Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Inside Out (1)
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***
Rumble—
Hiss!
A quiet, tidy room. In one corner, the connector pod slid open, and a pale man crawled out from inside.
“H-H-Holy shit... I did it...”
His limbs flopped around like some kind of soft-bodied sea creature as he tried to move. No surprise there. He’d been lying motionless in the connector for nearly five straight days, playing the game nonstop. The pod’s “play optimization system” had fed him thin nutrient slurry and even handled his bodily functions while he lay there. His joints creaked and stiffened in vivid protest.
“You could sleep in there and log out refreshed, but nah... still feels kinda grimy somehow.”
Humans are meant to live in the real world, after all.
With that, the Professor crawled over to the beat-up sofa next to the connector and flopped down, passing out cold.
***
A few hours later.
What roused the Professor from his deathlike slumber was a smell so intoxicating—to someone who’d been choking down nothing but nutrient paste for days—that it could wake the dead. Savory, primal, hitting all the right instincts.
Drawn like a moth to a flame, the Professor followed the aroma out of the connector room. Amid the shelter’s clutter of high-tech gadgets, he spotted Corduro in one corner of the greenhouse, grilling something.
“Corduro...?”
“Ah, Master! Sleep well?”
The Professor half-heard the greeting, his eyes locked on the frying pan gripped by the little robot arm extending from Corduro’s drone. It shook the pan with vigorous enthusiasm.
Sizzle—
Over a small campfire, the hot pan sizzled with a hefty slab of meat, browned to mouthwatering perfection.
Meat. Actual meat. Not those damn tough calorie bars he’d been gnawing on forever!
The Professor nearly lunged forward but barely reined in his impulses.
“Corduro?”
“Yup!”
“This... don’t tell me it’s ‘cheap meat’?”
“Pfft, no way! You think I’m nuts enough to use ‘cheap meat’? This is ‘expensive meat’.”
Only then did the Professor relax and fully indulge in the aroma.
Sure, the world had gone to hell, but animals still scraped by in the wasteland. Groups like the Dome or the Raptor Society raised pigs on food scraps and garbage.
Any meat from normal livestock like that, or wasteland rabbits, or even radioactive giant scorpions? That was “expensive meat.”
The other stuff?
Search “meat” on the exchange and sort by lowest price first, and you’d get a flood of cuts from every body part imaginable. Sellers were usually psycho gangers or scavengers.
That super sketchy meat from folks who’d given up on being human? They called it “cheap meat.” No one ever admitted the source material, but anyone with half a brain knew exactly what it was. Revolting bastards.
Even more revolting? “Cheap meat” had steady demand and sold like hotcakes.
That’s why you watch anyone in the wasteland chowing down on meat. Expensive stuff was rare as hell and barely hit the market.
‘Hold up. So why the hell is something this precious getting cooked in our house?’
The Professor’s mind flashed back to the nightmare from last time he’d logged out.
Corduro’s dog-brained bullshit had dragged him through every kind of misery from Sector 45 all the way to Tobrunn.
‘No. Couldn’t be. If it was, I’d dismantle that drone down to the last screw, chuck it all in a smelter, and blow this shelter sky-high—nostalgia be damned!’
Clutching his pounding chest, the Professor asked Corduro in a quavering voice.
“C-C-Corduro? So why ‘expensive meat’? Did you... buy something new again?”
Whoosh—
Sizzle!
Corduro flipped the meat with a stylish shake of the pan, rattling its lenses as it replied.
“No way! You think I’m some dumb tin-can bot? I’m a learning AI! I learned my lesson from that last fiasco. Wouldn’t dream of buying more crap. This is a complimentary gift.”
“Complimentary... gift? Out here in the wasteland?”
“Uh... yeah, so they said? The stuff I ordered from the Marketplace a few days back all arrived yesterday, and they tossed in a whole side of meat as thanks for the big order. No worries. Totally free. Marketplace is a Dome outfit—they wouldn’t touch weird meat.”
“Hmm... complimentary gift...”
The Professor eyed the elegantly plated steak and the massive raw hunk plopped beside it. Even sliced big, that was 9 or 10 servings easy. Looked fresh too—worth a pretty penny. And the Marketplace, those money-hoarding skinflints, sent it as a freebie?
The Professor glared at the steak on the table, a mix of mouthwatering hunger and deep suspicion. Way too sketchy. Suspicious as all get-out.
“Feels like there’s an angle here. No way Scrooge-ass Marketplace gives away freebies.”
“Dunno... maybe this?”
“What?”
At the Professor’s question, Corduro’s robot arm pointed to a stack of neatly packed wooden crates in one corner of the shelter.
“Those. Shower booth, air purifier, auto-turret, compact auxiliary shield generator. On their own, that’s enough gear to kit out a new outpost if you snag a generator.”
“Y-Yeah...?”
“Marketplace figures a new player with that kinda buying power showed up. This is their ‘let’s get along’ gesture, is what I think.”
“Meat as a token of friendship...”
Corduro had a point. The generator? They’d source it somehow since there wasn’t much to buy anyway. No stealth field, but shield plus auto-turret handled defense decently. Air purifier kept out the drifting sand...
