Chapter 36 – Having a Party

After the auction ended, Theo had photo time with female hunters.

However, the number of remaining female hunters was four, and among them, only two wanted to take a photo with Theo.

What he received for taking photos like that was three Churus and two coffee mixes.

“This time the result is bad, meow. I only earned two hours of Representative Theo’s time, meow.”

While Theo was wearing a gloomy expression,

“Theo, let’s take a photo together too. Our daughter likes cats. Instead, I will give you this.”

Kim Dong-sik, who hadn’t been able to join before because there were too many female hunters, said as he held out some red powder.

“What is this, meow?”

“It’s red pepper powder.”

“Good, meow!”

He didn’t know what it was, but he thought Park Se-jun would like it.

Click.

Kim Dong-sik coolly took a photo and left.

After the trade ended, Theo hurriedly climbed the tower. It was to occupy Se-jun’s lap and to see the nephews who would be waiting for him, the cool uncle.

Although the cool uncle had already changed to Se-jun for the baby rabbits, Theo did not know.

As Theo was about to use the merchant passage to move from the 40th floor to the 50th floor like that,

“Stop right there.”

“Yes. You need to help us.”

“If you only answer what we ask, we won’t hurt you.”

Three giant silver wolves, 5 meters in size, approached.

“What, meow?! I won’t help you, meow!”

At the request for help, Theo recalled Se-jun’s instructions and tried to ignore them.

However,

“Where do you think you’re going?”

one of the wolves moved quickly and blocked Theo’s path.

“Why… why are you doing this, meow? I won’t help you, meow! Park Se-jun told me not to help, meow!”

“Grr. Cooperate while we’re speaking nicely. What did you do with the straw hat you bought from the blacksmith shop?”

A wolf said, baring its sharp teeth at Theo.

“Th… that is…”

Tremble, tremble.

While Theo was trembling under the wolf’s threat,

Poof!

gray smoke spread, and a foul odor spread around.

“Ugh!”

“Argh!”

“What is this smell?!”

While the wolves, who had a good sense of smell, suffered from the odor,

“Uh?!”

“Shh! Be quiet.”

a masked figure grabbed Theo and fled into the merchant passage, avoiding the Silver Wolf tribe.

Patter, patter.

“Let’s rest for a moment now.”

The figure, who had been running for about 30 minutes dragging Theo, stopped.

And,

“Representative Theo, are you okay?”

he asked, looking at Theo.

“Who are you, meow? How do you know my name, meow?”

As the masked figure knew his name, Theo asked warily.

“It is me. Jeras.”

Jeras said, removing his mask.

30 minutes ago.

‘What should I do?’

Jeras, who had been tailing him, contemplated whether to rescue Theo or not when Theo was surrounded by the Silver Wolf tribe.

Although Theo had interfered with his mission, his intentions were good in their own way. He was not a bad guy.

And,

‘To think that straw hat was really Grid the great landlord’s item.’

Great landlord Grid, a being who used his land and food to exploit tenant farmers like slaves, exercising a huge influence on the tower in exchange for food.

For Jeras, who disliked Grid, it was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by disrupting Grid’s business and approaching Theo. He had been pondering how to approach Theo, but thanks to the Silver Wolf tribe, there was no need to ponder anymore.

So Jeras had detonated a stink bomb, which the wolves hated, and rescued Theo.

“Jeras! Thank you, meow!”

“You saved me last time. So let’s call it even now.”

“Still, thank you, meow.”

Theo let down his guard against Jeras to a large extent. The two moved to the shopping district together while conversing.

***

Once Se-jun fed the poison honeybee queen enough honey,

Buzz, buzz.

the poison honeybee queen flew up with fierce wing beats, lightly looked around the surroundings, and went back into the pit Se-jun had dug for her. It seemed she wanted to sleep.

“I should head down soon too.”

It was already late afternoon. Going down to the cave, Se-jun planted 400 corn seeds in the field where the corn plants had been cut.

