But it's my dinner
But it's my dinner
[Gallery Master party, seems like you're gonna live here?]
Author: Reelsjoa
(Pic of Reels standing in front of cave entrance)
Since she's been running around diligently, luck seems to be following her too.
Didn't primitive humans live in caves?
Australopithecus and those guys.
ㄴIs Australopithecus your friend? Kids talking shit
ㄴkkkkkk
ㄴBaby < more useful than most female contestants
ㄴThe sad thing is that this is real;;
ㄴFuck, I'm a fan of female streamers but I can't refute this
ㄴBaby did all the move-in cleaning by itself kk
ㄴLizard GOAT isiyeo..
ㄴSo Reels didn't bring it for nothing
ㄴGaelbanhkkul, fuck, just the other day I was bitching about why she brought a lizard kk
[Real-time Gallery Master party is developing]
Author: Nongnongnongnongnong
(Reels bow-drill gif)
Whoa, fuck, she's seriously trying to make fire like that
ㄴDoes that actually work?
ㄴI tried it after watching a documentary in elementary school and it never worked
ㄴThat's actually fucking hard, even experts sweat buckets doing it
ㄴI heard your palms hurt like hell
ㄴLook at Reels' arms shaking
ㄴYerin watching without even breathing is hilarious kk
ㄴHonestly, I'd be focused too in that situation
ㄴAt this point, is our Gallery Master not just a documentary enthusiast but a caveman in a past life?
ㄴWhy is the lizard bastard watching from the side so cute
ㄴWhoa, smoke is coming out, fuck!!!!
ㄴIt worked, it worked, it worked!!!
ㄴEmber!!! Ember!!!
ㄴWhoa, fuck, she actually succeeded
ㄴThe moment of civilization's birthㄷㄷ
ㄴPrometheus Reels
ㄴNongnong, I guess you don't need to buy her a firesteel anymore
ㄴ(Nongnongnongnongnong) : Anyway, even if I bought it for her, she wouldn't use it
@
Mystery Rich office building, 7th floor.
In the place where the YouTube dedicated team resides, a frenzied party was now taking place.
"Crazy, it's been less than half a day since we uploaded the video and views are already at 5 million."
A middle-aged man with half his hair gone from how hard work was.
Team Leader Park Sang-gu, with deep dark circles under his eyes, muttered while looking at the monitor.
"At this rate, it'll surpass 20 million, won't it?"
The employee at the next desk shouted with an excited face.
"Team Leader-nim! This is really a hit! This month's bonus is no joke, right?"
Mystery Rich was a generous boss. Whenever content went viral, he showered his employees with bonuses.
Of course, he did grind people up in the process.
But the compensation was certain.
There was a reason why the employee turnover rate converged to 0% despite the incredible work intensity.
There's nothing in the world that money can't do.
Even if you pay a lot of salary, do employees quit? Then just pay more.
"Real-time viewers are also continuously rising. Over 150,000 people are watching Mystery Rich's live broadcast."
"All community reactions are about the Desert Island Project too. The real-time search rankings are lined up with the participants' names."
"The views on shorts edited and uploaded with only Reels' clips have already surpassed 7 million!"
"Inquiries from advertising companies are already coming in too. Reptile breeding companies, outdoor brands, even camping equipment companies!"
Team Leader Park Sang-gu stared blankly at the screen. His expression was one of "Is this a dream or reality?"
On the screen, a small kid was struggling to make a tiny ember.
A girl barely old enough to be his daughter.
A visual that looked completely out of place on a desert island.
But her survival knowledge rivaled that of experts.
"...What kind of kid like that even exists."
Park Sang-gu opened the data window related to Reels with trembling hands.
Number 1 in community mentions.
Number 1 in real-time popular clips.
In a survey targeting viewers, she was overwhelmingly number 1 among all participants.
Even Reels' personal channel subscriber count was skyrocketing like crazy.
"How many subscribers did she originally have?"
"24."
"And now?"
"Over 70,000."
"..."
At the unbelievable growth rate, Team Leader Park Sang-gu tightly closed his eyes. Then slowly wiped his face with both hands.
"This kid is a talent sent from heaven."
His voice trembled thinly.
"Maybe we're witnessing the birth of a new giant."
The employees also gulped and stared at the monitor.
He had doubted it at first too.
An unverified Hakko streamer.
Just the other day, he had even prayed and set out water, worried she might cause an accident on broadcast.
A mysterious girl who had dropped out of nowhere.
A strange participant who brought a lizard as a personal item.
He had only thought of her as a visual prop to make the other participants stand out.
But.
That was his perfect misconception.
That little girl is not just some mere prop.
The Hakko streamer named Reels, the moment she landed on the desert island, is devouring every single other participant whole.
That is a dragon.
A dragon that had been hiding underwater for a long time.
A monster that has only now completed its metamorphosis and is about to ascend to the sky, spreading its wings for the first time.
Team Leader Park Sang-gu's eyes shone hotly.
"Change the editing direction."
The employees raised their heads simultaneously.
"Put in at least 30 percent or more of Reels' screen time."
"...No, but then the other participants' screen time..."
"Do as I say!"
Park Sang-gu, who had shouted angrily, looked at Reels on the monitor and murmured.
