The Chick Class Hunter is Being Filial

After being scolded by the teacher not to bother her classmates, Guru returned to her seat.
But the lecture didn’t faze her. She grabbed her seedling spade with determination.
“Gwuu’s new goaw is to be fwiends wif Hwiyeoni.”

“Really?” Woojoo replied, sounding wholly uninterested.
“Yuh! Gwuu gonna show hew a whooole bunch of wooooorms!”
Woojoo gagged a little, swallowing the nausea that came with remembering that slippery worm.

Gu Hwiyeon probably didn’t want to see any worms at all, but Guru clearly didn’t care what Hwiyeon wanted.
Just then, Woojoo noticed the fox-shaped keychain hanging from Hwiyeon’s seedling spade.
He had a chick keychain on his own bag.

It was official merch modeled after Hyeonak Guild members.
Ever since Guru had learned about Hyeonak, she had joined the fan club, binged all the videos, saved every photo… the works.
Woojoo had started his stan life too and recognized it right away.

That keychain was from Hyeonak’s newest merch drop.
Jurim was the black wolf, Guru was the pale yellow chick, Nayeon was the brown bunny, and…
If it’s a fox character… it’s probably Gidan hyung, right?

So that’s why she kept staring.
Since Gidan doted on Guru, she probably wanted to get close to her too.
But even after days had passed, she hadn’t worked up the courage to talk and just kept glancing over instead.

Not my business, Woojoo thought as he turned back to Guru.
Guru was still gripping her little hoe, chatting away enthusiastically.
“And den… Gwuu gonna be a Suwpweme Huntuh! So Gwuu can do effything to be fiwial.”
“Supreme?”

Guru stabbed the garden bed with her seedling spade.
“Yuh. Suwpweme!”
As Woojoo tried to recall what “supreme” even meant, Guru solemnly declared:

“Gwuu can be wike Oppaw too. Hewp da peopwe who awe suffewing!”
A Supreme Hunter, huh…
A halo practically glowed behind her.

Woojoo’s mouth opened in awe.
So damn cool…!
As Guru snorted through her nose with pride, Woojoo turned his blushing face back toward the garden bed.
“Oh wight! Woojoo, Gwuu webuiwt Mephi Numbeh One! Wook wook!”

Guru pulled out the chick drone she’d made during arts and crafts, and Woojoo took a look. They had modified a drone together once at her house.
Though I mostly just watched…
Woojoo shoved down his creeping sense of inferiority and asked,

“Is it stronger now? Why was it weak before?”
“Oppaw said da magic enewgy tuwns into ewectwic stuff, but it woses powew duwing da twansfowmation.”
Woojoo nodded, his expression troubled.

He didn’t get it at all.
Seeing that, Guru grabbed a stick and drew a diagram in the dirt.
“Da ciwcwe mana stone becomes a twiangwe ewectwic beam.”

She drew a tiny triangle inside the circle.
“Dis pawt awound it goes poof and disappears.”
“Ohhh…”

Now Woojoo understood. He nodded again and asked,
“Then what do you do?”
“Uuumm… Gwuu couwd use a weawwy, weawwy spensive mana stone, ow make da twiangwe biggew…”

“Don’t those expensive ones cost like… hundreds of millions?”
Guru let out a soft, ominous fufufu laugh.
“Das why Gwuu made an ampwifiew!”

Tada! Guru opened the chick’s chest to reveal a mana stone inside a capsule.
“But… a new pwobwem showed up.”
She activated the Mephisto Series Prototype mk.1.

Zzzap!
The drone’s electric attack spread a bit wider than before, but it was still basically just static—nowhere near useful enough for a dungeon.
Is makin’ eqwipment still too hawd fow Gwuu…?

Guru sighed as she scratched at the soil with her hoe.
If crafting had a crown jewel, it was equipment!
There was something so romantic about your own gear sweeping through a dungeon…

But all Guru had made so far was excellent syrup—and that was only C-Rank!
As she drooped with disappointment, Woojoo—lost in thought—suddenly asked,
“What if you charged it and shot it all at once?”

“Chawge?”
“Right now, the electricity just kinda spreads everywhere, right?”
He used a stick to draw wavy, steaming lines around the triangle.

“If you collected the energy and fired it in one place, wouldn’t that make it stronger?”
“Wike a gun?”
“Yeah.”

“Hooooh…”
That was… an interesting idea.
Guru poked thoughtfully at the soil with her hoe.

***
Hyeonak Guild’s Training Room
Freshly changed out of his gear, Gidan came out and accepted a sports drink from the internal content crew.

“Dani, wanna rest a little then shoot the training video?”
“Yeeeh~ Dani’s on it~”
He wiped his face with a towel, playfully answering.

He’d just finished filming a dungeon strategy video while wearing sponsor-marked gear.
Since the shoot schedule was written into his contract, he had to record whenever he had a chance.
So they planned to shoot a training session next.

With the towel around his neck, Gidan asked PR Team Leader Hwang Yumin,
“That thing Lee Soyeon said… is it causing problems for the company?”
Yumin let out a small sigh.

“It sucks, but this isn’t the first time. It'll blow over eventually. Still, the real headache is that it’s coinciding with our sponsor contract renewals.”
If a bunch of contracts get canceled at once, and no new ones come in until the public calms down… this quarter’s revenue would tank.
Yumin clenched her jaw, muttering curses toward Lee Soyeon.

The sound of her teeth grinding made it feel like one of them actually broke, and Gidan shrank back with a nervous nod.
“I-I see…”
“Don’t worry too much. There’s always demand for an S-Rank idol.”

“Idol, huh…” Gidan gave a dry chuckle. “So basically you’re saying you're gonna work me to death to make up the losses?”
“Mmm, smart boy. That’s the man who dodged flunking!”
“Ugh, noona! I almost failed 'cause of attendance!”

Yumin giggled and took a step back from Gidan’s sulky glare.
“Don’t sweat it. We just went and got ourselves fucked, that’s all. No biggie.”
“How can you say that and also tell me not to worry?!”

She folded her arms and wrinkled her face.
“Seriously though, now would be a great time if our dear Jjapso Hunter could show up, you know? Lend his face to the guild PR video, yeah?”
Gidan let out a low chuckle at that.

“Not gonna happen.”
“Then maybe even Serhi—just a little something…”
Yumin was clearly trying everything to get more guild spokespeople in this downturn.

Creak creak, creak creak—
A four-wheeled bike rolled cheerfully into the training room.
“Gidaniyeo! I got a proposa—”

The mechanical voice suddenly cut off.
All heads turned toward the teddy bear riding the bike.
“…Jjapso?”

The moment someone muttered that, the four-wheeler spun around.
Creak creak! Creak creeeak!
It was speeding straight back toward the entrance of the training room.

Busted!
Guru pedaled madly, trying to escape.
But—

GRAB!
Nggh! Nghhh!
The pedals wouldn’t budge.

It won't move!
The teddy bear head slowly rotated backward.
A long rear handle was now firmly in the grip °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° of a woman.

“Hunter-nim! We’ve been waiting for you! You’re coming with us, big time today!”
PR Team Leader Hwang Yumin beamed with a smile that said gotcha. The staff began to gather, forming a circle around Guru.
Scaawieee!

Guru’s shoulders trembled in the lengthening shadows.
Gidan pressed his palm to his forehead with a pained look.
I figured it was Guru when I heard the bike… but I didn’t think she’d show up in full gear.

Big trouble.
The PR hyenas would never let a self-delivered Jjapso get away.