Chapter 66
Because I played dumb, Kwak Han-mook immediately bolted out of the restaurant.
He then dragged along Mo Hae-in, who had just returned with her gathered materials, and Je Hyun-oh, who had finished tidying up the backyard and was trimming the trees around the restaurant like a professional landscaper.
"This! Don’t you see this?!"
Kwak Han-mook pointed a finger at Dominic.
Mo Hae-in followed his finger and looked above my head.
But there was no way she could see Dominic.
"Above the trainee’s head? I don’t see anything. What are you talking about?"
"Just touch Goyo’s head once. Captain Mo, please? Just once. I beg you."
At Kwak Han-mook’s pleading, Mo Hae- in reached out toward me.
"I’ll just touch it for a second."
However, she couldn’t touch Dominic; she merely patted the top of my head a few times.
She looked back at Kwak Han-mook.
"Are you infected?"
"Fuck, this is driving me crazy!"
Kwak Han-mook jumped up and down alone, and this time he began to beg Je Hyun-oh.
"Lieutenant Colonel Je, do you not see it either? Right here, on top of Goyo’s head."
Unable to withstand Kwak Han-mook’s persistence, Je Hyun-oh swapped his metal hand for a Crow Glove and touched my head.
After rubbing my head for a while, he brought his face close to mine.
00
He stared intently, displaying an emoticon on his goggles, then tilted his head to check the other side.
After observing for a long time, shifting the direction of his gaze, he displayed another emoticon.
Showing an emoticon with eyes slit longer than usual, Je Hyun-oh swapped the Crow Glove back for his metal hand.
It was a reaction saying he was being bothered by nonsense.
"No, no, seriously, you can’t see this? I’m the only one who can see it?"
Moving past absurdity and entering the stage of genuine fear, Kwak Han-mook looked at Dominic with a pale face.
Receiving that fervent gaze, Dominic sparkled and wobbled its body softly.
Kwak Han-mook fell hook, line, and sinker for the pudding slimes movements.
"I think I’m infected..."
Muttering in a daze, Kwak Han-mook suddenly shook his head.
"No, fuck. I checked all my infection levels."
Mo Hae-in crossed her arms, a frown deepening between her brows.
*What exactly do you see? Describe it."
"Uh... well. It looks squishy. Like a slime? It looks like that. But it’s blue, and sparkly..."
’It’s an infection."
Mo Hae-in began to seriously speculate on the cause of the infection.
Once she concluded it was an infection, Kwak Han-mook protested, insisting it wasn’t!
Kwak Han-mook stepped close to me once again.
I looked up at him with eyes that seemed somewhat frightened.
Then, I apologized in a timid voice.
"Captain Kwak... I’m sorry..."
At my apology, Kwak Han-mook covered his face with his hand.
"Ah, it’s not something Goyo needs to apologize for."
Then, parting his fingers to look at me, he asked:
"Wait. Why are you apologizing? Now that I think about it, it’s suspicious that it’s only attached to Goyo. Are you pretending not to see it... Ack!"
Mo Hae-in slammed her elbow into Kwak Han-mook’s side.
Leaving Kwak Han-mook to whine that she hit his ribs, she spoke to me.
"Captain Kwak talks nonsense like this sometimes, so don’t pay him any mind."
And so, a world was created where only Kwak Han-mook knew the truth.
Dominic, who had enjoyed watching all of this from atop my head, let out a giggle.
Meanwhile, Kwak Han-mook rubbed his stinging side and muttered to himself.
"Everyone except me is infected..."
Mo Hae-in looked at him with pitying eyes as he continued to suspect the Special Ops team.
Just then, Je Hyun-oh pointed toward the table with his metal hand.
Kwak Han-mook and Mo Hae-in belatedly discovered the 50 cups of leaf tea.
"Trainee. What is this?"
"I made some tea."
Checking the item description of the leaf tea with suspicious eyes, Mo Hae-in immediately looked disgusted.
