Chapter 13 : Yard Cleaning

You can’t expect the performance of a refrigerator from something called an icebox.

At best, it’s just a slightly bigger cooler bag, and you have to put ice packs inside for it to somewhat maintain a cooling effect.

If electricity could be used here, I’d just bring a refrigerator, but unfortunately, to bring electricity to the base, you need to farm at least grade A resources.

In reality, electricity is one of the resources that overflow, but in the farming world, it’s a very precious advanced tech.

So Big Rats meat had to be eaten quickly and finished off.

Chiiik-

If possible, it would be more romantic to bring something like a pot lid to grill on.

But since I was quickly packing things from home, it wasn’t easy to take care of that kind of feeling.

Still, there’s a frying pan somewhere.

The sound and smell of grilling meat, along with the cool breeze, give off a feeling like camping.

In the farming world, many people like these kinds of elements.

Since it’s a game set against the backdrop of nature, you don’t have to go far in reality to find nature and camp; instead, it feels even more natural than real nature.

Each biome even has a different nature concept, so you can camp differently each time.

On the other hand, I wasn’t the type to really enjoy that kind of romance.

As a rational person rather than an emotional one, the dopamine from achievement felt more stimulating than the romance that healing gives.

But now, grilling meat, I felt that I was somewhat emotional after all.

“It’s just because it’s a game.”

What’s the point of having romance in a game?

But thinking of it as reality, it feels somewhat cozy, and I think it’s a special experience only I enjoy.

Well, even in reality, there are many places where you can turn an empty dungeon into a campsite to create this feeling, but doing it in a place that’s like my own dimension must feel different.

“Hmm.”

Big Rats meat is rat meat.

The taste is closer to chicken than pork.

Still, there’s quite a bit of meat, so if you grill it instead of frying, it’s also good to eat like pork belly.

Put two or three pieces of meat on a lettuce leaf, add some ssam (wrap) and garlic, then finely chop a chili pepper and add one piece, then put it all in one bite.

“Kuh.”

It’s slightly lukewarm now, but I popped open a can of beer and drank it, and there’s no place like heaven here.

“Nom nom.”

Next to me, Lulu also picked up a piece of meat and was diligently eating it with her small mouth.

“Tastes good?”

“Yes. Nom nom nom.”

Eating like a beggar who hasn’t eaten in days, I wondered if she really was a fairy.

“Do fairies eat meat too?”

“Vegetables are the main diet, but for nutrition, they can’t avoid eating meat sometimes.”

“I don’t think so.”

Because she’s not even touching the lettuce and is only gobbling up the meat.

Well, Big Rats meat is plentiful anyway, and how much could she eat with that tiny body?

So I didn’t really stop her.

If she doesn’t eat it, it’ll go to waste. Since I’ll keep seeing Lulu in the future, it’d be good to at least feed her well.

After the meal, dessert was, as expected, cup noodles.

Since I hurriedly packed food into the carrier for this, how could I just skip it?

I boiled water in a pot and poured it into the noodles.

After waiting 3 minutes and taking a bite, the spicy taste raised my body temperature that had dropped in the chilly evening breeze.

“Good.”

It might have been good to eat it with a pork belly feel like bibim-myeon (spicy mixed noodles), but unfortunately, there was no bibim-myeon at home.

Lulu patted her belly while watching me eat and quietly came over to my side.

“Give me a bite?”

I picked a noodle strand with chopsticks and offered it, and Lulu caught it with her hands and slurped it down.

Cough cough. “It’s spicy.”

Well, even if she’s not as useful as I thought, it’s not bad to have her chattering beside me.

The long, long second night passed.

[Day 3]

I discard 10 years of myself.

A new map.

A new start.

To do that, I have to find my original intention.

Bababababababa bababa bab bababara~

The best alarm to get a tired body up is this one.

[6 AM]

I’d like to move from dawn, but if I don’t sleep more than 6 hours, I have to live the remaining 18 hours + @ with a debuff, so it’s better to sleep at least 6 hours if possible.

After waking up, I did some light stretching, roughly washed my face, and immediately took out the watering can, filled it with water, and headed to the yard.

[Wooden Watering Can]

• Grade: D-
• Made to receive and spray water.
• Can hold up to 5L of water.

Because the watering can is low grade, the weight of the water was fully felt in my hands.

Since my muscle strength is high, it didn’t feel very heavy, but when playing with farming as the main focus, the watering can is always the first thing to upgrade because performance differences can’t be ignored.