Originally, he planned to pull out all the roots of the corn plants before planting, but since the roots of the corn plants were embedded deeper than expected and didn’t pull out easily, he just planted them in the empty ground next to them.

Squeak!

Although it was a bit strange to plant in a place where the roots remained, since the husband rabbit coached him in farming from the side, there seemed to be no problem.

After planting the corn like that, Se-jun covered himself with a blanket and fell asleep.

The next morning.

Kkueng!

Se-jun woke up along with the baby bear’s morning cry. As soon as he woke up, he added a stroke to the wall and started the morning of the 188th day of being stranded.

And he went up to the surface without even washing his face to check on the poison honeybee queen, but

“Huh?!”

the poison honeybee queen was not in the pit.

“Where did she go?”

Se-jun went up to the surface to check the pit whenever he had free time, but the poison honeybee queen was not seen all day. The honey left next to her for eating was also untouched.

A day passed like that, but the poison honeybee queen did not return.

The morning of the 189th day of being stranded.

Having finished harvesting cherry tomatoes, Se-jun held the cut green onion leaves and cherry tomato branches and hooked his foot onto the knot of the rope.

And,

“Pull!”

Kku!eng! Kku!eng!

The baby bear pulled up Se-jun and the green onion leaves. Se-jun was covering the fields again with green onion leaves and cherry tomato branches to prevent moisture evaporation.

When Se-jun brought up the green onion leaves, the sickle rabbit and the carrier rabbit helped Se-jun and diligently covered the fields with the green onion leaves.

And when Se-jun, who finished the work, went down to the cave again to prepare lunch,

Pyak!

the Black Rabbit called Se-jun.

“You want to move piranhas?”

Pyak! Pyak!

At Se-jun’s words, the Black Rabbit shook his head and pointed to the pond. There is a strange guy over there! My hammer doesn’t work!

At the place the Black Rabbit pointed, a purple crustacean monster about the size of a forearm, which had accidentally entered through the pond hole, was leisurely wandering around the bottom of the pond.

“Uh?! That is?”

Se-jun recognized the identity of the monster at once. It was deeply moving. To see you in this place! It was the guy that the cast members of Law of the Jungle had highly praised as tasting so delicious.

“Black Rabbit, cover me!”

Pyak!

Splash!

While the Black Rabbit entered the water at Se-jun’s words and blocked the approach of piranhas, Se-jun cautiously approached the crustacean.

And,

Stab.

he stabbed the head of the crustacean monster in one breath with Keynes’s training dagger.

[You defeated a Crayfish.]

[You obtained 30 experience points.]

A new protein source had appeared in the pond. Se-jun pulled the hunted crayfish out of the pond.

And,

Stab.

he stabbed the dagger into the chest once more and waited for the blood to drain.

“Awesome. To think crayfish lived underground… Are there no more?”

While draining the crayfish’s blood, Se-jun peeked around the pond to see if there were more crayfish, but due to the blood flowing out as Se-jun caught the crayfish, only piranhas swarmed in.

Pyak!

Pyok! Pyok! Pyok!

The Black Rabbit excitedly hunted the piranhas. It seemed the baby bear could also feast for lunch today.

After draining the crayfish’s blood like that, Se-jun tied it tightly with green onion leaves and put it into the fire.

Today’s lunch was grilled crayfish! As time passed, a delicious aroma vibrated in the cave.

Squeak!

Pyaa!

Pyak!

Kkueng!

Even the rabbits and the baby bear grew excited at the smell of the grilled crayfish.

“Wait.”

Se-jun calmed down the excited animals, grilled the crayfish a bit more on the fire, and then took it out.

And when he removed the green onion leaves that had tightly wrapped the crayfish’s body, the crayfish, whose shell had turned red, welcomed Se-jun.

“Wow.”

Crack.

Admiring the well-grilled crayfish, Se-jun folded the body in half, and the plump, snow-white flesh revealed itself.

Kkueng!

The baby bear drooled and got excited upon seeing the crayfish’s flesh.

“He might fall down again like that.”

