#003
Jingle.
Heavy coins falling into my palm. I was disappointed that there were only 5, but my mouth fell open when I checked the denomination. They were 10,000 Rual coins! (Rual is the currency unit of this game world.) A total of 50,000 Rual. What’s gotten into the system that’s usually indescribably stingy?
Of course, during the tutorial, prices had risen frighteningly with each playthrough. Bread that cost 100 Rual in the original game had risen to 1,000 Rual by the last tutorial, so that says it all. But if the system had even a shred of conscience, it wouldn’t raise prices by ten or twenty times at once. Even generously assuming a 100% increase, it would be around 2,000 Rual.
I was relieved for now, thinking I wouldn’t have to worry about my life hanging in the balance due to hunger for a while. If I could just get through the early stage, I’d somehow be able to make money.
Now there was only one thing left.
“…A glass bottle?”
It was an item I’d never seen before, but rather than feeling pleased or curious… I felt ambiguous. What the hell is this supposed to be? I picked it up and looked it over, but it was just an ordinary glass bottle with a somewhat wide opening. It looked like the kind you’d see in movies or animations where someone puts a message inside and floats it on the sea.
“Is it a water bottle?”
Just in case, I took the glass bottle and went toward the railing. Being wary of the seaweed below, I carefully tilted the bottle to collect some contaminated water. Then I waited for a moment. Wondering if the dirty water might purify itself and turn into clean water.
“…As if that would happen.”
I had harbored some faint hope, but it was indeed too greedy an expectation.
“As if they’d give such an excellent item from the start.”
I clicked my tongue and poured out the dirty water again. Without even water to rinse it, I’d only made the bottle dirtier for nothing.
“Just one money pouch and that’s it.”
I sighed and stood up. Since when did I have luck with draws? This is why I hate gacha and random stuff. I went through all that trouble trying to salvage something far away for nothing.
“Let’s just go to the village.”
Ting!
As if hearing my words and remembering belatedly, the system hurriedly displayed a window.
[Quest: Meet the Mayor!]
[Raon-nim has been holed up on the farm for quite a long time after suffering serious flood damage. Now it’s time to pull yourself together and start making efforts to improve the situation!]
[Meet the mayor and have a serious conversation about town reconstruction!]
This could be considered the starting point of the main quest. You meet the mayor, hear about the current difficult situation of the town, and receive a request to cooperate in rebuilding the town. Naturally, as the player, whether I liked it or not, I had to accept that request and perform the quests to progress through the game.
Actually, despite all the talk about town reconstruction and such, you could hardly feel any desolation from outside the game. If you looked closely, there might be trash rolling around in invisible corners or some monster spawn areas covered in dark red stains, but on the surface it was a perfectly beautiful resort destination.
The reconstruction talk seemed to be just an excuse to give players infinite grinding quests to procure materials. I only realized after entering the game how terrible the stench from areas contaminated with dark red stains was, and how rapidly that contamination was spreading. (Of course, initially there were incomparably fewer contaminated areas than now after 9 playthroughs.)
I gathered my items and stuffed them appropriately into my bag, work clothes pockets, and tool belt. When I hung the hoe on my tool belt, it shrunk like a keychain and dangled like an ornament. After finishing preparations to leave, I stopped while trying to exit through the window in the roof. My reflection was visible in the mirror hanging next to the window.
The reflection in the mirror was actually familiar. Originally, my appearance after entering the game wasn’t that different from my real self, and the character’s outfit that matched the game background, which had felt extremely unfamiliar at first, had become second nature after repeating 9 tutorials.
Actually, this game was originally a cute 3D graphics game, composed of a combination of SD characters and detailed, gorgeous illustrations. Naturally, when I first fell into this real-life version of the world, I was surprised and bewildered. For a while, I didn’t even realize I had entered the game world.
After getting somewhat used to it, that is, after accepting reality, one question arose. Just before entering the game world, I had changed my hairstyle to bluish-white curly hair, but as soon as I entered, it returned to the original dark brown color and even the mole under my eye came back.
