Translated by Demonic Dog
Read it only at utoon.net
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Chapter 21 – Making Dried Sweet Potato
“Line up, meow!”
Theo lined up the female hunters and took photos for them one by one.
“Give me my reward, meow.”
As soon as the photo was taken, Theo held out his front paw and spoke.
“Oh my! Look at his pink jellies.”
Squish, squish.
Catherine played with Theo’s front paw as if possessed. Theo felt a bit uncomfortable, but he waited since he had to receive his reward from this human.
“Here. Take this.”
Catherine held out a bag containing white powder.
“What is this, meow?”
“It’s salt.”
“Good, meow.”
Swish.
Theo quickly put the salt into his bundle.
‘Puhuhut. With this, I secured one 1-hour coupon for Representative Theo, meow.’
At that moment,
“And this is just for you, Theo. Thanks to you, I felt healed.”
Catherine handed the Churu she had brought to Theo.
“Are you just giving this to me, meow?”
“Yes. You let me touch your paw.”
“Gasp! Was that it, meow?!”
Theo received a great shock at Catherine’s words.
‘Humans give food even if I just let them touch my paw, meow.’
“Next human, come, meow.”
Theo took a photo with the next human standing in line.
Pose.
Theo took the photo while subtly placing his front paw on the female hunter’s hand.
‘Touch it quickly, meow.’
Just as a sparrow could not pass by a mill, the female hunters who took photos according to Theo’s intention touched his front paw as if possessed, and offered Churus just like Catherine had done earlier.
“Puhuhut. Is my paw that attractive to humans, meow?”
Theo said as he licked his front paw clean.
‘Puhuhut. With this, your lap, Park Se-jun, belongs to me, meow.’
Thanks to the female hunters, Theo ended up making a huge misunderstanding.
“My prestige…”
Kim Dong-sik’s shoulders slumped, having boasted at home that he would bring back 200 magical cherry tomatoes this time as well.
At that moment,
“Is there any human here from Korea, meow?”
Theo, who had finished the photo session with the female hunters, shouted.
“Korea?”
“The leader is Korean.”
The hunters looked at Kim Dong-sik.
“Human, are you from Korea, meow?”
Theo approached Kim Dong-sik.
“Yeah. I came from Korea. Why is that?”
“I have something to tell you in private, meow. Follow me, meow.”
Theo led Kim Dong-sik to a secluded spot so that the other hunters could not overhear.
***
Morning of the 160th day of being stranded.
“Yawn.”
Se-jun woke up while yawning. Yesterday, he tossed and turned a bit. It was because the rabbit couple finally went through with their business last night.
Swish.
He added a stroke to the wall and started his day.
He scooped water from the small pond with a plastic container to wash his face quickly, and made honey water by putting two squeezes of honey into his tumbler.
Since flowers started to bloom on the 732 cherry tomato trees a few days ago, the number of flowers for the bees to suck honey from increased.
Furthermore, as five new baby poison honey bees were added yesterday, the honey production surged, resulting in more honey being filled than consumed even if he drank it every day like this.
Squeak…
Squeak…
The baby rabbits came out of the burrow and greeted Se-jun in listless voices.
“You guys couldn’t sleep either, right? Here, let’s only drink honey water among us singles.”
Squeak!
Squeak!
The baby rabbits held out the carrot cups they had prepared beforehand.
Pour, pour.
“You really shouldn’t betray me. Got it? You guys, who are solo from birth, are my only hope.”
Se-jun said as he poured honey water for the rabbits. However, perhaps finding Se-jun’s words burdensome, the rabbits just took the honey water and quickly ran away.
Squeak!
Only the black rabbit remained, downing the honey water in one shot and performing the action of shaking the cup over its head before holding out the carrot cup again.
“Right. Black Rabbit, I believed in you.”
Pour, pour.
Se-jun poured honey water up to the brim of the loyal black rabbit’s carrot cup. However, the black rabbit also received one more cup of honey water and simply left.
Tsk.
His mouth tasted bitter at the rabbits’ betrayal.
Gulp. Gulp.
Thus, Se-jun washed away the bitter taste of betrayal with honey water and began his morning farming.
Pluck.
[You harvested a ripe magical cherry tomato.]
