Chapter 64 – Exchanging Greetings

As the standoff with the Red Locusts on the 67th floor of the tower dragged on, entities on other floors of the tower began to feel a sense of crisis.

Each floor, recalling the terrible great famine from 100 years ago, competed to buy up food to prepare for the worst, which brought about a surge in food prices.

Due to this, merchants visiting Granier Village also sold food at higher prices, but Israel, the richest cat in Granier Village who was ignorant of the news outside, thought the merchants were deceiving him and colluding to raise food prices.

So, Israel gave his son 1,000 Tower Coins and had him buy food.

“Oren, go and buy food yourself as a wandering merchant to gain some life experience.”

“Yes. Father.”

Leaving Granier Village to see the world like that, Oren, with his nine subordinates following him, headed toward the shop area with an excited heart.

However, the world was not an easy place like Granier Village where he used to walk around with his shoulders flexed.

Oren and his subordinates, who barely arrived at the merchant area after much suffering, visited the Wandering Merchant Association together and bought wandering merchant licenses and equipment. Oren supported his subordinates with 5 Tower Coins each, wanting to show a cool side.

While they, who became wandering merchants like that, were gathering information about the food market price and drinking alcohol at a tavern, a goblin wandering merchant struck up a conversation.

“Hello. I am Scaram, a wandering merchant. I heard you are looking for food?”

“Yes.”

“I have good items, so how about multiplying your money with this before buying food?”

“Good items?”

“Yes. These are items from outside the tower.”

“Items from outside the tower?”

As Scaram spoke, he showed the cats items from Earth.

“Oh! What is this?”

“That is…”

The cats, except for Oren, looked at the unfamiliar items with curiosity. However, Oren was indifferent, perhaps because he was not very interested.

“If you take these to the upper floors, you can sell them very expensively. The entities living on those upper floors collect these items as a hobby.”

“Is that true?!”

“Yes. You are from Granier Village, right? Previously, a wandering merchant named Theo also traded with me and made a lot of money.”

“Theo?!”

At the news that Theo had made a lot of money, Oren’s ears perked up.

‘If even that dummy made a lot of money, I can make several times more.’

Filled with confidence, Oren began trading with Scaram.

“How many items do you have?”

“Since these are precious items, there aren’t many.”

“Give me all of them.”

“It’s 5 Tower Coins each.”

“That’s too expensive.”

Oren bargained with the goblin wandering merchant, lowering the price, and bought Scaram’s items along with his subordinates. Although Scaram said he didn’t have many items, he had exactly the amount they could afford.

“Then make a lot of money.”

In this way, Oren and his subordinates were swindled out of almost their entire fortune by Scaram.

“Let’s drink just this and set off immediately.”

“Yes! Lord Oren!”

Without even knowing they had been swindled, Oren and his subordinates drank the remaining alcohol and came outside in a good mood.

And they discovered Theo running toward the blacksmith shop.

***

“Long time no see, meow.”

‘This guy…!’

When Theo, who used to not even look at his face properly, confidently looked at his face and smiled, Oren’s face hardened.

‘Hmph! You made some money, did you?!’

His intention to just say hello changed. Even without that, because he spent all his fortune buying Scaram’s items, he didn’t even have money to buy food, so Oren thought Theo was a good target.

“Theo, we are hungry, so lend us some money.”

Oren said, putting his arm around Theo’s shoulder like a bully.

“Dear… you don’t even have money to buy food, meow?”

Theo looked at Oren with pity.

“Yikes! We can make a huge amount of money in just a little bit!”

At Theo’s disregard, Oren flared up and shouted.

“That’s right! We bought items from outside the tower!”

“You made money that way too, so you must know well, right?”

The other cats chimed in with Oren’s words.

“…Items from outside the tower, meow?! Did you perhaps buy items from Scaram, meow?”

“Hmph. Yes. As expected, you know well.”

At Theo’s hardened expression, Oren said with an arrogant look. He thought Theo was jealous of them.

“Then are you going to the 99th floor of the tower, meow?”

“Yeah. We are going to the 99th floor of the tower and trade with the Bull Demon King.”

Knowing that there was a pursuit for him lately, Scaram intended to kill Oren and his gang to clean up and erase his traces.

“Since we older brothers are a bit hungry to go to the 99th floor of the tower, lend us some money. We’ll pay you back later.”

Oren said in a low voice, putting strength into his front paw wrapped around Theo’s neck.

“No, meow! I won’t lend it to you, meow! You guys haven’t even paid back the 21.34 Tower Coins you borrowed from me so far, meow! Pay back that money first, meow!”

Theo, who accurately remembered the money Oren and his subordinates had borrowed little by little so far, shouted.

“Why, you!”

When Oren, angered by Theo’s rebellion, was about to hit Theo with his chubby front paw,

Grrr.

Three Silver Wolves approached.

“Ah… wolves, please don’t misunderstand. We are friends. We met after a long time and were giving a slightly intense greeting. Right? Theo.”

Oren urgently forced Theo to answer.

However,

“Representative Theo, is that cat really a friend?”

Elka ignored Oren’s words and asked Theo.

“Representative Theo?”

At Elka’s words, the cats began to stir. The only cat here with a name to be called Representative Theo was Theo.

“He is not a friend, meow. I don’t have a friend like that, meow. Dispose of them, meow.”

Theo removed Oren’s arm from his shoulder, gestured to slash his neck with his front paw, and moved to the blacksmith shop. With that, their disposal was decided.

Grrr.

“Pl… please spare us!”

Elka and the wolves surrounded Oren and his gang, and soon screams began to be heard.

“Meow meow meow.”

