Obtained End-Game Gear for a Bowl of Ramen - Chapter 24

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

Episode 24. A House, Not a Tent
[You have collected 5 Hero’s Evidence Badges.]
[You obtain 1 Hero’s Proof Box!]
When Son Jeong-ho opened his Inventory and touched the six collected Hero’s Evidence Badges, five silver badges blazed with light and transformed into a box.
-Hero’s Proof Box: A power granted to those who have proven their worth as heroes. You may obtain 1 Unique-Grade or Higher Item at random.
A Unique-Grade or Higher Item. When he’d first climbed the fifth floor of the Trial Tower, such things had seemed as distant as the sky itself—but now.
‘I’m not sure how I feel about this anymore.’
The Setting Cherry Blossom Bow? It started at Epic and went all the way to Legendary. The Magic Sword Arc Spark? Same thing—Epic grade. He’d only used Legendary Skill Books.
‘At this point, Unique-Grade feels beneath my station. No, wait. Get your head on straight, Son Jeong-ho.’
Son Jeong-ho slapped his own cheek. What was Unique-Grade? Even Unique-Grade was in the top five percent.
‘I shouldn’t jinx this with stupid thoughts. Let me wash up first.’
While washing his face, he scrubbed his hands and feet too, then performed a full ritual purification. Son Jeong-ho sat before the Hero’s Proof Box with reverent composure.
‘What will it be this time?’
The first Hero’s Proof Box had yielded a Gate Remote Entry Ticket—useless now, since he already had the Gate Guide Authority.
The second had been the Hero’s Diary. That was a jackpot.
The third was the Hero’s Command Authority. He’d made good use of that one from the Diary.
The old thrill of opening a lottery box returned. His heart beat softly—thump-thump. He took a shallow breath and cracked open the box—pop!
-Miniature Tent (Unique-Grade): A compressed camping tent. When unfolded, it forms a perfect camping setup instantly. It can be compressed again after use.
A miniature tent model, slightly larger than his fist, dropped out.
‘A… tent?’
Son Jeong-ho stared blankly at the status window again. A tent. A folding tent. Highly compressed.
‘Where exactly is a Hunter supposed to use a tent? Though, I suppose as a Hunter, I might need one. I mean, I would, but… is this really it?’
From the description alone, it seemed like something that would let him rest anywhere, anytime. It was a good item, objectively. Most Hunters needed dozens of hours to climb a single floor of the Trial Tower.
Tower raids naturally took time. Even Li Wei, the world’s number-one Rank 21 record holder, clocked in at eight hours. You couldn’t fight for all eight hours straight—you needed rest in between. A tent would be useful then.
‘But I clear one floor in ten to twenty seconds, tops.’
Son Jeong-ho couldn’t shake the disappointment. For anyone else, this would have been incredibly practical.
But in the hands of EX-Rank Hunter Son Jeong-ho, the Miniature Tent had become mere decoration.
‘Still, it’s too wasteful to sell. I’ll just use it myself. Who knows? My interests might change suddenly, and I might take up camping as a hobby. Let me try it out first.’
Son Jeong-ho tossed the Miniature Tent into the air. Pop! The compressed tent expanded explosively.
Various furnishings and tools arranged themselves perfectly into place. Firewood tumbled down with a clatter, neatly stacking itself until it had even formed a bonfire.
‘This is… a tent? No, this is a miniature campground!’
Son Jeong-ho’s cramped room had transformed into a campsite in seconds. There was a suspiciously comfortable fishing chair, a bonfire, firewood, bottled water, and even a pot that looked perfect for cooking Ramen.
‘So this is what it feels like. To compress it again…’
Whoosh! The moment he decided to compress it, the Miniature Tent folded back up as if rewinding, returning to its small form.
‘This is really convenient.’
Son Jeong-ho held the Miniature Tent and marveled. With just this, he could rest comfortably anywhere, anytime. Even inside the Trial Tower.
‘Wait. If I can rest inside the Trial Tower, what about inside the Hero’s Tower?’
* * *
Pop!
<Kehehehe. This is the Interdimensional Shop Dapanda…… Hey! What are you doing right now?>
The moment Son Jeong-ho entered the Hero’s Tower, he tossed out the Miniature Tent. Pop! His solo campsite erupted into existence.
“I’m camping.”
<Why?!>
“What do you mean? Is it not allowed?”
Dae-young rubbed what might have been his head—the spot where his sensory organs were—with a tentacle. His head was throbbing.
<This is a shop. Where in the entire world do you find someone pitching a tent and camping in a shop?>
“I’m just borrowing it for a bit. I don’t have a good place to try out my Miniature Tent. My room is too small, and using it outdoors feels awkward with people watching. The campground is too far.”
<You have the Trial Tower! Use it there!>
“But monsters come out in the Trial Tower. Just let me borrow it for a bit. We’re not that formal with each other, are we?”
<You want to pitch a tent here? Then pay a usage fee! Hand over some Mana Stones!>
Son Jeong-ho paid him no mind. He set a Kopel pot over the firewood and poured water into it with a splash-splash-splash. Over the direct flame, the water came to a boil almost instantly.
He dumped Ramen broth into the boiling water. The noodles, broken into four neat chunks, went in next. The rich, appetizing aroma of Ramen wafted through the air.
“How about I cook you some Ramen instead?”
<I don’t want Ramen, I want Mana Stones! And besides, you’ve already tried this Ramen before! And why did you break the noodles? The flavor suffers without that long slurping length!>
“Is that really true?”
Son Jeong-ho stirred the noodles gently with chopsticks. True, camping Ramen never quite matched a properly prepared bowl.
The water boiled too fast. Temperature control was difficult. Poor heat conductivity meant the noodles either came out undercooked or turned to mush.
The sun and wind of camping, the unique atmosphere—that’s what made camping Ramen special. Dapanda had none of that ambiance.
Yet there was still a way to enjoy camping Ramen well. Son Jeong-ho quietly pulled out a small packet of Camping Kimchi and tore it open.
<Hm? What’s that sour smell?>
“Ramen needs kimchi, doesn’t it?”
The secret technique to enjoying camping ramen: eat it with kimchi.
Jeong-ho poured half the ramen into the Kopel lid and dumped in half the kimchi, then held it out to Dae-young.
“Come on, let’s see if this is really ramen or something else entirely.”

