TL: Hanguk
“Interns, this is the field where the crops we’re going to sell grow, meow!”
Theo led the interns, introduced them to Sejun’s field, and went down to the cave’s storage.
“Four of you interns, empty your bags. We’re going to fill the bags with cherry tomatoes, meow.”
However,
Thump.
Only one cat immediately emptied his bag at Theo’s command.
“Intern Jeff, who moved first, will have his contract period shortened by 10 days, meow!”
“Th… Thank you!”
At Theo’s words, Jeff bowed his head to Theo in thanks. Just by emptying the bag as he was told, the contract period was shortened by 10 days.
“What?!”
Three cats who had been biding their time began to quickly empty their bags and fill them with cherry tomatoes after hearing that the contract period could be shortened.
“I knew it.”
Sejun watched Theo from a distance and laughed. Theo was still naive and had no experience dealing with subordinates. Therefore, he was happily reducing the contract period whenever the interns, who had once tormented him, followed his words even a little.
Although it could be argued that Theo already had wolf subordinates, but frankly, the wolves followed him on their own, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say they were looking after Theo.
“It was wise to set a maximum of 10 days for the reductions.”
Sejun thought it was a good idea for Theo to use the method of reducing the contract period as a means to control the cats. That way, the cats had no choice but to listen to Theo’s words, even if only to reduce their contract periods.
That’s why he deliberately imposed a huge contract period of 10,000 days on the cats. 10,000 days was enough for Theo to generously cut down the contract period and still maintain it for half a year.
However,
“Intern Mark filled the bag with cherry tomatoes the fastest, meow! Intern Mark’s contract period reduced by 10 days!”
“Intern Eric just responded the loudest, meow! Intern Eric’s contract period reduced by 10 days!”
The period for maintaining the contract might be shorter than Sejun thought. Theo was rewarding the interns for their behaviors, finding advantages in nano-scale details.
After watching for about 3 hours, Sejun decided,
“This won’t do.”
In that short time, most of the interns’ contract periods had been reduced by about 300 days each. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before 10,000 days became zero.
Maintaining the contract period for a week, let alone half a year, seemed challenging.
“President Theo, can we talk for a bit?”
Sejun, who was just going to watch, finally couldn’t stand it and stepped forward.
“Okay, meow!”
At Sejun’s call, Theo ran over quickly.
“What’s up, meow? Is it time for Churu?”
Theo climbed onto Sejun’s lap and asked.
“…Yeah.”
Unable to say no to Theo’s expectant eyes, Sejun first ripped open a Churu and handed it to Theo.
Chomp chomp chomp.
And then,
“From now on, Theo, only reduce the interns’ contract periods by one day.”
“Got it, meow!”
Sejun limited Theo’s authority to reduce the contract periods to one day. And he agreed to consult with Sejun if Theo wanted to reduce it more.
The next morning,
“President Park, we’re off!”
“Mr. Sejun, we’re leaving.”
“Alright. Take care.”
Sejun waved Theo and Elka off. The cats were divided into two groups.
Oren and three other cats, who had filled their bags with cherry tomatoes, followed Theo down to the 38th floor of the tower.
The remaining five cats, with their bags full of sturdy blade onion leaves and SeP’s soup, moved to the 67th floor of the tower with the wolves.
The faces of the interns moving to the 38th floor with Theo were bright, but the faces of the interns going to the 67th floor with the wolves were dark.
It was because the interns who were separated from Theo were upset as they were not able to get their contract periods reduced.
As the two groups with different destinations left all at once, the sudden emptiness of the entire area made Sejun feel a sense of void.
At that moment,
Kruoong!
Cuengi approached Sejun.
“Are you trying to console me?”
However,
Kruoong!
[I want a snack!]
Contrary to Sejun’s thoughts, Cuengi handed him a glass bottle filled with honey. Despite the fact that honey jelly enhanced abilities, Cuengi still preferred the taste of pure honey.
‘I can’t! You’ve gained too much weight.’ Sejun wanted to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it to Cuengi.
