019. Awakened!!!
‘AWAKENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
‘This is Assistant Manager Kim Seongju from the Korea Awakened Association, officially verified Awakened!!!’
‘Please respond!!!!!!!!!!’
Inside the chat room where all the viewers had already left...
Messages impossible to ignore caught my attention.
“Uh, yes. Hello, Assistant Manager. I just saw the chat. What’s going on?”
‘Thank goodness ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ’
‘Hello, this is Assistant Manager Kim Seongju from the Korea Awakened Association, officially verified Awakened.’
‘We confirmed that you recently awakened as a Tamer Class, so I am contacting you.’
‘You haven’t completed your Awakened registration yet, correct? Any Awakened above Level 20 must complete the registration process! Our Association or your local government can assist you!’
‘Additionally, because you responded to a Hostile Gate appearance and successfully eliminated it, you can also complete the relevant reward procedure.’
‘You also need to register your EX-Rank Partners, the Spirit Beasts, and more importantly! We would also like to ask about the Fantasy Creature farming process, and so on and so on...’
The flood of messages made my head spin.
It felt like accidentally answering a spam call and blankly listening while the person on the other end spoke at machine-gun speed.
Still, I could not exactly interrupt Kim Seongju’s messages.
So I simply stared at them for a while.
‘Did you understand what I just explained?’
After chatting alone for quite some time, Kim Seongju suddenly asked me.
I quickly forced my half-closed eyes open and answered.
“Yes!”
Then three seconds later...
“Actually, no...”
I was truly sorry.
I had not understood even a quarter of it.
All I understood was that I needed to register.
‘Ah, that’s okay! I just needed evidence that I properly provided all this information to Awakened Yang Suho, hahaha. (Deleted message)’
‘Hahaha, thank you for understanding~!’
“Right...”
‘Anyway, Awakened.’
‘There are several important matters we absolutely need to explain, so I think someone from our side should visit you personally.’
‘When would be a convenient time for you!?’
Hm?
Suddenly?
Well, I had been so busy with fish farm work that I had completely forgotten I needed to complete Awakened registration.
That was true, but...
“I’m free whenever. But...”
‘Ah, really? That’s a relief! Then once we finish preparing, we will contact you again!’
“Yes. But...”
‘Ah! No, wait! We kept failing to contact you!’
“Excuse me...”
‘We’ll contact you through a one-on-one inquiry in the Awakened Shop! Contacting people inside a Special Protect Area is really difficult, hahaha.’
“Through an inquiry. Yes. Understood. Um...”
‘Thank you for your time! We will contact you again!’
‘Awakened Kim Seongju, officially verified Awakened, has left the chat.’
“He left.”
A man named Kim Seongju had set an appointment almost completely on his own, said he would contact me again, then vanished.
After unexpectedly gaining an appointment with someone from a public organization, I stared blankly at the empty chat for a while.
Then...
“Well, nothing bad is going to happen.”
I casually dismissed it.
I was sleepy anyway.
I also needed to clean up.
“Lord Suho.”
Whoa!
That scared me.
“Orlan. When did you wake up?”
“A short while ago. Peep. More importantly, Lord Suho.”
“Hm?”
“That outsider you were speaking with earlier... He said he would come visit you, correct? Is he trustworthy? Peep?”
“Trustworthy? Hmm... Well? He works for a public organization, and the Status Window says he’s officially verified as an Awakened. His identity seems reliable. Probably?”
“Hmm. I see. Understood. Peep.”
“...?”
Orlan stared meaningfully at the chat window.
Then he waddled over and hopped onto my lap.
“There is alcohol left. Hmm, peep...”
“Hm? Yeah. Looks like it.”
Sitting on my lap, Orlan stared longingly at the bottle of Barracks Soju with only three or four glasses left.
“Would you care to finish the remaining alcohol with me? Peep?”
“Sure. I was wondering whether to clean it up because drinking alone felt lonely. Want some side dishes too? There are some left.”
Dawn.
The time when most living things in the world were asleep.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard the hoo-hoo of an owl.
Orlan listened for a moment.
Another wing made from Mana extended from his own wing and moved like an arm.
It naturally picked up a glass.
“Interesting, is it not? It is a small trick I learned while staying beside the Great Dragon King. Peep.”
Perhaps he had read my thoughts.
“Was I staring too much? Sorry. I was just thinking you’re really skilled at using Mana.”
“Hahaha. Naturally. Peep. You have probably never seen little creatures who have only lived a few years use skills like this. I struggled quite a lot while learning it myself. Peep, peep.”
“Why? Did the Great Dragon King say you’d be struck by heaven if you skipped a drinking party? Hahaha...”
“Hm? How did you know? Peep?”
“Cough, cough...”
Maybe it had been a joke.
Orlan laughed heartily at me as I choked.
“However, it is true that the Great Dragon King dislikes those who avoid drinking gatherings. Peep, peep.”
So that part was not a joke.
“You must have had a hard time too.”
“Hard time? Not at all. I enjoy alcohol and elegant pleasures, so I rather liked it. Peep. The younger ones below me had a much harder time. Hahaha! Peep, peep!”
