Chapter 2

Part-time Worker Raising a Half-Elf - Chapter 2 (2/245)

02

The smell of alcohol permeated every corner of the house. Empty bottles rolled around aimlessly. Mold had taken over, and the only TV, old and broken, played endlessly, day after day. This was the scene of the home that Lee Han-sung remembered.

A child was born without any plan, and the two adults, not yet ready to be called parents, struggled. The woman disappeared after giving birth, leaving the child to be raised by a man who had nothing. Forced to become a father against his will, the man naturally did not like his own child. Too busy trying to survive on his own, he could not properly raise the child, who grew up in a home where no one wanted him.

The first time the man, who was a father, raised his hand in violence was when Lee Han-sung was seven years old. He doesn’t remember why he was hit, but on that day, the man was heavily drunk, and the seven-year-old Lee Han-sung could only silently accept the violence.

As time passed, the number of bottles rolling around the house increased, and the intensity of the father’s violence grew. What started as simple slaps eventually turned into swinging bottles, and bruises turned into scars and fractures.

The first time he resisted the violence was when he became a high school student, taller than his father. Due to alcoholism, his father’s body was already ruined, and he could no longer treat the now physically strong Lee Han-sung as he used to.

Perhaps from that moment on, Lee Han-sung and his father became complete strangers. There was no conversation in the house, and Lee Han-sung spent his high school years in silence. When he turned 19 and graduated, it didn’t take long for him to leave the house, becoming a legal adult.

It has been a year since he left home and started living on his own. Despite having nothing and enduring hardships, Lee Han-sung adapted to this life and found a small sense of satisfaction.

At least until last night.

“...What is this?”

A semi-transparent, unidentified message window appeared before his eyes. Lee Han-sung, who saw a message window that seemed to require wearing a virtual reality device, blinked in confusion.

“Ah... Ahahaha... I must be really tired today.”

The first action Lee Han-sung took upon seeing this inexplicable phenomenon was to deny it. He seemed to be very mentally fatigued from dealing with all sorts of unpleasant things all day. He closed his eyes and opened them again, trying to calm himself down.

However, the message window still appeared before his eyes like spam mail. Realizing that it didn’t disappear even after closing and reopening his eyes, Lee Han-sung gave up on denying it and read the message window carefully again.

“Childcare assistance system? What does this even mean?”

As if answering Lee Han-sung’s question, the content of the message window changed. Lee Han-sung thought it looked like a phishing scam, demanding acceptance, and decided to reject it without further investigation.

“Who in their right mind would accept this?”

Even if it was framed as a duty of childcare, it essentially meant being saddled with a child. In South Korea, where the birth rate is among the lowest in the world and the suicide rate is among the highest, no one would accept such a crazy request. Employment is as difficult as picking stars from the sky, housing prices are skyrocketing, and the school system is a source of extreme stress. It’s no wonder no one wants to raise children or get married.

‘Who in their right mind would have and raise a child when they can barely make ends meet?’

With this very logical mindset, Lee Han-sung muttered to himself and pressed the [No] button at the bottom of the message window.

“...?”

Something was wrong. The moment he read the message that appeared after pressing the button, Lee Han-sung realized it.

This was not a message that should appear after pressing the reject button. Before he could think further, the message window started downloading on its own.

“...No, this can’t be.”

This shouldn’t be happening. This can’t be happening. Lee Han-sung, denying it, checked the button he had just pressed with a trembling gaze.

Sure enough, the button his finger was touching had changed from [No] to [Yes] without him noticing.

A common tactic used by pop-up ads, swapping the button positions to force users to accept. Unfortunately, Lee Han-sung fell for this obvious trick and started to feel angry as the download progressed at an incredibly fast speed.

“Damn... Are you kidding me?”

It was faster than 5G. Even though South Korea’s internet speed is notoriously fast, he had never seen such a rapid download speed.

As the ultra-fast download time passed, a blinding light flashed before his eyes, similar to the bright light when taking an ID photo. Lee Han-sung, squinting from the painful light, realized that a basket, which wasn’t there a moment ago, was now in front of him.

“...”

A basket made of roughly woven branches, and inside, a blanket with a baby sleeping soundly.

Without needing to see the system window, Lee Han-sung understood the situation. He looked at the baby in the basket with a resigned expression and muttered softly.

“...No, this is just too absurd.”

Adults have always lied to children, saying babies are brought from under the legs or by storks. But he had never heard of babies being delivered by some unknown magic.

‘Maybe I’ve been misunderstanding the human reproductive process all this time? Do babies just appear out of nowhere?’

Confronted with this irrational situation, Lee Han-sung felt his brain might shut down at any moment. He tried to calm himself down as rationally as possible.

‘Calm down. Calm down, Lee Han-sung. Google must have the answer.’

