Skills were incredible.
I could freely pull out memories buried in my unconscious. I could browse them chronologically or search through them according to how important I considered them.
In some ways, it was even more convenient than an actual search engine.
So this is what the power of a Skill feels like. It’s like I’ve been reborn. And all I did was acquire one Active Skill.
Memory Search was classified as an Active Skill.
The difference was that I had to consciously use it.
Skills like Perception, Intelligence, Martial Arts, and Swordsmanship were Passive Skills whose effects remained active simply by possessing them.
Me, with an Active Skill… Before the return, I couldn’t even have imagined it.
If even a simple Active Skill could do this much, just how incredible would the Skills I acquired in the future become?
Well, of course the difference felt enormous when the Skill had shot up in Level all at once.
In any case, thanks to Memory Search, I could organize my thoughts even while heading to the supermarket.
The most important thing is to eliminate the demons trying to take over this world and stop the plan at the center of everything.
The first step toward that grand objective…
Would have to wait a few more days.
It had not crossed into this world yet.
Fortunately, I knew exactly when it would arrive.
The demon of growth.
I need to destroy that thing before it ever gets started.
Right now, it was so weak that calling it a demon almost felt embarrassing, but just as its name suggested, it grew absurdly powerful as time passed.
I’ve got a lot to prepare over the next few days.
Weak or not, it was still a demon.
If I challenged it in my current state, I would obviously get smashed to pieces.
“Would you like to try one? We’re running a promotion.”
“…”
I had been walking while lost in thought, and before I knew it, I had arrived at the supermarket’s sample station.
The smell of dumplings assaulted my nose.
There was a reason I had come to a large supermarket.
I might not have money right now, but I did have a mouth.
Stab. Stab. Stab.
I skewered three boiled dumplings at once with a toothpick and stuffed them into my mouth.
I tried to keep walking as if nothing had happened.
But my body started trembling, and I couldn’t move.
Proper food.
Something I hadn’t been able to find before the return.
Considering that an ordinary meal in the ruined world had consisted of rotten monster meat or some kind of porridge made from ingredients nobody could identify, these dumplings were food from heaven.
I-I’m so happy.
No.
I couldn’t start feeling satisfied already.
I couldn’t stop here.
I had almost forgotten my original purpose.
I headed toward the instant-noodle aisle.
“Hmmmm.”
I had already decided on the type.
Among all the instant noodles flaunting their own distinct flavors, I wanted spicy mixed noodles.
The problem was that even those came in all kinds of varieties.
It was practically a battlefield.
Chewy Spicy Noodles, Real Spicy Noodles, Pear and Red Pepper Radish-Water Spicy Noodles…
But there was only one true classic.
Seven Provinces Spicy Mixed Noodles.
That was the original as far as I was concerned.
Right. Of course it has to be Seven Provinces.
You couldn’t ignore the classics.
Absolutely not.
I stopped thinking.
I was human too. I had to eat something, didn’t I?
No matter what kind of hero you were, you had to eat before saving the world.
Then Seven Provinces it was—
Just as I was about to make my decision…
Ring. Ring.
My smartphone began ringing.
Interrupting me at such an important moment?
I frowned and checked the caller.
Yoon Jeongsu
I had a vague idea who that was, but I wasn’t completely sure.
This was exactly what Memory Search was for.
『 Forgotten memories are recalled through [ Memory Search Lv.10 ]. 』
“…”
Now I remembered properly.
Yoon Jeongsu was the team leader at the hunter agency I belonged to.
I was F-rank and hopelessly lacking in talent, so instead of belonging to a guild, I worked through an agency.
“Hello?”
The man who had just called me “fill-in” immediately started rattling off an address.
He sounded as though even doing that was a tremendous inconvenience.
What an irritating voice.
Apparently, some memories were better left forgotten.
A fill-in.
Someone called in as a substitute whenever a guild was short one person.
It had its advantages because you were paid your daily wage immediately.
The problem was that there wasn’t always work.
That was how an F-rank hunter like me had managed to earn a living.
“Hold on a moment.”
I lowered the smartphone and checked my account again.
If I could put grilled pork belly on top of my spicy mixed noodles…
Maybe taking one fill-in job wouldn’t be so bad.
Of course, that wasn’t my only reason.
If I can enter a gate, that’s perfect for me.
I had finally obtained 100,000x Experience.
There was no way I could let an opportunity like this pass.
I had made up my mind.
There was just one problem.
It wasn’t anything difficult, and Yoon Jeongsu could solve it for me.
I put a note of regret into my voice.
“I can’t go.”
Yoon Jeongsu’s voice was overflowing with irritation.
At the same time, I could hear his confusion.
Almost as if he were thinking, Lee Jihan isn’t usually like this.
Of course I wasn’t.
Did he have any idea how much older I had gotten since then?
The old me would’ve jumped at any job the moment someone tossed it my way.
But I’m different now.
