Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Meanwhile, while Blackie went to submit his report.

Woo-jin was introducing the fields to the Doppelganger.

At present, Woo-jin had planted a total of five crops.

Potatoes.

Sweet potatoes.

Cherry tomatoes.

He had already harvested those three crops and was eating them well, while the lettuce and perilla leaves were growing vigorously.

The lettuce field and perilla leaf field were five pyeong each.

The lettuce had only just grown out of the young-leaf stage. Light-green leaves spread out in overlapping layers, clinging close to the ground.

Each head had started taking shape rather nicely.

They had not filled out completely yet, but palm-sized leaves spread roundly, taking on a fairly lettuce-like form.

The perilla leaves were similar.

The stems were still thin, but they stood straight, and the opposite leaves had already formed the broad shape unique to perilla leaves.

They were a little smaller than an adult’s palm.

The leaf veins were distinct, and the green was a shade darker than the lettuce.

The distinctive sharp scent of perilla leaves already seemed to be faintly seeping out.

If this were a real vegetable garden, it would have been the sort of sight one might see about fifteen days after planting. At this rate, he would probably be able to harvest the lettuce and perilla leaves tomorrow.

“Looking at the lettuce and perilla leaves makes me want pork belly.”

It seemed like it would be wonderful to wrap one piece of well-cooked pork belly in lettuce and perilla leaves, then eat it with aged kimchi. As Woo-jin imagined it, saliva gathered in his mouth on its own.

‘I wonder if Mom is doing well.’

He missed Madam Kim Mi-sook’s kimchi.

After he started living alone while working as a civil servant, he had visited his family home once every few months, and every time, he had brought back a box of kimchi.

Each time, he would eat boiled pork slices with kimjang kimchi at home.

Then, after returning to his studio apartment, he would eat spicy ramen with kimjang kimchi.

And once some time passed and it turned into aged kimchi, he would make kimchi stew with it, or grill aged kimchi with pork belly…….

“Sluuurp.”

He wiped away the drool that had escaped his mouth.

(…….) Tilt.

“Ah. Sorry. I got lost in thought for a moment.”

Woo-jin brought over one book.

For Woo-jin, who had known absolutely nothing about farming, it was a book written by some farmer that had become a blessed shower of rain in a drought.

【You Can Do It Too! First Steps to Vegetable Gardening】

“You should read this. I haven’t read all of it yet either, but at least I’ve skimmed the sections on the crops I planted.”

(…….) Nod!

“Good. Read it whenever you have time. First, shall we dig up some potatoes?”

The field where he had dug up potatoes once a few days ago.

Among the potatoes left over after that harvest, the ones that had sprouted had been cut into seed potatoes and planted again.

Since then, the potato field had once again changed noticeably.

The stems rising above the ridges had already grown to just below his knees, and the leaves were broad, deep green, and spread densely.

The round, thick leaves unique to potatoes overlapped one another, almost enough to cover the soil below.

Here and there, new leaves were still coming up, and the soil beneath the thickened stems was slightly swollen.

Beneath that soil, well-ripened potatoes would be neatly packed away.

“First, watch what I do carefully, okay?”

(…….) Nod.

Woo-jin first picked up the Hand Hoe he had set up on one side of the field and crouched in front of the healthiest-looking stem.

He lightly drove the tip of the Hand Hoe into the soil beside the ridge, then put strength into his wrist and lifted the soil slightly.

SQUELCH.

A sensation of digging in smoothly.

“Harvest!”

CRUMBLE!

When the skill activated, the soil that should have been hard split apart softly, as if it had been well tilled. Around the place where the tip of the Hand Hoe had entered, the clumped dirt loosened evenly, and obstacles like stones or tough roots were naturally pushed aside.

Woo-jin put down the Hand Hoe and grabbed the lower part of the stem with his hand. Then he pulled upward, not too hard.

CRACK.

With the sound of soil splitting, the entire stem was pulled up. Under it, fist-sized light-brown potatoes were dangling in clusters, covered in dirt.

[Harvest Lv. 3 proficiency has increased.]

[Harvest Lv. 3 proficiency has…….]

[You have obtained Tower Resistance Potato.]

[You have obtained Tower Resistance Potato…….]

“See?”

Woo-jin lifted the stem with the potatoes attached. The Doppelganger approached without a word and lowered its head slightly, looking down at the potatoes.

When Woo-jin handed over the Hand Hoe, the Doppelganger began harvesting potatoes in earnest, just as Woo-jin had done.

CRUMBLE!

CRACK!

[Harvest Lv. 3 proficiency has increased.]

[You have learned Harvest Lv. 4.]

Woo-jin blinked.

The Doppelganger dug up the potatoes well, just as Woo-jin had done.

In truth, that was not the part that surprised him.

The Harvest skill’s proficiency had increased, and the skill level had gone up!

“Oh my God.”

It helped with farming, and it even raised skill proficiency?

Had he ever seen such an insanely lovable friend?!

“Doppelganger, you’re seriously the best.”

(…….) Sheepish.

When Woo-jin praised it, the Doppelganger scratched its head.

Excited, Woo-jin continued working hard at digging up potatoes with the Doppelganger, and the moment they harvested the final potato.

‘Huh?’

The world began spinning.

[Summon Doppelganger has been canceled due to insufficient Magic Power.]

