Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 25

Director, we tried everything to get something new out of the cherry tomatoes, but we couldn’t.

Is that so?

Jena, the director of the pharmaceutical company Ister, bit her nails as she listened to the report from the research team she personally oversaw. She always bit her nails when she was thinking hard.

So, extracting something from the item is impossible after all?

She had gotten excited when her younger brother, Chris, said it would be impossible to extract anything from the item.

But, the tests on people are very good. We found that eating the magic cherry tomatoes burns 10 grams of fat and makes your body burn energy faster by about 5-10%.

What about duplicate effects?

For people who are not awakened, eating them also burns 10 grams of fat. But, their body energy burn only goes up a little bit, by about 0.1%. The extra effects are very small.

I see.

Jena, who had eaten the magic cherry tomatoes herself, knew best. She simply wanted to confirm the exact numbers.

What about bad effects from eating too many?

There are no bad effects, except the same things that can happen if you eat too many normal cherry tomatoes.

Really? What about burning too much fat?

That’s surprising. We found that even if you eat too many magic cherry tomatoes, they won’t burn too much fat if you don’t have much fat to begin with (like if your body fat is already low, around 7-9%). Instead, you just lose the extra energy boost.

In other words, the researcher was saying that overusing magic cherry tomatoes would not harm your health.

I understand. Please bring the rest of them to my office now.

From a few days ago, Jena had been getting calls from the FDA advisory committee members to whom she had given the magic cherry tomatoes, asking if she could get more.

Yes. By the way, these magic cherry tomatoes must really work! Director, your face looks much thinner!

Hee hee hee. Thank you.

Jena smiled, feeling happy about what the team leader said. They couldn’t get anything new out of the cherry tomatoes, but at least they knew they helped people lose weight!

Meanwhile, far away from the busy city and the pharmaceutical company, life in the cave was following its own rhythm.

Oof!

Sejun got up and added another stroke to the wall, completing another character.

The fourth line is already 30% full.

Each day felt very long, but somehow, many days had passed quickly.

Buzz! The poison honeybees woke up early. They flew to Sejun before they drank honey. In the last two days, seven more honeybees had joined them, so now there were sixty in total.

Did you all sleep well?

The poison honeybees answered by rubbing their tail ends against Sejun’s body.

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! The rabbits woke up and said hello to Sejun.

Sejun and the rabbits had a simple breakfast of sweet potatoes, carrots, and cool honey water before starting their morning farming.

Starting today, one thing was added to Sejun’s work. Sejun decided to take over the job of cutting green onion leaves, which the wife rabbit had been doing.

The wife rabbit’s belly was getting bigger, so Sejun gave her easier jobs. She helped make food and picked cherry tomatoes from the branches Sejun cut.

Sejun cut the green onion leaves at an incredible speed. Because of Keynes’ training dagger, Sejun could cut green onion leaves faster than anyone else in the cave.

The white rabbit with the carrying frame alone could not keep up with Sejun’s speed of cutting green onion leaves, so even the white rabbit with the sickle had to help carry the green onion leaves.

After finishing cutting the green onion leaves in just one hour, Sejun immediately started harvesting cherry tomatoes. His stamina had improved these days, so this wasn’t even difficult.

Sejun diligently cut the cherry tomato branches with his dagger and harvested the cherry tomatoes, bringing them to the wife rabbit.

After harvesting the D-grade magic cherry tomatoes yesterday, most of the harvested cherry tomatoes were D-grade. The fruits that ripened after Sejun became a D-grade top farmer had grown into D-grade.

If Theo had stayed just one more day, Sejun could have sold the better cherry tomatoes.

He felt a little sad about that. But, at least I can eat as many of these good cherry tomatoes as I want! So it wasn’t so bad.

While Sejun was cutting the cherry tomato branches with such thoughts,

[You have harvested 7 ripe magic cherry tomatoes simultaneously.]

[Your job experience slightly increases.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 3 slightly increases.]

[Due to the effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1, the proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 3 increases by an additional 5%.]

[You have gained 140 experience.]

[Level Up!] [You got 1 bonus point!] Sejun had leveled up a few days before. But the better cherry tomatoes gave him more experience points, so he leveled up again sooner than he thought! He was now level 14. Sejun used his bonus point to make himself stronger.

Shall I take a break?

As he stopped his hands, Sejun looked around to see the situation of the other white rabbits.

Although the wife rabbit was out of farming, the sickle rabbit and the carrying frame rabbit, who had nothing to do because Sejun was cutting green onion leaves quickly, helped the other rabbits, making the work progress even faster than before.

Break time!

Sejun shouted. Because of the dagger Theo gave him, Sejun and the rabbits had more free time each day.

At Sejun’s shout, the rabbits gathered at the official resting place, the Bulga.

Let’s eat one each and rest.

Sejun brought two cherry tomato vines he had just harvested and gave the rabbits one cherry tomato each.

The rabbits began to bite into the cherry tomatoes and suck the juice.

Sejun squeezed the cherry tomato juice into a tumbler to make cherry tomato juice.

Buzz!

The poison honeybees approached. When they were eating like this, the poison honeybees would sprinkle honey on the rabbits’ cherry tomatoes.

