## Chapter 11 – Cooking
+
[Surviving on a Deserted Island 2]
Objective: Secure 600ml of drinking water. (330/600ml)
Reward: 2 points
+
Remaining: 270ml.
How the hell am I supposed to get that?
“Shit. Now I gotta grill clams too. Cough, cough.”
The male flight attendant muttered under his breath.
We were all digging in the sand, building fires, placing stones on top, and grilling cockles one by one.
A delicious aroma tickled my nose along with the acrid smoke, but the fruits of our labor were all going to the students.
Yahoo!
And the kids were running around excitedly.
Various colorful lights streamed from multiple smartphones, and club music was blasting from somewhere.
The kids were dancing and enjoying the night.
The teachers, flight attendants, and I were busy grilling clams for them.
“Fucking brats. Am I your errand boy? Am I your mom?”
Seemingly quite angry, the male flight attendant was constantly spewing curses.
I understood how he felt, but I was a little worried about letting him be.
And, as expected, trouble erupted.
“Huh? What did that old dude just say?”
A girl passing by had caught him.
“Hey, guys. This old dude is cursing at us, saying something about being our mom?”
“No, I definitely didn’t say that…”
He was immediately dragged away by the boys and turned into a punching bag.
Thwack. Thwack, thwack.
“Ugh. W-wait. I was wrong, guys. Please forgive me…”
“I’m telling you, just hit my face once and we’ll call it even, okay? Come on, try it.”
Kim Taehoon spread his arms wide, offering his head to be hit.
But there was no way anyone would hit him.
Even a child knew what would happen after the moment of impact.
Thwack, thwack, thwack.
“Ugh.”
In the end, he was thoroughly beaten and collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
Judging by his breathing, he wasn’t dead.
“Drink up, drink up!”
The kids continued to make noise for a long time before gradually going to sleep one by one.
Only then could we grill clams to fill our empty stomachs.
Of course, all that was left was five clams per person.
“Good work, everyone.”
“Good job.”
Kim Yeonju and I exchanged greetings, but no one responded.
I didn’t know if they were just exhausted or if they had become estranged from us.
Frankly, I didn’t care about their circumstances.
My only concern was water.
I tried to think of various ways to get more water, but no other alternatives came to mind.
The only option was to sneak some.
So, I tried to take advantage of meal times, but I was too busy grilling clams to do so.
‘For now, I have no choice but to hope the kids fall asleep from the alcohol.’
I pretended to sleep on the beach, watching the kids.
But there were a few night owls who kept chatting.
I took a nap and tried to target the watch shift, but I couldn’t touch the food because the plastic wrap on top might make a rustling sound when I tried to remove it.
More than anything, it was too dark to be sure if the kids were actually asleep. It was too risky to gamble.
‘Guess I have to give up for today.’
As I trudged along the beach, I suddenly saw an empty plastic bottle rolling on the ground.
An idea flashed through my mind.
I picked it up and shook it.
It was faint, but there was definitely liquid sloshing around.
‘This is it.’
Even though it was a small amount, there was water inside the empty plastic bottles.
If I collected these, I might be able to make up the remaining amount I needed.
I immediately started looking for and picking up plastic bottles.
Normally, they wouldn’t be rolling around like this. Kim Jaejoon had ordered everyone to collect the empty bottles.
But the kids were too busy with their drunken party to care, and they had left their empty water bottles scattered everywhere.
I slowly gathered the droplets of water into one bottle.
Drop by drop, the water began to accumulate.
And finally, the notification appeared before my eyes.
[You have completed ‘Surviving on a Deserted Island 2’.]
[2 points have been awarded.]
[First to complete the quest among all participants! An additional 1 point has been awarded!]
I immediately checked the next quest. A blue screen flickered in the darkness.
[Surviving on a Deserted Island 3]
Objective: Make clam soup.
Success Condition: Completion level E or higher
Reward: 3 points + bonus points based on score
***
‘First cockles (clams), second drinking water, third clam soup. Were the previous two quests preliminary steps for the third quest?’
It’s quite considerate and systematic.
Instead of just throwing quests at you to complete, they’re connected and gradually build upon each other.
I think I’m starting to understand what the main quests are all about.
This is really like a guide manual for surviving on a deserted island.
It teaches you what kind of creatures are safe to eat and how to prepare them.
‘But this quest is quite difficult. Completion level, huh?’
Doesn’t that mean that if I don’t achieve a level E or higher, I might have to gather the ingredients again?
As someone who doesn’t have much water to spare, this was a very daunting quest.
There was no guarantee that another drunken party like yesterday would happen, and another day had passed, making water even more precious.
‘Hmm. What to do.’
Tada-da.
Just then, Kang Hyerin, who was running ahead, stopped in her tracks. Early in the morning, I was inevitably dragged out by her to run.
“Where’s the wooden stick?”
…She’s openly calling it a stick now.
I went to the bushes and brought back the hidden items.
And the event that had been happening for the past three years was repeated again today.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack, thwack, thwack.
“Your flanks are open! Your legs too!”
“Kuh.”
