Chapter 407 – Se-jun, I’m Sorry

[The Black Tower begins its growth into the Black Great Tower.]

[There are 10,000 days left until the growth of the Black Great Tower.]

10,000 days was approximately 30 years. Although it was a length of time equivalent to a single yawn for dragons,

“Kying?! It takes that long?!”

‘I want to brag to our Se-jun quickly…’

it was far too long a time for Aileen.

At that moment,

[You have created 13 more new crop varieties in the growth conditions of the Black Great Tower.]

[The time required for the growth of the Black Great Tower is shortened by 3,900 days.]

[You have grown one more World Tree in the growth conditions of the Black Great Tower.]

[The time required for the growth of the Black Great Tower is shortened by 1,000 days.]

[You have achieved 2 more great achievements in the growth conditions of the Black Great Tower.]

[The time required for the growth of the Black Great Tower is shortened by 4,000 days.]

The overachieved conditions shortened the time needed to grow into the Black Great Tower.

As a result…

[There are 1,100 days left until the growth into the Black Great Tower.]

The remaining time was reduced by nearly 90%.

“Khing… but it’s still long.”

While Aileen was disappointed,

“Pah-tui-tui! Ugh!”

Sylvia, who tasted Aileen’s cooking, spat out the food and shuddered.

Aileen had taken Sylvia to a secluded place and given her her own cooking, saying that one must have at least this level of cooking skill to become Se-jun’s wife.

‘Khehehe. If she eats my cooking, she won’t talk about marrying Se-jun anymore, right?’

Aileen was confident in her cooking. This was because Se-jun had never said it tasted bad.

‘If this doesn’t work, I’ll drag Sister Sylvia to an even more secluded place and…’

“Aileen, Sylvia can never make something like this. I won’t marry Park Se-jun!”

Fortunately, Sylvia gave up on marrying Se-jun, just as Aileen had intended.

‘Park Se-jun likes such terrible cooking?! How scary!’

Although she gave up on the marriage for a different reason than what Aileen had thought, the result was the same.

Instead, only Se-jun suffered unfairly.

As Sylvia went to drink water to rinse her mouth like that,

“No matter how envious Sister Sylvia is, why would she spit out this delicious food?”

Since only a little bit at the end was eaten, the food was as good as new. Aileen took a bite of the food Sylvia left behind.

Until now, Aileen had never tasted a single bite of her own food in order to feed Se-jun.

···?

Tasting her own cooking for the first time, she was deeply shocked.

···!!!

‘This can’t be… My cooking tastes this terrible?’

“Peh! Peh!”

Aileen hastily spat out the food.

“Khing…”

Se-jun, I’m sorry.

Toward Se-jun, who had eaten her tasteless cooking until now, Aileen felt both apology and gratitude at the same time.

***

“Is the appraisal not done yet?”

Se-jun waited for Aileen while eating lunch at the restaurant.

“Kkamang-i, try eating this, meow!”

Kkueng!

[Kkamang-i, you need to eat this to grow strong!]

Theo and Cuengi were busy taking care of the youngest.

‘Ah. How annoying. I want to eat the chewy sweet potato strips Se-jun made…’

Of course, Kkamang-i found their care annoying, but he did not show it and ate diligently whatever they gave him. He might get beaten again.

After eating lunch like that,

“Vice President Theo, bring out the bundle.”

Se-jun had Theo take out the Bundle of the Great Merchant Wandering the Nine Towers.

“Puhuhut. Understood, meow!”

At Se-jun’s words, Theo brought out the bundle.

“You said the place the bundle is connected to right now is the 72nd floor of the Purple Tower, right?”

“That’s right, meow!”

“Hm… first, let’s spend 500 billion Tower Coins to change the location. Here.”

Se-jun handed the money to Theo.

“Change, meow!”

Theo shouted as he put the money he received from Se-jun into the bundle.

Then,

Wooong.

a red light flashed from the bundle and then disappeared.

“Vice President Theo, go inside.”

“Understood, meow!”

Theo went inside the bundle.

