TL: Hanguk
As the standoff with the Red Locust on the 67th floor of the tower dragged on, other creatures in different floors of the tower began to sense the crisis.
Each floor, reminded of the terrible famine that happened 100 years ago, rushed to buy food in preparation for a potential crisis, which led to a surge in food prices.
Consequently, the merchants visiting Granier village also sold food at a higher price, but Izrael, the richest man in the Granier village, thought the merchants were deceiving him and colluding to raise the price of food.
So Izrael gave his son 1000 tower coins to buy food.
“Oren, become a wandering merchant and buy food directly. You’ll gain some worldly experience, too.”
“Yes, father.”
Thus, Oren, who left Granier village to see the world, headed towards the shopping district with nine subordinates following him with excited hearts.
But the world wasn’t a bed of roses, unlike in Granier village, where they strutted around with confidence.
After a lot of hardships, Oren and his followers finally reached the merchant district and went to the Wandering Merchant Association to buy a Wandering Merchant’s license and equipment. Oren, wanting to impress his subordinates, gave them each five tower coins.
Now that they had become wandering merchants, they were gathering information about food prices and drinking in a tavern when a goblin wandering merchant approached them.
“Hello. I’m a wandering merchant named Skaram. Are you looking to buy food?”
“Yes.”
“I have a good item. How about making some money with this before you purchase the food?”
“A good item?”
“Yes, it’s from outside the tower.”
“From outside the tower?”
As Skaram spoke, he showed the cats items from Earth.
“Oh! What’s this?”
“That is…”
All the cats except Oren were fascinated by the unfamiliar-looking items. But Oren seemed uninterested.
“If you take this to the upper floor, you can sell it at a very high price. The beings living on upper floors collect these items as a hobby.”
“Really?!”
“Yes. You’re from Granier village, right? A wandering merchant named Theo once did business with me and made a lot of money.”
“Theo?!”
Upon hearing that Theo made a lot of money, Oren’s ears perked up.
‘If that idiot Theo can make a lot of money, I should be able to make several times more.’
With this confidence, Oren began trading with Skaram.
“How many of the item do you have?”
“I don’t have many because they’re valuable.”
“Give me all of them.”
“It’s 5 tower coins each.”
“That’s too expensive.”
Oren haggled with the goblin wandering merchant and bought Skaram’s items with his followers. Skaram, who said he didn’t have many items, had just the right amount for them to afford.
“Well, I hope you make a lot of money.”
In this way, Oren and his followers were swindled out of almost all their assets by Skaram.
“Let’s finish this drink and head out immediately.”
“Yes! Sir Oren!”
Unaware that they had been swindled, Oren and his followers finished their drinks in good spirits and stepped outside.
And that’s when they spotted Theo rushing towards the blacksmith’s.
***
“It’s been a while, meow.”
‘This guy!’
As Theo, who had never properly looked at his face, looked at him with confidence and smiled, Oren’s face hardened.
‘Hmph! Made some money, have you?!’
His intention to merely greet him changed. Oren, who had spent all his fortune on Skaram’s goods and had no money even for food, thought he had caught Theo at a good time.
“Theo, we’re hungry. Could you lend us some money?”
When Oren spoke to Theo, acting like a bully, putting his arm around Theo’s shoulder,
“Ah… You don’t even have money to buy food, meow?”
Theo looked at Oren as if he felt sorry for him.
“Shut up! We’re about to make a fortune!”
Oren shouted at Theo, who seemed to be ignoring him.
“Yeah! We bought items from outside the tower!”
“You must know since you made money that way too, right?”
The other cats chimed in with Oren’s words.
“… Items from outside the tower, meow?! Don’t tell me you bought things from Skaram, meow?”
“Huh. Yeah. You know it well.”
Upon seeing Theo’s stiff expression, Oren spoke in a arrogant manner. He thought Theo was underestimating them.
“Then you’re heading to the 99th floor of the tower, meow?”
“Yes. We’re going to the 99th floor to trade with Minotaur King.”
Knowing that there had been recent attempts of tracking him, Skaram planned to cleanly eliminate Oren and his followers and get rid of any traces.
“We’re a little hungry to go to the 99th floor, so lend us some money. We’ll pay you back later.”
Oren spoke in a low voice, putting strength into his front paw wrapped around Theo’s neck.
“No way, meow! I won’t lend you any money, meow! You haven’t even paid back the 21.34 tower coins you borrowed from me, meow! Pay me back that money first, meow!”
Theo, who had precisely remembered the money that Oren and his followers had borrowed bit by bit until now, yelled.
“Damn it!”
Just as Oren, angered by Theo’s defiance, was about to hit Theo with his chubby front paw,
Growl.
Three silver wolves approached.
“Ah… Wolves, don’t get me wrong. He’s a friend of ours. We were just greeting him a bit passionately because we haven’t seen him in a while. Right, Theo?”
Oren urgently pressured Theo for a response.
However,
“Representative Theo, is that cat really your friend?”
Elka ignored Oren’s words and asked Theo.
“Representative Theo?”
Upon hearing Elka’s words, began to shudder, as the only cat here who could be called “Representative Theo” was Theo.
“He’s not a friend, meow. I don’t have friends like him, meow. Take care of him, meow.”
Theo moved towards the blacksmith’s shop, shaking off Oren’s arm around his shoulder and gesturing a hit on the neck with his paw. With that, their fate was sealed.
Grrr.
“Sa…save us!”
Elka and the wolves surrounded Oren and his followers, and soon screams began to be heard.
“Meow, meow, meow.”
