To Me, Farming Is a Game
To Me, Farming Is a Game
I heard it.
The vivid sound of water.
At that, I immediately focused all my senses toward the ground.
'A little more.'
The mana stretching downward.
An electric shock sprinted vertically underground along the path created by that mana.
If the mana I poured out earlier was the fuse, the electric shock right now was the trigger to light the end of that fuse.
Pajik.
The moment I heard the sound of something bursting underground.
What popped up in my vision was not mud, but a status window.
10 meters, 30 meters, 50 meters.
Gradually, the numbers began to rise rapidly.
Hwiiiing!!
And as the numbers climbed, the sandstorm beat against my back even more harshly.
The razor-sharp wind lashed my back like a whip, and the soil around my legs, which had sunk into the mud, began to dry up rapidly, pinning me in place.
However, it was too late.
If this was a trial presented by the desert, a trick played by someone to prevent me from drinking even a single drop of this water.
'Watch me.'
I will show you the status window right before my eyes.
[ SYSTEM: Critical Point Reached ]
[ Depth: ]
145m.
Contact made with final bedrock layer.
[ Warning: ]
Underground water pressure is attempting to backflow the mana wedge.
Beneath my palm.
A vibration felt like a massive beast squirming surged up.
A blue, gigantic beast, suppressed by the desert sands for ages, was raising its head toward the surface.
150 meters deep underground.
An unseen underground vein of water was making its final resistance to push away the cork stopper suppressing it.
There was only one thing I could do.
'More.'
I inject mana.
I extend the mana dug into the bedrock toward the water vein, guiding the path so that the water vein erupts upward like an explosion.
An explosion occurring beneath the cork.
The wine bottle does not shatter.
The desert had suppressed the water vein with its weight of accumulated sand so that not a single drop of water existed on the surface, but because of that, an explosion occurring within the water vein would not collapse the water vein itself.
What shatters is not the wine bottle, but the cork stopper.
Unable to withstand the pressure from the explosion inside, the bedrock ultimately has no choice but to gush in one direction.
Where?
Naturally, upward.
Jjeo-eok!
A high-frequency rupture sound tore through the silence of the desert.
Whether this rupture sound was transmitted through my eardrums or was an underground mana wavelength connected to my fingertips was unknown, but I could intuitively sense it.
"Oh boy...."
It's coming.
That which I could see thanks to the status window's arrangements, but had never seen in reality.
The origin that protected this small sapling, and the source of life that I must drink to live on in the future.
Right in front of me.
Kwaaaaaang!!
A massive water column, easily 10 meters—no, 20 meters high—shot up toward the sky.
As if showing off its presence to the sun while piercing through the desert sandstorm, the gushing stream of water glittered with light like fluttering diamond dust, weaving a rainbow.
"Wow."
Naturally, I spread open both my arms.
Whether the stream of water fell upon me or not, I absorbed it all with my whole body.
It was cold.
The chill of the groundwater pouring over skin baked in 80-degree heat was more refreshing than any beverage.
A scene from a movie poster came to mind.
There was a scene where they drank beer bottles on a rooftop, and a scene where a person received an unfair verdict, but I could truly understand why that scene—where the protagonist crawled through an underground sewer pipe for a long time to escape prison, came outside, and embraced the pouring torrential rain with his entire body—became the movie poster.
"It's a cornucopia, a true cornucopia."
Water pouring down endlessly.
In an instant, it filled the parched pit, forming a clear pond.
The desert sand tried to absorb the water itself to ward off the invasion of blue, but across the yellow canvas, the light of water color was spreading.
The muddy water quickly settled down.
In its center stood the sapling, proudly displaying a much more vivid green color than before.
"...I thought I was gonna die."
For a moment, my heart sank, wondering if it might snap from being unable to withstand the pouring stream of water, but the sapling was still towering upright.
[ SYSTEM: Mission Complete ]
[ Mission: ]
<Securing Water Resources and Establishing Base> Success
[ Terrain Transformation: ]
Desert → Oasis Tile conversion complete.
Pangpapang.
The status window flashed as if setting off celebratory fireworks.
As if showing off its presence even amid the pouring water stream—
Chalkak!
Along with the sound, it captured the view spread out before my eyes onto its screen like a camera angle.
"...Eww."
On that image, how should I put it... there was a photo showing a quite scandalous appearance.
A naked elf standing with both arms spread toward the stream of water pouring down from above.
Even though I knew it was me, looking at it from the front like this was, well....
"...They say photos are what's left behind, but aren't there any other rewards?"
Putting aside whether to rate this photo PG-13 or R-18.
