Chapter 3 - I didn't do any harm
[ He Didn't Do Any Harm ]
=== He Didn't Do Any Harm ===
[Quest cleared. Distributing rewards.]
[Quest cleared. Distributing rewards.]
It had already been four days since I awakened Snail Husband.
[A new quest has been issued.]
[Quest]
- Clean the floor, wash the windows, and water the plants in Room 305 (01:59:58)
Reward: Slight increase in Stamina, slight increase in Han Cho-yeon's Mana, significant increase in 'Snail Husband's' Stamina
Penalty for Failure: Gallbladder removal
"..."
This was already the fourth time I'd seen this quest window, and it was starting to get fucking infuriating.
Over the past three days, I'd cleared three quests.
The rewards weren't nearly as good as the first one. At most, I got a slight stat increase.
With the quest requirements going up, the rewards going down, and the failure penalties constantly threatening organ harvesting, it was impossible not to feel resentful.
"Is this really S-class?"
Other S-class Awakened could shoot fire from their hands or ride on waves of ice.
Of course, getting an S-class skill was amazing in itself. But looking at how these quests were going, I couldn't help but feel anxious. I had no idea when a decent reward would show up again, or how much the difficulty would spike next time.
During this time, I hadn't just been sitting around at home doing nothing but quests.
I had investigated the true nature of these quests coming from the 'Snail Husband' ability, and the result was...
'Nothing.'
There was absolutely nothing.
Nowhere in the entire world was there an ability that functioned like this.
While other Awakened had abilities with incredible effects in combat, medicine, or crafting, an ability with a quest-and-reward system like this was unheard of.
Because of this anomaly, I hadn't even gone through 'Awakened Registration' yet—something people normally did at a government agency immediately after awakening.
Registration involved temporarily sharing your status window using a specific artifact to record your stats and abilities.
If I registered an S-class unique ability with all my stats sitting at the absolute lowest F-rank, I wouldn't even know how to explain myself.
'My Stamina did go up to F+ because of the rewards, but...'
Did that even mean anything?
I muttered, looking at the quest window once more. Only then did I notice something unusual.
"...Huh? What's this?"
'Snail Husband's' Stamina significantly increased.
An incomprehensible phrase was written in the rewards section.
It was a bizarre reward stating that this 'Snail Husband' guy's Stamina would significantly increase instead of mine.
"Wait, no way..."
I opened the Snail Husband-exclusive status window that I had completely forgotten about.
----------
[Yoo Ga-on]
Strength: F
Agility: F
Stamina: F+
Mana: None
Skills: None
[Quest]
----------
It was a green-tinted window, completely different from a normal status window.
It was highly likely that the quest reward referred to a stat increase in this specific window.
"The problem is, even if that's true... I don't know how to use it."
It wasn't like there was a separate function to switch status windows, so I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it.
Shuddering at how incredibly user-unfriendly the system was, I still couldn't afford to have my gallbladder harvested over a chore. I quietly got out of bed and approached the wall.
"...Intangibility."
Hum...
With a floating sensation I was starting to get used to, I slipped right through the wall into Room 305.
'But it really is strange.'
Every time the quest's time limit was about to end, the tenant next door returned as if on cue.
I started cleaning, harboring the silly thought that maybe the person next door was the one issuing these quests.
"...Hm?"
I finished sweeping the floor and wiping down the windows.
Then, using the watering can I found in the room, I watered the plants, wondering if it was actually okay to water them every single day.
"Looks like she bought a new one."
There was a new plant I hadn't seen before.
One of its only two leaves was folded in half.
Thinking nothing of it, I watered it and carefully unfolded the bent leaf, making sure not to damage it.
"Oops. Was I not supposed to touch that?"
Ah, whatever.
I'd already done it, so worrying about it now would only stress me out.
After putting the watering can back and tidying up, I returned to my room. Immediately, the quest cleared.
[Quest cleared. Distributing rewards.]
With a racing heart, I opened the status window...
