WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈
Chapter 90: Eel (1)
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I only had a moment to realize that my writing skills had stopped developing in elementary school before I started digging through the Gallery.
I wanted to look up everything I had posted there so far.
After all, I remembered that the Gallery had practically been my diary all along.
Still, the Gallery had too many gaps to serve as a proper reference book.
‘I can’t write down everything that’s already happened, so I’ll just give Wonmo and Fast Sloth brief descriptions.’
My writing was atrocious, but everyone had at least one thing they were good at.
For me, that was drawing. Even rough sketches came out well enough that anyone could tell at a glance that it was Wonmo.
Wonmo looked easy to draw because he was so round, but he was actually difficult. So I focused on his defining features.
Fast Sloth was just a sloth, so I drew Fast Sloth roughly too. Still, I made sure to include Fast Sloth’s distinctive features.
Fast Sloth had all the usual traits of a sloth.
Long arms compared to short legs. A slightly hunched posture. A face that looked relaxed and somehow stupid at the same time.
The claws, on the other hand, were vicious. They looked even sharper because I had been taking care of them.
‘And a simple description underneath.’
For Wonmo, I wrote that he was an Owlbear cub I had ended up living with after defeating an Owlbear.
For Fast Sloth, I described them as a little thug who stole my food.
If Fast Sloth ever found out, I would probably get smacked.
But that was impossible.
At least in this world, Hangul was a script only I knew.
‘No one had any reason to go out of their way to learn a script from another world.’
I didn’t want to put in that much effort just to leave something behind.
It was enough for there to be proof that someone like me had existed.
The dead lived on in the memories of the living.
That alone had value.
‘At least, that’s what I think.’
Even after my parents passed away, my memories of them remained vivid. I missed them, so every year on the anniversary of their deaths, I held memorial rites.
Even when money was tight, I did my best to remember their favorite foods and prepare them somehow.
Otherwise, it would have been hard to endure. I had planned to continue the rites until the day I was ready to let them go.
‘I wonder if I have to hold memorial rites even after ending up here.’
But now it was a matter of survival, not money, and I had to think about it.
Instead of remembering my parents, I might end up joining them.
Their death anniversary was still a long way off, but you never knew.
‘Come to think of it, how do they count days here?’
Other worlds might have different ways of tracking dates.
I could just write the number of days in my diary, but I was curious.
‘Ah, whatever. I’ll use the year I know as my cycle.’
My parents’ death anniversary was one week before the day I fell into the Forest of Four Seasons.
That week, I had drinks with friends and met people I knew.
I remembered it being harder than usual, especially finding time to see my friends.
Job hunting made it hard for us to see each other.
‘Hope they’re doing well.’
Those guys were probably struggling in their own ways too.
Though I was struggling like crazy over here.
I snorted, then started scribbling down what had happened today.
Octopus legs bursting out of the sand, and a transforming turtle.
I had encountered plenty of bizarre animals and gone through plenty of trouble today alone.
‘Still, I got something for my trouble.’
I had even gotten a turtle egg as big as an ostrich egg, so I had received my full reward for the day.
I quietly closed the diary full of drawings and headed outside the cave.
It was getting close to evening, so I should start preparing dinner.
‘Before that, I should check what got caught in the Fish Trap.’
Wonmo had woken up at just the right time, so we all went up together.
Splash! Splash!
“Kyuu! Kyuu!”
“You happy? I’m happy too.”
There were no fewer than three fish in the Fish Trap.
I headed back with Wonmo, who was bouncing around in excitement.
With food this plentiful, I couldn’t feel better. It must have been my reward for all the suffering today.
‘But how am I supposed to prepare this one?’
I looked at a different container instead of the one holding ordinary fish.
Inside was an eel as big as a giant snake.
I was gradually getting used to preparing fish, but eels were another story.
Their bodies were completely different, and I had no idea how to deal with one.
‘Should I knock it out like a fish?’
It would probably knock me out with its tail first.
It was not very big overall, but it was so long that I needed to be careful.
After staring at the eel with my arms crossed for a while, I logged into the Gallery.
This was the kind of situation where asking the Gallery was best.