I confidently said what needed to be said.
“Pay for my taxi.”
I only had 1,130 won in my account.
Even if I wanted to go, I couldn’t.
***
I arrived in front of a gate in Ilsan in a taxi that hadn’t cost me a thing.
I did need somewhere to test a few things.
The gate had appeared near a park.
The guild members who had been waiting recognized me and stood up.
One of them glared at me.
“You’re only getting here now? What the hell are we supposed to do? Hey, fill-in. Get your act together. Are you going to take responsibility if we miss our scheduled gate-clearing time?”
Had he just turned twenty?
He looked ridiculously young.
He was the guild leader of the Seungwoo Guild.
His name was Jin Se-woong.
I approached while giving him a casual nod.
Right.
This was how people used to treat me.
I didn’t feel wronged.
A man who was hopelessly talentless even among F-ranks.
That was me.
Back in those days, even when I entered gates as a substitute, I usually ended up holding everyone else back.
Step. Step.
I walked straight toward the guild leader.
He looked startled and gradually backed away.
“W-What? What do you want? You trying to start something?”
Apparently, the possibility that I might push back had never even crossed his mind.
I hadn’t done anything yet, but he was already visibly intimidated.
『 You have successfully intimidated the target. 』
『 The effect of Trait ‘Talent Adjustment (EX)’ has taken effect. 』
『 Skill [ Intimidation Lv.1 ] acquired. 』
『 Skill [ Intimidation Lv.2 ] acquired. 』
『 Skill [ Intimidation Lv.3 ] acquired. 』
Oh.
I had gotten something completely unexpected.
Not only had I acquired a new Active Skill, Intimidation, but it had already reached Lv.3 in an instant.
『 Intimidates the target. All attributes of an intimidated target are reduced by 9%. *Only effective against targets of comparable or lesser strength. 』
Judging by the message that appeared, Intimidation had worked on Jin Se-woong.
I hadn’t intended it.
But my philosophy was simple.
If a situation could be exploited, exploit it.
“Lend me a piece of equipment.”
I made the shameless demand.
I hadn’t managed to bring the sword I picked up in the previous gate.
What was I supposed to do if I didn’t have one?
“…”
Jin Se-woong, still affected by Intimidation, stared at me in disbelief before clenching his teeth.
He waved his hand as if he were only reluctantly allowing it.
“J-Just throw him whatever. I’m only letting this slide because we need to get inside right now. We’re entering. Everyone, follow me.”
Jin Se-woong hurried into the gate.
“What’s wrong with Lee Jihan today? He’s like a different person.”
“No idea. Did you see his eyes?”
“Did the guild leader just get scared?”
“Yeah. Think so.”
The guild members exchanged cautious whispers before disappearing into the gate one by one.
The youngest member of the Seungwoo Guild, who had remained behind until the end, approached me carrying a weapon.
“Use this.”
He looked about high-school age.
“It’s the one I was using, but it’s pretty decent. I can just use a different weapon.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
It was a well-maintained iron sword.
I took it, strapped it across my back, and stepped into the gate.
Wooooom.
With that peculiar sensation unique to passing through a gate, the scenery changed in an instant.
From a thoroughly modern park…
To the inside of a gloomy cave.
Click.
The kid pulled a lantern from his inventory and switched it on.
It was powered by a magic stone, and the area around us immediately brightened.
The two of us followed behind the main group.
Without me even asking, he started talking.
“One of our guild members suddenly said he was sick and couldn’t make it today. It happened out of nowhere.”
So that was why they had brought me in as a replacement.
Naturally, the gate we were clearing was F-rank.
Even a pathetic F-rank gate required a minimum of five people to clear.
Works for me.
If they didn’t have enough people, they weren’t even allowed to attempt the clearing operation.
They had called me solely to meet the minimum headcount.
“The guild leader was probably angry because of that too.”
The kid was trying to smooth things over for me in his own way.
Nice kid.
I couldn’t say I completely failed to understand the guild leader either.
Having to burn money unexpectedly would annoy anyone.
That was when something flew toward us from farther ahead.
Thud.
Nothing important.
Just the corpse of a dead goblin.
One of the guild members who had thrown it called back to us.
“Take care of that.”
“Y-Yes!”
The kid quickly caught it and stabbed his blade into the goblin’s corpse.
Before he could even finish, another corpse came flying toward us.
Extracting magic stones.
That was the kind of work the youngest guild member—or a fill-in like me—got stuck doing.
Magic stones were among the most important spoils obtained from monsters.
They were a guild’s primary source of income.
Getting them was simple.
You found the small magic stone hidden somewhere inside the monster’s body and extracted it.
Anyone could do it.
It was just tedious.
Stab.
I casually drove my sword into the chest of a goblin corpse.
At least this was familiar.
I had dissected monster corpses plenty of times in the ruined world.
