Two Birds with One Stone
Oh Hyeonseong stood in front of the field, gazing at the land he had cleared.
He had already made a rough plan when he was gathering the seeds, but he went over everything in his head once more and divided the land into different sections.
It’s my first time doing serious farming, so I shouldn’t get too greedy. I’ll start by growing only a few of the crops I need most.
If he had his way, he would gather as many seeds as his money allowed and grow every crop he had brought, each in its own section.
After all, he would finally be able to taste the countless flavors that had been forgotten by humanity.
But if he did that, there would be a problem with handling everything afterward.
If he recklessly planted crops that grew at such an incredibly fast rate, he would end up with a mountain of crops that needed to be harvested.
Even with the spirits’ help, he had never tested exactly how much work they could handle. So, for now, he decided to be safe and conservative with the scale.
These were the few crops Oh Hyeonseong had chosen.
“First of all… this rice.”
The foundation of every Korean’s diet—the hearty power of rice.
Oh Hyeonseong took a handful of rice seeds from one of the sacks.
According to an old saying, the happiness index of Koreans had been cut in half simply because modern rice was so damn tasteless.
Oh Hyeonseong himself missed a steaming bowl of rice more than anything.
Not some bizarre imitation of rice that felt like playing with clay inside his mouth, but a proper bowl of real rice.
Whatever dishes he made in the future, he would probably be eating them together with rice.
In that sense, it could be said to be the most important crop of everything he was planting today.
At first, I thought I’d have to undertake a huge construction project to bring in water and build a rice paddy… but fortunately, I found an alternative.
Yoo Seungsu had told him that rice didn’t necessarily have to be grown in paddies. There were also varieties of rice that could be grown in ordinary fields.
They were called upland rice.
Apparently, there had once been a difference in taste compared to the rice modern Koreans mainly ate, but there were now improved varieties with virtually no difference in taste.
Even so, Yoo Seungsu had warned him against it, saying that upland rice required much more work and produced lower yields.
Under normal circumstances, Hyeonseong probably would have listened to him.
But he had the spirits.
The difficulty of managing the crops wasn’t an issue for him.
Besides, this wasn’t exactly the right time to undertake a massive construction project just to build a rice paddy.
“Phew. Then, shall we get started?”
Oh Hyeonseong scattered the rice seeds and began sowing.
Naturally, rice had been allocated the largest area among the crops, so it took quite a while.
Once he finished with the rice, he began sowing the other crops.
The potatoes that had already run out, along with new additions such as sweet potatoes and corn.
He also included essential ingredients such as chili peppers, onions, garlic, and green onions in his first list.
If he wanted to properly start cooking, these were arguably even more important than the other staple grains.
He also finished sowing beans, another crop he absolutely couldn’t forget.
“And… now, finally, the fruit.”
Oh Hyeonseong turned around.
Stacked there were plants of a completely different size from the tiny crops he had just planted.
They were apple tree saplings.
The spirits’ boost means that even if I planted something like apple seeds, they probably wouldn’t take all that long to grow… but I wanted to plant well-maintained, high-quality ones if possible.
He had chosen these saplings based on Yoo Seungsu’s strong recommendation that there was an excellent place to obtain apple trees.
It was difficult for a complete amateur like him to identify the exact differences, but all of them certainly looked as though they had healthy, sturdy roots.
Thump!
Still, being a former hunter means this isn’t exactly too difficult for me.
He casually lifted an apple sapling and planted it in the ground.
Digging up the soil and doing all the physical labor had been more strenuous than he expected, but given his background, it wasn’t particularly difficult.
All he really had to do was be careful not to put his injured left leg down incorrectly.
I’ve planted the strawberries too. That’s everything.
After finishing the strawberry planting beyond the apple orchard, Oh Hyeonseong stretched his back and rotated his arms.
With those final two fruits, he had finished all the planting he had planned.
Oh Hyeonseong turned around, feeling a deep sense of accomplishment.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
The spirits, who had been watching him, applauded.
Oh Hyeonseong chuckled and spoke to them.
“No need to applaud. You guys have some work to do too.”
The spirits tilted their heads at his words.
“Don’t you want to eat something delicious again, like the potatoes you had last time?”
This time, the spirits nodded enthusiastically.
