Chapter 71 – Planting Hope for the Bald

“Interns, this is the field where the crops we have to sell in the future grow, meow!”

Theo led the interns, introduced Se-jun’s field, and went down to the cave’s storage.

“You four interns, empty all your bundles. We will fill the bundles with cherry tomatoes, meow.”

However,

Rattle.

There was only one cat who emptied their bundle immediately at Theo’s instruction.

“Intern Jeff, who moved first, I will shorten your contract period by 10 days, meow!”

“Th… thank you!”

At Theo’s words, Jeff bowed his head to Theo and expressed his gratitude. Just by emptying the bundle as instructed, the contract period was reduced by as much as 10 days.

“Huh?!”

At the mention of reducing the contract period, the other three cats, who had been gauging the situation, quickly emptied their bundles and began packing the cherry tomatoes.

“I knew it.”

Se-jun smiled as he watched Theo from afar. Theo was still a pushover and had never managed subordinates before. Therefore, even if the interns who used to bully him in the past followed his words just a little, he would be delighted and reduce their contract periods.

One might say that Theo already had wolf subordinates, but honestly, the wolves followed him of their own accord, and though they were called subordinates, it was no exaggeration to say that the wolves looked after Theo.

“It was a good thing I set the maximum reduction period to 10 days.”

Se-jun thought of using the reduction of the contract period as a means for Theo to control the cats. That way, the cats would have no choice but to listen to Theo well, even if only to get their contract periods reduced.

That was why he had deliberately forced a massive contract period of 10,000 days on the cats. It had to be around 10,000 days so that even if Theo reduced the contract period as much as he wanted, it could still be maintained for half a year.

However,

“Intern Mark packed the cherry tomatoes into the bundle the fastest, meow! Intern Mark, 10 days reduction of contract period!”

“Intern Eric answered the loudest just now, meow! Intern Eric, 10 days reduction of contract period!”

The contract maintenance period might be even shorter than Se-jun had thought. Theo was finding merits in the interns’ actions with nano-level detail and rewarding them.

After watching like that for about three hours, Se-jun thought,

“This collection of days won’t do.”

In that short span, most of the interns’ contract periods had been reduced by about 300 days. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the 10,000 days became 0 days.

Far from half a year, even maintaining the contract period for a week seemed overwhelming.

“Representative Theo, shall we talk for a moment?”

Se-jun, who had intended to just watch, finally could not hold back and stepped in.

“I understand, meow!”

At Se-jun’s call, Theo rushed over.

“What is it, meow? Is it time to eat Churu, meow?”

Theo asked as he climbed onto Se-jun’s lap.

“…Yes.”

Looking at Theo’s eyes full of anticipation, Se-jun could not bring himself to say no, and first tore open a Churu and handed it to Theo.

Slurp, slurp, slurp.

And

“From now on, Theo, only reduce the interns’ contract period by 1 day.”

“I understand, meow!”

Se-jun limited Theo’s authority to reduce the contract period to 1 day. And when he wanted to reduce it by more, he was to consult with Se-jun.

The next morning.

“Chairman Park, I will be back, meow!”

“Lord Se-jun, we will be back.”

“Okay. Have a safe trip.”

Se-jun saw Theo and Elka off. The cats were divided into two groups.

Oren, who had packed cherry tomatoes in his bundle, and the other three cats followed Theo down to the 38th floor of the tower,

while the remaining five packed their bundles with blade leaves and Chef’s soup and moved to the 67th floor of the tower with the wolves.

The expressions of the interns moving to the 38th floor of the tower with Theo were bright, but the expressions of the interns going to the 67th floor of the tower with the wolves were dark.

Because they had to be with Theo to get their contract periods reduced, the expressions of the interns separated from Theo were dark.

As the two groups with different destinations left in a swarm, the empty space felt quite large.

At that moment,

Kkueng!

Cuengi approached Se-jun.

“You came to comfort me…”

However,

Kkueng!

[I want to eat snacks!]

Contrary to Se-jun’s thoughts, Cuengi held out a glass jar filled with honey to Se-jun. Even if the Honey Jelly strengthened his talent, honey was still the best for Cuengi.