Dae-young gripped chopsticks with a tentacle and placed a piece of kimchi on the ramen. He took a large bite. Slurrrp—crunch crunch.

Dae-young’s eyes flickered like a broken traffic light. As if he couldn’t believe what he’d just eaten, he placed another piece of kimchi on the ramen and ate again. Slurrrp—crunch crunch.

This time, Dae-young put just a piece of kimchi in his mouth and mulled it over.

Dae-young also ate a spoonful of ramen on its own.

Dae-young ate the kimchi and ramen together again. Slurrrp!! His tentacles thrashed like a squid struck by lightning.

“That’s ramen for you. What do you think? Can we go camping now?”
Slurrrp! Clang!
Dae-young set the empty Kopel bowl down on the ground.

‘I brought two packages for a reason.’
Jeong-ho cooked a fresh batch of ramen and opened a second package of kimchi. He left Dae-young to his enthusiastic ramen investigation and stretched out leisurely in the camping chair.

There was no birdsong, but instead there was Dae-young’s excited muttering about ramen research. Jeong-ho closed his eyes drowsily and savored the rest.
‘I wonder if this Miniature Tent is actually worth it? Though I’ve never actually gone inside it.’
Drop it and the whole setup appears automatically—chairs, a hammock to lounge on, a campfire, and everything else. There’d never been a reason to go inside.
‘What does the interior look like?’
Jeong-ho pulled the zipper open with a soft scrape. He poked just his head inside the tent to peek……?
“Why is it so spacious?!”
The inside of the tent was far, far larger than it appeared from outside. It was bigger than Jeong-ho’s studio apartment.
At least two hundred square feet? Larger than combining the living room and kitchen of a forty-pyeong apartment. Bigger than two rooms of the accommodation he’d stayed in during a school retreat in middle school.
And there was a large refrigerator, a fireplace, an air conditioner, a wardrobe, and even a drum washing machine and dryer?
“Wow. Wow, wow!”
Jeong-ho rolled around inside the Miniature Tent like a child. This isn’t a tent—it’s a house! If there was just a bathroom, he could actually live here.
‘Wait. What’s that suspicious door?’
Jeong-ho sprang up and opened it. A bathroom. With a shower stall and a bathtub.
“There really is a bathroom?”
Jeong-ho lay spread out on the floor of the Miniature Tent. A silly grin kept spreading across his face.
‘So this is why it’s a Unique-Grade item. My apologies for doubting. Should I just cancel my lease and live here instead?’
He entertained the happy thought for a moment, but it seemed impractical. Having a tent sitting by the side of the road would look suspicious. And finding a campsite for long-term rental was a hassle.

“Yes, yes. Coming right up.”
Jeong-ho jumped up and exited the Miniature Tent. Dae-young was clicking his chopsticks like a hungry child.
“But Dae-young, before we eat ramen, there’s something I’d like to ask you about.”

“I want to buy a Skill Book. Do you have any Skill Books related to land magic?”
Dae-young unzipped his chest—or rather, the shadow’s zipper. Whoosh! Skill Books came tumbling out.
-Skill Book: Land Manipulation – Original (Legendary)
-Skill Book: Earthquake – Original (Legendary)
-Skill Book: Crystal Shaping – Original (Legendary)
-Skill Book: Rock Magic – Original (Legendary)
……
Dozens, hundreds more Skill Books with similar names poured out.

“You need to recommend one, Dae-young! Something that can make ramen pots and build big walls—don’t you have a skill like that?”

