Easy Farming

I'd said I was going to climb the Tower, but that didn't mean I was about to march in there this very second.

And for good reason...

Poke.

Squish.

"Urgh."

You seriously think I can climb the Tower in this body? This thing with not a single ounce of muscle on it, this squishy little marshmallow? The Tower?

"Obviously impossible, shit."

The truth was, none of this made any goddamn sense. When you awakened, your body was supposed to firm up. That was the normal way of things. You needed muscle to fight monsters, and you needed to fight monsters to climb the Tower. Which was why pretty much every awakener out there was a freak of nature who could casually throw up five hundred kilos on the big three — and that went for production classes and tool-users too, not just the combat types.

But...

"Nngh...!"

For reasons beyond me, my body was squishy as all hell. Soft enough that I could barely lift the liter bottle of water rolling around my studio apartment. Walking into the first floor of the Tower like this would be suicide. Even if I forced my way in, I'd just end up as bar snacks for the magical beasts — a nutritious little treat for the goblins.

And I wasn't ready to die yet. I wasn't some clown of a middle-aged guy who'd gotten wrecked holding stocks.

...What?

A guy like that wouldn't chug twenty-six cans of energy drinks?

"Yeah, well. I can't not chase a legendary post."

Anyway. To lurk on Tower Gallery — meaning, to mess around with my status window — I had to climb the Tower. But looking at my current body, I didn't have anywhere near the specs for it. In short: I needed a spec-up.

For a normal awakener, that would have been impossible. The only way an awakener could get stronger was by climbing the Tower and beating the crap out of monsters.

But I had a way to get stronger without climbing a single floor.

"Gulp, gulp... Pwah!"

I downed an energy drink in one shot, and the notification bloomed in front of my eyes once more. I opened the trait window immediately to check the new number.

"So about one percent per can, huh..."

Ahh. I was starting to get a feel for the level of this trait. Was it so boring I wanted to die...? Not quite. The addiction rate was only at two percent, so it was hard to tell. Stats were supposed to climb in proportion to the addiction rate, but I couldn't feel much of anything on that front either.

The encouraging part was that the addiction rate had gone up. That much was real.

"This is a total cheat code."

I'd been a regular energy-drink drinker even before all this. Five cans a day on a normal day, ten if I was really going for it. Drink an energy drink, and the addiction rate went up. Addiction rate went up, and the stats followed. Therefore, by simple syllogism: drink energy drinks, get stronger.

Which meant...

"Time to farm this trait."

And so the age of easy farming had arrived. I grabbed my wallet and my phone and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠headed for the convenience store.

Beep!

"......"

"......"

I slid it across the counter.

"......"

"......"

A glance.

A flinch.

"......"

"......"

"...Just put that back and come another time."

"Oh, why...?!"

Sadly, the attempt to buy alcohol at the convenience store was a complete failure. I'd shown them my resident registration card and they still refused to believe I was an adult.

What, you thought they would? Look, convenience-store events are a TS-genre staple, and I was an awakener — I figured that would count for something. But I didn't have anything on me worth using a skill on besides my phone and my wallet, so talking the clerk around was a lost cause.

I don't even look that young, though...

No matter who looked, from whatever angle — I was a proper adult, wasn't I? W-well, the height and a few other factors stung a little, I'd give them that... Then again, the ID photo looked weirdly photoshopped thanks to the blonde hair. And my name had changed to Geum Ah-yeon — gold and zinc, like something off the label of a virility supplement. From a part-timer's point of view, of course it looked shady.

"......"

I waited for the heat of humiliation to drain out of my face, settled for the caffeine drinks, paid as fast as I could, and scurried out of the store.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Then I huffed and puffed my way home with both hands laden with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pay-as-you-throw trash bags packed to bursting with caffeine, and once I was inside I stood in front of the air conditioner, cooling a face baked red by the summer sun, and wheezed.

"Hahh... hah... Why the hell did this Tower have to implement global warming too..."

