Chapter 32
Humans are helpless in the face of nature.
Even in this modern age of advanced science and technology, massive natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and tornadoes still claim countless lives.
That goes double for a deserted island where there's barely anywhere to shelter from the rain.
Shaaah.
Watching the insane downpour somehow made me feel overwhelmed by nature.
The wind was blowing too, driving the rain all the way to the cave entrance.
Once it starts pouring like this, there's almost nothing a human can do.
Other than hold a reverse rain dance and pray for it to stop.
I crouched by the hearth and watched the fierce sheets of rain.
'If I'd known this would happen, I would've saved some fish.'
In a situation where I had no idea when the rain would stop,
my stupid attempt at making sashimi had snowballed into a real problem.
Water wasn't the issue. We could just catch rainwater in bamboo tubes and use that.
The problem was food. All we had left were a few yams we'd saved for breakfast.
Yerin held out her hands to the warmth coming off the hearth and said,
"...I wonder when the rain's going to stop."
"I don't know."
"Now that it's evening, I'm starting to get hungry...."
"We need to ration it. We don't know when the rain will stop."
"Ehh... that's mean."
The moment she declared she'd given up dieting, it was like she'd been possessed by a glutton; Yerin made sure to eat two full meals a day.
Lately, she'd even started eating more than before.
Is she really even a girl streamer?
How does it make any sense for your appetite to explode after coming to a deserted island?
Maybe my stare was too obvious, because Yerin spoke up as if she'd been wronged.
"W-well, people need to eat properly to have energy, okay?"
Then she stuck out her lips in a pout.
"And living here takes more out of you than you'd think."
I could understand that.
Every living thing needs to replenish the energy it spends.
The human body is actually pretty lousy when it comes to efficiency.
Breathing, maintaining body temperature, moving around.
Just being alive means constantly burning fuel.
If you don't take in enough energy, the human body breaks down like a robot with dead batteries.
Just then.
Rumble!
A huge noise echoed through the cave.
Yerin and I turned toward the source of the sound.
Kim Woong hurriedly clutched his stomach, his face bright red.
"...Sorry."
I thought there was only one freeloader draining our food supply, but apparently there were two.
Sigh.
Shaking my head, I reluctantly picked up a yam and tossed it into the hearth.
Sizzle!
As the skin roasted, a nutty smell spread through the cave. Yerin and Kim Woong's eyes immediately came alive.
They do say even a ghost that dies full looks good.
It's not like I could tell hungry people to just starve.
We could always get more food once the rain stopped.
"...Just one each."
At my words, the two of them shouted at the same time.
"Yes, Chief Reels!"
"If you keep calling me that, I'm not giving you any."
"Just kidding."
"So was I, Benefactor."
When I pulled the yam from the coals and split it into three, hot steam billowed up.
Yerin held her piece in both hands and started eating, blowing on it between bites.
"Haaah...."
"Why are you making weird noises?"
"It's seriously hot. I think the roof of my mouth is going to peel off. Haaah... but it's good."
Kim Woong carefully accepted his piece too.
And the moment he took a bite, his expression loosened instantly.
"I finally feel like I can live again. Even if it costs me my life, I'll repay this kindness no matter what."
Here he goes again.
Does this guy have thirty lives or something?
I've never seen anyone swear their life over some bamboo and yams.
Listening to the rain while eating something warm did make it feel a little like camping.
But our situation was closer to being stranded than camping.
I tossed the yam skin into the hearth and stood up.
"Our stomachs are full enough now."
....
"Now get back to work."
@
A super-luxury cruise ship floating on the sea.
It was fairly chaotic inside right now.
"Stretcher over here!"
"Bring more towels, please!"
"Here's some warm tea. You should feel better after you drink it."
The safety staff bustled around in a frenzy.
Ever since torrential rain started pouring down on the deserted island,
the number of dropouts had begun to rise sharply.
The contestants who came in soaked from the rain all looked awful.
Their body temperatures had dropped, their lips had gone blue, and they were covered in mud from head to toe.
Most of them had been trying to hold out in flimsy shelters.
In the end, the moment the downpour started, they threw in the towel.
Among them were the two girl streamers who'd been with Kim Woong.
They came onto the cruise ship caked in mud. They must have left their outer layers behind on the island, because they were wearing nothing but a mess of soaked T-shirts.
With their mud-slick hair plastered to their faces, they looked like ghosts.
A shelter Kim Woong had built like absolute garbage was never going to function properly in the first place.
The moment the rain hit, it was only natural that the shelter collapsed on the spot.
One of them even burst into tears.
"No... I really thought I was going to die...."
....
"Hngh... I want to go home...."
The other contestants also kept their heads bowed, trembling.
Mystery Rich quietly watched the scene.
With the sudden rain, five more contestants had been eliminated.
Mystery Rich slowly spoke.
"You've all worked hard."
