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Chapter 1
A crack appeared in the sky.
We called it a “Gate,” and from within it poured monsters beyond imagination.
People trembled in fear. Guns, tanks, even the science humanity had built over hundreds of years were useless against those monsters. Cities collapsed, and countless lives were lost.
And amidst that chaos, some people suddenly gained mysterious powers.
They were called “Awakened” or “Hunters,” the only beings capable of defeating the monsters threatening humanity.
At first, naturally, everyone dreamed of awakening.
Me too—I wanted to become a Hunter at least once in my life.
But most people failed miserably.
However, I, Jung Haneul (26 years old, unemployed), managed to awaken through sheer luck!
The problem was… my ability was a little strange.
“One red bean and one custard, please!”
“Yes! Just a moment~!”
Apparently, endless labor…
“I’ll take one red bean and two custards.”
“The custard ones take a little longer!”
…was required.
You’re probably wondering why we suddenly went from awakenings to fish-shaped pastries.
Well…
This story begins about three months ago.
“This is the last one…”
I quietly muttered as I looked around the empty shop.
Today was the day I had to close down my parents’ precious store—a place they had run for over thirty years.
“So this is how it all ends… just like that.”
I bit my lip as I touched one of the wooden tables worn and scratched by years of use.
It had already been five years since my parents passed away.
I had struggled alone all this time, determined to protect at least the shop they left behind…
‘You’re telling me to leave all of a sudden? That makes no sense!’
‘Well, that’s just how it is. Empty the place as soon as possible!’
One day, the landlady suddenly came by and told me her daughter wanted to open a store here, so I had to leave.
“…And just when the neighborhood regulars were finally starting to acknowledge me.”
I’d only just begun to imitate Mom’s cooking well enough.
Why was the world so cruel to me?
Wasn’t it enough that the Gate incident took my entire family? Did they really have to take away the only thing I had left too?
It felt unbearably unfair.
I buried my face in my knees and sniffled.
I just wanted to give up.
Give up on everything…
Then—
“Do you require my help, human? Meow?”
Suddenly, I heard a child’s voice.
A child? At this hour of the night?
And the shop was closed.
The moment I realized how strange that was, chills crawled up the back of my neck.
“W-Who are you?”
“If I grant your wish, will you help me in return? Meow?”
No matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t figure out where the voice was coming from.
A ghost? No way.
But then—
FLASH!
Lightning suddenly split the sky, casting a long shadow across the floor.
I slowly raised my head to follow it.
“…A cat?”
Standing there was a gigantic calico cat, at least twice the size of an ordinary one.
“Don’t you wish to reclaim this shop, meow?”
“…Our shop?”
“If you help me, I shall grant your wish, meow. I can make this shop yours again.”
A wish…
I slowly looked around the shop.
The familiar scenery I had seen since childhood filled my eyes.
“Can you really grant my wish?”
“Of course, meow. As long as it doesn’t violate causality, anything is possible!”
The cat looked at me proudly.
Right.
This was the store my parents had run since before I was even born.
If I could reclaim this place…
“What do I need to help you with?”
“Hmph, now you’re finally listening, meow. But first, this might sting a little!”
The cat leapt onto a chair and smacked my forehead with its fluffy paw.
“AGH!”
Clutching my forehead from the unexpected attack, I suddenly felt my vision spin violently.
‘Ugh! M-My head feels like it’s splitting apart!’
The dizziness was so terrible that I grabbed onto a table to keep from collapsing and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Now open your eyes and look ahead, meow! Hurry!”
Pressed by the cat’s commanding tone, I cautiously opened my eyes.
And before me appeared—
Congratulations, Jung Haneul!
You have been chosen by @%@asj@*$@!
Check Rank ⇒
Check Skills ⇒
Go to My Shop ⇒
A blue translucent window.
One I had never seen before, yet somehow felt strangely familiar.
“I-I awakened?”
