Romantic Mapping
Mapping is the act of revealing the map.
This concept isn't exclusive to the Farming World. In fact, it's present in nearly every open-world game. The core appeal of these games lies in exploring uncharted territories, which sparks that delicious sense of anticipation about what might lie ahead on the path you're taking. As a result, mapping has inevitably become a crucial element of gameplay.
In the end, over 80% of players who tackle open-world games focus solely on rushing through the shortest route, determined to advance as quickly as possible. It's not strange at all. No one wants to slowly while away their time eating sweet potatoes and playing games. They all crave fast and easy growth.
Calling this impatient user behavior a flaw would be unfair. Many players maintain this aggressive playstyle, so game developers have had to find ways to extend playtime. They introduced random spawns for major points of interest across each map, ensuring that no two players share the exact same key locations.
Still, some players tore into the map files themselves to uncover major points of interest and played accordingly.
In the Farming World, those few eccentric users who engaged in such thorough mapping were called "romantic mappers."
Even at the final stage, where fully revealing the map is acknowledged as a content in itself, it still feels like a stretch. From the very beginning, these players map everything out, gnawing on the map like a dog with a bone, savoring every bite until they've drained it dry and moved on to the next biome. Even someone like me, who has played the Farming World for ten years, would be tempted to click my tongue at such antics.
Of course, this isn't entirely meaningless. At the absolute endgame, while growth speed might be slightly slower, the foundation and solidity of your base will ultimately differ. If you find joy in that, you can achieve quite satisfying results.
Moreover, the Farming World even created achievement quests tailored for these users, amplifying the sense of growth for those who invest time.
And that was exactly the explorer growth quest I was looking at.
It wasn't particularly difficult. Simply reveal over 80% of the dark map in the 0-level biome to clear it automatically. Then the Explorer Quest 2 would be issued. Next, 80% in the 1-level biome... and so on, stepping up through the tiers until you become an Exploration Expert and wrap up the achievements.
These straightforward quests offered rewards that were truly outrageous. At least in the 0-level biome, they handed out rewards on a level that was nearly impossible to obtain otherwise.
Given that reviving here costs 1,000 biomes, completing this achievement sub-quest would grant a free revival ticket once, meaning I could die up to four times and still come back to life.
It wouldn't be particularly efficient to deliberately seek out death and tackle this quest in the 0-level biome, altering my original plans.
As expected, these achievement sub-quests couldn't match the efficiency of rushing through to higher-level biomes to map lower ones quickly. But they at least prevented the balance from completely breaking.
Achievement Points.
This was the content that could turn the excellent rewards of the final content into something even better.
Farming also benefited greatly. Farming stats received a massive boost. Farming stats were generously awarded during the early tutorial quests alongside level-ups, so new players might think it was just free handouts. But once past the initial phase, acquiring farming points became difficult. Players who hit a growth plateau would then descend to lower-level biomes to push through achievement quests and sub-quests.
On top of that, there was a reward for expanding your base for free.
This felt even better than the achievement quest rewards from existing maps.
1 pyeong in the Farming World equals 1M3. Roughly 1 pyeong, but unlike the 3.3M2 of a real-world pyeong, it includes height, so the unit is different.
In other words, it meant an achievement quest that granted a free base expansion of about 10 pyeong.
This was surprisingly substantial.
My current shack was already around 10 pyeong. Expanding the base to double its size was equivalent to saying my safe activity radius would expand and I'd have plenty of room to set up storage or workbenches.
Considering that items inside the base storage only interacted within the base itself, a larger base was always better.
Of course, expanding the base's pyeong would require investing farming points or actually farming. Plus, the random base boxes were quite generous.
If luck was on your side, you could obtain rare materials needed for anvils or forges.
"Hmm..."
I fell into deep thought over this rather attractive achievement quest.
Actually, the very act of thinking about it meant my mind was leaning toward breaking this quest that forced me to abandon the plan I'd set.
Romantic mapping.
I never imagined I'd end up doing something like this.
It wasn't bad at all.
Most importantly, since this map was an SSS+ rank, the rarity and quantity of resources were also SSS+ level, making it possible.
"After all, even the things that drop in the 0-level biome can be sold for money."
It's not like you have to rush to B-rank or A-rank resources in reality to gather rare minerals and plants and sell them for big money.
This world now revolved around dungeon resources.
Rare minerals and resources had value precisely because they were rare.
Among resources that could generally be obtained, those that benefited human life could be sold for a decent price.
For example, the 'Recovery Herb' I had planted in my front yard.
The Recovery Herb was an E-rank crop. When gathering E-rank or higher basic resources like trees and weeds, there was a 1% chance of dropping seeds.
The Recovery Herb, once planted, would take five days to grow and bear fruit. Those fruits served as an important ingredient for what people commonly called 'potions.'
Because it wasn't just about finding the herb's efficacy but because simply processing the Recovery Herb itself could create a potion that greatly restored health, many hunters in reality consumed Recovery Herbs or potions to obtain them.
Beyond that, the leaves left after picking the berries could be crushed into ointment and used to heal wounds cleanly.
Unlike ordinary ointments, depending on the herb's grade, one leaf could treat scratches so that even fairly deep cuts would heal within ten minutes, leaving no trace.
In short, the Recovery Herb was traded at a high price.
Hunters who often got injured and cut deeply bought Recovery Herbs, but even hospitals treating wounds were desperate because they couldn't buy large quantities of Recovery Herb.
Surgery, for instance, was accepted as inevitable since cutting and stitching skin left scars. But using this dungeon resource, the Recovery Herb leaf, which science couldn't explain, allowed even a superficial cut to be healed without a trace. Even an E-rank Recovery Herb was enough to restore it.
That was why I had only planted a few, maybe three, Recovery Herb seeds at first.
Besides the Recovery Herb seeds, a few other seeds had dropped as well. At least they helped when I sold them through farming, and in the Farming World, I needed recovery potions when fighting monsters.
If the tutorial ended and I returned...
I planned to grow a few for a few days, harvest them quickly, and make potions.
But now that I knew I could bring out the crops grown in the rift dimension, the situation had changed.
"Recovery Herb leaves and berries, one E-rank for 100,000 won."
Even though they were only on day one of growth, the seeds in the field that hadn't even poked out yet looked like money.
I could either grow them myself to prepare for any unexpected injuries or sell everything and turn it into 300,000 won.
I didn't need to think about it.
The reason I turned my path toward romantic mapping was here.
From my perspective, even just clearing the 0-level biome would allow me to earn a lifetime's worth of money.
I had no intention of resting or stopping.
But it didn't seem bad to create a solid foundation while doing romantic mapping.
The logout cooldown was seven days, and the Recovery Herb growth period was five days.
"While organizing the yard, I'll plant the Recovery Herb seeds as they appear, grow them, harvest and take them out to sell... and while I'm at it, plant the other seeds that drop just in case and grow them."
Imagining a happy future, I pulled out a few pieces of firewood and lit a fire in the darkening yard.
This was something I had to do the hard way in the Farming World, but here I simply snapped my fingers with the power of modern civilization.
"Wow. Is this something you brought from your dimension, Master? Is it a magic artifact?"
"Well, something like that."
I cut half a large piece of Big Rat meat, grilled it in a frying pan, and poured water into a pot to heat up the rice.
Sizzle, sizzle—
The evening meal that would accompany the rustling of weeds in the wind and the sounds of insects from all around felt perfectly romantic.
"Romantic mapping and romantic camping..."
It didn't suit a T like me.
But I liked it.
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