Family Business

In Farming World, alchemy is not optional. It is a skill you are simply expected to learn.

Recovery Herbs are only the start. You brew every kind of potion and sell it, process fruits and medicinal herbs and sell those too ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— anything that lifts the value of crops that would otherwise leave your hands as raw primary goods. Put in the same time and the same coin, and the return dwarfs what you get from farming that costs nothing but seeds and patience.

Which is exactly why I had offered Lee Jihyun a partnership.

Turn my Recovery Herbs into potions, and the profit would be larger. Obviously. The reason I still sold the herbs untouched was simple enough. I had not learned Alchemy, and even if I did, anything short of a high-rank skill would be a waste. The tools, the skill itself — all of it paid in Farming Points I would rather not burn.

If a day came when I truly needed it, I would learn. For now I had no points to spare on squeezing out a little extra cash. If I was going to invest anything, I would invest it in the farm.

And then someone offered to brew the potions in my place. Not just anyone — a woman carrying a high-rank Alchemy skill, who had crawled to my doorstep on her own two feet. How was I supposed to let that slip?

A sucker. Plain as day.

I dangled the bait, and she bit. A contract only has to satisfy both sides, doesn't it? From where a penniless alchemist stood, free experience and a ten percent cut of the profit might not look like a bad deal at all. Call her an A-rank alchemist and people would be lined up to recruit her, and yet here she was, combing a market floor for Recovery Herbs. Maybe she was looking farther ahead than the rest. I tested that theory. The answer came back positive, and on the spot I built a plan that sounded respectable enough.

Dad ran a company. I knew, vaguely, that he sold things to hunters, but I had been too busy gaming to care about the details. It sounded about right.

There were two possible reactions. The normal one was a curse, and a question about whether the heat had cooked my brain. Dad started to say something, went quiet for a moment, and then spoke.

Was he actually believing me? Or were alchemists simply worth that much? A company president, it seemed, did not brush off even his son's nonsense out of hand.

"Let's go."

"...What?"

I took the dazed Lee Jihyun and headed home.

It was an awkward scene. Lee Jihyun sat at the dining table with every kind of sweet and refreshment spread out in front of her, while Mom and Dad took the seats across from her and, bringing the tea, asked their questions with naked curiosity all over their faces.

"How did you meet our Suhyun?"

"An A-rank alchemist, they say... Is that true?"

"Ah... yes. We, um, met at the market today..."

Even Kim Sujeong, who had been on the sofa, came over and cut in as if she could not stand another second of it.

"Don't."

"What?"

"Dating or business, don't do either with him. He's a complete deadbeat. His destiny is to live by sucking his sister's spine dry, right down to the marrow."

"Get lost. You. The adults are talking, and you've got no manners."

We did not need a comedy sketch. This already was one, though I could not pretend I failed to understand our parents. Their son had gone out and come back with a woman. Then he had asked Dad to invest — something he had never once done in his life. Asked, if you could call it that. It was half a demand.

"So, Dad. I secured the supply, and she's going to turn it into potions and sell them. To you. Exclusive, no exceptions. You sell them at a premium, then tack your own margin on top."

"..."

"For the signing deposit, please pay a hundred million won."

It looked as if I were winging the whole thing, but the conversation had every piece it needed. Lee Jihyun showed Dad her Farming Window, and he confirmed it himself — an A-rank alchemist, skills and all. The look on his face said he was hooked. At first he must have thought I had brought her home for a formal introduction, the way you do with a girlfriend.

"Do you really mean to sign this contract?"

The rumpled, easygoing dad of the house put on a company president's presence and asked her. Jihyun seemed to have settled her own mind. She steadied her trembling voice and said what she thought.

"Yes. I came because I think it's a good opportunity for me too. If we can settle on a fair price, three years should be all right."

In a way, it was a gamble. She had reason to worry. I supplied the raw goods, Dad handled the final sale, and she was caught in the middle — a fine place to be cheated. Dad heard her resolve and nodded.

"Then we'll put the details into a contract..."

Talking business like this with a son who had spent his whole life holed up in his room must have felt unnatural. With an odd look on his face, he offered me a few pieces of advice.