After one minute,

“President Park, this is the 30th floor of the Black Tower, meow!”

“Ah.”

‘A complete miss. To think it would connect to the Black Tower too…’

“Let’s change it one more time.”

Se-jun handed another 500 billion Tower Coins to Theo.

“Change, meow!”

Just like this, 1 trillion Tower Coins vanished in an instant.

“Vice President Theo, go in again.”

“Understood, meow!”

Theo went into the bundle again, and

“President Park, this is the 1st floor of the Green Tower, meow!”

“Ah?! The 1st floor of the Green Tower?”

Coincidentally, Se-jun had the land deed for the 1st floor of the Green Tower, which he had received from Mason just a moment ago.

And,

“How is the surrounding area? Is it dangerous?”

“There is no being stronger than President Park, meow!”

He had even finished scouting perfectly.

“Really?”

‘So there’s no one stronger than me?’

‘Then shall I go take a look at the 1st floor of the tower?’

“Guys, go inside for a moment.”

Se-jun had the rest of the party, except for Theo, enter the subspace warehouse.

And,

Shhhh.

Se-jun vanished as he unfolded the land deed for the 1st floor of the Green Tower.

***

The 1st floor of the Green Tower.

“If you want to learn skills, come over here!”

“Please take a look at the swords!”

“A shield is better than a sword! With this shield, you can return alive!”

“Selling potions that reduce mana consumption!”

Similar to the 1st floor of the Black Tower, it was lively with training centers where skills could be learned, and shops selling equipment and potions.

However,

“I’m hungry…”

“Is there any food dropped on the ground?”

Unable to blend into that atmosphere, there were round, black fur balls hiding in the alley, only poking their faces out to search the ground.

At that moment,

“Hey! You damn refugees! Bringing bad luck. Get lost! Didn’t I tell you not to even show your faces?!”

The merchant selling swords discovered them, threw stones, and chased them away.

“We’re sorry!”

The black fur balls, called refugees, apologized in startle and scurried away to another place.

They were a tribe called the Ururu tribe, who became residents of the tower without being able to grow enough power because the world they lived in was devoured by destruction too quickly.

However, although the tower accepts survivors, it does not guarantee survival.

And ‘refugees’ was a term referring to those who had failed to establish a place in the tower by the time their world collapsed.

Tribes that failed to establish themselves like that became refugees wandering the tower, and would either seize the land of other tribes or keep wandering until they were gradually weeded out and disappeared from the tower.

They repeated moving and being expelled several times like that, and when evening came,

they returned to the building on the outskirts of the tower’s 1st floor, which was their shelter, holding a few scraps of food.

It was an empty building with no owner, which they were using.

“The adults are here!”

When the parents arrived, the Ururu children, who were smaller than their parents and had been hiding in the building, scurried out to greet them.

“Mom, I’m hungry!”

“Yes. Eat this.”

The adults handed over the food they had struggled to obtain to their children.

At that moment,

Flash.

A bright light shone in the center of the building, and Se-jun appeared.

***

[You have arrived at the 1st floor of the Green Tower.]

“Where is this?”

‘It’s not a farm?’

Se-jun discovered the surrounding building.

At that moment,

“Ex… excuse me, who are you?”

“Yikes!”

Se-jun shouted in startle at the sound coming from beneath his feet.

“President Park, what is it?! Did these guys threaten President Park, meow?!”

Theo, who had clung to Se-jun’s lap at some point, unsheathed his Dragon Claws and threatened the black fur balls.

“W-We didn’t do anything!”

The black fur balls retreated in fear at Theo’s threat.

“Ahem. Vice President Theo, put your claws away.”

Se-jun, embarrassed at being startled by himself, calmed Theo down and looked around his feet.

Hundreds of black fur balls were gathered together, looking up at Se-jun with fearful eyes.

‘What is this? I look like a villain because of this.’

While Se-jun was in a difficult spot,

[A quest occurs.]

[Quest: Defeat the Ururu refugees illegally occupying the shop or reach an agreement to reclaim the rights to the land.]

