I Became a Raid Boss

“When training animals, the most effective method is using food as a reward.”

…This is it!

Watching the video, Joanie jumped up from the sofa with a loud bang.

Had her mother, who cared for Da-eun dearly, seen this, she would’ve laughed heartily and swatted her on the back.

But thankfully, her mother, who occasionally visits her place, wasn’t coming today, so she managed to evade the back-swat.

“People are just animals anyway!”

Now that’s a crazy leap in logic.

If the viewers had heard that, the chat would have been filled with question marks, but Da-eun had no awareness of it.

“Since ancient times, hosting a meal has meant more than just eating food,” she said, feeling like a philosopher.

When a precious guest arrives, they receive a lavish meal.

Even in tough times, it’s common to see examples of people treating guests generously, ensuring they don’t go hungry.

Even if you’re a little awkward with someone, dining together quickly breaks the ice, doesn’t it?

In short, sharing food increases closeness with others, narrowing emotional distances—along with a slight ulterior motive of making it hard to refuse the host’s offers.

“If we eat something delicious, we’ll definitely become friends quickly.”

Why, when you were a kid, an adult giving you food always seemed cooler, right?

What about the Gravekeeper?

‘There shouldn’t be anyone who dislikes delicious food,’ she thought.

The starting point of her reasoning was odd, but the conclusion was quite plausible.

Shin Da-eun is about execution; execute, and it’s Shin Da-eun.

Having reached her conclusion, Da-eun immediately climbed into the virtual reality capsule and turned on the stream.

In the blink of an eye, transforming from Da-eun to Joanie, she explained her plan to the viewers.

“So, recommend some delicious food. Nothing too expensive or hard to find.”

Food names flooded the chat like bombs.

Each person pulled out their favorite dish.

Joanie jotted down everything except duplications, items too far away, or ones she couldn’t buy due to circumstances.

Even if she put something in her inventory, food doesn’t last forever.

Being a Void Space, it lasts a little longer, but that’s about it.

There are preservation bags made by mana engineers, but they’re too expensive for just anyone to buy.

As a result, players who are poor at cooking end up eating tough jerky or bland soup if they stay outside the village for too long.

“Let’s start with a meat dish, right? After all, I’ve gotten food from him.”

The Cockatrice meat she had received from the Gravekeeper was incredibly tasty.

However, there was a downside too.

‘It was just grilled over fire, and it tasted this good—what if I cooked it properly?’

How delicious could that be?

Just imagining it made her mouth water.

No, this isn’t right.

Joanie wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

“Last time I checked, it seemed like there weren’t many complicated cooking tools.”

– When did she see that?

– Must’ve been peeking around or something.

– Hmm… sounds plausible.

“That sounds plausible but irrelevant. Anyway, since he lives in the mountains, complicated cooking might be hard for him. So wouldn’t he like a simple meat dish?”

– ‘This tastes better than what you gave me.’

– Ranking them shivers.

– Payback with a vengeance… just like a jack-of-all-trades.

– I won’t go far. Take care.

“Not at all!”

She heard there’s a place nearby that serves excellent meat dishes.

Apparently, they make it by scoring the meat, marinating it with various spices and wine, and after a long process… something like that.

She couldn’t even remember properly; it definitely sounded like a dish that required a lot of effort.

Accompanied by the viewers who constantly maligned her, she set off to buy food and then head back to the Gravekeeper’s mountain.

When encountering monsters, she hid and waited until they passed, biting her tongue while studying Granic on horseback.

Fortunately, this time she arrived safely without meeting any Cockatrices, wiping the sweat from her brow as she approached the Gravekeeper’s dwelling.

“Hello!”

“…”

As expected, there was no reply.

‘Not being chased away is a relief.’

Getting brutally attacked immediately would be worse than dealing with silence.

Thinking positively, Joanie stepped forward confidently.

“Food, reward!”

“…? ”

Still clumsy with communication, Joanie combined short words instead of complete sentences and took out the food from her inventory.

It wasn’t steaming hot as freshly cooked, but she felt it was warm enough.

“I, give food.”

“…Huh?”

Ah, she sort of understood the meaning now.

Hearing something closer to a sigh than a response, Joanie steadfastly presented the food to the Gravekeeper.

The Gravekeeper, who had been staring at the food as Joanie expected, finally accepted the offering.

In a moment of awe, she felt like a cautious wild animal approaching a treat.

“Doesn’t he resemble a wary wild animal?”

“…? ”

“Oh no, no.”

The Gravekeeper tilted his head at her not really solitary monologue.

“What’s this about…?”

With a deep sigh, the Gravekeeper pierced the meat with a fork he brought from the hut and put it in his mouth.

In that tense moment.

Nom nom.

“…Uh-oh.”

No response at all…?!

She expected at least some reaction upon eating something delicious, but the Gravekeeper merely moved his fork with a flat demeanor.

Piercing the meat with his fork, he brought it to his mouth.

Even a piece of jerky would react more than this.

“Could it be that it tastes bad?”

Nom.

“…It’s good.”

Joanie’s confusion deepened as she watched the Gravekeeper finish his share of meat.

It would have tasted better hot, but even slightly cooled off, it was still sufficiently delicious.

– Looks like he’s offended nods.

– ‘After generously sharing my meat, he brought back meat dishes the next day. Is he declaring war?’

– Yes, that’s correct~.

– Wasn’t he thinking of mocking me?

“Is that really so…?”

While Joanie was lost in confusion, the Gravekeeper’s plate was empty.

“Seeing it’s all gone makes me think it wasn’t bad.”

Surely he wasn’t a lifeless block of wood to have no reaction at all?

At least his shoulders could have twitched a bit.

