Why Is This So Delicious?

The next morning, Oh Hyeonseong woke up looking completely disheveled.

When he lifted his head, the morning sunlight was streaming brilliantly through the window.

Yaaawn.

After letting out a long, lazy yawn, Oh Hyeonseong left his room.

“Did everyone sleep well?”

Huff, huff.

The spirits sprawled out across the living room slowly got to their feet.

About a dozen of them yawned and waved their little arms around.

But perhaps they were still half-asleep, because they soon flopped back down, and Oh Hyeonseong let out a hollow chuckle before turning his gaze away.

Sure enough, the house was still as neat as ever.

Since it had been left unattended for a long time, he had expected there to be plenty of things that needed fixing. But just as Kwon Gyeongmin had said, he had taken care of everything before Hyeonseong arrived, and the house was in excellent condition.

Apparently, he had even called in professionals to repair anything that needed fixing.

Kwon Gyeongmin had owed Hyeonseong a favor once in the past, but he had never expected him to go this far.

In any case, it was convenient for Hyeonseong since there was less work for him to do.

He had checked everything yesterday, and there were no problems with either the water supply or heating.

Feeling hungry, he slipped his feet into his shoes without even bothering to tie them properly and headed outside before breakfast.

The spirits that were already awake were scattered throughout the yard.

Some were running around energetically first thing in the morning, while others were sprawled out on the ground like starfish.

Even so, the property was so spacious that it didn’t feel crowded.

It was a stark contrast to his old apartment in Seoul, where he had once let all the spirits out and then had to call them back because there wasn’t even enough room to walk.

“Hmm… So what should I do now?”

For Hyeonseong, doing nothing felt incredibly strange.

His life as a Hunter had been nothing but a relentless cycle of brutal missions and training, with barely enough time to sleep.

Even while hospitalized, he had devoted all his energy to treatment and rehabilitation.

Having this much free time with absolutely nothing to do was something he hadn’t experienced since he was a child.

What a fool. I finally have all the time in the world, and I don’t know what to do with it. I guess I’ll move around a little.

Oh Hyeonseong walked with a slight limp.

His left leg, which had been completely shattered, was now merely somewhat uncomfortable.

Thanks to more than a dozen major surgeries that had gone successfully, he had been able to preserve far more of its function than expected.

If he was willing to endure a little pain, he could even walk without limping.

Kwon Gyeongmin hadn’t noticed anything wrong with his leg at all during their journey from Seoul.

Of course, running properly was completely out of the question, but it didn’t seem like there would be many reasons to run around here anyway.

Right. For the time being, I’ll just clear my head and take it easy.

Feeling the gentle breeze as he walked, Oh Hyeonseong headed toward the vegetable garden.

He had suddenly remembered the lettuce seeds he had planted yesterday.

Naturally, there shouldn’t have been any change after only one day.

Still, he wanted to check whether the spirits had accidentally dug up the soil while playing around or whether anything else had gone wrong.

But when he reached the vegetable garden, he was confronted with an astonishing sight.

“What… What the hell is this?”

Oh Hyeonseong stood frozen in place and stared at the garden.

The lettuce was growing lush and healthy.

One side of the previously empty vegetable patch was now filled with vibrant green lettuce.

Hyeonseong stared at it as though he were having a staring contest with the plants, but obviously, no answer would come from that.

The situation made absolutely no sense.

Even if he had poured enormous amounts of illegal growth stimulants, complete with all their side effects, there was no way a plant could grow this quickly.

I didn’t plant seedlings. I planted seeds. And they’ve already germinated and grown enough to harvest?

There had been a time when humanity was driven to the brink by an extreme food shortage.

Even when unlimited growth stimulants had been used, the best they had managed was to shorten the growing period by roughly five or six times.

Yet this lettuce had taken only one day.

No, not even twenty-four hours.

It had grown completely overnight.

Could it be a mutant variety? I heard that prolonged exposure to excessive miasma could cause severe mutations in crops… But no. If the miasma were strong enough to cause something like this, there would have to be visible signs.

Chirp, chirp!

At that moment, spirits of life appeared among the lettuce.

The little creatures looked extremely happy. They bounced up and down and began babbling excitedly at Oh Hyeonseong.

Hyeonseong knelt down and listened carefully.

Then his eyes widened in shock.

“You… did this?”

The spirits nodded.

A brief silence followed.

It was an incredibly difficult thing to believe, but there was no way the spirits would lie about something like this.

“Huh… You guys had quite a talent. You can make crops grow faster?”

Eee! Eee!

The spirits became even more excited at his praise and began hopping around.

Oh Hyeonseong affectionately stroked several of the spirits that crowded around him, but he still felt a mixture of surprise and bewilderment.

I’ve been with them all this time, but I never dreamed they had an ability like this.

Come to think of it… ever since a certain point, most of my memories with the spirits have been from the battlefield.

As Hyeonseong’s achievements as a Hunter drew more attention and his status continued to rise, he became increasingly busy.

Toward the end, it had felt as though even having ten bodies wouldn’t have been enough.

A Hunter who was constantly rushing from one front line to another obviously had no reason to leisurely tend fields.

