Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 1

“Haa… I’m so tired… so tired.”

Sejun earned less than two million won each month. After paying rent, student loans, and saving money on food, he saved 1.2 million won. It was in his savings account. This was a good amount, but not enough for what he wanted.

“Hoo. When will I ever buy a ticket at this rate? Will I even be able to?”

Sejun sighed. Reaching his goal felt like a big challenge.

Ten years ago, a black tower with 99 floors suddenly appeared in the middle of Gangnam, Seoul. The tower had strange shapes and lines, and it looked like it didn’t follow the rules of physics.

Around the world, one hundred towers like this appeared in different cities at the same time. Each country tried to learn about the towers in their land, but they didn’t find out much.

They learned that the towers were 990 meters tall and made of a very strong material that even a nuclear bomb couldn’t break. Also, there were no doors to enter them.

Then, people started coming out of the towers, one by one. They walked through the walls of the tower as if it was nothing.

The investigators quickly found these people and learned that they had disappeared recently.

“How did you get into the tower?”

The people said that they hadn’t entered the tower themselves. Instead, they were sucked into a black hole, and when they woke up, they were on the first floor of the tower.

In this way, people who came out of the tower began to share information about it.

-The 100 towers are connected to each other.

-When you enter the tower, you wake up with a special ability and become either a mage or a warrior.

-From the 2nd floor of the tower, there are monsters. The higher you go, the stronger the monsters become.

-Each time you clear a floor, you get rewards. The higher the floor, the better the rewards. But you don’t get any rewards for clearing a floor that has already been cleared.

No one knew why the tower existed. But everyone knew that climbing the tower could make you rich. Items found inside the tower were sold for a lot of money on Earth.

Tickets were one of the most important ways for the awakened to earn money. Each time they cleared a floor, they had a good chance of finding one or more tickets.

People who were already awakened didn’t need tickets to enter the tower. But regular people could enter the tower if they had a ticket.

When they entered the tower, they would awaken and be able to climb it. Because of this, tickets were expensive and hard to get.

In Korea, the Korea Awakened Association bought and sold hunters’ tickets in large amounts.

The price was 150 million won per ticket. But there was news that it would increase to 200 million won the following week because so many people wanted them. Hundreds of people were ready to buy tickets in advance.

‘I can’t give up!’

As news about making money from the tower and investing in green onions became common, Sejun made a big decision.

‘Let’s grow crops at home!’

He would save even more money. He didn’t plan to grow a lot, just a few things that would grow easily with water, to save on food costs.

‘I should start right away.’

So, he bought some green onions and other things at the supermarket and went home.

“Hum hum hum…”

Sejun hummed to himself.

He was excited because he thought he could save a lot of money on food and eat as many vegetables and fruits as he wanted if he grew them himself.

‘I’ll save money like this to buy a ticket and enter the tower. And I’ll make a lot of money in the tower and with our Sera…’

“Hehe heh…”

Sera was a member of Moonlight Fairy, the most popular girl group in Korea. But this was just a dream in Sejun’s head.

As Sejun was lost in his dreams, smiling like a fool, a black hole appeared in the air in front of him, opening wide.

And then,

Whooong.

It started to suck everything around it.

“Huh?! This is…!”

Sejun was very surprised to see a black hole with no end in sight.

‘It’s a Vanishing!’

Vanishing was the name people gave to being suddenly pulled into the tower. All the first awakened people entered the tower this way.

‘This is even luckier than winning the lottery!’

Tap tap tap.

Sejun quickly sent a message to his family. He didn’t want them to worry if he disappeared without saying anything.

When he finished sending the messages,

‘Why am I still here?’

Even though he was being sucked in, he should have been gone already.

Sejun stared at the black hole, waiting for it to take him. But the hole wasn’t sucking him in any faster.

“Hurry up and take me! Hey! What? Why is it getting smaller?!”

The hole was closing.

‘No! My future! Sera!!!’

Sejun made a decision. You have to make your own future.

“Alright! I’ll go to you!”

Sejun ran into the hole. And then, Sejun disappeared into the dark.

***

“Where is this?”

As soon as Sejun came out of the hole, he knew something was wrong. It was very different from what he had heard about the first floor of the tower.

He had heard that the first floor of the tower had bright lights, white marble floors, a large plaza with shops selling equipment and potions, and training centers for warriors and mages to learn skills.

But here, there were no shops or training centers, just a cave made of rocks.

The only thing that was similar to the first floor of the tower was that it was large.

Luckily, there were no bright lights, but there was a ray of sunlight coming through a hole in the cave ceiling.

‘Let’s find an exit first.’

Sejun looked around for a way out.

The first place he thought might be an exit was the hole in the cave ceiling. But the cave wall was curved, and he couldn’t climb it to reach the hole unless he was Spider-Man.

‘Let’s look for another place.’

Sejun put his bag down on a rock and explored the cave.

A little later.

“Why is it so big…”

The cave was much larger than he had thought. The end of the cave was so dark that he could barely see.

“I need to save…”

Sejun reluctantly turned on the flashlight on his smartphone to a low setting and kept exploring the cave.

