Chapter 157 The Girl Who Eats Meat 3
After realizing that Olga's small, delicate fist was spicier than expected, we were dismantling the Sheeplani that Menelapie had hunted down.
Menelapie had cut their tendons, broken their bones, or immobilized them completely by pressing on their weak points with her golden eyes, rendering them unable to move.
However, since the Sheeplani's lifeforce was quite tenacious, they still managed to scream loudly, annoying my ears, even when only their heads could move.
Regardless, I calmly sat down and dismantled the Sheeplani cleanly, leaving not a single strand of hair behind.
Thanks to the perception filter on the broadcast, it wasn’t a gruesome scene, and even in reality, their simple physical structure and the fact that they didn’t bleed red like humans made the task less of an eyesore.
Crack!
Crunch!
Snap!
- Screeeeeech!!!
Even though they seemed to resent having their heads torn off, screaming as if their sorrow was boundless, the Sheeplani couldn't resist.
It was fortunate that Menelapie had rendered them completely immobile below the neck.
Had they been able to move, they certainly would have caused a significant commotion.
Well, since I needed to keep them alive for freshness, their screaming was unavoidable...
After all, the voices of monsters I hear in my head are willful, and would be just as noisy even if their vocal cords were crushed.
[Aaaaaaahhhh....]
[Oh shit;]
[Thank you for my head...]
[Is that... a hero and a saintess?]
[The streamer has no blood or tears.]
[Wow, look at that, tearing out the hair.]
[Please, no more disgusting scenes.]
[Ugh, what the hell...]
Why are the viewers like this again?
"Is there a problem?"
['BaldManagerLickLick' has donated 5,000 won!]
"Stress-induced hair loss... this broadcast is too brutal..."
"Oh really? Well, if you're balding, shouldn't you stop watching this broadcast and go grab onto the little hope you have left?"
[?]
[??]
[?]
[What?]
[What was that?]
[That crossed the line.]
[Lololololol]
[Oh, if you're balding, instead of watching this, apply some medicine to your scalp, haha.]
"Uh... is baldness still an incurable disease?"
I hadn't really thought about that...
['KawaiiHorned' has donated 10,000 won!]
"Crossed the line."
[What the hell, why are you hitting?]
[Baldness isn’t incurable... it can be cured... it will be cured...]
[God, I didn’t even do anything bad, and she suddenly punches me.]
[Lolol is she even sorry?]
[Lol]
"I mean... I didn't expect that even after I returned, there'd still be no cure for baldness."
I had left for the world where Menelapie and Teresa existed in 2024, but I didn't expect that in 2088, 64 years later, there would still be no cure for baldness.
I mean, isn't it reasonable to expect a cure for baldness to come out after 60 years have passed?
[This returnee is being rude now.]
[Apologize.]
[Want to crash and burn?]
"Heh, Shia. I must say, it seems rather sad and pitiful that a saintess like you, with such beautiful hair, cannot understand the pain of baldness."
"But... I've never had to worry about my hair..."
[No way.]
[Do you even know the pain of losing chunks of hair from the age of 21?]
"I should probably do a joint stream with the viewers sometime. If I use Great Healing, wouldn't it even cure baldness?"
"Hoo..."
['BaldManagerLickLick' has donated 100,000 won!]
"Please, streamer, please, please save me, save my hair, please, please, please."
[Lolololol]
[Look at the quick turnaround.]
[When there's a chance your hair can be saved, who cares about pride?]
[Exactly, haha.]
['Sisiro Botang' has donated 50,000 won!]
"My hair's been falling out a lot lately too... me too, please..."
['KawaiiHorned' has donated 100,000 won!]
"Me too, please... just once... please..."
They're suddenly going crazy over the mention of Great Healing?
Is hair that important...?
I wouldn't know since I've never lost hair.
I'm not joking, I've really never lost any.
The strength and durability of my hair and roots are stronger than most steel. Even though I’ve had minor injuries or broken bones, my hair has never been damaged.
‘Well, if they’re reacting this strongly, I guess it must be important.’
Come to think of it, hosting a healing event for viewers might not be a bad idea.
Not just for baldness, but for modern people who are exhausted—one round of Great Healing could significantly improve their quality of life.
And there might be some people who genuinely need Great Healing.
In the previous world, as the Saintess of the Empire, I had healed many people for free, but since returning, I've refrained from casting Great Healing on the general public.
Healing powers were rare in this world, and on Earth, if I overused Great Healing for profit or commercial purposes, it would threaten the livelihoods of doctors or healers who made their living from such abilities.
