The very first Parents’ Day. To deliver a grand present required passing through several stages.
First, Stage 1!
Figure out what a grand present is!
So then—what is a grand present?
To answer that, she needed the help of an experienced veteran who had gone through Parents’ Day many times already, and who right now was probably preparing like a true trendsetter.
The roulette spun furiously in Guru’s head, then stopped.
The right person?
Gidan!
Having lost his parents and grown up under his aunt, grandfather, and grandmother, Gidan had bought gifts for countless occasions and carried them home.
'So Dani Oppaw will definitely handle Parents’ Day properly.'
After all, Gidan was still a minor, but for some reason he seemed like the type who would be good at preparing for these events!
Having reached her conclusion, Guru made her move.
Creak-creak-creak—
Squeeeak.
Guru hit the brakes and stopped in front of Raid Team 1’s office.
It happened to be study time—Serhi was seated with Gidan at a desk, working through a test sheet.
While Serhi focused hard, Gidan looked half-dead from not wanting to study at all.
— You’re working hard. Excellent. Praise-worthy.
“GwuuGwuu, you came because you missed Oppaw?”
“Why do you always come around like this?”
As Jjapso rolled inside, Gidan and Serhi each gave a greeting.
— Today I’ve come to make an important proposal, Gidan.
“What?”
Creak-creak-creak.
The little bike rolled right into the center of the office.
— Are you preparing properly for Parents’ Day?
“Parents’ Day?”
“What’s that?”
— You don’t know Parents’ Day? Serhi, how ignorant.
When Guru shook her head, Serhi furrowed his brow.
— Parents’ Day is a day to show gratitude to those who raised you.
At that, Gidan promptly dropped his pen and smirked.
“Parents’ Day, huh? Why?”
Guru climbed down from the bike, cleared her throat, and spoke solemnly.
— Gwuu is facing Parents’ Day fow the fiwst time, so Gwuu wanna give Daddy a gwand pwesent.
“Oooh—such a filial daughter.”
— Since Gidan is an experienced veteran, Gwuu wants yo advice. Ah, Serhi, dis must be yo fiwst Parents’ Day too. Dis is a gweat time to pwepawe togethew.
“What? Why me?”
— Wouldn’t it be good for you to give a Parents’ Day present to Team Leader Jin too?
Serhi let out a breathless, incredulous laugh.
“Me? Why?”
Hearing his ridiculous reply, Guru clenched both fists and trembled before shouting:
— Unfiwial!
“...!”
— It is onwy natuwal to act fiwiawwy to yo caregivuh who waise you with wuv!
Like a stern instructor, Guru swung her duck-clip.
Smack!
The sharp beak snapped onto Serhi’s thigh, making him scream.
“Agh! Beak! Why does it hurt more?!”
Guru had upgraded the duck-clip—now when it pinched, the sting doubled.
Gidan chuckled at the sight of his suffering friend—until he too got clipped for being a “bad child who laughs at others.” Not that it was a secret.
“That’s right. Serhi, now that you’re basically Korean, you need to become a proper Confucian boy. And to do that, you’d better listen to the advice of someone like me, with many years of experience.”
“Confucian boy?” Serhi looked utterly baffled, but Gidan crossed his arms smugly and went on:
“In the Korean Hunter world, you know, there’s a tradition on Parents’ Day—you wear a carnation headband and present your prey.”
While Serhi shot him a glare that screamed don’t bullshit me, Guru gasped.
— Oooh...
“A carnation headband?”
'Another load of crap?' By now Serhi had been teased by Gidan so often that he’d learned not to believe him so easily.
But before he could protest further, Guru pulled a carnation headband out of her bag, already prepared, and plopped it on.
Serhi dropped his pen as he stared at Jjapso with the headband.
“Holy shit. It’s real?!”
— Made it at kindy.
While Gidan burst into unexpected laughter, Guru pulled out spares and handed one each to them.
Serhi’s eyes wavered as he held his. His face said it all: Isn’t Korea a crazy country?
Gidan barely held in his laughter. If he restrained himself now, something even funnier was sure to come.
— There’s ribbons too.
Guru took out a big ceremonial ribbon, the kind used for wreaths, and tied it around Serhi’s neck.
On it, in bold letters, was written: “On Parents’ Day, I Am the Gift! ♥”
With carnation headbands and ribbons on, the three of them lined up for a photo under Gidan’s direction.
Serhi tried his best not to join, but with Guru and Gidan squeezing him in the middle, he had no way to escape.
“Good.”
Having secured material for future teasing, Gidan stretched out his hand.
“Now let’s go be filial.”
Guru snorted through her nose.
— Fiwiaw! Fiwiaw!
“To the dungeon! Confucian guys!”
— Fiwiaw! Fiwiaw!
Guru waved her hands up and down, chanting.
Beside her, Serhi—with the headband and ribbon on—stared blankly with dead fish eyes.
'Fuck. This can’t be real.'
Gidan promptly found a suitable guerrilla dungeon, and Guru used her skill [Dungeon is an Open Door] to open the gate.
“We’d better hurry before Yeo-jin noona catches us.”
— Skipping cwass?
“This is filial practice, Confucian girl.”
— Fiwiaw! Fiwiaw!
***
Flame Zone Guerrilla Dungeon.
“Wasn’t this the Flame Zone?”
Arriving via [Dungeon is an Open Door], Serhi looked around.
Checking the “Knock-Knock, Where’s the Dungeon?” app, Gidan frowned.
“It says Flame Zone... it’s supposed to be.”
“Then why...”
Serhi turned in place.
The dungeon floor was littered with countless little craters, yet snow was piled everywhere.
Normally, since this was the Flame Zone, heat should have been bubbling up from the craters.
“Did it mutate?”
At Gidan’s words, Serhi nodded in agreement.
But Guru, who didn’t understand, asked:
— Mutate?
“It means the dungeon changes. Strange, but that’s been happening lately.”
— Hmmm. Is change bad?
“Usually, yeah. If monsters appear that we didn’t prepare for, they’re harder to fight. And sometimes these days ‘Failed’ monsters appear too, but those are...”
Just then, not far away, they saw a group of Hunters kicking around a monster they’d hunted.
“Another dud.”
“I told you. Monsters with the ‘Failed’ label don’t drop mana stones.”
Watching them, Gidan muttered:
“No mana stones.”
Guru’s mouth rounded into an O.
A monster not dropping mana stones?!
The main reason Hunters hunted monsters was mana stones.
But if they didn’t drop...
— Den huntewing ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) monsters has no meaning at aww!
“Exactly.”
Gidan gave a bitter smile, and Serhi frowned as he watched the group of Hunters.
“They’re just leaving it unprocessed.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard more parties are doing that. If there’s no mana stones, they don’t want to bother.”
A serious problem.
If too many dungeons were left uncleared like this, they’d more easily turn into Red Gates and trigger dungeon breaks.
For now, the government seemed to be gagging people to keep anxiety down. But if cases like this increased, the time would come when they couldn’t cover it up.
Seeing Gidan and Serhi’s worried faces, Guru rummaged in her bag and pulled out the [Detective Magnifying Glass!].
— Hm.
Studying the “Failed” monster through the glass, Guru spoke.
— If an item comes out, den da pwobwem is sowved?
“That’s right.”
Looking again through the magnifying glass, light shimmered where a mana stone should have been.
That meant there was still something to extract.
In that case...
— Time to bwing out a new item.
At Guru’s solemn words, question marks popped above Gidan and Serhi’s heads.
Meanwhile, Guru drew out a toy hoe from her bag.
[Play Hoe]
— Farming-only item. Greatly increases farming drop rates.