“No! You gained too much weight,” he wanted to say, but he did not dare to say it to Cuengi.

“Alright.”

Click.

Se-jun took out Cuengi’s honey bowl from the kitchen, opened the glass jar, and poured 1 glug of honey.

Dip.

Lick. Lick.

“Now, time to work.”

Leaving Cuengi behind, who was dipping his front paw into the bowl and eagerly licking the honey, Se-jun started his morning farming.

Today was the day to harvest the corn planted earlier. Se-jun began to harvest the corn planted in the cave.

Snap. Snap.

As he was snapping off the green ears of corn wrapped in green leaves,

“Huh?”

he saw a corn with red leaves, unlike the other corn.

Snap.

As he snapped off the red corn,

[You harvested the Corn of Exploding Stamina.]

[Your job experience increased slightly.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increased slightly.]

[You gained 30 experience points.]

“Corn of Exploding Stamina?”

From the name, it felt like it would be for combat use.

[You achieved the achievement of birthing a new breed in the tower.]

[Your exclusive cultivation rights for the new breed in the tower were recognized.]

[The Corn of Exploding Stamina cannot be cultivated without your permission.]

[Your job experience increased significantly.]

[You achieved the achievement of birthing three new breeds in the tower.]

[Rumors about you spread to the Food Association.]

“Food Association?”

The Food Association was an association he had never heard of even from Theo.

Se-jun decided to check the corn in his hand first.

[Corn of Exploding Stamina]

Corn grown inside the tower; when heat was applied, the corn seeds exploded and swelled to dozens of times their original volume.

Upon consumption, it decomposed 30g of body fat, increasing Stamina by 0.5 for 10 minutes.

The effect stacked up to 10 times within an hour.

Upon consumption, it made the hair abundant.

Cultivator: Tower Farmer Park Se-jun

Expiration Date: 90 days

Grade: C

It exploded and swelled when heat was applied? It did not seem like the explosion referred to Stamina.

Se-jun imagined the corn kernels swelling. Then, that which naturally came to mind!

“No way?! Is this popcorn?”

Se-jun quickly peeled off the red leaves of the Corn of Exploding Stamina. The kernels inside were also red like the leaves.

Pluck.

Se-jun plucked off a red kernel.

[You obtained a seed of the Corn of Exploding Stamina.]

[Your job experience increased slightly.]

[The proficiency of Seed Harvesting Lv. 2 increased slightly.]

And he took it to Flamie and had her heat the corn kernel.

“Be careful. It must not burn.”

[Yes! Master!]

A moment later, as Flamie wrapped the corn kernel with flames and heated it,

Pop.

a popping sound occurred, the outer skin of the red corn burst, and the white flesh hidden inside swelled and came out.

[Here you go.]

When Flamie removed the flame, warm popcorn fell onto Se-jun’s hand.

Sprinkle, sprinkle.

Se-jun sprinkled salt on the popcorn on his palm, carefully picked it up, and put it in his mouth.

Crunch.

A savory and salty taste was felt along with the crispy texture.

“Oh!”

Se-jun was moved by the taste, which was similar to the popcorn he used to buy outside.

“This is not the time for this!”

He had to plant even a second earlier to harvest even a second earlier. A single corn kernel now would become a bag of popcorn later.

Drop, drop.

Se-jun harvested 199 kernels of the Corn of Exploding Stamina and planted them in the field.

[You created a 50-pyeong cornfield.]

[You gained 100 experience points.]

“Grow well.”

Se-jun cheered for the corn planted in the field.

Thus, the crop that would become the hope of bald people all over the world began to grow on the 99th floor of the tower.

***

Early morning of the 244th day of being stranded.

Creak, creak.

The Branch Scouts, who had been quiet, invaded again.

Ku-eong, ku-eong.

At Se-jun’s request to give them an opportunity to grow, this time, the mother Crimson Giant Bear watched from afar, only revealing her presence to the Branch Scouts.

“Guys, let’s go!!!”

Squeak!!!

Kku-e-eng!!!

Shouting a battle cry, Se-jun, the Black Rabbit, and Cuengi rushed forward.

