I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 42

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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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Chapter 42. Gate Botanical Garden (2)
“Pardon? Make up for losses? What on earth are you talking about, customer?”
She was asking back with a smile, but it was unmistakable.
Her lips trembled slightly.
Her face drained of color.
Her gaze wavered, searching for somewhere to land.
Beads of sweat rolled down her neck.
These were signals I could pick up on even without Haeryang’s skill of ‘Microscopic Analysis’.
“I saw an article when the Moisture Sprout was first successfully cultivated. The expectations were incredibly high back then, weren’t they?”
Indeed, when the Moisture Sprout was first successfully cultivated, the academic world had been abuzz.
Given the Moisture Sprout’s characteristic of retaining abundant uncontaminated water even in the harsh environment inside the Gate, it was thought that this could potentially solve the hydration supply problem for Hunters entering the Gate.
“There were articles about government subsidies, and I heard talk of expanding the cultivation facilities.”
“Ugh….”
Of course, I didn’t have such a good memory that I could recall everything I’d glanced at once in passing.
I simply had a thought like, ‘Oh, I think something like that happened,’ so I’d done more thorough research before coming here.
Through that, I was able to grasp the problems this place had taken on.
“But once cultivated, the Moisture Sprout tasted absolutely terrible, didn’t it? It has a taste like the extreme condensation of cucumber’s fishy smell from water—how could anyone eat that?”
“That… but there was plenty of moisture!”
“But there must be an even more serious problem, right?”
“That… that is….”
I drove the wedge deeper into the hesitant Nuri.
“Drinking the water inside it actually causes dehydration instead, doesn’t it?”
“Ugh….”
The research into using the abundant water from the Moisture Sprout as drinking water came to a complete halt here.
For some reason, after drinking the water from the cultivated Moisture Sprout, people would complain of sudden thirst and eventually develop dehydration symptoms.
Due to the taste and side effects that required no further explanation, all plans to utilize the Moisture Sprout were completely abandoned.
Now, let me pose a problem from this situation.
The only person capable of cultivating the large quantities of Moisture Sprout needed during the research planning phase was Kim Nu-ri alone.
So, after the plan fell through, who has been dealing with the massive quantities of Moisture Sprout left behind?
“You probably received subsidies, but cultivating Moisture Sprout must have required quite a bit of equipment. With the situation changing, you couldn’t have sold off all that equipment. Besides, there probably wasn’t anyone to buy it anyway.”
“Phew… you’ve done your homework pretty thoroughly, haven’t you?”
Nuri wiped away the smile from her face, her expression darkening completely.
“Do you smoke?”
“I don’t.”
“Then bear with it for a moment. Even if I die from secondhand smoke, it’d be better than my fate….”
With a sigh that seemed to carry all the bitterness of life, she exhaled a plume of smoke and opened her mouth.
“The subsidies? Forget it. Don’t even mention it. Those so-called educated types just spouted empty talk, but they didn’t actually do anything.”
“But surely….”
“Subsidies? They gave them, sure. Said they’d help improve things for Hunters by cultivating Moisture Sprout. But they only gave five hundred million. Those gentlemen who’ve never gotten their hands dirty—how could they know that amount wouldn’t even cover the basics?”
White ash fell in a cascade as she smoked rapidly, weighed down by so much resentment.
He stubbed out his cigarette with hands roughened by years of arduous farmwork, then rose from his seat and nodded.
“Follow me. I appreciate the thought, but once you see it with your own eyes, you’ll understand why I feel this way.”
As I followed Nuri, who shuffled along slowly, into the building, he continued speaking without pause, as if determined to pour out everything he’d been holding back.
“I originally wanted to live quietly, handling things on my own, but I never expected things would spiral like this.”
“I started this because I thought if I could make a profit from the Moisture Sprouts, I could research other plants too. Who could have known it would become such a shackle around my ankle?”
“Anyway… look at this place. Think carefully about it. Here.”
A massive structure occupied one section of the Botanical Garden.
Standing dumbfounded before a scale incomparable to the small botanical garden, I watched as Nuri pushed open the enormous iron doors.
And what appeared before me was….
“Sir… Owner?”
“What is it.”
“What is all of this?”
Land that stretched endlessly.
Densely packed across that land were round, verdant lumps the size of human heads.
“What else? Moisture Sprouts.”
