Chapter 1120: Welcome to Alaska (6)

Knock. Knock.

The sound of hammers echoed through the forest as the members of Moonlight carried logs with gloomy expressions.

"This way."

They walked over to Ri Hyuk, who stood like a construction foreman.

He inspected the quality of each log before NewBlack's members processed it and hammered it into place.

Wooju spoke.

"Next time, bring sturdier logs. These are too thin—they'll snap easily."

"..."

Colin trembled with frustration but couldn't bring himself to say anything.

Damn it. Why did I eat that grilled fish?

He could have shamelessly run away.

The only reason he hadn't...

Well...

It wasn't really his conscience.

It was Jiho.

What's with that kid? Why does he look so terrifying?

Jiho wandered around with his bow slung over his shoulder like some deranged character from The Hunger Games.

Obviously he wasn't actually going to shoot anyone...

But Colin couldn't shake the feeling that if he ran now, an arrow would somehow end up in his back.

...Well.

He also did genuinely feel he should repay the meal.

"Damn it. How did things end up like this?"

"There's no point regretting it now. It's already digested."

The Moonlight members grumbled as they gathered more wood.

Jacob sighed.

"Shouldn't we just ask the coaches for emergency food? Even if we lose points. We can't keep working every time they feed us."

"That sounds better."

Patrick suddenly grinned.

"Or..."

"...?"

"Let's just half-ass it."

"...??"

"It's not like this is our base camp."

"We'll just pretend we're working hard, then leave."

"Oh..."

It wasn't a bad idea.

"Right."

"If they fed us one meal, we only owe them one meal's worth of work."

Everyone agreed.

From then on, whenever NewBlack asked for help, Moonlight enthusiastically pretended to work...

While quietly cutting every possible corner.

"Can you hammer a couple of nails in over there? Two should hold it."

"Sure~"

They drove in only one nail.

When trimming wood, they cleaned it up just enough to look acceptable.

And after roughly two hours of "hard work"...

As the sun slowly dipped toward the horizon and Moonlight rested...

"Thanks for all your hard work."

Biju approached carrying several tin cups.

The Moonlight members stared.

"...What's this?"

"I made soup using limpets."

"There happened to be some nutmeg among the seasonings."

"I tried to make it taste as close to clam chowder as possible."

"...!"

"I asked the coaches for a few extra ingredients."

"Points matter, but eating well matters too."

Moonlight cautiously took a sip.

Their eyes widened.

It's delicious!

The ingredients weren't exactly premium.

Still...

For food made in the wilderness...

It tasted astonishingly refined.

"This is incredible."

"You're really good at cooking..."

As compliments poured in, Biju smiled bashfully.

Meanwhile, the other NewBlack members arrived carrying their own cups of soup and sat nearby.

Moonlight watched in amazement.

These guys seriously have ridiculous stamina.

They'd done enough labor that most people should've been exhausted.

Yet none of them looked particularly tired.

Colin looked at Wooju.

"Aren't you exhausted?"

"I am."

Wooju took another sip.

"But..."

"...?"

"Practice is harder..."

"..."

He smiled with the serene expression of someone who had reached enlightenment.

The rest of NewBlack nodded knowingly.

At that moment...

Moonlight finally understood.

Their daily lives are harder than survival camp...

If anything...

They looked more energetic out here.

Even so...

There was still something they couldn't understand.

Hunter tied back his long hair.

"But isn't the whole point of survival camping to relax?"

"To enjoy nature."

"To experience a kind of freedom you don't get in everyday life."

"So why are you working even harder out here?"

He genuinely couldn't understand it.

Even in the wilderness...

NewBlack somehow found more work to do.

The Korean members smiled.

"You wouldn't understand..."

"The Korean heart..."

"Our people level up, build villages, and make money..."

"...even inside games."

"We work even while gaming."

"That's just who we are."

Apparently...

It was simply encoded into Korean DNA.

Moonlight didn't really understand.

But if that was their national mindset...

There wasn't much else to say.

They simply found it fascinating.

They're literally building a civilization...

Looking around at the cabins...

Moonlight couldn't help thinking that if someone gave these people enough time and resources...

They'd probably turn the entire forest into a city.

"Anyway..."

Wooju cleared his throat.

"Thanks."

"Thanks to all your hard work, we managed to get a lot done."

...I feel a little guilty.

"Which is why..."

"I've got something to show you."

At Wooju's gesture, Moonlight stood.

He led them toward the cabin they'd just spent the afternoon "helping" build.

"I don't know what your own base camp looks like..."

"But I'm pretty sure it isn't as cozy as this one."

"..."

"So..."

"If you want to use this cabin..."

"Go ahead."

"It's yours."

"..."

The Moonlight members' eyes began watering.

Junghyun chuckled.

"What?"

"Are you guys touched?"

"..."

"Wooju hyung."

"Look."

"They're crying."

The cabin they'd "built."

The one where cold wind blew through every crack because they'd cut corners everywhere.

Moonlight slowly closed their eyes.

That's not why we're crying...

Wait...

This was ours the whole time??

The cameras captured them openly sobbing.

