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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Modern Civilization Tour Diary - 2
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"Isn't this kimchi thing a bit too salty and spicy?"
"Gulp!!!"
"Y-You're not that kind of character, are you?!"
It didn't matter what character she was when it came to defending the spirit of the Korean people. Seizing the moment, I let out a hearty, full-throated gulp!!!
The Illusion Tower Lord might have the palate of a medieval fantasy noble, but even if she couldn't grasp the profound flavors of Korean cuisine, she had to respect the soul poured into the cooking, right?
"Th-then, show a little respect for the hundred-year history of the Illusion Magic Tower too..."
Compared to the five-thousand-year history of the Korean people, that was a gap as wide as a scrap of paper versus a whole log.
I was the type who generally ignored orders from anyone weaker than me.
"You're acting twice as weird as usual... Ah, this is good."
"Oh, you don't know? That's called doenjang soup."
"...Nothing weird in this, right?"
With my character breaking down left and right, she seemed worried that some hallucinogen had been slipped into the food.
But how could virtual reality food conjured from illusions contain hallucinogens?
Hmm.
It felt just like being back on Earth, which put me in a great mood.
Even if it was all just illusions brought to life by magic.
That was why my energy was so high.
Nearly twenty years had passed since my sudden isekai reincarnation.
After sniffing medieval shit-stink for two decades, now I was strolling through a perfectly rendered South Korea.
If that didn't move you to tears, you weren't human.
There was another reason for my excitement. Korean DNA has a built-in function that floods you with satisfaction when a baby devours food with gusto.
And when it's not just a baby but a foreigner too? National pride kicks in, tripling the joy.
The Illusion Tower Lord might be older than me, but with that face, she looked like a student.
As Korean pride rained down like sweet nectar on my parched soul after twenty years, an indescribable fulfillment welled up in my chest.
"This one's subtly delicious too..."
The Illusion Tower Lord chewed thoughtfully, slicing into the braised short ribs with fork and knife.
Seeing her savor it so meticulously, I could tell she was nobility through and through.
Nobles are usually gourmets, after all.
Even the unbalanced sight of her cutting ribs exuded aristocratic elegance.
There was a softness in how her slender fingers gripped the knife.
Like watching a stage actor's passionate performance, noble etiquette has this captivating grace that enchants the viewer. It was a pleasure to watch her eat.
So I manipulated the surrounding customers (NPCs) to shower her with praise.
"Whoa, that foreigner... eating so elegantly!"
"Is this what they call refinement? Ugh! We commoners can never reach that level...!!"
"She looks like a hamster, so cute. Is she maybe a celebrity—like, someone in showbiz who wins massive popularity from the public and becomes an object of admiration sometimes?"
As murmurs of admiration poured in from around us, the Tower Lord's ears warmed to just the right temperature.
Some people dance when praised, others squeak. The Tower Lord was the latter type.
Maybe self-conscious now, she overdid the noble act, and the golden-haired foreigner who anyone could see was nobility just a minute ago vanished, replaced by a girl hacking away with her knife.
"Whoa, that foreigner... hacking away like crazy!"
"I can hear her joints squeaking, ugh! We commoners can never reach that level...!!"
"She looks like a hamster. Is she maybe a hamster—a rodent from the family Cricetidae in the order Rodentia?"
The Tower Lord slammed her fork-hand down on the table with a thunk.
"...S-stop it! That was you, wasn't it?"
"Wasn't me."
"If it wasn't on purpose, why would someone dining nearby suddenly explain some word I'd never heard before in excruciating detail?!"
She stayed quiet during the praise but hung back a jab and now she pounces—classic Tower Lord move. Yuna, the Illusion Tower Lord, was still at that age craving compliments.
A TRPG master has to strike the right balance between what they want and the player's requests. My original plan was to show her Korea's landmarks.
But if she craved praise, maybe up the compliment ratio in future scenes.
So, while she was eating a piece of kimchi and chugging water, I asked.
(Seems like she ended up liking it after all.)
"If you'd like, next scene could be 'The Pheromone Power Given to Me Who Fell into Another World Makes Hot Guys Confess to Me for No Reason?!'?"
The Tower Lord snorted water out her nose.
For her honor, no further details.
"Pffft, gyaaaah...!"