They had only just discovered the taste of food, and after the potatoes ran out, they had been extremely disappointed that they couldn’t eat any more.
Oh Hyeonseong spoke to them.
“Once these crops grow, they’ll give us delicious food. The healthier and better they grow, the more amazing food I’ll give you. Then we’ll be able to enjoy even happier meals together.”
Kkiing! Kkiing!
The spirits’ eyes lit up as they responded enthusiastically.
Some hugged one another, some jumped up and down, and others danced excitedly.
It looked almost like the scene of a grand festival.
Of course, Oh Hyeonseong was just as excited.
Some of the plants were saplings, and not every crop would have the same growing period. But just as with the potatoes and lettuce, most of the crops should already have some that were ready to harvest starting tomorrow.
There was no way he couldn’t look forward to the next day.
“Hyeonseong! Oh Hyeonseong!”
“Hm…? That’s Kwon Gyeongmin, isn’t it?”
At the familiar voice coming from a distance, Hyeonseong quickly turned his head.
He could see Kwon Gyeongmin making his way up from afar.
He was close enough to be clearly visible, but Kwon Gyeongmin hadn’t noticed him.
Thanks to the barrier Han Su-yeon had put up, Hyeonseong, who was standing inside the field, was invisible to him.
Of course, the crops he had planted couldn’t be seen either.
All the fields above the house were distorted, appearing to be nothing more than empty land.
“Ah, this guy. He’s not at the house either. Where did he go?”
Kwon Gyeongmin seemed to be searching for him.
But unexpectedly, Yoo Eunha was walking behind him as well.
And she had an extremely serious expression on her face.
“Oppa! If you can hear me, come out quickly! It’s a real emergency!”
Apparently, something had happened.
“Be careful. It’s right over there.”
“Hm…”
Oh Hyeonseong approached the cultivation unit Kwon Gyeongmin was pointing at and tilted his head.
Ts-ts-ts-ts!
The thing soon revealed itself.
A pitch-black hole had opened in the ground, extending deep below the surface.
An ominous black energy that instinctively made one feel repulsed was slowly seeping out.
“So the Corrosion really did occur.”
Oh Hyeonseong spoke with a slight frown.
The identity of that pitch-black energy was miasma.
It was the very same energy that had tormented humanity ever since the Gate Incident—and that Oh Hyeonseong himself had encountered countless times.
“Th-then what do we do?”
“To classify it more precisely, this is a sudden case of ‘partial Corrosion’ caused by miasma. When enough miasma that remains underground accumulates, it gathers in one place and flows back upward. This hole was formed when it melted through the ground and floor before surging back up.”
Oh Hyeonseong extended a finger and lightly ran it across the edge of the pit.
The others watching him shuddered just from seeing it, but Hyeonseong simply shook his finger, which was now covered in wavering black energy, without showing any emotion.
“Has a Gate ever appeared in this village?”
“No. Not recently. Nothing like this has ever happened since I settled here.”
“Then what if we expand the range beyond the village?”
“Ah! Come to think of it, I heard that Gates opened several times in the mountains a few kilometers away. But I heard they were all dealt with without any problems…”
“Then that was probably the cause.”
Oh Hyeonseong nodded at Kwon Gyeongmin’s words.
Yoo Eunha, who had been nervously picking at her fingernails, interrupted and asked,
“So a Gate didn’t open in the village, and no monsters appeared?”
“Partial Corrosion is a phenomenon in which accumulated damage from prolonged exposure to miasma in the surrounding environment finally manifests itself. In other words, something like this doesn’t happen simply because a monster appeared a moment ago.”
“Phew. So that means there’s no chance monsters are going to attack us?”
“In theory, I can’t say it’s one hundred percent impossible. But for now, you can assume that’s the case.”
Oh Hyeonseong nodded at Kwon Gyeongmin’s question.
Korea had a nationwide detection network that was far more extensive than it had been in the past.
If a Gate had appeared around a village where people lived, signs of it would have been detected immediately, even before the Gate fully formed.
Besides, if monsters had been wandering around the village long enough to cause this kind of Corrosion, they would have discovered the humans and attacked them long ago.
To a monster, an undefended rural village like this was practically an easy meal.
“Contact the Management Bureau. Once they deal with it, there shouldn’t be any chance of this happening again for at least a few years.”
