Chapter 156: <Origin Verification Slime>

A housewife who came to Slime Land to buy <Pack Slime> discovered a new <Slime>.

The housewife first checked the price tag.

These days, they even sell <Slimes> that cost tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of won.

‘So it’s ten thousand won.’

It wasn’t an expensive premium <Slime>, but a cheap, ordinary <Slime> for ordinary people.

‘Well, the expensive ones are sold at entirely different places anyway.’

Feeling relieved, the housewife scanned the packaging of the new product.

Even if it was the same product, the box design was not just one type.

All the art was drawn by artists affiliated with AlchemySlime Company.

Some designs were surprisingly excellent.

There were also some designs that looked a bit amateurish but were cute or witty.

It was fun, like visiting a museum and browsing the products.

Since the designs changed periodically, you could visit multiple times and enjoy it each time.

The housewife found a box with a cute yet deep and unique illustration.

After checking the designer’s name, the housewife smiled.

“So they drew it this time.”

There is a child with a distinctive painting style.

The housewife personally liked the pictures that child drew.

Whenever she bought a <Slime>, she chose the product with that child’s illustration.

Even if she didn’t need the item right away, if it came in packaging drawn by that child, she bought it.

‘It used to be really bad before.’

The <Slimes> sold at the old Alchemy Center had the worst packaging.

They used to just shove them in plastic bags like the ones used for selling indoor shoes and slap on some product info.

But after AlchemySlime Company started selling <Slimes>, the packaging completely changed.

It became a box with cool artwork that made you want to keep it instead of throwing it away.

“Well, back then, you couldn’t afford to be picky like this anyway.”

The issue was whether you could buy it at all, not what the packaging looked like.

Now, <Slimes> never go out of stock.

No matter how many customers flocked in, the stock kept getting replenished.

So buying online was fine too.

Still, the in-person browsing experience was enjoyable, so the housewife visited Slime Land.

Thanks to <Tunnel Slime>, getting there and back was easy too.

‘<Origin Verification Slime>?’

There were times she wondered if the origin written on the food she ate was really true.

Still, since it was a product sold at a trustworthy store, she thought it would be fine and bought it.

‘Should I try buying it?’

Normally, she would have just let it go thinking there’s nothing she could do, but knowing a product like this existed, she wanted to check it out.

‘There are five inside.’

There were five <Slimes> inside the box.

That’s 2,000 won each.

It was a bit pricey to use just to check the origin of a single vegetable.

Still, if you thought of it as a way to find a trustworthy shop, it wasn’t that expensive.

If it was for buying expensive meat, it was a price she could easily pay.

The housewife checked the instructions.

‘Oh, you can use it like plastic wrap or a plastic bag.’

When activated, this <Slime> would stretch and wrap around food.

After waiting a bit in that state, the origin would appear on the surface.

If this <Origin Verification Slime> had the same function as other <Slimes>-preserving temperature and preventing spoilage-you could even store food inside.

She wasn’t sure if it could be used multiple times, but if it could, it would be better than buying plastic bags.

‘So there’s a lifespan after all.’

There was a warning label saying it only worked for up to two weeks after activation.

Two weeks was a long time and a short time.

If you used it once and threw it away, it was a long time.

But if you wanted to store food for a while, it was a short time.

If you thought of it as a 2,000-won plastic bag, it was quite a big downside.

But if you thought of it as an insulated lunch box, it wasn’t so bad.

‘Well, let’s give it a try.’

The housewife decided to use the <Origin Verification Slime> as a plastic bag rather than for checking origins.

<Slimes> being used for other purposes was nothing new.

The housewife who bought <Origin Verification Slime> and <Pack Slime> returned home.

She opened the fridge and was about to put some vegetables from the veggie drawer into the <Origin Verification Slime>, but stopped.

Changing her mind, she opened the freezer and took out some meat.

It was domestic pork.

When she pressed the <Origin Verification Slime>, it became soft and squishy like a <Slime> toy.

She stretched it out and wrapped it around the meat.

The <Slimes> stuck together, completely sealing the meat.

Letters appeared on top.

[Verifying. Please wait a moment.]

The housewife was nervous for some reason.

