Chapter 52
The speedboat carrying HaeruTV quickly disappeared into the darkness.
After a brief silence, Yerin opened her mouth.
“Rils.”
“Yep.”
“Then can we farm the pool now?”
Even after seeing a man get carried away right in front of her, Yerin was still full of energy.
Did she get possessed by an Amazon warrior whenever food was involved?
“There’s still a stonefish in the pool, so it’s dangerous.”
After hearing my firm answer, Yerin clicked her tongue regretfully.
“Tsk… It’s such a waste to just leave, though. Why are there so many dangerous things here?”
“There are lots of poisonous things in nature. Besides stonefish, there are blue-ringed octopuses and cone snails.”
“Are they poisonous too?”
“Yep. They’re incredibly tiny, but their venom is extremely potent. You could die if you handle them carelessly.”
Creatures living in nature often have their own means of defense against predators.
Among them, the creatures most dangerous to humans are the ones that contain venom in their bodies.
Still.
It wasn’t impossible.
I picked up a torch and thoroughly searched the area around the pool.
Just in case there were any other hazards.
I checked the stonefish’s location again and inspected every crevice between the rocks and the seaweed.
Aside from the stonefish, there didn’t seem to be anything in the pool that could threaten a human.
“Hmm.”
“How is it?”
“It should be fine as long as we don’t touch that thing.”
I pointed at the stonefish with the end of my torch.
“Mr. Kim Woong.”
“Yes!”
“No one is allowed within that radius.”
“Understood.”
“You too, Yerin.”
“Okay.”
Yerin’s eyes glowed fiercely.
“So you’re saying we can pick up everything as long as we avoid that area?”
“Yep.”
Honestly, the stonefish must have felt it was unfair too.
It had been quietly hiding while pretending to be a rock, and then people came along and bothered it first.
So we continued farming the tide pool.
“Oh. I found another one!”
Yerin was completely ecstatic.
Before long, both her hands were full of shellfish.
She had picked up so much that even the pockets of her outerwear were bulging.
“Yerin.”
“Why?”
“You shouldn’t get too greedy.”
Yerin flinched at my words.
“W-What… Why are you saying I’m being greedy?”
“Your pockets look like they’re about to burst. You’re being too greedy.”
“They won’t burst.”
“In nature, you should only take as much as you can eat.”
“Isn’t it better to pick up more?”
“That’s what happened to that person earlier. He got greedy and ended up like that.”
Yerin’s gaze turned toward the sea where the speedboat had disappeared.
“I think Rils is right.”
Perhaps she remembered the man rolling around on the ground, because Yerin shuddered before tossing all the shellfish in her hands back into the pool.
Splash!
“We already caught enough for us to eat, so I released them. I did a good job, right?”
@
“Rils.”
“Yep.”
“Didn’t you just say I shouldn’t be greedy?”
“I can’t resist abalone. This is an exception.”
Yerin stared at me as if she couldn’t believe me.
Honestly, how could I resist this?
How much would it cost to eat wild-caught abalone this size at a restaurant?
I had to take it.
I picked up the bamboo that had served as a torch and lightly poked the ground near the stonefish.
Flinch.
It immediately reacted.
It moved its body and raised the spines along its back.
Yerin watched with a worried expression.
“It looks really angry.”
“Of course it is. It was resting peacefully, and now we’re picking a fight with it for no reason.”
Using the long bamboo stick, I slowly pushed its body away.
Stonefish aren’t naturally aggressive.
They simply hide under their protective coloring and punish anything that disturbs them.
And surprisingly, they’re edible too.
It’s not that their flesh itself is poisonous like a pufferfish’s.
They’re just incredibly annoying to prepare.
You have to remove every venomous spine and venom gland, and getting pricked by one by accident would be a complete disaster.
‘If we didn’t have any food, maybe, but there’s no reason to risk it in our current situation.’
The stonefish slowly moved away as if I were annoying it, relocating to another spot.
“Good.”
Now it was fine.
There was enough distance between the stonefish and the abalone.
I quickly stepped into the pool.
“Rils!”
“Benefactor, be careful!”
Yerin and Kim Woong’s voices reached me at the same time.
I quickly reached toward the palm-sized abalone.
An abalone clings to rocks using a powerful muscle called its foot, so simply yanking it off won’t work.
If it senses danger, it only clings to the rock even more tightly.
That’s why people who harvest abalone quickly slide a knife or spatula into the gap before the abalone notices.
Speed is everything!
Holding my breath, I quickly pushed the tip of my machete into the gap beneath the abalone.
I lightly twisted my wrist.
Crack!
The abalone came off the rock so easily that it was almost anticlimactic.
Yerin and Kim Woong’s eyes widened at the same time.
“That came off really easily.”
“As expected, your skills are extraordinary.”
I triumphantly raised the palm-sized abalone.
Heh-heh.
Dinner was going to be a real feast tonight.
@
[The gallery owner acquired abalone]
Author: (233.13)
(A meme of Rils holding an abalone)
What was HaeruTV doing?
The gallery owner plucked it ridiculously easily.
ㄴSacrifice Park Jun-ho to summon abalone!
ㄴLmaoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴBut the gallery owner’s logic is fucking hilariousㅋㅋ He says you shouldn’t be greedy, but he’s allowed to do it
ㄴWhen someone else does it, it’s greed; when I do it, it’s securing food
ㄴToday’s lesson: Only take as much as you can eat
ㄴBut abalone is an exception
ㄴFor realㅋㅋ
[Are there really only eight participants left already?]