Dae-young picked two books from the heap of Skill Books.
-Skill Book: Crystal Shaping – Original (Legendary)
-Skill Book: Land Manipulation – Original (Legendary)

Jeong-ho pulled four High-Grade Mana Stones from his Inventory. It was his reward for clearing an S+ Rank Gate.
…Hmm, hmm! Let me explain the difference. Crystal Shaping offers high versatility and excellent adaptability. But crystals—even if we cast the net wide—can only work with gems.
“Is the destructive power strong?”
Once you grow accustomed to it, you could craft an artificial island of one thousand tons of diamond in the sky and slam it down onto the ground. With a single spell, you could kill a dragon, shatter a fortress, topple a castle—it’s the ultimate magic.
‘That’s stronger than Meteor, isn’t it? But it doesn’t quite align with my original purpose.’
Son Jeong-ho’s conditions for earth magic were two: it had to allow him to hear the sound of a ramen pot, and it had to be helpful for the third entry of the Hero’s Diary.
‘There’s supposedly an opal pot among gems, but that’s vague. And the third entry of the Hero’s Diary involves facing a storm—gems won’t match that.’
He needed defense and support magic, not raw offense. He had enough attacking power with the Setting Cherry Blossom Bow anyway.
“What about Land Manipulation?”
Land Manipulation is more difficult than Crystal Shaping. You raise vast tracts of earth, alter their properties, or conversely manipulate very small areas of earth…
“Explain it simply!”
You build walls, trigger earthquakes, create fissures, make spikes shoot up from the ground. Got it?
Jeong-ho nodded, satisfied.
“That’s much better.”
On the flip side, if you narrow the range very small, you can forge stone weapons and create armor. Skills like that.
“No middle ground?”
None. Zero or one hundred, all or nothing, just you or everyone but you. There’s no middle ground, so it’s tricky to adapt to—but once you get used to it…
Dae-young’s tentacles twitched. The earth rumbled and heaved—a structure the size of a house erupted from the ground.
Kufufu. I can do this too.
“Wait, you know how to use skills too, Dae-young?”
Of course I do. I’ve mastered every item, every Skill Book, and every elixir I’ve ever sold.
He’d mastered all of that? A bead of cold sweat formed on Jeong-ho’s brow.
‘So he’s not just some neighborhood shop owner who likes ramen. I sensed it vaguely before, but I’ll need to be more careful with my teasing going forward. One wrong joke and I could be done for.’
Kufufu. So, what’ll you buy? Have you decided?
“I’ll take the Land Manipulation Skill Book.”
The title of the third entry in the Hero’s Diary was “Facing the Storm.” Building walls, creating fissures. It felt like a perfect fit somehow.
The fact that it could also create weapons and armor was a bonus. From experience, the entries in the Hero’s Diary shared a common thread.
‘Weak ordinary people being sacrificed.’
It was a story of defenseless civilians with no strength and shabby equipment suffering one-sided slaughter.
In the first entry, there were crowds being killed by goblins. In the second, the Diary Owner stood alone against a nobleman. The same pattern.
The third would be no different. The title alone conveyed that much.
‘If I could equip those helpless people with even minimal armor, wouldn’t that help?’
* * *
XXX year, XX month, XX day. A storm met me on the road leaving the Kingdom.
The pages of the Hero’s Diary rustled as they turned, and Jeong-ho tumbled into the world within the diary.
The moment consciousness returned, thick sheets of rain whipped across his entire body like a scourge, relentless and brutal.
“Ouch, ouch! What kind of rain is this…!”
Jeong-ho looked up at the sky. Words failed him.
A colossal aerial fortress of dark clouds bombarded the ground with torrential rain. The water level rose steadily, swallowing low-lying areas bit by bit, and flooded refugees screamed as they fled.
“Move to higher ground! Quickly!”
And there—now familiar—was the Diary Owner. He ran through the downpour, evacuating citizens, but one man could only do so much.
Rumble! Boom!
A flash. Lightning carved like a spear, toppling a spire on the hillside. The crumbling tower fell directly into the path where citizens were evacuating.
“No!!!”
The Diary Owner rushed forward, but he was too late. As the rubble of stone and iron bore down upon the fleeing people, words from the diary grazed Jeong-ho’s mind.
Divine punishment fell. I saved those fated to die, yet they perished all the same. This world was absurd. I could change nothing.
“Land Manipulation!”
[Skill Activated: Land Manipulation – Original]
[Manipulate earth, stone, and mineral.]
[Hero’s Power Stage 4 resonates!]
A dome-shaped barrier erupted, shielding the refugees from the falling debris. The people who had squeezed their eyes shut, waiting for death—and the Diary Owner himself—slowly opened their eyes.
“Wow. The skill effect is good.”
Jeong-ho murmured lightly in admiration. The Diary Owner froze in shock, frozen like a stone monument. The words that had grazed Jeong-ho’s mind shifted.
No. Change was possible. The person before me stood against divine punishment, against absurdity, and saved them.
“You… who are you?”
Jeong-ho gave the Diary Owner a warm smile.
“Just a Hunter passing by. Can I lend you a hand?”
Continued in the next episode ▶
Got a complete set item for a bowl of ramen
Author
Hayan Gotgam
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Date of Publication
August 24, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260423069
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil legal liability.
※ Pentagram welcomes your precious manuscripts.

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