---

Tap, tap.

Something was hitting his cheek.

When Woo-jin slowly opened his eyes.

“Woo-jin! Wake up, nyah! Come to your senses, nyah!”

Blackie was throwing kitty punches at him.

Pink jelly paw pads repeatedly appeared and vanished in his vision.

Woo-jin caught one of the kitty punches.

“You’re awake, nyah?!”

“Yeah. I blacked out for a moment.”

“What happened, nyah?”

“I think I fainted because I ran out of Magic Power.”

To think I’d actually experience this.

Woo-jin scratched his cheek.

‘They said Awakened suffer severe exhaustion and can even faint if they rapidly use up all their Magic Power.’

The technical term was Overheat.

Ordinarily, it referred to the overheated state of a machine’s engine, but among Awakened, it had spread widely as a term for experiencing exhaustion due to Magic Power depletion.

In any case.

‘The Doppelganger has been unsummoned.’

In the case of the Summon Doppelganger skill.

The summoning itself did not consume any Magic Power, but it seemed that if the summoned Doppelganger used skills or otherwise acted, it drew Magic Power from Woo-jin, the main body.

“Hup.”

He sat up.

“Did you get back from the Association all right?”

At that question, Blackie raised his tail straight up as if he had been waiting and swayed it gently. Judging by how his eyes were sparkling like OㅅO, something good seemed to have happened.

“Ah! Did they say they’d let me out?”

“That is not it, nyah. I spoke to the Association President, but he said it was impossible, nyah.”

“Tch. So close.”

There was nothing he could do.

He had not expected much in the first place.

“Anyway, you look happy?”

“Hoohoo. Does it look that way, nyah? Then I have no choice but to tell you, nyah! In truth, this body received 1 merit point from the Association President, nyah!”

Merit point?

Was that something like a good-job sticker?

“What’s so good about getting that?”

“With this, I can buy items from the Administrator Shop, nyah. Hoohoo. Actually, I’ve never used it before either, so I’m deeply moved, nyah.”

The Administrator Shop was apparently like a general store that sold items used by administrators.

[Administrator Shop]

- Weapons

- Armor

- Consumables

- Miscellaneous Goods

- Skills

There were various items besides weapons and armor too.

It was fascinating that they even sold skills.

Woo-jin began looking around beside him.

“Wow.”

The weapons and armor were B Grade at minimum.

And there were even S Grade items!

To think this Grade actually existed.

In the Auction House, where Awakened bought and sold items among themselves, most items were around E Grade, and occasionally good items like C Grade or B Grade appeared for sale.

By contrast, the items registered in the Administrator Shop were at least B Grade.

Items so precious that only Awakened climbing Hard difficulty, or wealthy people with plenty of money, could use them were common in the Administrator Shop.

That was when it happened.

A very good item caught Woo-jin’s eye.

[Administrator’s Subspace Backpack]

- Grade: B

- Description: Items and the like can be placed and stored inside a backpack with a subspace formed within it. Items stored in the subspace do not spoil and are preserved forever.

- Price: 1p

“Gasp! This is amazing!”

“Nyah?”

“It says you can put unlimited items in the backpack! And it even has an anti-spoilage function!”

Something like this was only B Grade?

In Woo-jin’s eyes, this was an item that would be perfectly fine even if it were set as S Grade.

“Nyah... Well, it isn’t a bad item, nyah. Its performance is good when working as an administrator too, and most administrators each have one, nyah.”

“Do you have one too?”

“I do not, nyah. I only just got 1p, nyah.”

“I see.”

Blackie chuckled.

“I don’t need it anyway, nyah. I don’t have much luggage to put inside, and Woo-jin is the only adventurer in this Tower, isn’t he, nyah? I have no use for a backpack, nyah.”

“Could I use this?”

“Well... There are no equip restrictions, so Woo-jin can use it, nyah.”

“Then I’ll give you Churu, so buy this and give it to me.”

Blackie looked at him as if he found this absurd.

An adventurer using an administrator backpack?

He had never heard of anything like that.

On top of that, an adventurer using an Administrator Item was against the rules.

If an administrator provided convenience to a specific adventurer, they would be stripped of their administrator qualifications.

But at this point, there was no reason to care about that.

There were no other administrators watching.

And there was even less chance of an administrator coming into Mythic difficulty.

Besides, this 1p had been obtained because Woo-jin entered the Tower.

So Woo-jin had a stake in it too.

“...Fine, nyah! But you have to give me Churu, nyah!”

“I promise.”

“Good, nyah!”

[Spending 1p to purchase ‘Administrator’s Subspace Backpack’.]

Plop.

A bag designed like a travel backpack fell from the air.

Woo-jin opened the backpack’s zipper.

He put his hand inside and felt it keep going in endlessly.

“Ooh!”

As a test, he put 100 potatoes inside.

And all 100 potatoes went in!

“Amazing!”

He closed the zipper and put on the Subspace Backpack.

The Subspace Backpack shrank to fit Woo-jin’s body size.

The more surprising part was that it was as light as a feather.

“Hehehe. Very nice.”

---

At that time.

Kang Min-woo received a chat from Woo-jin.

- Lee Woo-jin: Hey.

- Lee Woo-jin: Please get me one box of Churu.

“...Why on earth is he asking for Churu?”