The Intruder in the Field
At my question, Jang Woo-jin gave an awkward smile, as if he were trying to hide something.
"No, it's nothing. I'm just... grateful to you, Ji-on."
"Grateful? To me?"
"Yes. Thanks to you, the Honorary Chairman has been doing so much better, hasn't he?"
So the only reason he'd been staring at me so intently was gratitude?
That was obviously a lie. Jang Woo-jin was hiding something from me right now.
"Be honest with me. You're keeping something from me, aren't you?"
"......"
Watching him clam up like a mute who'd just swallowed a mouthful of honey, I could tell he wasn't going to open his mouth easily. What on earth was he hiding?
At that very moment, a red system window flashed before my eyes.
Warning! Multiple unidentified intruders have entered the field.
The user's rank is currently too low to repel them automatically.
Warning!! The intruders have begun sustained activity on the land.
Immediate user confirmation is required. WARNING!!
The alarm blared without warning, and I hurried Jang Woo-jin along in a panic. My father and grandfather were both at the farm — who on earth had barged in? Could it be the debt collectors?
I got my answer the moment I arrived at the farm.
"Wh-what in the world is all this...?"
Beside me, Jang Woo-jin hung his head low with an expression of utter shame, while I stood there dumbfounded.
"I'm truly sorry, Ji-on. The Honorary Chairman was so insistent that it be kept a secret..."
Even as he apologized, I couldn't muster the will to scold him — because something bizarre was unfolding across my field.
Two excavators, a forklift, generators that were enormous even at a glance, and a line of heavy trucks laden with every kind of material imaginable. The machines moved with practiced efficiency, each assigned to its own role, carving into my land. Dozens of workers bustled about alongside them.
The remarkable thing was that every single one of them was taking great care not to damage the crops already planted in the soil.
Construction equipment hoisted steel rebar and drove it into the earth. Thud, thud — at regular intervals, a shape was emerging, rebar by rebar.
Yes, that was definitely a frame. Steel frames for vinyl greenhouses.
And not just one of them. A large-scale construction project was underway, erecting dozens of greenhouses simultaneously.
"Did Grandpa Choi order all this?"
At my question, Jang Woo-jin nodded slightly.
"He said he'd received far too much from you to simply let it pass. What was I supposed to do? When your superior gives an order, you carry it out."
"......"
As he spoke, Jang Woo-jin traced a line from one end of the field to the other with his finger.
"They're expecting to complete roughly thirteen greenhouses by the end of today."
From the zucchini field my grandfather had been tenant-farming, all the way to the 1,650-square-yard plot borrowed from the agricultural cooperative — they were building greenhouses across roughly 2,600 square yards of land.
All in a single day.
Thirteen greenhouses sounded simple enough, but once you factored in the material costs and equipment fees, it was anything but a light expense. And how much more would the labor cost run, installing everything in one day's time?
Gulp.
I swallowed dryly without meaning to. I'd thought I was already earning plenty of money — apparently that had been arrogance on my part.
But wait. If greenhouses ringed the fields, the chances of my magic-infused farming process being observed would drop considerably! And with all manner of facilities in place, my father and grandfather could work the farm easily even when I wasn't around.
Suddenly, I knew exactly where my money needed to go next.
I turned to Jang Woo-jin, who had been watching the construction beside me.
"Please tell him I said thank you."
It wasn't simply gratitude for the greenhouses. I was thanking him for showing me something I hadn't realized on my own.
Where there is wealth, convenience follows. This went beyond settling our debts — it meant my family could finally live in comfort and joy.
At my thanks, Jang Woo-jin shook his head.
"Between myself and the Honorary Chairman, I'd say our gratitude toward you is far greater. But I'll be sure to deliver your message."
"Haha, yes. Please do."
"I'm to supervise the site and return once the work is finished. There's no need for you to stay and watch, Ji-on — go take care of what you need to do."
I turned to leave without hesitation — then froze for a moment, a faint unease nagging at the corner of my mind.
The warning system. Today it had happened to work in my favor, but would that hold true every other day? Suppose someone broke in after my crops. Suppose the warning appeared — and I was in no position to do anything about it. I would simply have to stand by with my hands tied and take the loss.
As the user's rank rises, external intrusions can be detected and countered even remotely.
The system window appeared, as if it had read my mind. If my rank needed to rise, that meant I needed to get stronger — which is to say, I had to reach higher circles and learn to wield ever greater amounts of mana.
In truth, this wasn't the first time something had invaded from outside. Wild small animals had slipped in before, leaving behind the gnawed remains of a few crops. But the scale had been trivial, and I'd chosen not to interfere — you have to coexist with nature, after all.
The problem was that the system couldn't detect such small intruders at all. That, too, seemed to come down to what the system called "rank."
As the user's rank rises, the range of detectable targets expands.
Additionally, the means available to repel and prevent intrusions will diversify.
Figures. The system window popped up again, right on cue.
"So I just have to keep getting stronger."
Come to think of it, it was obvious. The more famous my crops became, the more people would come sniffing around for them. To protect what was mine, I needed power.
"First things first — the 2nd Circle."
Analyzing the flow of mana and blending it seamlessly into my own strength — that part had grown familiar by now. I could feel the 2nd Circle was not far off.
And the threat looming over my farm was every bit as close.
Rustle, rustle—
Late at night, something stirred in the underbrush. A swift shadow darted beneath the streetlamps spaced sparsely along the road.