[Post title] Tips for preparing an eel, please
[Author] Wild Grylls
[Post] (Photo of an eel inside a metal container)
[Post] I’m going to eat this guy. Could you give me some tips on how to prepare it?
└ Eels are harder to prepare than other fish, so be careful.
└ Shouldn’t you nail its head down first to secure it?
└ [Wild Grylls]: I have to nail it down?;;
└ Eels are slippery and thrash around like crazy, so it’s hard.
└ [Wild Grylls]: What about just smacking its head hard and knocking it out?
└ You’ll hit your own hand like that. Better to nail it to a cutting board and secure it.
└ If that doesn’t work, cut through the spinal cord. That should help.
└ [Passing Dwarf]: Hey, once you’re done with all that, give me one bite. I’m curious what eel tastes like.
└ [Wild Grylls]: Yeah, I’ll give you some.
└ [AllHailTheSun]: Could I get some too?
└ [Wild Grylls]: Sure.
└ [Allfather]: May I have one bite as well?
└ [Wild Grylls]: Yeah, um... I don’t mind.
└ [KingLeor]: It’s shameless of me, but could I also...
└ [Wild Grylls]: Sir?
└ [Smart Demon]: I have prepared a storage container. But could I also have just one bite...
└ [Wild Grylls]: ;;;
└ [SwordTasteMaster]: What, are you all beggars? Why are you asking for one bite each? I don’t get it.
└ Probably because it’s eel.
└ They’re definitely all men lol Look how pathetic they are.
└ [SwordTasteMaster]: What’s wrong with eel?
└ It’s good for virility.
└ For real, it’s amazing for men lol
└ And it was caught in the Forest of Four Seasons? Absolutely irresistible lol
└ [SwordTasteMaster]: ;;
Yeah. As a man, I could understand.
But this was my dinner, people.
I’d give some away once I was reasonably full, but I needed to put a stop to this.
└ [Heavenly Demon]: I shall bring down the hammer upon every pushy bastard. Bear that in mind.
└ Boo! Tyrant!
└ [Heavenly Demon]: Heavenly Demon is threatening people now that she’s an assistant moderator lol
└ [Heavenly Demon]: What did you say?
└ I said you are the most noble person in the world.
└ [Heavenly Demon]: A lie. Go stare at the wall and reflect for one gak.
└ You fucking bitch.
└ [Heavenly Demon]: Half a sijin.
└ lolololololololol
└ lolololol
└ What’s a gak, and what’s half a sijin?
└ Central Plains time units. One gak is fifteen minutes, and half a sijin is an hour.
└ Aren’t those falling out of use these days?
└ Older people use them often.
Thankfully, Heavenly Demon stepped in right away.
I still intended to give some to the people who had asked politely if I could.
The eel was so huge that I probably couldn’t finish it all myself.
‘Let’s start preparing.’
Because it was so long, I bought an extra-long cutting board.
Just as the Gallery had advised, I hammered a nail into the edge of the board to secure the eel.
Naturally, I hammered it in from the other side so the pointed end faced upward.
‘Nails are kind of expensive.’
All that remained was taking out the eel.
Wearing the World Tree Gloves, I pulled the eel from the metal container.
Maybe the gloves had some kind of anti-slip effect, because I couldn’t feel the slime at all.
Smack!
“Urgh!”
Instead, it whipped me with its tail. It was much stronger than any fish, so even getting it onto the cutting board was work.
But before a knife, every fish was sashimi.
I sliced into the spinal area behind its head with my dagger.
It was as thick as my forearm, so even cutting through it was difficult.
Twitch! Twitch!
Once I had cut nearly halfway through its head, the thrashing dropped sharply.
Without wasting time, I nailed its head in place.
It wouldn’t be able to thrash around anymore. This was exhausting.
‘Does this one have an Inner Core too?’
Judging by its size, there was a good chance. Every fish I had eaten so far had one.
I slowly began preparing the eel, which had almost stopped moving.
I split its body neatly in half, then removed the bones.
The dagger was sharp, but I even used aura for efficiency.
‘Done. Now I’ll wash it with water and cut it up.’
After roughly preparing the eel, I washed it thoroughly with water.