"You’re not planning to sell this, are you? The price is OG."
"There are people with peculiar tastes."
Of course, they didn’t actually like leaf tea.
But the important thing was that they would pay money to buy it.
However, I needed one helper for the sales.
"Captain Kwak."
With the pudding slime still perched on my head, I asked him
"If you don’t mind, would you like to go sell these with me?"
I ended up going out to sell leaf tea with Kwak Han-mook.
Kwak Han-mook was puzzled when I told him we were going to a dungeon to do business.
This was because the dungeons in Slay to Plate only opened at night and were only accessible to those level 10 or higher.
I explained the future course of action to Kwak Han-mook in detail.
Then, leading him-who kept glancing at Dominic-through the village, we arrived at the dungeon in the Eastern Forest.
It was a place that didn’t fit the peaceful atmosphere of the village at all.
A massive gate made of black obsidian overwhelmed any visitor.
Intricate patterns were deeply engraved into the surface of the gate, and crimson magma flowed through the grooves like blood vessels.
Emitting a faint red glow, it looked like a living, breathing creature.
As I approached the gate, which looked like the entrance to hell, I felt a heat so intense it felt as if I would be burned.
Looking up at the gate, I shouted loudly.
"Is anyone there? Please open the gate!"
At that, flames soared up on both sides of the gate.
From within the pillars of fire, two children appeared, as cute as fluff.
The children, who possessed androgynous looks, had bat wings on their backs and two red horns on either side of their pale pink hair.
Long lizard tails trailing behind them swept the ground elegantly.
Pink eyes with sharp, reptilian pupils stared at me.
They were the twins of the Fire Dragon race from the demon realm, the gatekeepers of the dungeon entrance.
Ella, the female, had eyes that tilted upward, while Elun, the male, had eyes that tilted downward; other than that, their faces and heights were identical, as if they were carbon copies.
The twins, both LV99 and possessing immense power, served the role of filtering the dungeon’s visitors.
Since they brutally executed those without qualifications using flames, they were a nightmare for beginners who visited the dungeon without knowing any better.
Both twins spoke with equally cold expressions.
"Foolish human. You dare seek the entrance to hell."
"You do not yet have the qualification to enter this place. Atone with your death."
However, they had one thing that could be called a weakness. knelt before the twins and cried out.
"It was a mistake! Please spare me!"
Perhaps because they were still young, they were weak to people pretending to be pitiful.
Even in the game, the twins’ hearts were easily swayed, and after helping the player in various ways, they eventually came to regard them as true friends.
"Ella... Roasted Chestnut is poor. Let’s give him a bit more of a tip."
"Roasted Chestnut, you! Are you eating proper meals! For someone who claims to run a restaurant, you look even thinner than before!"
As I thought about the cute twins, I heard laughter from above my head.
It was the sound of Dominic laughing at my acting.
Thinking that I was repeatedly showing him an unsightly sight considering his cinephile tastes I felt a tiny bit sorry.
I looked up at Kwak Han-mook.
’You remember the setting, right?’
The setting was that Kwak Han-mook and I were brothers who ran a small restaurant despite being poor, driven by their dreams.
Receiving my gaze, Kwak Han-mook immediately dropped to his knees on the ground.
Then, he suddenly screamed.
"Aigoo! Chestnut-aaaa!"
Grab.
Kwak Han-mook hugged me tight and began to wail through clouds of fiery smoke.
"Our Chestnut did this because he’s young and didn’t know any better. Please forgive him just once. He’s too young to die like this!"
He shook me violently. The pudding slime on my head wobbled along with me.
"Look! Look at how pale his face is! He’s not even ripe yet; he’s just a green chestnut, a green chestnut! Please spare him!"
A green chestnut.
It was amazing that there were still new ’chestnut’ series variations left.
I fluttered about as Kwak Han-mook shook me and spoke weakly.
"Brother... I’m okay. Please... take care of the restaurant..."
Then, I let my head drop limply.
