Chapter 19

(Alliance) Miu: ?

The moment Miu fired off a quick “?”, the chat window flipped upside down.

(Alliance) GoodLuck: LOLLLLLLLLL oh my goooood~ youth is truly something~~

(Alliance) FUNK: surelyyou_didnt_bring_him_here_for_this_right

(Alliance) BBQ: ah LOL why is this so funny LOLLLLLLLLLL haha LOL

(Alliance) KimFactory: my leader COVER YOUR EARS no CLOSE YOUR EYES!!!!!!

(Alliance) ShinJadu: ^^..the alliance chat is open for us too, Momoㅎㅎ

(Alliance) 1Poop1: ♥♥LOL♥♥LOL♥♥ so funny LOLLLLLLLLL

The alliance chat window was open to everyone. Yeonhoo, unfazed by the blazing reactions, just looked at Miu with bright, sparkling eyes.

(Alliance) Miu: This is an area we manage.

Of course, Miu ignored it lightly, like he’d never hesitated at all. Standing beside Miu, Yeonhoo could see the fields sprawling dizzyingly far below the hill, too.

An orchard hung heavy with all kinds of fruit, and green plants climbing up trellises and fences.

The pretty farm looked like it was being managed by farmer NPCs.

(Alliance) Miu: You know you have to keep eating food and drinking water out in the field, right?

Zombie Village didn’t matter for that inside dungeons where you hunted special zombies, but out in the field you had to consume food and water to refill your stamina regularly.

If you didn’t, your character would starve to death.

(Alliance) Miu: Crops are a pain to harvest, and cooking is annoying. But buying from the auction house is expensive.

Miu was right. There was a cooking feature, so Yeonhoo had tried to give it a shot. But it was never easy.

Even trying to pick fruit out in the field got you killed, and for a beginner, harvesting uninfected resources outside—where zombies swarmed—was like trying to pluck a star out of the sky.

So Yeonhoo lived off stamina bars.

(Alliance) Miu: But food is efficient.

Miu tossed Yeonhoo an item.

🍅Tomato Basil Ratatouille

At a glance, it looked simple, but Yeonhoo jumped when he saw the food info.

🍅Tomato Basil Ratatouille

A French vegetable stew simmered for a long time with fresh Rubyfarm tomatoes and fragrant basil.

Effect: Stamina Recovery +30 / HP Natural Regeneration Speed +5% (30 min)

Special Effect: “Warm Fullness” → Monster Aggro -10% for 10 min

Producer: BBQ

Whoa. Cooking is insane.

It didn’t just fill stamina—there were buffs.

(Alliance) Miu: We’ve got people in the alliance who are cooks for a job, so we’re benefiting from it.

(Alliance) Miu: But it’s annoying to go out and gather ingredients every time, so we farm like this.

(Alliance) Miu: It’s a hassle to manage, though.

Hearing it explained, it felt less like a game world and more like an actual village. But something else hit him even harder than that.

So the one who planned all this farming is probably...

Yeonhoo, full of admiration, typed fast.

(Alliance) 0momo0: You’re so thrifty and cool and capable in real life too!!!

(Alliance) 0momo0: Now you just need a husband..!!!

(Alliance) Miu: Keep following me.

Miu brushed it off and kept guiding him, and Yeonhoo’s face drooped. He’d told him to show his feelings, and when he did, the reaction was ice-cold. Of course, that was a charm he hadn’t known about in real life, but still....

Farm tools?

They arrived at a warehouse. Shovels and hoes and other tools were lined up in rows, and Miu, standing in front of them, said—

(Alliance) Miu: Honestly, I’ve had something on my mind lately.

(Alliance) Miu: They’re working, but it’s not efficient.

(Alliance) Miu: So, I was thinking...

Miu let his gaze rest for a moment on the straw-hatted NPCs moving busily beside the tools.

(Alliance) Miu: Could you help with the harvest?

Harvest?

Yeonhoo blinked. He could do anything Miu asked. But still.

That endless farm...?

Out here, it went on forever. Would it even be efficient if just one person helped? And he’d never farmed before.

I still have a lot I need to do.

Yeonhoo had spent money to buy passes or gotten carried to level up, so he looked flashy on the outside, but there was still a lot he needed to do. He had side quests, raids to run, and he had to learn a necromancer’s damage cycle and how to actually play the game. But then—

(Alliance) Miu: Well... no matter how much you like me, you probably don’t want to prove it by running around doing farm work.

(Alliance) Miu: It’s hard work, so I understand.

Prove it? The second Yeonhoo saw that word, his eyes went wild.

(Alliance) 0momo0: No??? It’s not hard??? Not hard at all???

What the hell. Since when had he ever played games that seriously?

(Alliance) 0momo0: Farming? That’s nothing???

(Alliance) 0momo0: Should we start right now?

