“Whew. Finished one.”
Joonbum sighed in relief as he locked the chain with the padlock wrapped around the wolf’s muzzle. He started moving faster, reinforcing the chain by wrapping it around its head so it would not come off. He wiped his sweat off and stepped back to look at the wolf once again as he finished locking down the wolf’s most dangerous weapon.
“It sure is damn big. I don’t think anyone will believe that this is the smallest of the bunch.”
Joonbum shook his head at the thought. He then stepped closer to examine its broken legs. There were two broken legs, one in the front and the back.
“It was a clean hit.”
The wounded area did look weak compared to the other spots. Both shin parts of the leg bone had snapped in half. There was also some swelling in the hind thigh.
‘Let’s do the legs first.’
Although it was the thinnest part, it was still thick, thicker than most adult thighs. The sight of such a majestic leg dangling own its own was a terrible view to behold.
“God, this is going to be one hell of a job.”
He moved the leg to position the bones together and started to work on the plaster cast. A similar process was done both sides where he created a leg cast to stabilize the leg.
“Hell of a job.”
He shook his head while drenched in sweat and plaster powder.
“Didn’t think learning this in the army would come in handy.”
There were more things that had to be done. After the casts had dried up, he brought wraps and a wooden stick so that the wolf could not move it around when it was awake. He also examined its entire body and applied disinfectant on all the wounds.
“This should work.”
After applying the widely-used red medicine, he examined the wolf for the last time. Its big belly moved as it breathed and he seemed to have missed none of the wounds.
“It sure is damn big.”
He said it once again before taking off the lock and chain wrapped around the muzzle. He took up his things and retreated into the distance.
“I should eat something now.”
He turned on a stove and poured water into a pot. After having a cigarette, the water was boiling. He opened an instant noodle packet and started cooking.
“Whew, a meal after hard work!”
After eating some, he took out a soju bottle from the cooler. Then he started drinking the noodle broth and soju repeatedly, shouting in awe every single time.
“Oh, you’re awake?”
He heard a low growling coming from the wolf. It seemed that the wolf was confused at the strange feeling coming from its treatment. But after a slight hesitation, it turned its attention to the basin and started drinking water. She then continued to munch down on a ten chickens Joonbum had prepared beside it.
“Good good. Just make sure you don’t howl okay? We don’t want any trouble.”
Wolf stopped at Joonbum’s words for a moment and started sniffing. Time passed by quickly while watching the wolf and Joonbum started feeling sleepy.
“Okay, it’s time soon… let’s pass the night quietly.”
He set up some traps around the area just in case and hopped on the truck. After making sure rifle was beside him, he closed his eyes.
Chapter 7.
“Five hundred thousand…? Over five hundred thousand watched?”
His brain froze at the counter, then realized what it was showing. Shouts of joy and excitement followed. He screamed like a madman. He didn’t care if the wolf watched him or not.
“Five hundred! Five hundred!”
He screamed the number multiple times. His body shook in excitement. It had been only a week and the counter was still going up. It was gaining speed as it was starting to go viral.
“Ahh!” he moaned. The first response on the day he uploaded it was not great to say the least. There were a bunch of insults and not much else. He couldn’t even bear to check the counter after that. But now-
-This is one heck of a well-made fake video!-
-Is this the new trend to upload this kind of video to a private channel?-
-It’s refreshing. Most videos are fake these days anyway.-
-The wolf seems to be too much.-
-WTF OTHER WORLD LOL. Youtuber the other world traveler LOL-
-He ran out of content.-
-Didn’t expect this but it’s still interesting, I guess?-
-This is too high of a quality to be fake though.-
-This is some well-made computer graphic!-
-Omg this guy is at the top of the faking level.-
-It seems so real! Just like the movies!-
-It feels so real. It’s raw, but it does feel realistic. Just look at the wolf!-
-Wow, didn’t know you had this kind of talent! Keep this up man! Great job!-
-Hah you got some talent there! But it’s not like you.-
-This one’s good! But start talking. And show your face too. I need to see you to feel better by comparing.-
-YEAH! We need to see you in the video!-
-Where’s the live broadcast? I will shoot out donation if you can. Can’t? Because it’s fake!-
-It’s still great quality work. He might get some job offers with this.-
-Righttt, but he will fail the interview.-
-BANNED FROM THE INTERVIEW!!-
There were just so many responses to the video. He couldn’t read each and every one so he started reading the most recent ones.
“It’s… not a dream right?”
