The Ruined Village

After we ate, I sat in the doorway with a glass of cola, watching the sky and talking with Kim Sujeong.

Family is the one thing you're never supposed to understand, and yet Sujeong and I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had spent most of our lives closer to enemies than siblings. I almost never left my room except to eat or use the bathroom, and nearly every one of those trips turned into a fight. People like to say that having a little sister doesn't automatically mean you get along badly. With the two of us, that was simply how it was.

I don't even remember when we were little. By the time puberty hit I was already living inside Farming World, and almost nothing from before that had stuck.

And yet it had been two weeks at most since I received the Secret Farming Map and gained my abilities. Now the same Kim Sujeong who used to be desperate to tear my throat out was sitting beside me on an empty farm, no one else around, having a serious conversation.

"Oppa. Honestly? I was grateful. I was seriously pissed."

She brought up the middle-aged guy who'd been hitting on her in the dungeon, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠how I'd dealt with him.

"He picked a fight, so I stepped in. It wasn't because of you."

"Sure it wasn't."

According to her, that incident wasn't the only reason her attitude had changed.

"The glass stone, too. I think I just never really knew you. I mean, come on—you've done nothing but game since we were kids. Maybe you just never got the chance... I felt a little bad."

"...It's not even that."

My opinion of Sujeong, and the way I treated her, hadn't changed at all. I roughhoused and teased her because she was my little sister, and even here that much was the same. I'd handed her the glass stone for the same reason—she was family, I didn't need it, and she was the one who'd be out there getting beaten half to death. It wasn't some special gesture from the heart.

"The real reason I go into dungeons is because it's fun. Exploring a whole new world like that—I love it. The money's a bonus, so I worked hard to get good at it. I'm going to give this everything I've got, so hire me. Boss."

"So that's the point."

"You'd rather have someone you can trust running things, right? I learned a ton of cooking from Mom, you know."

"Hm."

Dinner had tasted unmistakably like something Mom would have made.

"You're the one who said you'd do it."

"Don't go easy on me just because we're family—work me to the bone! In return, you've got to help me hunt here later."

That was as serious as the talk got. We hadn't even properly started, and swearing we'd work hard didn't mean much until there was something to work at. Even so, Sujeong launched into this and that with real enthusiasm.

"Oh. Oppa. Streaming this place would be hilarious. You're not planning to stream?"

"I've thought about it."

The very first thing I'd imagined after awakening was becoming a streamer and soaking up people's attention. An SSS+ Rank hunter. Just opening the Farming Window would probably draw eyes—and if I showed them the rift dimension itself, how much attention could that pull? I'd even brought a body cam for filming with exactly that in mind.

"If you shoot it, I'll edit."

"Did you eat something weird?"

"Hey. I'm serious."

We agreed I'd film whenever the mood struck, and just like that, Sujeong's first day on the farm came to an end.

I was up early the next morning. I left the farming to Sujeong and headed straight for the village. The road was already cleared, so Leap Slash carried me there in no time at all.

The village entrance. Stone walls that were nothing but a pretense of walls stood in rough outline, and beyond them a hollow village spread out. One look was enough to know that no one lived here. There were plenty of buildings, and the roads had even been paved in stone, but not a single living thing remained. The place had clearly been abandoned for a very long time—a building that was obviously a blacksmith, a vegetable shop, a seed shop, and the rest. The same village stores you saw everywhere in Farming World.

"What?"

In Farming World, restoring the village hall had been a main quest that took about a year. Not because it was brutally difficult—you revived the hall by feeding it the required items—but several of those resources could only be gathered in specific seasons, so you were stuck waiting until winter no matter what. Here there were no NPCs at all, only a ruined village, and I'd been curious how it would play out. Unlike Farming World, it looked as if I could push it through a little faster without waiting a full year.

There were two methods. One was to spend Farm and bring the village back to life. The other was to purify the energy of chaos.

"Tougher than I thought."

If it were just a matter of dumping in whatever resources were needed, most of them would come from the Level 0 Biome, and time would solve it. Spending Farm was another story. Aside from what you earned by clearing quests, Farm wasn't easy to come by in my current state. Measured by sheer annoyance, though, it was still easier than waiting a year, gathering every resource, and growing crops that weren't even worth growing.

The Farm each shop required appeared as I drew close.

With only 1,200 Farm to my name, reviving the entire village was out of the question.

"Guess I'm going the chaos-purification route."

It wasn't completely impossible if I cleared the little sub-quests along the way. When I actually counted how long it had taken to gather 1,200 Farm, it came down to finishing a few tutorials and a single dungeon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quest from clearing the Big Rats dungeon. Clearing the Goblings' village paid three thousand Farm on its own, and the basic Farming World system tutorials—the ones I still hadn't even activated, because they were a pain—looked like more than enough Farm to revive this whole village if I just cleared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them.

But Farm was a precious resource. Bringing the village back wasn't the end of it. Once the NPCs moved in, Recovery Herb seeds alone would eat Farm, and plenty more besides. If I could help it, spending Farm to revive the place was a bad idea. When there's a way to pay with your own body, you take it.

And the energy of chaos was a choice that fit me perfectly.

"Easy."

Not every piece of information lined up with what I knew. The Corrupted Tree hadn't existed as content in Farming World, and the Corrupted Ogre guarding it was a monster I'd never even heard of. But the rewards told me enough.

"It'll be easy, right?"

No way an S-rank monster was going to crawl out of the Level 0 Biome. I accepted the quest. There was no reason not to. If one look at the Corrupted Ogre told me I couldn't handle it, I could always just throw Farm at the problem.

The main quest had to be done either way. That was how the next main quest appeared, and how I'd meet new quests in the next biome level. More than anything, the rewards were absurd.

"Wait. SSS+ Rank wasn't just some launch-day freebie?"

Honestly, I'd thought a single SSS+ Rank ability was already ridiculous. This was supposed to be a map with the difficulty to match. That was what I'd thought.

The rare rush of excitement wouldn't settle. When the reward outstrips the difficulty, people get drunk on dopamine and stop being afraid of the risk. The satisfaction of claiming a prize bigger than the challenge, after you've accepted the danger to take it, only grows.

"Twenty Farming stat points, ten thousand Farm, two A-rank accessory boxes, and three Achievement Points on top of that..."

The rewards were packed tight with nothing but the good stuff.

"I've even got myself a farming slave. Time to do this properly."

Motivation burned. The clutter in my head sorted itself into something clean.

My ultimate goal?

Who needs that.

Even playing Farming World for ten years, I hadn't charged forward under some grand plan to build a kingdom of my own. A lazy unemployed bum like me was never the type to live by long-term goals and crisp little plans. Just the profit in front of me. Chasing a big hit of dopamine and refusing to quit—if I had a virtue, that was it. The map I'd raised over those ten years had been chosen by some god-or-whatever, and this map had been handed to me because of it. Maybe pressing forward the same way this time wasn't wrong either.

I went straight back to the hut and pulled out the emergency kit.

"The Goblings show up?"

"Huh? No. What? Why are you packing that? Where are you going?"

"The house is getting bigger today, so grill some beef for dinner."

I drew my sword and asked Ruru.

"Where do those Gobling bastards live?"

"That's..."

"If you don't know, just point me in a direction."

"E...east?"

I took off running east at once.