The Skill Maker

<Test #3>

Edited By: Sebas Tian

Hyun-Soo had his own worries and problems.

When thinking about his situation and taking into consideration of other things, all he did was pick the best choice.

“Hyun-Soo, I’m sleepy.”

“Okay. Go to sleep. I’ll do the rest.”

“No, I’ll help you finish. But cook me something yummy when we get back.”

Even Hyuna’s eyes were half closed, she continued helping him while whining.

“Okay, fine. What would you like?”

“Spicy Chicken Stew. A spicy one. I keep thinking about that before going to sleep.”

“Yes, ma’am. Since you helped out, I’ll make it really good and serve it to you.”

“Yes! Then, I’m not going to eat and wait for you, okay?”

“Okay, okay. Anyways, I thought we would’ve been done by now, but we haven’t finished yet.”

Whew.

The sibling let out a sigh at the same time.

One step forward towards Hyun-Soo’s plan.

In order to do that, he had to escape from this rice ball cake making hell.

***

Munch, munch.

Hyun-Soo stayed up all night making and packaging the rice ball cake and he opened one of them and ate it.

‘I didn’t know packaging these would take this long.’

There weren’t any bottles or containers.

He just small, plastic bags.

He mentioned how important packaging was, so using her high school girl senses, she worked on the packaging.

“You can’t put in several of these at once!”

“It’s better to put a few in and then wrapping them. It’s easier to eat and store.”

“You can’t slack off! The packaging is important when it comes to gifts!”

“It’s a Korean snack, so wouldn’t they like it more if the packaging was Korean-like as well?”

Then, she brought a scissor and thread and somehow packaged it to look like a pretty lucky bag.

‘Wow. Kim Hyuna, you’re pretty amazing.’

Hyun-Soo exclaimed to himself.

He didn’t know that would lead him to packaging hell though…

After escaping the rice ball cake making hell, packaging hell was what came next.

Hyuna instructed him to fold and tie in a certain way and he did that for several of hours.

‘I thought I would be able to sleep after I finish.’

There was a surprise.

In the end, he had to sleep late, but he managed to finish packing under Hyuna’s instructions.

‘The packaging isn’t even that important. All that matters is that they enjoy the rice ball cakes.’

Despite of thinking that way, Hyuna didn’t budge on her decision.

“There’s a girl with full makeup and a girl with no make-up. Who are you attracted to the most?”

“…..”

Hyuna giggled because of the unexpected question.

“See, that’s the importance of packaging.”

“Hyun-Soo tried to come up with an excuse.

“I mean, a person’s outer appearance isn’t the most important thing, but in common situations…you know, kids tend to be attracted to people that are prettier and it’s based on instincts…”

There are women that are pretty even without makeup.

Someone passed over Hyun-Soo’s head in a blink of an eye.

“I don’t need your excuses. I’m just saying. So stop complaining and help out.”

“Yes, Ms. Kim.”

Hyuna didn’t care about his excuse and in the end, Hyun-Soo had to keep working on the packaging until the very last rice ball cake.

But, through this, there was another thing that he gained.

‘It already went up to 17%.’

It was the activation rate of Interface.

In order to create the best rice ball cake, he tried different methods and since he used Interface every time, it showed that the rate increased.

While he was looking at the increased rate with satisfaction, another thought popped into his head.

Despite of the low rate, it was a skill that he needed, so if all of its functions were activated, what kind of world will it show him?

“…..”

Hyun-Soo was deep within his thoughts that his smile disappeared.

He imagined something that didn’t make sense.

Anyways, he earned it and he was exhausted.

Since his physical condition was good, it was his mentality that was exhausted.

Crack.

Hyun-Soo stretched his stiff shoulder and ate another rice ball cake.

The sweet rice ball cake helped relieve his exhaustion.

He managed to get two hours of sleep, so he didn’t stay up all night.

Thanks to Hyuna’s skills, he was able to sleep that much.

Yawn.

‘I’m sleepy…’

Hyun-Soo let out a long yawn.

It was a natural thing he couldn’t contain.

“A fly is going to enter your mouth, Hyun-Soo.”

“Oh, you’re here.”

“Yes, Hyun-Soo. You’re here early. You didn’t have to be here so early. Are you nervous?”

“I have no reason to be nervous. I just need to do my best.”

“Great. I like that thought. Well, we did go hunting together once long ago. When I think about that, I was worried for nothing. You were at a higher level than those guys and there are several people participating, so it should be fine.”

In order to wake himself up, he came outside to sit down and Eugene spoke to him when he found him.

‘Great. I should give it to him now.’

He was the perfect person to test out the taste first.

Since he was already here, Hyun-Soo decided to check Eugene’s reaction.

“What is this? Is it for me? You’re not bribing, are you? It won’t work unfortunately.”

When Hyun-Soo handed him a plastic bag that contained small packages filled with rice cakes, Eugene made a fuss and took one out.

“Try it.”

When Hyun-Soo told him to eat it, Eugene immediately opened it and ate one.

And then, he exclaimed, which was very American-like.

“Wow. It’s delicious! I know what this is. Rice cake! Wait, is it? It’s chewier and has more texture to it.”

“It’s called a rice ball cake. I heard people in the US don’t like soft food, so I made it a bit hard. How is it? Is it okay?”