Choking on food with chili powder like kimchi wreaks havoc on your nasal membranes.
Her nose burning, she clutched the bridge and wailed something close to a kyaaang.
Maybe caught off guard by my unannounced line, I added an explanation.
"Originally, the theme for this experience was... the excitement and anxiety of Yuna lost in an unfamiliar world. Touring a completely alien civilization, realizing how different it is from her own, yet discovering something unchanging amid it all. Rediscovering the essence of humanity and returning to her original world."
"Cough, cough..."
"But I figured you'd get more satisfaction from one-sided romance with hot guys in a position of power."
"Wh-what do you take me for?! We can do that later—do what you want first. You have something you wanna show me, right?"
She didn't deny the 'hot guys confessing for no reason' part—in fact, she said we could do it later.
Wasn't that a classy afterparty request? Music to my ears.
This world had plenty of rough edges. It needed tons of testing, and if the Tower Lord played along, even better.
Even setting practicality aside, hanging out with her was fun.
I smiled and replied.
"I'm already showing you what I want to. The city that never sleeps, tables overflowing with spices, days laced with exhaust fumes. What happens on top of it all? Doesn't matter."
I just needed a friend to share the vibes with.
Games are like that too, right?
When recommending a game, how your friend plays isn't the point.
Whether they chase the romance or min-max efficiency, who cares.
What matters is playing the same game together.
I actually hoped the Tower Lord would squeeze more fun out of it.
"Anything you're curious about instead? Something else you wanna see in this world?"
"...I'd like to check out a clothing store."
"Didn't expect that. You always wear that Tower hood. I even bet with the seniors on how many outfits you own."
For the record, I bet five. Gave off vibes of wearing the same one Mon-Fri and laundry day on weekends.
Did my words challenge her femininity? She bristled.
"I have normal clothes too, you know?!"
"Then why don't you wear 'em?"
"'Cause it's embarrassing...!"
Lots to be embarrassed about, I figured.
"Alright, let's go."
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"Um... in your world, do people really wear stuff this... this slutty...?"
"Hmm..."
The resources for this illusion magic rendering of Korea come straight from my head.
In other words, I can't conjure what I don't know or haven't seen.
Thanks to my ex-girlfriend's three-hour hellish shopping wait-training, I had a solid eye for basics. I knew what safe women's clothes looked like.
But I wasn't expert enough to fill a massive department store to the brim. So I had to choose.
Fill the space by copy-pasting the same outfits.
Or plug the gaps with... 'other knowledge'.
I went with the latter. Better to have it even if we never use it later.
Cold calculation too. Department stores overwhelm low-femininity targets with dizziness and chaos. Dizzy targets beg, "Enough clothes, let's see something else and go."
Judging by the Tower Lord's habit of tossing socks anywhere, I figured she'd tap out by the second snack bar.
'Clothes from another world are like this, huh...'
And then we'd grab chicken or whatever.
But nope.
She breached six shops—and that was the limit of my 'safe women's clothes' memory. The seventh onward? 'Not-so-safe' women's wear.
The kind that tugs at a man's heartstrings.
Reverse bunnies, bandage dresses, slingshots, bikinis, feather clusters, you name it.
"Not mainstream stuff. For the bedroom..."
"Pajamas? Even those look uncomfortable on a few..."
"For bedroom tag-team action..."
"..."
The Tower Lord hung the Santa costume back on the rack.
She finally got why some lingerie had slits—and what for.
"I'll wait outside."
I emergency-evacuated this sexual harassment minefield.
Three minutes after I left, she emerged too.
'I' came out, but this world's my illusion magic. The whole thing's in my palm—what happens inside, I know like it's on display.
I pretended not to notice her eagerly eyeing the seriously lewd lingerie.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After that, we tried all sorts of things. Had her play StarCraft, packed with the Korean spirit in folk games.
(She'd studied military tactics before getting disowned from her family, so her skills were no joke.)
Shared some seafood pancake and makgeolli.
(No drunkenness implemented yet, so no buzz.)
That led to questions about building such tall structures without magic, so I gave a light science crash course.
"So, matter's made of tiny particles... and this Earth world's just a speck of dust in the absurdly vast cosmic void?"
"Yep."
The Tower Lord took modern science straight to the chin and went groggy.