NLTF 05

Chapter 5

An Unexpected Visitor

Vroom!

The cool sound of an engine came from the vehicle that had been rattling along.

Oh Hyeonseong got out of the driver’s seat and headed into the house.

“It’s all fixed, ma’am. The engine should start properly again now.”

“Thank you, Hyeonseong. We were already short-handed, and you helped with the harvest too. I never imagined you’d even fix the car for me. I heard you came from the city. Did you work at an auto repair shop?”

“No, I was just a government employee. I happened to know a little about cars because there were a few times in the past when I had to work on one.”

“Oh, my. You’re so polite and handsome, too. I’d love to introduce you to my daughters! I wonder when those girls are ever going to get married after moving to the city.”

“Hahaha…”

Oh Hyeonseong gave an awkward laugh.

Just as he had intended, it seemed his efforts to win the villagers’ favor were paying off wonderfully.

Mrs. Hwang was something of a social butterfly in the village, so getting on her good side would go a long way toward building a good reputation and becoming part of the local community.

Kwon Gyeongmin had deliberately given him a heads-up that she would be particularly busy during the autumn harvest season.

“Hmm. Hmm. Definitely prime husband material.”

Yoo Eunha, sitting on the edge of the wooden porch, nodded in agreement.

She was grinning while munching away at some rice cakes.

“Sorry, oppa. I already ate all the rice cakes.”

“…Are you really okay just sitting around here? I don’t have any crops to tend to, but I heard your operation is pretty large.”

“We already finished harvesting the potatoes last time, so we’ve gotten past the busiest period. Things are pretty quiet now.”

Oh Hyeonseong sat down beside her on the porch.

After their previous meeting, the siblings had agreed to drop formal speech and speak casually with each other.

There was a difference in age, but it wasn’t particularly large, and Hyeonseong was grateful that his next-door neighbors had approached him so warmly.

“When we went to Seoul last time, it was to deliver the potatoes we harvested directly to the department store. And one of the advantages of expensive facilities is that they require fewer workers relative to their size.”

“So that’s why you came here to kindly help with the farm work?”

“We usually get kimchi from that lady. Hehe.”

Yoo Eunha picked up the remote control.

She changed the channel from an unpopular variety show, and a news interview appeared on the screen.

A handsome man with striking features was speaking casually in front of a huge crowd of fans and reporters.

“Wow, Ryu Jihwa cleared another S-Rank Gate in the United States.

And he did it solo, too. He’s going to get tons of commercial offers.”

Yoo Eunha stared at the television with her mouth hanging open.

She tried not to show it, but there was clearly a hint of fangirl excitement in her expression.

“Oh? Come to think of it, Ryu Jihwa also worked for the Administration Bureau before joining an agency. Did you ever run into him?”

“We never worked together in the field or anything, but I have seen him.”

“Wha—really? No way! What is he like in person? Is he really that handsome up close?”

“I don’t know.”

Yoo Eunha hurriedly moved closer and questioned him in astonishment, but Oh Hyeonseong merely shrugged.

These days, Ryu Jihwa was the face of Aegis, one of the Big Three entertainment agencies, and an enormous superstar.

But just a few years ago, he had been nothing more than a fresh-faced rookie.

He hadn’t been experienced enough to work alongside Hyeonseong as either a colleague or junior, let alone go out on the same missions.

However, whenever Hyeonseong was injured and unable to participate in field operations, he sometimes worked as an instructor, training younger Hunters.

Ryu Jihwa had been one of the trainees in a class he taught back then.

The kid had shown considerable potential, so Hyeonseong remembered putting him through brutal training.

Seeing that clumsy kid standing in front of cameras like that… I guess the world really has changed.

During the five years Hyeonseong spent confined to a hospital room, the changing world he noticed most clearly was the one presented through the mass media.

From national television news to current-affairs programs and entertainment channels, there wasn’t a single place that didn’t talk about Hunters.

Now that they had emerged into the public eye, Hunters had become figures who influenced society in countless ways, in addition to contributing to national power and security.

Of course, in rural areas like this, daily dramas and trot competition shows remained overwhelmingly more popular.

“Okay, okay. You two worked hard, so eat up and take a break.”

Mrs. Hwang had somehow brought out an entire table of food from inside and set it down.

A feast centered around potato pancakes accompanied by makgeolli looked incredibly appetizing, and Yoo Eunha happily picked up her chopsticks.

“Oppa, aren’t you going to eat? You must be hungry.”

“I’ll eat. I am.”

Although he picked up his chopsticks, Oh Hyeonseong wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the food.

There was a reason for that.

Ever since his shocking meal the other day, Hyeonseong had been eating nothing but lettuce at every meal.

He hadn’t eaten even a single bite of rice, and he was beginning to physically feel the lack of carbohydrates.

Yet his diet remained unchanged.

In fact, that very morning, he had eaten all the lettuce he had planted in his vegetable garden.

Yoo Eunha, who was enthusiastically stuffing herself with potato pancakes drenched in soy sauce, looked at him and asked,

“Come to think of it, did you try the potatoes we gave you?”

“No, not yet.”

“Why not?”

“I had some things to take care of. I’ll try them today.”

Oh Hyeonseong smiled.

His attention wasn’t on the food in front of him at all.

He was already filled with anticipation for what awaited him when he returned home.

After his unforgettable meal with the lettuce, Oh Hyeonseong had bought seed potatoes online.

They were completely ordinary potato seedlings.

He hadn’t gone around different nurseries looking for the healthiest ones.

He had simply purchased a small quantity online from some unknown company.