So all of those were Moisture Sprouts.
There were so many that the brown earth was barely visible.
All that remained in sight was the undulating green expanse of Moisture Sprouts.
Moreover, when I’d looked at it from outside, it hadn’t seemed nearly this vast.
“Impressive, right? All of that is defective inventory, you see.”
“It’s incredible… truly….”
“Want to hear something even more incredible?”
“What? Something even more incredible….”
“This is just the first floor. Heh heh… this building has six floors.”
A defective inventory event six times over.
One might think to simply discard them, but since Moisture Sprouts are legitimate products of the Gate, disposal wasn’t possible without authorization.
Government and Association approval was required.
“Even worse, my plans fell through but I can’t break the contract, so I can’t even dispose of them. And every penny spent on this comes straight from my pocket!”
“How much has been spent….”
“So far, a full five hundred million won. And there’s more to come. Just maintaining that alone is absolutely brutal!”
A money-eating monster that couldn’t be disposed of.
From what I heard, his house had already been auctioned off, and he was living here in the Botanical Garden, which itself was on the verge of being auctioned away soon.
“Do you know how to grow Moisture Sprouts?”
“How?”
“Heh heh. Those creatures grow on salt. Salt! But here’s the thing—salt filtered from the sea won’t do. What’s it called, rock salt? Only salt mined from there works, and it has to be incredibly pure just to barely grow them. It’s absolutely maddening!”
Nuri exhaled a sigh and waved a cigarette, to which I nodded.
Without hesitation, he lit the cigarette and continued speaking.
“Damn it, I’m running this ridiculous experience program just because I need a few extra coins. Otherwise, I would’ve just farmed and researched plants in peace. I was never the type to live looking people in the face anyway.”
Nuri stubbed out the finished cigarette and muttered while rolling a fresh one.
“Honestly, I know I can’t handle this. If you need farming techniques, I’ll just teach you those—take that knowledge and go. My head’s pounding too much to think straight anymore.”
He was asking me this.
Whether I could handle such a situation.
My answer to that was already decided.
“All I need to do is sell the inventory in whatever form possible, right? Do I need permission for that?”
“Huh? Well… yeah? That doesn’t matter. But what on earth are you trying to do…?”
“Then it doesn’t matter. I have a way to handle all of it.”
“What?”
“Meow?”
Everyone except me widened their eyes in shock.
They probably couldn’t believe that I could process all that massive inventory.
But I was prepared to say something even more unbelievable.
“And I might even be able to generate profit. If you want that, Owner.”
“What? Do you perhaps have some clever solution?”
“Meow! Meow!”
“Of course. I definitely do.”
I had been thinking about it since I searched for information about Moisture Sprouts online, but seeing them in person confirmed my conviction.
That’s because the status window appeared the moment I laid eyes on them.
[Moisture Sprout (Cultivated)]
▷ A plant that bears enormous fruits laden with moisture. A severe fishy stench permeates the area. Drinking the sap grants an acute dehydration debuff.
▷ Currently in a state of excessive salt absorption due to failing to meet the desired type of salt content.
“I have exactly the right method.”
“Customer… No! Master!”
Nuri, who had been wearing a weathered expression until moments ago, suddenly cried out and rushed over.
Doo-sik, who always stood by her side, did the same.
Just as I was backing away, worried about what would happen next.
“Please save us! Help us! I’ll do absolutely anything you ask!”
“Woof woof! Grr! Woof!”
“No, wait… please calm down….”
“Consider it saving someone whose life took a nosedive from the bottom after getting caught in the Moisture Sprout coin craze! If you need anything, just say the word! I’ll go anywhere, even to the depths of hell itself to get it!”
“Awooooo!”
“Then just rent me one empty room! That’s all I need!”
Their need for help seemed truly desperate.
* * *
“Phew. They really were difficult to adapt to.”
“I agree. Meow.”
I sat in the comfortable chair in the living room of the Witch’s Cottage and spoke while catching my breath.
Kim Nu-ri, the owner of the Botanical Garden, was a person difficult to deal with and even harder to predict.
“When she brought up the Moisture Sprouts and when I mentioned the solution, she seemed like a completely different person. Maybe there’s a different personality mixed in….”
“Isn’t she just an honest person? Owner?”
“That’s true.”
