Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 2

Crack.

Sleeping on the hard dirt floor made every muscle in Sejun’s body scream in protest. He felt like an old, rusty machine. The good thing is there is no night here. Because if I sleep where the sun shines moderately, I can sleep in a pleasant temperature.

Sejun splashed the cool, murky water from the pond onto his face. It was barely enough to wake him up, but the chill was welcome.

He washed the sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes he would eat today.

“Doesn’t it feel weird to wash them with the water I washed my face with?”

Sejun crunched into the sweet potato, ignoring the slightly gritty taste of the unwashed skin. Hunger was a powerful flavor enhancer.

The sweetness came out the more he chewed.

‘I’m happy.’

There’s no need to go to work, and have I ever had time to chew slowly until all the sweetness comes out like this?

He spread his bag on the dry soil where the sun was shining and sat down, chewing on the sweet potato endlessly. It was silent, except for his chewing. His heart beat slowly. He felt calm.

He had clearly been stranded, and in a few days, he would run out of food. A situation where he might starve to death.

‘That’s strange.’

Sejun tilted his head, amazed at his own heart. But it was better than being anxious.

“Whenever Deputy Go said, ‘Sejun, can I see you for a moment?’ my heart would feel tight. Ah, so peaceful.”

Sejun slowly ate the sweet potato, enjoying the peace he couldn’t easily feel before.

“Shall I try the next menu?”

Sejun, having finished the sweet potato, put a cherry tomato in his mouth and chewed.

The skin of the cherry tomato couldn’t withstand the pressure of Sejun’s molars pressing up and down and burst. As the juice of the cherry tomato burst out, the sourness filled his mouth.

“Delicious…”

The cherry tomato exploded in his mouth, a burst of sweet and sour juice so intense, it was like no cherry tomato he’d ever tasted before. Hunger, he realized, was a powerful spice.

Sejun chewed diligently, focusing solely on the taste of the cherry tomato. However, the taste of the cherry tomato didn’t improve with prolonged chewing, so the five cherry tomatoes quickly disappeared into Sejun’s mouth.

Having finished his meal, Sejun began his daily routine.

Looking at the hole in the ceiling.

Sejun blankly stared at the hole in the ceiling.

“Ah… I’m bored.”

Of course, he occasionally shouted, ‘Is anyone here!’ But that was also something he did while looking at the ceiling. Hours passed as Sejun stared at the ceiling, boredom growing stronger.

“Is there anything to do?”

Sejun began to look around, searching for something to do.

‘Should I at least water the crops?’

Sejun filled a water bottle with water and watered the green onions, cherry tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.

“Grow quickly. Grow gigantically. I’m hungry.”

He went back and forth to the pond three times, thoroughly soaking the ground where the crops were planted.

Then, his stomach signaled a fuel shortage. He got hungry quickly after moving around a little. Sejun poured the remaining water from the water bottle he had given to the crops into his mouth.

He felt like his stomach was somewhat filled. Sejun returned to his spot and looked at the hole in the ceiling.

Like that, several hours.

When Sejun was staring at the ceiling with a blank gaze, the alarm rang.

[May 12th, 10 PM]

The sun does not set here, so he set a time to go to sleep.

“It’s time to sleep.”

Sejun got up and prepared for bed. There’s not much to prepare.

He leveled the dirt floor where he would lie down, and put his bag over his head to block the sun, and the bedtime preparation was complete.

He slept better than he thought.

Midnight according to Sejun.

Sejun woke up from the vibration shaking the ground.

“Umm… what is it?”

Then, he felt a strong vibration again. It was close.

“…!”

Sejun hurriedly took off the bag he was wearing on his face and got up and witnessed a bizarre sight.

“Th…this?!”

The light coming down from the ceiling of the cave had turned blue.

He heard bizarre roars threatening each other.