Patter, patter.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The Black Rabbit and Cuengi, who had started from the same place, quickly outran Se-jun and began to defeat the Branch Scouts. Se-jun’s Agility stat was also the lowest.

Whoosh.

Thud!

Crack.

[You defeated the Corrupted Ent’s Large Branch Scout.]

[You gained 500 experience points.]

Se-jun threw Great Warrior Uka’s throwing hand axe from behind to defeat the enemy.

“This is a bit sad. Retrieve.”

Se-jun, who retrieved the hand axe, rushed forward again.

Then, he picked up a torch placed around the area where he had lit a fire for guard duty, lit it, and threw it at the Branch Scouts.

Flare.

The fire caught onto the Branch Scouts and began to burn the enemies.

[You defeated the Corrupted Ent’s Small Branch Scout.]

[You gained 25 experience points.]

…

..

.

[You leveled up.]

[You obtained 1 bonus stat point.]

“Nice!”

Se-jun leveled up and became Level 28.

While he was raising his experience points by defeating the Branch Scouts like that,

Spit!

Spit!

along with a spitting sound, a sticky liquid flew toward the burning Branch Scout.

Pssss.

As soon as the sticky liquid touched it, the fire went out quickly.

“What is it?”

When Se-jun looked toward where the sound came from,

Slither, slither.

yellow and purple flowers about 30 cm in size were moving together, clinging to the body of the Large Branch Scout with vine-like limbs.

[Corrupted Ent’s Sticky Flower Attacker]

[Corrupted Ent’s Poison Mist Flower Attacker]

The yellow one was the Sticky Flower, and the purple one was the Poison Mist Flower.

“Now it’s flowers?”

Se-jun became curious about the appearance of the Corrupted Ent, which turned everything from branches, flowers, to fruits into monsters.

“Guys, back off for now!”

Judging by the enemies’ names, they seemed likely to use a strategy of binding feet with the sticky substance and killing with the poison mist.

However,

Squeak!

the Black Rabbit leisurely avoided the sticky substance with high speed,

Kkueng!

Cuengi moved without hesitation even when hit by the sticky substance. There was no hindrance at all.

“Right. Only I am weak. Only me…”

Se-jun confirmed his combat power ranking once again, and to help the Black Rabbit and Cuengi fight well, he threw the hand axe to intensively defeat the Poison Mist Flower Attackers.

Whoosh.

Thud!

[You defeated the Corrupted Ent’s Poison Mist Flower Attacker.]

[You gained 1,500 experience points.]

The experience points were decent.

“Right. I was a ranged character after all.”

While Se-jun was fighting and comforting himself like that,

Rumble. Rumble.

the ground began to shake.

“Huh?!”

Se-jun looked at the mother Crimson Giant Bear. Why was she moving?

Ku-eong!

Shake, shake.

As if to say it was not her, the mother Crimson Giant Bear shook her head and pointed to the west.

“What is it?”

When Se-jun looked at the place the mother Crimson Giant Bear was pointing to,

“Huh?!”

he saw a giant tree with a height of 70 meters slowly approaching in the distance.

Rumble. Rumble.

[Corrupted Ent that absorbed the energy of the Blue Moon]

He had overlooked the fact that the Corrupted Ent could also absorb the energy of the Blue Moon, just as Flamie grew after absorbing it.

The Corrupted Ent was so thick that even the giant mother Crimson Giant Bear could not wrap her arms all the way around it, and its height was also much taller.

Furthermore, various monsters fell off from the body of the Corrupted Ent whenever it moved.

“Can we win?”

While Se-jun was pondering a countermeasure looking at the Corrupted Ent,

-I shall help you.

a low-pitched voice was heard in Se-jun’s ears.

“Huh?! Who is it?”

Se-jun looked around, searching for the owner of the voice.

At that moment,

Flutter, flutter.

the black dragon statue, which should have been at the fountain, appeared in front of Se-jun with its red eyes shining.

-I am the great black dragon Anton Pritani. Aileen’s father.

“Aileen’s father?”

-Yes. There is no time, so let us talk later.

The black dragon statue finished the conversation and hurriedly flew toward the Corrupted Ent.

And

Kwaaaa-!

a black breath shot from the mouth of the black dragon statue flew toward the Corrupted Ent.