Hours crawled by. Sejun checked every corner, every crack between the rocks. His hope slowly turned to a heavy feeling in his chest. After what felt like forever, he had to admit it: there was no way out. He was trapped.

“There’s no exit… Am I stranded?”

Sejun said sadly and walked back to the spot under the hole in the cave ceiling where the sun was shining.

“What should I do…”

He had to admit that he couldn’t get out of here alone.

“He-llo-! Is there anyone here-!!!”

Sejun shouted towards the hole in the cave ceiling as a last resort. His voice cracked with desperation.

But

“He~llo~ is there anyone here~!”

Sejun’s desperate cry couldn’t escape the hole and only echoed inside the cave.

“He-llo-! Is there anyone here-!!!”

Sejun shouted as loud as he could. But no one passed by the hole.

“Damn it. I said there’s someone here!!!”

Thud!

Unable to control his anger, Sejun kicked the ground for no reason. And then, a day passed.

Day 2 of being stranded.

[May 11, 6:00 AM]

Beep beep. Beep beep.

The alarm he had set for work went off.

“Ugh…”

Sejun struggled to open his eyes and turned off the alarm on his smartphone after a bad sleep.

“······”

Awake, Sejun stared at the hole in the cave ceiling all day long.

No one passed by for hours.

“Is there anyone here!”

Sejun’s cry echoed off the damp rocks, returning as a sad echo.

Grumble.

Sejun’s stomach rumbled. He was worried about many things, but he had to eat to survive.

“Ugh… I’m really hungry.”

He realized that he hadn’t eaten anything since he got off work.

‘Should I eat something?’

Sejun found a flat rock and sat down.

And then,

Rustle.

He took out an apple from his bag. It was a pre-washed apple that his colleague Minjun had given him.

‘Thank you, Minjun.’

Sejun decided to treat his colleague Minjun to sweet and sour pork if he ever got out of here. It wasn’t that Minjun liked sweet and sour pork, but he just wanted to eat sweet and sour pork with black bean noodles.

Sejun decided to treat Minjun to sweet and sour pork, tore open the plastic packaging of the apple, and took a big bite.

Crunch.

The apple’s sweet and sour juice filled his mouth.

‘So delicious!’

His hunger returned and became strong.

Crunch. Crunch.

Sejun ate the apple quickly, as if he couldn’t stop himself.

“Ah.”

He stared at the remaining apple core and seeds with a sad look. It wasn’t enough.

Thud. Thud.

Sejun roughly dug a hole in the ground with his foot and buried the apple seeds and core.

Then, he began to take things out of his bag.

A laptop and a 500ml bottle of water that he had left over from the office.

Green onions, cherry tomatoes, and sweet potatoes that he had bought to grow at home.

“One, two, three…”

Sejun began to count the number of cherry tomatoes in the plastic container to know exactly how much food he had.

27 cherry tomatoes, 10 green onion stalks, 7 sweet potatoes.

First, he would plant all the green onions, 3 cherry tomatoes, and 2 sweet potatoes, and save the rest as food.

Cherry tomatoes have many seeds inside, so he could plant a lot even with just 3. And sweet potatoes were his only source of carbohydrates, so he couldn’t plant too many.

‘I should fill my stomach more first.’

Scrub scrub.

Sejun washed one sweet potato and 5 cherry tomatoes in the pond.

Luckily, there was a small pond in the cave, so he could at least get drinking water.

‘It would be nice if there were fish…’

There wasn’t even a small fish in the pond. There were no small animals like bugs or mice in the cave at all.

Sejun, who was usually scared of bugs or mice, should have been happy, but he felt a little disappointed. He had seen movies where people ate bugs or mice when they had no food.

‘If I really run out of food, I’ll have to eat something like that.’

Of course, the best thing to do was to get out of here before he ran out of food.

Crunch.

As he chewed on the sweet potato, the sound cleared his mind. Now was the time to focus on the sweet potato.

Chew chew.

Delicious! The more he chewed, the sweeter it became, and it was better than he had thought. He always steamed or baked them, but now he thought it would be okay to eat them raw sometimes.

“Now, shall we get to work?”

After eating one sweet potato and 5 cherry tomatoes, Sejun picked up the green onions.

And then,

Snap.

He broke the green onion about one-third of the way up from the root and placed the green leafy part on the floor.

‘I should eat it later.’

It might not taste good, but he might have to eat it to survive.

Sejun buried the white part of the green onion with the roots in the ground where the sun was shining and the soil was soft.

Then, he planted 2 sweet potatoes to the left of the green onions and cherry tomatoes to the right.

He buried the sweet potatoes in the ground and crushed the cherry tomatoes to plant the seeds.

Slurp slurp.

Sejun sucked the tomato juice on his hands and went to the pond. Then, he filled the 500mL water bottle with pond water and watered the land where he had planted the crops.

When the work was finished, Sejun lay down on a rock, looked at the ceiling, and waited for someone to pass by. He also tried to save energy since he didn’t have much food, and occasionally shouted, ‘Is there anyone here!’

But no one passed by.

Beep beep. Beep beep.

[May 12, 6:00 AM]

It was the 3rd day of being stranded.