I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 186

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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186 – Dessert
186.
Alicia Bielska, a student at K-ORIGIN SCHOOL, gazed blankly at the Han River flowing past.
Whenever something troubled her, Alicia would come to the Han River and watch the water drift by.
Sitting here brought her peace of mind.
It felt as though she were not in an unfamiliar country like South Korea,
but rather on the banks of the Vltava River cutting through Prague.
So whenever something bothered her, she would come to the Han River and sit.
‘I thought everything would work out once I came to Seoul.’
Alicia was confident in her cooking.
Back in Czechia, she had always received praise.
She had often been told she had talent.
So she had thought that once she came to Seoul, everything would fall into place.
But reality was entirely different.
Classes moved quickly, and her hands always lagged behind.
She understood it intellectually, but implementing it was difficult.
Her classmates were an even bigger problem.
They were all exceptionally skilled.
Some already had field experience,
and others had been preparing for this path since childhood.
Some came from families in the food service industry.
And some seemed like geniuses.
They could taste something once and immediately discern what was in it and how it was made.
Among such people, Alicia felt herself constantly falling behind, and anxiety gnawed at her.
Could she survive here?
She worried about it several times a day.
In truth, Alicia had never expected she would leave Czechia and come to South Korea.
It had been mere curiosity.
Alicia loved K-dramas.
She had immersed herself in Korean dramas through streaming platforms.
Korean was fun,
and Korean culture fascinated her.
Since cooking was her profession, she had even attempted to recreate Korean dishes featured in the dramas.
Whenever she had the chance, she would visit the South Korean Embassy in Prague to experience Korean culture.
She learned about South Korea through food festivals, film screenings, and exhibitions.
She had become a Korean culture enthusiast.
Then she discovered it.
That K-ORIGIN SCHOOL existed.
That they taught Korean culture there.
That the government was directly involved,
K-ORIGIN, which recruited students from around the world.
It was trustworthy, and the benefits were extraordinary.
For Alicia Bielska, it was destiny.
I had to go.
I absolutely had to go.
With that resolve, I submitted my application.
Documents, interviews, portfolios.
After passing through every demanding stage, when I heard the acceptance news, I screamed right in the middle of Prague.
And so I came to Seoul.
I entered K-ORIGIN.
I thought I would devour everything here.
“Today we’ll be making desserts. Desserts exist everywhere in the world, don’t they?”
“A dessert is the end of a meal and the beginning of a memory.”
“You can reinterpret existing dishes, or create something entirely new.”
“Create your own dessert.”
“The goal for this semester is to complete it.”
“Fail, and fail again.”
“And record the entire process.”
“Evaluation will be based on the uploaded YouTube videos.”
The instructor was said to be a famous chef in South Korea.
Or rather, more of a businessman than a chef.
Someone who rose from several failures to reach this position.
Starting from a pojangmacha to large-scale franchises.
Someone who never broke or yielded.
Regardless of culinary skill, they were someone worthy of respect.
While Alicia Bielska was lost in thought,
the others had already begun cooking.
Alicia Bielska hadn’t even decided what to make,
yet the others were already moving their hands.
They trimmed ingredients and lit the burners.
They seemed to have recipes prepared.
Alicia Bielska couldn’t move.
What should I make?
A dessert. A dessert.
No matter how much I thought, nothing came to mind.
I recalled the desserts I ate in Prague.
Trdelník, medovina, vrtáč, oborované knedlíčky, jablečný strudl.
They were all sweet and delicious desserts, but they didn’t seem to fit here.
I wanted to create a dessert that suited Korean cuisine.
As I hesitated, the class ended.
In the end, the class concluded without me accomplishing anything.
That night.
Instead of sleeping in the Dormitory, Alicia Bielska made her way to the Han River.
A cool breeze brushed across my face.
The river flowed dark, and lights wavered upon the bridge.
I sat on a bench and drew a deep breath.
I watched the people passing by.
I gazed at the cars heading somewhere in the distance.
I looked up at Seoul’s sky.
My thoughts began to organize themselves, piece by piece.
My heart grew calm.
Growl.
As my composure returned, hunger began to set in.
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten dinner.
Alicia Bielska rose and headed back toward the Dormitory.
Along the way, I spotted a Mart with a sign reading “Open 24 Hours.”
I entered without hesitation.
I walked slowly through the Mart, searching for something to satisfy my hunger.
