IFH - 9

Facing Baek Dan, her sanity returned and she felt embarrassed about hugging him and saying such cringey lines.

'Crazy... like I had a leg cramp my ass. Why did he even accept that?'

Should've controlled my mouth too, not just given me mental protection, Judge of the Dead-oppa.

Baek Eun screamed internally at the overwhelming embarrassment while washing lettuce half-heartedly.

The smell of grilling samgyeopsal wafted from the table, stimulating her forgotten hunger.

The sizzling sound on the iron plate and the savory aroma of the pork made saliva pool under her tongue, hard to endure.

Just then, Baek Dan shouted loudly.

"Peanut! The meat's done. Is the lettuce ready?"

"All done. Just a moment!"

She shook off the water and piled the lettuce high on a plate, bringing it to the table.

Baek Dan was transferring the appetizingly grilled samgyeopsal, mushrooms, onions, and garlic to a large plate.

Samgyeopsal was precious, but even more precious were the mushrooms, onions, and garlic.

This one dinner easily exceeded a civilian's monthly salary.

"Peanut. But where did Mom and Dad go again?"

"Mom got vacation this time, so they're traveling with Dad."

Did they say they were going to Las Vegas? At that age, the city of pleasure—her parents' hearts were still young.

Baek Dan grinned and served meat onto her personal plate.

"Our Eun-ie must be bored at home alone."

"Huh, no? Not at all."

It's great, what are you talking about?

The samgyeopsal Baek Dan grilled was golden and glistening. Remaining fat was still sizzling on top of the meat.

Truly the legendary crispy outside, juicy inside.

Baek Eun laid lettuce on her palm with great anticipation. With reverent heart, she placed a piece of meat, then added a garlic clove to catch the grease.

At times like this, scallion salad or onion slices would be perfect, but unfortunately she had to be satisfied with this much.

"Well... shall I eat...?"

Baek Eun opened her mouth wide and bit into the lettuce wrap in one go.

Chewing, chewing, working hard with her small mouth, Baek Eun's eyes opened wide.

"Wow... crazy, was it always this good? Why did this go extinct? How did humanity endure such a great loss?"

Delicious...!!

The fresh, cool lettuce and hot samgyeopsal met in harmony. The crunchy, crispy texture was excellent.

The lettuce was an amazing vegetable that wrapped the meat's juices while cutting the greasiness. The moment she praised the lettuce in admiration.

[Clap clap! Recognized by the proxy of ■■, an effect is granted to lettuce!]

[Item Description

Name: Lettuce

Rank: S

Description: Freshly harvested lettuce. When consumed, vision increases by 10% for one week.]

Vision increases through Lettuce (S) effect.

[A quest has arrived!

Congratulations. You've granted an effect to a crop for the first time! But you don't plan to be satisfied with just this, right?

Grant effects to potatoes and tomatoes too.

Success reward: Experience 100, Cabbage Seeds, Chili Pepper Seeds, Skill: Watering

Failure penalty: Permanent deletion of Fragment of Truth II

Automatically accepting quest as there is no time limit.]

"...?"

Huh? What is this?

Baek Eun, who had been chewing meat, froze solid and blinked slowly.

And then.

"Huh? What. Peanut! This lettuce gives a buff! Did you know about this?"

Baek Dan, who had wrapped meat in lettuce across from her, jumped up excitedly.

"Hey, what... it says vision increases? What is this?"

Baek Dan examined the front and back of the lettuce with an expression of having seen something rare.

"Uh... I don't know, me neither."

"If you don't know, who would."

"I really don't know. I just found out too."

When Baek Eun answered with a bewildered face, Baek Dan muttered in admiration.

"Wow, isn't this huge? Getting buffs from food instead of potions, does that even make sense? No wait, but...."

Baek Dan's head tilted slightly.

At the suspicious gaze, Baek Eun flinched.

"Why hasn't this been rumored? Peanut, you've been selling lettuce for quite a while."

"...This is probably because the buff just got attached."

Probably rumors will spread like wildfire by tomorrow.

'Here we go again.'

Baek Eun could easily predict people's reactions. Crops with buff effects. This was unprecedented.

No, beyond unprecedented, this was simply an enormous event that could change the flow of the Awakener ecosystem.

'Why did this happen?'

Baek Eun thought of the system message that appeared earlier.

[Clap clap! Recognized by the proxy of ■■, an effect is granted to lettuce!]

Could it be because I praised how delicious the lettuce was?

...Is this for real?

