Chapter 123: Already Gone?!
Squeak!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each time the black rabbit kneaded the dough, it became stickier, and the dough began to glisten.
“You’re doing well.”
Sejun began to prepare to make garaetteok while the black rabbit was kneading the dough.
“Cuengi, cut this.”
Kreong!
Rip.
Cuengi easily tore the exoskeleton of a fire ant worker, which couldn’t even be pierced by a honeybee’s poisonous stinger, as if ripping paper.
And then
“Iona, attach this.”
“Yes!”
Sejun had Iona connect the torn exoskeleton using an adhesive spell, creating a funnel shape with a small hole at the end. Now, all he had to do was to put the dough in the funnel, press it, and the delicious garaetteok would be made.
At that moment
Squeak!
The black rabbit called Sejun, saying the dough was ready.
“Really? Then shall we make one batch first?”
Sejun took some of the still hot rice dough and put it in the manual garaetteok machine.
“Cuengi, press it slowly and gently.”
This time, he entered the command in line with Cuengi’s compression level without making a mistake.
Kreong!
Press.
As Cuengi gently pressed down on the dough at Sejun’s command,
Drip, drip, drip.
The milky garaetteok slowly began to emerge from the end of the conical funnel as the dough was pressed.
“Shall we see how it is?”
Sejun cut the end of the freshly pulled garaetteok, and
[You have completed a Slightly Chewy Garaetteok.]
[Your proficiency with Cooking Lv. 4 has slightly increased.]
[The taste and effect of the Slightly Chewy Garaetteok have slightly improved due to the effect of Cooking Lv. 4.]
A message appeared, indicating that the garaetteok was completed.
“A slightly chewy garaetteok?”
Slightly chewy? Sejun checked the options of the dish before eating it due to the strange name.
[Slightly Chewy Garaetteok]
→ Made with the finest rice flour under the supervision of a skilled chef and pressed into a long shape with strong pressure.
→ A bumbling rice cake maker’s kneading has slightly enhanced the chewiness of the garaetteok.
→ Chef: Tower Farmer Park Sejun, Red Ribbon Kingdom’s King Black Rabbit (Bumbling Rice Cake Maker)
→ Expiration Date: 10 Days
→ Grade: C+
It wasn’t strange that the Black Rabbit had became the king of the Red Ribbon, or that ChuChu became the queen of the Red Ribbon Kingdom.
However,
“A bumbling rice cake maker?”
Squeak…
At Sejun’s words, the Black Rabbit made an awkward expression. In fact, the Black Rabbit had awakened two jobs simultaneously when he was awakened.
One was a warrior, and the other was a rice cake maker.
The Black Rabbit wanted to be a warrior, and since the situation at the time wasn’t suitable for making rice cakes, he naturally paid no attention to the rice cake-making job.
“What? You’ve been catching monsters with this great kneading technique all this time?”
‘No wonder I felt a sticky sensation when hitting monsters…’
His feeling was correct. The Black Rabbit’s hammer was actually a rice cake mallet. How could he have let such a talent go to waste?!
Sejun didn’t know, but one of the Black Rabbit’s maternal ancestors was a Pongpongi who created the relic: wealth-devouring rice dough. In other words, the Black Rabbit was a descendant of Pongpongi, born with a rice cake spoon¹.
“Cuengi, follow me!”
Sejun called Cuengi and hurried to the kitchen. Black Rabbit, I’ll nurture your talent!
“Cuengi, prepare the pot!”
Kreong!
Cuengi brought a large pot in front of Sejun.
And then
[Relic: Wealth-devouring Rice Dough has swallowed 100 Tower coins and produced 50kg of the highest quality rice flour.]
Sejun began to produce rice flour.
Swoosh.
Fine rice flour poured into the large pot. After pouring rice flour 10 times at 100 Tower coins each, the large pot was almost full.
“Put it here.”
Kreong!
Cuengi lifted the large pot and put it into Sejun’s void storage.
Then, as they went back outside,
“Hello! We’re back.”
