I Just Traded in the Forest of Monsters, but the World Changed - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 2
Harsh words were about to spill out, but her body didn’t lie.
“On top of that—what? There’s a failure penalty too?”
Se Hui’s gaze returned to the system window.
“What does Disappearance mean? It’s not just being kicked out, right?”
She reread the text, hoping it didn’t mean what she feared.
It wasn’t like logging out of a game.
“So if I don’t do business, I actually disappear? Is that it?”
A short sigh escaped her.
“Fine. I’ll do it. I can do this.”
Se Hui quickly pulled items from her Inventory.
But there was a major problem.
“Wait—where’s the Gas Burner?”
Se Hui clutched the bag and frantically scrolled through the Inventory window.
“If you only give me Ramyeon, how am I supposed to cook it? Cook it or don’t—which is it?”
Instead, a line of text she’d never seen before appeared quietly at the bottom of the Inventory window.
[Current Cooking Environment: Not Secured]
[Please purchase cooking tools or secure an alternative means.]
Se Hui almost laughed at the absurdity.
It tells her to buy something, but her Points are zero.
No explanation, no one to talk to—just a pack of wolves.
“Isn’t this consumer fraud?”
She complained, but the system remained stubbornly silent.
“What’s it expecting me to buy with, in a situation like this?”
In that moment, Se Hui’s eyes caught on a chunk of metal wedged between the twisted trees.
It was the Truck that had hit her.
“A Truck… maybe…”
* * *
The thought made her heart race a little faster.
Se Hui took a step toward the Truck.
The wolves’ growls intensified immediately.
She clenched her teeth and hurriedly scanned the cargo bed.
And there, she found a familiar shape of metal container.
A Gas Burner and an Aluminum Pot.
“…Really?”
The moment she reached for them, the Inventory window responded.
It was a warning—external damage present, dangerous.
“There’s no time to worry about danger now.”
Se Hui grabbed them without hesitation.
In that instant, her mouth curved upward—just for a moment.
An expression that escaped her awareness.
The smile she always wore in front of suppliers.
At the same moment, the system chimed in with perfect timing.
[Special Skill Unlocked]
[Capitalism’s Smile (A)]
: When displaying a business smile, customer purchase desire increases at a certain rate
“You’re telling me about this now?”
Before the words even finished, change swept through the air.
The alpha wolf’s body, which had been raising its front paw, trembled slightly.
The growl that had been rumbling cut off abruptly.
Instead, the wolf’s snout tilted ever so briefly toward the Aluminum Pot on the ground.
The front paw that had been in an attacking stance—
It didn’t fully lower, but it didn’t come forward anymore.
“I understand, I do.”
Se Hui spoke in a low voice, her smile still in place.
“I’m prey to you.”
That’s when it happened.
A wolf launched itself from the ground, charging straight at Se Hui moments later.
Its paw tore through empty air.
So close she could feel the ends of her hair brush against it.
“Wait, wait……!”
The wolf pack’s leader was just tearing his jaws wide open to strike.
Se Hui’s trembling hand twisted the lever on the Gas Burner.
There was no time to think.
Click, whoosh!
Blue flame split through the forest’s darkness.
The wolves recoiled at the sight of fire, backing away.
Se Hui seized the moment and quickly poured mineral water into the Aluminum Pot.
She couldn’t become wolf food, not after making it to another world.
The water felt slower to boil than usual.
The wolves circled her, waiting for their opening.
Bubble, bubble—
At last the water began to boil.
Se Hui tore open the packet of Ramyeon she’d been holding.
Her hands convulsed as she shook in the broth powder, but her mind had gone cold and clear.
The moment the powder touched the boiling water, something strange happened.
Whoooosh—!
A fragrance exploded outward, sweeping away the forest’s metallic blood-stench and the sickly air in a single breath.
A spice that needled to the bone, layered with the deep, savory richness of bone broth.
Seventy years of tradition distilled into the essence of capitalism itself.
“That scent right there.”
The fragrance didn’t merely drift through the air—it moved like something alive, parting the forest’s mist as it spread.
“……Huh?”
Whether from the savory aroma or something else, the wolves that had been lunging all stopped at once, their noses twitching.
The pack leader’s eyes flashed yellow, then fixed on the noodles turning crispy-tender in the pot.
“You want some of this, don’t you? Just sit still until it’s all cooked. Understood?”
