Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 4

Sejun quickly realized there was a romantic feeling between the two rabbits.

“You two are a couple?”

Bleep!

Bleep!

They both nodded at the same time.

‘Oh no!’

Now I’m with a rabbit couple…

Back in university, I sometimes had no friends available during my free periods, so I ended up eating with a couple. It was very awkward, but I couldn’t eat alone for a whole semester, so I kept eating with them.

Then one day, while we were eating together, there was a cold atmosphere between them. They were fighting. Sejun ended up with indigestion that day.

‘And that experience taught me to eat alone.’

He had decided never to eat between couples again after that…

Blee-bleep.

Sensing Sejun’s strange mood, the husband rabbit rubbed his face against Sejun’s hand, acting cute. He was desperate to be allowed to stay here.

‘He’s trying so hard to protect his family…’

Sejun’s heart softened. And he felt ashamed of himself for still being stuck in the past.

‘Right. Those were just dating, and these two are married.’

Sejun didn’t understand married life.

“Alright. You can stay here. But it’s not for free.”

He didn’t really expect them to offer anything in return.

Bleep!

Bleep!

Upon Sejun’s approval, the rabbit couple nodded quickly as if it were obvious and ran to the corner of the cave, digging and starting to make their home.

“A burrow?”

Watching the rabbits dig, Sejun had a sudden thought. He wondered if he could dig a tunnel here to get out.

‘How silly of me! I was only thinking about that side because there’s a hole to get out above!’

“Rabbit!”

Blee?

The husband rabbit, who was digging carefully, peeked his head out at Sejun’s call.

“Can you dig a tunnel to get out of here?”

Blee…

The rabbit thought for a moment and then shook his head from side to side.

“You can’t?”

Scratch scratch.

The rabbit started drawing on the floor. He drew the cave where Sejun was and began digging deep beneath it.

And then,

Swoosh.

He poured water from the watering can into the dug-out area. The bottom of the cave where Sejun was standing was full of water.

“Ah. The bottom is all water.”

Bleep!

The rabbit nodded.

“Okay. Keep doing what you were doing.”

Bleep!

The rabbit went back to digging.

At that moment,

Blee-bleep. Blee-bleep.

The alarm went off. The smartphone’s battery was at 100%. Considering the laptop’s discharge rate, he could fully charge it at least one more time.

[May 16th, 6:00 AM]

Sejun’s day began.

First, he checked the cherry tomato sprouts.

“Good job, everyone.”

(…T…)

The cherry tomato sprouts now had their green leaves fully open. There was still no news from the sweet potato patch.

Sejun went to the pond to wash his face and watered the field.

And then,

Snap. Snap.

He broke off the green onion leaves so that the cherry tomato sprouts could see the sun. Breaking off the green onion leaves made the stems thicker and branch out, creating even more leaves. Initially, there were about three leaves per green onion, but now there were eight.

“I’m going to have a lot of work breaking these off later, aren’t I?”

Sejun dried the leaves he had torn off in the sun. The leaves that had been drying in the sun were now almost completely dry and hard.

Crunch.

Sejun finished his morning work by eating the leaves he had just broken off. Now, after eight hours, he would break off the green onions and water them once more, and the day’s work would be done.

After finishing his work, Sejun sat in his designated spot and stared blankly at the sky.

How long had he been looking at the sky like that?

Oook! Oook!

Boo! Boo!

“Huh? What’s that sound?”

Sejun looked in the direction of the sound. It was coming from the burrow the rabbits had dug.

The sound quickly stopped.

“What was that?”

Just as Sejun was about to fall back into a daze while looking at the sky again,

Oook! Oook!

Boo! Boo!

The sound came again. Listening closely, it sounded like heavy breathing.

‘Could it be?!’

“You guys!”

The rabbit couple was engaging in breeding activities as soon as they made their dwelling.

The breeding activities continued a few more times after that.

A few hours later.

When it was 2 PM, Sejun got up to do his afternoon work.

At that moment,

Bleep.

Blee.

The rabbit couple came out of the burrow amicably.

And they started doing the farm work that Sejun was about to do, moving quickly.

Blee-bleep.

Swoosh.

The husband rabbit hummed and watered the crops with the watering can,

Bya-bya-bya.

Snip. Snip.

The wife rabbit harmonized with her husband’s song and cut the green onions with scissors.

The husband sings, and the wife follows. Perfect harmony. That’s exactly what came to mind.

But what bothered Sejun was something else.

“What are those things…”

It turned out that the watering can the husband rabbit was holding and the apron the wife rabbit was wearing were items.

Water kept coming out of the watering can without stopping. And the apron had space magic on it; whenever the wife rabbit needed farming tools like scissors or a shovel, she would take them out of the apron.

He was a little envious. To have such equipment. He had been digging and tearing with his hands and carrying water.

Time passed quickly while watching the rabbits work.

But he soon got bored. Then he saw the light passing through the plastic bottle next to him, refracting and gathering into a strong beam.

Seeing that, something suddenly came to mind. It was a show on TV where survival experts came out, and there was a scene where they used a plastic bottle filled with water to start a fire.

‘Shall I try to start a fire?’

If he lit the well-dried green onion leaves, they would burn well.

“Alright.”

Sejun got up and gathered the well-dried green onion leaves.

And then,

Rip. Rip.

He tore the leaves thinly so that the fire could catch well and gathered them in the middle.

Then, using the water-filled plastic bottle, Sejun began to focus the light like a magnifying glass onto the green onion leaves.

Blee?

Blee?

The rabbit couple approached when Sejun didn’t move from the same position for more than 20 minutes. They seemed curious about what the farm owner was doing.