“President Theo, we’re back.”
Two intern cats who had just arrived greeted Sejun and Theo.
“Huh?! Black Rabbit, where are you?”
“Ah! We ran into Lord Black Rabbit on the way. He was rushing down?”
“He’s already bolted?!”
It seemed that the Black Rabbit, predicting Sejun’s reaction, had hurriedly grabbed some carrot seeds and run away.
(Sejun, shall I chase after Black Rabbit?)
The golden bat, who would betray even his own brother without hesitation for Sejun, asked. To catch up with the Black Rabbit, one would need the speed of a Golden Bat.
“It’s okay. Even if he runs, it’s just the 55th floor of the tower.”
‘Black rabbit, you’ll end up in your uncle’s palm even if you run. Hehehe.’
Sejun laughed like a villain. The black rabbit didn’t know that Sejun could put things in and take them out of the treasure vault on the 55th floor of the tower.
“I’ll put this in the treasure vault.”
[One large pot containing 500kg of the highest quality rice flour is inbound to the treasure vault of the Red Ribbon Kingdom.]
Delivery arrived before the black rabbit, waiting for its master.
“Let’s taste the garaetteok first.”
Sejun put the garaetteok he had cut earlier into his mouth.
“Wow!”
It’s insane! The dough was so chewy that it didn’t lose its elasticity no matter how much he chewed. Indeed, Black Rabbit’s rice cake pounding was essential for delicious rice cakes.
Kreong?
Cuengi looked at Sejun with desperate eyes. Is it done, Dad?
Nod.
Sejun, still chewing on the garaetteok, nodded his head instead of answering and cut the garaetteok into a length for Cuengi’s mouth.
However
Kreong!
Cuengi shook its head before even chewing.
“Why? Is something strange?”
Sejun was taken aback by Cuengi’s reaction, who would eat even spoiled food if it tasted good.
Kreong! Kreong!
Cuengi shook its head again at Sejun’s words, pointing to its snack pocket. No, the honey is missing!
“Ah! You want me to dip it in honey?”
Sejun took out honey from Cuengi’s snack pocket and dipped the garaetteok in it, then put it in Cuengi’s mouth.
Kreong!
Only then did Cuengi nod its head.
“Let’s start making garaetteok now.”
Since Iona had cast a spell to keep the dough’s temperature from dropping, the dough’s condition remained the same.
Kreong!
Cuengi put in the remaining dough and began to make garaetteok in earnest.
But when the work was finished, the remaining garaetteok was roughly 3 meters. The rest disappeared as soon as they appeared, given to the rabbits and dragons.
Of course, about 90% of the garaetteok made went straight into Cuengi’s stomach. He now understood why freshly made garaetteok taste the best. Indeed, food is tastiest when freshly made.
‘Next time, I’ll make baeksulgi. If I put sweet potatoes in…’
When Sejun was coming up with the recipe for the next rice cake,
“How much did you sell this time, meow?!”
Theo asked the interns about sales at the 38th-floor camp of the tower.
The interns were selling cherry tomatoes at the auction to the hunters while delivering sturdy blade green onions to the Earth Defense Force. They had to keep selling, or there would be nowhere to store them.
Therefore, Theo fully entrusted the interns with the sale of the inexpensive cherry tomatoes and focused on selling high-priced crops.
“We sold 5,000 cherry tomatoes for 6,000 tower coins.”
The price had fallen by almost 40% since Theo’s last auction when Theo sold them for 1.9 tower coins each.
Since the interns were now selling energy cherry tomatoes every 2-3 days, the scarcity of the tomatoes declined, and the price fell.
But still, thanks to the effect of increasing vitality when eaten daily and the image as a diet product since it was the first of Sejun’s crops introduced on Earth, the price decline was slower than expected, and the buyers steadily increased.
And
“Here it is.”
The interns brought the Churu and seasonings they got from humans.
“Good job, meow!”
Theo gave 1% of the money as an incentive to the interns. It was Sejun’s farm policy.