My eyes scanned the merchandise.
Foods, ingredients, and packaging entirely different from those in Prague.
It was entertaining just to look.
My mood improved slightly.
Then my feet came to an abrupt halt at one corner.
Yakgwa.
I’d seen this in a drama before.
In one of those historical dramas where actors wore traditional Korean clothing.
The main characters all treated this yakgwa with great care.
They gave it to people they liked, and ate it sparingly as though it were a precious delicacy.
And now that yakgwa stood right before my eyes.
I’d been curious about it, but it was something I rarely saw.
‘Well, let me try this then.’
I picked up the yakgwa.
I grabbed ten pieces, yet the price was only 5,000 won.
The price was remarkably cheap.
After paying, I opened it as I left.
And the moment I took a bite.
The exterior was chewy,
and immediately a sticky syrup enveloped my tongue.
The sweetness of honey.
The savory richness of deep-fried oil.
A subtle lingering of cinnamon and spices.
It wasn’t merely sweet.
Heavy, yet strangely light,
Rustic, yet oddly refined.
Alicia Bielska stopped in her tracks.
It was an ancient flavor.
Yet it didn’t feel dated.
Traditional cuisine, and yet it felt perfectly natural to eat now.
In that moment.
Something clicked into place in my mind.
“That’s it.”
I suddenly understood what I needed to do.
Not leaving the past as it was,
But recreating it in the language of today.
What K-ORIGIN kept saying.
That culture blends, reinterprets, and is reborn.
I finally understood what that meant.
.
.
.
The next class was different.
Alicia Bielska moved faster than anyone else in the class.
I decided to make the recipe I’d been pondering all night.
I placed the prepared yakgwa on the work counter.
And I chopped it finely.
Not into powder, but into pieces about the size of a pinky nail.
I kept them that way for the chewy texture.
I felt the gazes around me.
They seemed curious about what I was doing.
I poured milk into a pot and heated it gently to about 50 degrees.
Or rather, warmed it.
I added all the chopped yakgwa into it.
I heard a gasp from somewhere.
Someone was watching me.
Along with the sweet aroma came the scent of cinnamon and ginger.
The fragrance and taste of yakgwa dissolved into the milk.
I added several spices including cinnamon.
The yakgwa mixed with milk transformed into a paste-like consistency.
I added sugar and salt to it.
“What? You’re adding more sugar? Yakgwa is already so sweet? You’re adding more sugar?”
Someone spoke in a voice so quiet it was barely audible.
But to Alicia Bielska, it came through as clearly as if they were standing right beside her.
The yakgwa inside the pot was beginning to dissolve.
The consistency was thin enough to make one wonder if it had become too watery.
That was when Alicia Bielska removed the gelatin she had soaked in cold water and placed it into the pot.
“Ooh.”
“Really?”
“Whoa!”
Exclamations erupted from various corners of the room.
Alicia Bielska checked the consistency with a spatula, then poured the yakgwa paste onto a wide plate.
The yakgwa, mixed with milk, spread thin like tissue paper.
She spread cream cheese over it and began rolling it like kimbap.
The other students now paid more attention to Alicia Bielska’s cooking than their own.
Jang Do-hyun, the instructor of this class, was also watching Alicia Bielska’s cooking intently.
Alicia Bielska sprinkled brown sugar over the yakgwa jelly roll, which she had rolled as neatly as a sponge cake.
Then she began torching the brown sugar.
“Whoa.”
“Insane.”
“She’s adding even more sugar?”
“A diabetes express pass dessert.”
“Your blood sugar is going to spike right through the roof with that.”
“But it’s probably delicious.”
“If it’s too sweet, you can’t even taste the sweetness.”
Regardless of the chatter around her,
Alicia Bielska quietly extinguished the torch flame.
The brown sugar was caramelized to just the right degree.
She picked up a knife and sliced the yakgwa jelly.
Crack.
The thin sugar layer shattered with a sharp, satisfying sound.
That sound was delicious to hear.
Looking at the cut cross-section, the yakgwa jelly and cream cheese were rolled together beautifully.
“That’s beautiful.”
“Perfect as a dessert.”
“It would be great to offer variations.”
“It seems like it would pair well with coffee.”
“No, that should be eaten with black tea.”
As opinions varied, Jang Do-hyun, the instructor, stepped forward.
“Would it be alright if I tried one?”
