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.