Chapter 05
The chicken was barely the size to reach my calves. With its crimson feathers fluttering, the subspace’s chicken charged at me.
Its sharp beak gleamed menacingly.
“Cluck!”
I ducked, but the chicken began pecking at me relentlessly. There was no way I could withstand the attack of an SS-rank monster.
“Ahhh!”
With every sharp peck of its beak, I screamed instinctively.
My back would surely be bleeding—
Wait, hold on.
It wasn’t until the chicken had climbed all the way to the top of my head that I realized something was strange.
What’s going on? It doesn’t even hurt that much.
“Cluck?”
“Cluck?”
The chicken seemed confused too, tilting its head quizzically.
[Title <Subspace Administrator> Trait!
: The current area is a safe zone. <Monster> attacks against the Subspace Administrator are nullified.]
A system window appeared, belatedly providing the explanation.
Safe zone, monsters, nullified attacks. This was news to me.
So… basically… no matter the level difference, I’m safe here?
I don’t have to worry about dying because of a monster?
[Additionally, attacks from the Administrator on <Monsters> will result in critical hits.]
“Cluck?”
[Critical Hit Details:
: One shot~ One kill~ (ノ・∀・)ノ]
Seeing this message, I quietly grabbed the chicken perched on my head and plopped it onto the ground.
I cracked my knuckles.
Guess it’s meat for lunch today. The thought of a hearty meal made my mouth water.
“This is going to be delicious.”
“C-cluck?!”
How should I catch it to make it a legendary tale? Slurp.
“Cluuuuuuck…?!”
Sensing the shift in my demeanor, the chicken’s legs started trembling violently.
Fear was clearly visible.
And just as my hand was about to grab it—
Plop! The chicken laid an egg.
W-what?
It laid an egg?
The chicken lowered its head and rolled the egg towards me with its beak. The egg stopped at my feet, and the chicken even winked at me as if urging me to take it.
[The Subspace Chicken submits to you!
Name: Koko
Rank: SS-rank
*Has a 1% chance of laying golden eggs.]
And just like that, I gained an SS-rank subordinate.
✦✦✦
Gathering the rice wasn’t difficult.
All I had to do was reach out, and the harvesting skill automatically activated, filling my inventory with heaps of rice.
Sizzle! An egg cracked over the frying pan, sizzling and cooking as it gradually firmed up.
Whoosh! Meanwhile, the rice cooker began emitting steam. The aroma of cooking rice wafted through the kitchen.
My mouth watered instinctively.
Carefully, I flipped the fried egg, ensuring the yolk didn’t break, and turned off the gas stove.
The residual heat would finish cooking the egg to a perfect soft consistency.
Beep, beep! The rice cooker signaled that the rice was ready.
As expected of an item, the cooking speed was extraordinary.
▸ Delicious rice has been cooked.
Opening the rice cooker, I was greeted by a steaming pile of glossy white rice.
I gently scooped the steaming rice and placed it into a properly sized bowl.
Then, I carefully topped the rice with the perfectly fried egg.
To finish, I drizzled the savory soy sauce I earned from cleaning the kitchen.
It would’ve been even better with sesame oil and kimchi, but this was plenty satisfying.
[Quest Complete!
▸ You used the rice cooker!
Reward: The ultimate in savory flavor, sesame oil!]
The reward for the quest appeared—sesame oil.
Yes!
….Wait, why is the quest reward sesame oil?!
I mean, I need it, but still.
Why do you keep giving unimportant rewards?
[Additional Reward: Crispy Kimchi!]
Clatter. At the sound of my complaint, a plate of kimchi suddenly appeared on the table.
I stopped thinking about it.
Right. It’s all good if it’s good.
I drizzled sesame oil in a circle over the egg. The distinctive rich, nutty smell of sesame oil spread everywhere.
Ah, I’m so hungry.
I used my spoon to break into the center of the half-cooked egg. The golden yolk oozed out and seeped into the rice.
Before mixing it all together, I scooped up a generous spoonful of yolk-laden rice and topped it with a piece of kimchi.
This was the real reward.
The first proper meal that truly felt like a meal since coming to the subspace dimension.
I put the spoonful into my mouth. Slowly, I chewed, savoring the taste before swallowing.
And the thought that came to mind was whether this was even allowed.