----------
[Yoo Ga-on]
Strength: F
Agility: F
Stamina: C-
Mana: None
Skills: None
[Quest]
----------
"...Wow, holy shit."
My Stamina had skipped a whopping six tiers.
And C-rank was no joke.
To begin with, even F-rank Stamina—which you got just by awakening—was enough to run a marathon without breaking a sweat.
The E and D-ranks I'd just skipped were already enough to overwhelm professional athletes. From C-rank onward, you were entering the realm of true superhumans.
But above all, the rate of growth was absurd.
It was well known that an Awakened's training yielded much faster growth than an ordinary person's.
Even so, considering it usually took about two years of hard training to go from F-plus to E-minus, skipping six tiers in an instant was absolutely insane.
"But did anything actually change?"
The fucking massive problem, though, was that these boosted stats didn't seem to be affecting my actual body.
As I stood there confused, a familiar electronic beep echoed from beyond the wall.
Beep-beep-beep-beep...
Click!
I tried not to let it get to me, but I always ended up holding my breath whenever she came home.
"Phew... Right, I have plans today."
I let out a deep sigh to shake off the tension and started getting ready.
Today was the day I was meeting up with my busy sisters.
Between their hectic schedules as Hunters and, well... my ongoing unemployment, I was the only one living on my own.
After our parents passed away, I'd been living like a parasite, surviving on allowances from my sisters, who worked closely together as B-rank Hunters. But now, I was a respectable Awakened too.
...Well, maybe not "respectable" yet, but shouldn't I at least let my family know?
The moment she opened the door, Han Cho-yeon's gaze shifted toward the window.
The flowerpot.
The young sapling she had just put there.
The leaf... was unfolded.
She had definitely left it folded in half before she went out.
Her heart gave a quiet thud.
...They've been here.
She didn't rush.
She took off her shoes, set down her bag, and acted completely normal.
Then, slowly,
she knelt in front of the flowerpot.
She channeled mana into her fingertips.
"Sprout Eye. Retrieve."
The veins of the leaf glowed faintly, and a faint sensory fragment flowed back into her.
And then—
her vision went dark before shifting to an unfamiliar angle.
A low, ground-level perspective.
The plant's point of view.
The vision was short.
Suddenly, a figure appeared, seeping right through the wall into the room.
There was no door opening.
Just—
at some point, a man who had passed through the wall was just standing there.
"...What?"
It was a man.
He looked to be around her age.
Ordinary... no, was he actually kind of handsome?
He wasn't strikingly handsome or intimidating, but there was something cute about him.
After looking around once, he silently began tidying up the floor.
Holding a dustpan, he squatted down and moved around the room, sweeping up dust and dirt.
He even wiped down the windows.
His movements were natural.
As if—
he were as familiar with the place as if he owned it.
Han Cho-yeon's eyes narrowed.
In the vision, he approached the flowerpot.
A brief pause.
"...Hm?"
And then, carefully, he unfolded the bent leaf.
He was incredibly gentle, controlling the pressure of his fingertips so he wouldn't hurt it.
"Looks like she bought a new one."
"Oops. Was I not supposed to touch that?"
His expression was clear.
He was mostly expressionless, but his face looked oddly caring.
She couldn't feel any mana from him.
Not in the vision, and not in the sensory connection.
He was completely empty.
But if so,
how had he gotten in?
The sped-up vision cut off after a few minutes, right as the man passed back through the wall and left.
Even though it was a low-grade skill with terrible resolution, she had already reached the limit of her mana capacity.
Han Cho-yeon let out a long breath.
Reporting him was the right thing to do.
The Awakened Management Association was highly sensitive to these kinds of break-ins.
Especially when the use of an ability was suspected.
But...
She stared at her phone screen and hesitated.
"...He didn't do any harm anyway."
In fact, it was quite the opposite.
The room was cleaner.
The plants were in better shape.
And—
strangely,
she didn't feel any threat.
There was the lingering discomfort of having her space invaded, but she didn't feel threatened at all.