[Your job experience increased very slightly.]
[Your proficiency in Harvesting Lv. 3 increased very slightly.]
[You obtained 12 experience points.]
“Oh, a plus grade.”
Se-jun kept the E+ grade cherry tomato separately. He did this to eat it later than the other E-grade cherry tomatoes, as the E+ grade had a longer shelf life.
Otherwise, he thought he could get a better price by sending it to Theo. There was nothing bad about having a long shelf life.
While Se-jun was harvesting the cherry tomatoes like that, a burning smell started to drift in.
“I should take them out in a bit.”
Se-jun was roasting sweet potatoes for lunch. Although he could not forgive what the rabbit couple did at night, he still wanted to give them some nourishment since they worked hard.
Even if he called it nourishment, here it was just the roasted sweet potatoes, which were rare since they were harvested recently.
And as the aroma of the roasted sweet potatoes ripened, Se-jun began to take them out.
However, the number of sweet potatoes he took out was quite large. A whopping 50 roasted sweet potatoes. Even if the rabbit couple needed nourishment, it was too large a number.
At that moment,
Squeak!
Squeak!
Just in time, the rabbit couple came out of the house in harmony.
“Let’s eat!”
Squeak!
Squeak!
At Se-jun’s shout, the rabbits dashed over to eat lunch.
Squeak…
Squeak…
Squeak…
The rabbits ate their fill of the roasted sweet potatoes and sprawled out while patting their bellies. The number of roasted sweet potatoes the rabbits ate was three. Although they tried hard, they did not seem to be able to eat as much as they did with carrots.
“Ah, I’m full.”
Se-jun also ate two roasted sweet potatoes and stood up from his spot.
[The administrator of the tower asked if the remaining ones were all his.]
“I gave you five earlier. I have something else to do with these.”
[The administrator of the tower was disappointed.]
“Wait. I’ll let you eat something new.”
[The administrator of the tower nodded at your words and looked forward to it with great expectation.]
Se-jun peeled the skins of the remaining roasted sweet potatoes after talking with the administrator of the tower.
And then,
“Slice these for me.”
He asked the white rabbit, who was holding a sickle, to slice the roasted sweet potatoes to about the size of a pinky finger.
He had the black rabbit lay the sliced sweet potatoes side by side without overlapping on the green onion leaves that were drying.
“Now, it’s done as long as it dries well.”
Receiving the warm sunlight, the roasted sweet potatoes were turning into dried sweet potato chews.
***
75th floor of the tower.
Theo arrived at the merchant district where the headquarters of the wandering merchants was located. This time, he did not come to play, but because of Se-jun’s errand to buy a few items.
“Pot, ladle, bowl, spoon, dagger. Pot…”
Theo walked through the shop district, muttering to himself so he would not forget the items Se-jun asked him to buy. Since Se-jun could not trust Theo, who was a pushover, he had him buy only the five most necessary and cheapest items first.
“Welcome.”
Theo entered the general store, picked up the necessary items, and brought them to the shop owner.
“The pot is 1 Tower Coin, the ladle is 0.2 Tower Coins, the bowl is 0.3 Tower Coins, and the spoon is 0.1 Tower Coins, so the total is 1.6 Tower Coins.”
“Give me a discount, meow.”
“Hmm… then I’ll let you have them for 1.5 Tower Coins.”
“Give me more discount, meow.”
“Customer, we are already giving this to you at the lowest price without any margin.”
“I understand, meow.”
Theo replied and began to turn around and walk out without any lingering regret.
“I give up. I’ll give them to you for 1.3 Tower Coins.”
“1.2 Tower Coins. Otherwise, I’m just leaving, meow.”
“Whew. Understood. 1.2 Tower Coins.”
“Here it is, meow.”
Theo purchased the items and came out calmly.
However,
Thump! Thump!
Theo’s heart was beating wildly.
“Whew. I did it, meow.”
Se-jun instructed the three-discount strategy as a minimal countermeasure to prevent Theo from being a pushover.
First, if the other party called a price, he would unconditionally ask for a discount, and if they said no, he would leave without regret. Then, if they grabbed him, he would discount further from there, a strategy of buying after discounting three times in total.