And the biggest issue... Miracles consume my holy power, which I replenish by converting the malevolent energy I consume.
If I recklessly overused my holy power as I did in the previous world, I could be overwhelmed by malevolent energy and suffer a hunger-induced rampage—something that would be disastrous.
Still, offering Great Healing for a special event, like curing baldness... that should be fine, right?
- Screeech!
- Save me!
- This is tyranny!
"Ah, shut up!"
In any case, the screams of the Sheeplani echoing in my head were, no matter how I looked at it, truly fucking annoying.
As a saintess, I shouldn’t use harsh language like "fucking," but their screams were seriously fucking annoying.
There’s no other way to put it.
No, that’s the best way to put it.
The Sheeplani’s screams were fucking awful.
"Shia, can you hear what they’re saying?"
"Yeah, they’re begging to be saved."
But I had no intention of sparing them.
These creatures eat humans as their main food.
They are cunning, evil monsters, and if I let even one escape, it might prey on defenseless humans.
The government had already issued orders to kill them on sight, so why would I show mercy?
"Hoo, I see. I thought there was something strange about their cries when I tore their hair off—there’s a certain sadness to them."
Thankfully, with Menelapie around, the dismantling wasn't too difficult.
I originally intended to leave the butchering to a monster meat processing expert outside the dungeon, but thanks to Menelapie’s analytical abilities with her golden eyes, she paralyzed the Sheeplani’s bodies with just a gesture. She had pinpointed the exact locations of their meat, internal organs, and bones more skillfully than most butchers.
"By the way, Olga, are you feeling better?"
"...No."
Olga, meanwhile, was still sulking in a corner, embarrassed that her spicy punch had been revealed on stream.
"Don’t worry, Olga. It happens in the Mangji Squad!"
"...Ugh... I didn’t want to become like Big Olgania..."
"It’s okay. In fact, the viewers are reacting positively..."
"Stop talking about that, please!"
What’s so embarrassing about being good at punching...?
I guess elf sensibilities don’t align with mine.
Maybe if she had been raised like a proper lady, I’d understand, but Olga is quite the rogue princess, isn’t she?
Even before her carnivore corruption, she was a part of the Mangji Squad that had already fallen into streaming, yet she gets embarrassed about weird things.
Well, when people are feeling down, meat is the best remedy to improve their mood.
I inspected the Sheeplani meat that Menelapie had dismantled.
"Sniff sniff... Ugh. The smell..."
Although it’s high-protein and high-calorie, freshly butchered Sheeplani meat had a terribly strong odor.
For freshly slaughtered meat to smell this bad, it wasn’t due to rot.
It seemed like Sheeplani meat naturally had a terrible stench.
"Hmm, it looks like I’ll need to season this. By the way, Shia, you can use the purification miracle, right?"
"Even with that, this is the best I can do."
While purification could remove surface-level odors, a more fundamental solution was needed.
"Menelapie, can I leave the task of plucking out their hairs to you?"
"Don’t worry."
I pulled out some pepper and garlic powder from the transport drone.
Pepper is often used for seasoning, but its main purpose is preservation and flavoring.
Seasoning.
While I’m not great at cooking, I’m fairly confident in seasoning.
"Menelapie, Olga. Is garlic powder okay?"
"...It’s fine..."
"I’m okay with whatever you make..."
Snap!
- Screeech!
"That's good."
It’s clear that Menelapie is better at plucking hair than I am.
Watching her pluck every last hair without mercy felt like watching the cold, meticulous Emperor Menelapie from her past.
Crunch!
- Screeech!?
[
Oh damn, even watching that hair plucking is still horrifying.]
[God, it's scarier because it's in SD.]
[Heu-eung, the Baldness-Hero Noona...]
[Baldness-Hero.]
Menelapie had acquired a strange nickname somehow, but... well, she didn't seem to care, so it's fine.
Alright. Now that I had Menelapie’s approval, it was time to start seasoning the meat properly.
It should be fine.
The chance of messing up the seasoning is about one in ten.
Anyway, I decided to leave the noisy Sheeplani to Menelapie and focus on seasoning some of the already-prepped Sheeplani meat.
Today's dish would be a roast.
Since it was Olga’s first time eating meat, I decided on a roast to preserve the natural flavor of the meat.
At first, I had considered stir-fry, salad with meat, or bulgogi—more fusion-style dishes—but roasting is the best way to bring out the most primal flavors of meat.
‘Let’s see... salt, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, whole black pepper... I’ve got plenty of seasoning. But what’s this? Kimchi seasoning...??’