“You can’t even beat one girl and you’re so weak! If that’s the case, cut it off!”
Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack!
As I collapsed, a barrage of verbal abuse and indiscriminate beatings rained down on my entire body.
I curled up and took it, then soon let my arms and legs go limp and trembled.
As I did, I thought.
‘Clam soup, huh. Should I ask Yeonju noona for help?’
I’ve done it so many times now that I can act even while thinking about other things. My acting skills are already top-notch.
‘No. Even though Yeonju noona is kind, you never know what might happen. She might betray me. So let’s do it alone. It’s my first time cooking, but it shouldn’t be too difficult.’
Ugh….
A groan escaped my lips, and when there was no more resistance, the stick stopped abruptly.
“Hoo. What a refreshing start to the day. It feels like all the alcohol from last night has been washed away.”
Thump. Kang Hyerin threw the stick in front of me and left me alone.
After confirming that she was completely out of sight, I sat up as if nothing had happened.
“I must have been drunk. She couldn’t control her strength today and her attacks had some variation. I almost failed to act at the end.”
I’ve gotten to the point where I can figure out Kang Hyerin’s condition just by getting beaten.
Of course, the person doing the beating has no idea about that.
‘Well, that’s not what’s important.’
I went to the bushes, put down the stick, and picked up the pot instead.
Waves were coming in and out of the broken plane, and various debris had washed up on the shore, including this pot.
‘Right now, no one cares much about them, but after a little more time, they’ll all be collected and controlled.’
So, it was necessary to preemptively secure essential items by going around and collecting them in advance.
I looked down and saw the items hidden among the bushes.
Matches, a shirt, work gloves.
The items I’ve picked up so far, including the pot, total four.
From listening to the kids talk, I heard that there was a water purifier on the plane that could purify seawater into drinking water, but I haven’t found it yet.
‘The items I really need can’t be found even if I search with my eyes open.’
I moved my feet and found a suitable spot.
The bushes surrounded the beach appropriately, making it a clearing that would not be easily discovered even if the kids walked this way.
After settling down, I immediately started digging in the sand and setting up stones to prepare for a fire.
‘Honestly, I was a little surprised yesterday. I didn’t know Yoon Jihoo could do something like that.’
Yesterday, when I tried to start a fire without knowing what I was doing, Yoon Jihoo told me that I shouldn’t do that and taught me how to build a fire outdoors.
Digging a pit, creating holes for oxygen to enter, and how to build a fire without smoke, etc.
Of course, he was just standing next to me and giving instructions, and the ones actually moving were me, the teacher, and the flight attendants.
The problem was that no one except me could do it, so the atmosphere was quite tense.
-You’re old and can’t understand a word I say. Ugh. You fucking bastards. You call yourselves adults? Try to be half as good as this kid, you sons of bitches.
In the end, I had to make them all, including the ones for the others.
But the hard work I put in making them multiple times back then was now paying off.
I skillfully started a fire without hesitation.
‘They say that suffering is something you buy, and that’s true.’
After successfully starting the fire, I picked up the pot.
Inside the pot were 10 cockles along with seawater.
I had pretended to go to the bathroom this morning and caught them, then let them sit in saltwater to get rid of the sand.
After dumping out all the seawater, I placed the pot over the fire. Then I poured all the water I had worked so hard to obtain into it.
‘Please let me succeed in one try. Please.’
I honestly don’t know if this is how you make clam soup.
I asked Yeonju noona, but there were more missing ingredients than I thought.
‘But there’s no way I can get sake or chili peppers on this deserted island.’
Then I had no choice but to trust the judgment of the system that gave me the quest.
Water and clams. If I had these two things, I could create the form of clam soup, and there would be no problem in getting an E grade.
‘Please. Please.’
I looked down at the pot with earnestness.
The water boiled.
Bubbles rose, and soon the clams began to open their mouths.
‘Succeed.’
Bubbles rose to the top of the pot, overflowing.
Steam soared into the sky.
And,
The notification appeared before my eyes!
[You have successfully made clam soup. Completion level: E]
[You have completed ‘Surviving on a Deserted Island 3’.]
[3 points have been awarded.]
[First to complete the quest among all participants! An additional 1 point has been awarded!]
“Wow!”
I raised my arms in excitement.
As expected, as long as I diligently followed the steps prepared by the system, there would be no problem in clearing it.
Even if the quest difficulty increased later, it couldn’t be too high now in the early stages.
The early quests are practically tutorials. They’re often freebies.
‘Alright. Then what’s the next quest….’
I was excited and immediately opened the status window. And I was about to open the quest tab to check.
But at that moment, a random voice flew in from the side.
“Hmm.”
When I turned my head, I saw arms as thin as a model’s and thick thighs that contrasted with them.
Above them, ash-gray bobbed hair lightly fluttered in the wind.
Cute, big eyes were filled with curiosity.
“Park Jimin…?”
Holding her sandals in both hands, with her feet covered in sand, Park Jimin was looking down at me with an interested expression.
Her gaze passed over me and landed on the pot, the matches, and the empty water bottles.