‘Outpost-grade shelter, spot on.’
Only then did the Professor catch the Marketplace’s angle. They’d pegged him as the advance scout for some bigger outfit expanding into new sectors. Pretty standard move—send recon ahead to set up a forward base. That freebie was probably a subtle signal: “Don’t poke the Dome, and we’ll look the other way.”
As he sliced into the steak with his knife, the Professor snatched a spoon from the table and flung it at Corduro’s drone.
Clang!
“Ow! Why?! I didn’t screw up this time!”
“Hey, you say the crap you bought last time could build a whole-ass small shelter— you think that doesn’t piss me off?”
“B-But it was with good intentions...!”
“Good intentions? Isaac had those too, you little shit. Thought he was saving humanity with his bullshit.”
Isaac was worth mulling over from a few angles. Not just some random psycho, maybe. Food for thought...
‘But right now, chow time first.’
He wedged his table knife underneath and carved off a big chunk. The steak parted like butter, no resistance, revealing pink innards as juices dripped down.
For a split second, he wondered, ‘Not seafood, is this safe?’ But his hand was already lifting the slice to his mouth.
Nomf—
The moment it hit his tongue, his mouth exploded with the rich, nutty fat of real meat, umami overload, flavor so intense it bowled over his taste buds!
The texture? Incredibly tender—teeth met just enough give before it crumbled apart with a satisfying pop. Swallowing sent an involuntary “Ahh...” of bliss down his throat.
“How’s that? Perfect, right? Timed it to your biorhythms for the ideal wake-up, happiest method possible. You like?”
Mouth stuffed full, the Professor could only give a thumbs-up to praise his dutiful servant.
Kicking back in a clean, spacious home, savoring luxury bought with his own earnings (freebies counted as purchases), he felt damn proud of himself. Like splurging on clothes and a fancy meal with your first paycheck.
“You’ve grown up, Professor Park.”
Shoving the rest of the steak in his mouth, the Professor figured the occasional splurge wasn’t half bad.
***
Freshly stuffed, the first thing the Professor did was tear into the packages delivered via GG drone from the Marketplace. Most of the gear could wait for setup, but one item? Had to go in right freaking now, no matter what.
Rip—pop, hiss, crackle!
Peeling back the packaging like a madman, eyes wild, he uncovered the prize he’d been desperate for, gleaming shyly in all its glory.
[Kiral Tec. Shower Booth Set]
The Kiral Tech logo blazed in sharp yellow across the thick frosted glass.
Two fully sealed shower booths came with a compact groundwater pump, plus hefty filter panels for the pump itself. The epitome of functional beauty. He couldn’t wait another second to try it!
“Corduro.”
“Y-Yes, sir?! Master, you alright? You seem a bit...”
“What’re you talking about? I’m perfectly rational, serene, stable as can be. Anyway, gotta install this pump. Any good spots on the shelter floor for it?”
“Hmm... tough build, but near the drain lines there should be some openings. Little construction work and—”
“Ain’t got time for construction! That’s why I’m asking. I need this ‘right now.’ Right. Now.”
Eyes gleaming, the Professor scanned around, then lit up and bolted toward the greenhouse, pump in hand.
“Wait! No bare dirt left in the greenhouse at all! Where the hell are you even gonna—”
“Move it!”
“Eek!”
Brushing aside the frantically buzzing Corduro, the Professor stomped flat a patch of freshly sprouting potato field with his dirt-caked boots.
“Oh nooo! The potatoes! Our survival calories!”
“Shut up! I need this more to stay alive!”
Click! Click!
Rrrrumble—
He roughly leveled the dirt with his feet, plunked the pump in the cleared spot. True to Kiral Tech’s post-apoc high-tech rep, the pump auto-anchored itself and started boring a pipe into the ground.
While it settled in, the Professor hauled over both small tubs and set them on the soft soil. Standing idle felt like torture.
“Corduro. Why’d you buy two of these?”
“Uh... they discounted the set of two. Heard you could join ’em for one big tub, got carried away... Sorry!”
“No, you did great. Abso-fucking-lutely great.”
“?”
The Professor watched the pump dig in with reverent focus.
Click!
The second it locked in place, he yanked power from the greenhouse charger, hooked it up, and snapped the two shower booths together perfectly.
And there it was: a fully built shower room, right in the greenhouse.
Gulp—
Trembling with anticipation, the Professor lifted the faucet handle.
Splash—
“Aaah... water...”
He stripped off his clothes in a flash and slammed the booth door shut. Water began flooding the fully sealed space.
“Water... water...”
Yeah, he knew it. This euphoria, this bliss—it was spillover from the game, part of the ‘encroachment.’
But right now, the Professor couldn’t care less about trivial shit like that.
‘Water... cool, crisp water... hehe, hehehehe...’
“M-Master? The water’s still rising?”
“Blub blub—”
“Master! Open the door! You’ll drown! Come on!”
The Professor ignored Corduro and let the booth fill to the brim. It felt like new life pumping into his exhausted body after five days of nonstop play.
‘Hehe, hehehehe...’
Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang bang!
“Waaah! Please! Open up, you lunatic! The door!”
***