Chapter 19
Mystery Rich Headquarters, 7th Floor.
In the editing room where the dedicated YouTube team was stationed, the clatter of keyboards and the sound of swearing filled the air as usual.
“Hey, there's a typo in the subtitles. I told you to proofread properly, didn't I?”
“S-sorry.”
“Ha... no, never mind. You've been pulling all-nighters editing every day, so you must be exhausted too.”
“Should I add a sound effect for when the larva bursts?”
“Of course. Something like crunch!”
The staff all looked half-dead from editing through the night.
In the middle of all that, there was one person in particular grinning like an idiot all by himself.
Manager Han Sang-gu.
Seeing that, one of the employees walked over with a cup of coffee and asked,
“Manager, what are you doing?”
“...Huh?”
Han Sang-gu rested his chin on one hand, stared at the monitor, and grinned.
On the screen,
was Rils, making a little finger circle on her cheek as she said, “Angnyangnyang~ Thank you....”
Han Sang-gu muttered with the expression of a father bragging about his daughter.
“You know,”
“Yeah.”
“Honestly, I never understood at all why people donate to streamers.”
The employee nodded.
“From the perspective of salarymen like us, yeah.”
“But.”
The corners of Han Sang-gu's mouth slowly lifted.
“These days, I think I'm starting to get it.”
The employee asked with a weary look.
“...Manager, have you fallen for her too? These days everyone's gone crazy after falling for Rils. It doesn't even feel like Mystery Rich Headquarters anymore; it feels like Rils Headquarters. Pretty soon people are going to start copying her.”
“Hey.”
Han Sang-gu spoke seriously.
“Even if they wanted to, nobody could copy a streamer like Rils. That's her own unique charm.”
He pointed at the screen.
A cute girl starts a fire with primitive methods, then casually roasts and eats disgusting larvae.
And then she rakes in donation money with one cute reaction.
That insane contrast.
How is anyone supposed to imitate that?
“There's no forced hype, either.”
“....”
“It doesn't feel fake, either.”
“....”
“But her presence is insane.”
The employee next to him wound up staring at the monitor too, with the look of someone who had no choice but to admit it.
He knew it too.
There was something weirdly addictive about Rils's videos.
You'd put one on to edit it, and by the time you came to your senses, thirty minutes had already passed.
Rils had a strange kind of charm that sucked people in.
Already thoroughly bewitched, Manager Han Sang-gu deliberately put on a serious expression.
“And do you know what's scariest of all?”
“...What is it?”
“She's not even fishing for donations like other streamers do. And yet she keeps pulling in donation money hand over fist.”
“That's true.”
Usually, the moment streamers get a donation, even the look in their eyes changes.
But Rils—even when ten million won exploded on screen—
looked genuinely unable to understand it, like, ‘Why are they giving me money?’
From the viewers' perspective, that kind of reaction feels incredibly fresh.
Looking at the monitor, Han Sang-gu was certain.
“A kid like that has staying power. She feels untainted, you know?”
The ones who get blinded by greed crash and burn fast.
But Rils was different. She didn't feel like someone who streamed while calculating everything.
It was more like she forgot she was even on stream and was just having fun.
Han Sang-gu let out a small laugh.
“She's basically a goose that lays golden eggs.”
At that moment, one of the employees editing in the back let out a scream.
“Manager!!”
“What!”
“The video we uploaded last time blew up!”
“How many views did it get?”
“It passed ten million in just two days!!”
Manager Han Sang-gu made a firm vow to himself.
Even if he had to track down Mystery Rich's private office, he was going to recruit that kid named Rils no matter what.
@
The donation money kept exploding without end.
I looked at the drone and said seriously,
“Please stop sending more now. I need to work.”
In survival, time is precious.
If you move before the sun starts blazing, you waste less energy too.
I couldn't just stand here doing reactions forever.
Yerin, standing next to me, looked baffled.
“No, this is usually the part where you're supposed to ride the wave....”
“I've already gotten more than enough.”
“Well, that's true, but still....”
I gave myself a long stretch.
Crack.
My body felt stiff. Still, maybe because I'd eaten well and slept deeply yesterday, my condition was good.
Yerin glanced at me, then reluctantly started moving too.
“What are we doing today?”
“I'm thinking of checking out the coast.”
“The ocean?”
“Yup.”
Honestly, most of the urgent problems had already been solved.
We'd secured a water source, and we could make fire.
We even had a shelter we'd found by luck.
The only thing left was securing a stable food supply.
I walked around the cave, then scooped up Baby—who was busy massacring the bugs that had snuck in last night—and set her on my shoulder.
“I'm planning to go to the coast today.”
“...Really?”
“You said you hate larvae.”
“Of course I do!”
Yerin shuddered, probably remembering yesterday.
“Just thinking about that thing from yesterday gives me goosebumps.”
“But wasn't it tasty?”
“That just means your taste buds are weird.”
Before setting out, we gave ourselves a quick wash.
Splashing cold water on my face woke me right up.
Yerin roughly combed her hair back with her fingers and grumbled.
“Ha... I want to use shampoo.”
“I want to eat fried chicken.”
“Ah. Now you've made me want fried chicken too.”
And just like that, we started walking through the jungle again.
Morning sunlight poured through the leaves.
