The Power Comes On

I'd brought the Hairbloom Fruit back with me, but there was a small problem.

"Hmm. If I want to turn this into a baldness cure, I'm going to need the recipe."

The baldness cure was one of the alchemy recipes. Learn alchemy, work through the village alchemist's quests, and eventually the recipe went up for sale. Only then could you take Hairbloom Fruit to an alchemy workbench and brew the cure. That mattered, because eating the fruit raw did next to nothing.

Or did it?

This wasn't quite the Hairbloom Fruit I knew. The hair still grew, same as ever, but—maybe some effect of the Rift Dimension—I'd never seen the option that said turning into a hair-growing constitution permanently raised every stat except Magic by one rank.

"I could just sell it as is."

Of course, the description never defined how much hair, so a glance might leave you thinking it was fine. A little extra fur, and in return three whole ranks of stats you couldn't buy for any amount of money. In my case alone, one more rank on every stat from where I stood would put me at straight S+ across the board, with Reflexes climbing to SS- rank.

But if you measured "a lot" against a Black Monkey, nobody was going to decide lightly. Most people would picture, at worst, arms gone fluffy, or a carpet of chest hair that reached the belly. You had to assume you were giving up on looking human at all.

"How bad are we talking?"

"Ugh... if the price is living as a monkey, that's a little... or is it? Strength, Reflexes, and Endurance up a full rank—I can already see people taking that deal."

The world had lost its mind over hunters. Hunters themselves would try every scheme under the sun just to climb a single rank. There were already people swearing they'd become dogs if it meant raising their hunter rank, or their stats, so of course there'd be someone who figured looking a bit like a monkey was no great sacrifice.

"Would the bald ones rather be covered head to toe than live with no hair at all?"

I didn't know their lives well enough to judge. For now it couldn't be used as a baldness cure, so into storage it went. I'd decide later, once the village was restored and I either invested points in alchemy or spent a Life Skill selection right. I finished by setting a single Hairbloom Fruit aside for the next auction.

Peace returned to the farm. Kim Sujeong and Ruru had another shock when they saw the Black Monkeys come back hauling hides, but the moment they heard the monkeys would take their orders from now on, they lit up and started working them to death in the fields.

"Whoa. Jackpot. They work so well! Way better than the Gob-rings. Oh. You were listening. Sorry."

The Gob-rings could handle the small stuff—watering, tilling, growing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crops—while the Black Monkeys took cleanup and anything that needed muscle. Slaves were slaves. You used each where they fit.

Only then could I finally sort through my luggage. It was the third day since I'd logged in.

"Haa. Busy, busy."

I hadn't come in expecting leisure, but I also hadn't expected to burn two whole days without even unpacking. Still, I hadn't come back empty-handed, so I was satisfied. The territory was bigger, the Sunro Mushroom farm was set to expand, and now there was a Hairbloom Fruit orchard on top of it. The whole eastern stretch had turned into one solid cash cow of an orchard, prime mushrooms running straight into Hairbloom Fruit.

The Star Fruit in the Former Master's Orchard had sold for a pretty steep price this time too, though next to everything else it still wasn't much. I was thinking of letting that harvest age and turning it into wine.

More than any of that, hunting hundreds of Black Monkeys had pushed my level up hard. Before I knew it I was level 15, and my gathered Farming stat was closing in on 20.

Learn another skill with it?

I decided to hold off. The Farming points I'd spend taking down the ogre could be covered well enough with items bought using money I'd made on Earth. There might come a day when I opened the village and had to unlock the baldness-cure recipe, so I'd keep the points in reserve and spend them then. Clearing the main quest would also grant me another SSS+ Rank ability, and I'd need to learn skills to match it.

"Housework first."

One chore, and then another. I had to mount solar panels on the roof. I'd learned how, but the hassle dragged a sigh out of me—and the moment I switched on Build Mode, I discovered a new trick.

"Wait. What? This works?"

I'd only opened Build Mode to reshape the roof so the panels would sit easier, and there they were: the solar panels I'd hauled in from Earth, listed as installable items. So what, you might ask. It meant I didn't have to carry each one up and run the wiring by hand.

"It actually works."

I selected the panels and patched them onto the roof, and they snapped into neat rows and columns, locking into place. Once I'd packed them edge to edge, the roof glittered as if it had been coated in solar panel, and my cottage displayed its stored power.

"Huh..."

I hadn't even unlocked the electricity system, and gear from Earth still worked. That infamous Freedom applied just as cleanly in the Rift Dimension as it had in the game. Absurd—and I liked it.

While the sun was up, the charge climbed fast. The salesman had said that so long as there was daylight, an ordinary household could run every appliance and still have power to spare, but the amount that filled in a day was quite a bit more than I'd been told. Maybe this place was so rich in resources that even sunlight piled up thicker than it did on Earth. In summer ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I could probably blast the air conditioner without a second thought. At this rate, even a solid two weeks of nothing but rain might be fine.

Feeling easier, I installed the refrigerator I'd brought, then a kimchi fridge and a freezer, and the kitchen finally started to look like a place where people lived. The appliances had worried me at first. Anything with real bulk, and I'd nearly talked myself into buying small—but when I went shopping and tried the belt myself, the upgraded E-rank Medium capacity fit a refrigerator exactly, so I could bring them. A fridge, a kimchi fridge, and an ice-cream freezer each taking a slot stung a little, but for this much convenience the space was worth it. Set out a portable TV, an air fryer, and a microwave on top of that, and the cottage finally felt like a house.

"It's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like staying at a vacation villa. Hehehe. My dream for my old age was exactly this—build a villa out in some quiet countryside and live easy. This is too good. Oppa, next time bring an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠air conditioner."

"Yeah, I should. Summer's coming soon."

Twenty days had passed since the Rift Dimension began. Obviously it wasn't going to split 365 days into a year and carve the four seasons into neat quarters. If it followed Farming World's math, the seasons probably turned on a thirty-day cycle—and if so, once I killed the ogre, logged out, and came back, there was a good chance it would already be summer. That was only because this was the Level 0 Biome, a temperate biome with four distinct seasons.

And because those seasons existed, this wasn't Earth, where the year just slurred along—suuuummer, faaaall, wiiiinter—with no clean break between them. Each season here had a character you couldn't miss, and summer was no exception.

It was hot as hell.

Beating that heat burned through resources so fast that, among Farming World players, summer and winter had people saying this wasn't a farming game at all. It was a survival apocalypse. I needed to prepare properly. Even so, with power already flowing and a refrigerator and freezer in place, an air conditioner alone would be enough to keep the inside of the house cool.

"Aaaah, it's so cooool!"

Ruru gasped at the wind pouring out of the refrigerator. To think a thing like this existed. Putting her in the freezer once, just to see, was funny too—she came shivering back out, her whole body trembling.

I stored the Black Monkey meat in the freezer and finished putting away every bit of food I'd brought from Earth. Cold soda was finally on the menu.

"Kraaah."

After lunch I cracked a canned cola and killed it in one go, and the cold and the fizz rushed all the way to the top of my head.

"That's that."

The house was in order. All that remained was hunting the Corrupted Ogre.

"When are you going?"

"When a +1 stat pops."

I could leave this second if I wanted to. But it was an S- rank monster, and I meant to go in fully prepared. A boss, on top of that—stronger than the other S- rank monsters. I was waiting for an eight-hour buff to land as a full +1 rank to a stat, the day I could push my abilities as high as they would go. I wouldn't be waiting forever. Farm the Corrupted Forest for a few days, and if it still refused to show, even something like +10% attack power would do.

And so, the next day.

"I'll be back."

The day of the decisive fight had come.