Was I the Only One Eating?

"Our Hao, you're really so well-behaved. Have you been in cars a lot before?"

Haeyeon turned her head around completely to look back as she spoke.

From the back seat, Hao blinked his big eyes in response, meeting Haeyeon's gaze.

His fluffy tail, of course, wagged gently, which delighted Haeyeon.

Ian stroked Hao's snowy, thick fur with a smile.

'No way he's been in cars a lot.'

But for hours now, Hao had been sitting stock still like a statue.

Not only did he not bark, but he didn't even twist his body around inside the car.

Of course not. That's because Ian had given him a command to sit quietly like that.

In any case, with Hao's sheer size, he nearly filled up the entire back seat, so moving was hardly easy.

The group was in Jeongnam's car, all heading together to Seoul.

Ian was sitting in the back seat with Hao, and Haeyeon was in the front passenger seat.

Haeyeon kept turning around under the pretense of watching Hao, repeatedly singing his praises: "Our Hao, our Hao..."

"Our Hao, he's just too cute. How can he sit so still like that?"

"Hao is just a good boy."

"Really, he's so good. Look at those big eyes. It's like all the kindness in the world is gathered up in him."

"Yes, that's how Hao is."

They had been having conversations like this for hours now.

"Let's stop by a service area for a bit. We all left so early—no one's had breakfast, right?"

At Jeongnam's suggestion, Haeyeon cheered.

"Yay! Gotta get tornado potatoes!"

Ian looked a little puzzled for a moment but soon retrieved a memory about service areas from Ahn Bin's mind.

'Ah, it's a traveler's rest stop.'

A place to take a quick break, eat a simple meal, and use the restroom on long trips.

But the actual experience at the service area was much more than that.

It was a place of curiosities—not just restrooms and convenience facilities, but shops selling all sorts of items, and above all, vendor stalls selling a dazzling array of snack foods.

"What would you like? Hot dogs? Tteokbokki? Tornado potatoes? Hamburgers? Donuts? Coffee? Ramen? Or a full meal?"

Looking around as Haeyeon listed options, Ian saw rows of different foods lined up.

Service areas had their own unique food culture.

You could get a proper meal at the restaurant, but there were plenty of foods to eat on the go, and it looked like fun. There were many things he wanted to try.

"Tornado potatoes and hot dogs, tteokbokki too. Oh, and fish cake skewers, walnut pastries, roasted squid, sausages. And of course, coffee for everyone."

"That much?"

"Don't worry. I'll treat. I saw this morning—the reward for monster hunting came through."

Ian grinned broadly.

He'd checked his account that morning and, thinking about how frugally Ahn Bin had lived, almost teared up.

Not that he actually cried, but still.

The reward money was an amount Ahn Bin had never received before—at least, not as an hourly wage.

Ahn Bin had been extremely frugal, using whatever was left after buying land and house near Mount Jiri. But now...

'That won't be necessary anymore. I have golden hands. Whenever my hands touch something, it gains value.'

Of course, Ian hadn't recovered all his power yet, nor did he have a particularly fat bank balance, but it was enough to buy plenty of food at the service area.

"Oh! Really? You'll buy it all? Hero, you give off service area vibes!"

"Hey! I already told you not to call me 'Hero'."

"Oh, right!"

Cheerfully, Haeyeon ran off to buy food.

"Ah, I should be the one treating you..."

Jeongnam scratched his head.

"Next time, then."

"I'll treat in Seoul, for sure."

At that moment, a notification sound rang from Jeongnam's phone.

Reading the message, he sighed in relief and looked up.

"Whew, good thing we didn't take the express bus."

"Why?"

"This just in: a monster showed up at the Seoul Express Bus Terminal."

"Oh, really?"

Ian took out his phone and opened the internet.

There'd been no news this morning, but now something had happened.

As expected, the monster was a slime.

'Those slimes really get around. Anyway, I should go have a look.'

He was eager to see how the military would deal with the slime, and since hunting monsters caused pollution, maybe, with luck, he could prevent it on the spot.

"Your order's ready!"

After a short wait, Haeyeon returned, both arms full of food.

"What are you all looking at?"

"A monster appeared at the Seoul Express Bus Terminal."

"Oh, really?"

Haeyeon craned her neck to look at the news.

"Let's get back to the car and eat. We can listen to the radio news too."

Ian took half the food from Haeyeon and headed back to the car.

Haeyeon and Jeongnam followed.

'Mmm. Smells good. Hao's going to love this sausage.'

The moment he got in the car, Ian handed a sausage to Hao.

Without bothering to chew, Hao swallowed the sausage whole in a single gulp.

"Wow! Hao eats so well! Maybe we should've bought more?"

Haeyeon, turned halfway toward Hao again, watched admiringly.

"No, it's fine. Hao had breakfast already."

"Really? That's a relief."

Actually, Hao hadn't had breakfast that morning—instead, the night before, Ian had taken him through the portal to Praeri land and let him eat his usual fill.

Ian had gone to recharge his Praeri energy, and this time, Hao had come along.

So what did Hao usually eat?

Though an omnivore, his particular favorite was river fish—skewer fish found throughout the rivers of Praeri.

'He likes Earth food too, huh?'

It seemed Praeri creatures had no trouble adapting to Earth.

As long as they ate anything, there wouldn't be an issue—unless, of course, people tried to hunt them as monsters.

'Hao, you'll be alright.'

So long as Ian was by his side, nothing would happen. Hao wore a leash—Ian could just insist he was a dog.

Ian then set about sampling the service area foods himself:

Hot dogs, tteokbokki, fish cake skewers, walnut pastries, roasted squid, tornado potatoes, coffee...