“Thank you, President Theo!”
“Thank you!”
The interns were thrilled to receive the incentive. They would use it to upgrade their bags and get more incentives. This was their happiness these days.
The cat interns had completely forgotten about paying off their debts to shorten their contract period.
“But didn’t Tae-jun say anything about finding the wooden board I sent?”
“No, he said there’s nothing.”
“Really?”
Sejun was disappointed by the answer. He thought at least one person would contact him for 10 million won… People’s suspicion has increased because the world is too scary nowadays.
“Even I wouldn’t contact.”
If he found a business card on the street that said, ‘Contact this number and I’ll give you 10 million won,’ he would not believe it either.
“I’ll have to change the method.”
Sejun decided to think more about it and went to the field to start farming. After eating the garaetteok, he wanted to move his body.
***
“Cha!”
Sejun got uo on his own for the first time in a while.
Swoosh.
He started the morning of the 282nd day of being Stranded, drawing a line on the wall.
“It feels empty without the animals.”
Theo and Iona had gone back down the tower yesterday. Theo went to sell crops and to receive a report on the Earth Defense Force’s performance, and Iona left because she suddenly received a call from the Wizard’s Association.
As a result, Sejun came outside, feeling both refreshed and empty.
Kreong!
Pip-pip!
As Sejun came outside, he was greeted by Cuengi and a golden bat. Fortunately, having them around lessened the emptiness.
Kreong!
Thump, thump.
Cuengi started patting its belly as it saw Sejun. He’s hungry!
“Alright. Let’s eat.”
Sejun took Cuengi and golden bat to the kitchen and warmed up the leftover grilled fish that he had prepared for Theo the previous day.
Kreong!
Although it was the usual meal, Cuengi ate it as if it were a delicious new dish.
And
Pip-pip.
The golden bat, who loved fruit, sucked on cherry tomato juice.
After finishing breakfast, as they were heading to the field,
Squeak!
Kkwek, Kkwek!
Rabbits and mushroom ants were seen happily farming together. The rabbits rode on the backs of the mushroom ants, with the ants taking care of the bottom and the rabbits the top as they harvested cherry tomatoes.
With the increase in mushroom ants, the farm operated smoothly even without Sejun.
Then,
Roar!
A roar from the pink-furred mother Crimson Giant Bear was heard.
“Did they invade again?”
Lately, about 100,000 fire ants had been swarming once in a while, probably to reclaim their slaves.
“Let’s go, guys!”
Kreong!
Pip-pip!
As Sejun and the animals rushed towards the Pink-fur,
Roar!
Thud!
Pink-fur lightly struck the ground, creating a shockwave that stunned the larger ants, making it easier for Sejun to hunt.
These fire ants, 1.5 times larger than the workers, were fire ant warriors with sharp teeth and thick legs.
“Thanks. Time to make a Thundercloud.”
Sejun expressed his gratitude to Pink-fur and prepared to use Thundercloud skill.
But just as he was about to rain down,
Splash!
Water was sprayed towards the fire ant warriors.
– Hmph! Save your magic power! So you can cast one more.
The black dragon statue spat water from its mouth.
“Thank you, Kaiser.”
– Ahem. Then later, sweet potato rice cakes…
He had ulterior motives.
“Throw Thunder!”
“Throw Thunder!”
“Throw Thunder!”
Thanks to that, Sejun, who saved magic power by skipping the raining process, dropped three consecutive bursts of blue lightning on the fire ant warriors.
Crash!
[You have defeated a fire ant warrior.]
[You have gained 1500 experience points.]
…
..
.
[You have leveled up.]
Sejun defeated 5,000 out of 100,000 and leveled up.
Roar!
Boom!
The rest were taken care of by Pink-fur,
Kreong!
Boom!
And Cuengi.
– Tsk tsk tsk. How can I use that…
Kaiser inadvertently clicked his tongue.
*****
TL Notes:
1) Play on words – born with silver/gold spoon instead it was changed to rice cake spoon.