Chapter 7

The snail had a neat answer to her question ready.

<A higher rank means a more pleasant home. That will bring you peace of mind, which in turn will result in... world peace.>

“You’re... no different from the System, are you?” she said.

In fact, it was worse than the System. World peace through cleaning? She hadn’t encountered a worse exaggeration than that.

Is this a “happiness begins at home” sort of thing?

Huina wondered briefly if she shouldn’t have bothered to ask at all. But her tenacity—or rather, her endurance stat of twenty—hadn’t gone anywhere.

Instead of sighing, she decided to make the question a little more specific.

“Can I move into better housing than this if my Housekeeper rank goes up?”

<Affirmative.>

That was a yes.

“Really? So I can get myself a better place, then!”

Huina resolved to herself that after her 167 hours of training, she would one day be free of this disgusting studio apartment.

That was when some grime peeled off the floor in response to her powerful mopping. Yellow linoleum appeared, apparently out of nowhere.

“No way! The floor was yellow?”

The gray floor she’d been sweeping and wiping for three whole hours had actually been yellow.

It came as a huge shock. Taking up her phone, Huina took a photo of the fresh patch of floor. The difference between the clean spot and the remaining grime was like night and day.

“This is almost magical.”

She was nonplussed, but she soon recovered her composure. The room was only nine square meters. If she worked a little harder, she could walk around on a clean floor. She excitedly replaced the disposable cloth on her mopstick.

Huina was the sort of person who thought using single-use items was a waste, but she’d chosen disposable cleaning equipment on purpose, considering the terrible state of the apartment.

Once used on this grubby place, no rag would survive to tell the tale.

“This feels amazing!”

As she scrubbed the floor with a new cloth, the bare linoleum finally began to surface.

<System: The efficiency of “Shrewd Hands (D)” has reached its maximum level! Your proficiency is rising quickly!>

The System window played the sound of a tambourine along to the rhythm of Huina’s happy movements.

She found herself humming without realizing it. The floor was getting cleaner with each sweep of the mop, and she thought to herself that this must be the joy of housekeeping.

That was when a pop-up window appeared in front of her.

<System: You have come to an illuminating realization! Your proficiency increases by 500 points. (Current proficiency: 512/1000)>

“Whoa,” Huina marveled.

She’d assumed the System was just an unfriendly creature that liked to force people to buy housing, but it seemed to be surprisingly generous.

It’s giving me 500 proficiency just because I told myself that housekeeping can be fun?

The System had just saved her eighty-three hours and twenty minutes of the 167 hours total she would have to put in.

What is this, a clearance sale?

“I think this should be doable at this rate. Don’t you think so, Snail? It’s fun seeing my proficiency level rise so quickly. It’s like playing a game,” she said to her companion, who had climbed up from her shoulder to her head.

The snail responded,

<Ninety-nine parts effort and one part enjoyment makes anything possible.>

It sounded like a quote from some self-help book, but seeing the results with her own eyes seemed to speed up her progress by a lot. She forgot her fatigue as she wiped the floor.

After she’d gotten rid of the filth with the mop, she started the really difficult part of the process. Mopping was not enough for her. She pulled up her sleeves, got down on all fours, and began to scrub the floors with a rag in her hands.

<System: The efficiency of “Shrewd Hands (D)” has been magnified to the greatest possible extent! Your fingertips impart cleanliness everywhere they touch!>

It was enough to make her back and arms sore, but Huina was in a trance induced by frenetic activity, and she felt no pain. She wiped the floor eagerly, every bit of surface she touched left with a clean, watery sheen. Any Korean would feel the urge to sleep on this floor the moment they saw it.

“There! Done!”

She’d finally finished cleaning the floor. She’d sped up as she worked, and it had only taken her twenty minutes to finish.

It had taken her three hours and twenty minutes in total. That was a long time for a nine-square-meter house, but the results spoke for themselves.

The yellow linoleum shone like a pristine ice rink. Her skill was out of this world.

“I’m so proud of myself!”

Huina finally relaxed and lay on the floor.

