Chapter 131: Fireworks

*Boom!*

*Pop!*

*Whizz!!*

The fireworks exploded brilliantly, creating beautiful patterns in the cloudless sky. As time passed, the fireworks became increasingly spectacular, and just as the highlight was about to begin…

*Flash!*

Byeol-i secretly stretched out her hand. A small sphere, invisible to everyone except Jin-woo, the other spirits, and the Constellations, streaked up into the sky.

*Boom!!*

Byeol-i’s sphere merged with a streak of fireworks rising behind it. Immediately, a fantastic star-shaped firework, noticeably larger than the previous ones, embroidered the night sky.

“Whoa… it’s so pretty!”

The fireworks were grand enough to make everyone on the cruise ship gasp in admiration.

Jin-woo knew that Byeol-i had created this massive firework. After telling her that she shouldn’t use her power like that in the future, he still praised her, saying she did a good job for today.

Byeol-i giggled and nodded.

(Anonymous 1): Good job, good job.

(God of Rain and Sunlight): I think it’s not a bad thing to use one’s power like that as long as it doesn’t harm others.

(Water God of Cheong-ha): Hmm, I think so too.

(Martial Artist Living Death): Byeol-i is a child who knows how to control herself.

(Ultimate Cook): Byeol-i is far too smart to be called just a child.

(Last Blacksmith): It’s cute how she giggles and nods her head.

Byeol-i stared at the sky for a long time.

In the black sky, fireworks shinier than stars created pictures and glowed brightly. For some reason, it felt even brighter than the daytime.

The fireworks display seen from the middle of the sea was more sparkling and beautiful than expected.

“It’s pretty!”

Byeol-i shouted as she looked at the sea. Because the sky had brightened, her face and the fireworks were reflected in the once-dark water.

The face Byeol-i saw through the sea was smiling more brightly than anyone else’s.

After reaching Gwangalli and heading back, the cruise ship docked.

It was the moment the evening in Busan came to an end. Jin-woo, Byeol-i, and the spirits returned to the camping car together.

***

I prepared tteokbokki and fried snacks for a late-night meal. Making sundae from scratch at home is quite a lot of work, so I skipped the blood sausage.

There were many dishes the Constellations wanted, but I planned to make simple street food today.

“Should I make kimbap for you too?”

(Returnee of the Demon Realm): That would be great. Nothing is as delicious as dipping kimbap into tteokbokki sauce.

I nodded.

I had to use the ‘Sword That Surpassed Limits’, but I didn’t transform it into a frying pan as usual.

Today’s weapon was a large, giant iron plate. I planned to make the tteokbokki and everything else on this iron plate, which had excellent heat conductivity.

Lately, Byeol-i, the spirits, the Constellations, and even I have been eating a lot.

the Father of Crops personally sponsored rice cakes made from rice. I like both wheat cakes and rice cakes, but if I had to choose one, I tended to pick rice cakes more often.

‘Wheat cakes soak up the seasoning well and are nutritionally better, but the downside is that they aren’t easy to digest.’

Well, it wasn’t just for those small reasons that I liked rice cakes more than wheat cakes.

I liked the unique chewy texture of rice cakes. Tteokbokki made with thick cylinder rice cakes that stuck to the mouth suited my taste better.

(Returnee of the Demon Realm): Everyone has different tastes when it comes to wheat or rice cakes. I think I preferred wheat cakes. My memory is a bit fuzzy since it was so long ago.

(Father of Crops): Don’t worry, anyone who eats the rice cakes I made will say they’re delicious. There are cakes made of flour, but rice cakes are objectively tastier.

The Father of Crops is good at farming, but he is also skilled at making things with those ingredients.

He doesn’t cook professionally like the Ultimate Cook, but he would be much better at making soybean paste, chili paste, or pounding rice cakes than the Ultimate Cook.

And he was certainly better than me.

That was why I didn’t bother with the tedious task of receiving rice from the Father of Crops to make the cakes myself.

‘Do you happen to have any chili paste made from golden peppers?’

(Father of Crops): Don’t you have the chili paste you made before?

I had made some when I had spare time.

