Chapter 45

44. Opening the Box

The newly added trees in the garden began to find their colors. With consistent fertilization and watering, the once withered trees started to sprout fresh green shoots.

"Really a lot. But I think we need to rearrange their positions later."

In the rush to move the trees, they had been haphazardly grouped together. The new trees mostly bore fruits used in cooking. Although these were useless to Taeju, who couldn't cook, selling them at the store could help with DP accumulation.

There were no fruits yet, but with more time and as the trees recovered, it seemed he wouldn't need to make and sell things like earthworm spices anymore.

'Horrible spices.'

Taeju thought of the spices, shuddered, and then looked around the store. He often checked the store, hoping to find a good healing potion, just in case.

"Another miss today."

Director Lee returned to the set the next day, pale-faced, leaving behind people's worries. Though he acted as if nothing had happened after collapsing that day, it still bothered him.

He entered the cabin and opened his pharmacology and herbalism books. Usually, he read books on his tablet, but when he needed to focus, paper books were slightly better.

"Let's see. Healing potion... Here it is."

He found a healing potion in the advanced pharmacology book but soon closed it. Without information about the disease, he couldn't make anything.

"Maybe a universal healing potion will come out of the box?"

Taeju looked for where Hye was. Fortunately, she wasn't nearby. Recently, Hye and Jepyr flew somewhere every day.

According to Hye, they visited a sparkling place with Shara. Each time they returned, they were covered in pollen and smelled sweet, suggesting it was a nice place.

"I didn't know Jepyr could fly and teleport. He can even carry Hye and move."

Despite this, Jepyr stayed to guard the garden, which was deteriorating without a gardener. With the ability to fly and teleport, he could have gone elsewhere, but he waited for the association to send help.

Taeju soon dismissed his thoughts. Jepyr's abilities weren't important now. What mattered was that Hye and Jepyr were out again.

"Let's draw. I probably need to draw at least ten, right?"

After checking his surroundings again, Taeju bought a box.

His face turned slightly red, and his heart began to race.

"Damn. This apple tree!"

Every time he opened a red box, the first item was an apple sapling. Though he usually liked apples, this time it was disappointing.

Taeju's hands trembled. He had now collected all three volumes of the cooking book series. After calming down, he opened another box.

Excited by the word "rainbow," Taeju was disappointed to find a colorful ribbon. This time, he opened five boxes at once.

He didn't get the healing potion he wanted, but one item caught his eye: a 4-night, 5-day reward vacation ticket. He remembered opening a box hoping to find a military exemption card.

"Use it when you're in the military? Strange."

He found it hard to hide his surprise whenever real-world items appeared. It seemed the items were tailored to his real-life situation.

After checking his DP, Taeju quickly bought another ten boxes. This time, he took the boxes to the bedroom in the cabin. He was concerned about the time spent opening boxes and decided to open them inside to avoid being caught if Hye returned.

"Alright, let's open them again."

"Damn!"

He opened all the boxes at once without checking the contents. The healing potion he hoped for didn't appear. Instead, he got an umbrella from a movie and a ticket to change the garden's weather for 30 days.

After a moment's thought, he bought and opened another ten boxes. But this time, it was another miss.

"Am I just unlucky? Not even a single recovery potion?"

Among the items scattered around the room, Taeju picked up a golden spoon, read its description, and considered opening another box.

"Taeju?"

"Ha ha ha. Hye, you're back?"

Hye returned to the garden. Jepyr seemed to have climbed back onto a branch. Taeju quickly left the cabin before Hye entered, heading out to meet her, still holding the golden spoon.

Hye's gaze lingered on the golden spoon in Taeju's hand. Taeju quickly put it in his pocket and casually asked if she had a good time, hoping his 16 years, now 17, of acting skills would shine.

"Taeju, Hye visited the fairy forest."

"Fairy forest?"

"Yep, it was fun."

Hye returned covered in pollen, and her wings seemed to sparkle more. Hye and Jepyr seemed to have had a great time.

"Taeju, this."

"Huh?"

"It's a gift."

Embarrassed, Hye handed him a small box and flew back to the fairy house. It was a small yellow box decorated with a pink ribbon.

"Wow! Thanks, Hye!"

He loudly thanked her and opened the box. Inside was a hair tie. Though it wasn't something he needed, he appreciated Hye's thoughtfulness.

Taeju tried the hair tie with a silver bead as a bracelet. The black band with a silver bead looked good on his wrist and could be used as a bracelet.

'Ah! Hye brought a gift, but what did I do?'

He started to worry about how Hye would react when she saw the depleted DP. He had started opening boxes hoping for a healing potion but ended up getting obsessed with drawing. The results weren't even very useful.

Taeju glanced at the pile of items in the cabin and decided to return to reality early.

He was about to call Taesan, who was hiding somewhere in the garden, but to avoid drawing Hye's attention, he asked Jepyr. Jepyr, who had been watching Taeju, nodded and flew off.

'No wings, but he's really good. Amazing.'

When Jepyr flew to where Taesan was, Taesan was sleeping on the ground, his feet covered in dirt from digging somewhere. Normally, Taeju would have taken him to the cabin for a bath, but today he decided to just take him as he was.

As Taeju carried Taesan and hurried to the garden entrance, Hye flew over from the fairy house at high speed.

