A familiar voice ca through. It was good to hear, but the greeting was stiffer than I rembered, which felt a bit disappointing. I wanted to say, “You can speak comfortably,” but figured it would be awkward if I was the only one acting friendly. For now, we were in an employer-employee relationship. Let’s take it slow.
“I heard you’ve started training. I should’ve dropped by, but it’s been hard for to go out lately. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if anything’s difficult or inconvenient.”
Seo Kyunghoon, Lee Yushin, and Kim Hyewon had imdiately left their previous jobs. Choi Suryeon said it would take a few more days to complete the handover, and Min Sohwan planned to co after midterms.
[It’s really no trouble. This kind of training is nothing.]
Considering the salary, even working overti would be welco, and getting off on ti made him feel almost guilty, Seo Kyunghoon said with a laugh. It’s the society that’s the problem if getting off on ti ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) makes you feel bad. It’s supposed to be normal. After exchanging a few words about the training, he brought up the reason for his call.
[So, is the Monster Mounts Breeding Facility really going without a na?]
“What?”
[I asked Team Leader Seok, and for so reason, he just looked off into the distance and mumbled sothing.]
...At least he didn’t outright bla my naming sense.
“Well, I haven’t co up with a good na yet. I do plan to na it. If I can’t figure one out, I might go find a naming center.”
Too fed up to na it myself.
[Then how about holding a naming contest?]
“A contest?”
[Yes. Since you have a lot of followers on your SNS, it could work well as a light event.]
A naming contest, huh. That sounded like a good idea. I could use it to promote the Peace dolls too. Just put up a prize and so rewards. After finishing the call with Seo Kyunghoon, I took out my laptop that had been gathering dust. It was the one Haeyeon sent for work, so it already had all sorts of programs installed.
“Let’s see, I guess I just need to write that I’m holding a naming contest.”
I’d make the deadline about three days. We are holding a naming contest for the Monster Mounts Breeding Facility. Maybe highlight it in red. Increase the font size, maybe tilt it a bit. Should I underline it? Hmm, no, the underline doesn’t look good. To participate, leave a comnt. Oh, I should ntion copyright issues too.
Once I finished writing it out, it looked kind of empty. Should I add a border? How do I do that? I think... this is a drawing program... no, wait, maybe tables...
Might be easier to just print it and use a ruler to draw lines.
“It’s not like I’ve never done docunt work before.”
It’s just been a while. I took the laptop to Yuhyun’s room. It was an inner room with no monster traffic, so all electronics and other breakable devices were kept here. His room was surprisingly tidy for a boy his age. The bed was neatly made too. Though he didn’t use it yesterday since he slept in my room.
I went to the study attached to the bedroom and printed the docunt. Once I drew the borders, I’d scan and upload it. I returned to the living room and opened the drawer with the stationery. Peace followed with light steps, tilting his head.
“We’re holding a naming contest for the breeding facility. No one trusts my naming skills, you see.”
-Kkiang.
“You like your na, right, Peace?”
Peace wagged his tail. Guess that ant yes. As I pulled out a ruler and permanent marker, I spotted the ink pad we’d used when Peace left his paw print. Since it’s the Monster Mounts Breeding Facility, maybe I should add Peace’s paw print too. First, I drew the border on the paper. Adding the black lines made it look pretty decent. The bottom part got a bit thick, but it looked intentional enough.
“Peace, let’s stamp yours here too. Should we use red?”
I spoke as I pulled out the colored ink pads. The border helped, but the paper still felt empty, so I grabbed Peace’s front paw and stamped it on the paper.
-Bbeeeng.
-eh.
Just then, Sorok and the lamb approached. Maybe they were avoiding the wolves. I heard sothing breaking in the monster living room. Sure, go ahead and wreck everything. I really can’t keep the wolves indoors. It felt like Blue had doubled.
“You guys want to stamp too? Co on, Sorok.”
A deer hoof print, a sheep hoof print. Maybe because they were both ungulates, they looked similar. Though they’re monsters, so they might differ from real reindeer or sheep. While I was stamping away, Chirp, who had been watching from atop my head, floated down gently onto the table.
“You want to stamp too, Chirp? Hold on a sec.”
Let finish wiping their hooves—Chirp!
“No! Hey! Chirp!”
-Ppiyak.
