Chapter 38: The Body and the Land are One (1) "This is something…"
Jinseo looked up at the darkened sky, then lowered his gaze.
The time on his smartphone read 10:30 PM.
Normally, he should have closed up shop and been back in Korea by now.
"This is a first."
The moon and its halo hanging in the autumn night sky had a certain charm, but wrapped in anxiety, Jinseo couldn't enjoy the sight.
It had been an ordinary day, but the incident happened after business was over.
The food truck was suddenly enveloped in light, then returned to normal.
But it wasn't that nothing had happened.
The message that appeared in the status window put Jinseo in a bind.
{-Warning! The mana core has entered an overload state.-The cause of this issue is currently being analyzed. Until analysis is complete, some functions of the mobile cooking equipment will be restricted.-}
Caught in a completely unexpected situation, Jinseo could only stand there blankly.
He was the owner of the food truck, but while he knew how to operate and drive it, he couldn't repair it.
He left the cleanup to Jason and waited helplessly.
Now, more than thirty minutes later, a new message began printing in the status window.
{-The cause of the overload has been identified. An error has occurred in the space-movement magic circle installed inside the mobile cooking equipment.If left unattended, mana will continue to be consumed and will adversely affect the mobile cooking equipment. The space-movement function will be temporarily sealed.-}
{-The self-repair function is active to correct the error in the space-movement magic circle.-}
I don't know the details, but it means I can't ride the food truck back to Korea right now, right?
{-Yes, that is correct.-}
Until when?
{-The time required until repairs are complete is… calculating. …It is estimated to consume about three months.-}
"Three months?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, it's nothing. Just talking to myself."
Jinseo brushed it off for Jason, who looked at him in surprise.
AI, if I use the function that forcibly transfers me to the original world, I can get back, right?
{-While it differs from the conditions under which that function normally activates, it is possible if the owner judges the situation to be a crisis.-}
Oh? Really? Then the food truck can go back to Korea with me?
{-No. Only the owner, Lee Jinseo, will return to the place you originally resided.-}
So the food truck has to stay here for those three months?
{-Yes. Once repairs are complete, the mobile cooking equipment will move to the original world as part of a stabilization process. Would you like to return now via forced transfer?*}
No. Leave it for now.
Relieved that he'd avoided the worst-case scenario, Jinseo let out a sigh.
But leaving the food truck behind and going back alone raised a mountain of worries.
Someone could steal it, or someone could poke at it trying to analyze its structure and ruin it permanently.
"Hyung, are you okay? You look pale. Is it related to that light that wrapped the food truck earlier?"
Jason, having finished cleaning up, asked carefully.
"I think so. The food truck broke down, so I'm in a bind."
"What? It broke?"
"It did, but it's a bit of an ambiguous breakdown. This is…"
Jinseo scratched the back of his head and sank into thought, then belatedly realized it was pointless worry.
Come to think of it, ever since I started running the food truck, I've spent more time here than in Korea, haven't I? There was even a time I didn't go back for over two months.
He didn't need to feel anxious or afraid like he had the first time he came to the Francia Continent.
By steadily running his bunsik business, he'd built a solid foundation, and that made it easy to ask for help.
And if things truly went south, the option of returning alone still existed—so there was no reason to borrow trouble.
"I think there's a problem with the ability related to teleportation. I won't be able to go back to Korea for a while."
"Can't you just drive the food truck there?"
"It's too far for that."
In truth, since it was an entirely different space, no matter how long he drove, he'd never arrive—but he didn't bother explaining that to Jason.
"So I'll have to stay here for a while."
"Then should I contact the lord and arrange lodging?"
"No, that won't be necessary. I can sleep in the extra trailer."
Even if he was used to the Francia Continent, sleeping arrangements were another matter.
There was no reason for Jinseo to choose a local house over the trailer, which was comfortable and perfectly hygienic.
"Then I'll stand guard all night!"
"All night?"
"Did you forget? I'm also the food truck's guard. This is exactly when I should do my job properly."
Jason pounded his chest with his right hand, brimming with confidence.
"You really don't have to go that far…"
"If anything happens to you, hyung, the whole castle will be in an uproar. It's much better if I just sleep a little less."
"If that's what you're going to do, then how about sleeping in the trailer with me instead? Call it close protection."
As he spoke, Jinseo opened the back door of the extra trailer.
"Huh? Is that okay?"
"Having someone to talk to before sleeping would be nice. There's a bunk bed, so two people can sleep just fine. More than anything, there's no space safer than the food truck, right?"
"Ah, that's true. I heard it even endured the kraken's attack without a problem."
Jason nodded, accepting it, recalling what he'd heard about the battle with the kraken at Ordeun Harbor.
"Now that I think about it, I was working in a truly incredible carriage."
"And it's a holy relic, too."
"I keep forgetting."
Jason went in first, then flopped down onto the lower bunk of the bunk bed.
Watching him, Jinseo smiled lightly.
After getting the food truck, he naturally ended up spending more time on the Francia Continent than in Korea.
And among the people he'd met here, Jason was the closest thing he had to a friend.
Jinseo closed the trailer door, thinking of it as inviting a friend over and letting him stay the night for the first time in a long while.
"Nero, we've got one more guest tonight. Got it?"
-Meow.-
"Wow, the bed is soft!"
Lying on the lower bunk, Jason pulled the blanket up to just under his nose.
"The blanket's fluffy, the pillow's soft… this… I'm going to pass out the moment I close my eyes."
He came in and out every day to wash up and change before work, but this was his first time coming to sleep.
Jason kept marveling at the extra trailer's facilities, which were worlds apart from the lodging he usually stayed in.
"I'll set an alarm, so don't worry about oversleeping. Sleep well."
