Chapter 4

Chapter 4

His first time farming in his life.

Woo-jin decided to share the happy news.

[Requesting a chat with Anonymous 3861.]

[Anonymous 3861 has accepted the chat.]

- Me: Hey!
- Me: I successfully harvested potatoes!
- Anonymous 3861: Oh lol congrats.
- Me: Hehe. Thank you. It’s all thanks to you.
- Me: Want me to share some potatoes with you?
- Me: I mean, should I?
- Anonymous 3861: Lol, I’m good!
- Anonymous 3861: I’m kind of busy right now, though. Take care.

Woo-jin smacked his lips in disappointment.

That was because the “Tower Resistance Potato” he had harvested was, although only by a tiny amount, an insane potato that permanently increased all resistances.

Resistance was an extremely important factor for adventurers.

In the lower floors of Normal difficulty, it did not matter much even without resistance, but on higher floors, or in Hard difficulty, having low resistance?

‘That’s basically the same as suicide.’

Entering Hard difficulty with no resistance, or low resistance?

Then, no joke, one could die from a single ordinary attack from a boss monster.

That was why the first thing adventurers on the higher floors secured for survival was resistance.

Having worked as a Tower management civil servant, Woo-jin instinctively knew that the value of the Tower Resistance Potato could not even be compared to an ordinary potato.

Growl!

‘First, I should fill my stomach.’

Until now, he had only been eating Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size.

But now, he had other ingredients too.

“Hehe.”

Woo-jin filled the aluminum pot with lake water, then placed it on the gas burner.

A little while later, the water began boiling vigorously.

He put two Tower Resistance Potatoes into it.

Bubble, bubble...

About ten minutes passed.

After throwing away the water in the pot, he took out a pair of wooden chopsticks.

Using the chopsticks, he split one boiled potato in half with a clean snap.

Hot steam rose from it.

The potato’s distinctive, savory smell brushed past the tip of his nose.

Woo-jin used his chopsticks to scoop out a bite-sized piece from inside the boiled potato.

“Hoo. Hoo!”

Since it might be hot, he blew on it first.

Then he put the boiled potato into his mouth.

He could not eat it right away. He gently rolled it around in his mouth to cool it down.

Once the heat seemed to have faded somewhat, he bit into it with his tongue and teeth. The soft boiled potato melted gently.

[You have consumed a Tower Resistance Potato and permanently increased all resistances by 0.002.]

“This is seriously delicious!”

Were boiled potatoes always this tasty?

Even without adding any seasoning like salt, sugar, or ketchup, the savory flavor of the boiled potato alone was more than enough to make it delicious.

Nom, nom. Smack, smack.

He ate both boiled potatoes in one sitting.

Perhaps because they were big, he began to feel full.

Woo-jin flopped down on the spot.

“Hehe. This is nice.”

The feeling of fullness.

The warmth spreading through his body because of it.

On top of that...

Name: Lee Woo-jin
Level: 1
Abilities

- Strength: 3
- Agility: 3
- Stamina: 3
- Magic Power: 3.1
- Resistance (New): 0.004
Skills: Soil Tilling Lv. 2, Seed Planting Lv. 2, Harvest Lv. 2
Coins: 83
Difficulty: Mythic
Floor: 99

His resistance stat had gone up too.

When Woo-jin looked at his Status Window, a smile naturally formed on his face.

It was because he could see with his own eyes that he was not just sitting still inside the cave. He was growing, little by little.

---

Day 7 since entering the Tower.

Woo-jin organized the items he currently had.

- Weed Containing Magic Power ×48
- Tower Resistance Potato ×98
- Yukgaejang cup noodles, small ×15
- Gas burner
- Butane gas ×5
- Aluminum pot
- Wooden chopsticks ×490
- 83 coins

“Hmmm.”

For now, he had enough food to eat right away.

Would he not be able to live comfortably for at least a month?

Compared to his first day in the Tower, he had made incredible progress.

‘I need to secure more coins.’

It was the same for other adventurers, but for Woo-jin, coins were his life.

The more coins he had, the higher his chances of survival.

First, he had to sell the potatoes. And he had to get more seed potatoes too.

Woo-jin started a conversation with Anonymous 3861, the person who had sold him the seed potatoes.

[Requesting a chat with Anonymous 3861.]

[Anonymous 3861 has accepted the chat.]

- Me: Hey!
- Me: Do you want to buy some potatoes?
- Anonymous 3861: ?
- Anonymous 3861: Hahaha, no thanks.
- Me: Even if eating my potatoes raises all resistances?

There was no reply.

Wondering if he had been blocked, Woo-jin sent another message.

- Me: Hey, hey.
- Anonymous 3861: Don’t lie.
- Me: It’s true. I’ll list one in the Auction House, so take a look.

How much should he list it for?

As a joke, Woo-jin listed it for 100 coins.

For reference, a ring that increased all resistances by 1 was traded for 150 coins.

[Listing Tower Resistance Potato ×1 for 100 coins.]

[Tower Resistance Potato]

- Grade: D

- Effect

- Permanently increases all resistances by +0.002 when consumed.

- Description: A Tower potato cultivated by someone. Eating it increases various resistances.

- Me: I listed it in the Auction House. Take a look. It’ll come up if you search Tower Resistance Potato.

A little while later.

[Tower Resistance Potato ×1 has been sold.]

[95 coins have been settled.]

For reference, the fee for using the Auction House was 5 percent.