It was delicious. Truly.
I furrowed my brows as I savored the taste. It was so good that it was almost infuriating.
Maybe it was because it had been so long since I’d eaten like this, or perhaps the ingredients from the pocket dimension were just that exceptional. Either way, it was several times better than usual.
The fluffy rice, paired with the mild saltiness of the egg and soy sauce, blended into perfect harmony.
The texture, soft and smooth as it slid down my throat, made my eyes widen instinctively.
I hurriedly mixed the rest of the rice and egg and finished the bowl in no time.
“Koko!”
Then I jumped up from my seat, opened the door and called for Koko. I could see Koko earnestly pecking at the ground near the house.
At my call, its eyes wavered.
“C-Cluck?”
Hey. Just give me one more egg.
[Congratulations! You’ve completed consecutive soy sauce egg rice dishes!
Your cooking skill rank increases! E rank → D rank
: It tastes like mother’s nostalgic cooking!]
After using Koko’s eggs to make a third bowl of soy sauce egg rice, my cooking skill leveled up.
The skill explanation remained simple.
[Reward: A sponge and dishwashing soap!]
And finally, dishwashing supplies.
At this rate, they might as well hand over an entire household setup for free.
Are they suggesting I just settle down here or something…?
[“Delicious and healthy space~!”
: You’ve consumed plenty of <Space Rice>. Skill level increases 5% faster.]
Whoa. After completely finishing the meal, another notification popped up.
[You’ve consumed <Subspace Egg>. Agility +1.]
[You’ve consumed <Subspace Egg>. Agility +1.]
[…]
[You’ve consumed <Subspace Egg>. Agility +1.]
Surprised, my previously bloated stomach suddenly felt like it had digested everything instantly.
Isn’t this basically cheating?
A skill-level-up buff and an immediate increase of 5 agility points, just from eating?
In my heart, I dedicated this joy and glory to Koko.
“Cluck… Cluck-cluck.”
From beyond the window, it almost sounded like cluck-cluck was crowing in celebration.
[You’ve consumed excessive Subspace Food
▸ Title <Subspace Administrator> Trait
: The energy of purification fills you!]
But what’s this?
“Why is there light all of a sudden…?”
My skin began to glow faintly.
Could this be purification?!
The light quickly faded, but strangely enough, I felt… lighter. Cleaner. Though I couldn’t quite tell what had changed.
[Purification Power Details:
(Passive) Radiates refreshing purifying energy that’s good for the body and mind! ✧٩(ˊωˋ*)و✧]
And I still didn’t understand what this meant.
✦✦✦
A week passed.
A lot had changed during that time.
The inside of the cabin was much cleaner, and right outside, Koko now had its own house. Right next to it, there was even a small vegetable garden.
By the river, a bridge had been built, allowing access to the other side.
As I walked farther and farther away, the basic map transformed into an intermediate map, and regions outside the safe zone began to appear.
However, the map was still filled with question marks, leaving me clueless about what lay beyond.
The transparent barrier marking the edge of the safe zone seemed to silently warn me not to cross it…. so I hadn’t dared to venture outside yet.
[Stamina increases by 1.]
However, I didn’t plan to stay trapped here forever.
I bit into a seed from a dried purple fruit I’d prepared earlier.
[Stamina increases by 1.]
[Stamina increases by 1.]
Crunch, crunch. The seed tasted nutty, almost like almonds, spreading a pleasant flavor in my mouth. The texture was snack-like, making it easy to keep eating without getting tired of it.
[Stats (E rank)
▸ Strength: 28
▸ Health: 31
▸ Agility: 25
▸ Luck: 18]
The single digits—or rather, stats that barely even reached 5—were steadily piling up, thanks to the act of eating alone.
I had managed to rise from FFF-rank to E-rank.
Which explained why I’d been so busy stuffing anything and everything into my mouth lately.
Even the grass I picked while walking by was labeled as medicinal herbs in this subspace.
Some stones, when licked, increased luck. The weeds in the yard made for excellent palate-cleansing tea leaves.
None of it was harmful to me.
All I could do was hope that by steadily increasing my stats, I would eventually escape this dungeon someday.
It’s just that the dungeon was S-rank…
But there was hope.