…Is he really some kind of bio-golem?

Clatter.

The Gravekeeper set his plate down and stood up.

Then he began preoccupying himself with the flowerbed without a word.

“…”

Her plan, which she thought would work, started to fall apart right from the beginning.

Joanie, following the Gravekeeper with a blank stare, suddenly had a lightbulb moment.

“Ha… Haha! Right, if he just succumbs at once, it won’t be fun.”

She hadn’t expected that from the start.

Now was not the time to feel disappointed.

Joanie clenched her fists.

“I’ll see if he can react the same way, no matter what kind of exquisite meal from every corner of the world I bring!”

– This is terrifying shivers.

– Saw her for the first time today; why is she suddenly like this?

– Cough cough, first time (more than a week following the chat).

From that day on, Joanie’s routine was the same.

She woke up in the morning, turned on her broadcast, and set off on an expedition to buy food.

She occasionally checked the fan café for new posts and studied the Granic dictionary she had obtained with great difficulty.

Lastly, she climbed the mountain, offered food to the Gravekeeper, and was disappointed by his reaction.

It was a monotonous cycle, turning like a wheel.

So diligent she even sought help from viewers who usually didn’t help, but the responses were still lackluster, and Joanie’s spirit grew wearier.

“Ugh, ugh… Do you really hate delicious food that much? What if I make him try something gross instead…? Do they have Hawaiian Pizza in Silia?”

– Uh-oh, get it together;

– Suggesting a way to die without pain nod.

– Is it really painless?

– Haha I’m not feeling pain~.

– ??? Why is Hawaiian Pizza considered gross?

For anyone else, this would be a situation where giving up wouldn’t be weird.

For a week straight, she visited daily to offer food, and not only was there no “it was good” but not even a reaction, how could she not get fatigued?

But fortunately or unfortunately, Joanie had a knack for enduring.

– Isn’t this enough by now?

– Maybe it’s better to find another way?

– Ugh, it’s so frustrating; I feel like dying.

The viewers were screaming for help as they watched her stream, making it seem like she was the unlucky one.

Clatter.

The Gravekeeper silently set down his plate.

This was yet another day of being met with a rejection that wasn’t quite a rejection.

Now she suspected if he couldn’t even taste things.

“Mmm…”

Putting the empty plate into her inventory, Joanie let out a deep sigh.

“Am I really wrong?”

– You’re just realizing this now???

– Honestly, it was pretty hopeless.

“Is that really so….?”

Joanie, who was usually confident, could no longer hide her disheartened look.

Feeling sorry for her, donations poured in to comfort her, but her shoulders remained slumped.

“I must have been overconfident.”

Her excitement of being the first to realize something nobody else knew, the feeling of superiority as a pioneer.

As the emotions clouding her vision fell away, she finally began to accept that she might have been wrong.

“Still, surely my favorability must have gone up a bit? There’s no more of that incredulous reaction like before, right?”

– When did Silia Online become a dating sim?

– Wow, a magnificent game where you can even date.

– How much did you spend to raise favorability even a little?

– Isn’t it normal to spend money when you’re dating? nod.

– This isn’t a date; it’s just my wallet!

“…Let’s not talk about money, okay?”

Recalling her thin wallet from the rapid dieting, Joanie spoke in a gloomy voice.

She hadn’t even asked for anything, but the ‘returning a favor’ notion came back to bite her; she couldn’t help but feel oddly wronged.

Why blame innocent people? It was her own doing.

Swish.

Watching the Gravekeeper grooming his sword with a gloomy gaze, Joanie shook her head.

The bob cut brushing against her shoulder tickled her neck.

“Since I came early today, I have some time. Should I stick around here for a bit?”

– Oh, sounds good.

– Let’s go, let’s go!

– Q&A time, let’s go!

But what should they do?

Based on the constant chatter in the chat, people clearly had many questions for the Gravekeeper.

Joanie was curious as well, yet even after trying consistently, she still received no responses.

Though she had made decent progress in learning Granic through hard work, without the other person speaking, how could she confirm if she was grasping anything properly?

They say having conversations with natives is effective for learning a language—what do you do if the native isn’t speaking?

Answer: Change to another person.

‘If I could do that, wouldn’t it have been done already?’

It was a pity she understood the answer yet couldn’t act on it.

“Sword…”

The oiled cloth glided slowly over the sword.

Joanie watched the glimmering where the cloth passed under the sunlight and suddenly pulled out her own sword.

“Should I practice some swordsmanship? I can’t always ask for protection.”

Anyway, since there’s nothing else to do, it wouldn’t hurt to practice.

But as she stood up, she felt totally blank when trying to start.

“So what do I do now?”

– Starting with a downward slash is the rule.

“Downward slash? Like this?”

Thud thud.

Joanie raised her sword high above her head.

If this were reality, her arms would be shaking, but thanks to the stat boost, she could hold it up without any issues.

Downward slash, thrust, upward slash…

Whoosh, whoosh!

The sword cut through the calm air, creating a swishing sound that echoed.

Joanie couldn’t tell if she was doing it right.

But she just hoped that by doing something, she might make a little progress.

‘…Phew!’

It was just like targeting the Gravekeeper.

Trying without knowing if she was doing anything correctly, just giving it a shot.

Yeah, when had the journey ever gone just as I planned?

Sometimes things don’t go well, you know?

If she had lucky moments, great results would come.

And then.

Huff….

At some point, the sword in her hand felt strangely light.

When the sweat started to bead on her forehead, Joanie gently exhaled and lowered her arm.

“I’ll take a short break—”

“…You’re not supposed to do it like that.”

“…?!”

An unexpected voice hit her ears.

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