Night Recon and the Boar’s Feast
The night had fallen, and as I stepped into the empty lot that barely qualified as a village, the thick smell of roasting meat drifted toward me.
"I'm here."
The people gathered around the campfire all turned to look at me.
"You're here?"
"Yeah."
They all got to their feet to welcome me, and the sight of it made me feel uncomfortably put on the spot.
A big man among them held out his hand.
"I'm Brian. I heard you saved my life. Thank you, truly."
"Sure thing. I'm Han Ga-eul. You had a hole blown through your forehead, but you still lived, huh."
"Haha, thanks to you."
I took his hand and shook it, and he answered with a bright grin that showed all his teeth.
"Have some meat."
"You hunted this?"
Matthew, who had been watching us, tore off a large piece of the meat set over the fire and handed it to me.
"Matthew's hunting skills are no joke."
"Oh? Really? That's impressive."
"It's just a cheap trick. This was my first time doing it here too, so it's a bit rough."
Maybe he wasn't used to praise, because he scratched his head and looked away.
Still, the condition of the meat made it obvious at a glance that this wasn't hacked apart carelessly, but cleaned and prepared properly for eating.
Betty's praise hadn't been empty; he really did seem to know what he was doing when it came to hunting.
"I'll dig in then."
"If you hadn't been here, we wouldn't have been able to put that meat in our mouths today. This is all thanks to you."
Leaving Matthew's words behind, I lifted the meat to my mouth—and the stench hit me hard.
The distinctive reek of boar.
Cooking had been part of the problem, but the harsh conditions here clearly hadn't helped either.
With no extra ingredients at all, all they could really do was roast it.
At best, all they'd done was strip off the fur.
"Next time, catch a sow."
"Why a sow?"
"Boars produce a hormone called androstenone in their testicles, and it gets stored in the fat. Once you put it over a flame, it volatilizes and gives off that awful smell."
"Are you a scholar or something?"
"Just some person trying to get through each day."
For them, this was precious food to end the day with, but there was no way I could force it down.
"Smell!"
"You're awake?"
"It stinks!"
Baek Seol poked her head out of my pocket, pinched her nose shut with a little wad of cotton, and immediately ducked back in.
"Move the meat aside. I'll make it edible."
Pork fat dripping onto the campfire snapped and crackled, sending sparks popping into the air.
"This enough?"
"Yeah."
Matthew and Brian got to their feet and carefully shifted the boar meat, which had been speared whole over the fire, to one side.
To get rid of a stink this stubborn, you had to bring in something stronger.
—sizzle, sizzle.
"Hoo—better than boar stench, isn't it?"
"I've been plugging my nose and swallowing the whole time, so I think they're both the same."
At Matthew's shameless remark, Brian and Betty burst out laughing.
"Hoo—"
When I took a large frying pan out of my subspace, everyone looked stunned.
Even so, no extra questions followed. Being their lifesaver apparently came with a certain amount of leeway.
"Cut the meat up a little more."
It was a bit much to deal with such a strong boar smell in such a short time. Ideally, I should've spent hours just drawing the stink out before cooking, but they'd already gone and started roasting it.
Since pulling the odor out wasn't enough anymore, I had no choice but to cover it up. For that, there was nothing better than aromatic vegetables.
I poured oil into the pan and stir-fried every fragrant herb and spice I had.
Sizzle!
I hadn't even started cooking the meat yet, and it already sounded delicious.
Once the herbs, scallions, garlic, ginger, and whole peppercorns had fried a bit, I added the meat Matthew had cut up and let it cook.
At least one thing was fortunate: they'd done a good job draining the blood. If the meat had still been soaked through with it, there would've been no saving it.
Sizzle!
Since it was pork, I had to cook it through properly.
And then came the final finishing touch.
The strongest Peach Wine among the many drinks brewed in Goblin Village.
My secret weapon.
Pop.
I removed the stopper with one hand, and a clear fragrance spread in all directions, cutting through even the smell of food.
Beside me, I could hear the people seated in a row swallowing hard.
"This isn't meant for drinking. It was made for cooking, so it's insanely strong."