“Of course. Feel free.”
Jang Do-hyun picked up the yakgwa jelly with a fork.
I held the small plate and smelled it first.
Then I brought it to my mouth.
Crunch.
The sensation of sugar shattering mingled with an overwhelming sweetness.
But it wasn’t as sweet as I expected.
The milk and cream cheese balanced the sweetness perfectly.
Chunks of yakgwa biscuit crumbled between my teeth.
And gelatin.
‘That was the kick.’
The chewy texture was far more interesting than the yakgwa alone.
Jang Do-hyun smiled without realizing it.
No—laughter burst out.
“Pfft, hehehehe.”
Embarrassed by the students’ stares, he covered his face with his hand, but the laughter wouldn’t stop.
Even so, his mouth continued to savor the flavors.
The students were curious about the instructor’s behavior they had never witnessed before.
This wasn’t the Jang Do-hyun they knew.
The students asked Alicia Bielska.
“Can I try some too?”
“Sure.”
The moment Alicia Bielska gave her permission, hands reached out from all directions.
And.
Crunch.
Pfft, hehe.
Pfft, hehehehe.
Pfft, hehehehehehe.
Laughter erupted from every corner.
It spread in a chain reaction.
Everyone had the same reaction.
This scene was captured entirely on camera,
and uploaded without any editing.
The lesson ended there.
******
Park Jun-ho, a cooking YouTuber, sat at his desk making notes on a tablet with a stylus.
Convenience Store New Product Reviews X
Following Broadcast Recipes X
Overseas Street Food X
Home Cooking Content X
He had marked everything he thought was an idea with an X.
A sigh escaped him.
All things I’ve already done.
I have no more ideas.
Recipes aren’t coming to mind.
But I can’t just stop uploading videos.
If uploads stop, subscribers drop off quickly.
View counts plummet.
Consistent uploads are the foundation of being a YouTuber.
But uploading lazy, repetitive content is a sin.
I have the will to try.
The problem is I don’t have the material.
The material.
My channel has 1.03 million subscribers.
Recently it’s hit a plateau, but this channel is everything to Park Jun-ho.
I absolutely didn’t want to lose it.
I’ve poured five years into building this channel.
That’s why I’m digging through YouTube.
Looking for something decent.
Like a fisherman waiting for a prize catch in the vast ocean.
It’s been days since I’ve been clicking through the algorithm on YouTube.
Then one video caught my eye.
K-ORIGIN SCHOOL / FOOD LAB Dessert Practicum.
In the thumbnail, Jang Do-hyun had his face buried in his hands.
Jang Do-hyun?
He wasn’t someone who overreacted.
Yet there he was with his face in his hands.
I was curious.
I clicked.
Foreigners appeared, and a blonde woman in her twenties started cooking.
I skipped through the cooking process.
I wasn’t interested.
It would probably be similar to everything else.
I only cared why Jang Do-hyun had his face covered.
I dragged the progress bar back to the scene where Jang Do-hyun was eating.
Jang Do-hyun eats the food and laughs.
“Puhehehehe.”
Jang Do-hyun is laughing?
Not just smiling—he was laughing out loud.
Only then did Park Jun-ho drag the progress bar all the way back to the beginning and watch the cooking process again.
Actually, I checked the name of the dish first.
Burn Yakgwa Jelly.
What on earth is this horrible name?
Just saying it makes me want to retch.
Burnt yakgwa and jelly.
And the cooking process was even more appalling.
Yakgwa in milk?
And then dumping sugar into it?
Insane… gelatin?
When the brown sugar was sprinkled on at the end, I felt as though Park Jun-ho’s arteries were clogging just from watching.
Yet everyone who tasted it had the same reaction.
Pfft.
Pfffttt.
Pffffftttt.
What is this?
Why are they laughing?
Curious, Park Jun-ho decided to give it a try.
For once, his interest was genuinely piqued as a YouTuber.
.
.
.
“Hello, everyone. I’m Jun-ho.”
Standing before the camera, Jun-ho raised his hand in greeting with practiced ease.
“Today, I’ve brought you some bizarre cuisine.”
“I stumbled upon this while browsing YouTube, and honestly, I’m not sure if this is something humans can actually eat.”
“The source is from a K-ORIGIN SCHOOL / FOOD LAB dessert practice video.”
“The dish is called ‘Burnt Yakgwa Jelly’—burnt yakgwa jelly, and I have absolutely no idea what to expect.”
