025. A Guest From Seoul
“Suho! Look here!”
“Good job, Daldal. You found a lot again?”
“Suho keep practicing spinning swim! Daldal find lots of Peekaboo Stone Sea Squirts! Trust me!”
“Good. I’ll trust Daldal. But I’m already good at swimming, you know? I don’t need practice. Look.”
“Huh. Suho swimming like fish that hit head on rock.”
“What kind of thing is that to say, otter?”
May.
The queen of seasons.
Around the time when the cherry blossoms that had burst from pink buds and beautifully decorated the whole world finally disappeared...
The life force overflowing from the drifting petals flowed into the sea.
And the entire ocean became filled with abundant food.
“Found another!”
“Our otter is amazing! Our otter is the best! Greatest otter! Strongest otter on Earth! Otter among otters! Complete otter!”
“Gasp. I am strongest otter.”
“That is Daldal.”
“That was me!”
“Indeed.”
“Good grief!”
Completely excited, Daldal gathered every delicious seafood he could see.
Abalone.
Conch.
Sea urchins.
Come to think of it, there were many more sea urchins around here now.
Sea urchins were delicious and valuable.
But if there were too many, they devoured all nearby seaweed and turned the ocean floor into a desert.
The so-called whitening phenomenon.
That was why we occasionally needed to reduce their population.
It helped keep the sea green and healthy.
Good.
This much stock should satisfy many of the people visiting the Shop.
After all, the number one complaint about our Shop was always that there wasn’t enough stock.
Our Shop’s popularity kept rising every day.
But in reality, the only people available to do the actual work were Daldal and me.
There was nothing I could do.
“Everyone. Please forgive us just once for the sake of cute Daldal and Orlan.”
The only way to calm angry customers was to upload at least one Daldal and Orlan short-form video every day.
These days, my video editing skills were improving faster than my fish farming skills.
I was learning trends too.
Life really was unpredictable.
We were searching for products to sell in the Shop.
We were also looking for side dishes.
But the most important reason we had come fully prepared to dive today was something else.
“Suho! Found it!”
Daldal brought over something that looked like an ugly rock.
This was what we were searching for underwater.
Stone sea squirt.
Name: Peekaboo Stone Sea Squirt
Species: Fantasy Invertebrate
Rank: C+ (Special Individuals: B)
Difficulty of Acquisition: Moderate to Slightly Difficult
Description: A stone sea squirt that naturally grows on large rocks in the Dragon King’s Sea during spring. Unlike ordinary stone sea squirts, it only sticks a tiny part of its body out from rock crevices, as if playing peekaboo, making it difficult to find. Only experienced haenyeo divers or Spirit Beasts with excellent noses can easily discover it.
Special Note: Cannot be farmed.
Special Effect: When consumed, briefly causes an extremely refreshing feeling and greatly increases energy for a short period. Temporary effect.
An extremely refreshing feeling.
Just how refreshing?
Unlike common sea squirts, stone sea squirts were not farmed and could only be gathered from the wild.
They were delicious elsewhere too.
But stone sea squirts from the southern sea of Korea were definitely the best.
Even in the Dragon King’s Sea, they existed under the name Peekaboo Stone Sea Squirt.
And just like the name suggested, they were almost impossible to find unless you looked extremely carefully.
They hid in rock gaps and only exposed intake and exhaust openings about the size of a baby fingernail.
There was no way for a human eye to find them easily.
But I had a Spirit Otter.
Pop-pop!
Pop-pop-pop!
The world’s strongest otter easily pulled out these perfectly hidden Peekaboo Stone Sea Squirts as if picking coins off the street.
“No matter how many times I watch, it’s amazing. Daldal, you’re really good at finding them. How?”
“Because I am world’s strongest otter.”
“I see.”
“I AM WORLD’S STRONGEST OTTER!!”
Daldal seemed to really love the new nickname I had given him.
He had already performed his special underwater fifteen-spin tornado seven times.
Something he only did when he was incredibly happy.
“Daldal. You’re going to get dizzy. Are you okay?”
“Not dizzy at all! Because I am world’s strongest otteeeer!!”
Spin-spin-spin...
Well.
If he was happy, fine.
We were going to sell some of the stone sea squirts in the Shop, of course.
But...
“Hope Rako eats and feels better.”
The greater purpose was to give them to Rako.
She remained weakened by the curse.
‘Even with my outstanding ability, that is a very powerful curse and difficult to remove. However, food that restores energy should help. Peep!’
Following Orlan’s advice, we had been searching for various foods that could increase Rako’s energy while waiting for her to recover.
Rako kept her eyes closed most of the day.
But there were rare moments when she opened them.
Only when she was hungry.
When Rako became hungry, she barely opened her eyes, ate whatever food we gave her...
Then, once her stomach was full enough, she immediately fell asleep again.
After that, no matter how much we called her, she absolutely refused to open her eyes.
It was almost impressive.
I had been worried that the higher acquisition difficulty meant there would not be many of these sea squirts.
Fortunately, they were only hard to find.
There were plenty of them.
Come to think of it...
We had already caught quite a lot.
Two gathering nets were completely full.
Maybe it was time to head back?
“Suho. Suho.”
“Hm? What is it, world’s strongest otter?”
“I am world’s strongest...!! Not that. Suho. Leaving already?”
“Yeah. Shouldn’t we head back soon?”
“Uuung...”
“Hm? What’s wrong? Does the world’s strongest otter want to stay in the sea longer?”
“I, I just... want to bring more stone sea squirts for Rako.”
“Ah.”
This Daldal...
He was steadily gathering points while waiting for the day Rako woke up.
“Hmm... Fine. Daldal’s concern for Rako is so sincere that I must grant the request. Right?”
“Whoa, thanks!”
“No need to thank me. This is simply my desire to support forever-single Daldal’s sweet future.”
“Hm? Hm?! N, no! No, Suho! Absolutely not! Never!”
“Hahaha. Strong denial is strong confirmation.”
“Ghk! I said no! And Suho has always been alone too, so why are you teasing Daldal?! Suho forever-single too!”
“What?! How dare you attack me with facts?”
The two forever-singles barely made peace before inflicting deeper emotional wounds on each other.
Then we swam through the deeper sea again to gather more sea squirts and seafood for Rako.
Suddenly...
“Suho! Suho!”
Daldal hurried over.
“A guest arrived near fish farm.”
“At the fish farm? Who? Mr. Gupabal?”
“Hm... No. Stranger.”
“Did I have an appointment...? Ah! Right!”
I had become so focused on diving that I completely forgot.