Wriggle!
“Eek.”
It sometimes writhed as though it were still alive and scared the hell out of me, but only occasionally.
Finally, I drizzled a little vegetable oil into a large pan and placed the eel, cut into suitable pieces, inside.
Oh, and no Inner Core came out. Apparently, not every fish had one.
Sizzle!
The grilled eel slowly turned golden brown, and I swallowed hard.
It was a delicacy I had never eaten even when I was on Earth. Even the friend who had bought me beef thought eel was too expensive.
‘They say it’s really good for men, right?’
Too bad I couldn’t make use of that. I suddenly felt depressed.
The Gallery was a place where people let out all kinds of desires, so tempting pictures were posted fairly often.
When it came to elves or demonkind, who had especially distinct traits, I sometimes saved them without even thinking.
Of course, the Head Mod deleted anything too explicit with ruthless speed.
Still, it was like rain after a drought for me, so I made good use of it.
‘Though I get hit with visual bombs sometimes.’
I could still remember it. The time I logged into the Gallery and got hit with a visual bomb right away.
The Head Mod and assistant moderators had to see those things themselves before banning the poster.
‘They weren’t kidding when they said it could give you a Heart Demon.’
While I was lost in useless thoughts, the eel had turned a beautiful golden brown.
Oil was flowing out so freely that I hadn’t needed to add any in the first place.
‘This must be high in calories.’
That was obvious from all the oil. From among the many pieces of meat, I picked up one from the tail.
I had heard the tail was the best part of an eel. Now it was time to taste it.
“Nom.”
Crunch. Crunch.
The outside was crispy, while the inside was moist. It had cooked unbelievably well.
The oil coming out of the meat was so rich that it almost tasted sweet.
There wasn’t any fishy smell, either. I had only added a little salt, yet there was none at all.
‘Even the bones were all soft.’
I had heard that eel bones were troublesome. This one didn’t have that problem.
With a happy smile, I started working through the eel.
There was so much that I gave several pieces to Wonmo and Fast Sloth along the way.
The meat was naturally oily, so they both ate well. Wonmo especially loved it.
[Chat participant] Passing Dwarf
[You]: Wow. This is fucking delicious lol
[You]: If it’s good, give me one barricade lol
[Passing Dwarf]: Okay. I’ll make one tomorrow morning when I wake up, so wait.
Since there was so much, I could give some to other people too.
It was greasy food, so overeating might give them indigestion.
After finishing the eel feast, a delicacy among delicacies, I immediately began practicing the Inner Energy Cultivation Method.
‘Maybe it has more energy because it’s eel?’
Maybe it was just a placebo effect, but it really felt that way.
If it was good for virility, that meant it was good for basic “vitality.”
It could only be good, not bad.
‘Where did the eel even come from?’
After finishing my Inner Energy Cultivation Method practice, I started cleaning up.
By the time I finished, pitch darkness had settled in.
After writing the diary entry that wrapped up my day, I made a post in the Gallery.
[Post title] Hello, everyone!
[Author] Wild Grylls
[Post] (Video of a blazing campfire)
[Post] See you tomorrow!
[Post] Anyone who wanted to trade earlier, let’s trade tomorrow!
The Gallery was the same as ever, with a few registered users and Anonymous Users tossing out all kinds of gags.
I snorted at the familiar sight of the Gallery.
‘Let’s not rush.’
Starting today, I decided to take the long view. It was time to follow the saying: when you’re in a hurry, take the long way around.
Well, the Forest of Four Seasons was forcing me to take the long way around anyway, but that didn’t matter.
As long as there was even a thread of hope and possibility, nothing in the world was impossible.
I slowly planned out tomorrow, then quietly closed my eyes.
‘I’ll survive until the end.’
Until the end.
Time passed, and the next morning came.
“Ah, seriously. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The situation I found myself in the moment I opened my eyes left me no choice but to get annoyed.
What I saw was a tent, standing tall as if it had no fear of heaven.
It was proof that I was very healthy as a man, but the problem was that it had lasted far too long.
‘There’s seriously no middle ground.’
The eel I had eaten yesterday was definitely the problem.
Footnotes:
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