She waited a moment.

[Product: Pork Loin.

Origin: Korea.

Freshness: Upper middle.

More details.]

“Phew….”

Thankfully, the origin came out as Korea.

When she pressed ‘More details’, a lot of information popped up.

But most of it wasn’t very relevant to the housewife.

What mattered was confirming that it was indeed fairly fresh Korean pork loin.

The housewife removed the <Origin Verification Slime>.

When she wrapped the pork again, the same information appeared as before.

‘So it’s reusable. I wonder if it works on other things?’

Feeling curious, the housewife looked around the freezer for something else to try.

Then she spotted some chili powder.

It was domestic organic chili powder bought online.

After seeing a video of Chinese chili powder with mice in it, she insisted on domestic.

Since she liked spicy food and ate a lot, she bought organic.

She scooped out a bit and put it in the <Origin Verification Slime>.

[Verifying. Please wait a moment.]

The <Slime> worked without any issues.

She was just starting to get happy that she could use it as a plastic bag for two weeks.

[Product: Chili Powder.

Origin: Korea/China.

Freshness: Middle/Lower middle.

More details.]

The result was shocking.

The expensive chili powder she bought turned out to be a blend with Chinese chili powder.

With trembling hands, the housewife pressed ‘More details’.

Pesticide: O(OXXXXX. SaXXX-).

Chemical fertilizer: O.

It wasn’t even organic.

Deep shock struck the housewife, and anger flared up a moment later.

After a brief moment of deliberation on what to do, she first went to the online shopping mall.

That chili powder was still being sold as domestic and organic.

Her anger grew even stronger.

She was about to leave a review full of curses but held back.

It would likely be deleted for containing curses.

She closed the window and looked for the chili powder package.

After taking a picture of it, she went to the online shopping mall operated by AlchemySlime Company.

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

-(photo).

Really the best.

If I didn’t have this, I would have eaten it without knowing.

I hope this <Origin Verification Slime> becomes widely known and gets rid of all these fake products.

She posted the results of the chili powder package and <Origin Verification Slime> as a review.

Even if she posted a review on the site where she bought the product, it would likely be buried.

Since she wasn’t someone who normally used a personal blog or SNS, it wouldn’t have spread widely.

Posting it to the Food Safety Information Center would have been fine, but then probably only the company selling this chili powder would have been punished and that would be the end of it.

The online mall of AlchemySlime Company, visited by countless people every day.

A review of the new product <Slime> that people are currently very interested in.

Since there weren’t many reviews yet, it was the perfect timing for the post not to be buried.

All of this synergized.

The post by the housewife became the spark.

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

-(photo).

Domestic red snapper I ate at the fish market.

I don’t know if it wasn’t domestic to begin with or if it was switched along the way.

Felt like I got hit hard in the back of the head.

Before, I wouldn’t have even known I was hit, but now I immediately reported it to the police.

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

-(photo).

Wow…. Incredible.

I put in broccoli I bought at the market, and it showed up as Chinese.

When I confronted her, the market lady said the <Slime> was wrong.

Doubting the <Slime>? Maybe the lady herself was Chinese-made.

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

-(photo).

Meat I bought as hanwoo.

I became a black cow.

The Korean ingredient market was turned upside down.

***

It’s chaos.

Knowing the origin of food is very difficult.

There are techniques to distinguish it, but they aren’t always accurate. Also, some foods don’t even have clear methods to differentiate.

They say there are differences in taste depending on where it came from.

But how can an ordinary person distinguish that with their tongue?

Even if plants and animals are grown in the same place, it’s natural for the taste to vary by individual.

The cooking method, the ingredients cooked with it, even the atmosphere of the dining place affect the taste humans perceive.

If the quality of the ingredients is very bad, you might be able to tell.

But just because it’s imported doesn’t necessarily mean the quality is bad.

It’s hard to distinguish even with raw materials, and once processed, it becomes even harder.

To the point where you can’t tell without a genetic test.

If someone is determined to deceive, you can’t help but be deceived.

It means it’s a field where deception is quite easy.

Humans are greedy creatures.

If they don’t get caught, it’s fine.

