The Skill Maker

Proofread by: TheFan

– Even if there is a lot of talk going around I think everyone will agree with that. Now

Professor, while looking at the clip of the Hunter Training Inst.i.tute, your final statement please.

The TV screen changed to a place that looked like a training inst.i.tute.

A boy who was wearing clothes similar to combat uniform while receiving basic military training, a girl wearing machinery on her head doing what appeared to be psychokinesis exercises, and a boy, who was nearly an adult, holding a sword while hitting b.a.l.l.s which were flying towards him……

“……”

Even Hyun Soo, eating ramen with his sister with an indifferent face up to now, as if he couldn’t feign his calmness at that scene, stopped moving his chopsticks and gazed at the TV screen briefly.

“……Oppa.”

Hyuna, looking at her oppa that was like that, couldn’t speak. Before she knew it, her eyes filled with tears.

“I’m sorry, Oppa. Because of me……”

“……Mhm? N­-No. It’s because I remembered the mistake I made in at the convenience store during the day. Here, the ramen is going to get soggy. Let’s eat. Okay?”

Hyun Soo managed a smile at his sister and with some effort, turned his gaze away from the TV and started moving his chopsticks again.

However, Hyuna could see it all. The fact that her oppa’s eyes were still lingering on the TV screen……

Hyun Soo, the 20 year-old young man with just a high school diploma and no other significant qualifications.

At one point, he used to be in that same room.

Dawn pa.s.ses by and a bright morning arrives.

As Hyeon Soo looked at the convenience store window, in which the sun was rising at, he packed the beads that he had threaded during the night into his bag.

He had to clean everything before the relief worker came so that he didn’t have to listen to the boss’s useless talk.

“I’m the only one who suffers if I get on his bad side.” [1]

The atmosphere was uncomfortable enough as it is with the dwindling number of customers due to the opening of the dimension gate, even if it is Grey Rank, so it’s best to not do anything that would irritate the boss.

Still, maybe due to the fact that there were no customers, quite a few had been threaded.

As a result, his eyes were blurry and fingers hurt.

“I’ve done this for so long that I’ve even acquired know-hows.”

That it was more comfortable to hold the bead with the thumb and the middle-finger than the index and to hold the string with the pinky. And that seven was the best number of beads to thread at the same time.

It would be better if it was possible to find either a more comfortable position and increase the number of beads threaded at the same time or, a way to thread small amounts of beads quickly using the most efficient movements possible.

“I would have gone to Seoul University if I had studied this hard” [2]

He had never tried this hard for anything during his schooling years, and he also had had no taste for studying.

It was only for a short while but he rebelled too. He was suddenly thrown into this harsh reality having believed that he was going to become a Hunter after all.

But, he was able to wake up to reality quickly thanks to his parents’ tired faces and his sister who only had eyes for him.

He wasn’t the only one that was dismayed by the sudden change in environment; his sister was too.

“I might still be acting out if it wasn’t for Hyuna.”

The road home after the shift change was very bright.

His eyes, having become hazy from concentrating on such tiny beads all night, began to water as soon as they saw sunlight.

“I’m home.”

Opening the door after arriving at his house, only a cold loneliness greeted Hyun Soo.

His mother had gone to work already and his father came home tomorrow as shift work.

It seemed like Hyuna left home early in the morning like the high school student that she is.

Hyun Soo had to leave for his part time job again in the afternoon after taking a nap.

But instead of sleeping, Hyun s…o…b..ought out the beads in his bag.He had a feeling he was on to something.

It felt like that if he achieved this, he would become a master in bead threading.

Greatest efficiency in the least amount of time. That was Hyun Soo’s aim.

You might ask “What’s so great about that” but at the end of the day this was all money.

It wasn’t like there was an hourly wage like his part-time job and when he did finish, he earned based on the amount he finished.

It might only be time amount but when you save up that too will become a big sum.

10x 10 won became 100 won, 10x 100 won became 1000 won, 10x 1000 won became 10,000 won. [3]

Money, no matter how small, once saved up can become a large sum.

It would have been nice to have a skill that paid higher but having no taste in studying and having no other method to do so, the ways in which Hyun Soo could earn money were limited.

It was just that because he was once in the Hunter Training Inst.i.tute, he used his above average stamina to work as many jobs he could.

Others might call him pathetic because of it but side-jobs were the best choice. Because he could do it during the spare time he had between his part-time jobs.