Se-jun quickly cut the crayfish meat and distributed it to the rabbits and the baby bear. Although it would have been a filling amount if eaten alone, since there were many mouths, only about a single piece of meat went to everyone.

Se-jun distributed one piece of crayfish to everyone, picked up the remaining piece of crayfish meat, bit off a small portion, and chewed.

Munch, munch.

As soon as he chewed the crayfish meat, a slightly salty and sweet taste dominated his mouth along with a chewy texture.

Smack, smack.

The more he chewed the meat, the sweeter it was.

‘So this is what it tastes like.’

Now that he had tasted the crayfish’s original meat flavor, it was time to taste it combined with other parts.

Scrape, scrape.

Se-jun rubbed the meat in the tomalley in the crayfish’s body and put the piece of meat into his mouth.

“Mmm.”

They said the tomalley was delicious, and indeed, cheese and butter flavors exploded in his mouth.

Pyak?

At Se-jun’s reaction, the Black Rabbit out of curiosity dabbed a bit of the creepy-looking crayfish tomalley with his finger and ate it.

And,

Pyak!

Crunch.

Fascinated by the taste of the tomalley, the Black Rabbit brought his carrot and began dipping it into the crayfish tomalley to eat.

Crunch, crunch.

With the baby bear chewing and eating the crayfish’s shell, the grilled crayfish completely disappeared.

“Ah…”

Squeak…

Pyaa…

Pyaa…

Kkueng…

While everyone was smacking their lips and unable to break free from the lingering trace of the grilled crayfish with expressions full of regret,

Splash! Splash!

a commotion arose in the pond.

“What is it?”

Snapping out of it, Se-jun approached the pond. That place was a battlefield overflowing with blood. No, calling it a scene of massacre was more fitting.

Ten crayfish were ruthlessly massacring the piranhas. It seemed their companions had come to seek revenge, following the blood that flowed when Se-jun stabbed the crayfish earlier.

“This is trouble.”

There wasn’t enough fire. With the current fire, he couldn’t cook ten crayfish.

“Guys! Build more fires quickly, and Black Rabbit, bring a long piece of wood and some rope!”

Today is a crayfish party!

Pyak?

The Black Rabbit, who brought the long wood and rope while questioning Se-jun’s instructions, grew excited upon seeing the crayfish in the pond.

And he dashed to the fireside, making four more hearths with the white rabbits and dried green onion leaves.

Swish. Swish.

In the meantime, Se-jun carved a groove in the wood so a rope could be hung and connected it with the dagger handle and the rope.

And,

Stab.

[You defeated a Crayfish.]

[You obtained 30 experience points.]

Using the long reach of the wood, Se-jun hunted and pulled up the crayfish one by one.

Pyak!

When Se-jun caught a crayfish, the Black Rabbit moved it to the fireside, and the white rabbits wrapped the crayfish tightly with green onion leaves and put them in the fire.

Roar.

The crayfish began to grill deliciously.

Stab.

[You defeated a Crayfish.]

[You obtained 30 experience points.]

While Se-jun was pulling up the hunted crayfish,

“Huh?”

one crayfish was seen entering through the pond hole. The crayfish’s blood had called other crayfish companions again.

“I might be able to fill my stomach with crayfish today.”

Stab. Stab.

Se-jun intentionally stabbed the crayfish’s body multiple times to spread the blood and lure other crayfish.

That day, Se-jun and the animals hunted 30 crayfish and ate to their hearts’ content.

Crunch, crunch.

Of course, the baby bear, who was eating the crayfish’s shell, seemed to find it a bit insufficient, but to feed the baby bear until he was full, even 50 crayfish would probably not be enough.

Having had a high-protein meal of crayfish like that, Se-jun and the rabbits vigorously started their afternoon farming.

And around the time the afternoon farming was ending,

Kuuuong.

the mother Crimson Giant Bear came to pick up the baby bear.

Kkueng!

“Goodbye.”

Just as Se-jun was about to go down to the cave after waving hands to greet the baby bear,

Buzz, buzz.

the poison honeybee queen, who had been absent for a few days, returned with a plump tail.