Ch.33. Skills Necessary for Survival

The content of Farming World is broadly divided into two categories.

Base content where you grow crops and farm near your home.

Hunting content where you leave home to explore uncharted lands.

This means there are two main branches, but if broken down further, there are countless subcategories.

Though divided into two, these content types ultimately connect.

To farm, you need to water crops and till fields manually, but eventually you must build automation systems requiring higher-grade resources that aren’t found nearby—you need to locate mines and hunt the monsters guarding them.

Conversely, hunting isn’t just about going out and fighting.

You need to craft weapons and armor to protect against monster fangs.

You must build a forge at home and refine ore to create hunting equipment.

So while these two content types are separate branches, they ultimately form the core content that runs through the entire Farming World.

Well, all games of this type are similar.

RPGs offer the satisfaction of hunting monsters to develop your character,

along with the immersion of acting according to your character’s rules.

FPS games provide the refreshing thrill of shooting.

This Farming World genre is a game designed for emptying your mind, leisurely farming and growing crops, with the added bonus of going out to hunt and grow using what you’ve cultivated.

Generally, enjoying all these aspects requires two or three times the effort and time, so most people play multiplayer. The so-called “herbivore users” who prefer healing only play base content, while “carnivore users” who enjoy adventure and hunting like in RPGs focus on hunting content, dividing roles.

I, of course, have been playing solo for 10 years, handling both roles myself.

That’s why I can compare and judge more objectively.

Which aspect is more important in Farming World?

Which one, when possessing SSS+ ability, can significantly impact the other?

“Not easy.”

Even thinking I’d just quickly get through the tutorial, honestly, the answer wasn’t simple.

If it were that easy, Farming World would have been widely criticized for broken balance.

Both are important.

Especially in a map with SSS+ comprehensive difficulty, it’s nearly impossible to weigh the importance of these two content types.

Just as hunting is important, your base must be solid and secure to quickly and efficiently process resources obtained from hunting.

So I decided to add my personal preference to the difficult question of efficiency and performance.

Farming World is, as mentioned, a farming genre.

It’s a niche genre, but in some ways, it’s hard to consider it a traditional farming genre.

As difficulty increases, the hunting element needed for map exploration becomes more significant.

Even the resources are taken from reality, and the related monsters are almost identical to dungeon monsters in the real world.

What about hunters’ abilities?

Those are the same too.

One of the three biggest reasons I’ve played this game for 10 years is exactly that.

Even if I wasn’t lucky enough to awaken as a hunter in reality, at least in Farming World, I could live as a hunter with SS+ abilities.

“Indeed.”

Thinking about it, my heart leaned slightly toward hunting.

I was curious about what SSS+ hunting ability would be like.

In reality, I might be a pathetic person with no abilities living in virtual reality, but in this secret hidden map, I could be an SSS+ lethal hunter that doesn’t exist in reality.

And truthfully, choosing hunting ability is the easiest and fastest way to get through the early stages.

Farming only becomes efficient after setting up automation systems, but to reach that point, you inevitably need to discover mines and farm D-grade to C-grade resources through mining.

Trying to kill monsters with copper weapons without any abilities is truly hellish.

Once I started rationalizing like this, my 30-minute deliberation became meaningless.

Now I just needed to decide which “hunting” ability to choose.

This game with its insane freedom doesn’t limit hunting to simple weapons like swords or bows.

In this world, everything is possible.

You can romantically use a sword or an axe.

You can even use magic if possible.

Though that content is only available in maps with resource rarity B-grade or higher.

In a world where you can even make guns, what more is there to say?

Of course, with high freedom comes a price for wielding weapons freely, and in Farming World, that price was time and effort.

This one ability lets you skip that time and effort.

“Sword… magic… summoning…”

There were so many options to consider.

Magic, as mentioned earlier, can’t be utilized right away since it takes time to farm A-grade resources, but thinking of real-world magicians made it a tempting choice.

“So it’s between sword and summon…”

More specifically, the subcategories are ‘melee weapons,’ ‘ranged weapons,’ ‘summons,’ and ‘magic,’ but since I don’t particularly favor greatswords or axes, if I choose melee weapons, I’ll use a sword.

For ranged weapons, bows are most standard, with the future-oriented aspect of being able to switch to guns later.

However, I don’t particularly like that in the original Farming World, to use ranged weapons—specifically bows—you had to make arrows. In this high-freedom game, making arrows is more annoying and complicated than shooting them, and efficiency drops dramatically if you don’t retrieve them.

Easy and convenient is best.

What’s the goal of Farming World?

Automation!

A world of automation created through long, hard grinding and effort.

You voluntarily walk into the grind, but ultimately it’s a game about achieving that satisfying “click.”

For a spoonful of romance, choose the sword.

For romance plus personal preference, though less than the sword, choose summons.

“Hmm.”

The final choice between these two candidates was entirely mine.

Both sword and summons meet all my requirements:

1. Good for getting through early stages? O

2. Good for both base and hunting? O

3. Good for the future? O

The difference is that swords and summons have clear advantages in points 1 and 3.

Swords can be immediately effective with the provided wooden sword, without needing resources.

Summons are particularly useful in the future for both base and hunting.

This connects to point 2, and in terms of versatility, summons are overwhelmingly practical.

But from a hunting perspective, for my safety, especially in the early stages, a sword is much safer than summons.

“Ah, this is really difficult.”

If I could choose such an SSS+ ability in reality.

Sword or summons.

Which would I choose?

After all that deliberation, I finally made my choice.

[Upgrading Melee Weapons to SSS+ grade.]

“You idiot. Seriously thinking about the future.”

I almost fell for the game’s trap.

Of course, I was considering the best-case scenario.

If I had chosen summons, I might have struggled unnecessarily in the tutorial.

“Well, I’ll get summons later anyway…”

Even without SSS+ grade, summoning ability is something I’ll eventually upgrade.

[Tutorial Quest Activated]

[Tutorial Quest 1]

[Check the provided equipment and explore around the house]

[Reward: Ability (Farming F) Unlocked]

Finally, the tutorial quest began.

I immediately opened the wooden box next to the door leading out of the small hut.

Various items filled the narrow wooden box.

The contents of the box appeared divided into compartments before my eyes.

[Wooden Sword] [Wooden Pickaxe] [Wooden Axe] [Wooden Watering Can] [Wooden Hoe] [Bread(F) X10] [Water Bottle(500ML) X10]

Basic supplies in the standard 10-slot ‘Small Box’.

Although it’s a game with high realism, being a game, opening a box in virtual reality showed the contents organized like an inventory through system messages.

I took everything out one by one and placed them on the belt around my waist.

Similarly, equipped items enter an ‘inventory’ that doesn’t hinder movement or feel heavy.

This belt is the basic ‘Farming Belt’ with 7 slots.

Think of it as a simple inventory for basic items.

“Phew. Let’s get started.”

Though reluctantly.

I need to find my home.

I drew the wooden sword first.