Shff-shff-shff—
Moving with a lithe, fluid grace, it descended from the mountainside and slipped swiftly into the cover of the residential foothills.
Unlike an ordinary badger, it bore a coat of soft white fur running from head to tail along its back — a striking contrast to its round, black body. A damp little nose and gentle, doe-like eyes, too.
And in opposition to all that softness, it possessed ferocious claws and fangs, the boldest brawler in the entire ecosystem.
Yes — the honey badger.
The streetlight bathed the honey badger in its glow.
Shff-shff!
The honey badger darted from the road into the nearby brush, eyes gleaming. The hilltop lay just ahead.
There it is!
The field that exhaled that familiar fragrance. The scent seemed a little fainter tonight, but the honey badger already knew why. It had learned over several tastings that the crops from that field were incredibly delicious.
Tonight, too, the feast would be a success. Fragrant greens, and if it dug just a little into the soil, sweet potatoes — sweet and starchy and warm. The honey badger was brimming with anticipation.
But it soon met with an unprecedented crisis. An obstacle it had never encountered before now barred its way.
What is all this?!
A great sheet of plastic film enclosed the entire field. It hadn't been there yesterday!
Despairing, the honey badger pressed its paws against the plastic — push, push, push, pu-u-ush — and each time the film dimpled inward, then sprang right back into shape. Trembling, its luxuriant fur bristling all over its body.
It couldn't stop here. Not when the soft, alluring scent of plump, ripening crops was drifting out from within — especially not for that reason!
The honey badger bared its claws.
Time to shred this thing.
Its long foreclaws gleamed viciously in the light. The honey badger lashed out with a forepaw.
Thwack!
But the plastic was untouched.
Kiih! Shred it!
Once more — THWACK!!
......!
The honey badger's claws could tear through anything. That was precisely why it was a very bad idea to mess with a small honey badger.
And yet this plastic in front of it refused to rip, no matter how it was attacked.
I concede. A worthy foe......
The honey badger's eyes went wide, and it snorted out a hot breath.
Then I'll get serious too!
It raised both forepaws once more. Flash — the streetlight caught the very tips of its claws.
And in that instant, mana gathered. The mana wreathing the honey badger's claws hardened, layering over itself like the facets of a ring. It happened without the badger's own knowledge, in a fraction of a heartbeat.
Whoosh — Thwack!
Riiiip—
The corner of the plastic sheet tore with a small sound.
I WON!!
Elated, the honey badger wedged its body through the torn opening. Before its eyes, a sea of sweet potato leaves swayed gently in the night breeze.
Delicious things. Mine to eat!
Hunt successful. Just as the honey badger, drunk on the thrill of the chase, began crunching down on the leaves it had claimed as spoils —
Whoosh—
"Gotcha, you little rascal!"
Someone had crept up on it from behind without a sound, and seized it. In a flash, the scruff of its neck was locked in an unbreakable grip.
The hunter was Seo Ji-on, the farm's owner, out in the dark for a secret midnight harvest of his own.
Trapped in Seo Ji-on's hand, the honey badger wriggled and squirmed in alarm — but escape was impossible.
I've been done in! ......Where in the world did he come from?
Grrrr—
"You got caught stealing someone else's crops, and you're growling at me? Quiet down."
Baring its teeth in threat accomplished nothing. It only earned a flick on the bridge of its nose.
"Hack!!"
Put me DOWN!!
Squirm, squirm—
The honey badger's plump little body swung back and forth in midair. Dizzy from the swinging, it let out a roar.
"Kiiii... PUT ME DOWN!!"
In human speech.
"......?"
"......Kreek?"
It had spoken, and then been shocked by its own voice. As the honey badger's face went slack with bewilderment, the hunter — Seo Ji-on — raised his arm and lifted the animal up to eye level. He turned it sideways, then rotated it back to face him again.
The honey badger, dangling helplessly in midair, seemed to come to its senses all at once and gave a violent flutter of its body.
Whoosh — Thwack!
A high kick. It landed clean.
"Ugh!"
Struck squarely in the face, Seo Ji-on's grip loosened — and the honey badger shot back through the way it had come, vanishing in a flash.
"You little...!"
Seo Ji-on pinched his stinging nose, eyes blazing. If it had just stayed a stranger, he might never have known — but having taken a hit to the face, there was no way he could let it go. He would catch that thing.
"Kuk, kuh-kuh-kuh..."
The honey badger, never hearing the boy's ominous chuckle, fled for the mountains as fast as its legs could carry it.
A few days later.
The honey badger, mid-raid on a beehive hanging from a tree branch, spat out the comb it had been gnawing on. Ptooey.
This isn't the taste I want.
What it craved was something sweeter than honey itself — something gloriously, overwhelmingly sweet! There was no choice. It had to go back.
Last time, it had been so absorbed in eating that it missed the approach of its enemy entirely. But what if it came fully on guard this time?
I, honey badger, have never lost to any foe in my life.
Therefore, I will win this time as well.
The honey badger's deliberations were brief. The first strike decides all. Victory to the one who punches first.
"Gruhk—"
It flung the beehive to the ground and set off.
The bees' furious droning was an earsore, but no matter. A duel, by tradition, must be fought beneath the noonday sun.
The honey badger moved with lithe, fluid grace and headed for the residential district below.