He tasted each one in turn.

Everything was delicious. He savored the unique flavors of each.

This was an experiment as much as a meal for Ian.

He had to absorb and sense the energy of Earth.

Energy comes from nature itself. Living beings build the basics of using energy by eating food.

Of course, food isn't the only way to absorb energy, but to research Earth's energy, you have to start by eating its food.

'I can finally see how Praeri energy is different.'

Both Praeri and Earth energy belonged to the universe.

But each manifested differently depending on their respective times and spaces.

By Ian's observations so far, the energy level of Earth seemed lower than that of Praeri.

In short, Earth's energy was extremely subdued or stagnant.

Because of that disparity, the abilities of Praeri creatures seemed magnified on Earth.

In other words, Hao likely wouldn't have any trouble purifying pollution.

'If only I could raise the energy level of Earth's energy, I could wield it like Praeri energy...'

If he could just figure out that method, Ian's limitations while in a human body would no longer matter.

"Wow, you're really eating with gusto."

A sudden voice broke his thoughts.

Haeyeon was looking at him wide-eyed.

"Oh, was I the only one eating? You two... aren't you eating?"Ian came to his senses and looked at Haeyeon and Jeongnam.

"No, I ate too."

"It's fine. I don't usually eat much in the mornings."

They both dusted off their hands as they answered.

Looking down, Ian realized there was no food left.

* * *

"So a monster popped up at the terminal and now even the highway is totally jammed."

"Maybe we should just stop somewhere and walk?"

"Let's at least get off the highway first. Anyway, banpo and Seocho are probably impossible, so let's try getting off at Yangjae."

"I just want to get out anywhere, soon."

Jeongnam and Haeyeon chatted.

They were still on the highway but had already entered Seoul.

The portal had appeared in Seoul's Seocho-gu. The polluted area covered Seocho and Gangnam.

Their destination was also Seocho. But now, with a new monster at the express terminal, traffic was paralyzed in the area.

Ian silently gazed out the window.

Even though all he could see were cars, the tension was thick.

Perhaps because they now entered disaster-designated Seoul, the atmosphere had changed.

Everyone in the car was tense—even Hao's fur bristled a little.

At the tollgate, the junction, and even along the shoulder of the expressway, he could see military vehicles standing guard.

"Wow, the mood is seriously tense."

"Now it really feels like a disaster has struck."

Haeyeon shivered and Jeongnam shook his head.

On the way to Seoul, it had felt calm—they had enjoyed the scenery and joked. But nearing Seoul, everyone snapped to alertness.

'So this is what it's like.'

Ian truly felt the mood was different.

Mount Jiri was so far away that even a tank would take ages to get there—the villagers' indifference to the chaos in Seoul made sense now.

If the trouble is far, people naturally feel less threatened.

Of course, there had been incidents near Mount Jiri too, but Ian had resolved those quickly, so everything calmed down again.

"Didn't they say Seoul, Incheon, and Gimpo were designated as disaster areas?"

Ian asked Jeongnam.

"Yes, that's right. At least they didn't declare martial law nationwide. The government had thought about it, but the National Assembly blocked it, saying if they did, the economy and everything would collapse."

"Martial law? Geez, scary."

Haeyeon shuddered again.

"After killing a few monsters, I guess they decided it wasn't necessary to go that far. But they didn't expect the pollution problem."

Jeongnam continued.

Monster hunting had been chaotic at first, but they coped, somehow. Of course, they still hadn't gotten near the root of the problem: the Tower.

The immediate issue was pollution.

When monsters first poured out, people nearby died and buildings were destroyed.

But once the army began hunting monsters, deaths from being eaten directly decreased.

Instead, the pollution problem arose—which was especially bad in Seocho and Gangnam.

After all, those were the districts with most corporate buildings, legal institutions, and luxury apartments.

All of Seoul was officially a disaster area, but except for the sky-hole, the Tower, and the pollution at its core in Seocho-Gangnam, for most people daily life went on almost normally.

The same went for Incheon and Gimpo. Pollution was limited to certain districts, but since it appeared suddenly in cities, the damage wasn't minor.

Anyway, cities with pollution were designated as disaster zones: Seoul, Incheon, and Gimpo.

Of course, portals hadn't appeared in every one of these locations.

The monsters in Incheon and Gimpo were likely those that had flowed out from the portal in Seocho.

'So for now, I only have to keep an eye on the portal in Seocho.'

According to the internet, the portal there looked as if a fragment of space had been ripped open.

It was quite different from the neat portal that had appeared behind the Mount Jiri house.

It was easy to see why Earthlings called it a "Tower", from its appearance alone—a long distortion of space reaching up to the sky.

Ian wanted to go and observe the Seocho portal himself as soon as possible.

"But shouldn't our town have been declared a disaster area too?"

Haeyeon tilted her head.

"Well, we had monsters come out, but it was taken care of completely."

Jeongnam replied.

"Are they neglecting us because we're a rural area? Is it because they don't want to hand out disaster relief?"

Haeyeon grumbled.

"That's part of it, but if we were designated, the army would be moving around, and there would be all kinds of restrictions. That wouldn't be so good, would it?"

"Oh, I hate that. Let's just say we solved everything by ourselves."

"Yeah, we have the volunteer patrol and Ahn Bin, after all."

"That's right! Our village will stay undefeated!"

"Ah, we're finally getting off. From here on, we're in Seoul proper. Let's all stay sharp."

Jeongnam said, turning the wheel.

Ian looked out the window.

The landscape of disaster-stricken Seoul gradually revealed itself.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.