SSS+ Rank Hunter

A Hunter is granted a single ability upon awakening. You can buy further abilities, or skills, with Hunter Points, but the points required swell as the rank climbs, which makes the random ability you receive at that first awakening an enormously important factor in sorting one Hunter's rank from another's.

Land a high-rank ability against long odds, and that Hunter's potential for growth leaps. After I selected the SSS+ Rank ability Melee Weapons, my Strength, Endurance, and Agility all rose to S-rank — and in most cases, stats are simply corrected upward to match the rank of the ability. Same principle.

No need for a grand explanation. Hunters, too, are the rich getting richer and the poor staying poor. The spoon clamped in your mouth at birth decides your future.

In what lifetime is a Hunter handed an F-rank ability supposed to scrape together Hunter Points, raise a level, stack stats, and purchase an A-rank or S-rank ability? Unless you were absurdly rich and could tow A-rank and S-rank Hunters around to carry you while you farmed points, it was next to impossible.

Hunters granted an A-rank, S-rank, or SS-rank ability, by contrast, ride high stats from the opening bell, climb without a stumble, and grow by snapping up good skills and abilities at speed.

So not every Hunter is the same kind of Hunter. People like to say that awakening as one is winning the lottery — but even inside that lottery, there's a gulf between fifth and fourth place and first and second.

"I... spent ten years doing nothing but playing games, and became an SSS+ Rank Hunter?"

What even was this. The title of a light novel? I couldn't believe it.

Playing Farming World, looking at a hunting system no different from a Hunter's, I'd thought more than once that it would be nice if things worked this way. I'd never taken the delusion far enough to believe they actually would. There was already far too much to do in Farming World for that, and if something like it were real, everyone would have slammed their entire life into a game.

And yet it really happened. It was a moment where screaming and cheering wouldn't have been out of place, and still, strangely, I wasn't all that worked up. It felt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more like... simply accepting it as the way things were?

"So effort does bear fruit."

Honestly, I think part of it was the fear that I might wake up from this at any moment. Get too happy, and if this happiness ever ended, I might genuinely not want to go on living.

"Ah!"

And there was still something I had to settle. Becoming an SSS+ Rank Hunter was its own matter. That was that.

"My Farming World."

What had become of the map they took back from me? I hurried into the capsule, lay down, and booted Farming World.

"Hm?"

The map was still there. I connected at once, and with none of that unable to log in garbage, I got in just fine. Even my character ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was intact — my Farming Window, maxed at level 999, every stat at SS+, abilities packed to the brim. The mansion was untouched. So was the farm. A comfort came over me like getting my house back, and a sigh of relief slipped out.

"What the hell."

But I had definitely seen those system messages... Had I misread them? Back then, when the map was reclaimed, what I received was the Secret Farming Map, wasn't it?

I logged out again and checked for the Secret Farming Map from inside the capsule. No map of that sort existed among the save files.

"Don't tell me..."

Enter the game, and I became the game character. Leave the game, and up came the Secret Farming Map character's Farming Window. The Secret Farming Map didn't exist inside the game, and yet out here in reality the login system was still active.

What would happen if I logged in from here? Could I connect without even lying down in the capsule?

Reality and the game — no. The Secret Farming Map's character had synchronized with me. What if I died in reality?

In Farming World, when a character dies, a set percentage of the farm is reclaimed and you revive at the hospital the next day. Strictly speaking, the lore is that a village NPC finds and rescues a character who has taken a fatal wound. Early on, the price is a hefty fixed sum of resources; once you're holding past a certain amount, you pay a percentage instead. And in reality?

Obviously, something like revival was never going to be a thing.

What I actually wanted to know was this. If the Secret Farming Map was a map never registered in Farming World — if it wasn't a game — then even if I died inside the Secret Farming Map, would a revival system still apply, the way it did in Farming World?

"..."

There were a few ways to settle it. One was to ask the community. The Secret Farming Map was obviously a map only I had received, so if I asked, replies like these would probably pile up.

Even I would've slapped up comments like that and laughed it off.

The other way was to test it myself. You don't know until you try. The problem was that the odds sat at fifty-fifty. It might be true, and it might not.