"Chestnut-aaaa!!"
At the sight of Kwak Han-mook screaming, the twins looked at each other. Elun muttered.
"He is a bit pitiful."
The Fire Dragon twins gave a final chance if the visitor acted pitifully.
However, the difficulty of that chance was extreme.
Ella and Elun nodded, and words of a chilling nature flowed from their cute faces.
"If you answer the riddle we pose, we shall spare your life."
"Do you dare challenge us?"
"Yes. I beg of you."
The moment my answer fell, sparks scattered in all directions.
The twins spread their wings wide.
Ella, flying into the air, brought her face close to mine.
Feeling it was too close, I leaned my head back, and Ella followed along.
Kwak Han-mook subtly reached out his arm from the side to block Ella’s approach.
Ella smirked and spoke.
"The monster has no form, yet it carves traces upon all things. High mountains, long rivers, and the kingdoms and civilizations built by you humans eventually crumble, devoured by the monster."
Elun, who had flown behind me, continued in a languid voice beside my shoulder.
"To you humans, it is far too fast; to us, it is but a fleeting moment. Yet one day, it is the monster that will swallow us, and everything else."
"Human. What is this monster?"
Kwak Han-mook looked at me. It was a gaze that asked, ’How the hell are you supposed to answer that?’
There were about 100 types of quizzes the twins gave, and some of them required new calculations every time.
This problem, with a fixed answer, was on the easier and simpler side.
I answered immediately.
’It is time."
Hearing my answer, Ella burst into a loud laugh that made her voluminous hair shake.
"You are a human of value!"
Ella, who had been circling around me with Elun, asked arrogantly.
"Human. What is your name?"
"Please call me Little Lamb."
Ella and Elun looked at each other.
’Wasn’t it Chestnut..? Green Chestnut?"
"I guess it’s a nickname"
After a brief exchange, they looked at me again.
«Very well, Little Lamb. Since you have amused us, we shall reward you. Tell us what you desire."
Now comes the most important part.
In the game, options appeared.
[The Guardians of the gate reward you:]
- Give me immense wealth.
- Give me great power.
- Give me astounding fame.
- Let me share a friendship with you.
Options 1 through 3 were all scams.
If you chose them, they did grant the wish.
They would vastly increase your funds, significantly raise your level, or make the restaurant incredibly popular.
But the results were all bad.
If you increased your funds, robbers would come that night and steal everything; if the restaurant’s popularity soared, customers would swarm a restaurant that wasn’t prepared, turning it into a disaster.
And if they raised your level, the twins would later visit the restaurant and burn it to the ground, claiming they had granted the wish too excessively.
Practically, only the last option, number 4, was viable.
"I wish to share a friendship with Lady Ella and Lord Elun."
"How presumptuous!"
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from Ella. The fire enveloping her flickered as if it would pour over me at any moment.
"Ella, stop."
Fortunately, Elun was on my side.
"A promise is a promise."
Taking a breath, Elun blew a soft breath.
"fhuuu"
Then, the flames surrounding me vanished as if by magic.
Elun spoke in place of the irritated Ella.
"We shall grant your request, but on one condition."
The reptilian eyes scanned me.
"I see that you are one who makes food. Every time you come to see us, bring human food. We shall pay a minimum price."
Ping! A system window popped up.
◆ Sub Quest: Prepare delicious food for the Fire Dragon twins, Ella and Elun. (0/66)
’This was the quest I had been waiting for.’
It was a sub-quest available only to the Chef class; regardless of what dish was given, the twins would pay the minimum amount of 1G as the food cost.
Additionally, the maximum number of food items that could be given at once was limited to 50.
It was a hidden event where one could obtain a high-quality weapon item by gifting 66 types of restaurant dishes to the twins to achieve the accomplishment.
But what was important to me right now wasn’t the weapon item.
’Minimum price 1G.’
That’s right.
Even if I gave them the 0G leaf tea, they would give me 1G!