TCHF 02

Chapter 02

Gru awakened while receiving toothbrushing lessons at kindergarten.
All the children were huddled together in front of the mirror, brushing their teeth with chika-chika, when a status window suddenly appeared before her eyes.

[To ensure smooth communication between the caster and the system, cognitive ability adjustment will begin.]
[Update 85% in progress…….]

Startled, Gru opened her mouth wide, and the homeroom teacher diligently wiped away the toothpaste and drool running down.

“Teacha, Gru… there’s something weird in f—”

She was about to say that she was seeing something strange, but—

“TEACHER!! I NEED TO POOP!!”
“TEACHER—! SHE’S POOPING!!!”
“Teacher, Bin is sleepy—”

The kindergarten teacher was far too busy for Gru to consult her about her situation.

Thanks to the system’s influence, Gru had become quite smart, and she decided not to bother the teacher who was running around nonstop.
After all, Gru was four years old this year—old enough to take care of her own problems.

[Update complete.]

The update finished just as naptime arrived.
Lying in her bedding, Gru quietly stared at the status window.

[Opening system.]

Thump-thump.

Her palms grew sweaty as she waited for the window to fully open.
Gru knew at least this much—she had awakened.

At kindergarten, there wasn’t a single child who didn’t know about Awakened ones, and many of her friends said they wanted to become Hunters when they grew up.
Gru’s dream wasn’t to become a Hunter but to become Gudetama (an egg-shaped character), so she couldn’t achieve her dream—but she wasn’t dissatisfied with ending up in a job everyone admired.

[Skill unlocked]
[Crafting with a Broken System Engine (L): Oh no! The system engine is broken!]
Crafting: Creation

“L?”

Gru had only learned the alphabet up to S. She’d also heard that S-rank was the highest rank for Hunters.
But the letter in front of her was L. So where did that fall?

“A, B, C, D…….”

As she mentally counted through the letters she knew, the system provided an explanation at her eye level.

[Legend: The highest grade, one rank above S.]

The system even kindly wrote out how to read it.

[Checking caster’s age.]
[Child Protection System activated due to an (Unknown Title).]

[Quest: A child needs a reliable guardian. Let’s find a trustworthy protector.]
[Reward: Child Protection Skill unlocked]

Staring at the quest window, Gru’s mouth fell open.

A guardian?
Mom? Dad?
The thoughts floated through her head.

As she blinked her sleepy eyes, fluffy clouds began forming in her mind.
From the white clouds, hands and feet popped out, becoming two sheep.
Mama Sheep and Papa Sheep pulled out their wool to make a tiny baby sheep, then hugged it tightly.

“Mom… Dad……”

The reason she needed a guardian—
It was probably because Gru didn’t have a mom or dad.

Gru had grown up in an orphanage since she was a newborn.
From what she had seen so far, there were only two ways for an orphanage child to live with their parents.

First, getting adopted into a new family.
But only a limited number of children could be adopted, and wanting it didn’t mean it would happen.

“That won’t work.”

Second, the biological parents coming to take the child back.
Sometimes, parents did come to the orphanage. They would cry, saying they had been too poor to keep their child, and apologize for only coming now.

“Maybe Gru’s mom and dad are like that too……”

Maybe they were just too poor right now to come get her.

Gru wiped away the tears that had welled up.

If her parents couldn’t come because they were poor, then there was only one conclusion.

“I’ll make money!”

They said on TV every day that being a Hunter paid well.
Some programs even showed how much Hunters earned and what nice houses they lived in.

“Gru can do it too!”

If she became a Hunter and made lots of money, she could live together with her mom and dad.

“Hehe.”

Gru smiled, imagining a happy life with her parents.
Then she decided on a few rules.

First: Keep making money a secret.

Good kids often received allowance from adults, but in the orphanage, children who had too much would get it taken away.
Especially the older kids who were about to leave the orphanage—they were more obsessed with money because they were anxious about life outside.

Remembering the time her allowance had been taken, Gru groaned softly.

“Okay, it’ll be Gru’s secret.”

Becoming a Hunter—and earning money—both of them!

That meant she had to rely on others as little as possible.
Whew. Gru felt relieved that she hadn’t told her kindergarten teacher.

And then—

“Gru, why aren’t you sleeping?”
“Eek!”

It was her homeroom teacher.

Gru pulled the blanket up to her chin and shut her eyes tightly.
She planned to keep them closed until the teacher left, but she couldn’t resist the gentle patting on her body.

Her consciousness grew hazy.
Was the teacher an Awakened too?

Struck by a powerful lullaby skill (probably L-rank), Gru soon drifted off to sleep.

After awakening, Gru began gathering information through the orphanage library, TV, and the internet.
Thanks to system adjustments, she had become quite intelligent—she didn’t forget what she learned, and even difficult, complex topics were easy for her to grasp.

Gru skillfully opened her status window.

Name: Han Gru
Level: LV. 1
Title: ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■ (Locked)

[Quests]
Top Priority Quest: A child needs a reliable guardian!

[Passive Skill]
Crafting with a Broken System Engine (L): Oh no! The system engine is broken!
(Helps bring out a child’s creativity and provides the foundation for excellent growth.)

[Active Skills]
Squish-Squish (F): Freely mix and combine to make various toys.

Pluck It Out (D): Extract the individual properties contained within materials.

Dungeon Is an Open Door (A): Open the door and enter to explore a dungeon.

At a glance, Gru’s active skills were fairly ordinary—just the basic skills any crafting-type Hunter possessed.
What made Gru special was her passive skill.

Her passive skill allowed extraction and synthesis not only from dungeon byproducts, but from everything that existed in the world.

The very first thing Gru extracted using “Pluck It Out” was a PororoX chewable vitamin.

[Activating skill ‘Pluck It Out’.]

The extracted item turned into a star-candy-shaped object and landed in her palm.

[You have obtained ‘Vitamin (F)’.]

“Ooh.”

She couldn’t tell how amazing it really was, but for Gru, it couldn’t have been a more perfect skill.
After all, she was a kindergartener who couldn’t even enter dungeons—let alone afford dungeon materials.

After that, she tried various extractions and syntheses. As her proficiency increased, “Squish-Squish” rose to rank E.
Thanks to that, Gru managed to make several pretty fun toys.

Just as she was happily imagining what to make next, Gru clamped her hands over her mouth.

“This isn’t the time for that!”

Instead of playing around, she needed to make money!