Even so, I'd already confirmed that the Secret Farming Map followed Farming World's systems — similar from the tutorial straight through to the various commands. That was why I'd gone along so sure it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was a game. Then wouldn't the fatal wound system, or the death system, follow Farming World as well? The chances were good. If it didn't, though, I simply never opened my eyes again.

"Could I actually do it..."

Honestly, I was confident. As a Farming World veteran stepping into his tenth year, a proper old-timer, dying would be humiliating. I didn't even have a memory of dying in the last year or two. This was the early game, and that clean record came from playing on a map that had already stabilized — even accounting for all of that, with an SSS+ Rank ability beside me, the odds of dying still dropped off a cliff so long as I didn't get careless.

The safest move, really, was to do nothing at all. A single SSS+ Rank ability was more than enough to eat well and live well. Strength, Endurance, and Agility at S-rank meant I could make money in the real world doing work that wasn't dangerous, without ever setting foot in a dungeon. Set that against the life a twenty-six-year-old jobless bum had lived until now, and I could earn plenty to keep my own one body fed in something like comfort, and live safe and unhurried in Suhyun's Farming World 1, which was still right here.

But would that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be any fun?

"It'd be fun, I guess."

Part of why I'd clung to Suhyun's Farming World 1 for a whole ten years was the comfort and the healing Farming World offered. More than that, though, I'd been hooked on the hunting system — the feeling of living like a Hunter. I still couldn't forget the thrill of fighting SS-rank monsters, or the dopamine of the kill.

So when I received the SSS+ Secret Farming Map, part of me had been thrilled. The whining, the full-blown tantrum, had been nothing but rage at having my ten years taken without my say. Now that I'd confirmed those ten years were still right where I'd left them — a new challenge on an SSS+ map? And the more I played the Secret Farming Map, the stronger I became as a Hunter in reality. How was I supposed to hold that back.

I had to get my head straight.

I opened the door of my dark room and stepped out. Beyond it lay a wide living room under warm lights, an atmosphere nothing like my own — one monster sprawled across the big sofa, and from the kitchen, the smell of a sharp, spicy stew.

"Mom!!!"

"What's the occasion? Look who's actually awake at this hour."

Ignoring the crap spilling out of the monster on the sofa, I called to Mom with my chest out.

"I awakened. Starting tomorrow, your son's the head of this house, and he's going into dungeons. Just so you know."

"Awakened? Son. You awakened — so why are you going into a dungeon? It's dangerous."

"I became a Hunter. Mom. I'm an SSS+ Rank Hunter now."

"Bullshit. Don't give me that bullshit."

Mom stopped halfway through slicing the squash, shot me a glance, clicked her tongue, and went back to the stew with a face that said there he goes again.

What Mom was really thinking, the damn sister sprawled on the sofa said for her. Yeah. I got it. A big resolution like this, from a son who'd been loafing around the house and eating for free, wasn't a one-day thing or a two-day thing.

Even so, what mattered was that this time it was real.

"Hey. That dogshit guild of yours got an open seat? There's something I need to check, so I've gotta hit a dungeon and do some hunting. You were D-rank, right? Right around there ought to do."

"Excuse me? I'm C-rank, thanks. And cut the crap. You walk into a C-rank dungeon, you die."

"Who's dying. I'm SSS+ Rank."

"Why are you running your mouth with this garbage. Get in there and go to sleep."

"Damn it."

I left my little sister kicking her feet at me and went back into my room. Getting into a dungeon wasn't something I strictly needed anyone else's help to do. I'd meant to latch on somewhere and tag along, since doing it myself was a pain, but if that fell through I'd just walk in.

And it only now occurred to me — the shabby, tattered default outfit I was wearing. The farming belt at my waist was still buckled on, too. Which meant...

"Whoa..."

The belt's inventory unfolded, and when I drew out a wooden sword, it settled into my hand just like that.

"It works? This does?"

Strictly speaking, this was a game item. Was the Secret Farming Map a game? That one remained a question mark — but if what had synchronized with the character wasn't only the game, if it reached the Secret Farming Map as well...

"Resources from an SSS+ Rank map... I can bring them out here?"

A gold mine had fallen right into my hands.