Hearing the screams of Oren and his gang, Theo hummed a tune. Even looking at Oren, who used to torment him in Granier Village, he was not scared at all anymore.

‘Puhahat. Indeed, I, who am with Park Se-jun, am invincible, meow!’

To the point where he was even afraid of himself, who grew stronger the closer he got to Se-jun.

“Puhahat. Should I not become too strong, meow?”

Indulging in such useless delusions, Theo entered the blacksmith shop.

“Give me a discount, meow!”

Not forgetting Se-jun’s teaching, Theo diligently bargained three times to lower the equipment draw fee and paid 12 Tower Coins, then moved to the drawing corner.

And,

“Meow?! This is it, meow!!!”

As soon as he went to the drawing corner, he chose the item that strongly pulled his front paw and left the blacksmith shop.

“Representative Theo, we disposed of them.”

Elka, who was waiting outside the blacksmith shop, said to Theo.

“Good job, meow! Let’s go up quickly, meow!”

Theo smiled wickedly and hurried up to the 99th floor of the tower. He was busy going quickly to check if Se-jun’s knees were fine and to welcome the suckers.

A few hours after Theo left like that.

“Ugh…”

“Ugh…”

Oren and the other cats, who fainted after being beaten by the wolves, woke up.

“Theo, you bastard! Just wait until we make money! I will also hire strong independent mercenaries and beat you up!”

“That’s right!”

“I won’t let you get away with this!”

“Let’s quickly sell these items and make money!”

Oren and his subordinate cats set off toward the 99th floor of the tower, swearing revenge against Theo. Without knowing that there was an entity several times more wicked than Theo there.

***

“One: become competent! Two: let’s become human!”

“One.”

“Competent!”

“Two.”

“Let’s become human!”

The Black Wolf Band, who fainted after being hit by Han Tae-jun’s Magic Missiles whenever they rebelled, was running with all their might according to Cha Si-hyeok’s count without a word of complaint.

‘How long do we have to run like this?!’

Neither Han Tae-jun nor Cha Si-hyeok said how long they had to run. Even so, they couldn’t run slowly either.

Kieee!!

Hearing their voices, dozens of spider monsters were chasing after them. When they kept running like that and 100 spider monsters chased them, Han Tae-jun’s mouth finally opened.

“Now, hunt the monsters.”

“Pardon?!”

“Fight quickly.”

Han Tae-jun said, floating 200 Magic Missiles around himself. It was a threat that if they didn’t do as told, they would die by his hands.

“Argh!”

“Damn it!”

The Black Wolf Band closed their eyes tightly and ran toward the spider monsters. Still, this side at least had a possibility of surviving.

***

Dawn of the 238th day of being stranded.

Crunch. Crunch.

“As expected, they came today too.”

Se-jun said in a tired voice, looking at the approaching Branch Scouts. For four consecutive days, Se-jun had been fighting the Branch Scouts every dawn.

“Go! Black rabbit! Cuengi!”

Ppyak!

Cueng!

At Se-jun’s command, the black rabbit and Cuengi dashed forward.

And,

Kuwerng!

Roaring in front of them was the Mother Crimson Giant Bear.

After a long persuasion, Se-jun was able to move the Mother Crimson Giant Bear’s nest near his house in exchange for Seph’s Soup, which gave satiety.

Since they were boiling soup 24 hours a day with 20 large pots brought by the wolves along with the Seph’s Soup orders from the Lizardmen, it was not a difficult task.

Moreover, because the Branch Scouts solved the firewood issue, the firepower issue was also easily resolved.

In this way, by stationing the Crimson Giant Bear mother and son near his house, Se-jun became able to protect the farm safely.

“I should go too.”

Following behind Cuengi, Se-jun defeated the well-trimmed Branch Scouts. Perhaps because Mother Crimson Giant Bear stepped forward too early, the Branch Scouts retreated early, so there were not many.

After defeating the remaining enemies, Se-jun returned home and caught up on his sleep.

And when he opened his eyes,

[A tenant farmer used Sowing Lv. 4 to plant cherry tomato seeds.]

[The Landlord receives a 1% reward.]

[The Landlord’s job experience increases minutely.]

[The proficiency of the Landlord’s Sowing Lv. 4 increases minutely.]

[You have created a 100-pyeong cherry tomato field.]

[You have obtained 200 experience points.]

…

..

.

The white rabbits, who woke up first, were planting cherry tomatoes in the field. Knowing that Se-jun woke up at dawn to guard the farm, they didn’t seem to wake him up separately.

“Upsy-daisy!”

Se-jun got up from his bed and came outside. Then he went down to the cave, added a stroke to the wall, and washed his face in the pond.

And he looked around.

“Where in the world is the tree?”

Frustrated, Se-jun thoroughly searched the cave several times, but he couldn’t find the tree at all. Just in case, he sent the black rabbit out of the pond to examine closely, but there was no tree there either.

As Se-jun was about to gather things to eat for breakfast and go up like that,

“Huh?”

He saw that the fire lit in the cave had gone out. Since they had been eating on the surface lately, the rabbits also seemed to have neglected managing the fire.

“Even so, his rabbit wife and babies were here.”

The rabbit wife, who was taking care of the baby rabbits, might need to use the fire urgently.

When Se-jun cleared away the ashes near the fire, a small green sprout appeared.

“Huh? Why is there a sprout here?”

Se-jun carefully touched the sprout.

At that moment,

[Master! Hello!]

The sprout greeted Se-jun in a lively voice.

“Huh?! Did you just speak?!”

Startled by the voice heard from the sprout, Se-jun asked.

[Yes! Master!]

The apple tree, which had been growing only underground due to the fire all this time, finally exchanged greetings with Se-jun.