Chapter 369: Building Future Connections

The very fact that Kang Taewoo could appear in the recruitment pool already showed that it was not particularly important.

Besides, it could not possibly be some young lady from a wealthy family who had come out to experience life, could it?

Therefore, Joo Joowon did not have particularly high expectations of obtaining the things he wanted through Kang Taewoo.

He merely hoped that, after building a good relationship with Kang Taewoo, he would gradually gain access to the higher-ups within its faction. This would give him a chance to slowly establish the foundation for future transactions.

His subordinates consisted entirely of animals and plants. Sooner or later, he would definitely need treasures belonging to this faction.

However, gaining the qualifications to interact with those people was something that would only happen much later.

For now, he should focus on getting the trading post and city walls built first.

Both the trading post and the city walls would require a considerable amount of wood.

The trading post could actually use stone materials instead of wood. However, stone was even more troublesome to obtain than wood, so Joo Joowon decided not to bother with it.

He went straight to the outskirts of the nature reserve and began chopping down trees. These areas were relatively safe, and there were no high-level monsters around.

Therefore, Joo Joowon was not worried that the noise from chopping down trees would attract any dangerous creatures. The only drawback was that although he could cut down trees quickly enough, transporting the wood back and forth still took up quite a bit of time.

The spatial waist pendant had a limited weight capacity. He could carry one or two tons at a time by himself, but that was about as much as he could manage. He also had to use his spider silk to drag the wood along, which consumed a fair amount of stamina.

However, it was not as though this method was particularly inefficient. No matter what, it was still much more efficient than it would have been before the apocalypse. It was simply much slower compared with Kang Taewoo.

By the time it grew dark, Joo Joowon had already run out of most of his energy. Kang Taewoo, on the other hand, still seemed full of energy.

Seeing that it was getting late, Kang Taewoo skillfully started a fire and set an iron pot over it. While humming a tune, it began preparing dinner without being asked.

Joo Joowon immediately handed over the rabbit meat and other ingredients he had brought back in his spatial waist pendant. While he was at it, he also took out some cooking packs, salt, and other seasonings.

Sitting nearby, Joo Joowon watched eagerly and asked curiously, "Aren’t you tired?"

"Huh?" Kang Taewoo scratched its head and casually took a chef’s hat out of its inventory to put on. "I’m a puppet. How could I get tired?"

Many lords were curious about its race, but Kang Taewoo did not mind.

It lifted its apron, unzipped the zipper on its belly, and revealed the full, snowy white cotton stuffing inside. "Look, I’m not a flesh and blood creature like you. Those physical limitations you have don’t apply to me."

As it spoke, it even reached inside and pulled out a handful of cotton, inviting Joo Joowon to touch it and see for himself.

Joo Joowon waved his hands and refused. What was the difference between this and someone taking out their internal organs and asking him to touch them?

"Just give it a try. You’ll understand once you touch it," Kang Taewoo said enthusiastically.

Ever since Joo Joowon had stopped trying to get free labor out of it, its attitude had become like this.

Joo Joowon hesitated for a moment before finally reaching out to touch the cotton.

It felt warm to the touch, as though the cotton had just been warmed by someone’s body heat. This made Joo Joowon feel a little uncomfortable.

However, after sensing it more carefully, Joo Joowon finally understood why Kang Taewoo had said that.

Strictly speaking, Kang Taewoo was actually a conceptual life form similar to Earthfire.

Its bear shaped appearance was merely a physical shell it used to walk among the living. Just like Earthfire, as long as it wanted to, it could change its outer shell at any time and put on a different one. Whether it wanted to become a Barbie doll, a Ball Jointed doll, or even a rabbit plushie, none of that would be a problem.

Even so, the whole thing still felt a little strange. Perhaps Joo Joowon had not yet fully adapted to the existence of extraterrestrial life forms.

With a stiff expression, Joo Joowon stuffed the cotton back inside Kang Taewoo’s belly. "Hurry up and zip it closed. You’re exposing too much. The cotton is practically about to fly into the fire."

Kang Taewoo: "Huh?"

What did it mean by exposing too much?!

Kang Taewoo did not really understand the customs and cultures of these foreign races. However, since Joo Joowon had said so, it obediently pulled the zipper closed.

Because its belly was a little too full, it casually tossed the extra cotton that it had struggled to stuff back inside into the fire. It did not seem to care in the slightest about losing a few of its own "parts."

When it cooked, it looked no different from an ordinary person on Blue Star preparing a meal. Even the steps were more or less the same. It did not make any dark cuisine that humans would consider completely inedible.

At least, judging from the appearance of the food, no one would have thought that the dishes had not been prepared by a human.

Joo Joowon was very curious about this. How did Kang Taewoo know how humans cooked? Had there been humans in the place where it had lived before?

Since this was an NPC recruited through the game’s official interface, Joo Joowon had no particular reservations about asking. He simply asked it directly.