The contestants, reduced to the state of drenched rats, all raised their heads.
"Lasting this long is impressive enough on its own. Please get examined by the medical staff and get some rest."
The safety staff immediately draped blankets over the eliminated contestants and handed them warm drinks.
And then.
Mystery Rich slowly turned his gaze back to the monitors.
The number of survivors left on the deserted island.
Just ten.
@
Drip.
Water droplets gathered between the cracks in the rocks and slowly fell to the ground.
'Still, this is manageable.'
Unless the rain kept up nonstop, the cave wasn't going to flood.
In survival, time is gold!
Even if it was raining, work was work.
I'd heard that people from my parents' generation still went to school and work even when typhoons rolled in.
I sliced bamboo into thin strips and handed them to Yerin.
Taking the bamboo, Yerin twisted the fibers one by one into cord.
But.
She was unexpectedly good with her hands.
The cord even looked tighter than the ones I'd made.
"Yerin-nim. You're handier than you look."
"Reels. If you're going to compliment me, just compliment me. Don't tack weird qualifiers onto the front."
Yerin raised her chin with a smug look.
"I'm really good at making cord, right?"
"I guess even grubs have their own talents."
"What's... that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
After mentally adding another praise sticker for Yerin, I looked over at the hearth.
Kim Woong was crouched in front of it, silently keeping watch over the fire.
For a guy built like that, his manual dexterity was absolutely hopeless.
I had him try making cord earlier, but instead of twisting the bamboo fibers, he just crushed them with his grip strength.
'How did he even crush this with his bare hands?'
What was he, some kind of superhuman out of a power-fantasy novel?
So Kim Woong had now been demoted to hearth duty. Basically, he was on fire-tending detail.
"Kim Woong-nim."
"Yes? Benefactor?"
"Keep a close eye on the fire and don't let it go out."
"Leave it to me!"
Yerin, who was twisting bamboo cord beside me, tilted her head.
"But why are we making this?"
"To make traps."
"Traps?"
"Yep. Traps for catching animals."
The moment she heard that, Yerin's eyes started sparkling.
"Then does that mean we can eat meat?"
"If we actually manage to catch an animal."
It was impressive how everything led back to food with her.
Was this what prehistoric humans were like?
Fired up by the thought of meat, Yerin started moving even faster.
She seemed to be twisting with twice the enthusiasm as before.
As expected, motivation matters no matter what humans are doing.
People only work hard when there's a reward.
'I hope the traps catch something....'
The animals probably weren't wandering around aimlessly in this downpour either.
They were likely lying low in their own little shelters, hiding from the rain.
And then.
The moment the rain stopped, there was a high chance they'd all start moving at once to forage.
That was the timing I needed to exploit.
I already had a rough grasp on the paths the animals used.
The grass had been pressed flat in one direction, the ground was worn down, and there were even tracks and droppings.
If I set several traps around the area, there was a good chance at least one would catch something.
The principle of the trap was simple.
First, pick a springy sapling about as thick as a person's arm.
Then make a snare from cord twisted out of thinly split bamboo fibers.
As long as it's big enough for an animal's neck or front leg to slip through, that's enough.
Then bend the tree down hard and secure it in place.
You prop it up temporarily using a short stick.
The key is the trigger mechanism.
The moment an animal passes by and brushes the snare,
Click.
the catch comes loose, and the bent tree snaps back upward.
Then the noose cinches tight in an instant and traps the animal.
Of course, it's easier said than done.
Sometimes it springs uselessly from the slightest touch, and other times it doesn't trigger at all.
After setting it up, it's also important to leave as little trace as possible.
Animals are more sensitive to smells and changes than you'd think.
Before I knew it, Yerin had made a whole pile of bamboo cord and sidled up next to me.
Her gaze was a little too intense.
"Reels."
"Yep."
"I really want meat."
"...?"
Yerin grabbed my shoulder with a serious look on her face.
"You know what I mean, right?"
"Nope."
"Fish is good too, but when it comes to meat, proper land meat is best! When this content ends, I'm going out for samgyeopsal. Want to come with me, Reels?"
The moment I heard the word samgyeopsal,
the image of thick slices of pork belly sizzling deliciously on a grill autoplayed in my head.
Along with ramen, it's one of Korea's great soul foods.
Lately, people had even been worrying that the overseas samgyeopsal craze would drive up the price.
Slurp.
Just imagining it was enough to make my mouth water.
"Yerin-nim, you're paying?"
"Of course."
Yerin laughed like the question was ridiculous.
"It's not even that expensive. Do you think I'd make a kid pay?"
"Then I'm in."
As expected.
People with money really do have a different sort of generosity.
Even a chaebol couldn't resist free samgyeopsal.
'Ugh. The rain's made the weather chilly.'
I wiped the drool from my mouth and held my hands out to the heat pouring off the hearth.
Unaware that outside the cave, a pair of sharp eyes was watching us.