Nod nod.

After about 10 minutes, the rabbits got bored and started dozing off.

At that moment,

Wisp wisp.

Smoke rose from the pile of finely torn green onion leaves. An ember was created.

‘It’s working!’

Sejun focused even more and shone the light onto the ember with the plastic bottle. The ember grew stronger, and the smoke became thicker.

“Whoo! Whoo!”

Sejun picked up the finely torn leaves containing the ember and carefully blew air into them.

The rabbit couple woke up from the sound of blowing air and looked at Sejun.

And then,

Bleep!

Blee!

They were shocked to see the smoking green onion leaves.

How long had he been blowing air into it?

Whoosh.

A fire started, spewing flames.

“Hehe! It worked!”

Bleep.

Blee.

The rabbit couple looked at Sejun with admiring eyes. They didn’t have an item among their items that could start a fire.

As soon as the fire started, the first thing Sejun did was grill the green onions. He just wanted some warm food.

The dried green onions were so hard that they could be used as firewood, so he grilled the ones he had torn off today.

When the outside of the green onion turned black, Sejun grabbed the end and lifted it.

And then,

“Ouch! Hot! Hoo.”

Blowing on his fingers, he placed it on another leaf and peeled off the blackened skin of the green onion.

He lifted the grilled green onion and put the peeled part into his mouth.

Crunch.

‘…Sweet!’

Sejun’s eyes widened at the incredible taste. The sweetness was amazing! An incredible sweetness exploded.

Sejun threw a few green onions he would eat into the fire and began to devour them hastily.

Bleep?

At Sejun’s reaction, the husband rabbit bravely put a green onion into the fire.

And after a while,

Bleep!

Blee!

The rabbit couple peeled and ate the green onions with impressed expressions. All three of them had soot on their faces and ate diligently.

Day 7 of being stranded.

Sejun fell asleep after eating some warm food for the first time.

The next few days passed in a similar way. Sejun continued his routine, and the rabbits helped more and more.

Blee-bleep. Blee-bleep.

[May 19th, 6:00 AM]

Day 10 of being stranded.

“Ugh-cha.”

Sejun woke up energetically again today.

Bleep!

Bleep!

The rabbit couple, who had woken up first, greeted Sejun.

“Yeah. Good morning.”

Splash! Splash!

Sejun went to the pond to wash his face and sat in his spot.

Blee.

The wife rabbit brought him grilled green onions.

“Thank you.”

Sejun said as he received the food.

Crunch crunch.

He looked at the field where the crops were planted while eating the grilled green onions. The green onions had already been cut, and the ground was soaked. The rabbits, who had woken up early, had already finished their work.

Moreover, the wife rabbit even made him a meal. It was so nice of them to do it on their own.

But,

“……”

There was even less to do in a place where there was already nothing to do.

“I need to move around a bit.”

Today, he decided to transplant the cherry tomatoes that he had been putting off. If they grew too close together, they wouldn’t be able to absorb nutrients properly, so it was time to start transplanting them.

Dig. Dig.

Sejun dug the soil with his hands and made a place to transplant the cherry tomatoes,

Plop.

The husband rabbit carefully scooped and moved them one by one with a spoonful of soil. While he was moving them, he also moved the six seedlings that he had planted later.

A total of 58 seedlings were planted, making six rows with 10 seedlings in each row.

“Whew.”

Seeing the neatly planted seedlings in a row, Sejun found himself feeling proud of even small things these days.

As soon as the transplanting of the cherry tomatoes was finished, Sejun immediately started a new task.

Making a torch.

He made a handle by weaving several of the leaves he had cut today and wrapped the end with finely torn dried leaves hundreds of times.

The dried green onion leaves maintained the fire for quite a long time, so it seemed good to make them into a torch. In fact, the green onion leaves burned for so long that there was no need to manage the fire separately.

Making the torch was a boring task that he would normally have given up on quickly. But now, it was actually fun to make something useful for his survival, using just his own hands and effort.

After spending several hours making one torch, the alarm rang, signaling bedtime.

Blee-bleep. Blee-bleep.

[May 20th, 6:00 AM]

The morning of the 11th day of being stranded dawned.

“Ugh-cha!”

Bleep!

Bleep!

“Yeah. Good morning.”

As soon as he woke up, he greeted the rabbit couple and went to the pond to wash his face.

The pond area was brighter than yesterday. Sejun had always felt uneasy washing his face in the dark. So, the first thing he did was set up a torch by the pond.

“Good. Hehe.”

Sejun brought his face to the pond to wash, looking at the well-burning torch.

At that moment,

Splash!

Suddenly, a fish jumped out of the pond and tried to bite Sejun’s face.

“Ack?!”

Sejun quickly leaned back. The fishy smell from the fish’s body brushed past his nose. He barely avoided it.

Flap flap.

The fish that had fallen to the ground struggled to return to the water.

“Wh-what?!”

Sejun, who had been flustered, approached the flapping fish and examined it closely.

It had black skin with golden stripes and sharp teeth.

If he hadn’t moved quickly, the fish could have bitten his nose.

Thwack!

Sejun kicked the fish to the other side of the pond to prevent it from escaping.

Then he looked inside the pond.

“Oh!”

There were several more of the same species as the fish that had just attacked Sejun swimming inside.

“Why are these here?”

While Sejun was thinking about the reason,

Flap flap.

The fish was moving its body, trying to escape back into the pond.

‘This is no time to be doing this!’

Sejun quickly grabbed the fish that had fallen on the ground.

Day 11 of being stranded. He was finally able to eat meat.