Listening to the screams of Oren and his followers, Theo hummed a little song. He was no longer afraid of Oren, who used to bully him in Granier Village.
‘Pffft. As expected, I’m invincible when I’m with Park Se-jun, meow!’
The closer he got to Sejun, the stronger he became, to the point of scaring himself.
“Pffft. Isn’t it problematic if I become too strong, meow?”
While lost in such pointless fantasies, Theo entered the blacksmith’s shop.
“Discount, please!”
Without forgetting Sejun’s teachings, Theo faithfully requested a three-time discount, reducing the cost to 12 Tower Coins and moved to the lottery corner.
And then,
“Meow?! This is it, meow!”
As soon as he arrived at the lottery corner, he chose an item that attracted his attention and exited the blacksmith’s shop.
“Representative Theo, we have taken care of it.”
Elka, who was waiting outside the blacksmith’s shop, spoke to Theo.
“Good job, meow! Let’s quickly go up, meow!”
Theo chuckled menacingly and hurriedly climbed up to the 99th floor of the tower. He had to check if Sejun’s lap was fine and also welcome the suckers.
Several hours after Theo left.
“Umm…”
“Ugh…”
Oren and the other cats, who were beaten by the wolves and fainted, woke up.
“This bastard, Theo! Just you wait until I make some money! I’ll hire a strong mercenary and beat you up!”
“That’s right!”
“We won’t let you off easy!”
“Let’s sell these things quickly and make some money!”
Oren and his followers vowed revenge on Theo and headed towards the 99th floor of the tower. They were oblivious to the fact that there were beings much more vicious than Theo there.
***
“One for competence, two for becoming human.”
“One.”
“Competent!”
“Two.”
“Become human!”
Every time they rebelled, Black Wolf Gang fainted after being hit by Han tae-jun’s magic missile and were now running with all their might in response to Cha Si-hyeok’s commands.
‘How long do we have to keep running?!’
Neither Han tae-jun nor Cha Si-hyeok mentioned when to stop running. And they couldn’t afford to run slowly either.
Kiee!!
Hearing their voices, dozens of spider monsters started to follow them. As they kept running and the count of spider monsters following them reached a hundred, finally Han tae-jun spoke.
“Now we hunt monsters.”
“What?!”
“Start fighting quickly.”
Han tae-jun said this while casting 200 magic missiles around him. It was a threat that if they didn’t do as told, they would die by his hand.
“Ah!”
“Jesus!”
The Black Wolf Gang closed their eyes tight and charged towards the spider monsters. This was the only chance they had to survive.
***
238th day of being stranded, dawn.
Thud Thud
“They came again today.”
Sejun spoke with a weary voice as he saw the approaching Tree Branch Scouts. For the past four days, Sejun had been fighting Tree Branch Scouts every morning.
“Go! Black Rabbit! Cuengi!”
Squeak!
Kkoong!
At Sejun’s command, the Black Rabbit and Cuengi charged forward.
And then,
Roaaaar!
In front of them, the mother Crimson Giant Bear roared.
After a long persuasion, Sejun managed to move the den of the mother Crimson Giant Bear near his house in exchange for SeP’s soup.
Wolves brought SeP’s soup order from the Lizardmen along with 20 large pots, so they were able to cook soup 24 hours a day, which wasn’t a challenging task.
On top of that, the tree branch scouts solved the fire problem by providing firewood.
By setting up a base for the mother Crimson Giant Bear near his house, Sejun was able to secure his farm safely.
“I guess I should go too.”
Sejun followed Cuengi and eliminated the well-groomed Branch Scouts. There weren’t many tree branch scouts retreating early, perhaps because the mother Crimson Giant Bear had appeared too early.
After eliminating the remaining enemies, Sejun returned home and caught up on his sleep.
And when he woke up,
[The tenant farmer used Seed Sowing Lv. 4 to plant cherry tomato seeds.]
[The landlord receives 1% of the rewards.]
[The landlord’s job experience increases slightly.]
[The landlord’s proficiency in Seed Sowing Lv. 4 increases slightly.]
[You have created a 100-square meter cherry tomato field.]
[You have gained 200 experience points.]
…
..
.
The white rabbits, who had woken up earlier, were planting cherry tomatoes in the field. They must have known that Sejun was guarding the farm in the morning and didn’t wake him up.
“Alright!”
Sejun got up from bed and went outside. He then went down into the cave and added a line to the wall and washed his face in the pond.
And he looked around.
“Where on earth is the tree supposed to be?”
Despite his frustration, Sejun searched the cave several times, but he couldn’t find the tree. Out of desperation, he sent the black rabbit outside the pond to look more closely, but there was no tree there either.
Just as Sejun was about to go up to the ground with the things to eat for breakfast,
“Huh?”
The fire he had lit in the cave was out. These days, the rabbits had become negligent in maintaining the fire because they were eating on the ground.
“Still, there are the wife rabbit and the babies.”
The wife rabbit who was taking care of the baby rabbits could have put out the fire in a hurry.
When Sejun cleared the ashes in the fireplace, a small green sprout appeared.
“Huh? Why is there a sprout here?”
Sejun carefully touched the sprout.
Then,
[Hello, master!]
The sprout greeted Sejun with a bright voice.
“What?! Did you just speak?!”
Surprised by the sound coming from the sprout, Sejun asked.
[Yes, master!]
The apple tree, which had been growing only underground due to the fire, finally greeted Sejun.
*****
TL Note:
Finally, an answer to everyone’s question: where is the apple tree? 🍎
*****
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