In a way, it was only natural that he had never discovered this ability.

No point dredging up old memories.

Oh Hyeonseong brushed off his knees and stood up.

The lettuce in the vegetable garden was proudly displaying its freshness, but he didn’t harvest it right away.

The reason was simple.

He felt uneasy about eating it immediately.

It’s not that I don’t trust the spirits… but I can’t help feeling a little uneasy.

Under normal circumstances, a plant would need to absorb nutrients for at least several dozen days before fully growing.

This was an almost supernatural rate of growth.

Remembering the social chaos caused by the horrific side effects of growth stimulants during the early days of the Gate crisis, Hyeonseong hesitated to shove this mysterious lettuce straight into his mouth.

“Well, for now… I should watch and see what happens.”

After finishing breakfast, Oh Hyeonseong went down to the village and met up with Kwon Gyeongmin.

Just as they had promised beforehand, Gyeongmin dragged him around the village, introducing him to the residents one by one.

Thanks to that, Oh Hyeonseong ended up meeting almost everyone in the village.

His first impression of them was quite good.

Perhaps because Kwon Gyeongmin held a fairly prominent position in the village, everyone seemed even more welcoming when they heard that Hyeonseong was his best friend.

Apparently, Gyeongmin hadn’t been exaggerating when he had bragged about the village on the way there.

In return, Oh Hyeonseong also greeted the residents sincerely.

If he intended to put down roots here instead of being some outsider who would leave after a few years, getting along well with the villagers was important.

So he even brought gifts with him, earning himself some goodwill.

He had once heard that rural villages sometimes required newcomers to pay a development fund, but apparently, this village didn’t collect one.

According to Kwon Gyeongmin, that was fairly uncommon.

They have no reason to care about me, yet they’re welcoming me so warmly simply because I’m their neighbor. That’s definitely something you don’t see often in cities these days.

Oh Hyeonseong returned home in a rather pleasant mood.

But the moment he stepped into the yard, he was reminded of the vegetable garden he had forgotten about.

“Oh, right. You were here.”

The lettuce was still sitting there peacefully.

It hadn’t rotted.

It wasn’t emitting poison.

It hadn’t grown to the size of a house due to excessive growth.

It was still fresh and vibrant, looking almost as though it were deliberately tempting him.

“…Let’s just eat.”

Oh Hyeonseong walked straight past the vegetable garden and went into the kitchen.

It was a somewhat awkward time for dinner, but after walking all over the village, he had worked up an appetite, so he decided to eat a little early.

He set the table and prepared his meal.

A bowl of dark-colored rice sat alongside stew and a few simple side dishes.

There was nothing wrong with the meal as an ordinary dinner.

Yet despite being hungry, Oh Hyeonseong’s expression showed little anticipation.

He scooped up a spoonful of rice first.

As he chewed the grains, his expression gradually became more and more displeased.

As expected, it feels like I’m chewing a lump of clay.

Even though it had just been freshly cooked, the rice was unbelievably dry and coarse.

No matter how many times he chewed, there was no hint of sweetness.

Instead, it stuck to the inside of his mouth like he was playing with clay.

Even just looking at the rice in the bowl, the characteristic color of factory-produced synthetic rice was enough to kill his appetite.

I should be used to this by now… Maybe it just feels worse now that I’ve left the city?

He had escaped the harsh, hectic life of the city to enjoy a quiet life surrounded by beautiful scenery and simple yet delicious country food.

That was the idyllic image of moving to the countryside that he had seen on television as a child.

The beautiful scenery and leisurely lifestyle were certainly there.

The problem was that without the pleasure of good food, the whole thing felt somewhat empty.

Back then, I never even had time to taste food like this properly. Maybe that’s why I feel the loss even more now.

Oh Hyeonseong smacked his lips.

But there was nothing he could do about it.

A retired, washed-up Hunter hiding out in the countryside had no chance of enjoying a luxury that even the president of a country couldn’t afford.

So he simply forced the rice and side dishes into his mouth.

Huff, huff!

At that moment, a spirit of life crossed the threshold and waddled toward him while babbling.

But behind the little creature was a lettuce leaf larger than its own body.

It had personally plucked a lettuce leaf from the vegetable garden and carried it all the way here.

The spirit held it out toward Oh Hyeonseong with all its strength.

“Y-you want me to eat this?”

Huff, huff!

The spirit nodded vigorously.

It was breathing heavily.

It had carried a lettuce leaf larger than itself all the way here alone, and was now sweating profusely from the effort.

Oh Hyeonseong was bewildered by the spirit’s unexpected actions, but he couldn’t bring himself to shake his head.

If he refused it now, the little creature would probably be deeply hurt.

It might become depressed for a while and hide underneath the dresser.

Right. If it weren’t safe to eat, it wouldn’t have given it to me.

He accepted the lettuce leaf being held out to him.

If it contained toxins or had undergone some dangerous mutation, there was no way the spirit of life would have failed to notice.

Of course, he still turned the lettuce over and inspected it suspiciously from every angle.

But when he found nothing unusual about its appearance, he cautiously put it into his mouth.

Chomp.

“……?!”

But at that very moment, an entirely new world unfolded before him.