~ Chapter : 01 ~
“I told you to try it.”
She dipped a spoon into the soup filled with seaweed-like plants.
Instead of a clear broth, thick, sticky slime clung to the plants as she scooped them up.
“Ugh……”
The moment he saw Hyoji’s face wrinkle, the man suddenly burst into anger.
“You made this for me to eat?!”
“……Sorry.”
“Does saying sorry make it okay even if you kill someone?!”
Just like her boyfriend said, this dish wasn’t something anyone could eat. But still…
“I don’t have any money.”
She replied in a barely audible voice.
She had no money. Literally, Hyoji had no money.
“You have a job. How does it make sense that you don’t have money?”
It was only natural—she spent everything she earned on the boyfriend sitting in front of her. He had all sorts of expenses.
“My income is too small. It’s hard to keep up.”
As if he was fed up with the situation, the man kicked his seat and stood up.
“If you don’t have ability, then do something else instead of an awakening job.”
“……”
“You don’t even know how to do anything, yet you hang around dungeons and work as a cleaner—that’s why you live like this.”
Her boyfriend’s harsh words continued endlessly. As if used to it, Hyoji lowered her head and quietly shed tears.
“I think I know why dungeons appeared on Earth.”
“……”
“It’s a message that useless people like you shouldn’t survive.”
She felt hurt because her boyfriend didn’t understand her heart, but Hyoji endured his cruel words again today.
‘Hyun-min must be having a hard time too.’
That sentence had a strange power—it made her able to forgive anything he did.
‘I just need to do better.’
And so, Hyoji made another meaningless resolution.
‘Hyoji, once I become a Hunter, I’ll repay everything you’ve done for me. I’ll give you a good life!’
‘Really? Seriously?’
‘Of course. Even at the academy, they said I have the potential to awaken.’
It had been over two years since her boyfriend said he would give her a good life.
A so-called Hunter trainee. Put nicely, a trainee—but in reality, just unemployed.
Dungeons had appeared five years ago.
At first, no country was prepared, and it led to massive casualties.
Some people entered out of curiosity and were killed by monsters inside, while others left high-level dungeons unattended, causing breaks where monsters came out into the world.
Still, as if people weren’t meant to die so easily, something appeared—the Awakened.
People who gained the ability to clear dungeons.
It would have been nice if everyone got that ability, but even awakening had inequality.
Hunters could earn a lot of money, but only those who were chosen could become one.
And Hyoji, who wasn’t chosen, entered cleared dungeons to pick up the worthless loot left behind by Hunters—what people called a “dungeon cleaner.”
If inequality only existed in awakening, that would have been nice.
Unfortunately, even among cleaners, there was discrimination.
‘Those greedy old men… I wish they’d just get trapped in a dungeon.’
That was something Harin, her coworker and senior she became close to, said while watching the men greedily grab loot.
Among dungeon cleaners, the stronger ones took the better items.
So all Hyoji could get were useless dungeon plants.
After finishing work, while her boyfriend was at the academy, she would eat dungeon plants for dinner.
The taste was truly—honestly—terrible.
When she was extremely tired, it was enough to make her gag.
But what could she do?
All the tiny money she earned from cleaning dungeons went into supporting her boyfriend.
‘When I become a Hunter, let’s get married, Hyoji.’
Maybe because she believed those sweet words, this suffering didn’t feel like a big deal.
But reality was completely different.
‘Hyun-min, didn’t you go to the academy today?’
As the Hunter profession became popular, academy fees became very expensive—and Hyun-min often skipped.
‘You promised me you wouldn’t skip.’
‘Are you showing off just because you paid some academy fees?’
It was always like this.
‘How much money do you even make to act like that? I’ll go starting tomorrow, so mind your own business.’
Every day made her sigh.
But it seemed like God really did exist.
Because he actually became a Hunter.
‘Hunter Kim Hyun-min! Please give us an interview!’
‘You cleared a high-level dungeon right after awakening—what is your exact rank?!’
Hyoji couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
How could this be?
He skipped academy, stayed home playing games, and only complained.
‘He really became a Hunter?’
On top of that, his awakening rank was high.
Because of that, famous Hunter guilds began approaching him.
After carefully choosing, he joined one of the top five guilds in Korea.
[Rifle Guild]
Looking at the business card with the logo, Hyun-min smiled widely.
‘I think I’ll enter a high-level dungeon right away.’
His life went smoothly like a lie.
Not only did he receive a huge salary from the guild, but he also became famous as a hot rookie Hunter.
