Chapter 60: Heart-Pounding First Ranking Tournament (End)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 60: Heart-Pounding First Ranking Tournament (End)
He was originally an ordinary cadet.
Since his family ran a small farm, his affection for vegetables was exceptional, but it wasn’t to the point where everyone around him called him a freak like they do now.
— Him? That crazy bastard? Don’t even get me started.
— One day, out of nowhere, he started beating people with a cucumber during a duel.
— He’s insane. It’s not that he’s strong; he’s just out of his mind.
As evidenced by the reactions of his classmates at the time, he was a perfectly “normal” cadet.
He was the man who recorded the first-ever penalty point total exceeding 400 in the Academy’s history, a man whose graduation was almost suspended.
That man was Ban Gi-san, the sole farmer of Chamsarang Agriculture.
He was neither a hero nor a villain.
“Eat your vegetables!”
…Looking at his current actions, he was closer to a villain, yet he subjugated monsters, caught villains, donated his profits to society, and personally provided home-grown vegetables and fruits to orphanages and the poor.
And he forced villains to eat vegetables, forced animals to eat vegetables, forced the weak to eat vegetables, and also imposed vegetables upon the strong.
Even in the dreadfully dark original novel, he was a peculiar character who stood out in a significantly bad way.
A gag character built on an excessive love for vegetables and an obsession with ingredients had no business being in a maddening, frustrating novel, so he rarely appeared in the original work.
The reason such a man had come to the Academy now was simple.
Ever since he discovered his objective, he had ignored all circumstances and charged toward a single female student.
Exams? Duels? None of that was his concern.
The only thing that mattered to him was making them pay the price for the atrocity they had committed a few days ago.
Having intruded upon the duel, he pulled out a thick, black eggplant.
The sight of his bronze skin rippling as he thrust the thick, black object toward the girl was quite close to a criminal act.
“Why do you waste food?”
That’s right.
They were the girls who had thrown away Kim Ga-eul’s lunchbox the other day.
“Everything contains the sweat of a farmer and the essence of the earth. The food you ruthlessly discarded was once a life; have you never thought to be grateful for that?”
As he infused the eggplant with mana, the glossy black vegetable began to glow with an eerie purple light.
“Um…”
“I will hear no excuses! I clearly witnessed the scene of you discarding food, and my talent is reacting to you as well!”
Just what the hell is your talent…?
Even while thinking that, the girl managed to speak.
“…What I threw away was a seafood meatball, though?”
The farmer fell silent for a brief moment.
“It contained flour, so you have indeed disregarded the sweat of a farmer.”
However, to a madman, the specific reason rarely mattered.
“That’s enough!”
A professor rushed in to subdue him, but it was a futile resistance.
“You’ve left food on your plate recently, haven’t you?”
“No, you crazy bastard! Are you still on about that?! It’s been ages since you graduated, and you haven’t changed a bit…!”
Basic Physical Training Professor Kim Min-soo.
He screamed desperately at the student he once taught, but the man didn’t even pretend to listen.
“I do not negotiate with those who leave leftovers.”
In the face of the pressure from this mad terrorist, there was nothing the professor could do.
* * *
The character named Gi-san is quite unique.
Should I say his principle of action is too simple and clear, yet incomprehensible from the perspective of a normal person?
Being a picky eater is fine, but he does not allow leaving food behind.
That was his principle of action and his sole criterion.
This was largely due to his ability, which was close to pseudo-invincibility as long as the conditions were met.
A+ Rank Talent: Legendary Farmer. That was the name of the talent he was born with.
“I know. I understand. Anyone can have likes and dislikes, and as a cadet, you might leave behind food you didn’t choose for yourself.”
After stuffing a mana-infused carrot into Professor Kim Min-soo’s mouth, he turned toward the girls who were trembling as they watched him.
“But I can never forgive the act of leaving leftovers.”
His muscles rippled as he delivered a line that felt like a long-outdated meme.
Having watched this entire process, I came to a conclusion.
“Should I reconsider?”
Ban Gi-san. Though he was a somewhat absurd individual, he was the first person I thought of to scout as a subordinate while acting as the Academy’s Mastermind (temporary).
The reason was simple.