Gulping down the pouring water stream, I reached out a hand.
"Still, I feel like I've cleared a pretty decent quest here."
Rewards.
Give me rewards.
If it's just water—
Beonjjeok, with a flash of light, something appeared on my outstretched hand.
To be precise, it was more accurate to say that an amorphous, translucent liquid flowing from my body took on such a 'shape'.
[ SYSTEM: Final Reward Received ]
[ Item: ]
Improved Corn Seeds (C.V.8 Custom) x3
[ Description: ]
A miraculous crop that germinates even at minus 20 degrees Celsius and plus 50 degrees Celsius.
Nutritional efficiency is 5 times higher than ordinary grains.
[ Notification: ]
Leader-nim, now the 'real, real work' of farming begins.
Congratulations.
You may now postpone your worries of starving to death by about 3 minutes.
You no longer need to worry about your Abundance Pouch shrinking either.
"Ha."
Three seeds shining in a golden light.
Upon the earth where the heat had not yet receded even with the erupting water column, I realized for the first time that I had formed a proper partnership with this bizarre status window.
Whatever it is, if you do it, it works out.
Then a path to live will open up.
"Yeah. Let's delay it 3 minutes at a time for the reeeeal rest of my life."
I don't know when death will come, but at least until the moment that death approaches, I can't just sit idly stuck in the desert and turn into bleached bones.
"If I keep living, it'll work out somehow."
Even if I were to be eroded and perish in a sandstorm right tomorrow, I will plant these three seeds.
"Rebuilding civilization, huh."
In the future, if I become a great Leader, it shall be written at the beginning like this:
Beneath the surface of the water, the first birth of life.
That beginning started from hot water spray and three golden seeds.
The period from when I died—or rather, when I decided to return to the countryside and actually began farming—wasn't that long.
About 4 months after going down to the countryside.
Whether someone who has farmed before or speaking in idiomatic terms, anyone could declare this about that period:
It's short.
Don't people often say 'a year's farming'?
In the land of South Korea where the four seasons were distinct—no, had been distinct—farming was a long-term project that required looking at least one year in advance.
Still, during that period, I worked hard.
From when the small ball I launched after quitting my job rippled out into all kinds of places until the chairman of a conglomerate attended his first trial in a wheelchair, I learned a lot from my uncle.
Short experience.
However, my knowledge was fairly abundant in its own way.
Because one of my hobbies was gaming, and among them, the genre I played most often was precisely this kind.
You know, those where out of nowhere one day you inherit farmland from your grandfather, move down to the countryside, farm, raise livestock, go fishing, and get married.
So-called 'healing games'.
-So I just need to earn 1 million gold within 1 year?
-It's a healing game!
-As soon as I wake up at 6 AM, I go to the coop to collect eggs, put them all in the mayonnaise machines, and then when the general store opens at 9 AM...
-Take it easy and heal!!
-Tilling all the land and sowing seeds on the day transitioning into autumn uses up a lot of stamina, so I should prepare stamina-restoring food items in advance...
-This isn't healing at all!!
If someone were to watch this, they'd shake their head asking how the hell this is 'healing', but it turns out I also possessed a fair share of what the internet calls the 'innate traits of Koreans'.
It was natural.
Whether it's money made of 0s and 1s or anything else, it doesn't yield time efficiency?
You start a game and are given a settlement, but you incur debt and have a loan to pay off?
It's the Korean way to dig through wikis from the very first playthrough to cultivate the crops with maximum efficiency, and whether living a minimalist life with zero furniture in the house or whatever, paying off the debt first is the Korean mindset.
Even if that debt is interest-free.
Anyway, that was me—someone whose idea of farming was simply pressing buttons to sow seeds, water them, and swing a scythe to harvest after time passed.
Although I managed to tag along with my uncle and harvest a bit, at night I also spent time placing oil paints on canvas to paint still-lifes.
At best, I had followed my uncle to sow seeds for crops to be used in a rice cake shop, but even that was far from becoming a professional farmer—just a youth who tried a short-term part-time job of countryside experience.
If I could turn back time, if I had known it would turn out like this, I would have quit the company much sooner and dedicated myself to agriculture.
In other words.
So, what I'm trying to say is.
'A 1st-playthrough farming gamer tends to just dive in blindly, but from the 2nd playthrough, they prepare efficiently.'
Fitting for my 2nd life (probably) supported by an AI, I have no intention of farming half-heartedly.
Especially.
"A body that doesn't need sleep means I can work without sleeping."
Even more so when possessing a tireless elf body like right now.
"To me, farming is a game."
24-hour sleepless play, let's go.
"Now THIS is healing."