"Chicken really is a marvelous thing."
"Didn't I tell you it'd be amazing, granny?"
"I'll admit it. For a raccoon with such a tiny brain, you've got great taste."
"Is that a compliment?"
"It is."
"Then I'm glad."
Kanchyo nodded earnestly in satisfaction.
Thank goodness he was a simple, pure-hearted friend.
"Oh, and about the ingredient for the Elixir of Immortality. Now that I think about it, we do have one."
"Oh? In the Star Workshop?"
"No."
Elia shook her head and pointed at Momo.
Whether she was pointed at or not, Momo was busy tearing into chicken wings.
She only picked out the tenderest, softest parts to eat.
Just what I needed—another competitor.
"Chipmunk Cheeks."
"Hm?"
"Stop gnawing on that chicken and open your bag. Let's see what you picked up on the last floor."
"Okay!"
"Time!"
Jinhyuk reached out and stopped Momo from dumping open her bag.
"Let's do it inside the Workshop."
Momo had dismantled the giant centipede elder without missing a single piece.
Naturally, her bag was stuffed full of centipede parts.
If she opened that in the new house, the place would be drenched in centipede goo.
Snap.
Elia flicked her fingers and a door appeared.
Momo gathered her chicken, radish pickles, and cola and darted inside.
"Where do you think you're taking my chicken?!"
Kanchyo shrieked and chased after her, while Seira flopped onto the sofa, full and lethargic.
Darc said he'd get some fresh night air and launched himself toward the veranda.
He's going to get reported at this rate…!
Hopefully no one saw him.
Jinhyuk opened the door and stepped into the Workshop.
"No, not this. Not this one either. This is just meat."
Elia rummaged through the pile of stuff Momo had emptied out.
After digging around for quite a while, Elia suddenly shot upright, exclaiming, "Found it!"
"This is more than good enough as an ingredient for the Elixir of Immortality."
"Ugh."
She held something out toward them, and Jinhyuk and Kanchyo instinctively stepped back.
It was the centipede elder's heart—still beating for some reason.
Elia stroked the heart with a soft laugh.
"I had a feeling we'd find one."
"Is it that valuable?"
"A thousand-year-old centipede is nearly impossible to find, and this was an elder? Its heart is practically a source of life itself. It holds all the life force that monster once had. And the fresher it is, the better."
Elia darted off somewhere and returned with a long rectangular box.
When she lifted the lid, a grotesque specimen was revealed.
While Kanchyo and Jinhyuk recoiled in horror, Elia drew a small alchemy sigil.
When she placed the heart onto it—whoosh—it vanished.
Elia wiped the sweat from her brow.
"Good. That'll keep it safe. If the blood stops circulating, the heart will rot."
"Y-you put it inside that thing?"
"Yep. It may look dead, but it's still alive. I swapped out its heart."
Elia held up a heart they'd never seen before.
Every time she pulled out something new, Kanchyo and Jinhyuk edged even farther away.
"There's one piece left! Kanchyo, eat!"
Momo, still focused entirely on her chicken mukbang, offered him the remaining chicken breast.
She'd obviously saved the part she didn't want.
"After seeing two hearts, I can't eat anymore! Momo, please eat it yourself!"
"You eat it, Master!"
"I'm good too."
His stomach was full, and the sight of that heart had obliterated his appetite.
Momo blinked, then stuffed the chicken breast back into its packet.
And judging by how she shoved it inside the bag, she clearly intended to throw it out later.
"Elia."
"Mm?"
"Were you… an evil villain, by any chance?"
"What are you talking about, sir?! Of course she was! This granny is a witch! Didn't you see that specimen earlier?!"
"You're smarter than you look. People did call me a witch. Among other things."
"For example?"
"Crazy, deranged, dark, wicked, cursed, and so on."
"Oh…"
Elia gave Kanchyo a strange smile.
"Sometimes I'd turn a feeble little raccoon into a super-strong raccoon. Though before long its limbs would pop right off."
"Eeek! Commander!!"
Kanchyo shrieked and ducked behind Jinhyuk.
Jinhyuk waved his hands quickly.
"Kanchyo's off-limits as an experiment."
"Of course. I only use bad people."
"Liar! That feeble raccoon must've been a good friend!"
"No, he was bad. I don't remember exactly—it was ages ago—but I'm sure he was."
Elia shrugged and rummaged around the Workshop's materials section.
"Hmm. I think there was one here somewhere… Is this it?"
She pulled out a small box and opened it.
Inside was a piece no larger than a fingernail.
"What is it?"
"A young imugi's heart. Or rather, powdered from a dried heart. An imugi is a creature that hides away for over a thousand years, waiting to ascend and become a dragon. If you find a whole heart, it's priceless."
"How did you get this?"
"I just came across a tiny bit by chance. I've never seen a complete one. Oh, but I have seen an imugi."
"What was it like?"
"I think it was five times bigger than the centipede elder? And I remember it could use magic too."
"Ooh. That's scary."
"I almost got hit by its tail for poking my nose where I shouldn't."
Jinhyuk stared at the box in silence.
The ingredients truly fit something called an Elixir of Immortality.
Even if they got lucky with the centipede elder's heart, where were they supposed to find an imugi?