“Alright.”
Click.
Sejun fetched Cuengi’s honey bowl from the kitchen, opened the glass bottle, and poured in a dollop of honey.
Slurp. Slurp.
“Now I should get to work.”
Leaving Cuengi licking the honey from his bowl, Sejun started his morning farm work.
Today was the day to harvest the corn he had planted previously. Sejun began to harvest the corn planted in the cave.
Thud. Thud.
As he was picking the cobs covered in green leaves,
“Huh?”
He spotted a corn that was different from the others, its leaves were red.
Snap.
When he plucked the red corn,
[You harvested Exploding Stamina Corn.]
[Your job experience increases slightly.]
[Your proficiency in Harvesting Lv. 4 increases slightly.]
[You gained 30 experience points.]
“Exploding Stamina Corn?”
Just by its name, it felt like it would be used for combat.
[You have achieved the achievement of creating a new variety in the Tower.]
[The Tower acknowledges your exclusive cultivation rights for the new variety.]
[Without your permission, no one can cultivate the Exploding Stamina Corn.]
[Your job experience increases greatly.]
[You have achieved the achievement of creating three new variety in the Tower.]
[Rumors about you spread in the Food Association.]
“Food Association?”
The Food Association was an association that even Theo hadn’t heard of before.
Sejun decided to first examine the corn in his hand.
[Exploding Stamina Corn]
→ This corn, grown inside the tower, inflates to dozens of times its original size when heat is applied, and its seeds explode.
→ When consumed, it breaks down 30g of body fat and increases stamina by 0.5 for 10 minutes.
→ The effect can be stacked up to 10 times within an hour.
→ When consumed, it makes your hair voluminous.
→ Cultivator: Tower Farmer Park Sejun
→ Expiration date: 90 days
→ Grade: C
It inflates and explodes when heated? The explosion didn’t seem to mean in terms of stamina.
Sejun imagined the corn kernels swelling up. Then, what naturally came to mind was…
“No way?! Is this popcorn?”
Sejun hurriedly stripped the red husk from the Exploding Stamina Corn. The kernels inside were also red like the husk.
Pop.
Sejun took off one red kernel.
[You have obtained a seed of Exploding Stamina Corn.]
[Your job experience has increased slightly.]
[Your proficiency of Seed Sowing Lv. 2 has increased slightly.]
And he had Flamie heat up the corn kernel.
“Be careful. You shouldn’t burn it.”
[Yes! Master!]
A moment later, as Flamie began to heat the corn kernel with fire
Crack.
With a popping sound, the red kernel ‘s outer shell burst open, and the white pulp inside swelled and popped out.
[Here you go.]
When Flamie moved the flame away, warm popcorn fell onto Sejun’s hand.
Sprinkle.
Sejun sprinkled some salt on the popcorn in his palm and cautiously put it in his mouth.
Crunch.
The crispy texture, the savory and slightly salty taste.
“Oh!”
Sejun was delighted by the taste, similar to the popcorn he used to buy outside.
“This isn’t the time!”
The sooner he planted it, the sooner he could harvest it. Each kernel of corn he had now would become a bag of popcorn later.
Thud thud.
Sejun sowed 199 kernels of Exploding Stamina Corn in the field.
[You have created a 50 square meter cornfield.]
[You have gained 100 experience points.]
“Grow well.”
Sejun cheered for the corn seeds planted in the field.
In this way, the crop that would become the hope for bald people all over the world began to grow on the 99th floor of the tower.
***
244th day of being stranded, dawn.
Thud. Thud.
The Branch Scouts invaded again.
Kruung. Kruung.
At Sejun’s request for a chance to grow, the mother Crimson Giant Bear watched from a distance this time, revealing only her presence to the Branch Scouts.
“Guys, let’s go!!!”
Squeak!!!
Kweong!!!
With a shout, Sejun, Black Rabbit, and Cuengi rushed forward.
Trot trot.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
They all started from the same place, but Black Rabbit and Cuengi quickly surpassed Sejun, swiftly defeating the Branch Scouts. Sejun had the lowest agility stat among them.
