Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: S-Rank Self-Employed Person
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I'd quit my part-time job, but I hadn't gotten a moment's rest. The cafe had just been completed, and I was swamped with preparations for the opening.
"It's tough..."
Sitting on the sofa and looking around, I took in the cafe interior, which was mostly sorted out.
The shop's interior was unified with wooden-tone furniture, giving off a warm and cozy vibe.
A gentle piano melody flowed from the speakers, and sunlight filtered through the fluttering chiffon curtains, softly tinting the space in delicate hues.
A shelf with cute knickknacks Han Se-young had gifted me adorned the cleanly painted white walls, while the display case next to the counter showcased the desserts I'd poured my heart into making.
In the midst of that utterly heartwarming scene, I clutched my head with both hands and slammed it onto the table.
Running the onigiri shop had been under a franchise, so there'd been far less for me to handle than this.
But going solo was a different story. From business operations to advertising, everything was on me—and there was no shortage of things demanding my attention.
"SNS..."
Staring at the empty shop, it hit me: marketing was one of the keys to running a place like this.
"That's why I told you to get started on it ages ago."
A sharp voice cut right in.
She was Seong Ji-hyun, another high school friend of Kim Yu-jeong's.
A grad student researching gates, she was always swamped and rarely in touch, but she'd made the trip in person when she heard one of her few friends was opening a shop.
"Hand over your phone already," Seong Ji-hyun nagged. I finally passed it over, and her smooth brow furrowed.
"What the hell? You said you were broke, but you got a new phone? And not that long ago, right?"
"It just kinda... got wrecked, so I replaced it."
"You always went for the rugged ones without caring about anything else. For that to break, did it get hit by a bomb or something?"
"..."
Something like that, yeah.
Feeling a pang of guilt, I averted my eyes and stayed quiet.
The culprit herself seemed oblivious, tapping away at the screen with a bored expression—probably just tossing the comment out there without thinking.
Truth be told, Seong Ji-hyun and I hadn't been close for that long.
After I got out of the hospital and adjusted a bit to life here, Han Se-young had mentioned her and suggested we meet up. That was the start.
I figured we weren't super tight since Amelia and she hadn't kept in touch after becoming adults—probably due to personality differences—so I went in with light expectations.
But once we met, our vibes clicked surprisingly well, and we'd been getting along great ever since.
"Holy crap... What era do you think this is? Not a single app installed? Han Se-young's been treating you like a kid, meddling in everything else, but she never mentioned this?"
After fiddling with my phone for a while, Seong Ji-hyun gawked at me in disbelief.
"What do you mean? I have apps. YouTube, gate alerts, banking app—they're all installed fine."
"You call that having apps? Two of those come pre-installed. If you didn't even have those, you wouldn't be a modern human."
I felt a little indignant.
Seven whole years without modern conveniences like smartphones, living in another world.
Plus, before the dimensional shift, my life was all studying—no wonder apps and such felt alien.
...Okay, that's an excuse.
Over the past year with all my odd jobs, friends and acquaintances had given me endless tips—"Install this app," "Set up an SNS account, it'll make life easier"—but I'd always brushed them off with half-hearted replies.
'Is this what they call a generation gap?'
As I stared into space with cloudy eyes, Seong Ji-hyun, who'd been tapping away, handed the phone back.
"Anyway, I installed the most popular SNS for cafe promo. You can at least take photos and post them, right? I won't expect more—just snap menu pics regularly and upload. I registered the hours too."
"Thanks. I can't really pay you or anything... Want more coffee? There's cake too."
No customers anyway, so I pulled out a bunch for her to sample. As she tried them one by one, she stabbed her fork into the pie topped with blue berries.
"...Huh? What's this? There's a lump of sky-blue stuff."
"Oh, that? Kua fruit. Tastes great in pie. Jam works too."
Named after "aqua" for its water-drop shape, the fruit was good for skin care and fat loss. In the Hermann Empire, it was even used for basic low-grade potions.