As if he had won the lottery, while Hyoji walked a thorny path, he walked only on flower roads.
Surrounded by reporters, Hyun-min felt like a stranger, and Hyoji couldn’t bring herself to approach him.
The dungeon plants she brought for dinner felt miserably pathetic.
‘That’s all for the interview. This is for the protection of the Hunter.’
Each Hunter was assigned a manager by the guild—handling schedules, condition, and more, like a celebrity manager.
As the manager cleared the crowd, Hyun-min passed right by her, feeling like someone from a completely different world.
At that moment, a woman approached him warmly.
‘Hyun-min.’
‘Are you hurt anywhere?’
The woman who appeared beside him—
A famous Hunter known for both her skills and beauty, Baek Gayeon.
In that instant, he became someone from another world.
A new life as an awakened one.
Not a shabby life eating dungeon plants, but a glamorous and brilliant one.
[Kim Hyun-min ♥ Baek Gayeon, Late-Night Date?]
Her boyfriend’s scandal broke out.
While waiting for the dungeon he entered to be cleared, she saw the article on her phone.
‘A perfect couple.’
‘He’s talented, handsome, and even Baek Gayeon? He has everything.’
‘Are they the official couple of Rifle Guild?’
People’s reactions were mostly positive.
After becoming famous, Hyun-min never revealed he had a girlfriend.
When she once asked him about it, he said:
‘Articles come out every day. What do you think will happen if I say I have a girlfriend too?’
He read every single article about himself.
He cared deeply about public attention.
‘Okay.’
Thinking how tiring it must be to be famous, Hyoji let it go. Or at least, she tried to.
But then—
[Kim Hyun-min ♥ Baek Gayeon, First Kiss Scene. Exclusive.]
‘Are you cheating on me?’
“……”
‘That scandal with Hunter Baek Gayeon—is it true?’
They had spent five long years together.
They met as college freshmen, stayed together all that time, and even promised marriage.
‘I’m asking if it’s true.’
“……”
‘You bastard.’
As if someone had stolen time itself—
Her heart became completely still.
After breaking up with Hyun-min, Hyoji felt empty, but her life didn’t change much.
She still lived eating dungeon plants like always.
If anything improved, it was that she could eat out once or twice a week.
Because she no longer had to pay academy fees.
“Ugh……”
It tastes horrible.
She thought she had gotten used to dungeon plants, but she was completely wrong.
Today, she found a plant she had never seen before while working.
‘Oh! A new plant!’
Thinking she had built tolerance, she gathered a lot—but this happened.
Looking at the pile of plants filling her sink, she sighed.
‘Should I just throw them away…?’
In the dungeon, they didn’t look this strange. They had soft, white, fluffy flowers.
But after preparing them, it turned into something like a dish from hell.
The smell was also unbelievably strong.
Even after opening the window, the smell wouldn’t go away.
“This smell is insane.”
Some dungeon plants smelled bad but tasted okay.
So she tried eating it…
‘No, this is too much.’
The moment she took a bite, she immediately spat it out. This wasn’t something a human could eat.
It seemed this batch was a complete failure.
She brought a lot just because it looked pretty—and ended up with more trash.
‘Even trash bags are expensive.’
Hyoji threw the dish into the food waste bin.
What should she do with the rest?
Looking at the pile of fluffy flowers, she sighed again.
Then, a flower pot on the balcony caught her eye.
When she first started working as a cleaner, she bought it to try growing dungeon plants.
But when planted in normal soil, dungeon plants would rot quickly and become useless.
‘When they rot, they turn into powder.’
Wouldn’t that save money on trash bags?
As soon as she thought of that, she grabbed an armful of the fluffy flowers and went to the balcony.
‘Is this what they call creative economy?’
She even admired her own cleverness.
From now on, she could deal with inedible dungeon plants this way.
She loosened the soil and planted the flowers carelessly.
Since she planted too many in the small pot, the fluffy mass looked like a giant cotton candy.
“Done.”
Hyoji smiled with satisfaction and stood up.
If she left it like this, it would soon rot…
“Uh?”
It should be withering and turning into powder.
“Uh…?”
The cotton candy was getting bigger?
The leaves, stems, and flowers were growing at a visible speed.
“W-what is this?”
The tiny flowers, once as small as cherries, had grown enough to touch the balcony ceiling.
“What… this is scary.”
As she stepped back in fear—
[Congratulations. You have awakened as the ‘Unique Plant Guardian of Another World.’]
