Chapter 188 – Keep It Safe, Meow!

“Just like last time, 1,000 tower coins per draw, and you can only bring out one item.”

It was the same condition as last time.

“I understand, meow! Here is 1,000 tower coins, meow!”

Theo accepted Taru’s condition and coolly handed over the money.

“Good. I wish you luck.”

Clank.

Taru, who received the money, spoke as he opened the door of the lost and found warehouse where only garbage was gathered.

“Puhuhut. I don’t need luck, meow!”

Theo entered the lost and found warehouse with a confident expression, extending his front paws.

A moment later.

“Nyang! What is this, meow?!!!”

Crash!

Along with the sound of things breaking inside the lost and found warehouse, Theo’s scream was heard.

“What is it?”

Taru was about to run inside in a hurry to help Theo.

However,

He paused.

He soon stopped his steps.

“Come to think of it, I think they said a ghost appears here…”

Taru quietly stepped backward, distanced himself from the door, and waited for Theo.

***

“Nyang! It’s a complete mess, meow!”

Theo said, looking around the lost and found warehouse. Inside the warehouse was a huge sea of garbage. The warehouse was an completely open structure with stairs going down as soon as one entered. It seemed to have become like this because they kept piling up items.

Still, the previous warehouse had at least some signs of organization, but here, he felt at a loss as to how to find items.

“But every time I look at it from the outside, the inside seems wider, meow!”

Theo said, walking on top of the items following the pull of his front paw.

At that moment,

“-Kikikikik.”

“-Hand over your body!”

“-I can’t give you my things!”

Rattle. Rattle.

Along with the eerie voices, the surrounding items floated up

Swoosh. Swoosh.

and began to fly rapidly toward Theo.

“Nyang! What is this, meow?!!!”

The flustered Theo screamed as he frantically dodged the flying items.

Crash!

Items fell and collapsed, causing a huge fuss. But the panic was brief. The speed of the items was not faster than Theo, and Theo gradually had the leeway to look around.

And,

“Meow?”

He discovered that every time an item was thrown, dark figures briefly appeared and disappeared. What was that, meow?

When Theo was wondering about the existences throwing items at him,

“-Master, those are evil spirits!”

Gaeron resolved Theo’s curiosity.

“What is an evil spirit, meow?”

“-When a soul obsessed with a grudge or a certain object is continuously exposed to impure energy, it turns into an evil spirit like that. Please call me! I can subdue them.”

“I understand, meow! My slave Gaeron, come out, meow!”

When Theo summoned Gaeron, a small swamp was created on the floor, and a frog the size of Theo’s paw appeared. It was Gaeron, who came out in a small size to avoid destroying the surrounding items.

Ribbit!

When Gaeron croaked loudly once,

“-Kieeeek!”

The evil spirits suddenly shrieked and began to flee in panic. Gaeron was an existence who was once a god. The evil spirits panicked under the soul pressure emitted by Gaeron’s soul. Gaeron hunted the fleeing evil spirits like that.

Slurp. Slurp.

Every time Gaeron stuck out his tongue, an evil spirit was caught by his tongue and sucked into Gaeron’s mouth.

While Gaeron was busy hunting the evil spirits like that,

“Is it here, meow?”

Theo lifted his front paw again and began searching for items.

And,

“It’s below here, meow!”

Arriving at the position where his front paw was drawn, Theo cleared away the piled items and dug the floor.

However,

Tumble.

Since the depth where the item was buried was deeper than expected, the surrounding items slid into the hole Theo dug, making the item search not easy.

“At this rate, when will I find it, meow?”

Theo’s motivation decreased sharply.

At that moment,

“Nyang! That’s it, meow!”

Theo came up with a good idea. Evil spirits could float items, meow!

“Puhuhut. As expected, I am a genius, meow! Gaeron, stop eating, meow!”

Theo praised himself for coming up with a good idea and spoke to Gaeron, who was busy eating the evil spirits.

“-Yes? Why all of a sudden?”

“I have a use for the evil spirits, meow! Evil spirits, listen, meow! Hurry up and come here to find the item I want, meow! Or else Gaeron will eat you up, meow!”

“-If we find the item, you won’t eat us, right?”

