Becoming someone specifically targeted by Kessler wasn’t bad enough—on top of that, my face had been exposed to a murderer.
‘Is there really no such thing as dying when you’re meant to live?’
They say even when the sky falls, there’s always a way out. I pressed the [Humanization] button, which could be activated once a day.
First Achievement Unlocked! ‘The Fox Who Became Human!’
Whether I was emotionally conflicted or not, the system—utterly oblivious—blared a triumphant fanfare.
The upside is…
The Baby Arctic Fox’s Humanization will persist until you manually deactivate it.
Transformation was only possible once per day, but once transformed, the duration was unlimited.
I opened my—no, my mouth wide and tried enunciating.
“Ah, ah. Asphalt! Dogdogdog.”
I blurted out whatever came to mind. It came out way too clear. I’d forgotten what a true vocal cavity felt like after living as a toothless baby fox. Humans really did have a better sound chamber.
Then I looked in the mirror.
“……”
It was exactly what I looked like in real life. Just underwear and a tank top—what I’d been wearing when I fell asleep gaming.
“…This is insane.”
I looked like someone who dried their own cigarettes. If I went out like this, I’d 100% be mistaken for some kind of pervert and get the living daylights beaten out of me.
I touched my face. Wasn’t there some kind of character-editing function?
“Cash Shop!”
Looked like there was no other option but to spend cash. But since I’d possessed a body in this world, even that was restricted.
I rummaged through my bag. Anything to cover up these sorry-ass undies. Eventually, I grabbed a pair of socks. Mismatched, partially burned, and smelling funky, but after a few generous sprays of deodorizer, the stench was at least tolerable.
[System]: You have equipped ‘Burnt Sock.’
Other than that, I really had nothing wearable.
“Well… I guess this’ll have to do.”
Luckily, I still had some puzzle pieces from the murderer. I laid out the chalky fragments, spread them flat using an empty glass bottle like a rolling pin.
“…What kind of pointless suffering is this?”
I poked a rough hole for my head and shoved my body through like I was dressing up as a card soldier.
It looked ridiculous, sure—but at least the essentials were covered.
The problem… was my face.
I, Yeo Woo-rim, had been the topic of online buzz a few times thanks to my status as a pro gamer and fandom darling. Even just going to a corner store, people recognized me.
Sure, the game had a huge player base, but if someone suddenly popped up out of nowhere, people you saw every day would definitely take notice.
“This is such a headache.”
Still, I had to move. I had some money on hand, the Shadow Market was open, and I could now haggle—time to solve things by pushing forward.
That said, it felt weird not having my usual tail. The absence left my back feeling strangely bare. I found myself subconsciously groping my own butt when—
—I locked eyes with a ghost crawling slowly down the hallway.
“……”
Rather than being startled, it looked at me with utter disgust, as if thinking what a lunatic, and scurried away. I was momentarily speechless.
“Every penny counts.”
Determined to figure things out, I scraped together every last coin from my bag when something unfamiliar brushed my fingers. A strange glove.
“What’s this?”
[You have found ‘Black Hand Gloves’!]
Huh?
Alarmed by the suspicious item, I quickly looked around and slipped into a nearby storage room to check the details.
[‘Black Hand Gloves’
When you wear these gloves, your hands will be cloaked in darkness. Steal anything you want.]
“This is insane.”
I hurriedly opened my status window. All my stats were similar to when I was a fox—except for one thing: the ‘Perfumer’ occupation was gone.
Apparently, ‘Perfumery’ was exclusive to my fox form. Which meant, as a human, I could now gain a new job.
And right now, in my hand, I had the Black Gloves. Like a rice cake being served right to my mouth.
‘But why would this job come to me?’
Most jobs required a key item to unlock—like how the perfumer needed a Perfumery Kit. And the Black Gloves? Their description screamed a certain class.
I stared down at them. Special job classes might seem randomly assigned, but they actually required specific conditions. Rumor had it, the special job items would “choose” players after watching their first-day gameplay.
Had I stolen something on day one…?
A mental panorama rolled through my mind—
“I… stole Haru Noona’s brownie.”
More accurately, I snatched the ‘poisoned brownie’ she was about to eat in the waiting room’s catering area.
“I also swiped Kessler’s Jewel Ice.”
Maybe the activation condition for the ‘Thief’ Special Occupation was “the one who stole the most on the first day.”
But back then, I was still a fox and didn’t have hands to wear the ‘Black Hand Gloves,’ so the job had been deferred—only now, as a human, had it finally manifested.
…No one knows the real truth. What mattered was that the item was in my hands.
I immediately put it on. The first thing to steal. I stood still for a long time, deep in thought, then quietly slipped away into the noisy night market’s back alley.
Because I was dressed like a potato sack, ghosts walking the narrow alley kept bumping into me and casting annoyed glances, but I ignored them and kept going.