I once casually asked the system about it, but as always, it coldly ignored questions it didn’t want to answer. Now, well, it’s not that important, so I just live with it.
Actually, what bothered me more was how much thinner my physique had become compared to the beginning. If I was reset to the starting point after the tutorial ended, shouldn’t my lost fat and muscle also return to the beginning? But why was I losing muscle and getting thinner with each playthrough?
I roughly tousled my wet hair and turned my head. There was no answer, so thinking about it would only make me sigh. I cleared my idle thoughts and exited through the window.
And the moment I looked at my farm from the rooftop, the sigh I had been holding back flowed out like a groan.
As I had already expected when I saw the tall cabin more than half submerged, the farm was completely underwater.
All I could see in front was water, water, water. A vast sea spread out before me. If you looked closely, it was blackly contaminated water, but now thanks to the morning sunlight, the surface was shimmering, hiding the filth and even dazzling to the eyes. What could occasionally be seen between the sparkling seawater were only the tops of tall trees, making it feel somewhat surreal.
Originally, the scenery visible from this cabin wasn’t like this.
First, a considerably wide farm would spread out, with scattered houses below it, and if you went much further down, a beach with sparkling white sand would appear.
On the beach walkway, there were people enjoying walks or jogging from early morning, and along the roadside were colorful souvenir shops, restaurants, and leisure sports-related stores lined up. At one end, there was also a pier where passenger ships came and went, a yacht marina, and breakwaters and a lighthouse.
But all of those things had vanished without a trace.
“The main focus is farm management and the background concept is a seaside resort, but if you submerge both the farm and beach in water, what are you trying to accomplish…”
I shook my head back and forth. Even knowing about it, it was utterly futile.
When I turned around, I could see a dense forest beyond the seawater. Among the various routes leading to the village, the only one that survived was the path through the forest. Since this was a world overrun with monsters, passing through the forest even in broad daylight was no easy task.
“First, I need to make a raft.”
Since my house had become an island, I had to cross the sea first to go anywhere. In terms of distance alone, swimming would be sufficient, but unless I wanted to offer my body as food to the shark schools swimming around, I had to put that thought away.
I gathered floating timber and household items from inside the house to make a raft. Thanks to having done it several times during the tutorial, the speed was faster than expected. The problem was that there was no guarantee sharks wouldn’t attack just because I was on a raft. Especially since giant shark monsters would try to flip the raft or swallow the entire raft into their stomachs, I had to wait for the moment when the shark schools moved as far away as possible.
Although I was a bit delayed waiting for the right timing, I safely arrived at the forest entrance on the other side. I pulled the raft up and tied it to a nearby tree, but honestly, I had no expectation of returning. Even during the tutorial, I had never once returned after leaving this house.
I always died away from home, becoming a monster’s meal.
“Farewell.”
Although my affection had diminished somewhat due to the ghostly seaweed, it was still regrettable to become a wanderer with no place to return to, so I solemnly bid farewell to my small house in the game.
***
I felt that something was seriously going wrong when I had crossed about half of the forest. Of course, I hadn’t optimistically thought I could pass through a forest teeming with monsters with just a single hoe without any trouble. I was prepared for my life force to be reduced to some extent.
This place would become serious when night fell, but it was still daytime and around the trail where hunters traveled, so most of what I encountered were small fry that had been contaminated and transformed from forest rabbits or squirrels. They had become aggressive and would attack people, but their teeth and claws had actually been debuffed in sharpness, so I wouldn’t be injured to the point of having limbs torn off. Most importantly, I thought that if I could just make it to the village with my life intact, I could somehow receive treatment.
I was getting bitten and scratched little by little, but I could somehow handle them with my own strength. I advanced while swinging my hoe and kicking with my feet. Even weak ones would be dangerous if they swarmed like insects or rats, but fortunately there weren’t that many of them.
The problem arose elsewhere. My condition began to gradually worsen. At first, I thought it was because my stamina had been depleted from doing a lot of work since morning on an empty stomach. But the symptoms rapidly worsened, and at some point, I became dizzy and short of breath to the point where I couldn’t move my body properly. My stomach began churning and my ankles and wrists started stinging.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
