Even Today, the Ranker Dreams of Retirement

“…This is really bad.”

Habin muttered with a serious expression as she sat at her desk. Ahezar asked:

[What’s wrong?]

“Jaljal, to be honest with you, I’m not confident in my ability to raise animals.”

[…?]

Habin continued in a solemn voice:

“Ever since I was tempted by the chicks in front of the elementary school, my mom always told me not to bring animals home carelessly. She said taking responsibility for a life is no small matter.”

[That’s true, but…]

Why is this coming up in this situation?

“…Hmm.”

[……]

Habin shook her head and concluded:

“I’ve never even raised a chick, but starting with a dragon… that’s too difficult a level.”

That’s right.

Their concern was due to the creature on the desk.

Peep?

Rustle, rustle.

A tiny baby dragon toddling out, breaking its eggshell.

This error-ridden dragon, created hastily without even a name, failed its first assigned task. As a price, it lost its form and was reborn with only a wish remaining.

Nothing is determined about what form it will grow into or what results it will bring… but fortunately, someone has given it a name this time, so its second life might be alright.

The white dragon with a pearlescent sheen was small enough to cup in two hands.

Habin picked up the “Letter That Cannot Exist” placed nearby.

[This is a letter left by the ■■th ■■■.]

‘Filtering?’

When information is inaccessible to players or cannot be processed by the system, it appears obscured like this so it cannot be read.

However, this isn’t real information circulating among Hunters, but a setting that only appeared in novels Habin had read before.

In other words, it’s a phenomenon she’s never actually seen or heard of.

On the dark blue stationery, silver letters were scrawled:

If you’re reading this, it means you’ve destroyed the Mirror Dungeon once.

Please take care of Libe.

It eats chicken breast well, and vegetables too. It gets scared when sleeping alone, and likes sweet desserts. But don’t give them too often as it’s bad for its health, just in moderation.

It likes to follow shiny or interesting things, so it enjoys playing with cat toys.

“…Libe?”

Habin rolled the word in her mouth. Anyone could see this was a nickname for ‘Liberta’.

-Peep?

As if recognizing its name, the baby dragon turned its head.

‘How could they write such specific care instructions for a dragon that was just born?’

Diet habits, fears, likes.

The pressed handwriting and careful tone even conveyed affection.

Habin read the rest of the letter.

◆◇◆◇◆

■■■■ is not something you can ■■■ just because ■■■.

…

“……”

After that was a parade of countless filtered sections.

Just as Habin frowned, as if anticipating this, the letter had similar words added:

…

But this won’t be visible even if I write it, right? Should I stop writing? ■ Are you reading this now? Can you see it?

…

“What is this.”

…

Don’t throw it away while reading, read until this part! ‘Book of Stars’, it’s a good item! And…

Habin’s expression hardened as she read the next line.

Whether you stop the destruction or not doesn’t matter, but if you properly beat the system, you can readjust all the setting values that constitute this place.

It means you can turn back time to when your parents were alive. You can make the Gate incident never happen, and return everything to how it was originally.

So don’t give up, that’s what I mean.

“……”

Honestly, you miss your old daily life too, don’t you?

Rip.

Habin tore the letter in half at that point and stuffed it into her inventory.

“…That’s crossing the line.”

[W-What? What did it say? Why did you suddenly tear it?]

Ahezar interjected.

“Jaljal, you couldn’t read this?”

[Wasn’t it all written in blurred text? Were you able to read any of it?]

“You saw it as blurred text?”

[It was all text that looked like ink smeared by water. I couldn’t make anything out.]

Ahezar muttered in confusion. If Habin had been able to read the contents, Ahezar as a constellation should have been able to share some thoughts through their connection, but he couldn’t read Habin’s thoughts at all just now.

Usually Habin’s thoughts were difficult to read unless she deliberately projected them like direct communication, but this silence was jarring even compared to normal.

Habin opened her mouth:

“…I could make out the writing.”

No matter how much filtering or indirect phrasing, she couldn’t help but recognize it.

The silver writing.

It was Hyun Habin’s own handwriting.

“……”

‘And of course, I never wrote this.’

