I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 44

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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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Chapter 44. Gate Break (1)
“Ugh… this is exhausting…”
A man working as a Gate occurrence investigation researcher at the Gongju National Gate Research Complex.
His face was etched with fatigue—how many nights had he gone without sleep, he couldn’t even say.
But what could he do?
To make a living, he had to do whatever it took, didn’t he?
“Finish that work today, write up the report due tomorrow, complete the backlog… I’m going to lose my mind… sigh…”
Of course, that didn’t mean he could appreciate taking on everyone else’s work just because of his position.
But let me say it again.
What could he do?
If he wanted to survive, he had to work.
He’d already been doing this job for nearly three years now.
By now, he’d adapted well enough.
“Right. What can I do? This is just how life is.”
-Do you really believe that?
“W-what… what is this!”
A voice suddenly echoed in his ears.
Startled, he spun around, but the research lab—empty except for him—held no one.
Ah, he’d always known this day would come.
Overwork had finally driven him mad.
-No, I’m real.
“Kyaaaah!”
The voice came again, as if answering his thoughts.
Startled beyond measure, he fell hard on his backside, but the voice continued without hesitation.
-Let me ask again. Do you truly believe this is the right way to live?
Deep down, he didn’t think so.
How could a person’s life be nothing but suffering?
But what could he do about it?
There was no way out.
-That’s right. Exactly. So you can’t find a way in this world. That’s why you must go to a new world.
A new world?
Where would such a thing exist?
-Where? It’s right in front of you.
As he lifted his head, his eyes fell upon the small Gate he’d been researching all this time.
The mana output it generated was extremely weak, making it completely safe—which was why it was being used for research purposes.
But why was the voice pointing to this…?
-Open it. Expand it. Let’s go to a new world.
The sensation was like something sticky caressing the inside of his ear.
But why?
Why did that voice sound so sweet?
The man reaching out to overload the Gate would never know.
That his eyes had turned pitch black, as if ink had been spilled into them.
And that a single drop of something like black tar clung to his cheek.
“Yes… a new world….”
It was only when he pressed the button in that entranced state….
-Well done. Foolish child. Now you can achieve what you desire once more. Of course, what you truly want will never come to pass.
“What? What? The new world?”
-Sigh….
You said there would be no pain like this if we moved toward a new world. So why?
The Gate, expanded by the sudden surge of mana.
Monsters struggling and writhing as they tried to escape.
Every last one of them, covered head to toe in something like black tar, shrieked in madness.
Human blood.
Human flesh.
Humans.
Delicious humans.
As the man tried desperately to comprehend what he had done, he heard it.
-There is no such thing. You knew it all along, didn’t you?
Thud!
With that dull sound, the man met his death.
No more sounds reached him.
Only the alarm signaling a Gate outbreak shook through the entire Research Complex.
* * *
‘When is the teacher coming….’
Nuri sat idle, fidgeting with her fingers.
Wondering exactly when the teacher would arrive.
By ‘teacher’ here, I mean Seung-hyun, who had become a miracle for her today.
The benefactor who would save Nuri from the depths of despair where she was trapped by the Moisture Sprout’s bite with no escape.
‘But why did he grab just a few Moisture Sprouts and go into that basement room? What on earth is he doing in there?’
Seung-hyun had entered the basement room saying he had a method, yet hours had passed without him emerging.
‘I’m waiting, but still….’
While Seung-hyun remained silent in the basement room, she had at least done what she needed to do.
First, she made her rounds through the Botanical Garden, tending to the cute and beautiful little ones.
These creatures ate fresh meat through flowers, stems, and roots, so caution was naturally required.
“I won’t be able to give you much anymore.”
All she had was a negative balance account and borrowed money.
So she blamed herself for not being able to provide expensive, quality meat like before as she made her rounds through the garden.
After that, she checked the new Gate-sourced plants coming up for auction.
Why check plants she couldn’t even afford to buy?
“Oh my. There are so many beautiful children like this, what am I to do.”
For him, searching for new plants was as natural as breathing.
Born a plant otaku from the start, Nuri could do nothing but gaze longingly at specimens he couldn’t afford to purchase.
Of course, even amid all this, he was waging his own fierce internal battle.
He was deliberating whether to scrape together additional loans or private financing to buy more.
“If I hadn’t been swept away by those people’s words and poured out my blood-earned money like water, I could’ve brought every single one of these beauties here, you know.”
Perhaps it was because he’d never had the chance to bare his true feelings to anyone before.
Nuri found himself accepting Seung-hyun deeply into his heart—someone who acknowledged him and wanted to help after so long.
Under that influence, even alone now, Nuri continued to unburden the honest feelings he’d been suppressing all this time.
Of course, there was only one being who could listen to his grumbling—or rather, one creature.
“That’s how I ended up in this mess. Doo-sik, what do you think about all this?”
“Meow?”
“You weren’t listening?”
“Meow meow. Purrrr.”
“Hmm… I suppose so. So how did things come to this….”