"Yes!"
Jinseo turned off the lights with the remote and closed his eyes.
He was tired from the unexpected incident and fell asleep as-is.
No—he tried to sleep, but in the darkness, his mind was wide awake.
"…"
With the routine of returning to Korea to sleep broken, he couldn't drift off.
After tossing and turning, Jinseo looked down toward the lower bunk where Jason lay.
Jason, who'd been joking that he'd fall asleep any second, was staring up at Jinseo with his eyes wide open.
"Not sleepy?"
"Haha… well… I'm too tense to sleep."
"There's no need to be tense."
"This food truck is a holy relic, right? The moment I was about to fall asleep, that hit me. Sleeping inside a holy relic… I couldn't have imagined it before."
Unable to sleep for their own reasons, the two men ended up turning the lights back on and climbing down from the bed.
Should we watch TV?
Jinseo looked at the wall-mounted TV installed opposite the bunk bed.
He couldn't watch live broadcasts, but he could watch dramas or movies he'd saved from Korea.
No, I've already seen most of them, so rewatching would be boring. And if it's Jason, he might get hooked until he finishes the whole series. Then…
A device he'd upgraded a week ago just for killing time came to mind, and Jinseo crouched down under the bunk bed and pulled something out.
"Want to play a game?"
"A game? What's that?"
"You'll know once you try it. Let's see… a suitable game…"
Because online games were hard to play given the circumstances, Jinseo mainly played console games.
But he couldn't think of anything good to play together with Jason.
"Right. That game will do."
Rules as simple as Jenga, accessibility so easy you could enjoy it without knowing the language.
And the control scheme itself was simple.
A classic loved by many even though it was nearly forty years old.
TeXris.
"Ah, seriously! Why won't a long one come out?!"
Jason frowned, clutching his hair with both hands.
-Meow.-
Nero, sitting beside him, stared up at Jason and let out a low cry. With an expression that said, You can't even do that properly.
"Let's see, it'll be time for morning business soon."
"There's still time, right? One more game! Just one more!"
It had already been two weeks since Jason started eating and sleeping in the extra trailer under the pretext of guarding Jinseo.
The impact of TeXris—suggested as something to do before bed—was bigger than expected.
Of course it was.
Entertainment on the Francia Continent was drastically lacking compared to modern Korea.
For people in another world like this, console games were an irresistible temptation you couldn't escape.
Even if it was a game made over forty years ago.
I should've seen this coming when I saw customers obsessed with Jenga. Well, it can't be helped now.
"Phew… I finally cleared it. If I clear this round too, it's a new record. Phew…"
Before the next round started, Jason stretched his interlaced hands over his head and took several deep breaths.
Jinseo stood behind him and gave a wry smile.
Should I introduce a shutdown policy limited to the Francia Continent?
But Jason's obsession with TeXris didn't only make Jinseo uneasy.
Since it had come to this, Jinseo decided to use TeXris as the carrot.
He assigned bunsik-related tasks, and only allowed the game when Jason completed them.
People can't stay focused on work or study alone.
If they could be just as passionate when doing each thing, that was enough.
Work hard when working, study just as hard, and play with the same intensity.
Of course, there was no denying that Jason was most passionate when playing games, but Jinseo decided to let that slide.
Still, I didn't expect his skills to shoot up like this.
TeXris, a game so addictive there were even rumors it was developed in a communist country to bring down capitalist society.
The effect was undeniable.
"Even if you play, you should eat first, right?"
Jinseo set out food he'd started selling two weeks ago, along with white milk.
Bread lightly toasted on a buttered griddle.
Egg fried with finely chopped onions, carrots, and cabbage mixed in.
Sliced ham and cheese.
Layer them in order, drizzle sugar and ketchup, then cover it with another piece of toasted bread to finish.
A so-called street toast.
"Oh! Toast! Thank you for the meal!"
Jason paused the game and quickly grabbed the toast.
After taking a big bite and gulping down milk, Jason's expression was pure happiness.
"It tastes great, but more than that, this really fills you up."
He'd started selling street toast from the point when the food truck ended up staying outside the castle all day.
Guards switching shifts in the morning saw the food truck there at an unusual hour and asked whether they could eat breakfast too.
If possible, something simple and fast—something that would fill them up.
So he added street toast.
The toast, sold only in the morning, had become a popular item not just with guards, but also with people heading out early for work.
Oswald even had his escorts, Dan and Austin, order it for delivery every day.
Of course, the two of them also went back eating toast in hand.
"Come to think of it, hyung. How long did you say it would take for the food truck to be completely fixed?"
"About three months."
Hoping there might be a way to shorten the repair time, Jinseo had asked the Doren Magic Tower for help.
For three days, the regular mage customers of the food truck—including Painfolt—examined it, but all he got was that they couldn't touch it carelessly.
Only Painfolt refused to give up, staying behind alone to investigate further, but on the seventh day he apologized and gave up.
Leaving behind a lament that he was far inferior to his younger sibling.
"But hyung, if we're selling breakfast too, won't the stored ingredients run out faster? That worries me."
"There's plenty left, so it should be fine for now."
He'd used the AI to calculate how long he could keep selling with the ingredients stored in subspace, and the result said there'd be no problem for half a year, so Jinseo wasn't too worried.
"Then—just as a test—how about making bunsik using ingredients from here instead of Korea?"
"Ingredients from here?"
"You said before that at Orte Harbor you made bunsik using seafood from there."
"That's true, but… hmm…"
Jinseo stroked his chin and fell into thought.
One option was simply to keep running the food truck the way he always had.
Or, during the three months he couldn't go back, to look for a more efficient approach.
After wavering, Jinseo stood up from the sofa and made his decision.
"Shall we try it?"
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