No, I *had* some.

‘I’m all out now.’

(Father of Crops): …Damn it, you’re using me like this.

I sent a whisper to the Father of Crops.

(Kim Jin-woo): Take this chance to promote yourself! You should promote your chili paste and rice cakes to the Constellations!

(Father of Crops): …! There’s such a way!

(Kim Jin-woo): We had a contract between us before, didn’t we?

The Father of Crops was to give me ingredients for free, and I was to promote his ingredients to the Constellations.

(Kim Jin-woo): If not now, when will you promote it?

After finishing the whisper with me, the Father of Crops began to spam the chat.

(Father of Crops): Ahem, yes, I’d like everyone to pay attention.

(Anonymous 1): Should I just scold him? He’s acting all high and mighty again. Does he want to get hit?

(Father of Crops): Now, now. The rice cakes I gave to Jin-woo? They’re C-grade buff-type ingredients made from really good rice. Do you know how amazing these are? Ahem. Listen up!

(Martial Artist Living Death): We’re listening, so please tell us quickly.

(Father of Crops): It’s the perfect food for an anonymous person who can’t cook. It tastes great even if you just dip it in honey. Besides that, you can eat it as rice cake skewers. In particular, it has the effect of recovering vitality.

(Ultimate Cook): I should buy some and see how well the rice cakes were made.

By the time I had made the sauce and cut all the cylinder rice cakes into bite-sized pieces…

The Ultimate Cook, who bought a rice cake from the Father of Crops, left a message in the chat.

(Ultimate Cook): …Earth has quite a few amazing things. I never thought about making this kind of rice cake with rice.

(Father of Crops): As expected, the best cook recognizes the best ingredients!

Since the Ultimate Cook praised them, other Constellations seemed to have bought several rice cakes as well. I received a whisper from the Father of Crops.

(Father of Crops): Jin-woo, this is the best.

(Kim Jin-woo): I have a way to promote it even more. Shall I tell you?

(Father of Crops): What is it?

(Kim Jin-woo): If you’re curious, it costs 500 coins.

[Normal-grade Constellation, ‘Father of Crops’, has sponsored 500 coins!]

(Father of Crops): Tell me quickly.

(Kim Jin-woo): I’ll tell you after I’m done making everything.

(Father of Crops): Gah! I’m curious!!

(Kim Jin-woo): I’ll tell you after I finish the tteokbokki. I promise.

I put the sauce and rice cakes on the iron plate and stir-fried them vigorously. I added quite a bit of sugar, so it would have a sweet and savory taste.

Of course, this was also sugar made from sugarcane by the Father of Crops, so it was less sticky than usual.

It meant I could make tteokbokki that had a subtle sweetness without being sticky or leaving a dry aftertaste.

In addition, I added plenty of side ingredients like green onions and fish cakes. Especially fish cakes.

I tended to like fish cakes more than rice cakes, so I threw in a huge amount.

‘Done.’

After finishing the tteokbokki, I first transferred it to another bowl. Now, all that was left were the fish cakes, fried snacks, and kimbap.

“Dad! Is there anything I can do to help?”

“One moment.”

I summoned Alton. It was because there was quite a bit of summoning time left.

“Alton.”

“Yes, Brother.”

“You can cook, right?”

“I’ve learned from you several times, and I always do it even after returning to the Demon Realm.”

Alton was a person who even ran a business with farming and cooking in the Demon Realm.

There probably wasn’t another Demon King in all the dimensions who ran a business.

“You know how to make egg garnish, right?”

“I’m good at it. Are you by any chance planning to make kimbap?”

“How did you know?”

“Every time I’m summoned to Earth, I look up various recipes on your phone. I learned back then and have been selling it in the Demon Realm too.”

Come to think of it, every time Alton was summoned, he would farm and peek at the stories of how Earth was doing through my phone.

He was a guy who knew the issues going on around Earth better than I did.

He watched a lot of social media videos, after all.

“That’s a relief. Then please make some kimbap with Byeol-i.”

Alton had a talent for cooking.

Besides, isn’t kimbap a dish that anyone can make delicious as long as the ingredients are good?