In any case, Woo-jin was shocked.

“I-It sold? Wow! Wow!”

He had earned 95 coins all at once?

That was the same as earning 950,000 won in Korean money.

- Anonymous 3861: What are you?
- Anonymous 3861: How did you do this?
- Me: See? I was right, wasn’t I? Did you buy this, by any chance?
- Anonymous 3861: Yeah.
- Me: Whoa. I have 97 more. If I list them for 9,700 coins, will you buy them?
- Anonymous 3861: Lol, that’s a bit much. Even if I used all of those, resistance wouldn’t even go up by 0.1. I bought it just to check whether it was real.

Tch. So much for that.

- Anonymous 3861: But where on earth did you plant potatoes for them to turn out like this?

Woo-jin thought for a moment.

Should he tell the truth, or should he hide it?

The decision did not take long. For now, keeping his situation hidden would not help him.

Besides, Anonymous 3861 was someone he was grateful to for helping him.

- Me: I’m on Mythic Floor 99.

There was no reply.

- Anonymous 3861: That’s not funny. And what even is Mythic difficulty?
- Me: I don’t know. I guess it’s probably the one after Hell difficulty.
- Anonymous 3861: Lol, and you expect me to believe that?
- Me: But it’s true.

Silence fell again.

A little while later, Anonymous spoke.

- Anonymous 3861: Then what’s the objective on Mythic Floor 99?
- Me: It says to kill the Dragon Lord.
- Anonymous 3861: Dragon Lord lolololol, ah.
- Anonymous 3861: I’ll admit, that was creative.
- Anonymous 3861: Need anything else?

Anything he needed?

A lot.

Woo-jin listed the things he needed.

- Me: Chicken, pizza, sweet-and-sour pork, gukbap, beer, stuff like that?
- Anonymous 3861: Sigh.
- Me: Why?
- Anonymous 3861: If you’d asked for equipment or items, I might have believed you a little. But now that you’re talking about chicken and stuff, the desperation and credibility just dropped sharply. Tsk.
- Me: Hey.
- Me: Wouldn’t asking for those things actually make me the liar?
- Anonymous 3861: What are you talking about?
- Me: Let’s say you got me the best equipment that currently exists. If I had that, could I kill the Dragon Lord?
- Anonymous 3861: Hmm. If this were true, then equipment probably wouldn’t help anyway.
- Me: That’s exactly what I’m saying. Equipment would be completely useless no matter what I had. So from my position, eating lots of delicious food and living comfortably is the best option.

[Anonymous 3861 has left the chat room.]

“Huh?”

---

Gangnam District, Seoul.

Inside a massive building.

The Sky, the greatest guild in South Korea.

Its guild master and Korea’s No. 1 ranked adventurer, Kang Min-woo, leaned back in his office chair until he was practically lying down.

“Whew.”

Kang Min-woo pressed firmly at the space between his brows as if stressed.

A few days ago.

A newbie named Lee Woo-jin had posted on the community saying he was looking for potato seeds, Yukgaejang cup noodles, wooden chopsticks, and other daily necessities. Kang Min-woo had found it strange and started a conversation.

That had been the cause of all this trouble.

‘I’m angry that I almost fell for something like this.’

A month ago, he had cleared Normal Floor 100.

Now, at an important time when he was considering entering Hard Floor 1, what on earth was he doing?

‘But...’

Slide.

Kang Min-woo checked the item he had successfully bid on in the Auction House.

It was none other than a potato.

[Tower Resistance Potato]

- Grade: D
- Effect
- Permanently increases all resistances by +0.002 when consumed.
- Description: A Tower potato cultivated by someone. Eating it increases various resistances.

‘But how am I supposed to explain this?’

Eating a potato increased resistance.

This was an absurdly fraudulent option.

Of course, the value was almost nonexistent because the number was so small it was barely noticeable.

But what mattered was the very fact that an option like this existed at all.

‘I’ve never heard of or seen anything like this.’

There were countless adventurers all over the world.

Naturally, there were people in the Tower who did all sorts of strange playstyles.

Of course, there were people who “farmed” too.

‘If things like this came out, corporations would have been farming on a massive scale.’

The reason they did not?

Because the efficiency and quality were far worse than farming in reality!

Naturally, there were no such things as “grades” or “options” either.

And yet, the potato in Kang Min-woo’s hand clearly had an option attached to it.

Crunch.

He roughly brushed off the dirt and tried eating the Resistance Potato.

...It was edible raw too?

That was when it happened.

[You have consumed a Tower Resistance Potato and permanently increased all resistances by 0.002.]

Kang Min-woo finished eating the potato.

He would have to eat 1,000 of these to increase all resistances by 2.

It was terribly inefficient.

It was more cost-effective to just buy an item that increased all resistances by 2, even if it cost more coins.

That was when it happened.

[Lee Woo-jin has requested a chat. Will you accept?]

- Lee Woo-jin: Hey, it’s cold when I sleep at night. Could you get me one field sleeping bag?

Kang Min-woo let out a hollow laugh.

Did this kid have any idea who he was talking to?

No. Since he had set himself to anonymous, there was no way he could know.

‘Even if I set aside all that talk about Mythic difficulty or whatever, the crop itself is real.’

Kang Min-woo decided to maintain contact with Lee Woo-jin a little longer.

“You called for me, Guild Master?”

“Yes. You know those sleeping bags people use for camping? Could you go get me one right now?”