Noir and I had entered the Witch’s Cottage through a spare room in the Botanical Garden.
Even if it wasn’t the Bakery, as long as I had Noir as the key, I could enter the Witch’s Cottage from anywhere.
“But is there really a way to fix this? Owner?”
“Of course there is. Obviously. If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t have brought it up. Let’s head to the Kitchen Garden first.”
I grabbed one Moisture Sprout seedling I’d received from Nuri and made my way to the Kitchen Garden.
The withered creatures that had been wilting away seemed to have already been tidied up by the Witch’s Cottage itself, and a beautifully maintained garden welcomed me.
“First, I’ll plant it…”
“Meow. Didn’t you say salt was needed?”
“Right. But it’s not just any salt that’s needed.”
Hadn’t the status window told me this?
Despite the creatures craving a specific type of salt, that craving remained unfulfilled.
So the situation was like this.
“It’s like wanting a specific bread but not having it available.”
“Meow. That’s terrible.”
“And instead, you’re just stuffing tasteless bread into your mouth.”
“That’s even worse, Owner.”
I was speaking from the Moisture Sprout’s perspective, after all.
Craving a specific salt that isn’t available.
But salt was everywhere around them.
They’d consumed it, certainly, but that craving was never truly satisfied.
So they kept consuming salt excessively, which eventually led to their deteriorated state.
“I believe that affected both the taste and the side effects.”
“So what are you going to do about it? Owner?”
“What am I going to do? We have some really excellent salt.”
“Salt? Meow! You mean that salt!”
The purification salt I’d brought from the Gangneung Gate before, and the additional amount I’d received from Sky.
With such high purity that it could purify everything, the Moisture Sprout wouldn’t be able to resist it.
About an hour passed like that.
“Look at this.”
The status window of the Moisture Sprout, which had absorbed several salt crystals placed around it, had changed noticeably.
[Moisture Sprout (Cultivated)]
▷ A plant that bears enormous fruits rich in moisture. It’s characterized by sap with a subtle sweetness and a hint of salinity. Remarkably, drinking it doubles the refreshing sensation and specializes in quenching thirst.
The change wasn’t limited to the status window alone.
The color of the opened fruit had transformed into something darker and as brilliant as a precious gem.
When I picked it up and tapped it, the hollow sound it made was strangely familiar.
If I split it open and red flesh appeared inside, it would feel even more familiar.
“This looks exactly like a watermelon.”
Of course, the status window’s description suggested otherwise in some aspects.
Regardless, if this had the taste and aroma of a watermelon, the breads and beverages I’d make were already decided.
“Do you need help?”
“That would be nice.”
“Then… meow!”
Ding!
[Even If You Hate It, One More Time]
▷ This world is filled with things that gnaw away at your heart. Can your food truly save people from the world’s cruelty?
▷ Deliver ??? to ‘Kim Nu-ri’ 0/1
▷ Reward: 50 BP
“BP really is meager.”
“Meow. It means this isn’t the sort of thing that drastically changes fate. Probably that man would have found his own way out even if the Owner hadn’t intervened.”
“He certainly seemed resolute. Still, right now he needs my help.”
And thanks to that, I was able to learn farming techniques in return.
“Let’s taste it first.”
“Good.”
I placed a single Moisture Sprout on the cutting board and split it in half—the aroma that wafted out was sweet yet refreshingly cool.
Though I had said it was repulsive, not even a hint of that impression remained.
It might sound strange to call a scent “cool,” but there was truly no other way to describe it.
The moment it entered my nostrils, I felt a sensation unlike mint—a truly fresh breeze and water flowing through my throat.
“Wow…”
“Owner. The aroma smells like quality ingredients. Shouldn’t we taste it?”
“Let’s each try a piece.”
When I sliced it and placed the flesh in my mouth, I felt an even greater shock.
Though not red, nearly translucent in color, the performance it delivered the moment it touched my tongue exceeded all imagination.
“Mmm! Meow! It’s delicious!”
“So clean and sweet! I was wrong to compare it to watermelon!”
It had the texture of watermelon.
But it couldn’t be called watermelon.
It wasn’t merely sweet—there was a subtle saltiness to it, while simultaneously delivering a refreshing coolness.
How could mere fruit juice produce such complexity of flavor?
“Excellent. With this, I can create something even more delicious than I originally envisioned.”

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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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