<Warning! Warning! Fall hazard!>

…Shouted the snail as it rolled off her head.

Huina apologized after it tumbled into one corner of the room.

“Sorry. I forgot you were here.”

<Care advised from now on.>

“All right. I’ll be careful.”

She was having a quiet conversation with the snail when twinkling letters appeared in front of her as she lay there, prone.

<System: Congratulations. You’ve leveled up! The Old, Basic Single-Room Studio Apartment is now Lv. 2.>

It was a System window. The letters shone in rainbow colors, as if truly happy for her achievement.

<System: Level-up rewards available. Take them? Y/N>

“Level-up rewards?”

Huina immediately sat up. She wasn’t saying ‘no’ to freebies.

“Yes! I’ll take them!”

<System: (Randomizing)...>

This made her nervous.

Why are level-up rewards randomized? she wondered.

The System showed another message.

<System: Congratulations! You’ve received “Frameless Old Mattress (E)”!>

Huina did what any user should do upon receiving a crummy random reward in a game.

She cursed at the game.

“What the hell is this?”

Grumbling at length, she looked down at the mattress that had appeared in front of her.

Thankfully, though it was worn, it didn’t look like it had any innate depressions in it.

<Frameless Old Mattress (E): Allows moderate-quality sleep. You will feel moderately refreshed after sleeping in it. Recover +1 stamina every hour.>

The mattress was an E-rank item, but it had an amazing effect. It allowed a user to recover one additional point of stamina every hour.

Considering that stamina recovery potions cost millions or tens of millions of won, this was nothing to laugh at.

Huina had gotten very lucky. If she sold it, she could probably buy herself a nice car.

“Well, it’s only E-rank... but it should be better than sleeping on the floor.”

But Huina knew nothing about the metahuman world, and she had no clue what she’d lucked into. She simply consoled herself with the thought that this wasn’t half bad.

“All I did was clean, but I feel so tired. I’ll have to do the rest tomorrow.”

She checked her phone and realized it was already eight in the evening. She’d had three rolls of gimbap earlier, but her stomach was growling again.

“Is there anything else to eat?”

She crawled over to her food bag. To her relief, she found some snacks that she’d bought along with her remaining gimbap.

She crammed some of it into her mouth since she was so hungry. Then she felt much better.

<Crumbs. On the floor.>

The snail had followed her and nagged at her about the crumbs she’d spilled.

“Oh, all right, all right. I’ll get those after I eat,” she said dismissively.

Then her eyes went wide.

“Huh?”

She’d noticed something.

“Snail, was your shell always this color?”

The snail’s shell, which had been a murky gray, had gotten brighter. The matte shell now had a sheen, and there were faint traces of color when the light played across it.

<It’s because you leveled up.>

The snail waved its antennae, seemingly happy.

Huina swallowed the rest of her snacks and complimented it on its appearance.

“So your shell changes color when I level up? I wonder how much prettier you’ll get when I level up further? You’re already quite lovely.”

<Resplendent!>

“Right. So you’ll be resplendent? That’ll be quite something.”

The snail shrugged with its antennae.

Huina stared down at it, then said, “But if we’re going to stay together like this, you should probably have a proper name. I can’t just keep calling you Snail, can I?”

<Agreed.>

“What would you like me to call you?”

The snail said immediately,

<Home Administrator!>

“That’s not a name. It sounds so formal. I wonder what I can call you? Snaily, since you’re a snail?”

<Try a little harder.>

…It said, seemingly upset with the low-effort name.

She rubbed her chin.

“How about Poly?”

<Poly?>

…The snail asked.

Huina pointed to the snail’s shell.

“Your shell glitters in multiple colors when the light strikes it at the right angle. So you’re polychromatic.”

<I’ll... consider it.>

“Oh, come on. You like it, don’t you? Your waving antennae are giving you away,” she teased playfully.

She’d only known it a few hours, but she already felt like she’d become good friends with it.

<Agreed. Poly it is.>

…The snail finally said. It spun in place a few times, as if to show off its new shell.

Huina laughed out loud at the cute antic, momentarily forgetting her concerns.