The largest repository of information, containing billions of pieces of data. Although 80% of it is pseudoscience, there’s no time to worry about that now. What Lee Han-sung needed was to understand the current situation, and Google was his only means.

He quickly turned on his phone, which had just finished updating, and typed his question at lightning speed.

However, Google was surprisingly useless.

“There are no mature women.”

“No, there aren’t.”

“Well, at least it should give some pleasure and a baby…”

Lee Han-sung, confirming the useless information, muttered with tears streaming down his face.

At 20, he had never even been in a serious relationship, let alone married. He had long decided to live alone and be a bachelor. That was Lee Han-sung.

Yet, he now had a baby, delivered by some unknown system or ad site, without any pleasure or relationship.

Any man would cry in such a situation. How often does a bolt from the blue like having a baby without any relationship occur?

Having a baby = an additional mouth to feed = increased expenses + time and effort to care for the baby. Lee Han-sung, quickly deducing this formula in his mind, sighed deeply and glared at the baby sleeping peacefully with a hateful look.

“Look at this... I’m about to ruin my life, and you’re sleeping peacefully.”

A wrinkled, soft-skinned, and ugly-faced baby, capable of only eating, sleeping, pooping, and crying. A fragile being, like thin ice, that could break at the slightest touch.

“Well, there’s only one solution.”

After staring at the baby for a while, Lee Han-sung seemed to make a decision and got up. He then lifted his updated phone and called somewhere.

“Hello, is this the daycare center?”

“I’m calling to ask if I can leave a child at the daycare center.”

A brief silence followed. However, the person on the other end of the phone, as if nothing had happened, continued the conversation in a friendly voice.

“My name is Lee Han-sung, and I’m 20 years old.”

“...Someone left a baby in front of my house.”

He couldn’t say he had a baby because he accidentally clicked on a strange window. So, Lee Han-sung made up a lie on the spot.

“No, it’s not.”

Fortunately, the other person didn’t seem to doubt Lee Han-sung. He inwardly sighed in relief.

‘From the lack of questions, it seems this kind of case isn’t rare.’

Indeed, at this very moment, thousands or even millions of children in this country and the world are being abandoned by their parents due to difficult circumstances. It’s just that ordinary people are unaware of this fact.

“Is it possible tomorrow?”

“No problem. I’ll come at 11 AM.”

After a formal conversation, Lee Han-sung ended the call.

“Listen, don’t blame me for not raising you. I’m already struggling and exhausted just trying to take care of myself.”

After ending the call, Lee Han-sung looked at the sleeping baby and said. The baby, disturbed by his voice, started to frown and squirm, and soon opened its eyes.

“...?”

Sometimes, in life, you encounter moments that make your spine tingle and your hair stand on end.

“Uu...”

“No, that’s not it. Stop.”

“Uuuu...”

“Stop it. I can’t handle that.”

“Uaaaaa... Aaaaaaaah!!”

The cry that echoed through the house was so loud it felt like a civil defense drill. The noise made Lee Han-sung’s head throb, and he realized a foul smell was starting to permeate the air.

“...”

A newborn, only a month old, is still in the anal stage, a psychological term meaning they can’t control their bowel movements.

“I’m going to go crazy.”

Lee Han-sung, sighing in frustration, carefully lifted the cloth covering the baby’s body.

Under the white cloth was something brown that couldn’t be described. Lee Han-sung, who had a deep psychological aversion to feces since childhood, made a distorted face and tried to cover it up again.

“Uaaaaaaah!!”

But the baby’s cries grew louder, and Lee Han-sung, looking very troubled, pleaded with the baby.

“Hey, stop crying. It’s just a little poop in your diaper.”

“Aaaaaaah!!”

Trying to calm the baby down wouldn’t stop the crying unless the root cause was addressed. Realizing this, Lee Han-sung, after much deliberation, reluctantly brought plastic gloves and a lot of tissues from the kitchen and, with a very reluctant expression, cleaned the baby’s diaper.

“Ugh, the smell... What did you eat...”

Why did he have to clean a baby’s diaper for the first time in his life? Lee Han-sung couldn’t understand, but he had no other choice.

‘Just one more day.’

He told himself this as he carried the feces wrapped in tissues to the toilet, flushed it down, and sighed in relief.

He then tore off a large amount of tissue, wet it with cold water, and returned to the baby.

“Stay still. You don’t want to walk around with poop on your bottom, do you?”

The baby, flailing its limbs, seemed to feel uncomfortable. With this small realization, Lee Han-sung started to clean the baby’s bottom with the wet tissue.

‘I thought it was a boy, but it’s a girl...?’

He thought it was definitely a boy because it looked like a goblin, but apparently, at this age, it’s hard to tell the gender by appearance.

Suddenly, a strange sound effect played, and the same message window appeared, blocking Lee Han-sung’s view.

“Unexpected quest?”