The Chef Who Left in the Dark
If you asked which restaurant in Shelter Ark was the most famous, the answer would be Young me.
Since the apocalypse began, one of the businesses hit hardest by bankruptcy had been the restaurant trade.
Fine dining had crossed over entirely into the realm of extravagant luxury, after all.
So most eateries that survived served cheap, crowd-friendly fare built around whatever ingredients were easy to come by.
Young me, however, chased a different flavor altogether.
It opened only in the evenings and operated as an omakase establishment — you ate whatever the chef decided to serve.
If you had to name a place in the area run on a similar model, it would be Sanghae's diner. The difference was that Sanghae's place couldn't be entered by just anyone, no matter how much money they offered, while at Young me anyone could take a seat as long as they paid. The only catch was that the price was staggering.
And yet the seats were nearly full every single night.
That was how extraordinary the cooking of owner-chef Oh Young-mi truly was.
She put out dishes from every corner of the world using a sprawling range of ingredients, and it was impossible even to guess how many recipes she had stockpiled. Every visit brought something new to the table, and every guest left singing her praises.
On top of that, her personal reputation was spotless, so the people of Ark frequented the place often.
Fair skin, a warm crinkle-eyed smile, a cheerful personality. Because she took even the slyest teasing in stride with effortless cool, Oh Young-mi was every bit as popular in Ark as Potion herself.
If Potion owed her popularity more to her striking looks than her personality, Oh Young-mi owed hers to the opposite — her charm outweighed her appearance. And she was a beauty in her own right. Only beside Potion's exceptional looks did the comparison ever suffer; there was nothing lacking about Oh Young-mi at all. Elegant features, pale skin, and eyes that curved into crescent moons when she smiled.
Among the survivors of Ark who counted themselves movers and shakers, there was not a single soul who wasn't a regular at Young me.
Montage and Potion made a habit of eating there after every major ordeal.
Apart from having settled in Ark a little later than the other survivors, there was nothing about Oh Young-mi anyone could find fault with. Even the Ark natives who had once eyed her as something of an outsider no longer saw her that way.
She had succeeded in fitting in completely.
And that same Oh Young-mi slipped quietly out of Ark.
The surroundings were dark, and she was in disguise, so not one person in Ark recognized her.
She moved without hiring so much as a single pathfinder.
Her destination was the forest around Ark where monsters were said to appear more often than anywhere else.
Yet there, at the forest's entrance, she circled the same spot again and again and again — as if performing some kind of ritual.
It was unmistakably strange behavior. She looked like someone bewitched, orbiting the same patch of ground without end.
But there wasn't a trace of worry on Oh Young-mi's face.
After she had circled the same area about nine times, something uncanny happened.
A new path appeared — one that hadn't existed before.
The moment Oh Young-mi vanished down that new road, the original path snapped back to the way it had been.
And where she arrived was a convenience store.
Only the sign said convenience store; the inside could no longer be called one by any stretch. Not a single item remained on the shelves.
"……"
She had been about to step inside as she always did when her feet paused for a moment.
"We have a guest."
A sinister smile spread across Oh Young-mi's face.
She drew a knife from her breast at once.
An old kitchen knife, the kind found in any home kitchen. In truth, Oh Young-mi had prepared every dish she'd ever served with that one knife.
And she used it in combat as well. It looked like an ordinary kitchen knife — but it was anything but ordinary.
"It's me, Noona."
The one who stepped out of the shadows was Sde, grinning.
Anyone who knew what Sde was would have gone into a panic just being near him, but Oh Young-mi was different. Her smile only deepened — as if she'd run into an old friend she'd been missing.
"I heard the news. I didn't expect you to come crawling back, though."
Sde beamed back at her, meeting her eyes without a flicker of shame.
"You should have lived well once you were out. Look at the state of you."
"I'm sorry."
"Then answer honestly. Was it you?"
"……?"
"You put Ralph up to it, didn't you?"
"……"
Crack!
The moment Sde failed to answer, Oh Young-mi slapped him across the face without a moment's hesitation.
Crack!