I judged that he possessed all the elements of a cool villain as I defined them.
He was pleasant, moderately playful, and above all, strong and acted for his own convictions.
Although he had no active role in the original work because he didn’t fit the atmosphere, I believed he had plenty of potential to be a popular antagonist.
“But seeing him in person is a bit different from seeing him in text.”
Every time his bronze skin beneath his handsome face twitched and bulged, I felt a powerful urge to just run the hell away.
“Ah, don’t worry. I won’t hurt you.”
From an objective standpoint, it looked like he had already caused enough trauma to count as hurting them, but anyway, he claimed he had no such intention.
“By eating this eggplant, you too shall be born anew.”
His thick, firm-looking black eggplant brushed against the girls’ lips.
“Hieee…!”
“Uwaaaaah…!”
Uh, shit. I feel a bit sorry for them.
Actually, come to think of it, it’s not so much that I’m sorry, but more like I pity them.
I mean, this was funny when I was just reading it as text.
However, his eggplant did not get the chance to violate the girls’ mouths.
Someone had stepped in to block his path.
Cathy.
Our secret friend.
“…Just what do you think you’re doing?”
She was considerably angry.
“I am striking down those who do not cherish food and giving them time for reformation.”
“I see. I understand the intent. You can explain the rest at the Correctional Facility.”
Ah, the Correctional Facility is, as the name suggests, a facility for reforming superhuman criminals who haven’t committed major felonies.
Ban Gi-san scanned her and smiled.
“You have a good body.”
…Is he a crazy bastard? Does he want to die?
“It is a perfected body that can only be possessed by one who consumes balanced nutrition. As expected of a professor at Leilan Academy.”
Ah, that. Right. She certainly is overflowing with nutrition.
“But you cannot defeat me.”
“Hmph…!”
As if there was nothing more to hear, she leaped with great elasticity.
Her body, infused with mana, transcended the human realm, and as a superhuman in the truest sense, she threw a punch without hesitation.
“Soft.”
And her fist was blocked by his bumpy, green weapon.
“…What?”
“With such a soft fist, you cannot even split this cucumber.”
That’s right. It was a cucumber.
His talent, Legendary Farmer, wasn’t originally an ability like that.
It was merely a talent for recognizing high-quality soil and making the vegetables he grew larger and tastier.
However, he had awakened.
The earth had responded to his excessive love for vegetables and his obsession with soil, allowing him to cross the threshold.
Legendary Farmer Ban Gi-san. His awakened ability was the insane power to become invincible when facing someone who had discarded edible food.
Anyone who had thrown away food waste within the past month could not inflict any harm upon him.
And if what they discarded was a vegetable, they could not resist his attacks.
His ability was to become conditionally invincible.
Does that sound like nonsense? I don’t know either.
But my friend wrote it that way.
“You, you’ve left vegetables behind recently. Specifically, a bell pepper that could have saved someone.”
“What…? How did you…”
“The bell pepper you discarded told me. It told me to strike you down! And to reform you!”
After crunching on the cucumber himself, he pulled out a bell pepper from somewhere.
“Don’t worry. Soon, you’ll find the peculiar bitterness of this bell pepper irresistibly delicious.”
She took a step back out of instinctive revulsion.
“…This isn’t going to work, dammit.”
I was about to step in out of necessity, but others joined her first.
It was Lilac and Kang Ha-ni.
“Professor, are you okay!?”
“…How did a freak like that even get into the Academy?”
With Lilac looking genuinely shocked and Kang Ha-ni looking on with utter disgust, Gi-san smiled brightly.
“You two don’t seem to be very picky eaters either! This mister is truly happy!”
…Should I watch a little longer?
* * *
Gi-san was enjoying himself.
The three before him—the two boys and the female professor—were individuals who enjoyed a very healthy diet by his standards.
But they weren’t perfect.
“The boy over there seems to dislike seaweed stems.”
“Eh? Yes, that’s right.”
“It’s an ingredient whose fishy taste can feel unpleasant depending on the cooking method. I understand. However, the sea is also part of the land if you look at it broadly. Seaweed can also be considered a vegetable.”
Lilac nodded at the words that sounded like pure nonsense to anyone else.