Hence Hyun Soo’s efforts to raise that best choice to the best efficiency was only natural.

After settling down from his rebellious stage, Hyun Soo put all his effort into earning even a little bit more money.

To the extent that others would call him crazy. He was furiously threading beads, switching from different methods such as changing his hand shape, putting the beads on the floor and threading them at once, when it happened.

– Ding!

A noise entered Hyun Soo’s ear.

“Huh…..?”

And a strange thing appeared before his eyes

The skill “Bead Threading” {F} has been created.

Floating in the air, words were flashing before him.

“……. I must be sleepy”

Even if he was once a Hunter in-training, he was bound to be tired after threading beads instead of sleeping when he should be.

Having come to the conclusion that he must have nodded off while absentmindedly threading, Hyun Soo rubbed his eyes.

“Huh…? Why isn’t it going away?”

However, the words in sight did not disappear.

It wasn’t something that appeared from a daydream?

“Or am I still dreaming?”

Hyun Soo dropped the needle in his hand and slapped himself.

Slap!

The sound was greater than expected having hit hard enough to wake up had he been in a dream.

“Ow…..!”

Which means that what he was seeing was not an illusion. Nor a dream.

Hyun Soo, shocked, heard another loud noise.

– Ding!

Ability is being unlocked.

Following the unlocking of an ability ‘Interface’ is activated.

Hyun Soo was dumbfounded after hearing the notification.

Am I hearing things?

It definitely hurt when I hit my face?

The words that had appeared first had been replaced with new ones.

Almost as if saying that ‘it was not a dream’, the words followed Hyun Soo’s line of sight wherever he turned.

Similar to how they appeared, the words slowly disappeared after a while.

Staring at what was no longer there, Hyun Soo pondered.

“Have I gone crazy?”

Or due to a lack of sleep?

Whichever of them it was, Hyun Soo hoped that it was real.

It had clearly said that ability had been unlocked.

The only thing that came to his mind from that was ‘Hunter’.

The dream that he once tried to ignore, having thought it had little to do with him even if he did awaken, seeing as he had dropped out before receiving proper training and not even being able to take the secondary examination because of financial difficulties, that long forgotten dream came back to Hyun Soo’s mind.

It didn’t matter if he was crazy or if it was a dream.

No, it mustn’t be a dream.

Hoping that it was real, Hyun Soo quickly put a line through the idea of that it was all a dream.

Nervous and almost dubious, he shouted out the ‘Bead Threading’ that the strange notification mentioned.

“Bead Threading!!”

As soon as he did, an incredible thing happened.

Almost like magic, the needle went through the beads as if it had a mind of its own.

In an instant a row of threaded beads lay in front of him.

“……!”

Before him lay beads that had been threaded in a line at the same time glistened in the morning sun.

It normally took a minimum of 5 minutes to thread a line that long.

No matter how efficient the method, it was incredibly difficult to find the tiny hole and poke the needle through in one go.

But just by yelling out ‘Bead Threading’ one line was complete.

In terms of time, it took around 1 second.

Hyun Soo’s hands tingled with the wave of deep astonishment that was coming over him.

If someone had poked him in the side, he would most likely have raised both hands and shouted out ‘Hooray!’.

“Bead Threading!”

Just to be sure, he shouted it out again. Another line of well threaded beads neatly lay before him.

“Oh lord….!”

He followed no religion but Hyun Soo wanted to find G.o.d for some reason.

It felt like he had been rewarded for the heartache and hardships he had gone through up till now.

If he wasn’t crazy the only way this could be possible was ‘Hunter’.

In other words, it meant that he had awakened into a Hunter.

“It seems a bit odd considering I awakened as a Hunter.”

Like that fact that strange words appeared before his eyes…..

Well whatever the truth was, it was the truth that he had awakened!

Bead threading wasn’t important. It was the fact that he could use ‘Bead Threading’ which was was significant.

Now that I think of it the words before said something about an ‘Interface’.

Without hesitating, Hyun Soo shouted out.

“Interface!”

As soon as he did so, a table of sorts appeared before his eyes. Among the cells, what he was wondering about was in a large window to the right.

Hyun Soo stared at the bit that said ‘Bead Threading’.

The moment he touched the blinking appearance, looking as if it was asking to be pushed, the window’s shape changed.