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"You're sure you can keep sourcing Recovery Herbs? This contract only holds if you can keep bringing them in."

"I'm a herb gatherer. Me. I can smell medicinal herbs like a ghost."

"..."

"Trust me and invest the hundred million, Dad."

"Haa..."

It was less advice than anxiety. But no father alive beats his own son.

"I'll give it to you. Think of it as your wedding fund."

"Why would you give that to Miss Lee Jihyun? Give the wedding fund to me. This is the cost of contracting an A-rank alchemist. Even if I can't source the Recovery Herbs, you still come out ahead."

"What have you been eating lately? It's like you've turned into a different person."

"I'm becoming a proper human being and trying to be filial. I'm a hunter now."

In the end Dad called the company, had them draw up a contract, and said they would sign in a few days. Jihyun had to sit through that uncomfortable table all the way to the end of dinner, weathering Mom's storm of questions about whether she was really his girlfriend, before she was finally allowed to go home. She looked drained, as if she had no idea what had just happened to her, but she still seemed to be in a good mood.

"Thank you. Really."

"Thank me when the money comes in."

The signing deposit was simply money paid for agreeing to the contract. There was a condition, of course — three years of selling potions exclusively to Dad's company — but she had earned a hundred million won just by sitting there, and I could unload my Recovery Herbs at whatever price I wanted. From then on, I would take ninety percent of the revenue from potions brewed with those herbs. At the very least, I no longer had to worry about growing Recovery Herbs and then struggling to sell them.

"Next time, I'll buy you a meal."

"Sure."

Jihyun hesitated for a long while, worked up the courage for that single line, bowed, and left.

"Whew."

Ten years in Farming World, where a deal was nothing more than handing an item to an NPC and collecting the payout, and a real transaction had worn me out. Even that would not have been easy without Dad. But that is what family is for. You help each other when it counts. As far as I could see, nobody lost in this three-person deal — and all of it rested on the Recovery Herbs I had farmed in the Rift Dimension.

When I went back inside, Dad called me over again.

"Suhyun, are you really a herb gatherer? You can actually find Recovery Herbs?"

I had never seen that light in his eyes at home. I asked him a question of my own.

"Does your company do auctions too?"

Explaining my ability was never going to make anyone believe it. And it was a hassle.

"We do auctions. You don't even know what your dad does?"

"I only know you hoard stuff off hunters. You should have told me..."

"You spend all day in your room gaming, you punk. Your dad does not hoard off hunters. I run a company that distributes and trades hunter goods. Good grief."

"Then please sell these too."

"You think your dad has the spare time for junk like this—hk!"

I had not known whether he could move these as well. Hearing that the company ran auctions meant one less thing to worry about. Convenient.

"Where did you get this..."

"What is it, Dad? Wait. Did you steal it?"

"Who steals something like this. I picked it up in a dungeon."

"..."

Dad's energy was higher than anyone in this house was used to seeing. Kim Sujeong, who had been on the sofa with nothing but her ears pricked, came over, looked at the gloves and the Snaggletooth Dagger I had pulled out, and stared at me as if the whole thing were absurd.

By common sense, it would not add up. No matter how good your ability, a low level means no skills, and walking into a dungeon is nonsense. And yet overnight I had shown up with hundreds of Recovery Herbs, signed a contract with an A-rank alchemist, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and now produced two B- rank items. Faced with one unbelievable thing after another, Dad simply gave up on understanding.

"You do know the auction brokerage fee is twenty percent, right?"

"Nope. Just sell them. For a lot. A bunch of good items going to auction is good for you anyway, isn't it?"

"It is... it is."

Plenty of companies ran auctions. The more of them there were, the more people gathered around the ones they trusted. A hunter wants to sell safely, and wants a crowd of bidders besides — that is how the price climbs, and how you sell high. Trust, then, is not only a matter of safety. You have to be able to put a lot of good merchandise on the block.

This time Dad got on the phone, scooped up the items, and walked out of the house.

"This son of mine. Twenty-six years, and he finally turns filial."

How profoundly moving.

I was busy feeling proud of myself when Kim Sujeong, beside me, clicked her tongue.

"Just don't cause a disaster."