The Survivor's Shop

From level 12 to level 23 in a single breath. The Safe Zone had blown outward like something unhinged, swelling by a full thirty-three pyeong.

And that was not all. He had punched through one level wall after another and come away with two ordinary perks and a special perk besides. Minhyuk opened his status window to see what they actually were. The ordinary perks first.

Two of them. True to ordinary perks, neither was broken beyond belief, but both were the sort of ability that would earn its keep.

"Weed Removal ought to be perfect for clearing vines and stalks once the farming's done."

Land of Fireflies was lighting, plain and simple. Nightfall had been draping the whole Safe Zone in a pitch-black dark that genuinely unnerved him. From now on, moving around after dark shouldn't be a problem.

And then...

"Well...?"

Minhyuk rubbed his palms together, tension written all over him. The special perk was the flower of a Safe Zone level-up — the real prize. Level 10 had handed him Legion Manufacture, a revolutionary perk. What would the level 20 reward be?

"...Oh?"

Minhyuk's face went puzzled.

"Survivor Shop?"

He had already signed a merchant contract with Elia and could use the Free Market to his heart's content. What was this, another shop pass?

Hmm. Goods specialized for survival. That changed the conversation.

The Tower's Free Market really does only let you trade items.

He had looked into it through Elia. The Free Market dealt strictly in hunters' items, and by items he meant equipment, spell scrolls, potions, parchments, elixirs, and the like — only the things ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that literally popped an item window. Anything else? It could not even be registered as merchandise. That, you might say, was why he had been forced to sink every coin he saved into Legion Manufacture and nothing else, however nicely the pile had grown.

"Tsk. I really am short on daily necessities."

At best he had a wooden hoe and a water basket he had carved himself. And now here were survival goods you could not get at the Free Market. He might as well take a look.

A shop window rose before his eyes.

"Whoa?"

The lineup made his eyes go round. There was no beef hot-pot meal kit, of course, but basic kitchen tools and ingredients were selling at a brisk clip. Yes. This was it. Exactly what a castaway life needed.

"But... this feels a little expensive."

No buffs, not even an ordinary item window, and the prices were still vicious. Salt, sugar, and pepper for seven coins? That was outright gouging.

"...Or is it? Maybe the price is actually pretty fair...?"

A thing's worth was decided by where you stood. Step into a special commercial zone — a ski resort, a water park — and gouging of this caliber was simply the law of the land. This, meanwhile, was a deserted island where you could scour the place raw and never find a scrap of modern civilization. Surely it was a price he could pay.

Minhyuk coolly flexed eighteen coins. Then he harvested corn from the field where the giant boar had vanished and returned to the Safe Zone in triumph.

"All right. Time to show off the cooking skills I've been hiding."

He might not look it, but Minhyuk was in his eighth year of living alone. Once he had become an office worker ground down by overtime, he had gotten by on delivery and convenience-store meals. In his broke college days, though, he had made everything himself. Corn, in other words, was nothing.

First he lit the fire plate. The flames caught with a rush. Into the pot he had just bought he poured water hauled from the stream and set it to boil — and here was one pro tip. A pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar went into the plain water, drifting down in a fine scatter. Salt pushed the corn's savor to its peak, and sugar topped up the sweetness. Once the water was bubbling, he set the ears on the steamer he had bought for six coins, closed the lid, and that was the whole of it. Now he only had to wait twenty minutes.

"Sniff... what is that?"

The good smell had begun to spread, and Elia and the meerkats came swarming.

"Nope. Not yet. A little longer."

Twenty minutes passed. He put the fire out and let the pot rest and finish for another ten.

"Ta-da!"

"Ooh!"

Glossy steamed corn, finished, sheen running down every kernel. He gave half an ear first to Elia, who was already waiting with her eyes alight, then half an ear each to the meerkats lined up and drooling in chorus, little slurps escaping them one after another.

"Mmm. It's really tasty."

Elia took a huge bite and chewed, her brows twitching as if she had been carried off somewhere wonderful. A scatter of starlight bloomed across the meerkats' faces.

Kku, kkurung~ Kyurung-kyurung~

"Heh. You little rascals. There's plenty of corn, so eat more if you want."

Minhyuk, watching with deep satisfaction, took a great bite of his own. The kernels popped. Sweet, toasty juice flooded his mouth all at once, and the more he chewed, the chewier and stickier it became.

Wow. I made this... and it's actually insane.

A long, satisfied belch escaped him. For a moment the tether of his reason snapped clean. It was so good he had inhaled it without a thought, and the result was eight ears of steamed corn cleared from a sitting position.

"Whew. That hit the spot."

