[Episode 01] The Absolute in the Corner of the House (3)
It’s already been a week since I was lucky enough to hunt Kellikan and level up my skills to gain new ones.
“Buy Jin Ramen Mild Flavor.”
[Do you really want to buy it?]
[Yes / No]
“yes.”
Jiiing―
Where the light from the store window lingered, a bag of 5 Jin Ramen Mild Flavor appeared.
I lifted it and checked the expiration date.
‘The expiration date has been pushed back since I bought it a few days ago.’
The expiration date on the package of ramen I finished this morning was exactly three days later than the expiration date written on it.
‘As expected, it comes out updated with the expiration date.’
The most useful of the newly acquired skills was by far the ‘Corner Absolute Shop’ skill.
A skill that allows you to purchase as many items as you want by registering them in the store.
In fact, it was thanks to this skill that I was able to avoid starving to death all this time.
‘It’s a bit disappointing that you can only register 10…’
There were a few things I found out while using the store.
Only 10 items can be registered, and once an item is registered, it cannot be deleted.
and
‘The condition of the items sold in the store is determined based on the condition of the item scanned first.’
For example, when I first registered with the store, the ramen had 3 months left on its shelf life.
That’s why all the ramen I buy at the store has an expiration date of 3 months from the current date.
That means the product you get is in exactly the same condition as the ramen it was in when it was registered in the store.
‘Well, I’ll have enough leftovers to last me for three months.’
In the current situation where there are no proper side dishes and delivery is impossible, ramen is the best.
Slurp slurp
I put water in a pot, placed it on the gas stove, and turned on the heat.
Tata tata tata hwareuk
After making sure the fire was lit, I added the dried radish soup and powdered soup and waited for the water to boil.
My lunch today too.
“Is it ramen? Is it ramen? Oh~ Ramen···.”
I was humming a song when I stopped and felt a sense of self-loathing for a moment.
“······.”
The world is coming to an end, and you don’t even know whether your parents are alive or dead, so how can you be at home, eating and drinking in comfort, and humming songs?
And that too in a house that my parents had invested all their savings in to buy.
“ha-.”
Bubble bubble
Still, we have to eat to live.
I put the noodles in as the water started boiling.
I blankly stared at the ramen and then stirred the noodles with my chopsticks.
And at the right time, I cracked an egg in.
After a while, the ramen noodles were transferred to a bowl at the perfect timing and the chewiness of the noodles was at its peak.
After repeating this for several days, I had become quite skilled at it.
Slurp
The taste did not disappoint my expectations, but I felt like it was lacking something.
‘Are you getting sick of ramen because you eat it every day?’
I’ve been living alone for over three years now, but this is the first time I’ve eaten only ramen for so long.
Because my mom usually came to our house once a week.
Even if I just told her to relax and go, my mom always cleaned the house, prepared side dishes, or made curry for me.
Whenever my mom came and went, the fridge was always full of food, and all I had to do was cook.
In order to eat all the side dishes before they spoil, I rarely had to boil ramen.
“···mom.”
It’s only been a week since I last ate my mom’s cooking, but why do I miss it so much?
I never missed it this much even in the military.
Stop.
A tear fell out of nowhere.
I thought blankly, wiping my face.
‘Is your head going crazy?’
Just a moment ago, you were singing while boiling ramen, and now you’re shedding tears with ramen in your mouth.
Even I looked at it and my own mental state didn’t seem that good.
‘You need to come to your senses.’
There was half a bowl of ramen left, but I had no appetite.
‘I guess I should throw it away.’
Food waste.
Originally, I would have tried to prevent it from coming out as much as possible, and if it did, I would have collected it and thrown it away later, but now I have another way.
“Warehouse open.”
I opened the warehouse, looked at the bowl of ramen, and gave an order.
“Keep the contents in the bowl. The noodles, the broth, and the toppings.”
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[Would you like to store it in the warehouse?]
“huh.”
The light from the warehouse illuminated the ramen bowl, and the inside of the bowl was emptied as if the dishes had been washed.
In this way, leftover food could be preserved.
Through various experiments, it was discovered that food does not mix or rot inside a warehouse.
‘It’s useful in its own way. You can eat it if you run out of food.’
After finishing the meal, I roughly rinsed the dishes and stacked them in the sink.
-Son! You have to wash the dishes regularly!
When I saw the pile of dishes, I remembered my mother’s nagging voice and became depressed again.
“Whew. The store is open.”
【The Absolute Shop in the Corner of the House】
Classic Non-Slip Dumbbell 3kg (16,990 won)
Jin Ramen Mild Flavor (3,100 won)
Jeju Samdasoo, 2L, 12 units (12,400 won)
Gomgom Korean Rice 5kg (14,890 won)
Gomgom Special, 10 pieces (3,950 won)
Easy-to-digest milk, 930ml, 2 packs (6,220 won)
Yangban Olive Kim 24 packs (9,800 won)
Canola oil, 900ml, 2 packs (12,330 won)
Half-left Ottogi Tomato Ketchup, 500g (3,350 won)
Tangerine peel (300 won)
Amount held: 1,893,340 won
▶Item registration
There are currently a total of 10 items registered in the store.
Starting with the dumbbells I registered to catch goblins, I registered only daily necessities such as ramen, water, rice, eggs, milk, seaweed, and cooking oil.
The first trace of the mistake I made was the ‘half-ketchup’.
‘I thought that if I registered it in a store, it would just become a new product.’
But I never thought I’d end up with the title ‘Half-Remaining’.
The ketchup I bought to try was actually a used ketchup that was halfway through its original condition when I registered.
It was a great blessing that the store had listed the new, unopened product before registering the ketchup.
And the very last item in the store.
Tangerine peel (300 won)
My blood pressure goes up just looking at that.