"Increase it even more if possible."
Beneath Reels' hands on the screen, a small ember began to bloom. From the 7th floor editing room, someone's exclamation was heard.
"...Wow. She really makes fire like that."
None of the employees in the office could deny it.
The fact that the center of the Desert Island Project was Reels.
@
Hoo.
Hooou.
I wrapped both hands around the miscanthus nest and carefully blew in my breath.
White smoke billowed up.
It's hot.
The feeling of a small heat moving alive inside my palm.
Yerin had quietly come right next to me and was watching the sight.
"Is it done...?"
"...Not yet."
I mustn't be impatient.
Embers die more easily than you think.
I blew in my breath as slowly as possible, like handling a newborn baby.
Hooou.
The red dot gradually grows larger.
The tips of the miscanthus char and burn black.
Whack!
A small flame bloomed from among the miscanthus.
"...!"
Yerin's eyes widened as she intuited that the fire was lit.
"Wow."
She said, surprised.
"This actually works...?"
I quickly placed the very thin twigs I had prepared onto the flame.
If you put in big wood from the start, the oxygen gets blocked and the fire dies.
You have to carefully and slowly grow it from a small fire.
Tadak.
As soon as the twig touched the ember, its tip turned red.
The flame began to grow little by little.
The darkness that enveloped the cave retreated and the surroundings swayed in orange light.
Yerin stared at it with a spaced-out face, then let out a small laugh.
"...It's warm."
I carefully pushed a piece of firewood into the hearth.
A moment later.
Hwareureuk.
The flames began to climb up the firewood.
I blankly stared at the flickering flame.
It's just fire, but it's so pretty.
Is this how parents feel when their son, who they sent off to the military, returns home after discharge?
I'm so happy to see fire after two days.
Uchuchu. Aigo, you pretty thing.
Maybe the schedule had been tiring, Yerin plopped down on the spot.
"Haaah... I can live a bit now."
Her brow area looked gaunt.
She definitely seemed very tired.
For a female streamer, she had endured well so far.
Still, because she did everything I told her.
Adding one praise sticker.
After checking the firewood condition once, I spoke to Yerin.
"Yerin-nim."
"Ung..."
"Please watch so the fire doesn't go out."
"Huh?"
"And if you have time, please pick up some leaves to lay on the floor."
Yerin looked up at me with a blank face.
"Where are you going?"
"To get food."
Yerin asked with a strange expression.
"Alone? Without me?"
"I'll be gathering nearby anyway, so I'll be back quickly alone."
In the first place, in extreme situations like this, time is more precious than gold.
You can't just rest whenever you feel like resting.
Even looking at nature survival programs, it's the same.
The survivalists appearing on those programs also work all day.
Chopping firewood, fetching water, managing gardens, cooking rice.
Surviving in nature is originally an incredibly annoying and troublesome thing.
I walked out of the cave and scanned the surrounding terrain again.
The current location is pretty good.
It's appropriately close to a water source.
It's a bit far from the beach, but not extremely far.
Of course, the sea side has more abundant food.
But the problem is equipment.
Right now I don't have a fishing rod, and there's no guarantee I'll get food just by going to the sea with my bare body.
Above all, it takes a good hour to get to the beach from here.
That means even just the round trip will deplete a huge amount of stamina.
Going to the beach is inefficient in this situation.
'Anyway, there's plenty to eat around here too.'
I slowly examined the surrounding trees.
In the jungle, the most efficient high-protein food is surprisingly something else.
Insects, larvae, things like that.
Of course, Yerin might faint as soon as she sees them, but if she gets hungry, she'll eat on her own.
I did want to try eating them once, after seeing My Brother eating them deliciously with nyam nyam jjeop jjeop.
But paying for it out of my own pocket was a bit... so I hadn't attempted an insect mukbang until now.
Leaving aside chicken, pizza, and Hambugi, buying and eating bugs is a bit... well.
Anyway.
Larvae usually inhabit dead trees or decaying wood.
Especially in humid, organic-rich environments like jungles, you could say it's a paradise for bugs.
I wandered around the jungle searching for a dead tree.
After walking for a long time like that, I found a huge fallen tree.
One side of the trunk was split pitch black.
Did it get struck by lightning or something?
Come to think of it, it's not strange.
I don't know exactly where this island is, but.
Places with this kind of climate usually have frequent rain and humid air.
So lightning strikes often too, I guess.
I cautiously approached the fallen tree.
The outside was already half rotten.
When I nudged it with my foot, the damp bark fell off with a hudukduk sound.
Good. This tree feels promising?
I struck the side of the dead tree with a stone I picked up nearby.
Peok.
After hitting it a few more times, the rotten bark on the surface crumbled down with a ususu sound.
And from inside that.
Kkumteul~
"...Wow. What are you guys doing here?"
Plump larvae, about two finger joints long, were packed tightly in the empty spaces of the rotten dead tree.
A veritable larvae tower palace.
It wasn't just a level of one or two.
As light suddenly poured in, the bastards wriggled their bodies even more vigorously.
There are so many, it's a bit gross...
I tore a large leaf nearby and made it into a temporary pouch.
Then I picked out five of the biggest and plumpest ones and put them in.
"...Sorry. You guys are my dinner today."