Chapter 14
[Looks like the forum fave's party is settling here?]
Author: RilsLover
(Screenshot of Rils standing in front of the cave entrance)
Feels like luck is on his side too, the way he keeps scampering around so hard.
Didn't prehistoric humans live in caves too?
Like Australopithecus and all those guys
ㄴIs Australopithecus your buddy or something? "Those guys" lol
ㄴㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴBaby < more useful than most of the female contestants
ㄴThe sad-funny part is that it's actually true;;
ㄴFuck, I'm a girl-streamer fan and even I can't argue with that
ㄴBaby did the whole move-in cleaning by herself lol
ㄴAll hail the lizard GOAT..
ㄴGuess Rils didn't bring her along for nothing
ㄴThe forum jinx strikes again. Just the other day people were throwing fits asking why he brought a lizard lol
[The forum fave's party is evolving in real time]
Author: Nongnongnongnongnong
(GIF of Rils using a bow drill)
Holy shit, he's really trying to make fire like that
ㄴCan that actually work?
ㄴI tried that as a kid after watching a documentary and it never worked
ㄴThat shit's insanely hard in real life. Even experts end up drenched in sweat
ㄴI heard it wrecks your palms
ㄴLook at Rils's arms shaking
ㄴYerin watching without even breathing is cracking me up lol
ㄴHonestly, I'd be locked in too in that situation
ㄴAt this point, isn't the forum fave less a documentary nerd and more a caveman in a past life?
ㄴWhy is that little lizard punk so cute just sitting there watching?
ㄴWhoa, there's smoke, holy shit!!!!
ㄴIt's working, it's working, it's working!!!
ㄴAn ember!!! An ember!!!
ㄴWhoa, holy shit, he really did it
ㄴThe birth of civilization ㄷㄷ
ㄴPrometheRils
ㄴNongnong, guess you don't need to buy him a fire steel now
ㄴ(Nongnongnongnongnong): I'm telling you, he wouldn't use it even if I bought one for him
@
Mr. Rich Headquarters, 7th floor.
On the floor where the dedicated YouTube team was stationed, a wild celebration had broken out.
"Holy crap, it's been less than half a day since the video went up and it's already at five million views."
A middle-aged man whose hair on top had thinned by half from how brutal the job was.
Team Leader Park Sang-gu, with dark circles hanging heavily under his eyes, muttered as he stared at the monitor.
"At this rate, it could even blow past twenty million."
The employee at the next desk shouted excitedly.
"Team Leader! This is seriously insane! This month's bonus is going to be huge, isn't it?"
Mr. Rich's owner was a big spender. Whenever a piece of content hit big, he handed out bonuses to the employees.
Of course, he also worked them like dogs.
Still, the compensation was real.
There was a reason the turnover rate stayed close to zero despite the insane workload.
In this world, there's nothing money can't do.
Employees quit even when you pay them a lot?
Then pay them even more.
"The live viewer count is still climbing. More than 150,000 people are watching Mr. Rich's live broadcast right now."
"Community reaction is all about the deserted island project too. The real-time search rankings are practically lined up with the contestants' names."
"The Shorts edited from just Rils's clips have already passed seven million views!"
"Advertisers are already reaching out too. Reptile sellers, outdoor brands, even camping gear companies!"
Park Sang-gu stared blankly at the screen. He looked like he couldn't tell if he was dreaming or awake.
On the screen, a tiny child was struggling to coax a tiny ember to life.
Just a little girl young enough to be his daughter.
She looked completely out of place on a deserted island.
But her survival knowledge put experts to shame.
"...What kind of kid even is she?"
With trembling hands, Park Sang-gu opened the data window for Rils.
Number one in community mentions.
Number one in real-time popular clips.
Even in the viewer poll, Rils was overwhelmingly ranked number one among the contestants.
Even Rils's personal channel subscriber count was skyrocketing like crazy.
"How many subscribers did she have before?"
"Twenty-four."
"And now?"
"Over seventy thousand."
"...."
At the unbelievable growth rate, Team Leader Park Sang-gu squeezed his eyes shut. Then he slowly rubbed his face with both hands.
"This kid is heaven-sent talent."
His voice trembled faintly.
"We might be witnessing the birth of a whole new giant company."
The employees gulped too and stared at the monitor.
At first, he had his doubts too.
An unproven small-time streamer.
Just the day before yesterday, he'd practically been praying over a bowl of water that she wouldn't cause some kind of on-air disaster.
A mysterious girl who had dropped out of nowhere.
A strange contestant who had brought a lizard as a personal item.
He'd thought she was just a pretty prop there to make the other contestants stand out.
But.
That had been his complete mistake.
That kid was no mere side character.
The obscure streamer named Rils had landed on the deserted island and was already eating every other participant alive.
That was a dragon.
A dragon that had spent a long time hidden beneath the water.
A monster that had only now finished its metamorphosis and was about to spread its wings for the first time and soar into the sky.
Park Sang-gu's eyes burned hot.
"Change the editing direction."
The employees all looked up at once.
"Make sure Rils gets at least thirty percent of the footage."
"...No, but then the other participants' screen time..."
"Do as I say!"
