Chapter.5 Inside Out (1)
***
Drurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry
!
Quiet and neat room. The connector located in one corner opened and a pale man crawled out from inside.
“I did it, I did it…”
As I move my body, my limbs flop like some kind of mollusk. It has to be that way. I didn’t move for nearly 5 days, just lying on the computer and playing games. Five days of lying down, receiving a watery meal and relieving menstrual symptoms thanks to the ‘Play Optimization Device’ function of the connector. I can very clearly feel my joints stiffening and creaking.
“You can sleep inside and come out, but then you won’t feel rested.”
People have to live this life after all.
So the professor crawled to the old sofa next to the connector and fell asleep.
***
A few hours later.
What woke the professor, who had been sleeping as if dead, was the smell of food that was so captivating and savory that it would literally make someone who had only eaten antelope porridge for a few days jump out of their sleep, yet stimulate their instinctual instincts.
As the professor followed the scent and left the room where the connector was located, as if fascinated, he saw Corduroy baking something in a corner of the greenhouse amidst the view of the shelter filled with various modern items.
“Corduro…?”
“Ah, master! Good night!”
The professor barely listened to Corduro’s greeting and focused his attention on the frying pan that was being shaken vigorously by the small robotic arm that came out of the guy’s drone.
Cheeeeeeeek –
A large piece of meat, grilled to an appetizing brown color, was being grilled on a hot pan over a small bonfire.
It’s meat. meat. Not the dry calorie bars you eat every day, but meat!
The professor managed to catch the opposite sex right before he suddenly lunged at them.
“Corduro?”
“yes!”
“This…is it really ‘cheap meat’?”
“Oh, no way! Would you say I’m crazy and use ‘cheap meat’? “This is ‘expensive meat.’”
Only after hearing Corduroy’s words was the professor able to indulge in its scent with peace of mind.
Even though the world has become like this, animals still live in the wasteland, and groups such as Doms and Raptors raise pigs by feeding them things like food waste.
Regardless of the type of meat, meat that comes from slaughtering normal creatures such as livestock, wasteland rabbits, or radioactive giant scorpions is ‘expensive meat’.
Other than these,
if you search for ‘meat’ on the exchange and check prices in order of lowest price, all kinds of meat are listed by cut, but most of the sellers of this meat are psycho gangsters or scavengers.
The highly suspicious meat posted on the exchange by these guys who have given up on being human is called ‘cheap meat’. No one has ever revealed the raw materials, but unless you’re an idiot, it’s something that everyone can think of. Disgusting bastards.
What’s even more disgusting is that ‘cheap meat’ is a product that is sold consistently because it is surprisingly in demand.
So, if you see someone eating meat in the wasteland, you should be wary. Expensive meat is rare and not available for sale.
‘wait for a sec. But why is such a precious item being cooked in my house?’
The nightmare from the last time he exited the interface began to replay in the professor’s mind.
Didn’t we go through a lot of hardships from Area 45 to Tobrunn because of Corduro’s misbehavior that day?
‘no. That can’t be possible. If that were really the case, it would be a memory and a shame, and I would disassemble that drone without leaving a single screw, throw it into the furnace, and blow up this shelter!’
The professor asked Corduro in a trembling voice, clutching his chest as he beat the bat.
“Co corduro? But why ‘expensive meat’? “Have you bought anything new?”
Hwiik-
chiikik!
In response to the professor’s question, Corduroy stylishly shook the pan to turn the meat over and said while shaking the lens wildly.
“No way! Do you think I’m just a regular tin robot? I am a learning AI! I learned something from the last disaster, but I don’t know what else I should have bought. “This is a free gift.”
“Gifts? “In this wasteland?”
“uh······. I heard so? The items I ordered a few days ago from Marketplace arrived yesterday, and they sent me a piece of meat as a free gift to thank me for the great deal. So you don’t have to worry. This is free. It’s free. “Marketplace is a dome company, so there’s no way they would use strange meat.”
“Um… it’s a free gift…”
The professor looked at the well-cooked steak being placed in a stylish bowl and a large piece of meat lying next to it. Even if you cut it large, it’s enough for 9 to 10 people. Something that looks fresh will be quite expensive. That kind of thing was sent as a free gift by no one else but the Money Ghost Marketplace?
The professor stared at the steak on the table with a suspicious expression, if not mouth watering. This is so suspicious that my mouth is watering. Very suspicious.
“Isn’t there some intention? “There’s no way the market guys would give something for free, even Scrooge would run away.”
“well? “Maybe that’s it?”
“what?”
When the professor asked, Corduro pointed with his robotic arm to a pile of well-packed wooden boxes in one corner of the shelter.
“That one. Air purifier, automatic turret, and small auxiliary shield generator in the shower booth. If you look at the list itself, you can see that if you just put a generator here, you can roughly create a new residence, right?”
“I see…yes?”
“I believe that the market decided that a new force with this level of purchasing power had appeared and sent free gifts as a sign of good luck in the future.”
“It was meat sent as a sign of friendship…”
Corduro’s words certainly made sense. There are no generators for sale anyway, so you have to find them somewhere, and even if there is no cloaking field, there is an automatic turret in the shield, so you can defend yourself to a certain extent. If you just block the sand from penetrating with an air purifier…
‘It’s just an outpost-type shelter, right?’
