Chapter 122: A Close Call

“Of course, you must not receive help from the spirits. Otherwise, it would put Chan at too much of a disadvantage.”

It was as if PD Shimjun had read Roy’s mind with his words, and Roy forced himself to nod.

To be honest, if the spirits even helped a little, finding the puzzle pieces would be a walk in the park.

Even if they were buried underground, Solum could just move the soil and deliver them straight to Roy’s hand in no time.

“Both of you need to carry out the mission using only your physical strength.”

Kim Chan looked at Roy with a somewhat sympathetic gaze.

Unlike himself, who had awakened his physical abilities, Roy, whose strength centered around spirits, was at a clear disadvantage for this mission.

But he also knew that if Roy used the spirits’ power, he’d lose right away, so he held his tongue.

‘Whatever happens, I hate punishments.’

He really wanted to avoid the penalty if possible.

After all, the motto of this program was ‘hardship.’

If that was the case, he couldn’t even imagine how harsh the penalty would be.

On top of that, he was already struggling with digestion from the pressure of filming with High Cycle.

There was no reason to go out of his way to take on a penalty he could avoid.

“Are you both ready? Then I’ll start the timer right now.”

After checking the changed expressions of Roy and Kim Chan, PD Shimjun set a 10-minute timer on his phone and pressed the start button.

“Beeeeep!” (Contractor, win!)

The spirits sat huddled around Shimjun, watching Roy and Kim Chan dash around the Jangwon in a flurry.

“Do you all like dried filefish?”

“Beep?” (Filefish?)

But soon their attention turned to the bag Shimjun pulled out of his arms.

“This is homemade dried filefish that’s all the rage these days, and it’s really tasty. Give it a try.”

Shimjun was thinking of adding some extra content to the program by filming the spirits eating Korean beef.

Usually, animals can’t eat human food, but spirits were different.

Besides, Aqua looked more like a small doll than an animal anyway.

Two cameras immediately zoomed in on the spirits as they started sampling the filefish.

“Finding the puzzle is harder than it looks.”

Turning his gaze from the spirits, Shimjun’s lips curled up into a mischievous grin.

It was a smile that looked out of place for his age.

“Found it!”

***

Kim Chan spotted a puzzle piece sitting squarely at the base of a tree.

He didn’t know if he and Roy needed to complete the same puzzle shape or not, but he reached out to pick it up anyway. But then—

Whoosh—

“……Why is the puzzle moving?”

Kim Chan let out a dumbfounded voice as the puzzle piece slipped nimbly from his grasp.

Now that he looked closer, two legs were sticking out from underneath the puzzle piece.

“This is… really interesting.”

At the same time, Roy was going through the same thing.

He forced a smile as the puzzle piece he was holding sprouted legs and tried to run away.

He hadn’t expected them to give a normal mission to Hunters who were over level 300, but still, he never imagined the puzzle pieces would move like living creatures.

“Ten minutes… might not be enough.”

At first, even with 48 pieces, he thought this would be easy.

He’d been a little deflated when told he couldn’t accept help from the spirits, but even so, he thought it wouldn’t be hard to find the pieces on his own.

But now, with the pieces running around on legs, it was a whole different story.

“Ugh. Hup. Haaaap.”

Nearby, Kim Chan was also flustered, letting out all sorts of grunts and shouts as he struggled.

Even during the pre-debut contest, High Cycle had surprised the contestants by turning into a moving teddy bear. They must really like this kind of mischief.

“Whew…”

But giving up on the mission just because it was troublesome wasn’t an option.

Roy took a deep breath and started quickly rearranging everything in his field of vision.

“At least I got one.”

The puzzle piece struggled to escape his grip, feeling eerily like holding a live bug, sending shivers through him, but he endured.

‘If the mission was already this bad, who knew how much worse the penalty would be?’

“If I fit it here, will it stay put?”

Not wanting to feel any more discomfort than necessary, he quickly matched the puzzle piece to its spot on the board, and the legs underneath vanished as it snapped into place.

“Oh, so that’s how you do it.”

Just then, Kim Chan, who had been eyeing Roy’s actions from nearby, quickly followed suit.

***

After a series of bizarre grunts, he seemed to have found quite a few pieces already.

At a glance, his board had more pieces filled in than Roy’s.

“Now that we know the method…”

Swish, swish, swish—

One piece crawling across a blade of grass, another dangling from a leaf, another crawling toward the pond.

Roy snatched up three pieces at once and placed them on his board.

“Hmm, not this one. Is it a duplicate?”

He picked up another piece crawling at his feet, but it was the same shape as one already on his board.

But the color printed on it was different, so although the shapes matched, the finished pictures would be different.

That meant the piece he was holding was one Kim Chan needed.

Roy glanced at Kim Chan, who was engrossed in finding puzzle pieces, then tossed the piece up to the very top of the largest tree in the Jangwon.

“Beeep.” (Contractor, that’s cheating.)

Ber, who was munching on the dried meat Shimjun had given him, booed as he watched Roy and Kim Chan compete.

‘There’s no such thing as cheating in a match. Winning is all that matters.’

Besides, it wasn’t even that underhanded. He was just making it a bit harder for Kim Chan to find the piece.

“Hmmph.”

Then, as soon as Kim Chan met Roy’s gaze, he blatantly turned his head.