Chirp rolled his entire body into the blue ink pad. I quickly snatched up Belare, who looked ready to copy him, and grabbed Chirp.
“What is this, huh!”
-Ppiyakppiyak.
A round mark appeared in blue ink on the naming contest paper, like it had been pressed with a sponge. I pulled out wet wipes and started cleaning the ink off Chirp. anwhile, the living room continued descending into chaos. The wolves would have to go back to the pen as soon as Yuhyun got ho.
After washing Chirp and cleaning up, I uploaded the Monster Mounts Breeding Facility naming contest to SNS. Not long after, the phone rang. It was Seok Gimyeong.
[Director Han...]
“Yes?”
What was with his voice? Seok Gimyeong let out a deep sigh before continuing.
[While we welco the idea of naming the breeding facility through a contest, we’ll be posting the official notice from our side.]
“Was there sothing wrong with the content?”
[The content itself isn’t a major issue... but reviewing everything and selecting finalists isn’t an easy task, so please leave it to us. We’ll handle it cleanly and efficiently.]
When he added that this kind of thing isn’t the job of soone in a director-level position, and I had hired staff for a reason, I said okay. True, if there were a lot of participants, checking them all would be a hassle. After hanging up, I went back to the contest post. Among the growing number of comnts, one na caught my eye.
— Park HayulS2: Hyungㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ (TL Note: ㅠ = Teary Eyes)
...Park Hayul? Oh, right. I was supposed to et him. What’s with the S2 after his na?
“I totally forgot.”
I ssaged Park Hayul to apologize, then deleted the post. A reply ca back right away.
— Are we not eting anymore?ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
— Yeah, I’m not allowed to move around alone even inside the breeding facility anymore.
— Ahㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠwhyㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠreally can’t? (ㅠ?ㅠ)
— Doesn’t look like it...
— Is it the S-ranks stopping you again? That’s too much ):
— No, this ti I said I wouldn’t go out. Sothing feels off. About .
— What’s weird about you, hyung? Isn’t that just an excuse? Just et once!
To be honest, I was confused myself whether sothing was really wrong with . But safety cos first.
— Hyeooong~~ o(TヘTo)))
— Not for long, but I think I could sneak out for a little bit.
I looked down at my ankle. The strap stretched out long. Peace was staring straight at from right beside. It wouldn’t be easy.
— When?
— Tomorrow... in the morning.
Since I didn’t use SNS much except for the occasional photo post, they probably wouldn’t be monitoring my ssages here. Still, I should delete them just in case. Park Hayul was ecstatic. Was it really that great? Just for a bit, I’ll step out quickly. It’s not like I’m eting a stranger.
‘As long as I move in a way even an S-rank Hunter wouldn’t notice.’
There’s no way an SS-rank Hunter would suddenly pop out. No problem. No problem at all.
“It’s a ss.”
-Kkaeng, ?
-Uuuung, uuung.
The baby wolves whimpered as Yuhyun held them by the scruff. They groaned and looked to for help, but judging by their tails, they didn’t seem very scared.
“You’re only sending these two back to the pen?”
“Yeah. Sorok and the black lamb are calm. I’m thinking of keeping Sorok at ho until he gets a bit bigger.”
That way, he’ll move around a little more. Yuhyun unfastened the strap from my ankle and led the way, carrying the baby wolves.
“Nothing happened, right?”
“Other than the living room getting wrecked, things were peaceful. This shackle—does it really report every ten minutes?”
I asked in more detail how it worked, and Yuhyun showed a card-shaped key.
“Just think of this card as our house. This dot here is you.”
“With this scale, walking back and forth in the living room wouldn’t even show up.”
“A Hunter with S-rank stats can figure it out.”
I see. So they can tell pretty precisely where I am inside the house. Every part of this little card seed mapped to specific areas of the house. My brother is pretty amazing.
After stepping out of the house and passing through the portal, I saw an A-rank Hunter standing guard. The security was tight, made up only of trustworthy people from each guild. It was said that ntal-type skills wouldn’t work on soone of A-rank, and they were checked daily anyway.
CCTV didn’t seem to work well, so they were using people instead. Luckily, dungeon raid schedules had slowed down recently. Of course, surveillance caras were still working hard.