"I see...,"
Matthew gave the bottle a wistful look even now. He must be quite the drinker.
Still, this Peach Wine was the boar meat's last hope. Normally you'd make the sauce separately and then cook the meat, but with boar putting off such a savage stink, I had no choice.
When I poured the Peach Wine over the meat so it touched the surface, steam began to rise from the pan. If I tilted the pan at that moment and set the vaporized wine alight, it became a flambé.
Whoosh!
"Ooooh...!"
It was one of those cooking techniques that burns off alcohol quickly, but most people knew it best as a fire show.
The guests were loving it, so my hands naturally moved a little lighter.
At the end, I spooned sauce over the thickest parts of the meat to speed up the cooking, and before long everything came out evenly done.
"It's ready. Try it."
"...Were you a chef?"
"It's a hobby."
I held the pan out toward Matthew, and he poked the meat with a sharpened twig.
Then he shoved a piece into his mouth and chewed.
"Well?"
Matthew's jaw kept working, and then his eyes widened as if they might split open.
"I-it's delicious... This is the most delicious meat I've ever eaten in my life."
"M-me too!"
Apparently worried the meat would disappear, Betty quickly snatched up a piece and brought it to her mouth as well.
Her eyes widened just as much after she tasted it.
Using Peach Wine instead of wine for the flambé must have been the key. Everyone seemed to like it, because they kept eating with gusto.
"Oh! This is good!!"
Brian, for all his size, ate with impressive enthusiasm too.
"Dunce."
"Huh?"
When I called to Dokgo Beom-bu, who'd been spacing out all alone, he startled and met my eyes.
From the way his gaze kept drifting toward the seasonings I'd laid out, I figured he'd been wondering where I came from.
He'd probably already guessed that I was different from Matthew's group, since the labels on the seasonings were all written in a language he knew.
"If you eat too late, the meat's all gonna disappear. Hurry up and eat so you can regain your strength. You'll work better afterward."
"Uh... right?"
I handed Dokgo Beom-bu a piece of meat. He put it in his mouth and chewed, then hurriedly reached for more.
***
—sizzle, sizzle.
"Hoo—"
Maybe because everyone was full, they sat staring blankly at the blazing campfire.
There weren't even proper chairs, so we'd dragged over big logs and sat on those instead, but even like this, the night felt strangely romantic.
"I'm leaving the seasonings and spices here, so use them when you cook."
"What!? Where are you going?"
"You already figured it out, didn't you? I'm not from here."
"... ..."
Just one line was enough to silence Dokgo Beom-bu completely.
"Hoo—"
"Food!"
"Are you hungry, Baek Seol?"
"Yep!"
Beep.
When I held a flower up to my pocket, Baek Seol took it and vanished inside.
Just then, Dokgo Beom-bu, who'd seemed to be deep in thought the whole time, stood up with his phone in hand.
Watching him fiddle with it, he seemed to be about to do something. He'd used his phone earlier too, when he pulled out the attribute enhancement stone Baek Seol had liked.
Hoo—
Dokgo Beom-bu got to his feet and strode over to where the logs were stacked.
Then the logs began assembling themselves, and in an instant, they transformed into a little hut.
Clack! Crack! Clack-clack!
"Oh, wow. That's insanely cool."
Maybe he heard me, because Dokgo Beom-bu turned back.
"As long as you have the materials, building is automatic."
"That's such a cool ability."
"You think so? The first building only takes about five seconds, but later on it takes days. The required time skyrockets the more you go on."
The way Dokgo Beom-bu described it made it sound a lot like a typical mobile idle game. So that was why he'd kept going on about games.
"If you have a currency called a Hollow Gemstone, you can speed up construction time too."
"Where do you get that?"
Dokgo Beom-bu turned his head.
There, piles of dirt glittered in scattered spots, and on the ground sat a dirt-covered pickaxe someone had tossed aside.
"You dig it up yourself?"
"Uh... sadly, yeah. I think you'll get what I mean, but the option to pay has disappeared."
"Ah..."