While the only exit was S-rank, fortunately it wasn’t a single-rank dungeon with only the same rank, but rather a complex dungeon with various ranks from F to S.
If I was lucky, I might avoid encountering high-ranking monsters.
If I was even luckier, I might run into some hunters exploring the dungeon and escape with them.
But the real problem was that, as of now, I hadn’t obtained a single skill that could help me with either defense or offense.
Everyone else—no, even the colleague who sat right next to me at work—boasted about acquiring flashy combat skills while arrogantly throwing down their resignation letters.
Meanwhile, the skills I’d gained in the past week were cleaning, gathering, cooking, farming, and so on……
All of them were only useful for daily life. Haha.
Damn, it wasn’t funny at all.
So, while raising my stats, I had to somehow acquire another skill—something useful for fighting or escaping.
And the only way to do that was relentless training.
A gust of wind blew from afar.
“Cluck.”
I tensed as I turned to look at Kkoko. The chicken met my gaze with a determined expression.
“Cluck-cluck-COO!”
With a cry, Koko charged at me. Whoosh, whoosh-whoosh! It was fast.
I dodged left and right, flinging my body around to avoid Koko. But I was soon caught by its speed.
The chicken took to the air and struck my head.
Peck!
“Ow!”
Peck, peck, peck! Its sharp beak mercilessly targeted the center of my forehead, and I couldn’t help but scream.
It really hurt.
“A-again!”
I grabbed Koko and flung it far away. Flap-flap! The bird landed lightly on the ground.
Round two.
If you can’t dodge, it’s death. I just died once!
“Uwaah!”
“Cluck?”
I pretended to charge at Koko, then swerved as it leapt into the air. This time, I wouldn’t get caught.
“Huff… huff!”
I ran for dear life. If I couldn’t even evade a single chicken, how was I supposed to escape the dungeon?!
[S-rank boss monster ‘Emperor Centipede’ has discovered the space entrance!
Would you like to let it in?
Yes | No]
Ack! Of all times, why was something trying to come in now?!
I frantically pressed ‘No’ without even reading the details.
Even though this was a safe zone, I had no desire to let a monster into the subspace.
“Cluckck!”
Koko’s cry echoed behind me. It was close—too close.
[S-rank boss monster ‘Emperor Centipede’, infected with a powerful curse, hopes to escape into the subspace.
Would you like to let it in?
Yes | No]
Flap-flap! A small shadow flitted past above my head.
I randomly hit ‘No’ to dismiss the system window blocking my view.
“Hah!”
“Cluuck!”
Thud. Koko, which had soared over me, landed in front of me with its wings spread wide, blocking my path.
I skidded to a stop just in time.
[S-rank boss monster ‘Emperor Centipede’, infected with a powerful curse, writhes trying to invade the space.
Would you like to let it in?
Yes | No]
We stood in a tense standoff. Finally, I was able to properly read the message.
“E… Emperor Centipede?”
Goosebumps broke out all over my body.
W-what did I just see?
“Cluck!”
“Wait! Koko, hold on—urk!”
Thud! Koko charged into my solar plexus, making me lose my balance and fall backward.
What happened next felt like it was in slow motion.
In front of me was the system window that would decide whether the S-rank boss monster would be allowed entry.
As my body tilted from the impact, my outstretched hand, which was trying to stop Kkoko, moved toward the selection options.
It was a split second.
The system window followed my falling body as if it were mocking me.
‘Yes’—and the tip of my finger.
I was about to touch it.
Ding! A new message appeared before the S-rank monster’s request.
[ ��� is curious about the space.
Will you let them enter?
Yes | No]
Tap. My finger made contact.
[ ��� has been granted entry!]
Thud! My backside hit the ground. I stared at the message in shock.
I had accepted. And in the most absurd way.
I had accepted!
[ ��� will now enter the subspace!]
But it wasn’t the Emperor Centipede. It was an unknown, unidentified entity.
What?! That’s even worse!
“No! Wait, cancel! Cancel it!”
[You cannot cancel an already accepted request.]
Creak. A door-like white gate opened.
And what emerged from it….
Black hair, piercing eyes, and dark circles etched deeply under them.
An appearance so worn and drained that his haggardness overshadowed his good looks.
In short…
It was the Rank 1 Hunter.
Ah…?
🌱
Thank you for reading! ♡
