The Field's Hidden Power

'No way!'

If the field's special quality had been nothing more than warmth, I wouldn't have been this shocked.

My mouth hung open as I stared up at the sky, unable to close it.

Today's weather was overcast, with a light snow drifting down, so the sky was a pale, washed-out gray.

But the sky above the Blessed Farmland, when I stepped inside and looked up, was completely different — a vivid, crisp blue, like a Windows desktop wallpaper. Fresh sunlight bathed my face.

I stepped back out of the field.

A cold wind slapped my face. I looked up — the same dull gray overhead.

I stepped back in. The wind died instantly, and a warm spring sun beat down pleasantly.

One single step, and it was an entirely different world.

Whoosh—

I drew in a deep breath. The air was incredible. Every breath carried an indescribable freshness. This was a mountain valley, so the air had always been good, but in winter it tended to be a bit dry. The air inside the Blessed Farmland, though, was pleasantly moist — not too humid, just right.

Was it just my imagination? Every time I inhaled, it felt as though some kind of beneficial energy was seeping into my body.

I placed one foot inside the field and the other outside, then swayed my upper body back and forth. Whenever my head was inside the Blessed Farmland, the sky turned blue; step out, and it reverted to its usual gray.

'It's not all a hallucination, is it?'

It was so astonishing and delightful that even seeing and feeling it with my own senses, I could hardly believe it.

Tap-tap-tap—

I ran to the house. A thermometer hung beside the storage shed. It was daytime now, so it wasn't particularly cold — minus five degrees Celsius. I grabbed the thermometer and returned to the field. The mercury climbed steadily, then stopped at a firm 15 degrees above zero.

'It's not a hallucination!'

A tingling rush of catharsis shot through me from head to toe.

At night, temperatures sometimes dropped to minus fifteen. I'd slept fitfully in the car, doubled up in sleeping bags with hot packs stuffed in, and the cold had still crept in.

Making a fortune off crops could wait. Right now, simply having a warm space existed made me insanely happy.

One pyeong measured roughly 1.8 meters by 1.8 meters. At 185 centimeters tall, I could lie down along the diagonal with room to spare.

'Plus, I've still got two coins left.'

Among the supplies I'd bought in town was a one-person tent.

'Let's set it up right now!'

I dashed home and grabbed the tent. It was a pop-up type, so it unfolded in seconds. I placed it inside the Blessed Farmland.

'Hmm, a little cramped.'

The tent was about 2.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. The width was fine, but the length was short — the tent poked out past the edge of the field.

'Simple — just make another pyeong.'

I drove the hoe down into the ground. The snow vanished without a trace, and the Blessed Farmland became two pyeong. Now 3.6 meters long and 1.8 meters wide, it fit the tent with room to spare.

'There we go!'

I crawled into the tent and lay down. Far from cold, I was actually sweating in my thick winter clothes. I stripped off my parka and lay back down.

After a while, I checked the thermometer. The field itself held steady at 15 degrees, but the warmth of the spring sun plus my own body heat had pushed the tent's interior up to 20 — the absolute sweet spot for comfortable living.

'This is amazing!'

Then, suddenly, a wave of anxiety washed over me. I'd been so thrilled by the field's surreal power that I'd forgotten something crucial.

'A sudden zombie showing up would be a real problem!'

This place had no fence to keep zombies out. And a tent was nowhere near as sturdy as my SUV. If zombies attacked out of nowhere, it would be catastrophic.

I stepped outside the tent and picked up the bow and knife I'd set nearby, then scanned the surroundings with my binoculars. No zombies in sight.

'Should I bring the car over here?'

Instead of the tent, I could drive the SUV into the Blessed Farmland, park it there, and sleep inside — warmth and safety, two birds with one stone.

'I pitched the tent for nothing, huh.'

The moment I moved to take it down, a new message appeared before my eyes.

I was so stunned I actually said it out loud.

"Seriously?"

But thinking it over, the idea that zombies couldn't enter the Blessed Farmland wasn't all that far-fetched. It was, after all, a field I'd earned as a reward for hunting zombies. Clearly, Casar Aurelion had some connection to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them.

There were no zombies nearby, so I couldn't test whether it was actually true. But at this point, I might as well just trust the message. This same power had whisked me out of Seoul to safety, and now it had given me a field that wouldn't freeze even in the dead of winter — if I kept doubting and double-checking everything, even Casar Aurelion would get annoyed with me.

'I trust you!'

A warm zone that zombies couldn't enter? This wasn't just amazing — it was beyond amazing. The odds of me surviving until spring had just shot skyward.

Though when spring did come and temperatures rose across the peninsula, the zombies would rot and weaken. At that point, the field's mysterious power wouldn't be so special anymore.

'Still, it won't be completely useless.'

Every winter, I'd be able to grow crops without spending a cent on heating.

'Maybe I should quit my job and take up winter strawberry farming?'

Ah! Come to think of it, I hadn't tested everything the field could do yet. The most important part was still remaining.

