Housekeeper in the dungeon

Episode 37

“Huh? What is it?”

“Is it a blackout?”

Hee-Na and Hee-Won reacted to the situation differently. They quickly turned on their cell phone flashlights to illuminate the way ahead.

“What should we do? We don’t have flashlights.”

“We can get one at the convenience store. Let’s find the toadstool first.”

Hee-won calmed Hee-na down. It was only a magpie, but Hee-won had been a hunter for a long time and was used to unexpected situations like this.

The siblings searched the house for the toadstool. But there was no toadstool in sight.

Hee-won threw her hands up in the air and gave up.

“We’re going to run out of battery on our cell phones. Let’s get flashlights or candles first. Hee-na, what are you doing?”

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

“Is something wrong?”

Hee-won asked, and Hee-na frowned and crossed her arms.

“No, sis. I’ve been thinking, isn’t it a little strange? What happened to the power outage?”

“Either we used too much electricity, or there’s something wrong with the toadstool.”

“But this is a house in a dungeon, and we don’t know how the water, electricity, or gas gets in, so how can we fix it?”

He had a point. Hee-won agreed.

“Exactly. Isn’t that why we don’t even have a toadstool?”

The siblings exchanged glances in the darkness. There was only one being that could answer the question.

There was only one person who could give them an answer: the “house manager,” Wu Xiaoxi, who was relaxing in his snail shell!

“Oh-saek, Oh-saek, come out.”

Hee-Na patted the shell. The landlord quickly responded to her knock.

“? ? ??”

Oh, Sack popped out of his shell with a question mark and looked around.

“Early bedtime? Sweet dreams. Bye.”

When it saw that the house was dark, it asked if I was going to bed early and waved its antennae in the air. He waved his antenna as if to say he was going back inside.

Hee-na urgently called out to him.

“Wait! I didn’t turn off the light to go to bed early. The power suddenly went out!”

Oh, Haekyung’s antennae snapped to attention.

“Power outage?”

“Yes. A blackout. There’s no toadstool in the house, and I don’t know how the electricity gets in……. And you’re the great home manager, you know what to do in a situation like this, right?”

I don’t know how he knew, but he quoted an outdated phrase.

“Carrot and stick.”

It meant he knew what to do anyway. Hee-Na patted her chest.

“Good, then what do we do?”

“Wait.”

Oh, Sack’s antennae twitched at Hee-na’s question, and a window began to load.

“Running troubleshooting wizard …… (loading) …….”

Hee-won sneaked up on him and whispered.

“I thought you were a housing manager, but you do work.”

“Be quiet. What if Oh Sae-yi overhears!”

Hee-na poked Hee-won in the side to shut her up. The five-colored snail is very delicate, and you never know what might happen if you provoke it.

For example, a red, ugly flower might bloom on the wall.

Pah-pah, pah-pah!

The loading was almost complete, and a sharp spark shot out of the tip of its antennae. It was an amazing sight.

“Wow. It generates electricity?”

Hee-won exclaimed, her mouth wide open. Hee-na was also stunned by the unexpected behavior of the colorful creature.

Papapap!

The house began to light up. The lights flickered on and off.

“Handling system error …… (loading) …….”

“Come on, Oh Sack!

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

“The lights are almost on!”

The house was almost fully lit. They could hear the appliances that had stopped running. The power was almost back on.

“That’s it, that’s it!”

Hee-Na was about to clap her hands in joy.

Peeeeeeeeee…….

The house went dark again with a grinding sound. One by one, the machines that had been working again turned off again.

At the same time, a message popped up on my phone.

“Troubleshooting Wizard results: Failed to handle ‘Home Sweet Home’ system error.”

As you can see, the power restoration failed.

“What are we going to do if you can’t fix this?”

“I’m sorry.”

Hee-na pulled at her hair in frustration. It was terrible to be without electricity.

It wasn’t just the darkness, though. She couldn’t charge her cell phone or use her computer.