After barking the order, Park Sang-gu stared at Rils on the monitor and muttered,
"If possible, give her even more."
On the screen, a tiny spark began to bloom beneath Rils's hands. Someone in the seventh-floor editing room let out a gasp of admiration.
"...Wow. She really is making fire like that."
No one in the office could deny it.
That Rils was the center of the deserted island project.
@
Hoo.
Hooo.
I cupped the silver-grass bundle in both hands and carefully blew into it.
White smoke billowed up.
Hot.
It felt like a tiny living warmth was stirring in my palms.
At some point, Yerin had come right up beside me to watch.
"Did it work...?"
"...Not yet."
I couldn't get impatient.
An ember dies more easily than you'd think.
Like I was handling a newborn baby, I blew as slowly as possible.
Hooo.
The red spot grew larger and larger.
The tips of the silver grass blackened as they burned.
Whoosh!
A small flame sprang up from between the silver grass.
"...!"
Yerin's eyes went wide as she watched the fire come alive.
"Wow."
She said, stunned.
"This really works...?"
I quickly laid the very thin twigs I'd prepared over the flame.
If you put in a big piece of wood right away, it chokes off the oxygen and the fire dies.
You have to slowly and carefully build up a small fire first.
Crackle.
The moment the twigs touched the flame, their tips glowed red.
The flame started growing little by little.
The darkness that had blanketed the cave retreated, and orange light flickered across the surroundings.
Yerin stared at it blankly, then gave a small laugh.
"...It's warm."
I carefully pushed a log into the fire pit.
A moment later.
Fwoosh.
The flames began climbing up the log.
I stared blankly at the wavering fire.
It's only fire, but it's ridiculously pretty.
Is this how parents feel when the son they sent to the military finally comes home?
I'm so happy to see fire again after two days I could die.
Aww. Aren't you just the prettiest thing.
Maybe all the filming had worn her out, because Yerin suddenly plopped down right there.
"Haaah... Now I can finally breathe."
The skin around her eyes looked hollow.
She definitely seemed very tired.
For a girl streamer, she'd held out pretty well up to now.
Still, she did everything I told her to do.
That's one more praise sticker for her.
After checking the firewood once, I spoke to Yerin.
"Yerin."
"Mm...."
"Keep an eye on the fire so it doesn't go out."
"Huh?"
"And if you have time, go pick up some leaves to spread on the floor too."
Yerin looked up at me with a dazed expression.
"Where are you going?"
"To get food."
With an odd look on her face, Yerin asked,
"Alone? Without me?"
"I'm only getting something nearby, so I'll be back quickly on my own."
In situations like this, time is more precious than gold to begin with.
You can't just keep resting forever because you want to.
Even those shows about people living off the land are like that.
The people on them work all day long.
Chopping firewood, hauling water, tending the garden, cooking rice.
Surviving in nature is supposed to be a huge, annoying hassle.
As I stepped out of the cave, I scanned the surrounding terrain again.
This spot is pretty good.
It's reasonably close to a water source too.
It's a bit far from the beach, but not terribly so.
Of course, the sea has more food.
But the problem is equipment.
Right now I don't have a fishing rod, and even if I went to the sea empty-handed, there's no guarantee I'd actually come back with food.
More importantly, it takes nearly an hour to get from here to the beach.
That means the round trip alone would drain a huge amount of stamina.
Going to the shore is inefficient in our current situation.
'There's plenty to eat around here anyway.'
I slowly examined the trees around me.
Surprisingly, the jungle has another especially efficient high-protein food source.
Insects, larvae, that sort of thing.
Of course, Yerin might faint the second she saw them, but if she got hungry enough, she'd eat them.
Watching my older brother chomp them down so happily had made me want to try them once.
But I wasn't about to spend my own money on that, so I'd never actually tried a bug mukbang.
When chicken, pizza, and burgers exist, paying to eat bugs is a bit...
Anyway.
Larvae usually live in dead trees or rotting wood.
Especially in a damp, organic-matter-rich environment like the jungle, it's basically paradise for bugs.
I wandered around the jungle looking for a dead tree.
After walking for quite a while like that, I found one giant tree lying fallen over.
One side of the trunk was split open and blackened.
Had it been struck by lightning?
Come to think of it, that wouldn't be strange.
I didn't know exactly where this island was, but
places with this kind of climate usually got a lot of rain, and the air was humid.
That probably meant lightning struck often too.
I carefully approached the fallen tree.
The outside was already half-rotted.
When I nudged it with my foot, damp bark came fluttering off.
Nice. This one looks promising.
I struck the side of the dead log with a rock I'd picked up nearby.
Thud.
After hacking at it a few more times, the rotten bark on the surface crumbled away in chunks.
And inside,
Wriggle~
"...Wow. What are you guys doing in there?"
Plump larvae about two knuckles long were packed tight into the hollow space inside the rotting log.
It was basically a luxury condo complex for grubs.
There weren't just one or two of them.
When the light suddenly hit them, they started wriggling even harder.
With this many, they were a little gross....
I tore off a broad leaf nearby and made a temporary pouch out of it. Then I picked out five of the biggest, plumpest ones and put them in.
"...Sorry. You're my dinner tonight."