Se Hui watched the wolves carefully, half-expecting an attack mid-meal.
But there was no aggressive posture—their eyes were all the same as a dog waiting for dinner.
[Environmental Effect Triggered: Pungent Aroma Spreading]
“What? No, it’s just plain Ramyeon! The broth did all of it!”
No matter how she looked at it, it was still just Ramyeon.
Saliva poured from the wolves’ mouths like a waterfall.
The creatures that had seemed ready to pounce moments ago were no longer looking at Se Hui—their gazes followed only the chopsticks in her hand.
“Almost done.”
Se Hui lifted a few noodles onto the pot’s lid to taste.
Steam rose from them in gentle wisps—the only warm, luminous thing in this hellish forest.
Se Hui carefully pinched a single strand of noodles with her chopsticks and blew on it gently.
Blow, blow—
The moment it touched her tongue, the familiar taste spread across her palate.
“Yeah. Perfect.”
Not overcooked, not underdone.
The broth clung to them in just the right amount.
Se Hui nodded and gazed down at the pot.
“That’s strange. My cooking skill is F-rank. But this…works?”
No matter how she thought about it, this was clearly cooking.
Yet it felt like her cooking skill wasn’t applying at all.
“Is ramyeon not considered cooking?”
The moment the words left her mouth, a blue window materialized in her line of sight, as if it had been waiting for the question.
[Hand of Destruction (EX)]
: When cooking directly, all food becomes ruined.
However, cooking items purchased from the system store is an exception.
“EX?”
EX rank in another world usually meant broken, didn’t it?
A skill that should look good to anyone.
But.
“Wait. Hold on.”
Something felt off. Se Hui read the text again.
Slowly. Very carefully.
“When I cook, all the food gets ruined? That’s not having poor cooking skills—that’s a curse!”
Se Hui froze, chopsticks still in her hand.
“So what you’re saying is, I didn’t do anything special…….”
She paused, choosing her words carefully, before arriving at a more pragmatic conclusion.
“The ramyeon is what’s special.”
Se Hui deliberately took a step backward.
She ran through the worst-case scenario in her mind and calculated how far she’d need to run to escape.
In the heart of the silent demon forest, only the sound of simmering ramyeon broth echoed.
As the broth came to a rolling boil once more, Se Hui made her decision.
“All right. Now eat.”
Se Hui set the finished ramyeon down in front of the alpha wolf, pot and all.
The wolf didn’t immediately pounce on it.
Instead, it lowered its head and brought its nose to the rim of the pot.
It sniffed through the steam, its tongue flicking briefly through the wisps, and carefully drew out a single strand of noodle.
“Whimper?”
Once.
Then again.
The wolf’s eyes widened with caution as it sniffed, then its eyes began to gleam as it started inhaling the noodles.
“Whimper! Whimper-whimper!”
Moments later, the wolf had wolfed down the ramyeon and flopped onto its belly at Se Hui’s feet.
“Making itself right at home.”
The beast clutched the empty pot and wouldn’t let go.
Its tail swept the ground twice.
As if taking that as a signal, the other wolves lay down on the earth one by one.
The moment all the wolves were fully prostrate, the system responded as if on cue.
[Basic settlement equipment has been provided.]
[1-Person Auto Tent installation complete]
“Equipment?”
Before she could finish speaking, the space beside Se Hui crackled and warped, and a weathered tent materialized.
Se Hui stopped short at the sight of it.
She couldn’t tell if this was a reward or a bare-minimum survival kit.
Hastily scrawled in red paint was a banner reading
[Se Hui’s Supermarket]
—attached to what was unmistakably a bizarre tent that had no business being in a forest.
On top of that, the tent poles were slightly warped, and the fabric bore patches of wear and tear.
“Still, it’s better than nothing.”
As Se Hui muttered this, another window opened.
[First customer acquisition reward granted!]
1 Old Parasol, 3 Maximum Gold
“Coffee too?”
She felt the familiar texture of the package in her hand.
Maximum Gold coffee.
The very lifeline that had kept her going through all those all-nighters at the company.
Se Hui exhaled slowly and looked down at the sprawl of wolves before her.
The alpha had settled itself between her and the tent.
As if claiming this place as its own territory.
“No way.”
Se Hui spoke very carefully.
“You’re not actually planning to stay here, are you?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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