"I've watched that expression for ten days straight."
"Pfft!"
Matthew's finishing blow, followed by Betty's laughter, slowly made Dokgo Beom-bu lower his head.
"I've been playing Reach for the Moon for years. Just like you said, this isn't a game, so I'm going to be even more thorough about it."
"Yeah, good luck. I'll stop by from time to time and help if there's anything I can do."
I said I was leaving, but to Dokgo Beom-bu, it would probably feel as if I were still right there. As long as time itself stood still, there was nothing to be done about it.
But I couldn't just sit around burning time in a game forever either.
"You've already helped me a lot. If it weren't for you, I would've given up long ago."
Dokgo Beom-bu looked from one member of his group seated around the fire to another, then finally turned back to me.
"I also didn't exactly include you in the plan I'd already set up."
Maybe because he'd experienced death so directly, Dokgo Beom-bu—who'd been wearing the face of someone half dead all this time—smiled for the first time.
So he did know how to smile properly.
"I'm weak right now too, so I can't help much in a straight fight. But I can give you this instead."
"The liquor you used for cooking earlier?"
"That's for cooking."
As I took about thirty bottles of Peach Wine out of my subspace and lined them up, everyone sitting there jumped in surprise.
"If I tell you this is what you'd call a buff potion, you'd understand, right?"
Dokgo Beom-bu nodded hard.
"It adds twice your total stats, so roughly three times your offense, defense, and vitality... well, let's just say that."
Before Dokgo Beom-bu could even finish speaking, he was nodding like a madman, his neck nearly snapping off.
"It's not a fixed stat increase, but an added percentage, so it might be useful early on, but it'll really shine later."
"T-three times...?"
"I don't know all the details myself, but don't you get ridiculously strong enemies at Gate 5 and Gate 10 and stuff?"
"Yeah. You know your stuff."
"Use them then. They'll come in handy."
"Thank you... really."
Dokgo Beom-bu looked deeply moved. It wasn't exactly a face I was in a hurry to keep looking at.
—sizzle, sizzle.
"Hoo—yeah. I'm off."
As I got to my feet, the others all rose in a rush to follow.
"If you're gonna use me, then gather a lot of enhancement materials. It was hard to fight here because my power gets so restricted."
"Haha, sure. I'll stock up on plenty of star fragments. I'll gather a lot of those attribute enhancement stones you wanted too, so come by and pick them up later."
"Sure."
Beep.
[Exiting Reach for the Moon]
[Adjusting the flow of time in Reach for the Moon]
"Hmm..."
Suddenly, a hologram-like information window floated up in front of me.
[Yes/No]
When I touched the spot labeled "Yes," another window popped up.
Beep.
[(x speed)]
It looked like I could control the flow of time this way.
If this were a game, I would've tested the limits, but this was reality, where real lives were on the line.
And it was also the place where Dan-pung, who always seemed to have been alone, had finally found a family and was waiting in happiness.
That narrowed my choices down to two.
Beep.
[Adjusting the flow of time in Reach for the Moon]
[Exiting!]
This should give me enough time to finish cleaning up after the place where Dan-pung used to live.
***
Crossing the training grounds turned the world upside down once more.
When I opened the eyes I'd shut in a hurry, the sun hanging in the sky was pouring down bright, blinding light.
"Ugh, I can't adjust."
It felt like my whole biorhythm was getting scrambled.
Even though I'd spent nearly half a day in Reach for the Moon, it was still the time of day when I had just ended the broadcast and gone for a walk with Baek Seol.
"Baek Seol, I'm home."
Seeing the pocket rise and fall quietly, it seemed Baek Seol, who'd eaten in the middle, had gone back to dreamland.
"Ow."
I sank into the cheap chair, and the moment I returned to where I belonged, my body began recovering quickly—but a groan still escaped from my mouth.
—sizzle, sizzle.
"Hoo—"
I opened the Triplenet app, thinking I might as well leave a message for the viewers saying I'd gone out for a walk, and a huge number popped up in the viewer count at the top.