She struck him again. Sde did not resist.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Oh Young-mi kept slapping him with metronome regularity, and Sde simply stood there and took it, over and over — like a man who couldn't move even if he wanted to.
She went on slapping him for a long while.
They were simple slaps, but by the end Sde's face was a ruin. Oh Young-mi was a survivor whose coin enhancements had progressed more than far enough.
"Let's go in."
"Yes, Noona."
All of Sde's usual madness-soaked persona had vanished without a trace. In front of Oh Young-mi, he looked as meek as a well-trained lamb.
Oh Young-mi pushed open the convenience store door, then asked out of nowhere,
"Did you give Ralph a proper funeral?"
"……"
"Hoo."
She let out a long, heavy sigh, and Sde said nothing more, following along in silence like a condemned man.
Once they were inside, another figure emerged from the back.
The bug summoner, Kang Yu-min.
She looked much as she had before — except for one thing. Her wrist.
Her right wrist was gone. And she hadn't been fitted with a prosthetic, either.
"You took my recipe, and this is what you do with it… I'm truly disappointed. But I suppose I'm just too soft-hearted. Seeing you two, I can't bring myself to throw you away. Yu-min."
"Yes, Unnie."
"Go get what I told you to keep."
"Which one?"
"Your recipe."
At those words, a hairline crack ran across Kang Yu-min's face — but she smoothed it over almost instantly.
She went into the back room and returned with a subspace backpack.
"Sde. You'll need to get stronger, won't you? Considerably fine ingredients here, so eat up. Yu-min."
"Yes, Unnie."
"This one's Sde. Which part looks good to you?"
Kang Yu-min studied Sde, gaze traveling over him without hurry.
"The thighs look good."
"Then we'll go with that. Sde, that's all right with you?"
"Yes, Noona."
The moment his answer was done, Oh Young-mi leveled the knife in her hand at Sde's thigh.
Begonia arrived in Sabbath less than ten hours after pressing the receiver.
In the meantime, Won-goo's crew had been buried in preparations for battle.
Survivors' gear included a considerable amount of consumables, and several items had to be replenished after every fight. That alone mattered enough, but they also had to check whether anyone's main weapon had taken damage — and if so, which parts needed repair or outright replacement.
Fortunately, most of the weapons Won-goo's crew carried were special cases.
The weapons used by Won-goo, Lee Hyun-sung, and Jeon Hye-ji came with no durability worries at all. Won-goo's gun could be restored at any time as long as the Trailer remained intact, and Lee Hyun-sung's Chinese cleaver was bound by a unique curse that made it impossible to destroy. The same went for Won-goo's war hammer.
The rest of the crew charged or repaired their weapons as needed, but Mu Beob-sa's equipment was the problem.
Mu Beob-sa looked like he did almost nothing in a fight, yet in reality he did a great deal. He had saved Jeon Hye-ji's and Jo Mu-sa's lives with his shield more than once or twice. His battlefield experience was so vast that he always knew exactly which moment demanded movement.
And because of it, his shield was battered far worse than his visible exploits would suggest.
"This one's beyond repair, Master Beob-sa. I'm afraid you'll need a new weapon. How about that one?"
Pacific spoke as he hauled out an enormous iron shield from the warehouse.
Befitting a shield used by the Fishers, it looked crude and ruggedly solid at a glance. It was black on top of that, so at first blush it could pass for a giant pot lid.
"That one is far too heavy for me, that's how it is."
"Just try picking it up, at least."
"He's right, y'know. Can't have an elder just sitting around doing nothing either."
Won-goo chimed in from where he lay sprawled with a bored expression.
"Insisting I'm lazing about is not acceptable, that's the part I take issue with. I do my share."
"Who said you were lazing around? I said you can't just sit idle. What if you don't bring any gear? You'd basically be on vacation the whole time we're in Slow."
"When things get desperate, I will do what must be done, that's how it is."
"Move before things get desperate, that's my point. Do you really have to taste blood before you'll budge?"
"Honestly, Master Beob-sa has zero situational awareness when you think about it."
"……"
Scowling, Mu Beob-sa looked ready to lunge at Won-goo, but Lee Hyun-sung slipped between them at precisely the right moment.
"Master Beob-sa. Just give it a try first."