After confirming that ketchup was registered in an imperfect state, I got a little experimental and tried registering tangerine peel.
It was something I did out of pure curiosity: ‘Can this kind of trash even be registered?’
“What a fu*king idiot.”
The price of curiosity was high.
When I tried to register the shampoo right after that, I saw a notification that said, [You can no longer register items in the store.]
‘I should have been more careful.’
I hated my past self for acting without thinking, but there was nothing I could do about what had already happened.
‘It’s okay. Since shop skills also have levels, there must be a way to level them up. Then the number of items that can be registered will also increase.’
It makes no sense that a store called the Absolute’s Shop can only register 10 items.
Anyway, things like shampoo and conditioner weren’t things I needed right away, and there were also some new products that hadn’t even been opened.
‘It would be nice if I could level up just before opening new items.’
That way, you can buy the whole thing.
At that time, I was looking at the store window and thinking about various things.
“uh?”
Amount held: 1,893,339 won
Even though I clearly did nothing, my balance decreased by 1 won.
“what?”
After thinking about it carefully, I was able to come to one conclusion.
‘···So even maintaining dignity costs money?’
Electricity, gas, and water.
It seemed like it would cost money to maintain these.
The reason the money is leaking out even though you’re doing nothing is probably because the refrigerator is running.
‘This is a big deal.’
There were many things that required money, but there was no way to make money.
The only way to make money right now was by hunting goblins, but that’s no longer possible.
‘Damn goblin bastards.’
Even though the goblins were quick-witted, they were too fast.
That day, after I had killed a few by dropping dumbbells, the one that had been swearing at me moved to another location and ran away for a while.
Thanks to that, the number of goblins I’ve hunted in the past week is only 13.
Most of them were hunted on the first day.
Since the goblins moved, I’ve only been able to catch two.
‘It’s so inefficient.’
The first day was pretty exciting.
Because if you buy a set of dumbbells that cost 16,990 won and catch two goblins, you can get back about 5,000 won.
The reason I was able to catch the goblins as soon as I threw the dumbbells was because the goblins were gathered under the living room window.
Thanks to this, it was possible to hit it no matter how I threw it.
‘But now it’s like throwing ten and catching one.’
It costs almost 170,000 won to catch one goblin.
At this rate, the 2 million won I had earned by hunting Kellykan would soon be spent.
‘If that happens, it’s over.’
If I spend all that money, I will lose not only food but also the skill to maintain the dignity of the absolute being.
‘Damn. Is there anyone I can catch?’
In the past, if you looked down the apartment walkway, you would always see a few goblins walking in groups, but now, that frequency was very low.
I had to spend all day looking out the window to find one or two groups, and only a handful of them came within striking distance of me dropping my dumbbells to kill them.
‘Thank goodness the goblins came looking for me.’
A piece of Kellykan’s corpse left behind by the goblins.
Maybe because of that, a group of goblins came to visit a few times.
However, since the distance to where Kellykan’s corpse was located was far, it was impossible to hunt by summoning dumbbells from the warehouse, so the dumbbells had to be thrown directly.
Naturally, the accuracy is bound to be absurdly low.
‘I don’t see a single one today.’
Moreover, the situation was only getting worse.
I haven’t seen a group of goblins all day yesterday or today, maybe because rumors have spread among the goblins.
‘We have to find a way.’
Something groundbreaking was needed.
‘For example, a Kellykan flies in and hits the window.’
Thinking back, it was truly a stroke of luck.
‘If it weren’t for that, I would have slowly withered to death.’
If I didn’t have a large amount of experience points to raise my skill level, I wouldn’t have been able to awaken the Shop and Dignity Maintenance skills, and I would have consumed all of my food by now.
Maybe he was chewing on raw rice.
‘Oh, where did that stupid Kellykan come from?’
It may sound peaceful in this situation, but the sky seen from the high-rise apartment was clear without a single cloud.
“The weather is nice.”
That was when.
“······?”
Beyond the clear blue sky, something appeared that looked like a black dot.
It grew bigger and bigger, and soon became the size of a fist.
‘That’s?’
Only then could I recognize its identity.
Because I saw something exactly like that about a week ago.
‘Kellycan!’
It was a giant monster bird, the Kellican.
A situation I’ve imagined several times over the past week.
It had already been decided how to act.
“Ahhhhh! Over here! This monster aaaaa …
I opened the living room window and waved my arms vigorously.
I even screamed and jumped around loudly so that he could find me.
‘please!’
With sincere heart.
“Over here! Over here―! You damn monster!”
I drew aggro.
And it worked.
‘Okay!’
I locked eyes with the guy.
The bastard was flying straight towards this place.
‘nice!’
If an excited Kellykan pokes his head here, the game is over.
I’ll just faint and fall to the floor like that.
There were no goblins left to take Kellykan’s breath away now, but that was no problem.
‘I can finish it with dumbbells myself.’
Kellykan was flying towards me at a frightening speed.
But unlike last time, I didn’t feel scared. My heart was just pounding with anticipation.
‘If you just catch that, you’ll level up 100%.’
That guy was even bigger than the one I saw before.
Of course, the level will be higher.
Then the experience points will be much higher and you will be given more money.
It was a total hit.
“Come at me you son of a bitch―!”
It was at that time that I was provoking him with all my might.
Flutter!
Just before the bastard hit the window, a strong gust of wind blew.
“Ugh!”
When I closed my eyes and opened them again because of the sudden gust of wind.
“······Huh?”
The bastard had disappeared without a trace.
‘What the heck is this···?’
Where the hell did it go?
Then suddenly I got goosebumps.
‘no way?’
I slowly raised my head and met eyes with Kelly Khan, who was standing upright on the roof of the apartment building, looking down at me.
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