Wait, what’s this?!
Kimchi seasoning?
Did I buy something like this?
Maybe I had stuffed it in the transport drone and forgotten about it, but it’s the first time I’ve seen a container like that.
[Wait, what’s kimchi seasoning?]
[Streamer’s transport drone always seems to have weird stuff.]
[Who knew that existed, lol.]
[Actually, it’s pretty good.]
[No way, that looks like a landmine seasoning.]
[It’s basically powdered kimchi and gochujang. If you want to add some spice to your ramen, just sprinkle it in. It’s perfect for people who can’t handle too much spice if you adjust the amount.]
[For real??]
"Oh, really??"
Since the chat said it was good, I sprinkled a bit of the kimchi seasoning on my finger and licked it.
‘Hmm, it tastes like red pepper powder with hints of onion, ginger, garlic, and sesame seeds.’
Huh, I thought it would taste weird since it’s kimchi seasoning, but it’s actually pretty good.
Alright. Today’s dish will be Sheeplani roast with kimchi seasoning.
- Screeech!
Ugh, so noisy.
"Menelapie, could you quiet them down?"
"Of course. I’ll break all their necks before butchering them."
- Gasp?!
- Spare us!
- No!
Jeez, how noisy.
If they’re going to eat others, they should have been prepared to be eaten!
I always am!
Of course, there are very few beings that can eat me.
—Our ancestors are tastier than we are!
—Spare us!
—Please!
—Stop plucking our hair!
"Menelapie, hold on."
"Why, what is it?"
The sudden plea from the Sheeplani was enough to pique my interest.
Just as Menelapie was about to pluck out the hair of another Sheeplani, she paused, and I approached the creature.
"Ancestors? What are those?"
○○○○○○
"Ha, how absurd."
Boom!
It was just a basic strengthening technique where mana is wrapped around the body, but even that was enough to completely destroy the gigantic tree that had been wrapping around Cheon Dana.
Although Cheon Dana was an awakened person with special abilities, her basic physical strength and mana were at a level deserving of being called S-rank.
However, no matter how many she destroyed, there was no end.
"Leader, thank you so much..."
"Thank you so much..!"
"Enough with the thanks, just clear away the trees in front of us."
"Y-yes...!"
Cheon Dana's ability was replication.
It was a broad power that could copy not only objects and inanimate things but even parts of living bodies.
Cheon Dana, the powerful S-rank capable of leading the world's largest guild, when struck by an unknown flash of green light, replicated the surrounding mana and various energies, forming a barrier that stopped the trees' movements.
However, the trap the elves had prepared wasn’t just some simple growth of plants or trees.
‘This mechanism destroys all life in the irradiated area, absorbing the life force and using it as fertilizer to terraform and detonate the environment...’
Had it been just a life-promotion spell, it wouldn't have been surprising.
If it were the nature-loving elves, it wouldn't be unusual for them to have such magic.
However, this was something that drained all the surrounding life force to create new life, with a range so vast it could put nuclear bombs to shame.
If Cheon Dana hadn’t replicated her life force along with that of the other executives of the San Guild, they would have been sucked dry by the elves' spirit bombs and turned into mummies.
"Ha, this is fun."
Cheon Dana never imagined that the elves would prepare such a trap.
Even considering that they had received no information from the party, this attack was beyond common sense.
Although there were a few individual elves on Earth, it was generally understood that elves preferred hit-and-run tactics in forests.
Never in her wildest dreams did she expect them to prepare a weapon that rivaled a nuclear bomb.
‘Just this one attack alone drained all the stored energy in my body.’
If she had been alone, it might have been different, but the problem was that she had come with other executives from the San Guild.
She didn't particularly care if all the executives died, but the absence of leadership would cause chaos in running the San Guild, so she couldn’t just let them die.
"Leader, are you alright? Your hand is trembling."
"…Hmph."
It wasn’t just that I used up my energy; even my stored life force has been depleted.
"There was no other choice. I couldn’t just let all of you die."
"...Leader..."
"Because of us...!"
"Sniff..."
Fortunately, thanks to their misunderstandings, the executives' loyalty increased a bit.
Anyway, the large-scale natural growth just now was something Cheon Dana had forcibly twisted and stopped by focusing all her power on the green flash bomb.
After that, Cheon Dana looked at the source of the explosive device in her hand.
'...What is this?'
The object, slightly elongated and faintly glowing green, looked undeniably like corn no matter how she examined it.
‘No way.’