After about forty minutes,
Crash.
I started hearing the faint sound of waves in the distance.
Yerin spoke in an excited voice.
“It's the ocean!”
A salty breeze brushed the tip of my nose.
Baby seemed excited too, swishing her tail this way and that.
The moment we pushed through the brush, an open shoreline spread out before us.
The sight of the blazing sunlight shining over the emerald sea was unbelievably beautiful.
“...Oh.”
It definitely felt completely different from inside the jungle.
As we walked along the wide stretch of white sand, we spotted a human figure far away on one side of the beach.
“...?”
A mysterious man was fishing under the blazing sun.
His beard had grown out thick, and his hair was all over the place, probably because he hadn't been able to wash since arriving on the deserted island.
His clothes were already little better than rags.
The Beggars' Sect from a martial arts novel?
That was kind of the vibe he gave off.
The man was squatting on a rock with his fishing rod hanging over the water, staring out at the sea. Then he spotted us and broke into a broad smile.
“Ooh!”
He waved at us in delight.
“You must be participants I haven't seen before.”
He sprang to his feet and walked over to us.
Up close, he looked rough.
His face was charred dark by the sun, and his eyes were sunken.
But strangely enough, his energy was high.
“Man~ it's seriously nice to meet you!”
The man looked back and forth between us,
then, subtly,
glanced toward Yerin.
It felt like he was sizing her up.
Yerin slipped behind me a little and muttered quietly.
“...Why is he looking at me like that?”
The man held up his fishing rod with a flourish.
“Haha! Good thing you didn't starve to death. Unlike me, you two look like you're doing pretty well, so that's a relief.”
It looked like the man had brought a fishing rod as his survival tool.
Nearby, a few packs of ramen and the bones of cleaned little fish were scattered around.
Yerin asked cautiously,
“Did you catch some fish?”
“Of course!”
The man puffed out his chest for no reason and grinned.
“I've already caught and eaten a few. The sea hasn't betrayed me yet.”
As he spoke, he casually tapped his sturdy forearm.
“Stuff like this is all about experience. Haha. I'm from a fishing village, after all.”
After rattling off TMI no one had asked for, he stepped closer and lowered his voice.
“I have a proposal for you.”
Then he smiled like a friendly, easygoing guy.
“How about we cooperate and share information among ourselves?”
Sharing information, huh.
Information was definitely important.
Human civilization only started advancing explosively because of records, after all.
Once writing was invented, the knowledge of earlier generations could be preserved in books.
As the next generation started inheriting that knowledge, humanity advanced rapidly.
If someone dies with their experience known only to themselves, that's where it ends.
But the moment information is shared, humans can gain knowledge without having to experience everything firsthand.
I quietly looked at the man dressed like a beggar.
But.
Was there really any useful information I could get from this guy?
Honestly, he didn't inspire much confidence.
Judging by his appearance alone, he genuinely looked like a castaway stranded on a deserted island.
And the way he'd kept sneaking glances at Yerin from earlier rubbed me the wrong way too.
Then suddenly, one thought flashed through my mind.
‘Ah!’
The sea.
High tide and low tide.
If you know the low-tide window well, shoreline foraging gets a whole lot easier.
Without a fishing rod, we'd have no choice but to gather food by hand.
When the tide goes out, shellfish, crabs, and little fish trapped in the rocks become easy to catch by hand.
If we're lucky, we can secure a pretty decent amount of food even barehanded.
Looking at the man in beggar rags, I asked,
“Do you know when low tide is?”
“Oh.”
The man asked with a surprised look,
“The fact that you're asking that means you know a thing or two about the sea, huh?”
“No, I just saw it in a documentary.”
The man gave an awkward little cough.
“Ahem. I've got a rough sense of it. I don't know the exact time since I don't have a watch, but it's easy enough to tell when the water's receding.”
“We know where the water source is.”
“Ooh! Really? Then how about trading that for information on low tide....”
It wasn't bad information, but our bargaining chip was way bigger.
The location of the water source.
On a deserted island, water is basically a lifeline.
If I handed that over this easily, I'd be a complete sucker.
I thought it over for a moment, then opened my mouth.
“Then I'll tell you where the water is, but I have a condition.”
“Pardon?”
“Give me the fishing rod and the knife.”
“....”
The man's expression froze as if Medusa herself had turned him to stone.
Then he let out a hollow laugh and subtly hid the fishing rod in his hand behind his back.
“Even so, isn't asking for both a little too steep?”
I figured as much.
I could understand his position too.
Those were core survival tools.
I nodded without a trace of regret.
“Then we'll just go.”
“N-no! Wait a second!”
The man shouted urgently.
We had already turned our backs on him. Yerin followed me as I started walking along the shore.
“Isn't asking for the fishing rod and the knife a bit too much?”
“Yep. Take care.”
Behind us, I heard the man groan.
“...Wow, you really aren't easy. Th-Then how about the knife and two packs of ramen? The fishing rod really is impossible.”
Beside me, Yerin let out a small laugh.
“Rils.”
“Yes.”
“You're actually pretty good at negotiating.”
“Survival is supposed to be ruthless.”
On a deserted island, information is a resource too.
Especially when it's something as important as a water source.
I turned back to him with a faint smile and said,
“The knife and two packs of ramen. Right?”