Reward: Recognized as the rightful owner of the shop on the 1st floor of the Green Tower

The quest appeared in front of Se-jun.

“So this is a shop.”

‘No wonder I thought it was strange that there was a building.’

‘But Ururu refugees?’

“Are you the Ururu tribe?”

When Se-jun asked the black fur balls,

“Oh! Do you know our Ururu tribe?!”

“That’s right! We are the Ururu tribe!”

The Ururu tribe answered in joy that he recognized them.

“Yes. Nice to meet you. But I’m the owner of this shop…”

As Se-jun spoke,

“Ah…”

the Ururu tribe quickly fell silent.

‘Ah. They were called refugees. Is it because they have no place to go?’

“Do you guys by any chance want to work here? There’s no daily wage. Instead, I’ll provide board and lodging.”

As soon as Se-jun realized this was a shop, he thought of selling crops here.

Although the shop was not that large and hiring about 30 people would seem sufficient,

watching the Ururu tribe holding the food scraps preciously, he thought this was a better condition than wages.

“I’ll do it!”

“Just give us the order!”

“Wow! I got a job!”

At Se-jun’s words, the Ururu tribe shed tears and cheered.

And,

Drip, drip.

black dirty water dripped from the bodies of the Ururu tribe.

‘They are not originally black.’

“Now. Since the employees of Se-jun Company must be clean, let’s wash first. Raising Earth.”

Se-jun came out of the shop, created a giant bathtub,

“Ice Cube. Ice Cube.”

and created giant ice to fill the tub.

And,

“Iona, heat it up.”

“Kkyutkkyutkkyut. Yes. Fire!”

In the meantime, he asked Iona, who had come out of the subspace warehouse and clung to Theo’s tail, for fire magic.

Then, the ice melted rapidly and became water, and steam began to rise from the water.

“Now. Go in and wash quickly.”

Se-jun had the Ururu tribe wash.

As the Ururu tribe went in, the water quickly turned pitch black.

“Ice Cube.”

After changing the water a few times like that, the Ururu tribe regained their original color.

“Huh? Were you guys originally green?”

When Se-jun asked, looking at the green fur of the Ururu tribe,

“Yes! Because we haven’t been able to wash lately…”

One of the Ururu tribe replied, scratching his head in embarrassment.

‘That “lately” probably means at least on a scale of years…’

At that moment,

Kkueng!

[Papa, Cuengi roasted all the corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes!]

While Se-jun was changing the bath water for the Ururu tribe, Cuengi, who had been cooking, shouted.

“Yes. Put down that trash first and eat this.”

Se-jun said, giving a roasted sweet potato to the Ururu tribe who were still holding the food scraps preciously.

“Thank you!”

“Oh! It’s really delicious!”

“Se-jun-nim, you eat too!”

While the Ururu tribe, Theo, Cuengi, Kkamang-i, and Iona were all having a delicious dinner like that,

[Your soul is filled by the pouring praises of the Ururu tribe.]

[Your Willpower increases by 5.]

···

..

.

“Hehehe.”

Se-jun smiled warmly while looking at the messages.

“Se-jun-nim, aren’t you going to eat?”

An Ururu child asked, handing a roasted potato to Se-jun.

“No. You guys eat a lot. I’m full even without eating.”

Se-jun said, peeling the skin of the roasted potato and giving it to the baby Ururu beside him.

After a while,

[You have fed 530 members of the Ururu tribe to their fill.]

[By the effect of , all stats increase by 106.]

“Ah, I’m full.”

When Se-jun patted his stomach with a satisfied expression while looking at the messages,

Rumble.

a rumble came from Se-jun’s stomach.

“Meow?! President Park, is your head broken, meow?! Eat this quickly, meow!”

Theo shoved the grilled fish he was eating into Se-jun’s mouth.

“Mmpf!”

The next morning.

“Huh?! Was there a shop over there?”

“No. There definitely wasn’t one.”

“Then is it newly opened?”

“Let’s go take a look.”

On the 1st floor of the Green Tower, a crop shop quietly opened.