At Theo’s words, one of the black evil spirits cautiously approached and asked.

“That’s right, meow! The rest of you, come quickly too, meow!”

As the evil spirit that approached was unharmed, the other evil spirits also began to gather around Theo one by one. When all the evil spirits gathered, there were about 1,000 of them. This was enough to be called a cursed warehouse.

“Bring the items from the places I point to, meow!”

Theo pointed to five places where he felt a good pull and spoke to the evil spirits,

“-Yes!”

The evil spirits floated the items buried in the places Theo pointed to and brought them to him one by one.

And,

Presented.

They were inspected by Theo.

“Not this one, meow!”

Swish.

Theo threw the items he rejected into an area where there was no pull, preventing the items from getting mixed up.

Two hours later,

“Found it, meow!”

Theo shouted as he placed his paw on a leather document. He felt a pull from the document.

“-We did it!”

“-It’s over!”

The evil spirits, who could finally rest, cheered. The evil spirits were on the verge of ascending after two hours of labor. It was not a joke; indeed, some of the weak evil spirits ran out of strength during the work and ascended.

“Keep these safe, meow!”

Theo said, looking at the three items he had found before the document came out.

“-Yes?! Keep them?”

At Theo’s words, the evil spirits asked in a flustered voice. He was going to come here again?!

“That’s right, meow! Then, see you next time, meow!”

Theo said goodbye and left the warehouse.

“-Ah… I want to ascend…”

“-Me too…”

The remaining evil spirits envied those who had gone first.

***

Once Se-jun confirmed that the Black Rabbit was safe, he started working in the fields again.

Se-jun worked hard like that until dinner time.

Rumble.

Finally, his stomach was empty.

“Hehehe. Cuengi, let’s eat!”

Se-jun, who was now able to eat ramen, hurriedly called Cuengi, who was playing around the fields, and ran to the kitchen.

Kkueng!

[Understood!]

Trot, trot.

Cuengi hurriedly followed Se-jun.

In that way, Se-jun and Cuengi arrived at the kitchen.

“Cuengi, wait a moment while watching if the Black Rabbit is doing well.”

Kkueng!

[Understood!]

At Se-jun’s words, Cuengi infused magic into the bronze mirror to check the Black Rabbit reflected in it.

“Then, shall we start?”

Se-jun took out two pots and accurately calculated the water volume using the 500ml water bottles he had brought when he first got stranded.

“Just as there was a saying, ‘A soldier who fails in a mission can be forgiven, but a soldier who fails in guard duty cannot be forgiven,’ a chef who failed to control the water in ramen boiling could not be forgiven.”

Pour, pour, pour.

Se-jun poured water for one ramen into the right pot and water for two ramen into the left pot, then placed them on the stove to boil.

The right pot was Se-jun’s, and the left pot was Cuengi’s. The Jjajang ramen was saved for Aileen, and the Hellfire ramen was saved for the returning Black Rabbit.

While the water was boiling,

Shake, shake, shake.

He added the ramen soup powder to the pots and waited for the water to boil.

And when the water boiled vigorously,

“It’s boiling.”

Se-jun, who had been waiting, put one ramen into the right pot and two ramen into the left pot. He blocked Cuengi’s view with his body so he wouldn’t see, and secretly poured the ramen crumbs into the right pot.

While the noodles were cooking,

Chop, chop, chop.

Se-jun quickly chopped green onions and Cheongyang chili peppers and put them into both pots.

As the ramen was getting completed like that,

Sniff, sniff.

Kkueng!

[It smells delicious!]

As the smell of ramen spread in the kitchen, Cuengi smelled it, stomped his feet, and rejoiced.

“How is the Black Rabbit?”

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[Little brother is doing well! Right now, he is chasing after a guy who is running away secretly!]

“Is that so?”

When he glanced at the mirror, he saw the Black Rabbit standing with his arms crossed on the head of a giant Rock Salt Snake, tracking a worker (?) who had escaped from the salt mine. Wherever he had watched and learned it from, he did the job very neatly.

“Now, let’s eat.”

Se-jun placed a pot in front of each of them and began to eat.

Slurp.

First, he scooped the ramen soup with a spoon and drank it. Ah! This was the taste! The missed taste!

