Chapter 4
Eve the Evangelist (1)
They all got turned into ketchup.
The [Action] tab of [World Intervention] was a function that allowed a god to directly exert physical force.
Lee Shin had simply selected [Action], lifted his foot, and stepped on them.
That was it.
The difference in size had probably played a major role.
No matter how vicious those bastards were, they were still smaller than a two-liter water bottle. How could they possibly withstand Lee Shin’s weight?
I should be more careful from now on.
Fortunately, Eve hadn’t been seriously injured.
Despite being struck by a motorcycle, Eve simply stood up, brushed the sand off her body, and quickly recovered.
Was that a characteristic of dwarves?
“God! Oh, God! We’ve obtained transportation!”
Having gotten back to her feet without a problem, Eve climbed onto one of the motorcycles the men had left behind and expertly started the engine.
Then she looked up at the sky and flashed a grin.
She even had a tough side to her.
“Here we gooooo!”
Of course, despite how cool she tried to look, Eve was absolutely terrible at driving.
Lee Shin found himself grateful that he wasn’t physically riding with her and instead existed as an observer watching from the sky.
The motorcycles the bikers had ridden were certainly impressive.
After crossing the wasteland that had seemed endless on foot, Eve finally approached her destination, the Red City of Gepetto.
Buildings appeared beyond the horizon just as Lee Shin’s Intervention Power was nearly depleted.
This time, Lee Shin warned Eve in advance that he was about to leave and instructed her to get started on what needed to be done.
“God! Oh, God! You can count on meeeee!!!”
Lee Shin wasn’t sure whether he should trust Eve after she had gotten into a total of four accidents on the way here, but he decided to put his faith in the professional side of Eve, who had once been a priestess.
Hopefully, she would show him an unexpectedly competent side this time!
「You have exhausted all of your Intervention Power.」
***
Lee Shin had stayed up all night and even packed a lunch before using [World Observation], so exhaustion had accumulated considerably.
He seemed to feel it even more acutely after returning from floating around as nothing but a disembodied soul.
Lee Shin immediately fell into a deep sleep.
By the time he woke up, it was already evening, yet he felt far more refreshed than usual.
Had he finally gotten a good night’s sleep for once?
「The Faith level of the Low-Rank Believer [Eve] is extremely high.」
「You and your believer are connected.」
「The soul of the Low-Rank Believer [Eve] is influencing you.」
「You are currently sharing the skill [Self-Healing].」
「A shared skill will disappear if the believer’s Faith level decreases.」
Apparently, even the reason he had slept so soundly was thanks to Eve.
Lee Shin couldn’t help smiling at the realization that his newly made friend was helping him in all sorts of ways.
“Hey, Lee Shin! How long are you going to nap?”
When he got up and walked into the living room, he found Choi Bom sitting comfortably on the sofa as though she owned the place.
“How did you get here? Is it already the weekend?”
“What weekend? I got leave.”
“Leave...?”
Choi Bom nodded.
“Training was brutal this time, and I twisted my ankle, so I got two days off. And just so you know, I didn’t come here to see you. I came to see your dad, okay? Being stuck there makes me miss home-cooked food.”
“Uncle Seung-baek would be hurt if he heard that.”
“He’d be even more hurt if he came home after work and his daughter started whining at him to cook for her. Whatever. Look at this. I’m telling you, it’s pretty bad.”
Wearing only shorts, Choi Bom suddenly thrust her leg toward him.
Sure enough, her ankle was visibly swollen.
“I told you to pray whenever things get hard.”
“Pray, my ass. What, are you God now? Oh, right. You are a god—a goddamn idiot!”
Choi Bom lightly tapped Lee Shin’s shoulder with the sole of her foot, then burst into laughter as though she found herself hilarious.
Feeling how refreshed his own body was, Lee Shin thought,
It’d be nice if I could heal Bom with my ability too.
The only skill he had received from Eve was [Self-Healing].
As the name suggested, it was a skill capable only of healing the user’s own injuries.
It was probably thanks to this skill that Eve had been able to get hit by a motorcycle, go flying through the air, and still be perfectly fine afterward.
Lee Shin didn’t care if his own fatigue remained.
He simply wished he could somehow pass this power on to Choi Bom instead.
Maybe if I become closer to Eve, I’ll eventually be able to heal other people.
There were many people around Lee Shin whom he didn’t want to see hurt.