Maybe… I should at least check.
He took out the Yordle Compass from his inventory.
After its latest upgrade, it could now track items as well.
He brought the powdered heart close.
"What?"
For some reason—
The compass began spinning at a terrifying speed as if it had locked onto something.
The distance indicator skyrocketed as well.
Elia and Kanchyo crowded around him.
"Oh? Interesting tool."
"Quit drooling, granny! That's a Yordle treasure!"
While the two bickered, the compass gradually slowed.
It fixed itself in one direction.
The number displayed: roughly three million.
"Why's the number so huge?"
"Well, it's still cheaper than buying a house!"
Momo chimed in at some point.
Jinhyuk rubbed his chin.
Three thousand kilometers.
Far, but not impossible.
But why is it reacting at all?
This was powdered heart from an imugi—a creature that shouldn't exist in the modern world.
It shouldn't detect anything. And yet it was showing direction and distance.
Meaning an imugi—or its heart—truly existed somewhere.
"Elia, you sure this isn't powdered centipede leg?"
"Excuse you! I'm only 3,271 in elf years—that's still young! My memory isn't that bad."
The chance of the compass malfunctioning was also slim.
After its upgrade, Jinhyuk had tested it countless times with items exclusive to the Tower or to this world.
It had never once pointed incorrectly.
Three thousand kilometers in that direction…
He drew a line across the map app.
It landed somewhere around the mountain ranges near Lijiang, China.
And then one mountain name caught his eye.
— Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the place where dragons descend.
He wasn't looking for a dragon but an imugi.
Still, no place had a more fitting name.
"Commander, are we going there?"
Elia, Momo, and Kanchyo looked up at him.
At first glance, the distance had made it seem impossible.
But the more he thought about it…
Why not?
He didn't have a lot of money, but he could afford a plane ticket.
He had friends who'd climb the snowy mountains with him.
He hadn't committed a crime or been banned from international travel, and he didn't have work the next day.
There was absolutely no reason not to go.
"Kanchyo, Momo—pack up."
Jinhyuk grinned.
"We're going on a trip!"
Yoo Jinhyuk, age twenty-two.
His first ever overseas trip—confirmed.
"Yes, your application is submitted. It'll take about a month for your passport to be issued."
Jinhyuk's eyes widened.
"A month?"
"Yes. Normally it takes two weeks, but lately there's been a surge in applicants. Everyone's traveling abroad these days."
"I see… Thank you."
He bowed weakly and left.
His heart had been pounding with excitement about leaving for China.
Now, waiting an entire month made his vision go dark.
Passports don't come out immediately, huh…
Korea, the nation renowned for lightning-fast processing.
He'd thought passports came out same-day—like opening a bank account.
Not that I'd know. I've never traveled abroad.
The only time he'd ever been on a plane was in his second year of high school for a school trip to Jeju Island.
Even then they were stuck in some training facility the whole time—not exactly a real trip.
"Commander. Should I steal a sol… sol… pass-thing for you?"
"You can't steal one. It has to be registered in the system everywhere."
"So… we can't go overseas?"
Kanchyo already had a backpack slung over his shoulders.
He'd been ready to leave immediately, so the disappointment hit him hard.
"Well, nothing we can do."
Jinhyuk sat on the sofa and pulled out his phone.
He canceled the plane ticket he'd enthusiastically bought for tomorrow morning.
Then he began rescheduling each of the duty-free items he'd pre-ordered.
Screech!!
Tires skidded loudly outside.
Maybe an accident? Jinhyuk turned toward the entrance.
"Huh?"
The door swung open—and in rushed a very familiar face.
Team Leader Jin Yunho of the Hunter Bureau.
His face was flushed and he was panting hard, as if he'd sprinted here to catch someone.
Then their eyes met—
"!!!"
Jin Yunho stormed toward him with unbelievable urgency.
Was he after me?
Jinhyuk searched his memory frantically for something he might've done wrong.
But the moment Jin Yunho reached him, he grabbed Jinhyuk's hands.
"Mr. Yoo Jinhyuk, I'm so sorry! On behalf of the Player Hunter Bureau, I sincerely apologize!"
"…Huh? For what?"
"You must have felt slighted. We promised to provide equipment and only assigned you to a pathetic D-grade wing. The house we arranged for you was barely forty pyeong. We gave you almost no real support. And we even acted like we were being generous by giving you a Flix bag. We were wrong. Please, reconsider naturalization."
"Naturalization?"
Jinhyuk blinked.
The flood of words made it impossible to process anything.
"You booked a flight to China for tomorrow, and you applied for a passport today, did you not?"
Ah.
He remembered now.
He'd agreed to disclose exit-related information when he accepted the Flix bag.
Jin Yunho looked like he was onto the verge of tears.
Even though Jinhyuk had already declined naturalization, that hardly mattered.
It wasn't as if he owed the Hunter Bureau anything substantial.
He could return everything and leave the country—and that would be that.
And of all places, China—a nation famous for poaching Korean players with immense capital.
"It's a misunderstanding. I'm not naturalizing."
"Huh? Then why the passport…?"
Jinhyuk smiled brightly.
"I'm going on a trip."
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T/N:
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