Slurp. Slurp.

After drinking the soup about five times like that,

“Phew! Phew!”

Se-jun lifted the noodles and blew on them to cool them down.

And,

Sluuuuup.

He sucked the noodles in.

A moment later,

“Mmm. Huh?!”

Se-jun, who was eating ramen frantically, came to his senses while drinking the last bit of the soup. It was a truly satisfying meal.

However,

Lick, lick.

Cuengi, perhaps disappointed with the amount, stuck his head into the bottom of the pot and licked it diligently. Indeed, it was not an amount that could satisfy Cuengi.

‘I will feed you to your fill later.’

Se-jun put Baekseolgi in the steamer, promising the future. This time, he added five-colored beans simmered in honey inside the Baekseolgi. Having eaten ramen, he craved something slightly sweet.

Kkueng!

[It’s rice cake!]

When Se-jun started a new dish, Cuengi danced while shaking his butt, seemingly happy.

‘At this rate, his stomach will be empty soon…’

Se-jun looked at Cuengi worriedly. Noodle dishes were originally digested quickly.

And,

Rumble.

Kkueng!

[Dad! Cuengi is hungry!]

Sure enough, Cuengi, who digested the ramen in no time, tried to turn into a fierce beast.

“You couldn’t even last 10 minutes. Here, Cuengi, eat this.”

The ramen was digested even more in vain than he thought. Se-jun put the five-colored beans simmered in honey, which was left over after putting them into the Baekseolgi, into Cuengi’s mouth.

Kkueng!

[It’s delicious!]

Dance…

“Cuengi, come here.”

When Cuengi tried to shake his butt, excited again after eating something delicious, Se-jun hurriedly placed Cuengi on his lap and shook him lightly, satisfying Cuengi’s excitement instead.

If he didn’t do this, it seemed like he would repeat this process infinitely before the rice cake was completely made.

***

“Meow-meow-meow.”

Theo hummed a song as he left the Traveling Merchant Association headquarters after successfully completing the draw.

“I heard there is a land deed auction at the Traveling Merchant Association headquarters today?!”

“Really?!”

“Yeah. I heard a large volume of land deeds was released this time. If we’re lucky, we might be able to grab at least one land deed this time.”

“I don’t know. At that scale, great merchants will probably come and sweep them all.”

“Still, we never know. Let’s just go see.”

He obtained enticing information from the merchants’ conversation. He felt a bit uneasy with just one land deed anyway. I must participate in the land deed auction too, meow! Theo turned back and followed the merchants who had just spoken.

However,

“You cannot enter here.”

“Meow?”

An employee standing at the entrance of the auction hall blocked Theo, who was following the merchants.

“What, meow?! Why are you blocking me, meow?!”

Theo shouted at the employee. They had let the merchants in front pass, but blocked only him. To think he dared to block the path of Theo Park, the deadly dragon claw yellow cat, subordinate of the Great Black Dragon, meow!

“Step aside, meow!”

“This is not a place where anyone can enter!”

The Traveling Merchant Association employee, Patton, replied in an annoyed voice to Theo, who was telling him to step aside. No matter how he looked at him, he thought that a shabby-looking, transient wandering merchant was making an unreasonable demand.

“Meow?! Anyone?! Then why did the merchants in front enter, meow?!”

Theo demanded.

“Those gentlemen in front are excellent wandering merchants whose faces I recognize.”

When Patton looked at him with a contemptuous gaze that said ‘so you get lost quickly,’

“We will begin the auction shortly!”

The sound of starting the auction was heard from inside.

Show.

Theo hurriedly pulled out the golden plaque proving that he was a top-tier wandering merchant. He wanted to punish this rude employee, but the auction was more urgent right now.

“Gasp! The golden plaque?!”

“Patton, I will remember your name, meow! Step aside, meow.”

“…”

At Theo’s words, Patton stood aside without saying anything.

‘Why is my luck so bad today…’

Patton thought of a salary cut or a written explanation, but he did not realize that a much heavier punishment was waiting for him. It was Patton, whose future would become quite miserable in the future.

‘Puhuhut. I was cool just now, meow.’

Theo felt proud as he entered the auction hall.