Chapter 10 : Map manager

A strange land.

The place that used to be a temporary space until the tutorial was over has now changed into a new home where I will live forever.

It has transformed from a cold and cramped hut into an 8-pyeong one-room with a view of the Han River in Seoul.

“What’s it like from the start? It’s more reality than virtual reality.”

Of course, whether this is a game or reality is still uncertain, but whatever it is, as long as I haven’t woken up from it, I think of it as real, and that’s how it feels.

It actually felt somewhat cozy.

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

Monsters will come close to the hut, but they won’t attack it.

The identity of the farming world itself has hunting as a secondary content, but the main focus is healing farming.

Even if monsters steal crops or disturb farming, if they were to attack the hut to the point where the game would become impossible to progress, half of the users would probably quit.

Whether this rule applies here, I’ll need to check.

What should I do first?

As I was making plans, a new message appeared.

[Manager summon available for managing the secret farming map.]

[Summon Manager! Use commands to summon a management manager.]

“Ah, this was also here.”

The map management manager is usually summonable after completing the tutorial, and it was originally an option in the main map.

You could do it or not do it.

For me, it’s been over five years since I last summoned this map management manager.

If you skip the tutorial, you can’t summon the management manager.

Even if you summon it, it’s mostly just an extension of the tutorial, with the manager explaining commands and tips. So, for users who have already progressed in the game, there’s no real need to summon it.

At most, players summon it just to have someone to talk to when they’re bored, but even that doesn’t really matter because in the farming world, you can hire NPCs anyway.

“Summon Manager!”

I forgot about my 10 years of experience.

This is not a game.

It’s a new game.

New life.

New world.

I think of it as a return to the past with memories intact, and I will humbly take advantage of everything I can.

Woooooooooo.

Along with the summoning command, the long-forgotten resonance sound echoed, and a fairy popped out.

“Hello, Master!”

“Ah, hello.”

The fairy, about the size of my forearm, greeted me cheerfully, flapping its wings.

New players are often surprised when they first meet the manager.

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

Especially hearing it from a fairy species…

It’s kind of awkward because, socially, we tend to feel a sense of… betrayal when addressed by smaller species.

But those who have been playing the farming world for a long time know.

These fairies are not young beings but are fairies who have lived for hundreds of years according to the setting.

“It’s been almost 50,000 years since the master of the dimensional rift appeared… Ah! I am Lulu, born to assist and help manage this dimension.”

“Lulu?”

The name was different from the usual managers that appear after the tutorial, but it was easy to remember.

“Lulu. What can you do?”

In games, the function of a manager is not very useful to me.

At best, it just explains the subsystems that were missed in the tutorial.

Maybe here it’s different.

Lulu proudly explained as if waiting for the question.

“I’m here to help the master who is visiting this dimension for the first time, to help organize and cultivate this dimension. I can assist in growth and provide advice on how to develop the dimension. If you have any questions or needs, feel free to ask me anytime.”

“So what can you actually do? Can you chop trees, mine rocks, clear weeds?”

“Of course! If you help me grow, I can do those simple tasks!”

“How do you grow?”

“If you go to the fairy growth tab through your farming points and farm…”

“Useless.”

“…What?”

I had some expectations, but as usual.

Unlike the farming world, where growth might give you something useful, I don’t even have enough points to get stronger right now, so I don’t have the resources to invest in a fairy.

Rather than growing a fairy to work around the house, I would rather hire a reliable NPC worker later.

“Can you be unsummoned again?”

“Once I’m summoned to the map, I can only be unsummoned after the master dies! Until the next master appears, I will wait again in the dimensional rift.”

The words spoken with a bright smile were a bit creepy, but I couldn’t help but frown.

“What about food?”

“Don’t worry! I don’t eat much.”

“Haa…”

The food issue may not be that serious, but still—another useless mouth to feed.

Shouldn’t have called her after all.

For now, I decided to pretend she didn’t exist.

If I left her somewhere, she might turn out useful.

I decided to start with the basics.

Things I should have done in the beginning but skipped in favor of rushing through the tutorial.

“Find the village. Find the mine. Find the sewer. Clean up the yard.”

Since the map is so large, things that could normally be done in a day might now have to be planned weekly and done step-by-step.

Even when I played on SS-grade maps, villages were so far that I eventually just created new villages wherever was convenient and moved the NPCs.

Similarly, to craft higher-grade tools, I had to find a nearby mine and farm resources.

Finding the sewer was to deal with the big rats I saw in the tutorial so they wouldn’t interfere with my farming.

Cleaning the yard was similar.

But on such a vast map, I had to decide what counted as the yard.

If I tried to clean the entire area designated as the yard from the start, I might end up doing nothing but that forever.

A “5KM radius” isn’t just a joke—SS-grade maps and above are unimaginably huge.

“As expected of you, Master! You know exactly what to do first!”

“Don’t be noisy right next to me.”

Lulu, hearing my mutter, giggled and chimed in.

Even when pushed away coldly, she didn’t get upset and just kept talking.

“The closest village from the cabin is about 2KM to the northwest!”

“…Huh?”

This useless fairy girl.

Maybe she wasn’t so useless after all.

If there’s one crucial thing in farming world games, it’s information—specifically about the map.

While the game does focus on growing seasonal crops and earning money as a healing dopamine boost, exploring dark maps, discovering unseen resources, and venturing into more dangerous areas is just as important.

Fully uncovering every part of the map is nearly impossible.

It’s inefficient, and even I, who played an SS-grade map as my main for 10 years, still haven’t uncovered everything.

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

Unlike RPGs or FPS games where combat provides constant new dopamine hits despite repetition, in this genre, the dopamine from discovery and exploration doesn’t last very long.

Pointless grinding or getting lost while chasing big rewards just becomes a time sink.

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

Even I was stuck trying to decide where to go next because I hadn’t cleared the yard yet, but one word from Lulu cleared it all up.

“How do you know that?”

“Huh? I went exploring with a former master!”

“Didn’t you say that was 50,000 years ago? How old are you?”

“It’s rude to ask a lady’s age. And time doesn’t flow in dimensional gaps, so I’m not as young as I look!”

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

“Do you know any other locations?”

“I know where the mine and sewer you mentioned are!”

“…Insane.”

Suddenly, Lulu looked adorable.

“Kyah!”

I grabbed her and rubbed my cheek against hers in praise.

“You actually were useful!”

In maps with immeasurable size, even knowing the direction and location doesn’t make it easy to reach.

2KM sounds short, but it’s quite far on foot.

Besides, the secret farming map was completely undeveloped aside from a small part of the yard near the cabin.

Thinking about clearing the path and fighting any monsters along the way, I didn’t feel even a bit disappointed that I learned the location so easily.

I’m a results-oriented person.

If the reward is good, I enjoy the dopamine—it’s not worth suffering for the “nobility” of the process or meaningless happiness from hardship.

Feeling slightly more hopeful, I asked just in case,

“Then do you perhaps know the key locations in the level 1 biome?”

“Uh… Hehe… My previous master never got that far… and he was my first one too.”

Figures.