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The morning breeze blew through the torn tent.
Shivering from the chill that penetrated the blanket, I woke up.
"Ugh—"
Another day had begun.
Rubbing my eyes, I looked around, but saw no sign of the girl anywhere in the tent.
Maybe she's scared sleeping in place crawling with bugs and fled when I'm not looking.
As I imagined that scenario, a pleasant smile filled my face.
It was a joy I hadn't felt in a long time.
"Ehehe~"
I stretched and chuckled, producing a weird noise, but I didn't care too much since I was in a good mood.
This kind of life isn't for those with ordinary mental strength.
Just as I was feeling proud of my superior mental strength compared to the girl...
Swoosh—
Someone opened the entrance of the tent and came in.
"Oh, you're up?"
It was the familiar voice of the girl.
Startled, I straightened up in an instant.
"Wh-where did you go–?"
"I just went to wash my face with the stream water. The water around here's really cold, it makes my drowsiness disappear right away, was it always like that?"
"Uhhh….Ahaha..."
Turns out, this kidnapper was washing her face with cold stream water early in the morning.
She was tougher than I imagined.
With her around, my future seems to be bleak.
"Why were you laughing?"
The girl, wiping her face with the back of her hand, approached me.
Her blatant question made me choke.
She probably knew why I was laughing and was just teasing me.
Looking for an excuse, I grabbed the tail sticking to my back.
"I–I was sleeping, and this thing was tickling me..."
"Ah, the tail."
She reached out her hand towards my tail.
As if triggered by a defense mechanism, the tail suddenly darted behind me on its own.
"Ah."
Why did it suddenly move on its own?
I looked up at the girl in silence, tense.
"Sorry, was I too forward?"
She apologized and stepped back.
Of course, I knew it wasn't a genuine apology.
Sadness, anger, surprise.
She must be curious about the psychological reactions of her test subject in various situations.
I had already figured it out and decided not to react to her provocations.
"I want to go now..."
Turning away from the girl, I got up from my spot.
To survive, I had to start my daily routine.
"Where are you planning to go?"
"...To hunt horned rabbits."
"Ho–Horned rabbits...?"
The girl looked puzzled.
A person who nearly died from horned rabbits going to hunt them must seem absurd.
It was as if I was planning to be a nuisance to the guild again.
I knew it was a shameful act, but I had decided to be shameless to survive.
"If I don't catch horned rabbits, I'll die anyway..."
"Hmm. Can I come along?"
"...Together?"
Was she worried that the body she meticulously altered might get killed?
Yet, she probably wanted to send me to the hunting ground to gather data on the changed body.
Even though I could see through her intentions, I felt pathetic for being unable to refuse.
I nodded to the girl and picked up a pair of dull scissors.
"Then I'll just cut my hair and we'll go together."
"You–your hair?"
"Yes. I need to look like a boy."
Just as I was about to cut a handful of hair, the girl stuck her fingers between the blades of the scissors.
It was a dangerous moment for me, since I almost cut her finer.
'She must be really crazy.' Is what I thought.
I looked up at the girl with a shocked expression and then realized.
With my weak strength, I couldn't even scratch her skin.
It was a needless worry.
"I need to cut my hai—"
"Wait a minute. Why are you dressing as a boy?"
"To avoid bad things happening to me."
"Bad things? Ha–Has someone done something bad to you before?"
The girl's face turned pale.
She must be shocked at the thought that the body she painstakingly modified could be toyed with by someone else.
"Not yet. I always walk around looking dirty, so…."
"Ah... so that's why..."
The girl sighed deeply and grabbed my scissors.
As if to show the difference in strength, she slowly took the scissors out of my hand.
"My–my scissors!"
I can't go hunting without cutting my hair!
In a desperate attempt to grab the scissors, I stretched my hand out, but she raised them beyond my reach.
"Let's not cut your hair. I'll be there to watch over you, okay?"
Why shouldn't I cut my hair?
I tried to interpret the hidden meaning in her words.
– Don't touch a single hair on the body I created.
That must be it.
"Fi–fine. I'll just get a bit dirty and go."
"Can't you go without getting dirty? I'll make sure to protect you."
How far does she intend to control me?
It was frightening, but I had no choice but to follow her commands for now.
"Okay..."
✧✧✧✧✧
The beginner's hunting ground was a thirty-minute walk away.