"Wow. Peanut, you're going to make the news again? Hehe. At this rate you'll become a superstar."

Baek Dan was making noise beside her, but none of it reached her ears. Though bewildered, Baek Eun decided to think calmly.

Vision increase buff on lettuce. Then what about other crops?

She suddenly felt an intense urge to plant the potato and tomato seeds in her inventory to check.

"Baek Dan. I think I'm going crazy. Am I really going to save the world with my garden crops?"

"Saving the world, what ambitious dreams! Let's talk while eating. The meat's getting cold."

"Ah right. Meat comes first."

To think of other things before sacred meat.

Nodding, Baek Eun picked up her chopsticks again with reflection.

They ate so combatively that the two of them finished all two kilograms of samgyeopsal without leaving any behind.

∞∞∞

"Whew. I'm full. To think I'd wrap and eat all this meat with lettuce before I die."

Baek Dan grinned and poured a cup of coffee, placing it before her. Seeing his back heading to the sink, she hesitated to speak.

"Baek Dan. I have something to ask."

"Yeah."

The hand holding the mug fidgeted. After choosing her words carefully, she asked, making sure her voice wouldn't tremble.

"About Lee Dojae. What do you think of him?"

Baek Dan's hand, wiping the grill with a kitchen towel in front of the sink, paused.

"Lee Dojae? Why him? Don't tell me you're interested in him?"

"No. He appears on the news sometimes. Since he's so famous, I was just curious."

Baek Dan raised one eyebrow. An expression of something not sitting well.

"He's solid. Model-like. But I don't like him much. Can't read what he's thinking inside."

"For someone you don't like, you seemed to be trying hard to recruit him."

"That's separate from not liking him. His ability is outstanding. Missing such talent would be a loss. Though he won't come anyway."

"...Outstanding ability."

Baek Eun clenched both fists tight. The image of Baek Dan disappearing at Lee Dojae's fingertips was still vivid.

"Yeah. I happened to enter a dungeon with him once. I was shocked when he froze monsters in an instant and shattered them. I wondered how he became world rank 1 with elemental ability, but after seeing that, I understood."

"...What?"

Clink. The hand holding the mug lost its grip.

'No. That's not Lee Dojae's real ability.'

His real ability was withering and killing people by absorbing their life force like that. How long has he been hiding his true nature? Even Baek Dan, an information hub, didn't know.

While Baek Eun was biting her lips, Baek Dan added.

"Of course, most people probably don't even know he has elemental ability. He's famous for solo play. Not many people have seen him use his ability."

Baek Dan, having finished wiping the grill, put on rubber gloves and squeezed dish soap onto a sponge.

"Anyway, don't even pay attention to someone like that. People should be the same inside and out, but looking at him just gives me a bad feeling."

Sorry, Baek Dan.

I think I'll have to pay some attention to that suspicious guy after all.

"But if he has no affiliation, how do you contact him?"

"He's a professor at your school. Special professor at Korea University's Hunter Department."

Surprised, Baek Eun opened her eyes wide.

"He's a professor at our school? How old is he?"

"Twenty-six, two years older than us. You didn't know? It was all over the news and portal sites for a while, youngest professor at Korea University."

She vaguely remembered seeing it in passing on the news. She became bewildered at the vaguely rising memory.

No, why would such a person go around killing people? You really can't judge a book by its cover.

Having learned enough, Baek Eun helped with cleanup. Even so, there was nothing to do but wipe the table since Baek Dan had already put everything away.

She couldn't let this fool of a brother who cleaned up despite having promised dish duty die.

Baek Eun wiped the table roughly with a cloth while lost in thought.

'He said Korea University professor. Good.'

Baek Eun recalled her student ID in the drawer.

She had taken a leave of absence because she hated people's attention, but it seemed time to emerge from her long seclusion.

'Need to plant tomatoes and potatoes too. Need to dig into Lee Dojae's background too.'

Sigh. Tiring.

The world won't leave me alone.

∞∞∞

The next day, Baek Eun accessed the internet to apply for returning to school. Then her gaze suddenly went to the news articles.

['Gate Crisis' First Since, Netizens Shocked at Appearance of 'Lettuce'!]

[Korea Did It, Who Is the Person Who Restored Endangered Lettuce?]

[Shock! Lettuce Effect Makes Even 'Blind People' Open Their Eyes Wide!]

Baek Eun sighed after scanning the attention-grabbing headlines. More than half were buzzing about the lettuce's effects.

"That was fast."

After brief consideration, she clicked on an article.