Alton nodded and began making kimbap with Byeol-i.

***

The fish cakes were prepared quickly.

Preparation was over once the minced garlic was added to the anchovy-based broth seasoned with various spices. Not stopping there, Jin-woo added the fish cakes he had skewered and even applied a buff, completing a dish more addictive than any other.

Jin-woo slightly transformed the iron plate to create a fish cake section and set it so that it only needed to come to a boil at the right temperature.

Now, only the fried snacks remained.

Jin-woo looked to the side after finishing the preparation of the ingredients for frying.

“Do I roll it like this?”

“You’re doing great, Byeol-i. Look, try to follow your uncle, okay?”

“Yeah!”

“Spread the seaweed.”

“Yeah!”

“Spread the rice too, but you shouldn’t spread too much. There’s salt and sesame oil in the rice, right?”

“Yeah, we mixed it earlier!”

“So if you put in too much, it’ll be greasy. Also, if you put in too much rice, the side will burst. Put in just the right amount. Okay?”

“Yeah!”

Byeol-i took a moderate amount of rice and spread it out as she had learned from Alton.

“You have the tuna mayo we mixed earlier, right?”

“Yeah!”

Byeol-i was a child who was fundamentally a bit greedy. It wasn’t a bad thing; it was the kind of cute greed that anyone who liked eating would naturally have.

That was why, when mixing tuna and mayonnaise to make tuna mayo…

Because Byeol-i had a greed for delicious food, she intentionally squeezed out more mayonnaise.

Since there was too much mayonnaise, naturally more tuna had to be added.

As that was repeated, a massive amount of tuna mayo was made, and Byeol-i piled the mountain of tuna mayo high on top of the rice.

“…Byeol-i, you really like tuna.”

“Yeah!”

“Right, put in a lot. Since you didn’t put in much rice, it should be fine.”

“Hehe.”

Now, she just had to add ingredients like pickled radish, ham, egg garnish, spinach, and cucumber according to her taste.

Since Byeol-i was a child who ate everything well and in large quantities, she put in everything without being picky.

“Now, just roll it slowly.”

“Yeah!”

The sides looked like they were going to burst every now and then, and every time that happened, Byeol-i furrowed her brows.

“Aaaah, no!”

As if the kimbap had noticed Byeol-i’s desperation, the sides narrowly avoided bursting.

(Ultimate Cook): …A cook who wins with cuteness. It’s the first time I’ve seen this type.

(Anonymous 1): I know, right? This is pretty fascinating.

(God of Rain and Sunlight): If Byeol-i opens a restaurant, it will be very popular.

(Anonymous 1): If the restaurant cook is Byeol-i, I’d go every day even if it tasted bad.

(Water God of Cheong-ha): She would sweep up all the pocket money of adults like us.

(Returnee of the Demon Realm): Just thinking about it is cute.

(Endless Waiting): Indeed.

(Liberated Swordsman): To think the day would come when I’d eat kimbap personally rolled by Byeol-i… I’m moved.

(Martial Artist Living Death): She feels like a child I raised myself.

(Anonymous 1): Look at this guy acting up when he didn’t even see Byeol-i being born. I’m the veteran of Jin-woo’s room who has been sponsoring since Byeol-i was born.

(Last Blacksmith): …I’m jealous.

(Father of Crops): I also saw Byeol-i being born with my own eyes. Is there anyone here who didn’t see that?

While the veteran Constellations teased the ones who had become viewers relatively recently…

Jin-woo took out the fried snacks from the frying section of the Sword That Surpassed Limits. It was in the form of a small cauldron filled with oil, and the squid bought directly from the Busan fish market was already fried.

Following the squid fritters, Jin-woo finished frying the golden sweet potatoes he had brought from the garden earlier.

Jin-woo especially liked sweet potato and squid fritters, but back when he was poor, it was sorrowful that the sweet potato or squid fritters always came in small amounts when he ordered a set at a snack bar.

So, he had made a huge amount of just these two this time.

“Let’s have our late-night snack now!”

Jin-woo began to offer the street food snacks to the Constellations. Additionally, he also summoned Eric and Baek-cheon.