Ch.99. Host OP Map

Resources are incredibly important in this world.

Why else would wars break out over them?

Countries with nothing but desert become incredibly wealthy just from oil, while others invent new energy sources from natural gas.

Resources always accompany the advancement of civilization.

In a way, a nation’s power can be measured by how much of the limited resources buried on planet Earth it possesses.

In that sense, America has always been jokingly called “the host’s cheat map” because American soil contains abundant resources of various kinds.

Even in modern society, where people say everything that could be mined has been mined, new resources and energy sources still pop up there regularly.

This remained true in the new world known as the Hunter society.

– Why does America have so many resource dungeons?

– Well, it’s a huge country.

– By that logic, China should be number one.

– Because it’s the host’s cheat map..

– For real lol. America isn’t America for nothing.

Since hunters and dungeons are elements that can’t be explained by modern civilization, there’s still no answer to the question of “Why only America?” However, several theories have emerged.

First, America has many powerful hunters.

They have a large population, recruit hunters from other countries to benefit from America’s status as a superpower, and actively raid dungeons with their formidable military might.

Because the land is vast, the absolute number of dungeons is high, and since they conquer higher-grade dungeons than other countries, they naturally discover more resource-rich dungeons. This is currently the most plausible theory.

Well, plausible doesn’t mean certain.

In reality, India and China, with the world’s largest populations, are following close behind America, but the United States remains the world’s top resource-holding country.

Even America is facing a situation where dungeon resources are in such short supply that they’re importing them, and the prices of what are globally called “new dungeon energy” resources are skyrocketing daily.

Things have gotten so bad that people say you can make more money mindlessly buying stocks in dungeon-related resources than working at a company.

In other words, resources from dungeons are worth money.

But even dungeons don’t produce many resources.

In my Secret Farming Map, there are so many resources that they’re labeled “immeasurable.”

“This changes everything.”

When I first saw the 7-day login-logout cooldown, I didn’t think much of it.

What kind of game makes you wait 7 days between logins and logouts?

I figured I just wouldn’t play it.

If a game annoys you, the monk should leave, as they say.

I was already on the fence about reclaiming my original map, so it seemed like a good excuse.

But now that I’ve found several reasons to return to the Secret Farming Map, I needed to reconsider my stance on the login-logout issue.

“I need to reduce the cooldown.”

Entering once and coming out every 7 days isn’t actually a big deal.

I still don’t know how many points it takes to level up.

But I thought being able to go back and forth frequently would definitely be beneficial.

Right now, all I can bring out are D-grade wood, stones, and weeds, so it doesn’t matter much, but I should be able to harvest C to B-grade resources soon.

I’ll gather enough farming points to unlock some active skills or abilities, and by the time I’m harvesting sellable resources, I should level up enough to make logging in and out more convenient.

After organizing my thoughts, I realized how precious this time was.

“The dungeon isn’t what matters.”

Being an SSS+ grade hunter or whatever doesn’t matter when I have resources piled up in my backyard. There’s no need to waste time on unprofitable hunting.

Just as I was about to log in, I hesitated.

“…But it’s still 7 days.”

While rushing is good, when a new system appears, it’s better to carefully examine everything step by step.

Above all, though I never imagined this situation would unfold, I now had the opportunity to fulfill fantasies I’d only dared to imagine.

Back during the brief heyday of Farming World, the active community often said things like:

– Ah… I’m craving a barbecue party in Farming World.

– You could just have one?

– You can grill meat and wrap it with vegetables, but there’s no ramen.

– For real lol. What’s the point of decorating your base like a campsite when there’s no ramen?

– Why don’t they patch it? It would be nice if we could buy modern foods

– I’d definitely buy them even if they were expensive.

– I’m really craving ramen

It’s not like I wanted some fancy food.

Users who grinded to decorate their bases to enjoy Farming World’s healing atmosphere, under countless stars in the night sky and surrounded by nature, longed for modern food.

And now I could become the first person to make that happen.

I immediately left my room again.

I opened the pantry and took out a small pink carry-on suitcase.

Then I stuffed it with snacks, ramen, and cup noodles from the kitchen and pantry.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking food to eat in the dungeon.”

Since going to a dungeon or Secret Map is basically the same thing.

After filling the suitcase with snacks, I wheeled it out, and my younger sister finally noticed me and freaked out.

“Hey! What are you doing with my suitcase?!”

“I’ll return it after I use it.”

“Get out! Give it back! Do you want to die?”

In the past, I would have backed down from this little brat.

Despite her size, she’s an awakened hunter who goes into dungeons, either D or C grade.

But now I’m an SSS+ grade hunter with S-level strength.

“Eek! What the—!”

I subdued her easily by pushing her forehead with my finger.

“What’s wrong with you?!”

Ignoring her, I went into my room, locked the door, and called out:

“Login.”

[Logging into Secret Farming Map.]

—————————

This isn’t a dream.

A shabby hut with a small yard in front of a slightly open door.

The tiny garden was honestly so small it wouldn’t even compare to the front yards tended by elderly people—just enough to get through the tutorial. It was embarrassing to call it the property of a 10-year veteran Farming World player. Inside the wooden box, Big Rats meat had been added.

“I’ll put this in the ice box for now.”

I couldn’t bring just anything from reality to here.

Wondering what would work, I carried some items, put some in the two bread and water slots on my belt, and held others in my hands when I crossed over. The things I was holding disappeared, while only the items in my belt inventory survived.

I don’t know if the missing items remained in reality or simply vanished, but the suitcase full of food was safely stored in my inventory when I crossed over, as was the ice box.

I open the ice box and put the meat inside.

Despite being quite a large ice box, the Big Rats meat was so big that less than half of it fit.

Until I gather resources to make a refrigerator, there’s no way to preserve perishable meats like this except to eat them quickly, which makes things tricky.

Normally, you wouldn’t have enough leeway in the early game to worry about the shelf life of meat, so this is actually a happy problem to have.

I’ll just have to eat it steadily.

And I continue gathering information.

“As expected, inventory stacking works by packaging unit.”

This was a concept already proven in the original Farming World.

If you put various items in a storage inventory and then put that into another inventory, it takes up just one stack slot.

So if you fill a 5-slot item pouch with wood, stone, and resources, the pouch becomes a total of 6 items, but when packaged, it only takes up one slot.

Whether this applied to real-world objects could only be proven by my experiment, and it turned out that even items without storage effects, like the suitcase, were treated as a single inventory slot, allowing me to bring dozens of food items in just one belt slot.

That’s efficient.

It means the reverse is also possible, so when taking various materials out, I can reference this when filling the limited 7-slot inventory, some of which needs to be allocated for weapons.

“I’ll just set out the snacks and ramen.”

The basic hut has a small sink and shelf like you’d find in a tiny studio apartment.

They must have included it for cooking, and now it’s filled with snacks, ramen, and seasonings I brought.

These are things you can grow or buy with Fam in the village in Farming World, but they’re much cheaper if brought from reality.

Though the mansion was gone, my heart felt much fuller.

“This is awesome.”

When I was young,

I used to make my own bunker by putting up blanket walls in the small balcony in my room.

The snacks and treats I secretly filled my blanket fort with.

The fantasy novels I secretly borrowed from the bookstore and read late into the night under the covers.

This wasn’t some shoddy bunker, but a perfect bunker in another world that only I could enter, and that feeling washed over me just from a few packs of ramen, some snacks, and an ice box.