Chapter 107. The Ability to Cultivate Crops.
Chapter 107. The Ability to Cultivate Crops.
Paura flew around collecting the souls of that trash, and it didn't take long at all. Each time that shadowy form passed through a body, the body crumpled like a kite with its string cut.
When the first one collapsed, they didn't understand what was happening. When a second fell, then a third, terror set in, and once more of them fell, they fled. When even the fleeing ones dropped, they sank to their knees with despair on their faces and started begging.
I'd only dealt with the criminals. The rest of them were still there. While I was pondering what to do about them, a voice calling me came from the watchtower. They were asking me to take them with me, so everyone came down to the exercise yard.
When my parents came down, people began approaching cautiously. Once he'd confirmed that a fair number had gathered, my father announced his intention to leave soon. At that, voices rose from the crowd telling him not to go.
"Then what are we supposed to do now?"
"Why are you asking me that...?"
The moment someone spoke up, the mood stirred and public opinion started boiling over. Watching them point fingers and spout such absurd, unreasonable nonsense—I couldn't hold back any longer. Just as I was about to step forward and say something, my father stopped me.
"When my wife was taken hostage and beaten by that scum, not one of you ever worried about her. Is there any reason at all for me to stay here?!"
"That was...!"
Just then, a man stepped forward from the crowd, putting on a show of familiarity. Since he was acting familiar, I assumed he was a reasonably close acquaintance. But the look on my father's face as he stared at him was far from ordinary.
"Where have you been hiding, only crawling out now?"
"Calm down, just hear me out..."
"A man who rode on the tiger's back to do his exploiting, and now that the tiger's gone, is he finding things a bit tight, I wonder?"
"..."
"Anyway, I'm done talking. I'm leaving."
Those who had been pushing the entire burden onto one man and working from inside a safe fence now expressed their despair at the fact that, going forward, they would have to go outside for food.
"Th-then take us with you too...! We'll do anything...!"
"Heh. When the call came to resist and fight together, not one of you stepped forward—and then you turned around and reported every word of it faithfully. How am I supposed to trust people like you?"
"We had no choice...! If we hadn't, those bastards would've..."
Ah, I really can't take this anymore.
"Hey, you pieces of shit. Right now I'm holding back the urge to smash these walls down. Don't make a pain in the ass of yourselves and get lost, you worthless leftovers."
They'd all watched me tear through the buildings, breaking every obstacle in my path. They knew better than anyone that when I said I'd break the walls, it was no bluff.
Without anyone noticing, I'd scattered a negative aura throughout the prison. The solidly built walls would keep the zombies out.
Unless a giant zombie showed up—the kind that picks up cars.
* * * * * * * *
"It must be hard on you. I'm sorry."
"This much is nothing. Please don't worry."
With Father—whose leg was giving him trouble—on my back, the four of us were walking. After walking for a while, a decent-looking apartment came into view, so I pretty much tore the door open and we went inside.
"This is porridge and..."
I pulled out one thing after another from subspace—food the President had packed for me earlier—and we ate.
"Huh, it's like an inventory from a game..."
"You play games?"
"No, but my line of work being what it was, I saw a bit of it on the job."
We finished the meal while talking, and my father asked me about our plans going forward.
"Anyway, getting from here to Gimpo won't be easy, will it?"
That wasn't a problem worth worrying about at all. It'd be resolved quickly just by calling a helicopter. The reason I'd called it here instead of using the perfectly fine prison exercise yard was to avoid any clingy leftovers sticking to us—that was why we'd come this far. I asked everyone's understanding for a moment and stepped out onto the balcony to make contact.
"Is now all right for a quick call?"
"Yes..."
Worried that the earlier business might have gone wrong, even the voice on the other end of the line was full of tension.
"Please send a helicopter this way. And a few sets of clean clothes as well."
I requested clothes for my parents to wear and a wheelchair for my father—who could manage walking with a limp but had trouble moving around. I asked him beforehand just in case he might feel resistant to the idea of a wheelchair.
"That really is a relief... I'll relay the order to depart immediately, then."
Once the call ended, I went back into the living room. We talked about all sorts of things while waiting for the helicopter, but the thing my parents were most curious about was 'how I ended up meeting Jia.'
"I was holding out in a cafe and went out looking for food... and at that time, she helped me."
"Oh my..."
While meeting her, at the place the soldiers were first guarding, I also met Chaeyeon and those cult bastards, too—for better or worse, all kinds of connections have brushed past me.
"In that case, we'd have been lonely, so we've gained some fine company to talk with..."
"Company to talk with?"
"Well, Chaeyeon's parents will be there as well, so... is this kind of thing called an in-law relationship, I wonder...?"
