Chapter 28: A change

Joonbum prepared hot rice and started cooking five fried eggs. He topped the rice with half-cooked eggs and added leftover vegetables.

“Seaweed powder, sesame, red chili paste, and sesame oil!”

A good smell filled the area that even made Galfus sniff at it. Joonbum started mixing the contents inside the big pot with his spoon. The half-cooked yolk melted into the rice as the egg whites were crushed and scattered, mixed with the vegetables and rice. Sesame oil glistened on top everything while it let out a delicious aroma.

Joonbum’s mouth grew watery as he continued mixing it.

“Ah!”

He let out a moan as he felt his mouth that was filled with saliva. He started eating, and each spoonful brought him happiness. Pretty soon, his big bowl was empty.

Joonbum let out a loud burp and took out a can of beer. It was like heaven.

“This is great!”

Joonbum shoved the can towards the camera once and then started drinking it.

When he was done with the food, the area was now dim with darkness. Joonbum looked around while he drank the beer and walked up to the basket.

“Hehe.”

The cubs were whining inside, moving around the basket as if it was now too small. Their whining grew louder as Joonbum started to scrub them.

“Hey, it’s Daddy. Daddy.”

He grinned as the cubs seemed to realize who was touching them. He then picked up the basket and walked towards Galfus. She opened her eyes as Joonbum approached her.

“I know you don’t care about them, but let them sleep by your side at night.”

He took out the cubs one by one and shoved them under Galfus. They whined for a moment but soon dug into Galfus’ fur as if they had noticed something.

‘Do they know?’

They seemed to know where they had to go instinctively.

“Good night.”

Joonbum spoke softly and went up to his treehouse with a can of beer and dried squid.

“Nice!”

He sat down and looked far out into the forest. It was dark. It was so dark that even the night sky was brighter. As the night grew, stars began to appear, filling the entire sky. An unparalleled number of stars filled the sky. The moon that rose up also shined brightly.

It was beautiful.

“Maybe this is another Earth?”

An idea struck him. Maybe it was a world from that of a storybook.

“Maybe it’s Earth from another dimension.”

Joonbum thought for a while, but shook it away as he could not recognize any of constellations in the sky. The weather was similar, but that was it.

“It’s not even close.”

He opened up another can of beer and continued drinking it. He also did not forget to eat the dried squid.

“This is so good.”

It was good. It was really good. It was night time, but there was no more fear. On the contrary, he was even excited at all the strange noises that came from the forest.

“Is it because of Galfus?”

He turned his eyes at Galfus, who was sound asleep down below. The giant figure was silently there. The sense of protection that Galfus brought grew even stronger at night. Joonbum smiled while looking at her.

*

Joonbum woke up from his sleep and looked around. He then yawned and stretched before he checked the time by turning on his phone.

‘It’s only 2 o’clock midnight?’

He had only slept for three hours.

“Ugh, not again!”

He was fully awake already, so he rose and moved down to the ground. Galfus’ ear moved as she heard Joonbum coming down. Her yellow eyes appeared in the darkness, then disappeared.

Joonbum glanced at Galfus and started moving around under the moonlight.

‘This is weird.’

It was beyond weird. This had been happening to him over a dozen days.

‘I don’t sleep much anymore. I hope there’s nothing wrong with me.’

He started unloading more stuff from the truck and moved it to the storage by category.

‘I mean, it’s not too bad… or is it good?’

It was the day that he installed tin wires that it started. The first thing that changed was his amount of sleep. Since he came here, the amount of time he spent sleeping drastically went down, dropping down to an average of three hours. What was more surprising was that he did not feel tired at all. He was clear and full of energy. It was even refreshing.

Although it was scientifically proven that a human needed at least a few minutes or hours for the brain to wake up completely, he was awake instantly.

The second change was that as he started waking up in the middle of the night, he started working in complete darkness. He was left with time, so there was nothing else for him to do than work to fight boredom.

He worked and worked. He also ate constantly while he worked. Even after a day of non-stop work, he was refreshed after just three hours of sleep.

The third change was his appetite. He was now eating ten meals a day. He was now eating more than the pigs that people called him as. He also ate as much food as food fighters did for his each of his meals. He used to eat a little more than the average person, thus being overweight, but it was never close to that of food fighters.

He was eating as such now. Not only that, his body was changing as he slept less, worked more, and ate like a pig.

It was the viewers that realized his changes first.

[What is he doing out in the middle of the night? He’s crazy to create videos!]

[Are you so alone at night? So full of energy? Hehe]

[An all-rounder. His pioneering doesn’t stop at night.]

[I think he can earn at least three hundred thousand won per day for labor.]

[Come to GE Warehouse and we can pay you well.]

[Is he eating again? He’s like a cow! Eat, work, eat, work…]

[Hey, the pig… his belly… it’s gone! Joonbum, where’s your cute belly?]

[Where’s the belly! You can’t lose more weight! Eat more!]

[He lost weight despite eating that much?]

[I think he did a liposuction.]

[You’re losing weight too fast. Are you doing anything special?]

[I think he’ll throw up all the food afterward.]

[I don’t think so. He doesn’t even go to the restroom that much other than for number 1. He doesn’t even go that often because he sweats a lot. Watch the video in full and you can see it.]

[There’s no sign of him throwing up across all 12 screens.]

[I think he’s losing weight because he works too much. He only sleeps three hours!]

[I think he grew taller too?]

[No way. He’s too old to still grow.]

[There’s some cases where a man can still grow past age 26.]

[Wow, this is amazing.]

[es tan lindo y esponjoso!]

[si. es mi nuevo animal favorito]

[animales sorprendentes. desearía poder acariciarlos]

[Wow, the video is going global now.]

[The cubs are growing so fast. Compare it to the first video. They’ve grown a lot.]

[Still cute. I want to eat them.]

[Eat your own meat, dumbass.]

[Primitive.]

[This video should have gone global a long time ago.]

[Joonbum is number one now.]

[I think he’ll get an offer from a weight control product company now.]

[I think he’s already accepted a contract with the liposuction.]

‘They know me better than I do.’

It was natural for the millions of viewers to recognize Joonbum’s change much faster. The twelve newly-installed cameras captured all of Joonbum’s life here. There were a few places including his treehouse, restaurant, and warehouse that the cameras did capture.

‘At least they have something to see.’

The suspicious people were now replaced with new interests.

There were a number of foreigners appearing in the comments section and they started to grow. As a result, all of his videos, including the past videos, increased in viewer count exponentially. Joonbum’s heart was overwhelmed at the responses that he could not read because of the fact that his videos were now going global.

‘I now have a lot of copycats too.’

Lot of BJs started doing similar videos to Joonbum’s. Jinpok was one of them. He was going around the unmanned islands and wilderness, insulting Joonbum at every chance.

But all those videos never grew popular. Joonbum pitied and felt something unsettling within him.