I wanted to walk, but due to the girl's forceful attitude, I had no choice but to travel by car.
"It's really fast by car, right?"
"Yes, it's much faster."
It took less than ten minutes by car.
Satisfied with the time saved, I looked around the beginner's hunting ground.
'There are a lot of people today.'
The beginner's hunting ground was a wide grassland.
There were ordinary people who hunted as a hobby, young students out for class training, and novice adventurers building their foundations.
"Hey! There's a slime!"
Thump—!
A slime, as big as a person's head, struck a boy's body.
The boy fell from the back of his head, rolled three times on the ground, then stood up as if nothing had happened.
"Ah, if you missed it, you should've said something sooner."
"Sorry, sorry."
Giggles
The boy who missed the slime apologized while bursting into laughter.
The man who had rolled on the ground also giggled, holding his stomach, as if finding his own actions amusing.
'...Incredible.'
If it were me, I surely would have died from a cracked skull.
I envied their fearless approach to hunting, free from the terror of death.
If only I had even a minimal amount of mana.
Sighing deeply with regret, the girl approached me.
"Is something bothering you, Gyeoul? You look down."
"There are too many people."
"It must be hard to catch anything with so many competitors around."
Yes.
Just as I was about to answer the girl, I heard the sound of a small creature in the nearby grass.
The sound of a four-legged beast hopping around.
"Huh?"
Although hidden by the grass and out of sight, I instinctively knew it was a horned rabbit.
My ears, seemingly trying to track it, started moving on their own.
'Have my ears gotten better?'
Being animal ears, they must be better than human ones.
Without paying too much attention, I loaded a steel ball into the slingshot I had made myself.
The ball was expensive, costing two hundred won each.
The horned rabbit's weakness was its horn, small as a finger.
Although hard, it was sensitive and killing the rabbit was possible if the horn was shattered.
I deliberately made noise with my footsteps as I approached the rabbit.
Horned rabbits have a habit of raising their heads when they hear a sound.
–Peep?
The horned rabbit lifted its head from the swaying grass.
The time it took for it to decide whether to flee or attack was about a second.
Before that time passed, I shot the steel ball towards the rising horn.
Crack—!
"Kek!"
The coin-sized steel ball shattered the horned rabbit's horn.
It was an unbelievable level of accuracy.
"Wow."
Has my physical abilities improved after the modification?
Surprised, I looked up at the girl with wide eyes.
She was smiling down at me with a twinkle in her eye.
"Wow, that's amazing. You caught it already?"
Clap clap clap—
She clapped softly for me.
I looked down, unaccustomed to the praise.
It wasn't bad hearing compliments for the first time in years.
"Hehe..."
Blushing with embarrassment, I scratched the back of my head and then stiffened my face.
I realized too late that her praise was not for me but for the modified body.
'She's playing with a person's heart.'
Hmph.
Ignoring the girl, I ran towards the horned rabbit.
She followed behind me.
"How many horned rabbits does Gyeoul catch in a day?"
"M–me?"
"Yeah."
If lucky, one in three days. If not, one in a week.
I debated whether to tell her the truth but decided to bluff instead.
It was to avoid looking weak to the girl.
"I catch one every two days."
"One every two days?"
"Yes..."
Every two days, indeed.
Was my bluff too extreme?
Without even collecting the dead horned rabbit, I kept glancing nervously at the girl.
"So, you make about five thousand won a day?"
"Fi-five thousand won?"
"Yeah. A horned rabbit is worth ten thousand won each."
Ten thousand won for a horned rabbit?
She was a woman who clearly knew nothing about the real world.
"What are you talking about? A horned rabbit is only three thousand won each."
"…What?"
"Over there at the trading post, they take them for three thousand won each."
Her gaze shifted to the trading post.
Even from a distance, her improved vision seemed to allow her to read the letters on the sign.
──Purchase──
-Horned Rabbit [3.000 Won Each]
-Slime [6.000 Won Each]
-Ground Squirrel [5.000 Won Each]
─────
"See where it says market price? On a good day, they even pay three thousand five hundred won per rabbit."
I hoped to get even an extra hundred won today.
Just as I was about to pick up the horned rabbit, the girl uttered something shocking.
"No, you've been scammed..."
"What...?"
That couldn't be.
Aren't horned rabbits three thousand won each?
I froze in place, confused, still in the midst of picking up the rabbit.