“Let me try making it first.”
Park Jun-ho began cooking.
He took out the yakgwa and started chopping it.
“I’m chopping the yakgwa and putting it into milk. Adding some spices too.”
“From the video, it looks like the milk isn’t boiled—just warmed until it’s slightly lumpy.”
He placed the chopped yakgwa into the pot.
“And… don’t be alarmed. We’re pouring this much sugar into it.”
Park Jun-ho poured the sugar with exaggerated flair.
“The yakgwa is already sweet enough, and now we’re adding sugar on top of that. I cannot comprehend this.”
“A pinch of salt goes in as well.”
He pinched a small amount of salt and flicked it in.
“Then we warm it until the yakgwa’s flavor seeps richly into the milk. It must not boil.”
“There seems to be quite a bit of milk, but there’s a reason for it.”
He retrieved the gelatin from cold water.
“And here… though I truly cannot fathom why, we add gelatin.”
“Even while making it, I feel this sense of self-doubt about what I’m actually doing.”
Park Jun-ho shook his head, clearly bewildered.
“Now I’ll spread this onto a wide pan and shape it.”
“Spread it thin and let it cool.”
“Then once I coat it generously with cream cheese, we’re almost done.”
Park Jun-ho set down the spatula he’d been using to spread the cream cheese and continued speaking.
“Now I’ll roll this up carefully. Like kimbap.”
“This is the most difficult part of today’s dish.”
“I have to roll it carefully so it doesn’t tear.”
“Though honestly, the truly difficult part was deciding to make this in the first place.”
Park Jun-ho laughed despite himself, shaking his head at the absurdity.
“You thought it was finished, didn’t you?”
“More sugar goes in.”
“More sugar. Again, more sugar goes in.”
“This time it’s brown sugar.”
“I’m serious.”
“This recipe really does use sugar in many different forms.”
“For now, let me just follow the recipe.”
“I’ll sprinkle the brown sugar on top and torch it.”
“So that’s probably why ‘burnt’ is in the name.”
Park Jun-ho torched the brown sugar.
The charred brown sugar gleamed with a glossy sheen.
“Now it’s complete.”
“I should taste it.”
I cut the finished burnt honey cake jelly with a knife.
Then I smelled it.
“I have no idea what this smell is.”
“After smelling sweetness continuously, I’m getting dizzy.”
“Still, the aroma is pleasant. The cinnamon scent is quite nice.”
I brought it straight to my mouth.
Crunch.
The torched brown sugar shattered.
And then.
Pffft.
Pffffttt.
Laughter burst out of Park Jun-ho before he could help it.
I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t.
Every time I tried to hold it back, I laughed even harder.
“Pfft. What is this?”
“What kind of flavor is this?”
Park Jun-ho picked up another piece and ate it.
“It’s delicious. It really is delicious, but… ah, how should I describe this?”
“The flavor is completely unexpected.”
“Even though the ingredients are straightforward…”
Park Jun-ho ate another piece.
“Wow. Why does this taste so refined?”
“The texture is absolutely wonderful. The gelatin is a masterstroke.”
“It’s chewy and bouncy, and the cinnamon aroma is divine.”
“Yet it’s not overwhelmingly sweet.”
Park Jun-ho continued eating piece after piece.
“It’s simply delicious.”
“Now I understand why everyone was laughing.”
Before long, the plate was completely empty.
“I didn’t intend to eat this much, but I’ve finished it all.”
“I’ll have to do an intense workout today.”
“I’ll wrap up here for today.”
“Since it doesn’t require an enormous amount of ingredients, those interested might want to give it a try.”
“Just be mindful of your arteries.”
“I’ll leave the recipe I created in the description below.”
“Well then, take care.”
The video ended there.
And the view count for that video began skyrocketing.
Inventory – Became a Major Player in the Black Market.
186 – Dessert
E-book Publication
/ January 30, 2026
Author
/ Black Card
Publisher
/ Son Je-ho
Publishing House
/ Munpia
Address
/ Doosan Landmark Tower 12F, 308 Gangnam-daero, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
List Price
/ 100 Won
https://munpia.com
[email protected]
© Black Card, 2026
This e-book
Munpia
has published this work in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and
Munpia
without written permission, the contents of this e-book and book may not be used in any form or by any means.
This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or copying may result in legal liability.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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