Roy chuckled as Kim Chan looked in the direction of the piece he’d just thrown.

‘What are we even doing…’

A mission he’d thought was ridiculous at first had both Roy and Kim Chan now taking it seriously.

“Five minutes left. Neither of you has even found a quarter of the pieces yet. At this rate, you’ll both be getting the penalty together.”

Shimjun’s sly voice snapped both of them out of their lull.

“Kim Chan, let’s just play fair, whoever wins.”

With little time left, if they kept sabotaging each other, they’d really both end up getting punished, just like Shimjun said.

“Fine. I threw the one I just found over there.”

“Mine’s up in this tree.”

***

After making a neat compromise, Roy moved so quickly it was hard for even Shimjun’s eyes to follow.

“Oh. No wonder you’re a top-class Hunter.”

Shimjun, chewing on a piece of dried meat handed to him by Solum, looked on in admiration.

They were still fresh-faced from their debut, but even now, these two could hold their own in the Hunter world. Shimjun couldn’t help but nod in approval at their prowess.

“Beeeeep.” (If I helped, you’d finish in no time.)

Meanwhile, Ris, who hadn’t shown much interest in his Contractor until now, let out a regretful cry after grabbing as much dried meat as he wanted.

If he’d been allowed to use his powers, he could have found all the pieces in seconds.

He seemed genuinely sorry to see Roy struggling so hard.

And so, it happened that there were just three seconds left on Shimjun’s timer.

“Done! I finished!”

“Uhhh…!”

Roy raised the completed puzzle board above his head.

Kim Chan, who was missing two pieces, stomped his feet in frustration.

“That was a close call.”

Shimjun pressed the stop button on the timer and smiled brightly.

Roy, who’d been running around so frantically in such a short time, couldn’t help but be annoyed at the sight.

“With this, Roy has completed the mission first, and Chan has failed.”

“I could’ve won…”

It really was a narrow margin.

There were only two empty spots left on Kim Chan’s puzzle.

But unfortunately, the two pieces Kim Chan needed had jumped right into the pond.

He’d found everything else first, intending to fish those two out last, but he was too late.

“Long time no see, juniors.”

As the two of them were caught between joy and disappointment, a pleasant voice suddenly chimed in.

Roy had already sensed his presence, but Shimjun spun around with a surprised expression.

“Taejin, weren’t you supposed to come out after I gave you the signal?”

“That was the plan, but I got a little antsy waiting.”

Kim Taejin scratched the back of his head sheepishly, and Shimjun patted his chest in relief.

Roy’s guess was right—the High Cycle member who’d picked Roy and Kim Chan was Kim Taejin.

“Glad you’re here. Then you must have seen Roy complete the mission?”

“Yes. I made the gift myself for you two, so I wonder if you’ll like it.”

At Kim Taejin’s glance, Roy looked down at the puzzle board.

The puzzle, showing his own face smiling brightly on his Debut Stage, still felt strange to see.

He reviewed his stage performances, but every time he saw himself with such an expression, he felt dazed.

“So, shall we move on to the penalty?”

“Heuuugh…”

Like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse, Kim Chan trudged over to Shimjun.

“The penalty is to wear this for a full day.”

Kim Chan blinked rapidly at the bright red ball-shaped prop handed to him.

“Where am I supposed to… wear this?”

It just looked like a ball, so he had to ask.

“On your nose. Like this.”

Shimjun even demonstrated, and when he put the red ball on his nose, he looked just like Rudolph.

“Haha… Thank you.”

Kim Chan gave an awkward laugh as he took the prop.

When he put it on his nose, it felt strange and foreign.

Even without a mirror, he could imagine how ridiculous he must look right now, and his lips drooped at the thought.

The idea that this would be broadcast and live on the internet forever made him regret not trying harder.

“So, what’s the reward for the winner?”

To cheer him up, Roy patted his shoulder a couple times and spoke up.

“The prize is what Roy’s holding in his hand right now.”

At Shimjun’s words, Roy’s jet-black eyes rolled down to the puzzle board still in his hand.

“I see. Thank you.”

The words of thanks came out reflexively.

He didn’t really want to keep a puzzle of his smiling face, but he wasn’t dull enough to show how reluctant he was.

“Shall we head inside? Since moving here, we haven’t had guests other than the members, so I prepared some food.”

“You cooked yourself, Taejin?”

“Yeah, I like cooking.”

Kim Taejin naturally led Roy, Kim Chan, and Shimjun into the mansion.

The other staff also followed them inside with their cameras.

“Poruru.” (Contractor, can’t I play out here?)

Arra seemed disappointed about going inside. Clutching Roy’s pinky finger with both hands, Arra pointed toward the pond.

“Can the spirits play in the garden?”

“Of course.”

Kim Taejin readily agreed.

“Then I’ll bring out some food for the spirits as well.”

He even remembered to prepare food for them.

“Uuuum.” (I like this human.)

Solum had long since fallen for the taste of this world’s food, which was different every day.

Today, after Korean beef and now homemade jerky, Solum was excited to see what new food Kim Taejin would bring, his tail wagging in anticipation.

“Beep.” (You guys stay out here. I’m going inside.)

Ber, more curious about the inside of the mansion than the garden, settled on Roy’s shoulder.