I've heard BJ's chatting through broadcasts before. They said hunter classes are generally Warrior-type, Mage-type, and Priest-type. Most classes registered with the Hunter Association fall into these three categories, and other types are extremely rare.
Among them, although no one has seen one yet, there were rumors floating around like clouds about a class called 'Regressor'. As expected, rumors are just rumors, so no one had ever seen or encountered such a class in person.
Rumors are just rumors.
But maybe they aren't rumors. Because the situation I am experiencing right now cannot be logically explained other than the explanation that I am a regressor.
"My first shop..."
I looked around the surroundings.
European-style interior and light bulbs. MD products I personally designed by visiting manufacturers myself 10 years ago. The latest coffee machine I bought by pouring all my severance pay into it with a strange stubbornness that I must buy a good one. Numerous frames attached to one side of the wall inside the store.
They were my certificates. Barista certification certificates.
Back then, there were no government-certified qualification exams, but with just passion for coffee, I used to acquire every certification exam available and hang them in the store. There was a time when I had such passion too. And I have returned to that moment again.
It didn't stop at simply returning. When I opened my eyes, I clearly saw it. A vivid and brilliantly shining hologram.
I awakened, as a hunter!
It wasn't that difficult to bring up the status window. I watched and heard about it through countless broadcasts.
'Status Window.'
They said you just have to think it in your mind. Those high-and-mighty hunters.
[Won-du]
Level: 1Rank: FClass: Barista [Health 100/100] [Mana 100/100] / [Vitality 100/100]Title: NoneStats: Strength 1 / Agility 1 / Magic Power 1 / Talent 5
My name seen in block letters after a truly long time. The surname 'Won' inherited from my father. The name 'Du (Head)' given with the meaning to become the head of the world.
Putting the name aside, what's important right now is the class called Barista. An F-rank Barista class.
'This is absurd...'
A sigh came out naturally. It was undeniably a truly disappointing class. What I wanted, no, the class all ordinary people in the world want as an awakened is a combat type. The flowers of dungeon clearing were, after all, those who stepped up to the front lines and slaughtered monsters.
In terms of awareness too, non-combat types cannot follow combat types. It is the same in economic aspects. After about a year passes, awakened ones will start making their own groups called guilds. The most important condition for joining a guild is exactly the combat type.
In other words, how strong are you?
As strong as you are, you can clear high-rank dungeons, and obtain that much better dungeon rewards.
'But a Barista!'
I opened the skill window and checked the skills I possessed. Usually, hunter skills are obtained through dungeon rewards or shop purchases, but they possessed a few unique skills for each class from the moment of awakening.
[Skill Window]
Active Skills: Coffee Manufacturing (LV1) / Espresso Extraction (LV1) / Tamping (LV1)Passive Skills: Your Order Is Ready (LV1) / My Own Golden Recipe (LV1)
A sigh leaked out once again.
'I guess I'll have to pull coffee to death in this life too.'
I don't know how desperately I wished for it. Whenever I saw the majesty of hunters beating up monsters through broadcasts, I used to always wish before going to sleep.
I want to become a hunter like them too. And a very strong combat type at that!
In fact, what I really wanted was money, though.
It was true that I was economically lacking as I ruined businesses after my first shop. Furthermore, debt even piled up due to loans, and I was in a situation where I had to leave without recovering a single penny of the premium.
Why did I want to become a hunter? To put it bluntly, it's money, money.
I wanted to become one of those who grasped honor, power, and wealth that I could not become even if I sold coffee to death. I was jealous of their figures where everything worked out smoothly after luckily becoming S-rank awakened ones.
I became the hunter I desperately wished for, but an F-rank Barista.
2nd round of life. It seems I was destined to just keep pulling coffee as expected.
For awakening, a big shock is the condition. Whether physical or mental. And just before awakening, I heard that the class is determined based on what one has experienced most frequently. Although exceptional cases always existed, they said most classes are determined that way.
If I knew it would be like this, I should have tried other work for the moment of awakening.
Jingle—!
The store door opened. The familiar sound woke my mind. A welcome face was seen.
"Hello, Boss!"
She greets me with a bright and cheerful voice. She was the part-timer I first hired after setting up this shop. Although she is very short, she was a child with a good impression and polite manners.
Her name is Lee Ye-ri. It's something from 10 years ago, but I still remember it vividly.
No, I can't forget. Because she was one of the victims sacrificed by the manifestation of the gate.
"Ah, hi."
"It was your shift today, Boss. I guess you decided to work instead of Seon-yeong?"
Was that so? I don't remember well up to there.
"Well, it turned out that way."
I glossed over it roughly and headed straight to the bar. It was a bar I made and produced efficiently through numerous experiences in large franchise cafes. The faded memories of 10 years ago came to mind vividly again.
"I'll organize the logistics and prepare ingredients."
Ye-ri said, having changed into her uniform. For an hour, she organizes logistics or prepares ingredients, and prepares for opening by filling various subsidiary materials, etc. The attendance time for the opening shift was by 8 o'clock, but the real opening time for selling drinks was 9:00 AM.
"Uh, okay."
I nodded and naturally approached the coffee machine. My body moved naturally. Since it was work I had done for a long time, my body moves first even without necessarily thinking.
Since there wasn't a single time I didn't do chemical cleaning when closing the machine, I surely would have done it yesterday too.
Leaving the logistics organization and ingredient preparation to Ye-ri, I started with the task of rinsing out the chemicals in the machine.
"Boss, are you sick somewhere?"
Ye-ri asked.
"No. My condition is good, why?"
"Because your expression doesn't look too good."
"I'm fine. Very good. I guess it's because I'm not fully awake yet."
Not being fully awake was an excuse.
It's just that the awakened class called Barista is very unsatisfactory.
