Hanguru awakened while learning how to brush his teeth at kindergarten.
Standing in front of the mirror, the children huddled together, diligently brushing their teeth. That was when a status window suddenly appeared before Hanguru’s eyes.
[For smooth communication between the caster and the system, adjustments will be made to the caster's cognitive abilities.]
[Update in progress: 85%...]
Hanguru, startled, gaped in shock. His homeroom teacher, seeing the toothpaste and saliva dripping from his mouth, quickly wiped it away.
"Teacher, Hanguru sees something stra—"
He tried to explain what he was seeing, but—
"Teacher!! I need to poop!!"
"Teacher!! He pooped!!!"
"Teacher, Binnie is sleepy—"
Hanguru’s kindergarten teacher was far too busy to listen to his concerns.
Thanks to the system’s influence, Hanguru had become quite intelligent. He decided not to bother his already overwhelmed teacher.
After all, he was four years old now. He could handle things on his own.
[Update complete.]
The update finished just before nap time.
Lying on his mat, Hanguru quietly stared at the status window.
[Opening the system.]
Thump-thump.
His little hands clenched with anticipation as he waited for the window to open.
Even Hanguru understood what had just happened—he had awakened.
Every child at kindergarten knew about awakened beings, and many dreamed of becoming hunters when they grew up.
Hanguru’s dream wasn’t to be a hunter, though. He wanted to become Gudetama, the lazy egg character. But even if he couldn’t achieve his dream, he had no complaints about gaining a profession others admired.
[Skill Unlocked]
[System Engine Malfunctioning Crafting (L): Oh no! The system engine is broken!]
Crafting: Production
"L?"
The highest alphabet Hanguru had learned so far was S. Hunters also ranked up to S-rank, which he had assumed was the highest.
But the letter in front of him was L. Where did that rank fit?
"A, B, C, D..."
Hanguru slowly recited the alphabets he had learned so far, but the system helpfully provided an explanation.
[Legend (레전드): A rank one level higher than S, signifying the highest grade.]
The system even kindly wrote out the pronunciation for him.
[Checking caster's age.]
[Due to (Unknown Title), the child protection system has been activated.]
[Quest: A child needs a reliable guardian. Let's find one!]
[Reward: Unlock Child Protection Skill]
Hanguru gaped at the quest window.
"Guardian?"
The words Mom? Dad? floated in his mind.
His heavy eyelids blinked slowly, and soon, soft, puffy clouds filled his thoughts.
From the white clouds, small hands and feet popped out, forming two little sheep.
The mother and father sheep plucked tufts of their wool to create a small baby lamb, then wrapped it warmly in their embrace.
"Mom... Dad..."
The reason why he needed a guardian—
It was probably because Hanguru didn’t have parents.
He had been raised in an orphanage ever since he was a baby.
From what he had seen, there were only two ways an orphan could end up with parents.
The first: Adoption into a new family.
But only a few children ever got adopted, and wishing for it didn’t make it happen.
"That won’t work."
The second: His biological parents coming back for him.
Sometimes, parents returned to the orphanage, looking for the children they had left behind. They would weep, apologizing, saying they had been too poor to keep them but could now take them back.
"Maybe... Maybe my mom and dad are like that too..."
Maybe they couldn’t come for him now because they were struggling.
Hanguru wiped away the tears that had welled up in his eyes.
If his parents weren’t coming back because they were poor, then the solution was simple.
"I have to make money!"
The TV always talked about how much money hunters made.
Some shows even did full segments on how much hunters earned and what kinds of fancy houses they lived in.
"I can do it too!"
If he became a hunter and earned a lot of money, then he could live with his mom and dad.
"Hehe."
Hanguru grinned, picturing a happy life with his parents.
Then, he set some rules for himself.
First Rule: Keep his earnings a secret.
Sometimes, well-behaved kids in the orphanage got small allowances from adults. But if someone had too much money, the older kids—especially the ones who were about to leave the orphanage—would take it away.
Hanguru winced, remembering the times his pocket money had been stolen.
"Yup. It’s going to be my secret."
That included his awakening and the money he would make!
Because of that, he had to avoid relying on others as much as possible.
Hanguru sighed in relief, glad he hadn't told his teacher about the strange window.
And then—
"Hanguru, why aren’t you sleeping?"
"Hik!"
It was his teacher.
Hanguru quickly pulled his blanket up to his chin and squeezed his eyes shut.
He planned to keep them shut until she left, but—
The gentle hand patting his back was impossible to resist.
His consciousness blurred.
"Is my teacher an awakened too?!"
Hit by what felt like an L-rank sleep skill, Hanguru slowly drifted into slumber.
After his awakening, Hanguru began gathering as much information as possible from the orphanage’s library, TV programs, and the internet.
Thanks to the system’s adjustments, he had become quite intelligent. He never forgot what he learned, and even the most complex and difficult concepts were easy for him to understand.
By now, Hanguru had gotten quite skilled at opening his status window.
Name: Hanguru
Level: LV. 1
Title: ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■ (Access Restricted)
[Quests]
Priority Quest: A child needs a reliable guardian!
[Passive Skills]
System Engine Malfunctioning Crafting (L): Oh no! The system engine is broken!
(This skill helps the child unleash their creativity, laying the foundation for exceptional growth.)
[Active Skills]
Squish-Squish (F): Freely mix and combine different materials to create a variety of toys.Extract-Extract (D): Analyze and extract the properties of various substances.Dungeon Is an Open Door (A): Open a portal and explore dungeons.
At a glance, Hanguru’s active skills seemed fairly ordinary.
They were the kind of skills any crafting-based hunter would have.
However, what made Hanguru truly special was his passive skill.
Unlike normal crafting abilities that relied on dungeon materials, Hanguru’s passive skill allowed him to extract and combine anything that existed in the world.
The first thing Hanguru extracted with "Extract-Extract" was none other than a Pororo chewable vitamin.
[Activating skill "Extract-Extract".]
As the extraction took effect, the vitamin transformed into a small, star-shaped candy in the palm of his hand.
[You have acquired "Vitamin (F)".]
"Hoooh."
He couldn’t tell if this was an amazing discovery or not.
But for Hanguru, it was the perfect skill.
After all, he was just a kindergarten student—he couldn’t enter dungeons, and he didn’t have money to buy dungeon materials either.
So, he continued experimenting, extracting and combining whatever he could get his hands on.
As his proficiency increased, his "Squish-Squish" skill leveled up to E-rank.
Thanks to that, he was able to craft some pretty interesting toys.
Just as he was imagining all the fun things he could make next—
Hanguru suddenly slapped a hand over his mouth.
"Now’s not the time for this!"
He wasn’t supposed to be playing—he needed to make money!

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