“Ah, I’ll be careful from now on.”
“Yes, it’ll be easier to eat if you stir-fry it and toss it with sesame oil. Now, boy, step aside. I was just about to show the two behind you the greatness of vegetables.”
“I can’t do that.”
“…Lilac, why are you answering a weirdo like that so politely?”
“Is that a bo…y? Hmm, I’m not sure, but anyway, you also seem to have a fairly healthy diet. I can hear the vegetables you’ve cooked crying out in joy.”
“…What kind of crazy—”
“But why do you not share that affection with cherry tomatoes? I am glad to have the chance to convey the greatness of tomatoes to you!”
“Bullshit.”
A quick-draw strike.
The quick-draw strike, shrouded in mana, was a blow that anyone could see was delivered with full sincerity.
It was an all-out strike born from the thought that as a cadet, she couldn’t afford to hold back against an opponent who had withstood Professor Cathy’s blow effortlessly.
Yet, ridiculously, he blocked the attack with a tomato.
The elastic skin and flesh of the tomato sparkled as they deflected the high-speed slash that had flown from the scabbard.
…Seriously, where does this guy keep pulling vegetables from?
“If you had eaten your tomatoes well, you would have been capable of a stronger attack…!”
“What are you talking about, you lunatic!”
Following that, Lilac fired a light from the Holy Sword, but Gi-san pulled out some seaweed and threw it at him.
The moment the Holy Sword tried to cut the seaweed, the swollen seaweed wrapped itself around the blade.
“Ugh…!?”
“If you insist on interfering, I have no choice but to get serious.”
He once again pulled out a cucumber and an eggplant in each hand.
“If you don’t want a taste of my thick, bumpy rascals, get lost.”
The ranking tournament was already a mess, and other cadets and professors approached, but the situation didn’t improve at all.
“Why are you resisting like this? I only want you to eat your vegetables and realize the nobility of ingredients, so why do you interfere!”
Lilac, holding the Holy Sword—no, the seaweed sword—and Kang Ha-ni took a step back.
It was because they were pushed back by the momentum he was exuding.
Just when everyone thought no one could stop him, someone stepped forward.
Kang So-hyun.
Facing the boy with a scrawny frame and a fragile body who looked malnourished at a glance, Gi-san initially ignored him completely.
He even frowned at the sight of a body that looked ready to collapse rather than being perfected, a health condition that was embarrassing to even call a superhuman.
However.
He soon had to change that thought.
There was no reaction.
His talent didn’t budge an inch.
The vegetables that boasted invincible hardness returned to being simple ingredients, and the earth itself affirmed the boy.
Because that meant only one thing.
“Hey, I think you’ve done enough. Why don’t you head back?”
It meant that for at least the past month, he had lived without creating any food waste and had not been a picky eater.
“Ah, ah.”
The being closest to the person he had been searching for was right before his eyes.
“You, would you like to try running a farm?”
“…Are you perhaps insane?”
He even liked the way the boy played hard to get while secretly liking the idea.
* * *
The crazy farmer smiled brightly as if he found something wonderful and reached out to me.
“You, would you like to try running a farm?”
I have no idea what kind of batshit crazy talk this is, but it seems to be a scout offer.
I was the one who was supposed to do the scouting, though?
“…Are you insane?”
“Haha, yes. You need that much spirit to be qualified to be the owner of a farm.”
I don’t know what spirit has to do with being a farm owner, but he took a stance.
“For your sake, I’ll reform those kids another time! Well then, see you next time!”
That’s right, it was a posture for running away.
There are only two ways to beat him.
Either be so strong that even his ability can’t offset it, or don’t leave any leftovers like me.
And in front of an opponent who didn’t leave leftovers, he was surprisingly powerless.
Despite being able to produce power similar to a decent hero just by wrapping mana around his strong physical body and swinging it, he refuses to fight, calling it “mere violence.”
He was undoubtedly a madman.
“Ah, I’ll deposit the payment for the facility damage under the name of Chamsarang Agriculture soon!”
Having said that, he leisurely left the Academy in his truck.
A thirty-minute whirlwind.
There were no casualties, but it was an incident that caused the hard-earned reputation of Leilan Academy to plummet once again.