There is a saying 'Those who will be, will be'. And I was a guy who wouldn't be even if I lived a 2nd round of life.
Having finished preparing the machine for opening, I shook beans into the grinder. I put the finely ground beans into the portafilter and tamped them properly. I intended to pull a test shot. Before pulling espresso to sell to customers, it was a preparation process to pull a 'good shot' by adjusting the proper amount of beans and amount of water. I inserted the portafilter that finished tamping into the head. When I pressed the espresso extraction button, extraction began.
There might be differences for each bean, but there is a time zone where a good shot, that is, the best espresso is extracted.
The beans used in our store designate shots extracted between 20 to 25 seconds as good shots, and we provided coffee made with espresso extracted that way to customers.
It might be different from other stores. Because the know-how and information about coffee I gained through part-time jobs at large franchises and cafe operation experiences are not as professional as thought.
Moreover, it varies depending on the beans or the store's operation method or characteristics. They were methods strictly through information and experiences I personally gained.
Espresso extraction finished. The time taken for extraction was 23 seconds. It was a reasonably good espresso.
"Want some coffee?"
I asked Ye-ri.
"Iced for me!"
Since it's wasteful to throw away the test shot, we often drink it in the morning. I made one cup of iced Americano for Ye-ri to drink and one cup of hot Americano for me to drink. I made two beverages and placed them on the bar.
[You have succeeded in Tamping. Proficiency increases.] [You have succeeded in Espresso Extraction. Proficiency increases.] [You have succeeded in Coffee Manufacturing. Proficiency increases.] [Vitality is consumed by 1.] [Experience points increase.]
It seems I can raise skill proficiency and experience points in this way.
'If I raise skill proficiency, does coffee making speed become faster at least?'
What good is that. In the end, that is also just a skill needed only when there are many customers in the shop. Well, still, it seemed raising skill proficiency or experience points wouldn't be difficult.
'Since I'll be pulling coffee day and night from now on.'
Handing the iced Americano to Ye-ri, I headed in front of the office door. With a cup of hot Americano I made just a while ago in my hand.
As expected, the coffee taste was good. Especially the morning coffee signaling the start of the morning even gave a feeling of sharply waking up the mind that wasn't fully awake. Maybe I might have been doing cafe work all this time for this feeling.
I looked at the front of the office door while drinking coffee. A chart with cleaning zones and cleaning schedules written on it was attached. It was something the me of 10 years ago, that is, the current me had made.
MD cabinet cleaning, wiping baby chairs, wiping dust in bar corners, wiping ingredient containers, expiration date management, ice machine cleaning, etc. It was a chart made to manage the store efficiently with employees. It was a chart updated every year, every month.
At the top of the chart, 'April 2019 Cleaning Zone/Schedule' was written.
'I returned, to 2019...'
And I became a hunter and am working in a cafe. If there's something different, it's that on top of numerous barista certificates, I can soon become a government-certified barista with the class called 'Barista'.
"Haa..."
Sighs only increased the more I thought.
It is a world where definitions for gates, dungeons, and hunters don't even exist yet. Although it will be a completely different world 10 years later. If you look at it, it would enter a transition period where the world changes once a little time passes.
Maybe I might have become one of the First Generation Awakened. So what? There isn't much that changed.
I sipped the cup of Americano again. At a somewhat strange feeling, I looked at the hand holding the Americano.
It glowed. To be precise, a strange light was emitting from the hand holding the Americano.
Ye-ri looked towards me. And then she focused on what she was doing again as if nothing happened. It seemed this light wasn't visible to her eyes.
I lightly caressed the mug containing the Americano.
[HOT Americano]
A well-made Americano. Effect: Vitality recovers by 1 with a 50% probability.
I doubted my eyes. This was truly a tremendous effect.
In the future, when gates manifest and dungeons start opening, a world of hunters for clearing those dungeons comes. All things in the entire world revolve solely around hunters.
What is important to such hunters is exactly 'Potions'. It might be different if there is a priest-type who restores health in the party, but if not, what is essentially needed was potions.
Potions that restore health, potions that restore mana, potions that restore vitality, potions that lift status abnormalities, etc. The problem is that obtaining potions is harder than plucking a star from the sky.
One must clear at least an A-rank dungeon or higher, and even if cleared, the probability of obtaining one potion is less than 10%.
Moreover, now is not a world where hunters run wild. At least 5 years, no, 7 years must pass before hunters who can clear A-rank dungeons or higher will be seen little by little.
Even Kang Guk-yeong, who was a top ranker of the assassin type, cleared an A-rank dungeon for the first time in his 5th year after awakening as a hunter.
I opened the skill window and checked the list of skills I had.
[Skill Window]
Active Skills: Coffee Manufacturing (LV1) / Espresso Extraction (LV1) / Tamping (LV1)Passive Skills: Your Order Is Ready (LV1) / My Own Golden Recipe (LV1)
I roughly know what active skills are, but what was ambiguous were the passive skills.
The skill name is 'Your Order Is Ready'?
I read the skill description.
[Your Order Is Ready (LV1)]
Special effects are granted to manufactured coffee or beverages.
Is the effect granted to the Americano surely because of this passive?
'This is, more than I thought...'
Jingle—!
A customer entered. It was a woman in her 20s stopping by on her way to work.
"Are you open? What is the opening time...?"
"We are open. The store opening time is 9:00 AM."
The class called Barista is certainly not a combat type. It wasn't a popular class type in broadcasts either. Nor did it earn better than combat type classes with high awareness.
But, certainly more than I thought...
More than I thought, I think it will make money.
While making the first Americano the customer ordered, laughter came out for no reason.
'I won't fail this time, absolutely!'
The pleasant laughter did not stop easily for some reason.
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