Splash-

I moistened the small garden with the watering can.

Seeing the healing herbs sprouting green shoots in one day made me smile proudly.

Pretty things.

Fill my wallet nicely.

Since I didn’t plant many seeds, I sprinkled about 1L of water, and the garden was moist.

I put the leftover watering can back into my belt.

Now, since the scale of the farming is small, I just fetch water from the outhouse toilet.

If I wanted to make it bigger, I’d have to build a well or open a waterway.

“I’ll think about it later.”

Maybe because I sorted out the big rats once, even without special precautions, there were no traces of big rats having been around.

Anyway, until the sewer is cleared, unless I guard the crops overnight, I have to accept the damage.

At least I planted recovery herbs inside, so I can only hope that the damage is limited to those herbs.

“Hey. Lulu! Let’s go!”

“Yes, master!”

I took out the wooden sword, put some simple snacks in the small backpack I packed in the carrier, then called Lulu to set the direction.

I thought Lulu was just a manager who gave trivial info, but surprisingly, she said she could come along when exploring, so there was no reason not to bring her.

“Do you know how to fight?”

“Um… If master invests in me…”

“Forget it. Just lead the way well.”

Having at least a navigation system is something.

The journey to clean the yard and find a level 0 biome village has finally started.

I felt a bit nervous.

What’s the big deal.

If it was another map, I’d just rush in blindly and break through, but since this is an SSS+ level map with high-grade basic resources and strong monsters, I have to be careful too.

I make a path by cutting weeds.

Nothing unusual happened, surprisingly.

There are no dangerous monsters lining up around the cabin in the first place.

At most, the big rats or ticks that occasionally pop out.

The monsters that are almost like birds but not quite, are all pseudo-monsters.

Well, these are mostly F to E grade, definitely better developed than on a normal map, but the SSS+ melee weapon didn’t disappoint me.

“Wow. Master. Amazing. Your swordsmanship…”

“What was the previous owner good at?”

I didn’t want to ask because it felt like a clingy boyfriend vibe, but to keep exploring this map, it was good to absorb all the info Lulu had from experience.

When I asked casually, Lulu got into a brief recollection and started chattering the info she knew.

“The previous owner… was a mage.”

“Hmm.”

“He had tremendous talent…”

“But died early.”

“…Yes.”

“Idiot. How do you get through the early game with magic?”

Is that why I got the chance?

I insulted the previous owner I didn’t know, but I actually flinched remembering the moment I was debating between a summoner and a sword.

Could I be confidently breaking through like this now with an SSS+ level summoner?

Not impossible, but maybe I would have had to fight desperately risking my life with weak summoners against big rats until the summons pulled their weight.

Some say wielding a sword is not romantic, but no?

To me, it is romance itself.

With light steps, I dodge the charge of the big rat bigger than me and stab its eye with the wooden sword.

The sword digs in deep as the huge body struggles.

Without being swung around, I hold my center firmly and cut its neck.

Winning a fight without using skills was both a thrill and an inspiration to me.

This passive skill, which makes me a master not just of sword handling but of ‘combat’ itself with melee weapons, is something I feel satisfied with every time despite little experience.

“Lululu~”

“Yes?”

“Not you, idiot.”

I leisurely butcher the big rat, cut weeds, and mine rocks.

Cut trees and slowly clear the path.

The progress is slow, so even around lunchtime, if I look back, the cabin is faintly visible far away, not much progress, but it’s okay.

“This is a real jackpot. Damn. Why am I only getting maps like this now?”

Basic resources don’t make money.

No fool thinks they can earn money from basic resources in a farming world.

Basic resources are just that — basic.

Weeds. Wood. Stone.

Resources that are the base for making everything.

Just because they are D-grade doesn’t mean they’re valuable.

Sure, if you sell a lot, whether in farming or real life, it might bring money, but the efficiency isn’t there.

But rare items that come out with low probability from these are different.

I mentioned seeds that come from cutting wood or weeds via recovery herbs.

When mining rocks, very rarely, ores of that grade also appear.

Usually, even if they appear, it’s in powder form, barely nail-sized, so mining rocks for ore farming is nonsense.

“Wow… why is this coming out so well?”

After cleaning the yard for almost half a day, iron ore piled up enough to feel the weight in my backpack.

And then.

“Got it!!”

More brilliant than iron.

A sparkling gray gem dropped.