The Race for the Bananas

The SS-rank artifact the Sea Otter had carried back in its mouth: the Guardian's Sanctuary Bracelet.

It was wonderful in every way but one. The barrier raised by Sanctuary Declaration grew stronger or weaker with the wearer's Mana, and Minhyuk's Mana was a miserable 1. That left him with nothing but the weakest barrier of all, the first tier. If he wanted anything like a safer Jungle Reclamation, he needed to drag that Mana stat up, and soon.

And then—

"Eat it, and your mana just goes up?"

A banana that permanently raised Mana by 0.01 with every bite dropped in front of him with a soft thud.

My whole life, it's been nothing but lightning out of a clear sky. I get a day like this too?

Right. A man was owed a little luck now and then. Minhyuk looked up at the monkeys in the tree and asked.

"Where'd you get this?"

"Ook— ook-ook-ook—." (No. We're never telling you.)

The monkeys shook their heads, firm as stone.

"I really need it. Can't you just tell me?"

"Ook~ ook-ook-ook~." (Don't wanna~ Not telling~)

Ah. So they were just messing with him.

Only then did Minhyuk catch on. Even so, he still couldn't make sense of it. He had no small number of little tree soldiers escorting him this very moment—and they still had the nerve to pull a prank like this?

Aha. They don't know what a gun is.

Seeing was believing, or so people said. Do it the old British Empire way: shove the muzzle in their faces first, and negotiate after—

Ding—!

Hmm. That changed things.

"You promised, right? Climb faster than you, and you tell me where the bananas are."

"Ook—? Ook-ook-ook—!" (What's he saying? Try and catch me first!)

One little monkey twitched its red backside in open provocation.

Hah. Look at this brat. Forgotten what kind of man I am already, has he?

"Fine. You just wait."

Ptoo— ptoo—

Minhyuk spat into his palms and started up the tree where the monkeys waited, locking strength into both hands and the soles of his feet. Take it step by step, he told himself, like climbing a ladder, and—

"Gyaaah—!"

He didn't get far before he hit the ground.

"Ook, ook-ook-ook~?" (Hehe. Think you can manage like that~?)

He ignored the little monkey and tried again. Maybe it was the raised Strength, Agility, and Sense. This was only his second attempt, but he was slowly getting a feel for it.

Still, he hadn't mastered it. No greed. For now, the only goal was the top of the tree, nice and slow...

Crack—!

Ah. The branch snapped there.

"Waaah—!"

"Ook~ ook-ook~"

The monkeys wiggled their backsides, infuriatingly pleased with themselves. Backsides he very much wanted to smack, and smack hard. Minhyuk paid them no mind and kept at the climb, finding the rhythm a little more with every try and making it higher each time. His palms split. He dropped to the ground. A searing ache lit up his tailbone. He still didn't quit.

Because...

Yeah, yeah. Big bro had an ace in the hole.

"Okay. That's enough practice."

Minhyuk checked the skill, curled one corner of his mouth, and looked at the monkeys.

"Now the real match starts!"

They had better brace themselves. From this moment on, it was a race to the death.

Ah. He lost. They wiped the floor with him, clean and simple.

He had climbed without a single mistake, but it still wasn't enough to match the nimble speed of a little monkey whose ancestors had been riding trees for generations.

"Ah... there goes my pride."

Beaten by creatures less evolved than humans. Not even a full-grown one—a baby monkey.

Still. It's worth another shot.

Thanks to Climbing (LV.1), he had more or less gotten the hang of going up a tree. At the very least, he was no longer falling off in some ridiculous fashion. From here, the only thing that mattered was speed.

In other words, raise the physical stats and he had a chance—Strength, Agility, and Sense, the ones that fed an explosive sprint.

"All right! Special training starts today!"

And so Minhyuk went into closed-door training. Diet first.