After dropping off Milky and Blanc at the pen, I went up to the rooftop garden. I waved at Noah, who stood like a majestic statue on top of the building. Then I began walking along the trail.
“The Special Surveillance Office and the Hunter Association are reviewing all immigration records. But with high-level Hunters, it’s easy for them to slip in, so it won’t be easy to track them.”
“Still, if I were to be kidnapped, it’d be by ship, not plane, so it wouldn’t be hard to catch them during departure.”
“If you disappeared, every airport would be locked down imdiately. Sa for seaports.”
From our house to Gimpo Airport, it takes less than an hour if traffic is clear. So the first hour would be the golden ti. If it’s congested, two hours.
“Rush hour would be the safest. They couldn’t kidnap then.”
Might end up stuck in traffic with the kidnappers grumbling the whole way.
“Just in case, even if I do disappear, it won’t be related to the system, so don’t worry too much. You rember what I told you, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll stay healthy and wait quietly. It’s not like anyone’s after my life. Even the Transcendents would probably let live.”
Except for Chatterbox. That one’s hopeless. The best way is not to give them a reason for revenge, and if you do, erase the evidence so they don’t find out. Who would’ve thought Transcendents hold grudges too.
“Yuhyun, do you have anyone who holds a grudge against you?”
“They’re dead.”
“Uh... right.”
Was he talking about Yun Kyungsu? There were probably others, too.
“If you’re worried about grudges, better watch the Sesung Guild Master than . Don’t get too close to him.”
“I’m not close.”
Seong Hyunjae must have done a lot overseas to make people hold grudges. ...He probably did. He said himself that he abandoned many people. Well, more precisely, he just withdrew his attention, but even that would have bruised so egos and left lingering resentnt in a number of people.
“Yuhyun, are you okay?”
“With what?”
“Seong Hyunjae used to show interest in you too, then he stopped. I doubt you’d feel even a little hurt... but still.”
“As long as he doesn’t ss with you, there’s no reason to even cross paths.”
Yuhyun answered flatly, then looked at with concern. He pulled sothing wrapped from his pocket.
“Don’t tell Park Yerim.”
It was red chocolate. The cream inside—apple, maybe? Sohow the roles felt reversed, but whatever. I said thanks and ate it.
The next day, there was still no progress on catching the bug. If the opponent was soone easy to catch, they wouldn’t have been able to sneak into the breeding facility in the first place.
-Kreung!
“What, you don’t like the sll?”
Peace scrunched up his nose. What I was holding was none other than a bath bomb. Yerim had bought a bunch in different types, saying half-baths are good for your health. They ca in all sorts of colors and shapes, so even with bubbles.
I took the bath bomb and headed to the bathroom attached to my room. After sending Yerim the proof pic she wanted, she replied, Don’t stay in too long! Under 30 minutes! Lately Peace had been shedding a lot, so he sat down in front of the bedroom, since the bathroom wasn’t visible from the door.
“My little roller, let’s clean my room.”
I brought in the nth robot vacuum. I scheduled it to clean my room in 40 minutes and set it down in front of the bathroom. Then I opened the point store.
‘Feels like a waste of points, but...’
I’d kept him waiting long enough, and even stood him up, so I might as well spend a little. I bought a Master Key from the point store. It could open any lock without detection, as long as it was S-rank or lower. I used it to unlock the ankle restraint and tossed it into the bathtub.
I waited a bit, but my phone didn’t ring. No one noticed. Next, I grabbed a string, tied one end to the loosened strap and the other end to the robot vacuum. Forty minutes later, it would look like I was moving around the bedroom after my bath.
‘These machines are really well-made these days.’
I could even designate the cleaning path. I set it to clean briefly, then stop at the stand beside the bed as its final destination. That way, it would appear like I bathed, got dressed, and went to rest in bed.
Unless sothing unusual happened, they wouldn’t get suspicious for about two hours. I wasn’t planning to be gone that long anyway—back within an hour.
I turned on the water in the tub and tossed in two bath bombs. A strong fragrance filled the air. With this much scent, Peace wouldn’t be able to tell I was gone just by sll.
Lastly, I put on my wildcat jacket and shoes. All that was left was to head out, and for sneaking out, nothing beats Mini Mini Cookie. I ate a Mini Mini Cookie and activated the Stealth skill.
Alright, I’ll be right back.
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