Even though elves are a nature-loving species, could it be possible that such a monstrous weapon of destruction and recreation was just corn?
It couldn't be.
‘Come to think of it, elves don’t use magic, but spirit arts, right? Maybe it’s a giant spirit they're using, or perhaps it’s a bomb created by sacrificing countless spirits...’
—Coo coo?
Coo coo?
What now? What’s this sound?
Cheon Dana slowly looked up.
And there, perched atop a branch high in the dense forest where her executives had been clearing a path, was a pigeon.
A pigeon? In an elf's forest?
It wasn't necessarily strange, but it gave her an unsettling feeling.
—Coo coo?
Even though it seemed far away, judging by the size of the branch it was sitting on, the pigeon had to be at least as tall as Cheon Dana's knee—a giant pigeon.
Normally, seeing such a pigeon in the elves' great forest wouldn’t have raised any suspicions.
Elves were blessed by spirits and the forest, so even their crops grew large, and the forest itself was so full of life that a single tree could grow to the height of a skyscraper.
But having just narrowly blocked the elves' life force bomb, seeing the pigeon staring down at her made her feel uneasy.
Whack!
Cheon Dana, feeling annoyed for no reason, flicked her finger, sending a copied mana shot at the pigeon.
The fat, plump body of the pigeon burst with no trace left, leaving only its white feathers drifting through the air.
And then...
Flutter!
Flap flap!
Flap!
“?”
“What’s that sound?”
“A flock of birds.”
“Why is there suddenly a flock of birds...?”
Even as she watched the flock of birds pass overhead, Cheon Dana let out a short sigh.
Apparently, by killing one pigeon, the others that had been hiding also got startled and began flying off somewhere.
She realized this, but there were too many pigeons to bother killing them all when there was still a long way to go.
‘But why are there so many pigeons?’
It wasn’t just their numbers. Now that she looked closely, they were all quite large.
The average size of each bird was about that of a chicken, and they were all flying in a uniform direction.
No, forget it.
What’s the point in worrying about something so trivial?
"Leader, if the birds are bothering you, shall I burn them all?"
"Forget it. Just keep clearing the path, men."
"Yes, sir!"
Three minutes after the chicken-pigeons began their flight, Cheon Dana found herself glancing at them uneasily as they kept flying overhead.
What was it?
Why did she feel so uneasy?
All the pigeons were flying in the same southwest direction.
If the southwest direction from the elves' great forest in the Gobi Desert was right... then it would lead to Shanxi Province, which bordered the Gobi Desert. And in the border area between the Gobi Desert and Shanxi... was the location of the San Guild’s Fragment Research Lab.
No way. It couldn't be.
Surely not.
They were probably just birds startled by the fight, fleeing from danger.
With that thought in mind, Cheon Dana decided to conserve her strength in case of a future clash with the elves.
"Hey?"
"Hmm, Commander Ohseong, don’t those birds have something in their beaks?"
"Do they?"
"With your keen eyesight, you should be able to see it, right?"
"Yeah, I can see it... they're holding some kind of yellow grain."
What? Yellow grains?
In that moment, Cheon Dana widened her eyes and looked at the chicken-pigeons.
Indeed, just as Commander Ohseong said, all of the birds were carrying something in their beaks.
Something yellow.
Bright yellow corn kernels, to be precise.
"Alright. Leader, it looks like we’ll have a path cleared in three minutes!"
"........."
"Hey, what’s that up ahead?"
"What is it?"
"Oh, it’s just a cornfield, nothing special."
Following the executives' words, Cheon Dana lowered her gaze, and outside the forest, which had been obscured by trees until now... a vast cornfield that couldn’t even compare to what they’d seen at the entrance of the gate came into view.
"......."
Corn.
Corn.
Everywhere she looked, it was corn.
Do you know about the Corn Belt in the United States?
It’s a huge agricultural area, several times larger than South Korea, filled with nothing but corn.
And the scene Cheon Dana was looking at now—this seemingly endless cornfield—was exactly like that Corn Belt.
As she saw the horizon painted with corn, Cheon Dana looked up again.
And there, flying southward past their heads... were the chicken-pigeons, each holding a corn kernel in its beak.
"..........."
And Cheon Dana couldn’t help but acknowledge the truth.
"Hold your fire."
"Yes?"
"…Target the birds."
"Excuse me? What are you talking about, Leader?"
"Those birds..."
She realized something.
Something very, very bad.
"Those birds are dangerous!!!"
Those damned chicken-pigeons were carrying goddamn flying corn bombs!