Chapter 15
“What did these guys eat to get so plump?”
Plump larvae wriggled inside the leaf pouch.
Since they were in season, they were packed full.
It was the kind of sight that would make most girls shriek, but I didn’t feel particularly repulsed.
After all, raising Baby had already gotten me used to insects and bugs.
Those things are a lizard’s staple diet to begin with.
‘But for bugs, they’re ridiculously expensive.’
If I raised even one more lizard, I’d probably go bankrupt. On top of that, live feeders are a pain to manage. If one escaped while I was feeding it, the hide-and-seek started immediately.
Last time I lost one while trying to feed Baby, I nearly died turning my one-room apartment upside down.
“Quit wriggling. You’re making me feel bad.”
I poked one of the wriggling larvae in the leaf with my finger.
Squishy.
To be honest, this was my first time seeing a larva this big in real life.
Since I could barely see any legs, it probably wasn’t a stag beetle or rhinoceros beetle larva.
Those ones usually have pretty visible legs.
...Mm.
These plump larvae were probably palm weevil grubs, which are common in jungles. Their legs are hard to see, and compared to other grubs, they’re pretty chunky.
Mm. Honestly, I had no idea how they’d taste.
My brother makes anything look delicious when he eats it.
Baby, perched on my shoulder, stretched her head out.
Flick.
I quickly pulled the leaf pouch full of larvae behind my back.
...No. You already ate a lot earlier.
Flick.
“Keep that up and you’ll turn into a fatty. You’re heavy enough already—it’s hard carrying you around.”
Baby looked a little dejected after hearing that, but I couldn’t let her become an obese lizard. It couldn’t be helped.
Mission accomplished, I turned back toward the cave.
When I got back inside the cave, Yerin was spreading palm leaves across the floor to make a place to lie down.
She’d layered the big leaves over each other, and it looked more decent than I’d expected.
‘Oh.’
See? She definitely had her uses.
I nodded in satisfaction.
Yerin said, wiping away sweat,
“God, I’m so exhausted. I’m really not someone who does this kind of thing....”
“I’m back.”
Yerin naturally turned around.
And then.
Her gaze landed on the leaf pouch in my hand.
The larvae wriggled as if greeting her happily.
Sssss—
Silence fell.
“......”
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
“Kyaaaaaaahhh!!”
She screamed loud enough to shake the whole forest.
Anyone seeing her would’ve thought she’d run into a starving jaguar.
The scream was so loud it made even Baby flinch on my shoulder.
“My ears hurt.”
“W-what, what is that?! Why did you bring thaaaat?!!”
“Food.”
“Throw it away!! Hurry up and throw it away!!”
“It’s high-protein food.”
“It’s gross!!”
Yerin looked like she was about to cry. She backed as far away from me as she could.
With the way her hands and feet were trembling, she looked like an herbivore facing a predator.
She was being way too dramatic.
Honestly, they didn’t look that bad.
If they got reactions like this, even they might get their feelings hurt.
Squish.
I picked up one larva and held it out in front of her.
“It’s really plump. If you keep looking at it, it starts to seem kind of cute.”
“Don’t show meee!!”
Yerin hurriedly covered her face with both hands. She kept shrieking while peeking at the larva through the gaps between her fingers.
“What kind of larva gets that huge?!”
“Because it’s wild.”
“I don’t care! I don’t want to know!”
I tilted my head, and Yerin, looking utterly miserable, continued in a voice thick with emphasis.
“Rils.”
“Yup.”
“I can honestly understand everything else.”
“Yup.”
“But this... this is absolutely impossible.”
Then she pointed at Baby, who was licking her lips on my shoulder.
“Y-you can just give those to Baby.”
“...No. I told you, this is our food. And Baby will get fat.”
“Who even calls bugs food?!”
I looked down at the wriggling larvae.
The visual hurdle was definitely pretty high.
It’s only because I’m a documentary addict and I raise a lizard that I can handle it. For a normal person, the sight alone might be so shocking they’d foam at the mouth and pass out.
My eyes met the plumpest larva of them all. I didn’t know if those were actually eyes, but I decided to think of them that way.
That aside, it really did look pretty brutal.
Wriggle~
Mm. This one’s a little rough.