I pulled a seed from my pocket. While fetching the tent earlier, I'd grabbed one variety of seed from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the collection Grandmother had kept in the shed.

Beans — perfect for sowing at 15 degrees Celsius. The field was already tilled, so I could plant them straight away. I pushed the beans about 5 centimeters deep into the soil.

Immediately, a new message appeared before my eyes.

Oh!

The very feature I'd been longing for! Just how explosive "explosive" turned out to be, I'd have to see for myself, but my expectations were high. Even if it wasn't the extreme of harvesting a day after planting, a fivefold or tenfold increase in growth speed would already be enormous.

I deliberated. Should ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I spend my last coin right now to boost the soil's fertility?

'No rush, right?'

Better to test it with the field densely planted. There was something else I wanted to try first with that final coin.

I gazed at the stream. Ice had formed, making it hard to draw water. As it got colder, the ice would grow thicker and thicker until getting water became nearly impossible — to the point that melting snow would be the more efficient option.

What would happen if I struck the part of the stream that still had flowing water with the hoe? Would the water vanish and turn into field? Or would the warmth melt the ice and make drawing water easier?

'Only one way to find out.'

I walked to the stream and drove the hoe down at its edge. But nothing happened. A new message appeared before my eyes.

Ah! I understood immediately. I couldn't till multiple Blessed Farmland plots in separate locations — everything had to stay connected to the original plot.

Hmm. It would have been nice if this rule had been explained up front. But wait — "yet"? Did that mean multiple plots would become possible later?

Well, the distance from the field to the stream was about twenty meters. Kill twelve zombies, and I could extend the Blessed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Farmland all the way over there.

'Twelve coins is easy enough to earn.'

Either way, I decided to hold onto that last coin.

I returned to the Blessed Farmland. The warm spring sun melted through me, and the relief of knowing zombies couldn't get in let my tension drain away completely.

'Suddenly sleepy.'

I crawled into the tent, rolled up my thick coat into a pillow, and lay down comfortably. Not cold at all.

.

.

.

Huh?

I opened my eyes to darkness. I'd fallen asleep without meaning to. Checking the time — 1 a.m. I'd been sleeping since around three in the afternoon, without even eating dinner. How long had it been since I slept this long?

I stepped out of the tent and learned something else: when the outside world was in night, the Blessed Farmland was in night too. But there was a difference.

'The stars are about to pour down!'

It was like watching footage shot through a space telescope. The stars blazed so vividly they seemed ready to spill from the sky. I stretched my hand out beyond the edge of the field, and a chilly winter wind struck the back of my hand.

Hmm. Time for my shift at the fence. My reluctance to leave the warm place and my desire to hunt zombies for coins coexisted in me.

'Gotta earn coins to expand the field.'

I threw on my winter parka, grabbed the bow and knife, and headed for the rice paddies. Today I was paired with Jin-beom.

"I'll kill for a shot of soju with some grilled pork intestines."

At his words, my own mouth started watering. Not just the intestines — braised pork-backbone stew, ribs, fried chicken — every kind of food imaginable flashed through my mind.

That was when it happened. I caught sight of a figure drawn toward our light.

"One's coming! Six o'clock."

A zombie was approaching.

"Another one from that side, too."

A second appeared at eleven o'clock. I nocked an arrow on the bowstring and spoke to Jin-beom.

"I'll take the one at six. You take the other."

"Okay! Wanna bet on who pops a head first? Whoever's slower goes out and chops them up."

The zombies that had been drifting toward the drum-fire caught a whiff of human scent and began charging toward the wire fence. I waited until the distance closed, then fired. The arrow flew straight and pierced the zombie's skull. With a single shot, its movements slowed to a crawl.

I looked over at Jin-beom. He was trembling all over, unable to loose his arrow.

"What's wrong?"

"I really... I just can't shoot this one."

I studied the zombie. It was very small — a child zombie. I understood the situation at once. That zombie had been one of Jin-beom's students. There was only one elementary school in the area, so most of the young zombies around here had been his pupils.

"I'll do it."

In Jin-beom's place, I drove an arrow into the child zombie's skull. Then I went out beyond the wire and severed the heads of both zombies.

I returned to the fence and gave the shoulder of a sighing Jin-beom a gentle pat.

.

.

.

My steps felt lighter than usual as I headed home after my shift. I had somewhere warm to rest, after all. Tomorrow, I'd plant the one-pyeong field thick with seeds and boost its fertility. I couldn't wait to see how fast the plants would grow. And what rewards would come when I expanded the field to a hundred pyeong? I was dying to find out.

'One anticipation after another!'

Just then, a new message appeared before my eyes.

'Now what is this supposed to mean?'

Zombies couldn't enter the Blessed Farmland. So who would come to the field at this late hour? Not a single soul had shown up even during the day — there was no way a villager had come by.

'Maybe...'

It could be a wild animal rather than a person. Or a raider could have broken in.

For now, I drew the pistol from my waistband and moved it to my outer pocket.