“I aged ten years just now, seriously. I was even wondering whether we should evacuate everyone and completely empty the village. It’s a relief that we’ve got an expert like you here.”
Kwon Gyeongmin said this while rubbing his chest in relief.
Although Oh Hyeonseong was no longer a hunter capable of subduing monsters, Kwon Gyeongmin could rely entirely on his expertise from having worked in a related department.
There was no way a small village like this would normally have an expert with such knowledge, so simply having someone familiar with Gates was an enormous source of reassurance.
“Then I’ll head down and tell the elders too. This is the first time they’ve experienced anything like this, so they must have been pretty shocked. Oh, and I’ll tell them about your contribution as well.”
Kwon Gyeongmin patted Hyeonseong on the shoulder as if congratulating him before leaving the facility.
I wonder if this counts as contributing to the village too.
Oh Hyeonseong scratched his head.
“Haa…”
But beside him came a dejected sigh.
It was Yoo Seungsu, who had been sitting off to the side alone for some time.
“Damn it. No wonder we kept getting ridiculous equipment failures. How did I not think of this? I should have noticed immediately…”
“Hey, how were we supposed to know this was going to happen?”
“That’s exactly it. I should have thought of it. I shouldn’t have failed to notice something like this.”
Even after his younger sister spoke, Yoo Seungsu covered his face with both hands.
Around the gaping hole where the miasma had erupted, the crops within its radius had been stained pitch-black and were rotting away.
“What’s wrong? Is it because of the damage to the crops?”
“Yeah.”
Yoo Eunha clicked her tongue and shook her head.
Seeing how much more devastated Yoo Seungsu looked than expected, Oh Hyeonseong asked her with his eyes what was wrong with him.
“Well… all the strawberries we were supposed to deliver to Hankyung Department Store this time are gone.”
Fortunately, they had discovered the problem early, so the number of completely dead crops wasn’t particularly large.
But the effects of the Corrosion had spread farther than they appeared to.
Crops that had been affected by the Corrosion even indirectly had either become deformed or developed severe abnormalities in taste, leaving them destined to be discarded.
The other crops had fared somewhat better, but the strawberries growing in this section had suffered catastrophic damage.
Most of them had died, and even the survivors had become so severely deformed that the entire batch had to be discarded.
The damage was simply impossible to make up for.
The problem was that strawberries were one of the siblings’ farm’s main products.
Strawberries had attracted attention as a fruit particularly well suited to smart farming from the early days, and as a result, they had undergone considerable development among naturally grown crops as well.
By this point, with the right variety and excellent facilities, they could be grown through rapid cycles all year round while achieving an extremely high level of flavor.
Thanks to that, the naturally grown strawberries produced on the siblings’ farm tasted every bit as good as high-end synthetic strawberries.
The problem was that Hankyung Department Store had been paying particularly close attention to them for precisely that reason.
“We were even planning a small event soon where our strawberries would be the main attraction. We were supposed to negotiate preferential terms next month too. We could’ve raised our unit price and increased the volume of our deliveries… but if we miss a delivery like this, it’s all over.”
Yoo Seungsu clutched his head in anguish.
They had managed to break into the food section of Hankyung Department Store, which was notorious for being extremely selective, and they had consistently made every delivery without a single failure.
But just as they were about to reap the rewards of all that effort, this had happened.
If they had invested enough to build such a massive facility, their initial investment must have been considerable. There was no way they could afford to ignore their profits.
I’ve never seen this guy like this before… I guess the shock really hit him hard. But it’s not like I can give him my strawberries either.
Hyeonseong had just finished planting strawberries in his own field.
But even so, he couldn’t simply hand over the strawberries he harvested and tell them to use those as a replacement.
The crops grown by the spirits would undoubtedly have an incredible flavor again this time.
The problem was that the flavor would be too incredible.
If I suddenly release something like that through a famous department store, the whole world will be in an uproar. The powerful people around the world would go crazy over it, and naturally, they wouldn’t leave its source alone either. That’s a problem.
Oh Hyeonseong let out a deep sigh.
He racked his brain, wondering if there was some way to solve this.
Then his eyes suddenly widened.
An idea had occurred to him.
A way to make money while avoiding getting dragged into troublesome situations.
“Maybe I can help you a little… Give me the contact information for the person in charge.”