Crunch—! Crunch—! Potatoes for Strength, cucumbers for Agility, cherry tomatoes for Sense. Nothing else. He swore revenge on the monkeys and, for the first time in a long while, ate it all raw.

Sweet, savory corn? Sorry. He wasn't eating that. His Stamina was already more than enough.

"One—! Two—! Three—! Four—! Five..."

Next came the strength work. Wooden dumbbells, fifteen reps, six sets—morning and afternoon, twice a day.

The skill triggered once a set. Very lucrative gains.

"Hup—! Hup—! Hup—!"

On top of that, an hour of tree-climbing every day in the trees around the Safe Zone.

"Boss."

"Hm?"

"Elia can't have corn either?"

Come on. As if. However strict he got with himself, he wasn't about to force a raw-food diet on the others.

"I'll steam some corn for you. Wait nicely with the meerkats."

"Uh-huh!"

Meals for his staff, he cooked himself.

And he picked up a skill along the way. Cooking ought to get a good deal easier from here. Or wait—would the food just taste better?

Anyway.

Live inside special training long enough, and the cherry tomatoes ripened before he knew it. Once again, Fertile Soil had been working overtime. This time, a special effect that hadn't been there before had taken hold.

Reading it, Minhyuk tilted his head.

Survival Instinct? What's that supposed to be?

The ability to sense danger, or a trap? Like Kkureung? Well. It didn't seem like a bad thing.

"And Physical Sense Enhancement, huh..."

He couldn't tell what the finer points of that ability were either, but it looked as if it would help with climbing. Only natural, really. This was work that used the body, plain and simple. Still—something that sharpened his physical senses? He couldn't let that pass.

Chomp.

Minhyuk tipped a whole handful of homegrown cherry tomatoes into his mouth. Man. Sweet and sour.

Day 55.

"I-I finally...!"

The result of clenching his teeth and training on nothing but potatoes, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes, day after endless day. Strength, Agility, and Sense ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had shot up. At last, the day of the decisive battle had come.

"All right, troops. Time to pay those monkeys back for the humiliation!"

He snapped off a crisp salute.

"Kkurung—!"

Minhyuk led the Little Tree Soldier squad and Kkureung toward the cornfield in high spirits. His body itched to get up a tree.

"Ook—?" (You're back?)

The moment they reached the cornfield, the little monkey pointed down at Minhyuk from the branches and cackled.

"That's right. Came back, and I'm not dead. I'm here for that backside of yours."

Wiggle, wiggle—

The little monkey taunted him with its rear, as if to say go on, try it. A kind of starting signal.

"...Watch yourself. This time's going to be different."

With that, Minhyuk rolled up his sleeves, grim as a man going to war. He kicked off the ground and threw himself at the tree, caught the thick trunk in something like an embrace, and climbed, arms and legs driving at a brutal pace.

"Hraaaap!"

Papapapapat—!

Maybe all that special training hadn't been for nothing. Minhyuk tore upward and reached the middle of the tree in a flash.

"O-ook?!"

The little monkey, which had been lounging with a wiggling backside, seemed to panic and finally took off, scrambling up the trunk in a hurry.

Wadadada—

But the gap refused to open. If anything, the distance closed fast.

He'd warned them, hadn't he? This time would be different.

"Hraaaaaap—!"

"O-ook-ook...!"

Eyes locked on the little monkey's backside flickering just ahead, Minhyuk put on a final burst of speed.

"Hold it right there!"

Just before the finish line—the crown of the tree.

Smack—!

Touchdown on that plump little rear. He had beaten the baby monkey at tree climbing, and he had made it look easy.

"That's how you do it!"

From here on, the bananas were his. Minhyuk came down from the tree on a whoop of triumph and spoke to the little monkey, soaked in the sting of defeat.

"All right. A promise is a promise. Tell me where the bananas are. Now."

"Ook... ook-ook-ook..."

"What? Now I've passed the test?"