"I've invested almost nothing in Strength, so it's a difficult proposition for me."
He grumbled his objection even as he walked over and lifted the pot-lid shield.
Hrrrm…!
He lifted it — barely. It was closer to a strength-training exercise than a weapon; he could never fight with it.
"Far too heavy, that's how it is."
"Pacific, you don't have another shield? Even by my standards that's a bit much. That's a pot lid, not a shield."
"What did I tell you before? The Fishers' gear is built true to its essence. A shield exists to be solid and a sword exists to be sharp. You lay down the fundamentals, and flourish comes later."
"There's a reason they say nobody out-haggles a merchant. The thing's too heavy to lift, and you're giving me a lecture on essence and fundamentals. Spare me the headache. Got anything lighter?"
"Nope. That's the lightest one, which is why I brought it."
"Ha… where am I supposed to find a shield at this hour?"
"Why can't Master Beob-sa just put a few points into Strength?"
"This gentleman absolutely cannot."
"Why not?"
"Untangling his twisted mana circuits carries that condition among its requirements."
"He's not allowed to raise Strength?"
"Right. That condition's part of the package."
"It is not that I cannot raise them at all, that's not the case. It is that I cannot raise them beyond a certain point."
"Oh! You mean he has to keep his stats balanced in proportion?"
"Exactly."
"Then there's no way around it. Would it be better to just carry some ordinary shield?"
"You think that'd work? You saw what the Ganjeol Point Royal Guard dished out. An average-grade shield is done in one or two hits. Surviving two blows would be a mercy."
"Then haul in a ridiculous mountain of ordinary shields and swap them out the moment one breaks. What about that?"
At that, the whole crew turned on Pacific with looks of pure disdain.
Just then, Hye-ji raised her hand.
"Hye-ji? What is it?"
"Couldn't Master Beob-sa use reinforcement pills too?"
"Hm?"
Everyone felt their minds click open at once. Hye-ji had pointed out a angle none of them had considered.
"True enough. Load him up with Strength-boosting reinforcement pills and he could use the thing for a while. Surely Master Beob-sa isn't barred from taking medicine too?"
"Medicine poses no problem whatsoever, that's how it is."
"Then we just build around that. Though I don't stock any Strength-type drugs myself?"
"Then we go get some, obviously. Hyun-sung."
"Yes, Hyeong-nim!"
"You'll need to make a run to Baek Seol."
"Understood, Hyeong-nim."
"Tell her I'll settle the money with her later. Bring back plenty."
"Understood, Hyeong-nim!"
Lee Hyun-sung strode out without a moment's delay.
The instant he stepped out, he ran straight into Begonia, who had just arrived at Won-goo's office and was about to knock on the door.
"Hyeong-nim. We have a visitor."
Won-goo glanced casually toward the door.
"That was fast. Dan-shin, see our guest in."
"Yes, Director!"
"Hyun-sung, hurry back."
"Understood, Hyeong-nim!"
"Do you have a way to draw Ganjeol out?"
Begonia, who had come alone, went straight to business.
"You're in quite a hurry."
"If there's no way, I'll leave. My obligation is only to keep the promise that I handle Ganjeol and nothing else."
"A way to draw out Ganjeol?"
"What kind of way?"
"There is no such thing."
Begonia's eyes went cold. They had always looked fierce with their naturally upturned lids, and now they turned razor-sharp.
He glared at Won-goo for a moment, then turned to walk straight out.
"You're far too impatient. You should at least hear a man out to the end of his sentence. There is no way to draw Ganjeol out. And because there isn't, we're heading into Slow ourselves."
"You intend to handle Ganjeol inside Slow?"
"What? Does it look impossible?"
"I was given no orders to make enemies of the administrators."
At that, Won-goo flung the contract from his breast straight at Begonia.
The folded contract smacked flat against Begonia's chest.
Then Won-goo lit a cigarette.
"Talking rough doesn't make you look like anything, so learn to keep your tongue civil."
"……"
"Did you really think that last bit was all I had to bargain with Cheon with?"
"……?"
"If that last deal was the trailer, then I'm telling you I also hold the full picture."