Ch.1010. Map Management Admin

A Strange Land.

What was once a space meant to be inhabited only until the tutorial ended has now become my new home for life.

From a cold, cramped hut to an eight-pyeong studio with a Han River view in Seoul.

“Starting from scratch isn’t so bad. It’s reality rather than virtual reality.”

Of course, whether this is a game or reality remains uncertain, but whatever it is, it becomes real as long as I believe it’s real until I wake up.

It felt somewhat cozy.

“The important thing is that the hut is an invincible space.”

Monsters may come near the hut, but they never attack it.

Since Farming World’s identity is primarily about healing farming, with hunting as a secondary content, monsters might interfere with farming or steal crops, but if they attacked the hut to the point where gameplay became impossible, half the users would quit.

Whether that applies here too remains to be seen…

What should I do first?

As I was making plans, a new message appeared.

[Secret Farming Map Manager summoning is now available.]

[Try summoning a management manager with the “Summon Manager!” command.]

“Ah, I forgot about this.”

The map management manager can usually be summoned after completing the tutorial, but in the original map, it was optional.

You could do it or not.

In my case, I hadn’t summoned a map management manager for over five years.

If you skip the tutorial from the start, you can’t summon the management manager, and even if you do, it’s basically an extension of the tutorial that explains various commands—a living tutorial of sorts—so users who’ve progressed in the game don’t really need to summon one.

At most, solo players might summon one for company when they’re bored, but even that’s meaningless in Farming World since you can hire NPCs anyway.

“Summon Manager!”

I’ve forgotten my ten years of experience.

This isn’t a game.

It’s a new game.

New life. New world.

I’m thinking of this like a regression story where I start with my memories, and I’m going to humbly milk every advantage I can get.

Woooooong

With the summoning command, a resonant sound I hadn’t heard in a long time rang out, and a fairy popped out.

“Hello, Master!”

“Oh, hi.”

Flapping her wings, the fairy, about the size of a forearm, greeted me cheerfully.

Newbies are usually startled when they first see the manager.

The title “Master” is not easy to get used to at first.

Especially hearing it from a fairy race…

After all, social norms make you feel somewhat… guilty when addressed that way by smaller races.

But veteran Farming World players know.

These fairies aren’t some young whatever, but beings who have lived for hundreds of years according to the lore.

“It’s been nearly 50,000 years since a Master appeared in the Rift Dimension… Ah! I’m Lulu, born to assist the Master of this dimension with dimensional management.”

“Lulu?”

The name was different from the manager that usually appears after the tutorial, but it was easy to remember.

“Lulu. What can you do?”

In the game, the manager’s functions aren’t very useful to me.

At most, they explain sub-systems that you might have missed during the tutorial.

I wondered if it might be different here.

Lulu explained proudly, as if she’d been waiting for this question.

“I’m here to help Masters who are new to this dimension learn how to organize and cultivate it. I can help with your growth and advise on dimensional development directions. If you have any questions or needs, please ask me anytime.”

“I mean, what can you actually do? Can you cut trees, mine stones, clear weeds—that kind of thing?”

“Of course! If you help me grow, I can handle such simple tasks!”

“How do I help you grow?”

“Through your farming points and farm, if you go to the fairy growth tab…”

“Useless.”

“…Pardon?”

I had some hopes, but as expected.

Unlike Farming World, it seems she can be useful if I grow her, but right now I’m short on points for my own strengthening, let alone investing in a fairy.

Rather than growing a fairy to tend the yard, I’d rather hire a reliable NPC worker later.

“Can I unsummon you?”

“Once summoned to the map, unsummoning is only possible after the Master dies! Then I wait in the dimensional gap until the next Master appears.”

Her cheerful smile while saying such eerie things made me frown.

“What about food?”

“Don’t worry! I don’t eat much.”

“Hah…”

The food issue might not be significant, but having another useless mouth to feed…

Maybe I shouldn’t have summoned her after all.

I decided to ignore her existence for now.

She might be useful somewhere.

I decided to start with the basics.

Things I should have done from the beginning but skipped to focus on clearing the tutorial.

“Find the village. Find the mine. Find the sewer. Clear the yard.”

Since the map is so vast, tasks that would normally take a day might need to be planned on a weekly basis.

Even when I played on SS-rank maps, the village was so far that I eventually just built a new village in a convenient location and relocated the NPCs.

Similarly, to craft next-tier tools, I need to find a nearby mine to farm resources.

Finding the sewer is to clear out the Big Rats I saw during the tutorial so they don’t interfere with growing crops.

Yard clearing is similar.

But on a large map, I also need to decide how far the “yard” extends.

If I try to clear the entire yard as defined by this vast map from the start, I might end up doing nothing but yard work forever.

The “5KM radius” wasn’t just a joke—the size of SS-rank and above maps is beyond imagination.

“As expected, Master knows exactly what to do, befitting your qualifications!”

“Don’t be noisy beside me.”

Lulu heard my muttering and chimed in with a giggle.

Even when I pushed her away coldly, she showed no sign of being upset and continued chattering.

“The closest village is about 2KM to the northwest from the hut.”

“…Huh?”

This useless fairy girl.

I thought she might be useful after all.

—————–

If there’s one crucial “information” in Farming World genre games, it’s map information.

While the main appeal is the dopamine hit from growing seasonal crops and making money, exploring dark maps to discover new resources and dangerous areas is also important.

It’s nearly impossible to fully illuminate every map.

It’s not efficient, and even I haven’t uncovered every area of an SS-rank map after playing it as my main for ten years.

In a way, it’s a feature designed to extend playtime.

Other RPGs or FPS games provide dopamine from combat itself, which feels fresh even when repeated, but in this genre, the dopamine from discovery and exploration doesn’t last as long.

Meaningless grinding or pathfinding for big rewards becomes a time sink in this genre.

That’s why items like “maps” that help illuminate dark areas are incredibly valuable.

Just now, when I was wondering what to do first, unable to decide where to go without clearing the yard, Lulu’s single comment completely resolved my dilemma.

“How do you know that?”

“Eh? Because I explored with the previous Master!”

“You said that was 50,000 years ago? How old are you?”

“It’s rude to ask a lady’s age. Besides, time stops in the dimensional gap, so I’m not as young a fairy as you might think.”

“…”

Whether Lulu is 50,000 or 5,000 years old doesn’t matter to me.

“Do you know other locations too?”

“I know about the mine and sewer you mentioned!”

“Incredible.”

Suddenly, Lulu looked cute to me.

“Kyaa!”

I grabbed Lulu and nuzzled her cheek while praising her.

“You’re actually useful!”

Even knowing the direction and location, finding your way in an immeasurably large map isn’t easy.

2KM might not sound far, but it’s quite a distance on foot.

Plus, the Secret Farming Map is completely undeveloped except for the small front yard of the hut.

Considering I’d need to clear a path and defeat monsters along the way, I felt no disappointment about discovering the location so easily.

I’m a results-oriented person.

If the reward is good, I enjoy the dopamine it brings, rather than finding some noble happiness in the struggle or claiming that difficulty makes things more fun.

With slightly raised expectations, I asked hopefully:

“Do you also know the main locations in the Level 1 biome?”

“Umm…? Hehe… The previous Master couldn’t go that far… and they were my first Master.”

I thought as much.