The counter and replies increased each time Joonbum refreshed the page. Just two days ago, it was only five thousand. But now it was five hundred thousand, skyrocketing towards six hundred thousand. His shaking hand dropped the phone and he leaned against the truck, lighting up a cigarette.
“Five hundred thousand…”
He puffed big white smoke to the sky. His heart pounded with excitement and he felt sluggish because of it. He let out a big breath to relax.
‘It was overflowing with responses too,’ thought Joonbum. His video started gaining some interest solely because he looked funny. There were some initial requests for joint broadcasts, but it ended there. He had no talent and no sense of humor to compete in such a competitive scene. He had no merit for other fellow streamers to work with him any longer.
‘Well, it was obvious.’
Joonbum understood their reasoning but the comments they made afterwards angered him.
‘They mocked me in their videos for the sake of their content.’
Some even went too far to gain their viewers’ interest. As result, Joonbum was labeled as a pervert.
‘I know how I look. I should’ve recorded them. Damn it!’
He was deep in thought, angered by the memory.
“If you think there’s going to be another chance, not so fast!” he shouted, shaking off all memories that were angering him.
“Let’s get back to work!”
He slapped both his cheeks and installed the camera. First, he started preparing the wolf’s meal.
“Galfus, it’s meal time!”
Joonbum pulled the chain that was tied to the side. The wheel turned, pulling the chain wrapped around the wolf’s head and neck. The wolf, named Galfus by Joonbum, seemed annoyed, but it wasn’t as aggressive as before.
‘She seems to recognize the name now.’
It was weird to call it ‘wolf’ every time, so he named it. He couldn’t think of one easily, so he remembered a wolf character he knew from a computer game and named the wolf after it. After Joonbum started calling it Galfus multiple times, it started slowly started to respond to it.
‘At least it doesn’t bark anymore.’
When its movement was bound by the taut chain, Joonbum walked closer to check on the casts and the wounds. There was one more thing he had to do.
“Ugh, awful.”
He brought a shovel and walked towards the buttocks where an awful stench was permeating the area. It was time to clean up an enormous amount of feces.
It had hardened a bit and he could feel it transferring to his hand through the shovel. After he threw the huge pile of feces away, he dug up some dirt and put it on top, covering the area where the pile originally was.
“There’s no poop pad that’s your size, so this is only way Galfus.”
Galfus growled slightly. Joonbum smiled at the softened response. When he first closed in, the wolf barked as if it was going crazy, trying to scare him away but as time went on, it seemed to realize Joonbum was not a threat.
“You’re a smart boy, right Galfus? Time for some play time!”
Galfus growled, showing her teeth, but she but didn’t do anything else. Joonbum quickly moved his hand with a brush. It flinched at the sudden touch but seemed to ease its aggression as Joonbum continued combing.
“Heh, feels good, right?”
Joonbum smiled and continued to comb. It sure was getting used to being combed.
“I know you like it best when I scratch the skin inside the fur! Don’t try to hide. I just know it!”
As he said, wolf let out a growl when Joonbum started to scratch the skin. This was Joonbum’s greatest achievement in the past few days.
“Here? Here?”
The wolf was enjoying so much that if Joonbum stopped combing, it seemed to growl in anger. It almost felt like it was begging for more. Joonbum stepped away after the combing was done. The wolf seemed ever so relaxed, with little sign of aggression or hostility.
Joonbum felt so satisfied with his achievement that he smiled. He filled the basin full of water and brought out tens of chickens in another basin.
“Time for a meal! Hah, this is costs too much for me. At least I’m getting these from a wholesaler…”
He shook in disbelief. After he prepared the food and water, he loosened the chain.
“Hey Galfus, how did you manage with so little at first?”
Galfus was wolfing down three chickens at once when Joonbum shouted. It turned to glance at him for a moment, then went back to its meal.
“You know it cost me a fortune to prepare that entire meal, right?”
After watching it eat for a while, Joonbum came back to his truck so that he could also prepare a food for himself. He prepared a pan on a stove and made five fried eggs. With dried seaweed, instant white rice, kimchi, and fried eggs, he consumed his meal. He kept on looking at the wolf with every single spoon, smiling.
‘I’ll make it big this time.”
He was looking forward to the response on the new video he uploaded.
After finishing his meal by gulping down some water, he let out a big burp. It was already nighttime. His eyes were shining with thoughts as he gazed into the stars above the sky.
“I uploaded treating the wolf, so what’s next? Expanding? Or exploring the area?”
Satisfied with the meal, he shot one last look at Galfus and hopped on the truck.
‘I will reinforce the campsite first and start exploring the area. I will need more materials.’
He started planning his next step.