Heh. Who did they take him for, some wide-eyed sucker? Green as they come, and already learning nothing but dirty tricks...

...Huh? Wait a second.

Minhyuk checked overhead. The sky was perfectly quiet. Not a single message window.

The little monkey might pull something like that. The System, though, was not in the business of scamming people.

"Ook... ook-ook?"

"Follow you? You'll show me to the official arena?"

Minhyuk thought it over. For a moment he hesitated, wondering if this was a lure into some quiet corner so they could take their revenge for the loss.

No. When it comes to force, we're the overwhelming side.

He had twenty-five S-rank gunslingers. Nothing to flinch at.

Step. Step.

Minhyuk led his unit and followed the little monkey without a fuss. Before long they reached the monkey troop's home ground.

"...?"

And when he saw the official arena standing in the middle of it, all he could do was stare, dumbstruck.

Dun-dun—!

A colossal tree, easily the height of a twenty-story apartment building, rising straight up as if it meant to touch the sky.

I... I have to climb this?

Minhyuk swallowed and stole a glance to the side.

Dun-dun-dun—!

Unlike the fluffy little monkey, this one was an adult with muscle packed tight across every inch of its body. Testosterone incarnate. The representative, so it seemed, of the monkey tree-climbing tribe.

My opponent is... that slab of muscle?

Minhyuk narrowed his eyes at the testosterone-maxed monkey.

...Hmm. Okay. Analysis complete.

He couldn't win.

"You... you just wait a little longer. I'll be right back."

A tactical retreat.

"...Dirty cheats. They enter the tribal representative in a bet over where the bananas are?"

The more he chewed on it, the more absurd it got. Bananas. Of all things.

But... I can't give this up.

Those mana bananas were something Minhyuk absolutely needed. On top of that, the quest paid 200 experience and a hidden special reward. There was no quitting this.

And he had already gotten something out of it. Catching that nimble little monkey in a matter of days? That was no small thing. An achievement worth praising himself for.

If it's come to this... we play the long game.

Even if it cost him time. Keep raising his stats, steady as anything, until he was the tree-climbing champion.

"Boss, how'd it go?"

"...I won. And then I lost."

"Huh? What's that mean?"

"It's one of those complicated grown-up situations..."

Anyway. The most important thing in a long race? Not burning out. Just like that old basketball grandpa used to say—the moment you give up, the match is over. If he didn't want to quit halfway, the right amount of rest had to come with the work.

Which meant that today, he was eating something good.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Making a special meal. Tonight's menu is the kind that fills you right up."

"Ooooh! Yay, yay!"

Minhyuk got straight to work on dinner.

Chop, chop. First he diced the potatoes and tomatoes, set them in a pot filmed with oil, and stir-fried them.

Ssssss— A delicious smell curled up in soft wisps. He poured in enough water to cover the ingredients, and while it simmered until the potatoes had fallen completely apart—

Tock, tock, tock— he made a cucumber topping for crunch. Without something to chew, a mouth got bored.

Bubble, bubble. Once the soup had cooked down, he seasoned it with salt, sugar, and pepper, then laid the cucumber topping he had set aside over the top.

"Ta-da—!"

Potato tomato soup with cucumber topping: complete. On a day like today, nothing suited better than a soup that sat warm and solid in the belly.

"All right, time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to portion it out..."

He was just looking for bowls to share with Elia and the meerkats when it happened.

Ding—!

Message windows rose one after another. He checked them at once.

"Three stats... up twenty percent?"

Hmm. He had definitely made a hot soup. So why had a stat-buff potion just been born?

The long game... might not be all that long.

Minhyuk stared hard at the buff potion—no, at the potato tomato soup—then gave a shrug. A stat-buff potion. Mana bananas, too. Both of them mattered a great deal to castaway life. But—

"All right, everybody eat!"

"Wow! Looks so yummy!"

"Kkurung—!" "Kkuruk-kuruk—!" "Kkororong—!"

Food first.