Ch.1414. Underground Lottery

Has Farming World ever been a mainstream game?

If asked, I can only say no.

Still, in the early days when hunters and dungeons first appeared… when virtual reality became the trend and everyone was shouting about SAO.

Surprisingly, it was a time when RPG, MOBA, and FPS games jostled for position, with rankings fluctuating in the Three Kingdoms period.

Games with decent gameplay gained quite a bit of popularity among different people with various tastes.

These genres couldn’t help but be popular when applied to virtual reality.

The RPG genre evolved from simply clicking keyboards during raids to actually moving your body to fight massive monsters.

In a world where you could escape reality by adventuring, enhancing your character’s equipment, and customizing them, World First Kill events became international competitions whenever new bosses appeared, drawing billions of viewers and proving fantasy fans right when they claimed RPGs were immortal.

As for MOBAs, well…

Even on PC, League of Legends maintained its undisputed first place for over a decade since its release.

A genre where people could earn the title of “pro” just by using their fingers, receiving salaries ranging from millions to tens of billions, becoming recognized professionals, and even creating the term “E-sports” couldn’t possibly fail when brought to virtual reality.

MOBAs maintained their undisputed first place even in the virtual reality era.

They only temporarily relinquished the top spot when World First Kill events happened in RPGs, as users flocked to enjoy the nostalgia of those moments.

E-sports remained popular, perhaps even more so than before.

FPS games, in contrast, couldn’t quite reach the same peaks as these two genres.

Shooting games had limitations in providing enjoyment compared to MOBAs or RPGs.

However, FPS games combined with the battle royale genre maintained steady popularity, securing a solid third place as a sub-game for RPG and MOBA players.

Similarly, FPS games also held world championships and even managed to take first place once.

Besides these three, many other game genres that were only loved by niche minorities during the PC era gained considerable popularity with the added bonus of virtual reality elements.

Zombie apocalypse genre games were among them.

Perhaps Farming World genre games were the same.

After all, if you can directly experience “realism,” it adds elements that can provide mainstream appeal beyond just those who already enjoy such niche genres.

In a way, that might be why Farming World briefly took first place during its initial release.

Not because it was a farming world genre game.

But because while it chose open-world farming content as its main feature, it also incorporated rich and delicious RPG elements as secondary features.

One of those is this lottery farming system.

You can strike it big anywhere.

The Farming World map itself is a space where users can farm and acquire resources.

The possibilities are open.

There’s a glass ceiling of resource rarity depending on the map’s grade.

The probability of breaking through that ceiling is very low, but it exists.

And it’s not just about resource rarity.

Even the most trivial resources—basic resources you wouldn’t even expect anything from—can yield quite valuable items if luck is on your side. That’s this lottery system.

Users called it the underground lottery.

Well, not exactly underground, more like the roadside lottery.

The probability itself is extremely low.

You might as well consider it nonexistent.

0.001%.

Getting seeds from weeds or trees is a rare reward.

1% probability.

The same goes for getting ore from any random stone.

What triggers at 0.001% is a heroic reward.

This heroic reward provides resources one grade higher than what you’re farming.

And quite good ones at that.

[Glass Stone]

– Grade: C+

– A naturally processed gem that has absorbed only moonlight for 1000 days and absorbs mana well.

– When made into an accessory and worn, increases the effect of mana-using skills by 20%

There are so many different resources in Farming World that it’s hard to memorize them all.

Imagine all these also existing in dungeons—even if a heroic reward drops, it’s still a gamble.

But this “Glass Stone” I picked up is a jackpot.

“Isn’t this auction-worthy?”

A complete bum who’s wasted ten years of his life playing Farming World wouldn’t know about real-world resource prices.

However, the valuable resources from Farming World are also valuable in reality, and in the Farming World community, it was common for people to equate the rare resources they farmed with real-world prices, pretending they’d actually earned that money.

I heard about healing herbs there too.