Then, with a deafening roar that echoed through the cave, a massive black dragon descended from the hole. Its scales shimmered like obsidian in the blue light, and its eyes burned with ancient power. It surveyed the cave with regal disdain, then with a final earth-shattering roar, it vanished back into the blue light as quickly as it had appeared.

But Sejun’s mind was noisier than ever.

“A monster… this can’t be…”

Sejun thought something was wrong. Sejun was secretly thinking that this place was somewhere on the 1st floor of the tower. He wanted to believe that the light shining on the cave all day was the chandelier lighting on the 1st floor of the tower. But there are no monsters on the 1st floor of the tower.

In other words, the place where Sejun is is not the 1st floor of the tower.

Moreover, the sun turns blue, a Blue Moon.

The sun is always up on every floor. But there is a time when the sun periodically turns blue on each floor. Hunters called this phenomenon the Blue Moon.

During the Blue Moon, monsters become more aggressive and stronger, so hunters do not go to floors where the Blue Moon occurs.

‘The Blue Moon is a phenomenon that only appears in towers above the 10th floor…’

The meaning that Sejun is in a place above the 10th floor. Still, there was a possibility of being rescued.

But ‘There’s something bothering me.’

That’s the dragon.

Since the tower was created 10 years ago, the Phoenix Guild, the largest force on Earth, recently achieved the feat of clearing the 37th floor.

Guilds were keeping each other in check from the 31st to 37th floors, so they did not disclose information, but below the 30th floor, quite a few clear videos were uploaded to YouTube for money or promotion.

According to the information known that way, skeletons appear on the 2nd to 10th floors, goblins on the 11th to 20th floors, and orcs on the 20th to 30th floors. And from the 31st floor, the videos were not released, but spider monsters were said to appear.

This could be believed because it was something that several hunters commonly said in interviews.

There was no dragon in their words. I haven’t even heard of a dragon-like lizard monster coming out of the tower.

‘Where is this floor?!’

Sejun grabbed his head and screamed. He may have been stranded on a floor that even the top hunters had not reached.

‘Why is this happening to me?’

Sejun looked at the hole in the ceiling where the blue light was falling with a complicated heart. Before, he looked hoping someone would pass by, but now he was hoping no one would pass by. After seeing the dragon, Sejun realized that there were monsters here.

[May 13th, 6 AM]

The alarm rang.

Sejun greeted the 4th day of his situation with his eyes open all night, standing guard. Fortunately, the Blue Moon turned back to its original yellow light around 4 AM.

5 hours later.

Sejun’s head gradually fell down as he stood guard, and he fell asleep. He had been tired from looking at the ceiling and standing guard ever since he woke up yesterday.

“Ugh… water…”

As soon as he woke up, Sejun felt a burning thirst. He groped for the water bottle he had placed next to him.

He chugged the water in one shot.

“Kyah! I feel like I can live now.”

As his thirst was quenched, his hunger rose. Since he went to the pond, he simply washed his face and picked up the sweet potatoes and 5 cherry tomatoes he would eat today.

“Hmm…”

When he picked up the sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes he would eat today, half of the food in the plastic container had disappeared. There wasn’t much food left.

‘Should I only eat half from today?’

Sejun washed the sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes he had picked up while worrying.

He cut the sweet potato in half, and put half of the sweet potato and 3 cherry tomatoes back into the plastic container. He felt drained just thinking that he had to reduce even more when he didn’t have much to eat now.

“Haa.”

Sejun sighed and moved to his spot with a sunny and flat rock and sat down. But he felt strange. He was in the shade.

“Huh? What?”

The green onion, which had grown as tall as Sejun, was blocking the sun that should always be shining.

Clearly, when he watered it yesterday, there was no big difference from when he planted it… There was no change even before he went to bed. The green onion had grown tremendously overnight.

“When did it grow this much?”

Sejun approached and looked closely, and the white part where the roots of the green onion were was also as thick as his wrist. Sejun grabbed one of the newly grown leaves of the green onion and tore it off.

“Huh?!”