Most of all, I was heartbroken that the food in my fridge was going bad!

“My frozen food! My refrigerated food! Oh, my God, all my kimchi is going bad!

“You can’t fix this forever, or we won’t be able to live in this house!”

“Landlord, overexcited.”

“Everyone panics when the power goes out!”

“It can be fixed.”

Oh Sae-yi bounced his round, bouncy head against Hee-na’s ankle.

It seemed to comfort him. It felt cute against her ankle.

“……Phew.”

This brought Hee-Na back to a slightly calmer state. She took a few breaths, squatted down, and looked at the snail at her feet.

It was dark in the house, so he looked like a fist-sized lump of shadow.

“Then tell me how to fix it. Quickly.”

“…… (opening window) …….”

Oh opened another strange loading window. HeeNa pouted.

“Ugh. It’s like fixing a computer error.

It was a lot like the troubleshooting wizard that pops up and doesn’t fix anything.

As Hee-Na sighed, a system window suddenly popped up in front of her.

The question was surprisingly simple. It asked if she wanted to restore the power system.

‘What could have been done through the system already……. Did she want to show off her skills?

Hee-na wondered why he would bother when there was such an easy way to do it.

“I’ll repair it.”

Immediately, the system window clicked off as if it had done a good job.

“What, this is a paid service? What the hell is this?”

The system mechanically replied again, much to the customer’s exasperation.

Hee-Na pressed hard on her throbbing temples.

“What’s going on? Are you okay, Hee-na?”

Hee-won patted her sister’s shoulder, concerned.

At his concern for her, Hee-Na barely managed to contain the ridiculousness and anger that bubbled up inside her.

“……, brother.”

“What’s wrong? What does the system say?”

“Fixing the power outage is a paid service.”

Hee-won laughed at the absurdity of it all.

“It’s a glitch in the skill the system gave us, so why do we have to pay to fix it?”

“It’s weird that the house in the dungeon lost power in the first place. There’s been no problem up until now, Oh Sack, what’s going on?”

Hee-na looked down at the little snail, who was squirming helplessly at her feet.

The little snail hesitated a bit but then popped up a message.

“Occasional ‘Home Sweet Home’ system errors. Errors = water leaks, power outages, gas shutoffs, freezes, pest damage, etc……..”

This meant that the Home Sweet Home skill itself was not perfect, and sometimes errors like this occur.

And by “errors,” they seemed to be referring to the various damage situations that can occur in a home.

“Should have happened a long time ago.”

Oh said that this should have happened a long time ago.

“Landlord’s ‘Luck’ item increased → Error rate decreased”

He explained that Hee-na’s Luck stat had been high, so she hadn’t made any errors.

Hee-won, who was watching the conversation between Hee-na and Oksai from the side, said with a sigh.

“I can’t believe this is happening randomly……. Is it like a balance patch that reflects reality?”

“Uh. Myeongseok!”

“……Yes. Thanks for the compliment.”

“Lol.”

Hee-Na continued to stare at the thinly veiled system message, like a human snail exchanging compliments and then opened her mouth.

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

Hee-Na muttered.

“I don’t know.”

Sometimes she wondered if the system was pretending not to understand her or if it didn’t understand her.

“What am I going to do……?”

Hee-Na muttered in a worried voice.

After all, gems and space fragments were always hard to come by.

To be precise, gems were easy to get, but they were very expensive, and she didn’t even know where they came from. Kang had picked it up by accident.

It was then that he remembered the one piece of gemstone he had tucked away in the corner of his inventory.

“……ah. Kimbap price.”

Hee-na had a small gemstone that a Hunter had whispered to her, “Kimbap…….,” and slipped it into her pocket.

She pulled the gem out of her inventory window and held it in her palm.

“How long can you last with this?”

“Heh……. Three days?”

A gemstone the size of my fingernail, worth millions of won, and I only have to use it to power the electricity for three days.

I laughed in disbelief.