“...Even I don’t think I could eat it raw.”
“Then why did you bring it?!”
“I heard it’s good if you roast it over a fire.”
“...What kind of lunatic told you that?”
“My... brother?”
“That man’s the kind of person who eats anything he can pick up.”
“Mm. True.”
Yerin’s pale face kept dying by degrees, like a zombie’s. She seemed unable to accept that this was reality.
Ignoring that, I explained why we had to eat the larvae.
“In the jungle, protein is important. You burn a lot of calories.”
“No, but do we have to get that protein from larvae?!”
“They may look like this, but they’re incredibly efficient.”
I picked up a long wooden skewer lying nearby. Then I carefully lifted the larva I’d locked eyes with and skewered it.
Squelch!
Sorry, larva.
Nature is a world where the strong eat the weak.
I trust you’ll understand.
With a sharp stone, I cut off the head and squeezed the black innards out of its belly.
It was oilier than I’d expected.
“...Ugh.”
Yerin shuddered and rubbed her arms as she watched.
I set the skewered larva over the coals just like that.
Sizzle.
The outside of the larva began turning golden. A rich, mouthwatering smell filled the cave.
Grease slowly seeped out across the surface, sizzling.
Pop!
Something burst inside the larva.
“...Kyaaah!!”
Startled out of her mind, Yerin clapped both hands over her ears.
“It exploded!! It exploded!!”
“That’s normal.”
“Since when is that normal for something like this?!!”
I checked on the exploded larva.
“Oh.”
It’s browning more nicely than I expected.
And it smells good too. Sort of like butter.
Yerin was pressed against the wall with tears practically in her eyes.
“I really want to go home....”
“Want to trust me and try just one bite?”
“No!!!”
On my shoulder, Baby stared at the larva over the coals and kept flicking her tongue.
“...I told you, you’ll get fat.”
Flick.
—My owner’s mean.
@
[Gross warning: forum fave finds larvae live]
Author: RilsLover
(GIF of larvae wriggling inside a rotten log)
Fuck;;
No way the forum fave’s actually gonna eat that, right? That’s seriously too much, holy shit
ㄴWho knows
ㄴIf any other streamer found them, I wouldn’t even worry, but since it’s Rils I honestly can’t tell lol
ㄴNo way she’ll eat it... that thing looks nasty as hell
ㄴShe’ll probably take it back and give it to Baby
ㄴWith the forum fave, you never know
ㄴYou crazy bitch, what, you think the forum fave is actually a caveman?
ㄴDamn... I don’t even know
ㄴBut going by Rils’s face, she looks excited
ㄴ“It’s really plump.” That line is making me nervous as hell
ㄴFuck, first time I’ve ever seen somebody call a bug plump
[Gross warning: forum fave is grilling cave barbecue]
Author: Nongnongnongnongnong
(GIF of Rils skewering the biggest larva and roasting it)
Fuck it, I’ll donate even more, so please just don’t eat that. Why are you going this far?!
ㄴㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴNongnong’s having a breakdown
ㄴThe girl who wouldn’t use it even if you paid her ten million won
ㄴHer grit is insane
ㄴNo, but if she used the API she could eat cup noodles and burgers, so why is she grilling bugs? lol
ㄴForum fave: It’s high-protein food
ㄴThat’s the scariest part
ㄴHer face is so serious it doesn’t even feel like a joke
ㄴYerin looks one second away from crying right now
ㄴ“It exploded!!” lmfao
ㄴShe’s freaking out just from hearing a larva pop, holy shitㅋㅋ
ㄴSurvival content X, girl-streamer mental breakdown observation broadcast O
ㄴBut can you actually eat larvae?
ㄴI heard people eat them in places like Southeast Asia
ㄴBaby keeps looking for an opening and it’s cute as hell
ㄴLizard: Just one bite
ㄴRils: You’ll get fat
ㄴㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴHonestly today’s stream is funny as hellㅋㅋ
ㄴFor real, I’ve been watching Mr. Rich nonstop for over 30 hours
The community was in total flames right now over Rils’s latest insanity.
She was basically the center of attention in the deserted island project.
She was a superstar, plain and simple.
The problem was,
that Rils alone was just too overwhelmingly dominant.