Minhyuk perched on the sandy beach and sank into a languid rest. The meerkats were stroking their drum-tight bellies and making thoroughly contented sounds — koooh... For the record, Elia had finished a single ear, spiked her blood sugar, and was sleeping like the dead.

"I ought to start reorganizing the Safe Zone."

He murmured it while eyeing the message window bobbing overhead.

Thirty-three pyeong. An overwhelming figure, a different order of magnitude from the old days of creeping up three pyeong at a time. Tending the fields was the Meerkat Brothers' share of the work, of course.

Even so, I have a conscience.

The meerkats were not even a quarter his size. Put all of that on them and they would plainly work themselves to death. This was a deserted island with no such thing as workers' compensation, and as a former office worker he could not abide that kind of injustice.

"Let's tidy the field together. I'll help."

"Kyurung!"

As expected of the boss.

For the first time in a while, Minhyuk took up the wooden hoe.

First he used the new perk to sweep the plot clean down to bare earth. Then he rolled up both sleeves and started hoeing. Maybe it was all the potatoes he had eaten, pushing his Strength stat up, but the hard soil split at a touch. He was practically a human excavator. The hoe bit in, again and again.

After that he planted cucumbers, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and corn, and watered them with care from the wooden basket. Done.

"Haa. I'm finally digesting."

A little sweat, and the bloated weight in his gut settled. And what did a moment like this call for? Dessert time. Minhyuk took a handful of cherry tomatoes from the food storehouse.

Kururung...

In that brief span the meerkats had huddled into a cozy heap, curled up, and dropped into a nap. Pressed right against Elia's side, fast asleep — unbearably cute.

"Shame I don't have a camera."

Something like this ought to be kept as a photo. Aigoo. Minhyuk lay down beside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them with his arm for a pillow and ate a cherry tomato. Sweet juice wet his mouth. A cool sea breeze came in off the water, and the quiet warmth of fluffy little bodies pressed in around him while fair-weather clouds drifted peacefully through a clear sky.

Ahh! Heaven. This is heaven. This is utopia.

Without a single worry, Minhyuk lay on the easy sand and enjoyed his rest.

"Once the Safe Zone's level goes up, the quality of life really changes."

A six-pyeong strip of beach. The first day of being cast away, shivering, with nothing to eat but cucumbers. Set against that, this was a tremendous leap, and what astonished him most was how fast the Safe Zone was expanding.

"Already sixty-nine pyeong..."

Minhyuk popped a cherry tomato into his mouth and brought up the quest window.

"Just thirty-one more pyeong and I get the interim reward."

He had been at a loss over when farming alone would ever fill a hundred pyeong. Then he had taken down the giant boar, and the number had shot up all at once. At this pace, the first interim reward was a given — and covering the whole deserted island in Safe Zone, completing the quest, and walking out of the Tower no longer looked entirely impossible.

Do I even need to leave...?

Back to that wretched modern society? Honestly, he was happier and more satisfied now than when he had been going in to the office. Of course, by then he would probably be an Awakened with his stats properly filled out.

"Well... that's something to think about after I clear the quest."

Anyway. If ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he wanted a richer castaway life, he needed to expand the Safe Zone, and quickly.

"Tsk. Killing magical beasts is a lot more efficient, though."

Relying on crops alone was far too slow. Somehow the Safe Zone he had secured by catching a single giant boar was wider than everything he had expanded through more than forty days of farming.

"Should I just pivot that way entirely?"

His firepower was sufficient for now. Each little Wooden Soldier cost twenty coins, but the crops were growing in thick and fast, so he could make the coins back by farming hard. Besides, the Legion Manufacture perk was still level 1. Reach level 2, and he would be able to manufacture stronger summons.

The problem is defense...

The Hard Iron Boar — the first thing Minhyuk had ever slain. Thanks to it his level had exploded, but among the magical beasts on this deserted island it probably was not all that strong. If anything, the odds were high that it sat on the weaker end. The island teemed with colossal beasts whose footprints alone ran past five meters.

"And yet... even just catching that boar chewed the barrier's durability down by thirty-nine percent..."

Reinforcing the barrier of the skill Sanctuary Declaration would take care of it. The method? Simple.

All he had to do was raise his Magic stat.

But why, of all things, Magic?

Minhyuk's Magic stat was still a mere 1. Among Strength, Agility, Sense, Stamina, and Magic, Magic was the only one no crop had ever raised. In practice, the answer was already decided.

One way or another, I'll have to keep opening up the jungle.

If only to find a vegetable that raised Magic.

Ah. Of course. There was something he had to do before that.

"Boss."

"Yeah?"

"What are we having for dinner?"

Heh. Ever heard of gamjajeon? Potato pancakes.