Chapter 37 – A Dungeon Power Outage

“Huh? What?”

“Is it a power outage?”

Hee-na and Hee-won each reacted to the situation. The two quickly turned on their cell phone flashlights and shone them forward.

“What should we do? We don’t have anything like a flashlight.”

“We can just buy one at the convenience store. Before that, let’s find the fuse box first.”

Hee-won calmly reassured Hee-na. Although he was only a lackey, Hee-won, who had lived the hunter life for a long time, was accustomed to these sudden situations.

The siblings searched the entire house looking for the fuse box. However, the fuse box that should have obviously been there was nowhere to be seen.

Hee-won raised both hands and declared his surrender.

“Our cell phone batteries are going to run out at this rate. Let’s go buy a flashlight or candles first. Hee-na? What are you doing?”

Hee-na stood still in the dark, lost in deep thought.

“Is there a problem?”

At Hee-won’s question, Hee-na frowned and crossed her arms.

“Oppa. I’ve been thinking, isn’t it a bit strange? Why on earth did the power go out?”

“Well, we must have used too much electricity, or there’s a problem with the fuse box.”

“But this is a house inside a dungeon. We don’t even know how water, electricity, and gas are supplied, so how do we fix the problem?”

That made sense. Hee-won also agreed.

“True. Is that why there isn’t even a fuse box?”

The siblings exchanged glances in the dark. There was only one existence who could give them an answer.

Namely, Osaek-i, the ‘Property Manager’ who was resting snugly inside its shell!

“Osaek-i, Osaek-i. Come out.”

Hee-na tapped the shell. The host responded to Hee-na’s knock in no time.

[? ? ??]

Along with the question marks, Osaek-i popped its head out of the shell. And it looked around the surroundings.

[Early bedtime? Sweet dreams. Bye.]

Seeing the completely dark house, it asked if she was going to sleep early and waved its antennas back and forth. It seemed like it wanted to go back inside since it was bothersome.

Hee-na hurriedly called Osaek-i.

“Wait a minute! Osaek-i. We didn’t turn off the lights to sleep early. It’s a sudden power outage!”

Only then did Osaek-i perk up its antennas as if it had snapped to attention.

[Power outage?]

“Yes. A power outage. The electricity suddenly went out completely. There’s no fuse box in the house, and we don’t even know how the electricity gets in… And you’re the great Property Manager Osaek-i. You know what to do in times like this, right?”

It was a mystery how it knew it, but Osaek-i quoted an outdated buzzword.

[You bet.]

At any rate, it meant it knew what to do. Hee-na breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness. Then what should we do?”

[Hold on.]

At Hee-na’s question, Osaek-i’s antennas twitched. Then, some kind of window began to load in the air.

[Troubleshooter running… (loading)…]

Hee-won crept up and whispered.

“He calls himself a Property Manager, and he actually does some work.”

“Be quiet. What if Osaek-i hears you!”

Hee-na poked Hee-won in the ribs to silence him. Osaek-i was a very sensitive snail, so there was no telling what would happen if his feelings were carelessly hurt.

For instance, it meant that something like red, ugly flower patterns might bloom on the walls.

Crackle, pop!

As the loading neared completion, sharp sparks sizzled and flew from the tips of Osaek-i’s antennas. It was an amazing sight.

“Wow. He’s generating electricity?”

Hee-won opened his mouth wide in surprise. Hee-na was also startled by the unexpected side Osaek-i was showing.

Crackle!

Soon, the lights in the house began to turn on. The light bulb flickered, repeating turning off and on.

[Processing system error… (loading)…]

‘Go for it, Osaek-i!’

Hee-na clenched her fists and cheered for the little snail. Hee-won also shouted.

“The lights are almost all back on!”

The inside of the house became almost entirely bright. The sound of the stopped home appliances running could also be heard. The power was almost fully restored.

“It worked, it worked!”

Just as Hee-na was about to clap her hands in joy.