Choi Bom, who had just sprained her ankle.
His father, who suffered from a herniated disc.
His mother, who frequently suffered from minor illnesses....
If he could give the gift of good health to the people precious to him, that would be wonderful.
“If you get hurt again, I’ll heal you.”
“What are you talking about? Hmph. Well, thanks, even if you’re just saying it.”
“I’m not just saying it. I awakened.”
At Lee Shin’s casual declaration, everyone froze.
Choi Bom.
His father.
His mother.
As all three stared at him blankly, Lee Shin added,
“I’m serious.”
“W-What kind of ability?”
“Otherworld Exploration. I haven’t been awakened for very long, but from what I’ve seen, it looks like I might be able to bring abilities back from there and do all sorts of other things. Dad, I’ll make sure to heal your back too. And Mom, I’ll heal you as well.”
At Lee Shin’s words, his father, Lee Young-hwan, chuckled.
“But why does Bom get healed first? You like your girlfriend more than your dad, huh?”
“Mister! Since when am I this idiot’s girlfriend? Take that back right now. I’m seriously going to get mad!”
“Hehe. It would be pretty funny if Seung-baek and I became in-laws.”
“I’m all for it too. Seriously, Bom, who else is going to take our son if not you? The boy’s so clueless that you’re probably the only woman he’ll ever know.”
While his parents engaged in the sort of teasing typical of middle-aged adults, Lee Shin failed to understand the joke and shook his head.
“I know Mom too.”
Young-hwan immediately replied,
“Does your mom count as a woman? She’s an ajumma.”
That was more than enough to earn him a smack.
Young-hwan yelped as he was slapped hard on the back, and everyone burst into laughter.
And right in the middle of the cheerful atmosphere, Lee Shin poured cold water on it.
“Oh. Now I know Eve too.”
“...?”
“She’s a friend I met over there, and everything she does is really cute. I want to bring her back and live with her, but I guess I can’t do that yet.”
“E...ve?”
Choi Bom spoke in a strange tone.
His father shook his head, while Lee Shin, completely oblivious to the atmosphere, continued speaking clearly and without hesitation.
“Unlike you, who’s about the same height as me, she’s incredibly tiny and cute. She follows me around everywhere, and the other day she burst into tears just because I didn’t visit for a day. That’s why I’m just waiting for my trait’s cooldown to end.”
Young-hwan smacked a hand against his forehead.
His mother did the same.
The two had exactly the same thought.
Our son really is an idiot!
Why did his astonishing insight and mysterious intuition only ever work when it came to other people?
Watching their son innocently blurt everything out was enough to drive his parents insane.
Even after Lee Shin revealed that he had awakened, his parents didn’t immediately tell him to become a Hunter or start making money with his abilities.
Despite how playful they usually were, they were wonderful parents who always respected Lee Shin’s wishes.
If they had been greedy for money, they would have made Lee Shin become a shaman or fortune-teller when he was young.
Even if they had, Lee Shin loved his parents so much that he probably would have willingly gone along with it.
Even after Young-hwan brought out braised short ribs, Choi Bom only picked at her food.
Considering how she normally ate anything and everything with gusto, it was strange.
Lee Shin wondered whether her ankle was hurting and, out of concern, kept placing pieces of short rib on top of her rice.
Choi Bom spoke in a prickly tone.
“Hmph. Why don’t you give it to Eve instead?”
Choi Bom continued sulking with her lips sticking out.
Lee Shin scratched his head, wondering if he had said something wrong again.
“You’re more precious to me than Eve.”
“...You said she’s tiny and cute and follows you everywhere, didn’t you? She’s exactly your type.”
Choi Bom was 177 centimeters tall.
Lee Shin didn’t know it, but Choi Bom had always been self-conscious about being so tall.
It was because when they were children, Lee Shin had once looked at some puppies and said that he definitely liked small, cute things best.
Lee Shin himself had completely forgotten about it.
“Why do you keep talking about weird stuff while we’re eating?”
“Hmph.”
“You need to eat properly if you don’t want to get hurt. You said you’d live longer than me. Hurry up and eat.”
“I’m going to die before you.”
“Don’t say that. I can’t live without you. Hurry up.”
The corners of Choi Bom’s lips twitched at Lee Shin’s words.
“...Really?”
“Yeah. And Eve is about the same height as this plate of braised ribs. She’s not human. She’s a dwarf.”