Meanwhile...

Ri Hyuk stroked his chin.

"Strange."

"Why does the house keep leaning?"

"My design was perfect..."

Creeeeak...

Thanks to Moonlight's wonderfully shoddy workmanship...

The cabin leaned a little farther every time the breeze blew.

As the first day came to an end, we returned to Alex Corbin's camp.

Real survival experts might spend the night outdoors.

Beginners absolutely did not.

"I heard there are a ton of bears around here."

"Really?"

"Apparently Moonlight saw one earlier."

"They said it was catching fish near the river."

Our youngest had fully abandoned his Hunger Games persona and happily chatted away again.

Junghyun nodded.

"I thought I heard something going 'Roooar' earlier."

Apparently Alaska really was paradise for bears.

Especially this time of year.

They were all eating nonstop before hibernation.

"Whew..."

The moment I lay down on the bed inside the heated cabin...

Sleep hit almost instantly.

A warm stove.

Heated blankets.

It made me deeply regret ever thinking—

If we're going to do survival properly, we should sleep outside too.

"Ri Hyuk..."

"Just let me close my eyes for five minutes..."

That was all I remembered.

When I opened my eyes again...

Everything was dark.

Shake.

Shake.

Someone was gently shaking me awake.

"...Hm?"

"Hyung."

It was Junghyun.

His usually calm voice sounded unusually excited.

"You need to wake up."

"Why?"

"Kim Deoksun—"

"No..."

"Did a bear show up?"

Still half asleep, I let him turn my face toward the window.

The instant I looked outside...

I was fully awake.

"...Huh?"

"Hyung."

"It's the aurora."

"You have to see this."

One of the rarest sights on Earth.

Beyond the fogged-up window...

Green waves danced across the sky.

Goosebumps raced over my skin.

I jumped up, threw on my clothes, and immediately began waking everyone else.

"Jiho."

"It's the aurora."

"The aurora."

"Mmmm..."

"There was a girl named Aurora at my elementary school..."

"The real aurora!"

"...?!"

The others shot upright one after another.

Surprisingly...

Ri Hyuk was the most excited.

"It's the aurora?"

"The real thing?!"

"Yeah."

"I-I can't believe I'm actually seeing this with my own eyes..."

Bundled in thick winter clothes...

We hurried outside.

"Guys."

"Wait."

"...?"

I stopped everyone.

"The cameramen are asleep."

"Let's use our self-cams."

"Oh."

"Right."

"Footage comes first."

Each of us grabbed the personal camera we'd been issued.

Outside...

Only insects could be heard.

Standing around the campfire...

We looked up.

"Whoaaaa..."

The stars.

There were so many stars.

The night sky was so impossibly clear it felt as though you could scoop them up with a spoon like cereal.

And beneath them...

"..."

The most indescribably beautiful thing I'd ever seen unfolded overhead.

Green.

Yet not only green.

The colors resembled the strange hues I saw whenever I perceived music as color.

"How do you even describe this?"

"...Like green curtains flowing across the sky?"

"There aren't really words."

So instead...

We simply stood shoulder to shoulder beneath the waves of light.

Sniffling from the cold, Jiho smiled.

"I'm really glad we came to Alaska."

"Yeah."

"It would've been a shame to miss this."

Maybe...

This was what indescribable beauty really meant.

While everyone quietly admired the shimmering sky...

Something suddenly occurred to me.

Maybe because I'd spent the entire day doing manual labor...

My contrarian streak kicked in.

"Hang on."

"Biju."

"Can you hold this for a second?"

I handed him the self-cam.

Then hurried back to my bag.

I returned carrying my ukulele.

Jiho laughed.

"Going to play background music?"

"No."

A thought had crossed my mind.

If I experienced music as colors...

What if I tried doing the opposite?

Turning colors into music.

Turning the beauty before my eyes into a melody.

The others watched curiously through their cameras.

I started to explain.

Then gave up.

"It's easier if you just listen."

I placed my fingers on the strings.

♪♩♬...

The ukulele couldn't produce complex harmonies.

But the melody came almost immediately.

Translating the light into music.

Then letting my imagination carry it farther.

A melody born entirely from beauty itself.

Some beautiful things needed no explanation.

Closing my eyes...

I played only with feelings of wonder and quiet gratitude.

"...??"

When I opened my eyes again...

The others were surrounding me.

Their padded jackets spread wide like bat wings.

"What are you doing?"

"What if Moonlight hears it?"

"We're protecting your copyright."

"They're way too far away to hear."

I burst out laughing.

The Moonlight cabins were nowhere close.

Yet everyone remained on high alert.

Apparently Ri Hyuk had been too busy standing guard to hear the melody.

"So?"

"Finished?"

"Yeah."

"Play it again."

The others leaned closer, still holding their jackets out like giant bat wings.

I played the melody once more.

Everyone stared.

"Hyung..."

Biju smiled.

"You're really a genius."

"No."

"No."

"You seriously are."

"How do you keep coming up with things like this?"

"It's every bit as good as Overcook."

Jiho's eyes sparkled.

"So..."

"Next title track?"