From Doo-sik’s perspective, it must have been torture.
Though the words came from his beloved owner Nuri’s mouth, he was already on his fifth repetition of the same story.
“Originally, I started this because I wanted to research those strange plants inside the Gate more deeply, but now that’s all gone down the drain.”
Though Nuri looked like an unemployed vagrant trudging about after losing everything to stocks and cryptocurrency, there was a time when he’d lived a decent life.
He’d graduated from a respectable university, was considered a promising talent, and thanks to that, even worked at a major corporation.
“But since I had a clear goal of what I wanted to do, I scraped together every penny I had to establish this place. I thought that with the Moisture Sprout, I’d finally be able to stand tall and live comfortably, but maybe that was just my greed. Still….”
Those people who used to praise him when he was the first to cultivate the Moisture Sprout—now they ignored him as circumstances changed.
But unlike those people, Seung-hyun’s eyes held conviction.
The problem was that the man himself had gone into the basement room and hadn’t emerged for hours now.
“I wish he’d just appear with a pop right about now….”
BOOOOOM!
Instead of the “pop” he’d wished for, what came was a “bang.”
“What’s that? What happened?”
“Meow! Meow!”
“That direction is the Research Complex!”
The sound came not from the basement room where Seung-hyun had entered, but from the Research Complex.
And….
“A… Gate?”
Undulating darkness was gathering in the sky above the Research Complex.
Pouring out all manner of monsters from within.
“A Gate Break? What’s happening?”
A Gate Break.
A phenomenon where monsters trapped inside a Gate crawl out into the world.
It was a catastrophe that only occurred after monsters accumulated inside to saturation levels over an extended period.
“But how could….”
And so Nuri found himself utterly dumbfounded, staring at a sight he couldn’t comprehend.
Was there a Gate in that location?
“If things continue like this, we’re in serious trouble….”
A Gate Break never leaves only minor damage in its wake.
It always leaves behind horrific devastation.
Since even a child could understand this, Nuri stubbed out the cigarette he’d been smoking and pulled Doo-sik close to him.
“Doo-sik! If we stay here, we’re done for! You’re not actually going to trust that warning system created by those high-and-mighty bastards who hit me in the back of the head out of nowhere, are you?”
“Woof woof!”
“Right. Let’s get out of here!”
Since this was an area densely packed with Gate-related research facilities, there was indeed a warning system in place to prepare for Breaks.
Of course, this was merely for ‘warning’ purposes.
Once a Break actually occurred, suppressing it fell to the Hunters.
Only ‘Hunters’ could hunt monsters.
So all he could do was flee or lock the doors and hide inside.
Yet even as monster cries and explosions echoed from far away, Doo-sik showed no intention of moving.
“Woof woof!”
“I said get up!”
“Woof woof! Arooooo!”
Doo-sik, planted firmly in place with his teeth bared, glanced briefly in one direction.
It was none other than the basement room where Seung-hyun had entered.
This loyal hound was prepared to stake his life to guard his master’s last lifeline.
“Ugh… this is driving me crazy! That gentleman said he’d handle it himself!”
“Woof woof! Arooooo!”
“You damn mutt! Fine! Do as you please! Do as you please!”
Despite his words, both of them moved quickly.
First, they locked all the doors of the Botanical Garden and hid themselves in the deepest, safest part.
【Chirr chirr. Chirp!】
【Screech! Screech! Cackle!】
Small creatures about the height of elementary school children, wielding crude weapons and drooling green saliva.
With green skin, long ears and noses, reeking of stench—they were Goblins.
While not particularly strong as individual entities, in a Break situation like this they traveled in swarms, making them monsters whose danger level skyrocketed.
【Gruuuuh…..】
Even a Troll moved about, its massive body rippling with fat.
Dismissing that as mere flesh would be a grave mistake.
Despite appearances, that creature was made entirely of stone.
It possessed terrifying regenerative power—it would never die unless crushed completely in a single blow.
【Screech? Screech! Screeech!】
Some of the creatures that broke from the main group infiltrated all the way to the entrance of Nuri’s Botanical Garden.
Red stains already covered their weapons and teeth, evidence they had already harmed people.
The creatures, their eyes gleaming with greed, caught sight of Nuri and flipped their eyes back in their sockets with a grin.
“Grrrrrowwwwl….”
Doo-sik, the pit bull terrier, growled at the creature, but it was useless against a monster.
It was Nuri who stopped the creature that had kicked off the ground and came rushing forward, swinging its club.
“Aaaagh! My precious ones!”
【Kereeeek?】
Crunch!
Of course, Nuri, an ordinary civilian who wasn’t even a Hunter, didn’t step forward directly.
Something that devoured the goblin’s upper body while making smacking sounds with its mouth.
“Why didn’t I go to the air raid shelter and instead squeezed my way deep into this botanical garden to hide, you stupid things!”
Its true identity was none other than a Gate-origin plant that Nuri had been carefully raising all this time.

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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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