My mother said that while looking at me. I had no idea either... I'd been too busy surviving to ever think about marriage, and even after I'd established myself, I'd been driven by a single-minded obsession with returning home.
"Anyway, about this ability you got, Father, that helps with farming..."
I was about to ask him about his ability, but the sound of helicopter propellers quickly came from outside. My father smiled faintly and said he'd tell me about it once everyone was gathered together.
"When you see it, you'll be pleased. There are only good people there."
The helicopter was too heavy for landing, so I lifted our group members one by one in my arms and brought them into the helicopter. Once everyone was inside and the helicopter door closed, Mr. Chu, who was sitting in the cockpit, spoke up.
"It's good to meet you. My name is Chu Seong-geun. We're going to be family from now on, so please take good care of me."
My father and mother returned the greeting and took their seats. It wasn't a long trip from here to Gimpo, so we arrived in no time. When the door opened and we disembarked, the officers were there to welcome us. Meanwhile, my parents spotted an unexpected face and were startled.
"Uh, that person... the President...?"
"Haha, that's an old story. Right now I'm just a survivor, same as all of you."
He offered a handshake and, with a joke, pointed at me as he spoke.
"If you want to get technical, the President is someone else, and I suppose I'm the Prime Minister. Anyway, I'll give you a proper tour at a leisurely pace later. First, this way..."
Pulling the wheelchair my father was sitting in himself, he led us all into the assembly hall together. Since I hadn't told them the details separately, I explained everything that had happened there, and during the explanation, they showed keen interest in the fact that I had encountered the sniper.
"Teleportation... that's a power that completely defies the laws of physics."
"The nature of it may be a little different, but that is what magic is originally like."
"Anyway, I heard your ability is plant cultivation. What kind of ability is it, specifically?"
"Hmm... I don't make farming my trade, so even as the user I don't know the fine details, but for now..."
What my father explained was genuinely fascinating. First, regardless of terrain, he could turn any land into soil that would grow crops, and the growth speed would be faster than ordinary crops. To use a game analogy, it was like applying a growth buff. And the most crucial point was that it made the cultivation of any crop possible.
"Well... the terrain doesn't matter, any crop is no problem, and the growth speed is fast too... that's remarkable."
"It's not all unconditional advantages like that."
The downside was that the technique for accelerating growth consumed quite a lot of mana, and transforming the land required squeezing out every last bit of mana, and the range per use wasn't all that wide. When he mentioned that it was hard on the user, I expressed a little concern, but my father spoke as if it were nothing.
"Haha, don't worry. If you use it while adjusting things appropriately, there's no problem at all."
Treating my father's health as the highest priority, we started listing the possible things we could do and drawing up a plan. The village hadn't been abundant in food, but it hadn't been lacking either. Going forward, a bit of relaxed, more diverse cultivation would become possible.
"Anyway, the point that any crop is possible is a mystery."
"Yes, since you can even grow tropical fruits, or things that can only be cultivated in specific geographical areas."
We drafted a rough plan and went outside with the girls, their parents, and myself, partly to give them a tour of the village. Unexpectedly, my father-in-law and my father were hitting it off wonderfully, talking about their old workplaces, while my mother-in-law and my mother chatted away about stories involving us.
I showed them the research zone, the fish farm, the livestock-raising area, the farming area, the residential zone, and so on, and my father expressed amazement that a simple group of survivors could operate so systematically.
"Really... we were desperate just to survive. To end up living in a place like this—I'm grateful..."
"You got a rough idea when you looked over our group earlier, I imagine, but the village defenses are also well-established."
Setting aside the helicopters, they were even more surprised to see the high-firepower weapons like the ships, tanks, and missiles.
"Anyway, how did you end up becoming the representative?"
I was pondering how to answer the question of how I'd ended up becoming the representative. While I was still mulling it over, Jia spoke up from beside me, rendering my deliberation pointless.
"Heh, it's because he's cool and strong, so people follow him."
"No... people just gathered one by one and a group formed, and as it happened, I, being fairly strong, ended up as the representative."
"Anyway, so are the two of you living together now? Or..."
"Chaeyeon, Jia, and myself—a total of three people—are living together."
"Huh... that's impressive. So, what do you plan to do with your lives going forward?"
"Well... as I spend time with people and time passes, society will be rebuilt, I suppose. Though it will take quite a while..."
Of course, no matter how much time passed, I wouldn't die. Rather, I would watch others die around me while I lived on forever, just as I am, never aging, never falling ill. Those who have attained divine authority have no limit to their lifespan, after all.
My only wish is that things pass without incident, even if only for the time being.