“Damn it, you should’ve said that sooner. Mister, another bowl of rice, please....”
Only then did Choi Bom finish three bowls of rice.
His father practically shoved Lee Shin out the door, telling him to escort Choi Bom because she had injured her ankle.
As if a prospective Hunter who could bend steel with her bare hands was in any danger....
Choi Bom kept fighting back a smile and left with a bright expression, telling him that he absolutely had to come visit her next time.
Lee Shin accompanied her through the subway gates and made sure she got on the train before heading back.
On his way out of the station, he encountered some strange people.
“You have such a wonderful aura about you.”
“Thank you.”
“Your ancestors must have accumulated a great deal of fortune.”
They could tell how fortunate his ancestors were just by looking at his face?
Lee Shin wondered whether these people might possess abilities similar to his own.
“Can you see people’s destinies too?”
But the people who had approached him so warmly fled in less than three minutes once Lee Shin began bombarding them with serious questions.
Lee Shin had secretly gotten his hopes up, so he was disappointed when he realized they were recruiters for a cult.
Scratching his head, Lee Shin thought,
If they can’t even fool me, they probably can’t fool anyone.
Did people actually fall for that?
“Waaaaah! God! Oh, God! Nobody understands your greatness!”
The instant his Intervention Power finished recharging, Lee Shin used [World Observation].
As soon as he arrived, he found Eve crying her heart out.
Not only had all of her attempts at evangelism failed, she claimed that everyone had treated her coldly and that she ought to go off somewhere and die.
Why would anyone dislike someone as cute and mouse-like as Eve?
Lee Shin suggested that they try together.
Eve renewed her determination, clenched her fist energetically, and marched out into the street.
Following Eve’s gaze, Lee Shin took in the unusual scenery of the Red City, Gepetto.
Because its inhabitants were so small, all the buildings were tiny as well, making it feel like he was looking at a miniature city.
Most strikingly, true to its name as the Red City, everything from the buildings to the roads was completely red.
But there was something even more striking.
“You have such a wonderful aura about you!”
It was Eve in full professional mode.
“It seems your ancestors accumulated a great deal of virtue—”
“Don’t ever show your face in front of me again.”
Having embarrassed herself in front of Lee Shin, Eve became even more miserable.
Soon, she began wailing loudly enough to bring the whole world down around her.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”
Even Lee Shin, whose own family called him an idiot, could tell that this wasn’t right.
For the first time in his life, Lee Shin had met someone who seemed like an even bigger idiot than he was.
Fortunately, Lee Shin soon came up with an idea.
『My Eve, do not grieve.』
“But....”
『Answer me. Do the people of the Red City, Gepetto, also lack food and water?』
Eve sniffled and nodded.
The people here lived primarily on mud cookies and dried plant husks.
If that was the case, there was one method that couldn’t possibly fail.
Lee Shin decided to bring out something he had originally intended to give Eve as a present.
“Gasp... We can do that?!”
A short while later, Eve struggled to drag a gigantic portable gas burner and a gigantic pot into the middle of the street.
Of course, they were only gigantic by the standards of this world.
In reality, they were ordinary portable cookware.
Click, click, click.
Using her entire body, Eve managed to ignite the gas burner.
The moment the flame burst to life, eyes turned toward her from all directions.
“What’s that?”
“Is that...?”
She had attracted their attention for the moment, but that alone wasn’t enough.
Eve opened a water container and poured water into the pot.
Soon, it began bubbling furiously.
After performing three somersaults, Eve tossed in the flakes and seasoning.
Finally, she dropped the noodles into the boiling water.
And then—
“On Sundays!”
She even recited the magical incantation Lee Shin had taught her.
“I’m! The jjajang ramyeon chef!!”
Lee Shin had wanted Eve to be the first person in this world to experience the taste of ramyeon, but there was no helping it.
What better way was there to attract attention than the smell of ramyeon?
Even at a PC café, the moment one person ordered jjajang ramyeon, everyone else would start ordering it too.
When it came to sheer aroma, it ranked among the very best kinds of ramyeon.
And when you were starving and someone else was cooking jjajang ramyeon right in front of you?
Even Lee Shin, who had just eaten, found his mouth watering from the smell.
So what about them?
“That smell... is insane.”
The residents of the Red City, Gepetto.
Every last one of them began to drool.