Maybe it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠because my body had gotten smaller, but the air felt like it was catching at the top of my throat. The moment I set the bags down, caffeine drinks cascaded across the floor in a clattering avalanche. Energy drinks of every kind, herbal tonics, canned coffee, cup coffee, bottled coffee, instant coffee powder, coffee mix, and even coffee milk, all of it tumbling over the floorboards.

I picked up an energy drink first, put on an awkward little smile, and muttered to myself.

"Even I think I look insane, but..."

Energy drinks, fine, whatever. A freak who systematically consumed caffeine by category like this, though — I had to be the first. If I'd livestreamed this whole thing, I'd have gone down as a legend in broadcasting history. I wouldn't even have needed a stream. Snap a photo of myself drinking all of this, dump it on Awakener Gallery, and a legendary post would only be a matter of time, but...

"...This is all for the skill."

I was doing this to grow the skill. This was absolutely not for the dopamine, and it was absolutely not for farming a legendary post. This was the foundation for getting stronger. Blood and flesh and all that. You know. Whatever.

Pssht!

Self-justification complete, I cracked the can and slammed the contents straight down my throat.

And then.

My already-rounded belly started ballooning tighter and tighter.

And then...

"Gulp, gulp..."

The moment I emptied the last energy drink, the addiction rate finally hit one hundred percent. Thankfully, the great catastrophe of turning my guts into blood-sausage soup did not repeat itself this time. My heart was racing a little, sure, but nothing close to serious.

Well, obviously. You think an Awakener-nim-nim-nim's squishy body looks like a juice pouch?

...That was a joke. It was thanks to the resistance trait. Without it, even an awakener would've been showing full-blown overdose symptoms by now.

Having a trait didn't increase bladder capacity, though, so I had to duck in and out of the bathroom dozens of times an hour. If you wanted to call that getting used to a woman's body in record time, then sure, I guess that's what it was.

...Even I had to admit this was unhinged. Trait-farming or not, what kind of lunatic mainlined this much caffeine this stupidly? Eating dirt for thirty days straight would've been more realistic. At least you wouldn't get kidney stones that way.

Ding!

I was in the middle of muttering that nonsense to myself when a chime cut through, and a translucent system window unfurled in front of my eyes and spat out a few lines of text.

"So I can't farm this anymore, huh..."

Looks like caffeine was tapped out as an addiction-rate farm. Did every drug have its own ceiling on how high it could push the rate? This was straight-up collection grinding.

"If I'd known, I would've bought a wider variety."

Not that I could go buy more even if I wanted to. That haul had just about cleaned out my entire fortune.

Still, half a day of caffeine-farming grunt work hadn't been for nothing.

"Hnnngh...!"

I squeezed a Let's Be can between my fingers. There was a little resistance, and then the can crumpled like a sheet of paper.

Tremble, tremble.

Granted, the muscles in my fingers shook like a newborn fawn through the whole thing... but it was still strength that had no business coming out of a squishy little girl's body. For the record, only the strength had gone up. The body itself was every bit as soft as before.

...What kind of anatomy even was this.

"This should be about one high school girl, right?"

They said two well-trained special forces operators had the same combat power as one high school girl, so. Roughly two adult men's worth of strength — yeah, that tracked.

And it wasn't just the strength that had gone up.

"Transmutation."

CRACK!

The instant I finished the chant, the aluminum can spiked upward into a thicket of thorns. It was clearly faster than when I'd made the dagger before. Just a feeling, but it seemed to eat less material too. The speed of the Transmutation, the efficiency, the power — none of it was in the same league as last time.

"Did my mana go up...?"

I wasn't sure. Nothing felt different, exactly...

"...I'll figure it out as I climb the Tower."

That wasn't what mattered right now anyway. I'd unexpectedly picked up a usable attack skill. My body hadn't gotten fir-...mer compared to before, but the strength had gone up all the same.

Which meant.

"Shall I go climb now...?"

Reasonable preparations: done. I grabbed a zip-up hoodie for going out, stepped through the front door, and muttered it with a grim, set expression.

It was time to climb in earnest.