The poison honeybees approached Sejun.

I’m okay.

Sejun said no to the honey. He wanted to taste just the cherry tomatoes today.

So, Sejun and the rabbits took a break and then went back to their respective tasks before eating lunch.

Ah, that’s good.

Sejun washed away the salty taste and fishy smell left in his mouth after eating grilled fish seasoned with salt for lunch with coffee. Today, he boiled water in a pot and made coffee with hot water.

Squeak…

The black rabbit jumped onto Sejun’s lap and lay down to sleep.

Just one second later… Squeeee.

Wow, how can you fall asleep so fast?

Sejun was amazed by the black rabbit. Then he looked up at the cave ceiling.

About 10 minutes passed.

Coo-ing. Coo-ing.

A strange sound came from above the cave.

What’s that?!

Sejun jumped up quickly.

Squeak?! Squeak?

Thanks to that, the black rabbit, who had been thrown off, looked around in bewilderment.

But Sejun couldn’t afford to care about that. The sound from above wasn’t loud, but it was definitely a monster.

Feeling something was wrong as Sejun kept looking up, the black rabbit hurriedly jumped onto Sejun’s shoulder.

Just then, Sejun and the black rabbit saw a creature with red fur looking down at them from the hole in the ceiling.

Coo-ing?!

Slip!

Cooeee!!!

The creature looked even more surprised than Sejun and the black rabbit. It slipped and fell into the cave, making a strange screaming sound.

Don’t go there.

Mom always said that place was dangerous. It was where the poison honeybees lived, and it was not safe.

But while Mom was sleeping for a little while, the baby Crimson Giant Bear woke up and went to play by itself. It got lost.

Mom!

Mom!

The baby Crimson Giant Bear called out for its mom, trying to find its way back home.

But the baby bear went the wrong way. It walked further and further from its mom and went into the poison honeybees’ area, the place Mom told it to stay away from.

Mom!

Mom!

The baby Crimson Giant Bear was looking for its mom in the territory of the poison honeybees.

Just then,

A yummy smell came from somewhere.

Smells delicious!

The baby bear forgot about finding its mom. It just wanted to find the yummy smell and walked towards it.

Following the smell, the baby Crimson Giant Bear realized that the smell was coming from a hole under the ground and carefully poked its head out to look down.

Huh?!

But there was a gaze looking back at it from below.

Slip!

The baby bear was so surprised and scared that its legs suddenly felt weak, and it fell into the hole.

Mommy, help me!

Huh?!

Without even thinking, Sejun caught the falling creature in his hands. And so, a small dog-sized monster with red fur was in Sejun’s arms.

The first thing Sejun thought when he held the creature was, “It’s so soft!”

The monster looked at Sejun, who had caught it.

Is it a dog?

Sejun thought. It looked like a dog. But the name was different.

[Baby Crimson Giant Bear]

Sejun put the baby Crimson Giant Bear down on the ground.

The baby Crimson Giant Bear was still afraid. It stood on its back legs, held onto Sejun’s leg with its front paws, hid behind him, and looked around nervously.

What should I do now?

Sejun wondered. He didn’t know what to do with this baby Crimson Giant Bear that just fell from the sky. If there’s a baby, there must be a mother bear somewhere, looking for it.

The baby bear thought it was safe now and started to look around the cave.

The first place it headed was the water bottle where the sweet-smelling honey was gathered.

The poison honeybees got angry! They pointed their stingers at the creature that had come into their cave and was trying to get their honey.

The baby Crimson Giant Bear screamed and hurriedly hid behind Sejun’s leg again.

The poison honeybees hovered around the baby Crimson Giant Bear, preparing to attack.

The scared baby Crimson Giant Bear started shaking and even peed a little. Oh, poor thing, Sejun thought.

It’s okay.

Sejun told the poison honeybees to calm down and go back to their honey.

The baby Crimson Giant Bear, who had been protected, clung to Sejun, asking to be held.

What is this?

Sejun picked up the baby Crimson Giant Bear for now.

As soon as Sejun held it, the baby bear fell asleep right away! Why? Sejun wondered. The black rabbit does that too. Why do they fall asleep so easily when I hold them?

Sejun wondered and gently placed the baby bear on his designated seat.

Sejun asked the black rabbit to watch over the baby bear. Then he went back to farming for the afternoon.

Sejun was worried about the baby bear and checked on it from time to time.

The black rabbit and the baby bear were gone! They weren’t in the spot where he left them. Oh no! Sejun thought, worried. Did the baby bear eat the black rabbit?!

Sejun hurriedly looked around, and he heard the sounds of the black rabbit and the baby bear from the pond.

The baby bear watched the black rabbit with big, admiring eyes as it showed him how to catch piranhas. The black rabbit looked very proud, as if saying, See how good I am?

The baby bear nodded and answered. Big brother, amazing! Can I eat this?

The black rabbit answered cheerfully. Of course!

The baby bear, having received permission from the black rabbit, began to gobble up the piranha.

Sejun watched the two of them and decided to entrust the care of the baby bear to the black rabbit for now.

Day 165 of being stranded. And now, the lost baby Crimson Giant Bear had found a home and food.