Boom.
Whack!
Splat.
[You have defeated a large branch scout of the Corrupted Ent.]
[You have gained 500 experience points.]
Sejun threw Great Warrior Uka’s Throwing Hand Axe from behind and killed the enemy.
“That’s a bit lame. Retrieve.”
Sejun who retrieved the axe ran forward again.
He then lit the torches he had set around the area for surveillance, and threw them at the branch scouts.
Whoosh.
The fire started burning the enemies as it spread to the branch scouts.
[You have killed the Small Branch Scout of the Corrupted Ent.]
[You have gained 25 experience points.]
…
..
.
[You have leveled up.]
[You have gained 1 bonus stat.]
“Nice!”
Sejun leveled up and became level 28.
While he was gaining experience by killing the branch scouts,
Spit!
Spit!
A sticky substance flew towards the burning branch scout with the sound of spitting.
Fizz.
As soon as the sticky substance touched, the fire went out instantly.
“What?”
When Sejun looked towards the source of the sound,
Swish. Swish.
Yellow and purple flowers, about 30cm in size, were moving around, hanging on the large branch scout’s body with vine-like arms and legs.
[Corrupted Ent’s Sticky Flower Attacker]
[Corrupted Ent’s Poisonous Fog Flower Attacker]
The yellow ones were sticky flowers, and the purple ones were poisonous fog flowers.
“Now it’s flowers?”
Sejun became curious about the appearance of the Corrupted Ent, which turned everything, including branches, flowers, and fruits, into monsters.
“Guys, fall back for now!”
When he saw the names of the enemies, he thought they would use a strategy to bind his feet with that sticky substance and kill him with poisonous fog.
However,
Squeak!
The Black Rabbit skillfully avoided the sticky substance with fast speed, and
Kuung!
Cuengi did not stop moving even after being hit by the sticky substance. There was no problem at all.
“Oh Right. Only I am weak. Just me…”
Sejun confirmed his combat power ranking again and threw his axe to focus on killing the Poisonous Fog Flower Attacker so that the Black Rabbit and Cuengi could fight well.
Boom.
Thud!
[You have killed the Corrupted Ent’s Poisonous Fog Flower Attacker.]
[You have gained 1500 experience points.]
The experience points were decent.
“That’s right. I was always a long-range fighter.”
While Sejun was comforting himself and fighting,
Rumble, rumble.
The ground began to shake.
“Huh?!”
Sejun saw Mother Crimson Giant Bear. Why is she moving?
Roar!
Shake shake.
As if to say it’s not her, Mother Crimson Giant Bear shook her head and pointed to the west.
“What is it?”
As Sejun looked where the mother Crimson Giant Bear was pointing,
“Huh?!”
He saw a giant tree about 70 meters tall slowly approaching from a distance.
Rumble, rumble.
[Corrupted Ent that has absorbed the energy of the Blue Moon]
He had overlooked that the Corrupted Ent could absorb the energy of the Blue Moon, just as Flamie had grown by absorbing the energy of the Blue Moon.
The Corrupted Ent was so thick that even the huge mother Crimson Giant Bear couldn’t wrap her arms around it, and it was much taller.
Moreover, with every movement of the Corrupted Ent, numerous monsters fell from its body.
“Can we win?”
While Sejun was considering a strategy for dealing with the Corrupted Ent,
-Let me help.
A low voice was heard in Sejun’s ear.
“Huh?! Who is it?”
Sejun was looking around for the owner of the voice.
Then
Flap, flap.
The black dragon statue, which should be on the fountain, appeared in front of Sejun, its red eyes glowing.
-I am the great black dragon, Anton Pritani. I am Aileen’s father.
“Aileen’s father?”
-Yes. We don’t have time, so let’s talk later.
After finishing the conversation, the black dragon statue hurriedly flew towards the Corrupted Ent.
And then
Roar!
A black breath, shot from the mouth of the black dragon statue, flew towards the Corrupted Ent.
*****
*****
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