In that way, just as Se-jun taught him, Theo attempted the three-discount strategy even when he went to the blacksmith, purchasing a 20-Tower-Coin dagger for 13 Tower Coins.
“Puhuhut. Now I am a wandering merchant who knows how to discount prices, meow.”
When Theo was about to go to the 99th floor with a proud look,
“This is an item from outside the tower.”
“An item from the outside?!”
“Yes. If you take this to the upper floors…”
A familiar voice was heard from somewhere.
When Theo turned his head, Scaram, the goblin wandering merchant, was trying to rip off a rookie fox wandering merchant again.
‘That bad guy…!’
“Don’t believe Scaram’s words, meow. That guy is a scammer, meow.”
Theo interfered with Scaram’s scam so that the rookie wandering merchant would not get conned like he had. Although Se-jun stopped Theo from acting like a pushover in transactions, he did not anticipate his meddlesome nature.
“What?! Do you have proof that I’m a scammer?!”
Scaram was flustered for a moment upon seeing Theo, but he shouted while raising his voice instead.
“You must have said that preservation magic is cast on that tumbler, meow? Don’t believe him, meow. This tumbler only blocks contact with the outside to prevent heat transfer so that the temperature drops slowly, meow.”
Theo spoke confidently, recalling what Se-jun had said.
“Grr… just you wait.”
Since everything Theo said was correct, Scaram withdrew, thinking that this transaction was ruined.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I didn’t get scammed. What is your name?”
“My name, meow? I’m Theo, meow.”
“So you are Mr. Theo. Thank you so much for helping me.”
“Right. Be careful, meow. Don’t act like a pushover, meow.”
“Yes. Goodbye.”
Theo saved a pushover and went up to the 99th floor in a good mood.
The merchant district where Theo disappeared. The rookie fox wandering merchant entered a shop in a deserted alleyway.
“Welcome. What can I get for you?”
“Eternal Gold.”
After answering, the fox wandering merchant bypassed the shop owner and pressed a shield hanging in the corner.
Click.
As the shield was pushed back, a staircase leading to the basement appeared.
And as she walked down the stairs, merchants moving busily came into view.
“Agent Jeras, how did the operation to arrest Scaram go?”
“I am sorry. It failed.”
Jeras, who belonged to the Secret Inspection Bureau of the Wandering Merchant Association, had received intelligence about Scaram scamming rookie wandering merchants, disguised himself as a rookie wandering merchant, and was in the middle of executing an operation to catch Scaram red-handed.
‘If only it weren’t for that guy!’
Grit.
Jeras gnashed his teeth as he thought of Theo.
“Puhuhut. Thinking of Scaram’s resentful face makes me feel good, meow.”
Without knowing it himself, Theo ended up saving Scaram.
***
An expensive foreign car arrived in front of an apartment building in Bucheon.
“Is this Se-jun’s house?”
Kim Dong-sik recalled his conversation with Theo as he looked around the apartment.
“What conversation?”
“Let’s make a deal, meow.”
“A deal?”
Theo pulled out a contract. Since the binding force of contracts made in the tower worked outside as well, it was one of the commonly used transaction methods.
Kim Dong-sik examined the contract. The contents written beforehand by Se-jun were written in the contract.
“Deliver 50 million won to the family of Park Se-jun at Room 701, Building 305, New World Apartments, Sosa-gu, Bucheon-si?”
“That’s right, meow. And you must tell them that Se-jun is doing well, meow. The reward is 200 magical cherry tomatoes and 50 Tower Coins, meow.”
Theo took out the cherry tomatoes he had set aside separately.
“I’ll do it!”
Kim Dong-sik, who needed the 200 magical cherry tomatoes, shouted.
“But who is Park Se-jun?”
“Mr. Se-jun is an amazing man, meow! He saved my life on the 40th floor, meow. That’s why I’m running this errand, meow.”
It was a scenario Theo had coordinated with Se-jun.
“What?! The 40th floor?”
In that way, a rumor about a hunter with genius talent who unofficially ascended to the 40th floor was created.
‘To think they were the family of such a hunter… Getting close would be helpful later.’
Kim Dong-sik took out a Korean beef set from the trunk and entered the apartment.
And then,
Ding-dong.
Kim Dong-sik pressed the doorbell of Se-jun’s house.