Han Cho-yeon recalled the image once more.
A face that seemed ordinary, yet somehow cute.
The kind of face you'd walk right past on the street without a second thought.
...He had caught her interest.
"I'll just have to see him one more time."
Should she purposely fold the leaves more this time?
Or maybe slightly rearrange the furniture?
She put down her phone.
As for reporting him...
she would watch him just a little longer.
The corners of her mouth curled up ever so slightly.
"Let's see if... he keeps cleaning."
*
As I stepped outside, the cold air bit at my lungs.
The meeting place was a nearby Hunter-only restaurant.
Unlike regular restaurants, it specialized in monster meat and high-protein meals, making it a popular hub for Hunters.
Through the glass door, I spotted two familiar faces.
"Hey!"
The first to wave was my younger sister, Yoo Ra-eun.
Her silver hair peeked out from under her hoodie.
Her eyes were sharp, but her expression was bright.
And next to her...
"You're late."
Yoo Seo-rin spoke in her usual calm voice.
She was my older sister.
She was dressed in a neat coat, but her posture alone set her apart.
Her back was perfectly straight, and her gaze was cast low.
My sisters were both B-rank Hunters.
I scratched the back of my neck as I sat down.
"Hey, why are you staring so hard?"
My little sister smirked.
"No reason. You just seem a bit different."
"How?"
"Hmm... I don't know. Maybe it's just my imagination."
My older sister quietly pushed a glass of water toward me.
"What have you been up to lately?"
I was momentarily speechless.
Awakening.
Snail Husband.
Quests.
Intangibility.
...And cleaning the apartment next door.
Would they even believe me if I told them?
I took a sip of water.
"I... awakened."
""......""
A heavy silence fell over the table.
My little sister's eyes went wide,
and while my older sister's eyebrows only twitched slightly, her shock was obvious.
"What?!"
Yoo Ra-eun was the first to react.
"I said, I awakened."
"...Are you serious?"
Yoo Ra-eun stared blankly at me, her mouth half-open.
"Is this for real?"
"Yeah."
"If this is a joke, I'm going to fucking kill you, okay?"
"Hey, I'm not crazy enough to lie about something like this."
A brief silence fell, and then—
Smack!
A heavy blow struck my shoulder.
Yoo Ra-eun had suddenly leaped out of her seat and smacked me hard on the back.
"Holy shit! Congratulations!!!"
"Ack—ow! That fucking hurt!"
"Wow, three Awakened in one family. This is insane!"
Too excited to sit down, Yoo Ra-eun was practically bouncing in place.
"When did it happen? Why are you only telling us now?!"
"It's been a few days."
"A few days?! And you're only telling us now?!"
Seo-rin quietly watched us, then let out a soft chuckle.
It was a faint but genuine smile.
"You've worked hard."
Those few words made my throat tighten up.
All those years spent as the only ordinary person in a family of Awakened...
I had never shown it, but I'd felt so fucking guilty.
Even though we weren't related by blood, they had supported me while I was just leeching off them under the pretext of job hunting. I was incredibly grateful, and deeply sorry.
Yoo Ra-eun grabbed my arm and shook it, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Hey, so how is it? Do you feel okay? Nothing weird?"
"Nope. I'm completely fine."
"Heh, good. So..."
She rested her chin on her hand and grinned.
"What's your rank?"
The moment of truth had arrived.
Trying to hide how fast my heart was racing, I took a breath and spoke as calmly as possible.
"S."
...
""......What?""
"S-rank. A unique ability. It's not a combat type, though."
Yoo Ra-eun stared at me in pure disbelief.
"Bullshit."
When the swear word slipped out of Yoo Ra-eun's mouth, Yoo Seo-rin's eyes flashed dangerously for a split second. But she didn't scold her—likely because she was just as shocked.
......
"You could at least make your lies believable."
"I'm serious. Why would I lie about this?"
"Because a guy whose greatest life achievement was passing the first round of a job application is suddenly claiming to be S-rank."
"Hey."
Is this brat serious?