Since every little thing she did hit like a nuclear bomb, the other streamers were naturally pushed out of the spotlight.
Even Mr. Rich had more than half the screen fixed on Rils’s party.
Thanks to that, the fans of the other streamers had been keeping their heads down for a while.
They simply couldn’t match the firepower.
The amount of attention on the mysterious nobody streamer named Rils was just too intense.
But.
Today.
At last, the perfect excuse for a bad-faith dogpile had appeared.
Bug mukbang.
It was the moment they’d been waiting for.
[Isn’t this a bit too much from Rils?]
Author: GirlCamLover
Is it okay to show gross content like that on stream?
Honestly, I bet a lot of people were grimacing while watching this
ㄴThis asshole’s starting againㅋㅋ
ㄴHe’s not wrong though. It was so gross I turned it off midway
ㄴGirlCamLover logged out and wrote all the replies himself again, you psycho bitchㅋㅋ
ㄴWhat, you came back to talk shit and get stomped again?
ㄴNo, but bugs really are kind of rough
ㄴWhat’s the problem with eating larvae in a survival show? Should she be grilling sirloin on a deserted island or something?
ㄴSo should they just starve to death?
ㄴYerin’s reaction is exactly how a normal person would react. That alone proves Rils is going way overboard
ㄴHonestly it is kind of gross
ㄴThose hag-squad bitches got beat down and went quiet for a while, and now they’re crawling back out again?
ㄴLook at the Nongnong squad clinging to girl-streamer fans’ pant legs because they’re getting scared lol
ㄴGot one of the hag-squad bastardsㅋㅋ You’re dead
ㄴBut if the stream’s fun, isn’t that all that matters?
ㄴFacts
ㄴThis is why broadcast TV died—because of whiny morons like you
ㄴViewer count doesn’t lie. It keeps going up
ㄴIt just hit 200kㅋㅋ
ㄴMr. Rich’s chat is nothing but Rils talk too
ㄴLet’s beat the shit out of these hag-squad bitches while we’re at it
ㄴNo, but she’s swallowing up all the other streamers’ screen time. Of course their fans are gonna feel some type of wayㅋㅋ They’re probably just looking for anything to nitpick
ㄴThen they should be more entertaining;;
ㄴExactly
The head mod of the streamer gallery pressed a hand to his forehead.
“...Ha.”
Here we go again.
To be fair, communities were wild by nature.
Fights were standard, and things flared up dozens of times a day.
But lately it had been way too intense.
The Nongnong squad.
The hag squad.
They tore into each other with murder in their eyes.
It was getting bad enough that he felt outright family insults might start flying at this rate.
The head mod sighed and kept scrolling through the comments.
Honestly, today’s topic was way too much of a reach.
What was even the problem with eating larvae on a survival show in the first place?
If anything, it was more realistic.
In the end, the head mod started typing.
[From now on, forced reach-posts = 30-day ban]
Author: Head Mod
If it were something actually worth bashing, I’d leave it alone,
but what is this crap about eating larvae on a survival show being “gross content”?
Tone down the forced hate.
ㄴHoly shit, the head mod was one of the Nongnong squad tooㅋㅋ —30-day ban
ㄴThe hag-squad bastard above got clipped immediately~ serves you right
ㄴDamn, the head mod swings the banhammer fast
ㄴNo but this really is forced hate
ㄴWhat’s wrong with eating bugs on a deserted island?
ㄴIf anything, Rils is surviving the most realistically out of everyone
ㄴThat’s true
ㄴThe others would’ve been gone on day one without the APIㅋㅋ
ㄴRils is actually self-sufficient
ㄴNongnong squad wins again todayㅋㅋ
ㄴWins my ass, your dead mo— —30-day ban
ㄴDid the hag squad get triggered again?
ㄴAt this point they’re just forcing reasons to hate on Rils
ㄴI started watching so I could hate on her too, but ended up liking her
ㄴFor real. She’s weird, but capable
ㄴThat gap is insane, I’m telling you
ㄴAdd Yerin’s reactions on top and the stream is ridiculously good
The head mod muttered as he watched Rils on one of his dual monitors.
“She is cute.”
The balance that had always kept the head mod neutral was slowly tipping toward the Nongnong squad.