───
[⚔️ What the hell are you doing]
[⚔️Btuve.com/watch=MyWorldHubbleTV You little shit, hurry up and kill that bastard already, idiots]
[⚔️Waiting rn, tearing him open]
[⚔️Pleaseletmydickbethreesentimeterspleaseletmydickbethreesentimeters]
[⚔️The bastards with handsome faces even work out? Are you kidding me?]
[⚔️Facts]
───
"...What the hell are they doing?"
Even though I wasn't in the stream, they were sitting there chatting and goofing off among themselves. Viewers could still chat with each other even without the streamer, but I hadn't expected them to be this active. They'd done this before too, so I guess it was still going on.
At this point, I started wondering whether maybe they didn't need me at all.
───
[Breaking News]
Yeahyeah (117.112)
Breaking news!!
Mango Music chart [Still Hesitating? - Serenade] breaks into the live top 22
Damn, the streamer bitch really knows how to make a song lol
Is this fucking insane or what?
[Yeahyeah] : This is crazy lol
[Yeahyeah] : Honestly, it's really good
ㄴ[Yeahyeah] : Seriously, this is legit
[Yeahyeah] : Holy shit lol they haven't even debuted yet and they're already aiming for Mango chart top 10
[Yeahyeah] : And what's crazy is, like the comment above said, they haven't debuted yet and haven't even had time to build a fandom, but they're already here
[Yeahyeah] : Honestly I don't even listen to boy group songs, but the first Serenade track the streamer bitch made is fucking good, right?
ㄴ[Yeahyeah] : Completely agreed
[Yeahyeah] : But when the hell did the streamer learn composing?
ㄴ[Yeahyeah] : Dunno, they've never even mentioned it on stream
───
───
[Gather up!!]
RicePaddyBoss (123.111)
Picking a five-minute standby crew
It's obvious that if the streamer bitch gets into Ahche University of Physical Education, it'll turn into total chaos again
[Yeahyeah] : How many are you picking?
ㄴ[RicePaddyBoss] : I'm choosing exactly one thousand elite members
ㄴ[Yeahyeah] : lol the quota is brutal
───
"Hoo—"
The more I read through the communities where most of my viewers were gathered, the more dizzy I felt.
───
[A tiny market rocked the nation! Why are you hesitating!?]
By Entertainment Reporter Jo Seung-tae, Yangjin Daily
The cool, refreshing heat that would blow away the midsummer swelter began in a small market.
Its starting point was Serenade, the idol debut team that had yet to make a name for themselves. They stood on the stage of what some might have called a modest little market festival.
The stage was small?
Choose your words carefully!
The stage may have been small, but its scale was immense!
Who could have guessed that what seemed like a bud not yet fully in bloom was already a flower in full blossom? Serenade's passionate, exhilarating group dance had the power to sweep away the heat and show the full force of fighting fire with fire.
Nor can anyone deny that Still Hesitating?, the debut song Serenade performed, played a solid part in fueling that fervor.
Serenade burst onto the scene like a comet. It is no exaggeration to say that they are a rookie idol group under COO Seol Woo-hyeok's Ocarina Entertainment, one whose beginning may be humble but whose ending is bound to be magnificent. Their growth trajectory is certainly one to watch.
Entertainment Reporter Jo Seung-tae ([email protected])
👍(3822) 👎(277)
[Kim*woo] : Damn, this is tasty lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ[Park*jeong] : Peak comment lol
[Jang*il] : Now this is a real reporter lol
[Young*jun] : Reporter of the afterlife, salute ^^7
[Yoon*young] : You're calling this an article?
ㄴ[Yu*rin] : 22
ㄴ[Jang*il] : Confirmed, two idiots here
ㄴ[Kim*woo] : lol you losers really pinned coordinates? What, you're saying 22 and acting all tough? I'll split your skull into 22 pieces
───
"Ah, this is dizzying."
"Eung!"
While I was reading the online article, Baek Seol poked her face out of my pocket.
"Baek Seol, did you sleep well?"
"Slept!"
"Dan-pung must be waiting for us anxiously. Want to go pick him up right away?"
"Jo-a!"
