CHF | Chapter 2

When Gru awakened, she was learning how to brush her teeth at kindergarten.

The children stood in front of the mirror in a group and brushed their teeth, just at that moment, a status window appeared before her eyes.

[To ensure smooth communication between the Host and the system, the Host’s cognitive abilities are being adjusted.]

[Update 85% complete….]

At the sudden appearance of the system, Gru opened her mouth in bewilderment, and the homeroom teacher, who had been watching, diligently wiped away the flowing toothpaste and saliva.

“Tweacha, Gru, there’s something strange in front of Gru-”

[T/N: As indicated in the raws, the MC is a preschooler so her pronunciation is underdeveloped.]

She wanted to say that something strange was hovering in front of her, but-

“Tweacha!! I want to take a dump!!”

“Teacher, he’s going to poop here!!!”

“Tweacha, Penny is sleepy-”

The homeroom teacher at kindergarten was far too busy for Gru to consult about her situation.

Thanks to the system’s influence, Gru, who has now become smarter than her peers, decided not to bother the teacher, who was already busily running around.

Gru is also 4 years old this year. She thought she was old enough to be able to take care of her own affairs.

[Update has been completed.]

The update was over when it was time for afternoon nap.

Gru lay down in bed and stared quietly at the status window.

[System is loading.]

Thump thump.

Gru eagerly waited for the status window to finish loading with sweaty palms.

By now, Gru understood that she had awakened.

Even in kindergarten, there was no child who didn’t know about the Awakened ones, and there were even many of her friends who wanted to become hunters when they grew up.

Gru’s dream wasn’t to become a hunter, but to become Gudetama (an egg-shaped character), but she couldn’t achieve her original dream. However, she had no complaints about having a job that others admired.

[T/N: Gudetama is a Japanese character created by Sanrio. Gudetama is an egg yolk character that is often portrayed as lazy or unmotivated.]

[Skill Unlock]

[System engine error while loading (L-rank): Aiya! The system engine is broken!]

Skill: Production

‘L?’

Gru had only learned up to S-rank. They say that Hunters who are at S-rank are the highest.

But the letter in front of her was L. So where does that place her?

‘A, B, C, D……’

As she went over the alphabet she had learned so far, the system added an explanation in front of her.

[Legend (L-rank): One level higher than S, indicating the highest rank.]

The system even kindly wrote down how to read it.

[Confirming the Host’s age.]

[(Underaged) The child protection system has been activated.]

[Quest: A child needs a reliable guardian. Let’s find a trustworthy guardian.]

[Reward: Child Protection Skill Unlocked]

Looking at the quest window, Gru opened her mouth in surprise.

A guardian? Mom? Dad? Thoughts like these floated in her mind.

As she blinked her sleepy eyes, fluffy clouds began to emerge in her imagination.

Hands and feet popped out of the white clouds and turned into two sheep.

The Mom sheep and Dad sheep pulled out some of their fur, made a small baby sheep, and gently hugged it.

‘Mom, dad….’

The reason Gru needed a guardian was probably because Gru didn’t have a mom or dad.

Gru had grown up in an orphanage since she was just born.

From what she had heard so far, there were two ways for a child raised in an orphanage to be with their mom and dad.

First, getting adopted into a new home.

However, the number of children who could be adopted was limited, it wasn’t something that could happen just because they wanted it.

‘This can’t be done.’

Second, the biological parents could come and take them home.

There were often parents who came to the orphanage to pick up their children. The parents would tearfully apologize, saying that they had no choice but to abandon their child due to financial difficulties, and that they had finally come to take them home.

‘Maybe Gru’s mom and dad are like that too….’

Maybe her parents were in a difficult situation and couldn’t come to get Gru right now.

Gru wiped away the tears that were welling up in her eyes.

If her mom and dad couldn’t come to find Gru because they were having a hard time, there was only one conclusion.

‘Let’s make money!’

They said on TV every day that Hunters make a lot of money.

In some programs, they even broadcasted how much hunters earn and how big and fancy their houses are.

‘Gru can do it too!’

If she became a hunter and earned a lot of money, she would be able to live with her mom and dad.

‘Hehe.’

Gru smiled as she imagined how happy she’s going to be living with her mom and dad.

Then, she set a few rules for herself.

First, keep it a secret that Gru is making money.

Good children often received pocket money from adults, but in the orphanage, children who had a lot of money would have them taken away.

Especially the older sisters and brothers who had to leave the orphanage showed even more obsession toward money due to the anxiety of living outside.

Remembering the time when her pocket money was taken away, Gru let out a groan.

‘Yeah, let’s keep it a secret that only Gru knows.’

Becoming a hunter and making a lot of money!

Thinking like that, she decided to minimize accepting help from others.

Phew, Gru breathed a sigh of relief, feeling thankful that she hadn’t told her homeroom teacher about it.

And-

“Gru, why aren’t you sleeping yet?”

“Hic!”

It was her homeroom teacher.

Gru covered her neck with the blanket and closed her eyes tightly.

She tried to keep her eyes closed until the teacher left, but she couldn’t resist the comforting touch of the teacher gently patting her.

Her mind started to blur. Could the teacher be an Awakener too?

Gru, who was hit by the powerful sleep-sleep skill (probably L-rank), soon drifted off into a deep sleep.

* * *

After awakening, Gru began to collect various information through the library, TV, and internet in the orphanage.

Thanks to the system’s adjustments, Gru had become quite smart, and she didn’t forget what she learned once. She could easily understand even the difficult and complex parts.

Gru opened her status window quite skillfully.

Name: Han Gru

Level: LV. 1

Title: ■■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■■ (Inaccessible)

[Quest]

Top Quest: A child needs a reliable guardian!

[Passive Skill]

System engine error while loading (L-rank): Aiyo! The system engine is broken! (It helps to foster a child’s creativity and provides a great starting point for growth.)

[Active Skill]

Crafting (F-rank): Let’s freely mix and match to create various items.

Extraction (D-rank): Let’s extract and explore the properties of different materials.

Opening Dungeon (A-rank): Let’s open dungeon doors to venture inside and explore.

The Active Skills that Gru had were somewhat ordinary. They were just basic crafting skills that any ordinary hunter had.

However, there was something that made Gru special, and that was her Passive Skills.

Gru’s Passive Skills allowed her to extract and combine not only dungeon byproducts, but also everything that exists in the world.

The first thing Gru extracted with Extraction was a Pororo Penguin chewable vitamin.

[T/N: Pororo is a popular South Korean animated character, often referred to as “Pororo the Little Penguin.”]

[The skill ‘Extraction’ has activated.]

As the extraction was completed, an item shaped like a star candy appeared and landed on her small palm.

[You have acquired ‘Vitamin (F-rank)’.]

‘Wow.’

Gru couldn’t tell if it was an amazing skill or not, but it was undoubtedly the perfect skill for her.

Since Gru was a kindergartener, she couldn’t even enter dungeons, and she also didn’t have money to buy dungeon byproducts.

After that, she tried various extractions and combinations. As her proficiency increased, her ‘Crafting’ level went up to E.

Thanks to that, Gru was able to make some pretty fun items.

Just as she was happily thinking about what to make next, Gru quickly covered her mouth.

‘This isn’t the time for this!’

She should be making money instead of having fun!