That was enough to set Yeonhoo’s motivation on fire.

(Alliance) Miu: It’s a lot, though.

(Alliance) 0momo0: No, I can do it!!!

(Alliance) 0momo0: Leave it to me!!

(Alliance) Miu: But—

(Alliance) 0momo0: No?!!!!!

Miyoung is suffering over farm work like this! I started this game because of Miyoung in the first place!!

(Alliance) 0momo0: Please leave it to me please

How dare he get his priorities confused!

If I can clear up this misunderstanding with labor this pathetic, I’ll do anything.

In an instant, it flipped so hard you couldn’t even tell who was asking and who was being asked. Watching Yeonhoo burn with determination, Miu made a show of trying to stop him a couple times, then typed right away.

(Alliance) Miu: If you use the farm machines here, it’ll end quickly.

When Yeonhoo got closer, the tools’ info popped up.

[Hero] Light-Speed Combine: Harvest Speed +50%

[Rare] Pick-Pick Harvester: Automatically harvests only ripe crops

[Hero] Golden Harvester: When harvesting, a certain chance for “Golden Crops” to appear

[Hero] All-in-One Baler: Random chance to harvest grains·fruit·vegetables in a set plot all at once

So that’s what all of this was for. If the descriptions were true, it really would end fast, just like Miu said.

Can’t I handle this much?

If it was to prove his feelings, harvesting crops would be done in no time.

(Alliance) 0momo0: L-let’s go already!!!

And that wasn’t even all.

There was even a reward the precious young lady was bestowing on him.

(Alliance) Miu: Thank you.

Yeonhoo stared blankly at Miu’s chat, then started grinning like an idiot.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you....

He said thank you to me. Ah. Cute....

What was so hard about harvesting, anyway? The second he saw those words, Yeonhoo’s mood shot through the roof.

So he saw Miu off as he got into the car, then came back. Next he headed for the warehouse, intending to take out the farm machines and use them like Miu had said.

Miyoung asked me to do this, so I have to do my best. First, that rice paddy is the biggest, so I should hurry and start with that— huh?

Yeonhoo froze. A window popped up saying he couldn’t equip the machine.

(Notification) The farm machine won’t respond to unskilled hands.

“...?”

Then he saw the explanation written underneath and his mouth fell open.

Light-Speed Combine

Status: Unavailable

Required Farming Level: Lv.25

Current Farming Level: Lv.1

Additional Conditions: Farm Machinery Driving Skill rank 1+ , Complete the basic farming quest “Pulling by Hand”

So, right now...

[Tip] Farming EXP can be gained through basic tasks such as <Planting Seeds>, <Watering>, and <Harvesting>.

My farming level is low, so I can’t use any machines, and I have to pull it out by hand...?

Yeonhoo went out to the rice paddy, tried harvesting a stalk of rice nearby, and his mouth fell open.

“A mini-game?”

To pull a single bundle of rice, he had to hit a button with the right timing. It wasn’t a difficult game. But if he had to do this just to pull one piece of rice...

All of it?

With a face gone paper-white, Yeonhoo stared at the rice fields spread out like empty wasteland.

Back then, he still didn’t know.

That it was only the beginning.

(Alliance) Miu: Momo, do you have a moment?

(Alliance) Miu: I’m at the quarry.

Yeonhoo spent the whole night swinging a pickaxe in a massive quarry that reminded him of the Grand Canyon he’d visited as a kid.

(Alliance) Miu: Momo, I need to gather herbs—want to come with me?

(Alliance) Miu: Ah... something urgent came up. What do I do.

(Alliance) Miu: You can gather them alone, right?

He spent an entire day picking herbs across a vast grassland.

(Alliance) Miu: Momo, can you help me kill some zombies?

He said he’d help with Miu’s quests, and got chewed to death by zombies hundreds of times....

(Alliance) Miu: Momo, are you there?

Around this point, Yeonhoo started thinking—

(Alliance) Miu: Momo, AFK? Busy??

Miyoung, I like you so much. I really do. Playing together is so good. Just looking at you makes me happy, seriously.

(Alliance) Miu: Momo, harvest all of this and bring it back by today.

(Alliance) Miu: Ginseng... feels like you didn’t gather enough.

(Alliance) Miu: Momo.

(Alliance) Miu: You?? Did you finish mining all the gold today?

(Alliance) Miu: Momo?

(Alliance) Miu: Are you there? I need marble.

This is....

The face that had been glowing with excitement about joining <47> just a few days ago was nowhere to be found.

(Alliance) 0momo0: Ye-eah... y-yes.. I’m goin noww

(Alliance) 0momo0: I’ll hurry and bring it back T_T T_T T_T

This isn’t right...?

Pale from sleeplessness, with pitch-black shadows under his eyes, Yeonhoo kept popping question marks over his head—yet his body still ran faithfully to Miu, again and again.