The information might be a few years old, so the price might be different now…

The same goes for Glass Stone.

My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure I saw something about putting Glass Stone up for auction as soon as you get one.

Just looking at its options, it’s good.

An accessory option that damage dealers, especially hunters, go crazy for.

They say that for mages, who need a lot of money to grow, having a ring made of Glass Stone is what separates them by tier.

“This is amazing!”

Even if you’re not a hunter, Glass Stone is quite a precious gem in Farming World.

“Should I use it myself?”

The reason I’m so nonchalant is that I don’t have any active skills that use mana yet, and passive skills are sufficient for now.

“Let’s take it with me for now.”

Whether I sell it or use it.

It’s free money I picked up on the road, not something I hunted hard for.

“Congratulations, Master!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“If you process it and use it, it will definitely help!”

“I’m thinking about whether to sell it.”

“What?”

When I mentioned my dilemma, Lulu had a fit.

“No, Master! You should use this to build your strength. Farms are important, but things like Glass Stone are hard to get even with farms!”

It’s true that gems are hard to come by, even if they’re just C-grade.

Especially C+ grade Glass Stone—the stats are just slightly lower, but if those stats increase, it can go up to A-grade or even S-grade.

I made Lulu even more upset.

“What are you talking about? Why sell it for farm currency? I’m going to take it and sell it for cash.”

“…Huh? In your world, Master?”

“Yeah.”

“…Maaaaaaster!!!”

Lulu having a fit isn’t anything unusual.

“It wouldn’t be strange to sell it for Rift Dimension currency, but to sell it for lower dimension currency!!! That’s absurd!!”

“They trade like that on Earth anyway. The Glass Stone here isn’t any different from Glass Stone found on Earth, right?”

“…”

Of course, if I were thinking about the future, Lulu would be right.

Selling something that money can’t buy? And for paper currency that’s nothing more than kindling in Farming World?

But Earth is also my reality.

“The cup noodles and snacks you enjoyed eating yesterday also require money on Earth to buy.”

“…Hmph…”

Above all, I can always buy it again.

“If needed, I can earn money again and buy it from Earth, right?”

It’s not that they don’t exist, they’re just hard to find.

It would take a lot of money, but the prestige of Farming World’s SSS resource rarity and SSS+ deposit grade has already been proven by the Glass Stone I picked up on the road.

Leaving Lulu pouting and muttering something, I headed home as the sun was setting.

Judging by the state of things, it seemed like it would take a few more days to reach the village.

I wasn’t in a hurry since I had time to gather healing herbs, Glass Stone, and other items before the logout cooldown.

“Ah, right.”

After returning home, washing up, and lying in bed, I opened the farming window again to resolve the strange feeling I had while cleaning the yard today.

“The server settings seem a bit strange.”

No matter how I think about it, something feels off.

At first, I thought it was natural that more resources would drop compared to regular maps, given that this map has an SSS+ resource deposit grade.

But beyond the amount of resources dropping, rare rewards seem to be dropping at a higher probability.

Of course, with probability, if more resources drop, then naturally the 1% chance will trigger more often as the drop table rolls more frequently.

Even accounting for that, things seem to be dropping well.

Like the heroic reward today.

It dropped at a probability that seems disproportionately high compared to the amount of basic resources obtained while cleaning the yard.

So on the third night, I finally checked what I should have verified from the beginning.

“Map information.”

The information window that kindly tells what kind of map this dimension is opened up.

[Secret Farming Map]

– Grade: SSS+

– Active Map Effects

1. [Lv1] All crop growth speed +50%

2. [Lv1] Rare/Heroic reward probability +500%

3. [Lv1] 3% chance to increase crop grade by +1 when harvesting

4. [Lv1] Experience gain +100%

I felt embarrassed for being so happy about picking up a lottery ticket from the roadside.

Especially when the map itself is the real lottery, as I’m reminded every time I look at it.