Before the war, my old forest-dwelling companion Vivian had made all sorts of tree-fruit desserts, and I'd picked up some recipes here and there—now debuting them for the cafe opening.
Even as I urged her to try it since it was tasty, Seong Ji-hyun eyed the topping suspiciously, poking at it.
"Ohhh... That one from the southern zone dungeon outbreak, right? The edible permit's super recent."
"Huh? It's been permitted for a while?"
The original world had changed in tons of ways since turning modern fantasy.
Gates popped up, warping nearby areas—zones vanished or formed, reshaping the land.
Gates even altered climates, spawning new minerals and fruits.
So when I found kua fruit here while developing the menu, I'd just been happily surprised, assuming it was native.
But from what Seong Ji-hyun said, it was a fairly new discovery here.
"Yeah. It blew up when first announced as healthy, but the taste sucks, so now only diehards eat it. I'd only heard about it—first time seeing the real thing..."
No wonder it was so cheap. Properly refined, it could make potions, but that hadn't been researched yet, I guess.
Raw kua fruit tasted worse than chewing dirt, but quick-freeze it, add sevia leaves, and boil immediately—it turned deep sky-blue and sweetened up.
Any delay after freezing, and the color wouldn't change, making refinement tricky. But done right, the effects doubled.
That's why I made it a signature item. Tons of people care about skin and diets—if it tastes good and helps health, who'd say no?
Perfect timing too—I'd learned a few top recipes from Vivian for max flavor.
Ground into ice cream or chopped for jam or sauce, it was versatile, but my fave was sugar-pickled into pie.
Paired with Vivian's special homemade custard cream? Divine.
"Not gonna eat? No poison or anything."
"...I saw online it's like vomit-flavored or whatever. You sure it's okay selling it as dessert? There's, like, plenty of other fruits."
"Didn't you say all-nighters and late snacks wrecked your skin and piled on pounds? Kua fruit's great for skin, regulates blood cholesterol for dieting, and it's an amazing detox food above all."
"...Dude, you sound like a health supplement salesperson. You've got talent. Could sell door-to-door later."
They say test a bridge before crossing, but she'd been poking endlessly like she'd shatter it. Finally, Seong Ji-hyun cut into the pie.
Crispy crust parted to reveal sugar-soaked kua chunks and velvety custard oozing out.
She scooped some up and popped it in her mouth.
"It's... tasty?"
Seong Ji-hyun's eyes went wide as she looked my way.
"This is really kua fruit...? Never tried it myself, so who knows. Is it supposed to be this good? All that 'tastes bad' crap just sour grapes from people who can't have it?"
"Nah, not sour grapes. Flavor depends on how you cook it."
"Whoa... No cap, you're gonna kill it. Turning that nasty thing into this."
Her reaction screamed it would appeal here too. I watched her fork move faster now, then fiddled with my phone again.
"Never done SNS before—do I just post pics?"
"Check what others post. Tag 'kua fruit'—folks'll see it tons. All rumors, barely any eaters, and dessert version? First I've seen."
"Tag?"
"Like keywords for easy search."
"How?"
"Slap a special symbol on and type. Gotta clickbait the title so people notice."
"...Clickbait?"
"Yeah. Copy popular titles... Oh, wait—call. Yeah, Professor~ Data? If it's that stuff from last time, I organized and sent it... Ah, you deleted by accident~."
Her voice dripped honey, but her face screamed murder. Mouthing silent curses, Seong Ji-hyun stepped out.
Alone now, I tapped the keypad.
Tap. Tap tap.
Luckily, Han Se-young had snapped food pics on a good day last time.
I picked the best ones, attached them, and moved to the title field.
Clickbait for promo sounded sketchy at first, but it was kinda fun.
Maybe I've got a knack for this.
A smug grin tugged my lips as I hovered over post.
Click.
[※Regret Not Seeing This※ The secret of >>Kua Fruit<<, hyped as healthy... The truth is...? A shop selling what you've NEVER seen before]
The reference? YouTube.