So.

It’s either a trap, or an object that cannot exist.

“At least the item name is honest.”

Glancing at the name “Letter That Cannot Exist”, Habin immediately closed her inventory window.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Hey, Hyun Habin! Wait a second! What is this?”

The next day, Chae Jiseok visited Habin’s room and shouted in shock.

-Peep!

Fascinated by Jiseok’s shimmering golden hair, Libe scampered towards him.

Or rather, tried to scamper.

Thud.

Until Habin caught it.

“No, Piyak.”

“Piyak?”

[Piyak?]

Peep?

Ahezar whispered so only Habin could hear:

[No, naming a dragon Piyak! What nonsense is this! What kind of human would give a dragon such a name!]

“It’s a nickname, a nickname.”

“When did you bring this here?”

Jiseok blurted out in confusion. At the moment, Libe wasn’t in dragon form.

Last night, Habin had hurriedly changed Libe’s appearance.

‘Deceiver’s Wish’

Among the status window functions was a pet system. While not as versatile as summoner or tamer classes, other classes could still raise pets.

Thanks to Habin registering Libe as her pet, she was able to apply the ‘Deceiver’s Wish’ skill.

Habin had urgently made the wings and horns disappear. As a result, Libe now looked like a small white lizard.

Habin calmly asked the flustered Jiseok:

“Why? Are pets not allowed in the dorms?”

“No, there are classes in that category to begin with… so that’s not it.”

Jiseok stopped mid-sentence as if discovering something. He strode over to Libe and scooped up the small lizard in both hands.

-Peep?

“…This isn’t an ordinary pet.”

“I heard monsters are fine if registered as pets?”

“This isn’t just a monster.”

Jiseok turned to look at Habin. He said in a serious voice:

“This is a dragon, isn’t it?”

“What? What? No it’s not.”

Habin turned her head, pretending not to hear. Seeing this, Jiseok shouted again:

“It is. It’s a dragon! Don’t try to deceive me.”

“It’s not.”

“It has no wings or horns. At first glance it looks different, but… now that I look closely, it’s that boss mob from the Mirror Dungeon we cleared!”

‘Damn it, this guy has unnecessarily sharp eyes.’

“It’s not, anyway it’s not.”

Though Habin retorted as if annoyed, Jiseok’s keen gaze didn’t waver.

‘If it were another animal I might not know, but it’s a dragon! How could I not recognize this?’

As it happened, the one boss mob Chae Jiseok had encountered in his life, the most difficult one to conquer, had been a dragon.

‘Back then, we all thought it was a miracle just to come out alive, let alone capture it…’

Chae Jiseok, who vividly retained that memory as trauma. He recognized it this time too.

All the details including the dragon’s scales, claws, teeth.

He spoke again with an expression of having grasped definitive evidence:

“I know a dragon when I see one. Moreover, you suddenly registering a pet when you hate bothersome things doesn’t make sense either.”

“Hmm.”

“That was decisive too. Don’t try to deny it!”

Chae Jiseok added triumphantly. Habin asked in disbelief:

“What kind of image do you have of me usually?”

[Are you really asking because you don’t know?]

Ahezar quietly chimed in. Jiseok continued:

“Rather, I want to ask. How on earth did this happen? A dragon, I mean, there are people who keep monitor lizards or similar flying species, but this… this is.”

Dragon.

An animal that Hunters with summoning or animal-related skills search for with burning eyes.

When it comes to fantasy, isn’t it all about dragons?

Countless people wanted to collect them, holding such fantasies. Even similar-looking monitor lizards or flying pets were incredibly popular, which says it all.

But no one had actually succeeded in registering a real dragon as a pet.

That’s how rare they were, and even harder to capture or befriend.

As Chae Jiseok was lost in thought.

-Peep!

At that moment, Libe, who had climbed onto Jiseok’s shoulder, chomped on his golden hair.

“Ow! This isn’t food!”

“That’s right Libe, that’s JiJi!”

Habin hurriedly nodded and snatched Libe away. In the process, a few strands of Jiseok’s hair were pulled out, remaining in the dragon’s mouth.