Author: (14.32)
Is the gallery owner actually going to win this?
ㄴHe is a contender for the win
ㄴIt’d be fucking awesome if he won without using the API
ㄴThis is seriously incredibleㅇㅇ
ㄴI work in broadcasting, and everyone’s just waiting for the Mystery Rich content to end
ㄴWhy?
ㄴThey’re trying to recruit Rils
ㄴBut the gallery owner is seriously unhinged;; Seeing someone nearly die right in front of them, they still went into the pool
ㄴThat’s genuinely badass
ㄴNow that’s what I call girl-crush energyㅇㅇ, unlike those wild-boar women spouting that “take off the corset” crap
ㄴAgreed
@
You always have to be careful when eating shellfish.
If you eat them raw by mistake, you could get an upset stomach, and if you’re unlucky, you could even get food poisoning.
Shellfish in particular require extra caution.
Bivalves live by drawing in and expelling seawater.
During that process, foreign substances like sand and mud accumulate inside their bodies.
That’s why shellfish are normally purged after being caught.
If you leave them in clean seawater for a few hours, they’ll expel the sand inside their bodies on their own.
“So that means we can’t eat them right away?”
“Yep.”
The moment Yerin heard that we couldn’t eat the shellfish immediately, her expression fell into a deep frown.
“We worked so hard to gather them. What a shame. Tsk.”
“But we can eat the turban shells.”
Fortunately, unlike bivalves, turban shells rarely have sand inside them.
Of course, you still have to remove the innards and salivary glands, but since they don’t need to be purged, turban shells are much easier to eat.
“Phew… That’s a relief. At least we can eat the turban shells.”
“Yep.”
We gathered all the turban shells we had caught in one place.
Since we had farmed the bonus stage at the end, there was quite a lot.
Once we took everything out of our pockets, the turban shells piled up in a neat little mountain.
It would have cost tens of thousands of won to buy this much outside.
As expected, self-sufficiency was the best.
I stirred the campfire and gathered the glowing coals to one side, then started placing the plump turban shells on them one by one.
Sizzle.
I could hear the moisture inside the turban shells gradually evaporating.
Beside me, Yerin and Kim Woong kept swallowing hungrily.
While waiting for the turban shells to cook, I looked around.
The dark night sea.
Far away, waves slapped against the shore, and the only thing giving off light nearby was a small campfire.
The three of us sat huddled in a circle around the fire.
‘It really feels like we came camping.’
Then again, wasn’t camping ultimately just eating and drinking in nature?
Yerin, who lacked patience, trembled her legs and stared at the turban shells sizzling in the coals.
“Rils.”
“Yep.”
“Are they still not cooked?”
“Just a little longer.”
She was just like a puppy waiting for snack time.
Before long, water began bubbling inside the turban shell openings.
I picked up a branch I had prepared beforehand.
An improvised skewer with its tip sharpened to a point using a knife.
I inserted it between the opening of a turban shell and gave it a slight twist.
Slip.
The cooked meat slid out whole.
Its steaming appearance was breathtaking.
“We should clean them just in case.”
I placed the hot turban shell meat on a bamboo plate. Then I pointed to the middle of the meat with my finger.
“This black part is the innards.”
“Okay.”
“And this side is the salivary gland. We have to remove it before eating.”
I cut away the innards and salivary gland with my machete.
“Depending on the species of turban shell, there can be toxic substances, so it can’t be helped.”
Yerin was startled when she heard that they could be poisonous.
“It’s kind of scary now that you put it that way….”
“It’s fine once you remove them. Anyway, you just take them out like this and eat the rest.”
I held up the white turban shell meat after cleaning it.
“Who wants to try it first?”
Yerin and Kim Woong’s gazes turned toward the turban shell at the same time.
Kim Woong immediately raised his hand.
“Benefactor, I’ll try it first!”
Yerin immediately objected from beside him.
“Mr. Kim Woong. What are you talking about?”
“Huh?”
“I’ve always been the first one to taste things.”
“Have you?”
“Yes.”
“Then please yield this time.”
“Even cold water has an order of seniority.”
The two of them started bickering again.
Good grief.
They were both plenty old enough, so why were they fighting over food?
“Stop fighting.”
I took out another fully cooked turban shell, cleaned it, and handed one piece to each of them fairly.
“Oh.”
“Thank you.”
Yerin popped the turban shell meat into her mouth as if she had been waiting for it.
Chew, chew.
Then she reacted as if she were deeply moved.
“Wow, this is fucking delicious! It tastes exactly like what you get at a grilled shellfish restaurant?!”
Kim Woong nodded too.
“Wow. It’s really delicious.”
I put a well-cooked turban shell into my mouth as well.
Oh.
This was really tasty.
The first thing I noticed was the salty flavor.
I hadn’t sprinkled on any salt, but perhaps because it had been in the sea until just recently, it was seasoned just right.
The more I chewed, the more the subtle aroma of the sea rose up, filling my mouth with a savory, umami flavor.
More than anything, the texture was incredible.
It was chewy and springy in the best possible way.
“Ah. Now I’m craving soju.”
Yerin made another comment that sounded like something a middle-aged man would say.
The three of us silently watched the campfire and waited for the next turban shell to finish cooking.
‘Hmm. Maybe getting out into the open once in a while isn’t so bad.’
As expected, the better the atmosphere, the better the food tasted.