Many people think it’s foolish not to make money when you can.

Even though it hasn’t been long since the release of <Origin Verification Slime>, all sorts of lies that were hidden until now have surfaced.

—

[Hanwoo bought with my first salary.]

It wasn’t a great company, so a department store was out of reach, but I bought it at a fairly large butcher shop as hanwoo.

I happily shared it with my parents.

Saying, of course, it’s hanwoo, hanwoo is different, we ate it deliciously.

But suddenly, an issue with origin labeling violations pops up?

Feeling uneasy, I checked the bit I had saved to put in doenjang jjigae.

(photo).

Damn.

My first salary.

-If the origin is revealed, is it called ‘hanwoo’ because it’s a cow that brings ‘han’ (grudge)?

└Haha.

└Laughed out of courtesy.

-If you can’t tell the difference in taste, just eat cheap imported beef.

└Humanity, is this for real?

[Today’s fish market.]

Bought some domestic sashimi.

I got something that looked good and put it in the <Origin Verification Slime>, and the market lady’s face twisted.

And of course.

It was something that came from across the water.

When I made eye contact with the lady, she said this.

“I’m not selling! I’m not selling, okay! I’ll refund you, alright!”

It was a really dirty experience.

I’m never going back.

-Fish market isn’t worth visiting.

└If you want to eat sashimi, I recommend going to Slime Land instead. There’s a fishing spot where you can catch real fish, the fish are fresh, and the Slime even fillets them.

└A Slime filleting fish? I want to see that.

└Looks like another person is falling into the swamp of fishing.

[Suspicious rice cake shop is indeed suspicious.]

There’s a market near my house.

It said it was made with domestic rice, but the price was cheap, so honestly, I was suspicious.

Still, the taste was okay, so I bought and ate it.

(photo)

There was a twist.

It was domestic, alright. Just domestic mixed with mold.

-Wow, damn.

└Damn. I’m too scared to buy anything to eat.

—

It wasn’t just the market that had issues.

Problems also erupted from big and small companies.

[32 businesses caught selling products by falsely claiming the ingredients were domestic.]

[Outrageous methods of disguising imported ingredients as domestic.]

[OO company used ingredients presumed to be stored on dead land.]

It was revealed that even products sold at large stores are not safe.

Another incident added fuel to the burning flames.

[Chili powder detected with pesticides. Known to be sold to elementary, middle, and high schools.]

[Children’s health is at risk. Results of <Origin Verification Slime> posted by a high schooler.]

[A company that discriminated by region in supplying ingredients.]

It became widely known that there are significant issues with school meals.

-Damn. Where did they sell their conscience?

-How can they mess around with food that kids eat?

-They should be locked up, have all their sales recalled, and be forced to eat only that.

We’ve reached an era where you can’t trust food enough to put it in your mouth.

As if determined to root out and burn all fake domestic ingredients, countless verification photos kept coming up.

Scammers, feeling a sense of crisis, attempted to fight back.

-Hey, how do you even know if that’s real?

└Are you doubting a product made by an S-rank Alchemist right now?

The problem is that I’m the creator of <Origin Verification Slime>.

My prestige was too great for them to claim the verification was wrong.

So, the scammers used a different method.

-There are people bringing trash ingredients from home, faking results, claiming origin labeling violations, terrorizing reviews, and threatening cafeterias. Half of the verifications coming up now are probably fake.

└Is that true?

└Yeah.

└No need to worry. AlchemySlime Company made a notice.

(link)

If you suffer injustice because of <Origin Verification Slime>, report it to AlchemySlime Company.

They’ll verify that the food has no issues and compensate for damages.

And those who terrorize reviews and threaten cafeterias will be put on the <Slime> blacklist.

└Yeonseul is a god.

└Ramen.

└Ramen.

It was useless. Countermeasures were already in place.

Currently, Korea is enraged.

Along with the people’s anger, <Origin Verification Slime> sold like hotcakes.

This anger won’t last long.

It will die down once there are no more targets to burn.

Is this the influence of the Curse of Anger?

Annoying things often catch my eye.

Holding onto anger too much is bad for the body.

So, I decided to just vent on trivial things.