Where I arrived was a field of corpses. Three bodies were sprawled out in a heap, still warm—freshly killed by the murderer, it seemed. I picked the best-looking face from the pile and tore it off.
[You have stolen something for the first time! Skill ‘Theft’ acquired!]
What I stole was the face of a dead man.
[Due to your low proficiency in the ‘Theft’ skill, you have only partially obtained the face.
+See More]
Huh? What do they mean “only partially stolen”?
I clicked to check the details.
[Due to your low proficiency in the ‘Theft’ skill, you have only partially obtained the face. You have stolen the lips of player ‘Jjuggumi.’]
‘Fuck.’
Of all things, what I ended up stealing was the lips embedded with the cash item ‘FishyFishy’. Only the cash item got ripped along with it and—smack!—it attached itself right onto my lips.
Grumbling in frustration, I rifled through the dead user Jjuggumi’s belongings. From what I found, it was easy to guess the man’s occupation.
‘Sigh.’
[System]: You have acquired ‘Map of Curiosity.’
[System]: You have acquired ‘Broken Compass Fragment.’
“This is fucking crazy.”
This corpse was the Seeker I had been searching for all along. Had someone realized Jjuggumi was a Seeker and intentionally killed him? It was definitely possible.
I rifled through the belongings of the other players lying next to him.
[System]: You have acquired ‘Unknown Second Hand Fragment.’
[System]: You have acquired ‘Crushed Minute Hand Fragment.’
Another one was even a ‘Time Traveler.’
This class didn’t manifest easily—you had to complete brutal quests starting from Day One to even have a shot. A rare job class.
Goddamn it.
“They specifically went after Special Occupations.”
It must’ve been a calculated move—striking while everyone else was distracted by the Shadow Night Market.
Now that we’d lost such important cooperative assets, curling up and crying in despair would be justified. But in my current ragged state, that felt like a luxury. If I walked around like this, I wouldn’t be pegged as a thief—I’d get arrested as a pervert.
I quickly stripped the Time Traveler’s base uniform shirt and put it on. Took the explorer’s wide pants too. For shoes, I just grabbed whatever pair lying around fit.
Then I wrapped a bandana around my face to cover it. The ridiculous Boonguh mouth poked out from the scarf, but everything else—my eyes aside—was neatly hidden.
Even if I looked like a thief, I was still a conscientious citizen who cared about small business owners. So, when I returned to the market, I didn’t steal the dried-up fish I needed for a quest—I bought it.
That’s when it happened.
[?! Your occupation questions your actions. You, a thief, have purchased an item through legal, proper means, rather than stealing it. You can now proceed with the occupation quest.]
“What the hell is this now?”
[Occupation Quest: Steal bread from the ‘Evil Skeleton’s Bakery,’ where the town’s skeletons exploit others to make bread!
Reward: Removes restrictions on stealing food.]
“…These developers are freaking insane…”
Seriously. Instead of punishing exploiters, they want you to steal bread made by the exploiters and call that being a Goodhearted Thief?
It was a prelude quest, but nothing urgent—so I prioritized finishing the Perfumer quest. Having two jobs meant double the workload. Busy, busy.
[You have delivered the items to Smellbone and completed the occupation quest <Find the Baby Fox’s Protective Scent!>.
Consumed Items: Wolf’s Hide Fur (1/1), Withered Fish (1/1), Soft Vanilla (1/1)
—You can now change your scent to hide.
—Duration: up to 5 hours / Usage limit: once per week.]
That was done. I moved on to check the upcoming survival quest schedule.
‘Friday night, four days from now.’
If nothing changed, it would be the quest I was thinking of.
And tonight, there was going to be a user meeting to discuss the next quest schedule.
***
Even though more than half had died, over 400 people were still alive. When I entered the chapel and sat quietly, no one found me suspicious. My outfit was normal, and many others wore scarves or hoods too.
Across the room sat Jung Da-hoon and Bori Noona. I kept my eyes on them. He must’ve sensed my gaze during his conversation with her because he turned and looked my way. Our eyes met. I casually looked away.
A banner hung in the center of the hall.
「Group Quest Strategy Meeting」
“Alright, everyone here? Let’s get started!”
The user meeting commenced.
“First of all, starting with the next quest, we’ll gather in the chapel before it begins for a quick idea-sharing session.”
This was to prevent the same chaotic mess that had happened during the zombie hunt last time.
“And for that, all Special Occupation holders must reveal their identities.”
But when did anything in this world ever go so smoothly?
“Is there no one? Even a whisper to me would be fine…”
I looked at Jung Da-hoon, who was smiling with one corner of his mouth raised.
The Seeker, the Time Traveler… All the valuable Special Occupations—except for himself, the Thief—were already dead.
At the hands of the Murderer.