My rank! What was my rank?
Hurriedly, I pressed “Check Rank.”
Then I froze in despair.
“F-Rank…?”
I had awakened, but I was apparently the weakest of the weak—basically no different from an ordinary person!
And on top of that—
“Wait. Something’s weird.”
I stared suspiciously at the floating blue window.
‘Chosen by @%@asj@*$@’? Why was the text all glitched out?
As I narrowed my eyes at the screen, the cat beside me spoke in a bored tone.
“You were awakened through my selection, meow. Of course you won’t be the same as other humans.”
“You awakened me?”
“Indeed. Didn’t you say you wanted to help me, meow?”
When did I ever say that?!
I only asked what I had to do!
I glared at the cat in disbelief.
“You said I needed power, right? And you only awakened me as an F-Rank!”
“You don’t need grand power, meow. Your role is simply to deliver ‘blessings’ to humans.”
“Blessings? Like… baptisms or something?”
The cat looked at me as if I were hopeless before explaining.
To summarize, “blessings” referred to its power.
And my job was to create a medium capable of containing those blessings and deliver them to people.
“So what’s the medium?”
“Food, meow.”
“…Food? The kind people eat?”
“What else would it be, meow?”
No, I understood that part…
It was just weird.
Who delivers blessings through food?!
Do people just eat it and magically receive blessings?
While grumbling internally, I suddenly realized something and shut my mouth.
Come to think of it, I didn’t even have a store anymore to make food in.
“More importantly, where am I supposed to cook now that I lost the shop?”
“Hmph. Did you think I wouldn’t prepare even that, meow?”
“You prepared a place? Where?”
The cat proudly told me to check the status window.
The status window?
You mean this?
My eyes landed on the suspicious glowing phrase near the bottom.
“…Go to My Shop?”
The moment I unconsciously read the words aloud, my vision distorted and the ground beneath me gave way.
“KYAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing on an unfamiliar street.
There were no people around, only a few dim streetlights glowing faintly.
Barely regaining my senses, I whipped my head around to look at my surroundings.
Aside from a massive building across the street, there was practically nothing here.
“There’s literally nothing around. How am I supposed to run a business here?”
The most important thing in business was location.
The second most important thing was the product itself.
Near a subway station—or at least somewhere near schools or offices—that was the minimum requirement for decent sales.
But this place had absolutely nothing.
And that building over there…
“Isn’t that the Hunter Management Bureau? You want me to sell food here? Absolutely not.”
I crossed my arms into an X and shook my head firmly.
Awakened individuals—Hunters—had a serious problem.
As a side effect of awakening, they gradually lost their sense of taste.
And apparently, the higher the rank, the worse it became.
Selling food to people who couldn’t even taste it?
That was completely ridiculous.
“Let’s move somewhere else. I know the perfect spot. It’d make a fortune.”
“Another place? It must be here, meow!”
“If we do business here, we’ll definitely fail! Aren’t we supposed to deliver blessings or whatever?!”
The cat firmly insisted this was the ideal location.
Its expression clearly said there would be no compromise.
“Don’t blame me when this crashes and burns.”
Blessings or not…
Once no customers showed up, the cat would come to its senses.
Giving up on persuading it, I looked around again.
Come to think of it, I got here by saying “Go to My Shop,” but I still didn’t see anything that looked like a shop.
“Wait. Where’s the store? There’s nothing here.”
“Look over there, meow.”
The cat stretched out its paw and pointed across the street.
Only then did I notice something wrapped tightly in a tarp.
“This is the shop?”
As I cautiously approached, I saw what looked like a decaying street stall that might collapse if someone poked it too hard.
The rough green tarp had faded badly, and the exposed wooden boards were half broken.
“…We don’t call this a shop. We call it garbage.”
“Garbage?! That’s too harsh, meow!”
What was harsh wasn’t my words.
It was the condition of the shop.
Would this thing even pass a health inspection…?