"Taeju! DP, DP."

"Ah. Hye, sorry. I'll go early."

*

Taeju hurriedly said goodbye and returned to reality. He woke up still holding the dirt-covered Taesan. Taeju sat up in bed and rubbed his face.

"Why did I open so many boxes? Thirty of them. Was I out of my mind?"

Taeju berated himself for a while. During this, he noticed something poking him in the pocket and found the golden spoon he had hastily hidden. He thought he might have opened boxes with the spoon in his mouth if Hye hadn't come.

He had always thought it strange when Eunhyuk got obsessed with random boxes in games, but now he was doing the same.

"Does holding this increase luck?"

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Taeju regretted not silencing the garden messenger alerts. He was afraid to read Hye's messages, especially with the hair tie on his wrist.

"At least I have about 20,000 DP left. That should last a while, right?"

The only fixed expense in the garden was the daily wage for Ddan. It was a small amount, so it wasn't a burden.

Taeju made some excuses to himself but soon held his head in his hands. After a while, he checked the message on his tablet.

'Taeju, the DP is gone.'

"Sorry, Hye. I used it all."

'Taeju, this is a big problem.'

"Well, I'll have to pick a lot of tree fruits."

He filled the bathtub with warm water and put Taesan in. Watching Taesan enjoy his bath, Taeju started to wash himself.

Today was a day off from the music video shoot, and he had no other plans, so he could relax at home. He decided to test the golden spoon, which he had brought from the garden. If he had to open boxes in the garden again, it would be good to know the spoon's effect in advance.

He considered installing a game to open random boxes or buying instant lottery tickets from a convenience store.

Taeju wasn't good at games. After a few attempts at Battle Valley at Eunhyuk's urging, he only received a lot of abuse. Since then, he only played casual battle games and farm games where he grew crops and fed animals. However, he knew the names of popular games.

"100 box draws in 'Return of the Legend'?"

'Return of the Legend' was a game Taeju knew about because his friend Eunhyuk played it. Eunhyuk had invited him to join, offering some reward, but Taeju had ignored it after the Battle Valley incident. He had seen videos of people opening random boxes in the game on MiTube and was curious.

The video showed a broadcaster opening 100 random boxes to see how many good items they could get.

"According to the probability, there should be about 3 mythic items in 100 boxes, right?"

After watching the 10-minute video, Taeju's expression changed. The broadcaster had prayed, offered sacrifices, and tried various methods but didn't get a single mythic item.

"That's strange. Why didn't they get any?"

Taeju decided to try the game himself, thinking the golden spoon might make a difference. He turned on his PC, installed the game, and bought random boxes. He wanted to open 100 like in the video, but there was a daily purchase limit.

Taeju bought 30 boxes and received 3 bonus boxes. He put the golden spoon in his mouth and started opening the boxes.

The box opening was over in a blink.

He didn't need to play the game.

He had heard that good luck could also help with item enhancements, but it didn't seem necessary. There were no items worth enhancing.

"The probability seems off. Or maybe the sacrifice, as they called it, was too small?"

He was disappointed about the purchase limit.

"Ah, I should take Taesan for a walk. Taesan, let's go out."

"Meow!"

*

Even with a mask, Taesan drew attention. Fortunately, no one asked for autographs or photos, so Taeju enjoyed a leisurely walk with Taesan.

The park near his house was always crowded. There were many bicycles and children playing, so he couldn't let Taesan off the leash. It was relatively quiet now because it was a weekday morning, but on weekends, the park was too crowded to visit.

"Meow!"

"Don't dig in the flower bed. You just had a bath this morning."

Recently, Taesan had become obsessed with digging holes. If he wasn't watched, he would be covered in dirt. He was sniffing around a flower bed, and it looked like he might start digging.

Paw, paw, paw.

As soon as Taeju warned him, Taesan started digging. Taeju looked around to see if anyone was watching. Fortunately, no one was.

"Please, Taesan, stop digging."

"Meow!"

He blocked people's view with his body and tried to prevent the dirt from falling. If Taesan finished digging, Taeju would have to fill the hole, so he didn't want the dirt to spread.

"Meow!"

"What is it?"

Taesan dug up something from the dirt. It was a dirty coin purse.

Taeju frowned at the proud way Taesan placed it in front of him. Despite his reluctance, he praised Taesan, who was looking at him expectantly. Opening the purse, he found a few thousand won bills and some coins. There was no way to know who owned the purse.

Taeju sighed and took the purse to the park management office. The manager, holding the dirty purse, looked bewildered. He dropped it into the lost and found bin with two fingers and then stared at Taeju before handing him a vitamin drink.

"Stay strong, student."

"Huh?"

For some reason, Taeju felt encouraged and thanked the manager before leaving the park. It wasn't even lunchtime, but he felt tired.

On the way back from the park, he stopped at a convenience store. He picked out a bag of snacks and a cup noodle to pay for.

"Sir, this noodle has a new promotion starting today. Choose a free drink."

"Sure."

'Maybe my luck is improving?'

Taeju put the free vitamin drink and juice pack in his pockets. Perhaps he had used up all his luck when he first met Hye, but getting free drinks like this suggested his luck was recovering.

"Give me a thousand won worth of instant lottery tickets, please."