Only then did the professor understand the intention of the marketplace. The market mistakenly thought I was the leader of a large group. In the process of expanding one’s influence to another area, it is quite common to send out a few scouts in advance to set up an outpost. Perhaps that free gift is a secret signal that ‘I will tolerate it as long as you don’t touch the dome.’
The professor cut a steak with a knife and threw a spoon from the table towards Corduroy’s drone.
Taean-!
“ouch! why! “You didn’t do anything wrong this time!”
“Hey, you said you could build a small shelter with the things you bought last time. Do you think I’d be upset or not?”
“That’s it! With good intentions…!”
“If you put it that way, Isaac had good intentions, you bastard. “I did that to save humanity.”
There are many things to think about about Isaac. Because it seems like he wasn’t just a crazy person. It’s something to think about, but…
‘For now, just eat some.’
When I cut a large piece with the knife hanging under the table, the steak split smoothly without any resistance, revealing the pink flesh and the juices flowing out.
At that moment, without realizing it, I thought, ‘Is it okay if it’s not seafood?’ I thought about it, but my hand was already holding the end of the cut steak and bringing it to my mouth.
The
taste of meat fills your mouth as soon as you put it in your mouth. The taste of meat that overwhelms your tongue with its unique savory fat taste and richness!
The meat was so soft that it crumbled with a pleasant resistance the moment it touched my teeth, but the moment I passed it down my throat, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “Ah.”
“Isn’t that great? By calculating the master’s biorhythm, I woke him up in the happiest way at the time when he could wake up most comfortably. Did you like it?”
The professor was unable to speak due to the meat he had stuffed in his mouth, so he praised his faithful servant by simply giving a thumbs up.
I felt proud of myself as I was eating luxurious food that I bought with my own money (assuming I also bought free gifts) in a clean and spacious house. It feels like buying clothes and going out to eat with your first paycheck.
“You’ve grown, Professor Park.”
As he stuffed the rest of his steak into his mouth, the professor wondered if it might be okay to indulge in something extravagant sometimes.
***
The first thing the professor did after feeling full was to open the package sent through the GG drone from Marketplace. Everything else could be installed slowly, but there was one item that had to be installed right away no matter what.
Jjiik-boouk drum! Squeaky!
At the bottom of the package, which the professor had been desperately looking for, which he tore off with his eyes glazed over like a madman, was shyly showing off its bright appearance.
[Kiral tec. Shower booth set]
Chiral Tech’s logo written in vivid yellow on thick opaque glass.
Two enclosed shower booths, a small groundwater pump that comes as a set, and even a thick filtration panel that goes into the pump. It is truly the pinnacle of functional beauty. It was beautiful. So much so that I can’t get enough of it unless I try it right away!
“Corduro.”
“Yep?! Master, are you okay? The condition is a bit…”
“What do you mean? I am extremely rational, calm and stable. “Anyway, I need to install this pump. Is there a place on the floor of the shelter where I can install it?”
“Um… I don’t know? It’s a very sturdy building, so we’ll have to look for it, but there’s probably a hole near the drain pipe, so if you do some construction, it’ll be enough…” “You’re
not asking because you don’t have time to do construction, right? I have to write this ‘right now’. now. right now.”
The professor looked around with his eyes flashing, then ran towards the greenhouse with a bright smile on his face.
“wait a minute! There isn’t a single piece of free land in the greenhouse right now! “Where on earth are you going to install that?”
“Move!”
“Ouch!”
After swatting away the corduroy that was bustling around, the professor crushed a patch of potato fields that were just sprouting green sprouts at the edge of the greenhouse with his earthen feet.
“Oh my! Potatoes! “The calories you need to survive!”
“shut up! “I need more of this to survive!”
click! click! After roughly cleaning the soil with my feet, I placed the pump in the center of the created space. As expected from Chiral Tech, which is said to be at the cutting edge of post-destruction technology
,
the pump settled into place on its own and began planting the prepared pipe into the ground.
While the pump was in place, the professor took both small bathtubs and placed them on the soft dirt. The time spent waiting and doing nothing felt like torture.
“Corduro. “Why did you buy two of these?”
“Well… I heard there’s a discount if you buy two as a set. “I was tempted to stop when I heard that if you put two of them together it can be used as a large bathtub… I’m sorry!”
“No, you did very well. “Ah, very much.”
“?”
The professor reverently watched the pump digging into the ground.
click!
And as soon as I heard the sound of the pump being fully seated, I immediately drew power from the charger connected to the greenhouse, connected it, and then assembled the two shower booths by fitting them together.
A shower room built in the completed greenhouse.
Gulp –
The professor lifted the faucet up with a trembling heart.
Shootaaaaa-
“Aaaah… It’s water…”
The professor quickly took off his clothes and closed the door to the shower booth, and water began to fill the completely sealed booth.
“Water, water….”
Yes, I know. That this emotion, this happiness, is part of the ‘encroachment’ that has occurred within the game.
But to the current professor, such trivial issues didn’t really matter.
‘Water… Refreshing water… hehe hehehe…’
“Lord? “The water keeps rising?”
“Burg-bubble-”
“Master! Open the door! Then die! “I’m drowning!”
The professor ignored Corduro’s words and filled the shower booth with water until it was full. It felt like new life was being breathed into my body, which was tired from non-stop play for the past five days.
‘Hehe hehehe….’
Boom boom! Bang bang bang!
“Aaaah! please! Open the door, you crazy owner! Door!”
***