Watching Libe munch on the golden hair, Jiseok let out a hollow laugh.

“Is the dragon’s original name Libe?”

“I told you it’s not a dragon.”

“I can find out this much with my skills, you know?”

Habin frowned. The more she learned, the more unfair Chae Jiseok’s skills seemed.

They were especially incompatible with cases like Hyun Habin who was hiding her power.

“…This is why I hate sharp-eyed prophets.”

Habin shook her head.

Anyway, not hatching Libe immediately in the dungeon wasn’t really intended to keep it secret from Chae Jiseok, but rather to avoid the immediate hassle.

So there was no need to go to great lengths to hide it from this guy.

“It was a dungeon quest reward.”

Habin answered briefly and made Libe disappear. It was one of the pet system functions. Temporarily placing it in a dedicated residence subspace within the pet management window.

She’d heard that the size and coziness of the pet’s living space varied depending on the player’s level.

‘But according to the letter, it gets scared when sleeping alone at night.’

A night alone.

Habin suddenly recalled the nights right after the Gate incident.

The first night left alone in an empty house after her parents died and her brother disappeared. A desolate and lonely space without a single breath or sign of life.

For a while, she couldn’t sleep properly there at all.

‘…Well, alright. It might not like sleeping alone at night. No matter how busy I am, I should take it out to sleep together at night.’

In fact, she felt uneasy leaving it alone during the day too, so she preferred keeping it with her if possible.

She had considered using ‘Deceiver’s Wish’ to make it look completely like a real lizard, or changing it into an animal like a bird or hamster.

But when she actually tried, Libe sobbed while looking in the mirror, so she couldn’t bring herself to do it. The little thing seemed to understand everything. In the end, she had to compromise by just removing the wings and horns.

‘But then there’s Chae Jiseok who recognizes it like a ghost…’

There might be others who notice too, so she couldn’t take it out too often.

If she became an issue for carrying around a dragon, her quiet life would be over!

“That would be troublesome.”

Habin nodded resolutely. She added sharply towards Jiseok:

“So this is a secret too.”

“This time too… because it’d be hard to play comfortably if it became known?”

“Of course.”

“……”

Chae Jiseok, who had been blank for a moment, nodded with an enlightened expression.

“Right, of course. Hyun Habin’s objective is obvious now. I don’t even need to use my precognition skill to know anymore.”

[‘Nearest Light’ shakes its head along with him.]

‘Now, whether a dragon appears around Hyun Habin, or a constellation, or a hell gate opens, I’m really not surprised anymore.’

Though all of those have already appeared.

Chae Jiseok opened his mouth with a light smile. It was a very peaceful attitude for someone who had just encountered a dragon.

“Alright, that aside, you’re going to training today, right? You need to make up for skipping yesterday.”

“Damn it.”

Habin slowly got up from her seat. Her face, which hadn’t flinched even when facing hordes of monsters in the Mirror Dungeon, looked like death for the first time.

“Who on earth made this training law? Who is making my life so miserable?”

“Habin, you’re not planning to take revenge on that person or anything, right?”

Jiseok asked, cautiously reading the mood. Habin sighed and answered:

“…No.”

Though she lived with complaints on her lips every day, she had no intention of denying the law itself.

In fact, it was decided by citizens’ taxes and votes, and it was also an essential law to prevent other potential safety issues.

Habin knew that much. She turned her head as if there was no choice.

“Right. Anyway, apart from that, whoever messes with my peaceful daily life… I really won’t let them off.”

Just as Habin was bitterly turning off her Apple computer.

A clattering sound was heard from beyond the door.

“Ha-Habin! Trainee Hyun Habin, are you here?”

Someone shouted in a trembling voice from beyond the door. Chae Jiseok answered instead:

“What’s the matter?”

“Ca-Caligo, from Caligo! Someone has come looking for you!”

“……”

[……]

A chilly silence fell over the room. Chae Jiseok suddenly recalled what Habin had just said.

‘Whoever messes with my peaceful daily life, I really won’t let them off.’

Right on cue, Habin muttered softly:

“Kang Taeseo, you bastard… I won’t let you off either.”