"Our next title?"

"I don't know yet."

"It hasn't become a song yet."

"It just started as an idea."

Who knew what kind of song it would eventually become?

But...

Judging by everyone's reactions...

The melody itself was already promising.

"Wooju hyung really writes his best songs whenever he's doing something completely unrelated."

"Should we send him to the Amazon next time?"

"Seriously."

"He's contrarian down to his core."

"So that's why he suddenly wanted to study for the college entrance exam."

I laughed at the comments—half insult, half compliment—

Then looked back up at the aurora.

Grandma would've loved this.

I wanted to remember every color.

So that next time I visited Gunsan...

I could describe exactly what I'd felt.

"Oh."

"About the title."

Ri Hyuk looked at me.

"What about Magnetic?"

"Magnetic?"

"The aurora happens because particles from the solar wind get trapped by Earth's magnetic field near the poles."

"..."

"So?"

"How's my idea?"

Whatever happened...

I decided right then that I would absolutely never call it Magnetic.

The following morning...

We returned to the base camp with the coaches.

"...It's leaning even more."

"Yeah."

The cabin we'd gifted to Moonlight had sagged even farther after the night's rain.

Jiho tilted his head.

"What's that called again?"

"The Leaning Tower of Pizza?"

"..."

"I'm kidding."

"I know it's the Leaning Tower of Pisa."

"..."

"What?"

"Did you seriously think I didn't know that?"

Our youngest looked genuinely offended by the shocked expressions on our faces.

Biju asked,

"Do you think Moonlight will come back?"

"They have their own camp."

"They'll come."

I couldn't exactly explain why I was so sure.

The reason was simple.

Biju's cooking.

Why did Junghyun always apologize first after arguing with Biju?

Because otherwise...

He wouldn't get fed.

Smiling, I said,

"Not right now."

"They'll go back to their own camp first..."

"Then after breakfast..."

"They'll be here."

Once they'd tried the emergency rations from the coaches...

They'd change their minds.

"All right."

We started carrying out the plan we'd discussed the day before.

"Ri Hyuk."

"Take it easy today."

"Okay."

Since he was coming down with something...

Our main vocalist sat this one out.

The rest of us got to work.

And...

Sure enough...

Around lunchtime...

Moonlight appeared.

Looking thoroughly miserable and thoroughly hungry.

"..."

Their eyes immediately locked onto the grilled fish we were eating.

I smiled brightly and held up a skewer.

"Want one?"

"We've got something to trade today."

"What are you offering?"

I wondered if they'd brought animal pelts...

Or anything else remotely useful.

Colin answered.

"Information."

"How valuable?"

"Worth at least ten grilled fish."

He leaned closer and whispered.

"...Is it real?"

"I just confirmed it myself."

"Not bad."

"You're sure?"

"Hunter knows this stuff."

"If he says it's real..."

"It's real."

The long-haired member proudly lifted his chin.

I handed over a skewer.

"Deal."

"Eat first."

"Then let's go."

After everyone finished eating...

We left Jacob and Ri Hyuk behind because they weren't feeling well.

The rest followed Moonlight.

They led us to a stream deep within the rainforest.

Beneath the moss-covered water...

Tiny glittering specks rested among the sand.

Hunter pointed.

"There."

Everyone looked.

Even the cameramen gasped.

"...Hey."

"That's gold."

"It's gold!"

That was the information Colin had brought.

"We found buried gold."

"You know Alaska was famous for the Gold Rush."

Of course...

The particles were microscopic.

But...

As the saying went...

Many a little makes a mickle.

The two groups...

Who'd been preaching survival only moments earlier...

Looked at one another.

"..."

"..."

I asked once more.

"You're absolutely sure it's gold?"

Hunter stepped forward confidently.

"Absolutely."

"My family's pawn shop has been operating in Queens for three generations."

"I've been looking at gold since I was born."

"A third-generation pawn shop...!"

That sounded trustworthy.

Our eyes met.

Then—

"Hehehe!"

"Hahaha."

I grinned as I pulled out a gold pan.

"So..."

"Ready to become rich?"

"You bet!"

Like pirates discovering buried treasure...

Everyone laughed.

For the very first time...

Moonlight and NewBlack high-fived as true allies.

I turned toward the camera.

"All right!"

"This isn't NewBlack's Travel Diary 3 anymore!"

"Welcome..."

"To NewBlack's Gold Rush!"

"Sunshine!"

"Are you watching?"

"This is a historic Gold Rush!"

"Gahahaha!"

"Hehehehehe!"

Thus...

The First Moonlight–NewBlack Gold Rush Alliance was born.

Alex Corbin's Camp Headquarters.

Civilization really is the best~

Alex Corbin sat in front of a wonderfully warm space heater while carefully doing his nails.

His phone buzzed.

A report had arrived.

[NewBlack and Moonlight are enthusiastically collecting pyrite.]

[They appear to believe it's gold.]

Alex looked at the attached photo.

Then burst out laughing.

The glittering mineral both idol groups were happily scooping from the stream...

Was pyrite.

Otherwise known as...

Fool's Gold.