On top of that, it wasn’t even the proper season for planting autumn potatoes, and he hadn’t bothered with even the basic plastic mulching needed for cultivation.

He had simply planted them without any preparation whatsoever.

And yet, the potatoes he planted had grown rapidly.

They had grown so much in a single day that the time it took for the seed potatoes to be delivered had been longer than their actual growing period.

“The harvest is finished. Now it’s time for the final showdown.”

Oh Hyeonseong sat down before the table with a solemn expression.

Two bowls of steamed potatoes sat before him, sending wisps of steam into the air.

At first glance, they looked like identical potatoes.

But the two varieties had completely different origins.

The potatoes on the left were premium potatoes supplied to a department store, given to him by the Yoo siblings from next door.

The potatoes on the right were homegrown in Hyeonseong’s own garden by a novice farmer with absolutely no experience.

Thump.

With a nervous expression, Oh Hyeonseong picked up one of the potatoes on the left.

He took a large bite of the gifted potato.

After carefully savoring it, he nodded.

As expected, a proven high-class potato really is different!

It was merely a steamed potato, yet it was noticeably more delicious than the potato pancakes Mrs. Hwang had made with such care.

This wasn’t because of any lack of cooking skill.

The difference came from the ingredients themselves.

Unlike the awful texture of factory-produced potatoes or ordinary naturally grown potatoes, these were much less dry and crumbly.

They tasted even better when dipped in salt or sugar to cover up their shortcomings.

That awkward flavor characteristic of potatoes produced after the Gate crisis is still there… But at this level, it’s practically comparable to premium synthetic crops.

It was no wonder the siblings had confidently told him to try them.

They had managed to create a distinct difference in quality that even people who weren’t particularly sensitive to flavor would notice immediately.

But there were still plenty of shortcomings.

The fact that Hyeonseong’s thoughts kept drifting back to the lettuce he’d eaten that morning, despite this supposedly being a top-quality potato, was proof enough.

Gulp.

Oh Hyeonseong put down the half-eaten potato.

Then he pulled the bowl on the right toward himself.

An unusual aroma had been pricking at his nose for some time now.

He picked up one of the potatoes from his own garden with both hands and brought it to his mouth.

…This is insane.

It felt as though someone had struck him hard in the back of the head.

This wasn’t some inferior imitation that had merely been grown using the same methods.

He could smell and feel the texture of a real potato.

Every time he bit into it, a fluffy mass of potato practically burst into his mouth.

It was so hot that he hurriedly rolled the potato around inside his mouth.

Yet even that process was delicious.

Have I… really been living all this time without remembering this taste?

It was shocking.

If the lettuce had felt like a supporting act, the potato possessed terrifying destructive power all on its own.

Looking back at his eating habits until now, the realization came as one shock after another.

After humanity had compromised in order to survive, people had gradually become numb to the point of resignation.

But once Hyeonseong had tasted something like this, his senses had awakened again.

Oh Hyeonseong devoured the potato before looking over at the spirits.

Huh?

The spirits of all four attributes stared at him as though they couldn’t understand what was happening.

They had never seen him behave like this before in their entire lives.

“Yeah, I know. I find myself strange, too. Thanks to you guys.”

Oh Hyeonseong affectionately patted their heads.

After planting the seed potatoes the previous night, he had spent quite some time observing the spirits and the vegetable garden.

As a result, he had personally witnessed the entire growing process with his own eyes.

Everything the spirits had done for the crops.

The reason the crops grew so quickly was indeed because of the spirits of life.

The spirits of earth consumed the miasma in the soil and supplied abundant nutrients. The spirits of fire provided gentle warmth, maintaining the optimal temperature, while the spirits of water supplied pure, uncontaminated water.

They completely removed the miasma, supplied pure nutrients, and optimized the surrounding environment specifically for the crops.

With all that, there was simply no way the crops could fail to taste good compared to factory-produced or miasma-exposed crops.

And because the spirits were part of nature itself, they could easily read the condition of plants.

From the spirits’ perspective, they had simply helped some poor plants that had been exposed to miasma grow properly.

But the care they provided was something no amount of advanced technology or investment in facilities could reproduce.

As a result, from lettuce to potatoes, they created a clear and unprecedented difference.

It wasn’t simply a matter of good quality versus bad quality… Eating this felt like eating perfectly normal food from before the Gate crisis.

No. It wasn’t just a feeling. I know it for certain.

Oh Hyeonseong put down the potato and sank into deep thought.

Until now, humanity had chosen to imitate the delicious ingredients of the past as much as possible.

They had tried to reproduce the taste and texture of old-world food as closely as possible.

But this wasn’t an imitation assembled piece by piece.

This single potato was essentially identical to a perfectly healthy crop from before the Gate crisis.

Even if he couldn’t put the difference into words, he could feel it.

There was no way to mistake it.

“This… might be much bigger than I thought.”

At first, he had simply been happy to discover delicious food.

But after thinking about it a little more, he realized this could potentially become something on an absurdly enormous scale.

Bang, bang!

Just as he was considering all the possibilities in his head, he heard someone knocking on the gate outside.

An unexpected visitor without even a phone call beforehand.

The siblings next door? Or maybe Gyeongmin?

“Excuse me. Is anyone home?”

A woman’s voice came from beyond the gate.

Oh Hyeonseong flinched and abruptly stood up.

He went outside, opened the gate, and came face-to-face with the woman standing before him.

A tall woman dressed in a neat and immaculate suit.

Yet even such a formal outfit couldn’t diminish her strikingly beautiful features.

“It’s been a long time, senior.”

His longtime junior, Han Suyeon, gave him a faint smile.