Pshhh…

Along with a deflating sound, the house went dark again. The machines that had restarted turned off one by one once more.

At the same time, a message popped up from Osaek-i as well.

[Troubleshooter execution result: Failed to handle system error for ‘Home Sweet Home’.]

As anyone could see, it was a message indicating that the power restoration had failed.

“Osaek-i! If you can’t fix this, what do we do?”

[Regrets.]

Hee-na made a crying face and tore at her hair. A house without electricity was terrible.

Actually, the darkness wasn’t the problem. She couldn’t charge her cell phone, and she couldn’t use the computer.

Above all, it broke her heart that the ingredients in the refrigerator would spoil!

‘My frozen food! My refrigerated food! Oh no, the kimchi is going to turn sour!’

“You don’t mean we can never fix it, right? If so, we can’t live in this house!”

[Homeowner, overly excited state.]

“Anyone would panic if there’s a blackout!”

[Problem can be solved.]

Osaek-i bounced its round, plump head against Hee-na’s ankle.

It seemed to be its own way of comforting her. The texture touching her ankle was cute.

“…Sigh.”

Thanks to that, Hee-na returned to a slightly calmer state. She took a few deep breaths, squatted down, and looked at the snail at her feet.

Because the house was dark, Osaek-i looked like a fist-sized shadow lump.

“Then tell me the solution. We have to fix it quickly.”

[… (opening window) …]

Osaek-i put up another strange loading window. Hee-na pouted.

‘Geez. It feels like fixing a computer error.’

The appearance of the troubleshooter wizard, and the fact that the wizard couldn’t solve anything, was also a perfect match.

While Hee-na was sighing, a system window suddenly popped up in front of her eyes.

The question was surprisingly simple. It was asking whether she would restore the power system.

‘If it could be solved through the system in the first place… Did he want to show off his abilities?’

Wondering why Osaek-i went to all that trouble when there was such an easy method, Hee-na replied.

“I’ll restore it.”

As soon as she said that, the system window peekabooed, revealing its true intentions as if it had successfully baited her.

“What? A paid service? What kind of nonsense is this?”

At the customer’s anger, the system asked again mechanically.

Hee-na pressed her throbbing temples.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay, Hee-na?”

Concerned by her appearance, Hee-won patted his sister’s shoulder.

At her brother’s reassuring hand, Hee-na barely managed to suppress the absurdity and anger boiling up inside her.

“…Oppa.”

“What’s wrong? What is the system saying?”

“It says fixing the blackout is a paid service.”

Hee-won also let out a dumbfounded laugh upon hearing that.

“A defect occurred in a skill given by the system, so why do we have to pay to fix it?”

“In the first place, a blackout in a house inside a dungeon is weird. We haven’t had any problems until now. Osaek-i. What on earth is going on?”

Hee-na looked down at Osaek-i, who was squirming restlessly at her feet.

The little snail pulled up a message as if hesitating slightly.

[System errors occasionally occur in ‘Home Sweet Home’. Errors = leaks, power outages, gas cutoffs, freezing, pest damage, etc…]

It meant that the skill ‘Home Sweet Home’ itself was originally imperfect, and such errors occurred occasionally.

And the errors here seemed to mean various types of damage that could occur in a house.

[Something that should have happened long ago.]

Osaek-i comforted Hee-na, saying that this was something that should have happened a long time ago.

[Homeowner ‘Luck’ stat ↑ → Error occurrence probability decreases]

It explained that because Hee-na’s Luck stat was high, no error had occurred until now.

Watching the conversation between Hee-na and Osaek-i from the side, Hee-won said with a sigh.

“For such things to happen randomly… Is it like a balance patch reflecting reality?”

[Yeah. Clever!]

“…Yeah. Thanks for the compliment.”

[OK.]

Whether well-wishes were exchanged between the human and the snail or not, Hee-na kept glaring at the system message floating in the air before speaking.

“If it’s a paid service, what do I have to give? Cash?”

Hee-na mumbled.

“You really do it all.”