“It’s good. It’s a relief that you’ve been recruited, Hyun-Soo. I want to compliment the me in the past.”

Eugene excitedly expressed his opinion.

Since his opinion wasn’t bad, Hyun-Soo felt relieved.

‘If he said they were bad, then all the work would’ve been a waste and my plan would be ruined.’

Thankfully, Eugene liked it, so the others probably would have similar opinions about it.

“You’re going to give that to the members, right? Do you want me to give it to them instead?”

“I was actually going to ask you, so I’d be grateful if you did. Please tell them that it will taste more delicious if they eat it when they’re low on stamina or when they’re tired.”

He couldn’t really tell them to eat it during the hunt.

It will sound odd no matter how it’s said.

“You know, I keep wanting to eat it. I’m sure I’ll think about it during the hunt.”

“Then, eat it.”

‘And it’ll be great if you told people about the effects.’

Hyun-Soo was disappointed by the fact that he couldn’t tell them.

Even though he made the decision to somewhat reveal it, it was still too early to explain everything.

If he handed the rice ball cakes to them, then some of them will definitely refuse it, so when Eugene offered, Hyun-Soo accepted without any hesitation.

Thanks to that.

Today was the day of the second hunt and those that were participating and those that were watching all carried a small bag.

‘It’s a good reaction.’

Thankfully, his plan wasn’t going to be ruined from the beginning.

Some of them tried to continuously eat it, so Eugene stopped them from doing so.

“I told you that it’ll taste better when you’re tired. Don’t eat it now!”

“Jeez. How could you give us this and tell us not to eat it? That guy is scarier than I thought.”

Hyun-Soo heard them whining positively, but they had negative reactions.

Even Marcus ate one and after, quietly kept it for himself.

It was now time for his test.

Kim Yoo-Na appeared right on time and spoke shortly.

“Let’s have fun this time too. Let’s get going.”

**

‘I’m nervous.’

He told Eugene that he wasn’t nervous at all, but Hyun-Soo was a bit nervous.

He wasn’t nervous before this, but after doing an identity check and going through confirmation procedures, he entered the blue portal and his heart started pounding.

‘Is it because this is going to be my official debut?’

Debut wasn’t exactly the right word for this, but since the context was similar, he decided to leave it at that.

“Hyon-Ssoo, are you scared?”

Katrina was beside him and she asked.

“No, not really.”

He wasn’t scared. Just a bit nervous.

He was going to go on a hunt while being watched by the A rank hunters.

And he’ll be acknowledged.

It was a simple diagram, but Hyun-Soo’s desire was contained in it.

‘If someone told the Hyun-Soo from a couple of years ago, I probably wouldn’t have believed it.’

He was looking forward to this kind of situation when he was helpless and lost.

He was expecting this when he was busy looking for jobs because he couldn’t get acknowledged as a hunter.

He was looking at a much bigger picture.

He was sure that this moment will leave a big mark in his picture.

‘I should think about this when everything is over.’

Hyun-Soo looked at the plant that had some sort of bump all over them.

The monster they had to hunt today was the Blasting Spore.

‘They’re a picky one.’

The members couldn’t be too spread out, but they couldn’t be too close to it and that’s why the Blasting Spore was dangerous.

They marked their territory and the hunters that step into their territory will be considered food.

They could be considered a man-eating plant.

The Blasting Spore is vicious because when a prey enters their territory and if they feel like that the prey is going to try to run away, they’ll extend their roots and attack them so that they can capture the pretty.

The problem was that their territory was pretty wide, so even long-distance attackers had no choice but to attack within their territory. In this case, if the hunters spread out, then the long-distance attackers that are the furthest would continue attacking the monster.

That’s why, it was better to spread out around the monster to prevent wasting skills.

However, there are instances when hunters would attack randomly.

‘If we stay together, then the monster will attack us, so we have to be careful about that.’

No matter how you look at it, they were picky.

Just because the color of the portal was the same, it didn’t mean the level of the monsters were all the same.

The Blasting Spore was considered a high-ranking monster.

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll save you if it gets dangerous.”

‘Please don’t.’

Katrina tightened her fist and spoke with a determined tone.

Hyun-Soo was in a difficult situation where he couldn’t laugh or cry.

‘I’m pretty sure I saved her before.’

Well, he was a bit lacking to say that he saved her, but still.

“Tankers will enter first. To your positions!”

In order to prepare for the explosions, Brad held up a large Kite Shield and slowly entered the monster’s territory.

On the Blasting Spore’s head, a large amount of their spores were hanging from it and as they were moving, the sound of the spores hitting each other could be heard.

Their slow movements probably helped them determine whether the opponent was food or not.

And Brad attacked the Blasting Spore’s vine.

The sound of friction became so strong that it couldn’t be compared to anything else.

The Blasting Spore attacked Brad as if they were some annoying prey that they didn’t want to deal with.

Every time they moved their head, a large amount of explosive spores fell towards Brad.

Brad blocked them with his shield and aimed it so that it would fall behind him.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

When the spores landed on the ground, they started exploding.

Brad smoothly moved away from the spores, so he wasn’t really affected by the explosions.

He continued doing that and as Kim Yoo-Na was watching, she commanded the other hunters.

“The tanker is now in position. Attackers move in.”

Close-range attackers, long-distance attackers and the healers got into position.

It was the start of the official hunt.