『 You are harvesting spoils from a monster. 』
『 The effect of Trait ‘Talent Adjustment (EX)’ has taken effect. 』
『 Skill [ Dissection Lv.1 ] acquired. 』
『 Skill [ Dissection Lv.2 ] acquired. 』
『 Skill [ Dissection Lv.3 ] acquired. 』
…
..
.
『 Skill [ Dissection Lv.10 ] acquired. 』
I suddenly felt someone staring at me.
When I turned my head, the kid beside me was still struggling with his blade.
His mouth was hanging open as he stared at me.
“Y-You’re already done?”
“Huh? No.”
Even as I denied it, I was already holding a magic stone in my hand.
“Tsk. What I mean is, this kind of thing is nothing.”
“Whoa…”
The way the kid was looking at me had changed considerably.
Things progressed smoothly.
The people in front hunted.
The people in back handled the dissection.
Slice. Slice.
I could instinctively sense where the hard bones and tough sections of hide were.
When I placed the blade where they weren’t, it cut through with uncanny ease.
Once everything was sliced away, the location of the magic stone inside the goblin naturally revealed itself.
One minute.
That was all it took to completely dissect a single goblin.
A talent perfectly optimized for being a fill-in.
What a depressing talent.
The kid standing beside me carefully watched my dissection and then tried to imitate it.
He grunted as he worked his sword, but apparently it wasn’t going the way he wanted.
“How exactly are you doing that?”
“…”
By doing it well.
You just had to do it well.
I actually wanted to teach him something.
The problem was that I didn’t know how I was doing it either.
While I was vaguely trying to brush the question aside, voices drifted back from farther ahead.
“Feels like we’re moving faster today.”
“I noticed it too. Maybe we’re all in good shape.”
“At this rate, we’ll reach the boss in no time. Let’s finish early and go get wasted at the company dinner.”
I followed along without thinking much of it when the kid beside me leaned closer and whispered.
“I think it’s because of you, Hunter Lee Jihan. I’m usually the reason we get slowed down. I’m still not very good at finding the magic stones.”
Well, damn.
Getting praised by some guy didn’t make me happy at all.
It didn’t.
But it did feel good.
“…Give me that. I’ll do that one too.”
***
The Seungwoo Guild steadily pushed forward, killing the goblins that appeared along the way.
The deeper we went into the cave, the more goblins appeared.
That meant I could accelerate my dissection work too.
Hmm.
Seeing the number of goblins increasing made me uneasy for no particular reason.
Kuhullen isn’t suddenly going to crawl out of nowhere, is it?
Some named monsters could move between gates.
Kuhullen was that kind of monster.
“…Wolves! Wolves incoming! Everyone, maintain formation!”
Guild leader Jin Se-woong shouted at the top of his lungs as he and the guild members entered combat.
The battle was stable enough that there was no room for me to interfere.
Far too stable, in fact.
Not even a single goblin slipped through their line.
It certainly made things convenient.
But I had my own objective.
I needed to kill at least one myself.
“Please handle the dissection.”
“Y-Yeah.”
They were a beginner guild made up of F- and D-rank hunters, but they were fairly competent at hunting.
Corpses kept coming back to us one after another.
I took a wolf and immediately drove my blade into it.
Dissecting a wolf wasn’t much different from dissecting a goblin.
Slice. Slice.
I zoned out while working.
By the time I came back to my senses, I had cleanly separated even the hide and fangs.
“Wow.”
『 Excellent dissection! The grade of the harvested materials has increased. 』
『 Perfectly Preserved Wolf Monster Hide (F++) 』
『 Exceptional-Quality Wolf Fang (F++) 』
The material items had acquired some truly ridiculous descriptors.
So this is what talent feels like.
In that case, my talent terrifies me.
Materials of this quality should sell for quite a bit…
Giving them to the Seungwoo Guild felt like a waste.
But throwing them away would be even worse.
The guild members were still busy fighting.
Hmm.
I was glancing toward the kid and wondering what to do when the usually quiet boy suddenly shouted toward a dark part of the cave.
“W-Watch out!”
A goblin leaped out from behind us.
Oh.
Perfect timing.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
I swept the materials lying on the ground straight into my inventory.
If they caught me, I probably wouldn’t get any more fill-in work.
But I was quitting after today anyway, so who cared?
Then I calmly stood up.
“Hold on. Mind if I take that one?”
“What? Are you serious?”
The kid stared at me anxiously.
“I think that’s a goblin commander…”
I could see the black tattoos that marked it as a leader among goblins.
Supposedly, it was several times stronger than an ordinary goblin.
It wasn’t particularly rare.
The Seungwoo Guild had already put down several of them.
The kid simply didn’t seem strong enough to deal with one alone.
But after crossing swords with Kuhullen, something like this was no different from an ordinary goblin to me.
In fact, I had been waiting for an accident exactly like this.
“Krrk. Kirrk.”
The moment to Level up with 100,000x Experience had just walked right up to me.