Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 354

“Okay, so what will we compete in?” Ophelia, the Green Tower’s slave, sounded very sure of herself.

‘Why is she so confident?’ Sejun wondered. He didn’t get it.

“Let’s see who can grow the tastiest carrots,” Sejun said. He was serious about winning.

‘I’m going to teach her a lesson with my carrots,’ he thought. ‘She attacked me with those awful carrots before. Now, I’ll show her what real carrots taste like. Am I being too nice?’ Sejun grinned, feeling pleased with himself.

Ophelia accepted the challenge.

“Okay, so I just need to send you 1000 carrots?” Ophelia asked.

Sejun could win by sending just one amazing carrot. But he wanted to be generous to his slave, who would be working for him for another 500 years. So, he decided to send 1000.

Sejun went into the large storage room behind the kitchen. Kkuengi, Ajax, and Blackie followed him.

The storage room was new and big because they had so many crops now. Inside, it was split into sections. Each section was full of one type of crop.

“Wow, it’s really piled up,” Sejun said. He looked at the sections filled with crops that the farmer mushroom ants had harvested.

The cat interns and other workers were busy selling them, but they could only carry so much at once.

Sejun gently patted Theo’s head. Theo was quietly holding onto Sejun’s leg. ‘Maybe it’s time to go down to the lower floors again…’ Sejun thought.

Then he remembered something Rhea, the Goddess of Abundance, had said. One piece of the door to the 10th Tower was on the 80th floor. He needed to get the land paper there too.

“Meow? Chairman Park, why are you looking at me like that?” Theo asked, sounding suspicious.

“Huh? It’s nothing,” Sejun said quickly.

“Something’s fishy!” Theo insisted.

“Ah, I don’t have time for this now!” Sejun said. He felt Theo’s eyes on him and hurried to the carrot section. He started packing 1000 agility carrots to send to Ophelia.

“Okay, everyone, pick the carrots that will go bad soonest,” Sejun said. This was a contest about taste, so they didn’t need carrots that would last a long time.

Besides, a dragon could eat 1000 carrots in less than three days.

“Hehehe, I’m good at picking them!” Theo said proudly.

“Kkueng!” Kkuengi barked, meaning he was good too.

“Yes! Hyung! I’ll work hard!” Ajax shouted.

“Hee hee hee! Squeak!” Fenrir squeaked, thinking, ‘Hee hee, I’m going to eat some!’

They all started picking carrots that would expire in less than a week and put them in boxes.

Then, Sejun saw Fenrir.

“Blackie! Who said you could eat them?” Sejun scolded.

“Squeak!” Fenrir squeaked back, ‘But I picked this one!’

Sejun caught Fenrir eating a carrot. He put Fenrir in his sling bag as a punishment. Fenrir quickly fell asleep, munching on carrot pieces that Sejun cut for him.

Soon, the boxes were full.

“Transport,” Sejun said. He used the Tower transport system to send the carrots to Ophelia.

[Transporting 200 Agility Carrots (100kg) to the Green Tower.] [Would you like to transport?]

But the system only allowed him to send 200 carrots at a time.

“Huh?” Sejun was confused. He remembered the temporary storage limit was 100kg. ‘How did Ophelia send 1000 carrots then?’

He realized Ophelia must have used her magic to increase the transport limit without even thinking about it. But Sejun’s magic was too weak. He didn’t even know that was possible.

“Does she have a bigger storage than me?” Sejun wondered. ‘A slave having a bigger storage than her owner? No way!’

His pride was hurt.

“I need to make mine bigger too,” he decided. He started to expand his temporary storage.

[You can expand the temporary storage capacity to 200kg for 1 billion Tower Coins.] [Would you like to expand?]

“Yes,” Sejun said.

[Expanding the temporary storage capacity to 200kg using 1 billion Tower Coins.] [You can expand the temporary storage capacity to 300kg for 1.5 billion Tower Coins.] [Would you like to expand?]

“Yes!” Sejun kept expanding his storage, all the way up to 1100kg. That was more than Ophelia’s!

Ophelia’s carrots were big, about 1kg each.

‘Hehehe, I won both the taste contest and the storage size!’ Sejun thought, feeling very pleased.

[Transporting 2200 Agility Carrots (1100kg) to the Green Tower.] [Would you like to transport?]

“Transport!” Sejun added 1200 more carrots that were about to expire and sent 2200 carrots to Ophelia.

[How would you like to pay the 8 million Tower Coin transport fee?] [Prepaid or Collect?]

“Collect… No, Prepaid,” Sejun said, changing his mind. He wanted to be generous to his slave, who had just extended her slave time by 500 years herself.

Green Tower, 99th Floor “Hmph! Challenge me with carrots?” Ophelia laughed at Sejun’s challenge. She had grown over 100,000 carrots.

She had never tasted a carrot better than her own. She thought *her* carrots were what carrots were supposed to taste like.

A little while later, [2200 Agility Carrots have arrived.] Carrots suddenly appeared in front of Ophelia in a flash of bright light.

“Pfft. What are these? They’re so small compared to mine.” Ophelia chuckled, looking down at Sejun’s carrots. They were tiny, as unimportant as Sejun himself.

She was sure she had already won, without even trying them.

“But, I guess I should try one,” she said. Ophelia picked up a small carrot and bit into it.

*Crunch.* “···?!” *Crunch.* “···!!!”

‘What… what is this taste? Carrots can’t taste this good…’ As Ophelia ate Sejun’s carrot, everything she thought she knew about carrots changed.

‘Then what are *my* carrots?’ she wondered, horrified.

*Crunch. Crunch.* Ophelia couldn’t stop eating. One carrot disappeared in seconds.

“Carrots can be this delicious?!” She couldn’t understand it. What was the difference between her and the Black Tower farmer that made their carrots taste so different?

But she had to admit the truth.

“My carrots are… trash…” *Crunch.* Ophelia mumbled, nervously chewing on Sejun’s carrot.

And then, [Defeated in the farming competition.] [Quest failed.] [As a penalty for failing the quest, your slave period is increased by 500 years.] Ophelia was now Sejun’s slave for 800 years.

[Won the farming competition.] [Quest completed.] [As a reward for completing the quest, the Green Tower slave’s slave period is increased by 500 years.] “Hehehe. Perfect,” Sejun grinned, reading the messages.

He knew he would probably be gone long before Ophelia finished 800 years of slavery, but it was still good to have.

“Ah, right! Slave, try planting these,” Sejun said to himself. He took out a handful of mugwort seeds from his storage space. He had collected them from mugwort flowers on the 62nd floor.

‘They said the land on the 62nd floor isn’t special, so they might not grow well. But,’ he thought, ‘the Green Tower is full of life. If I grow mugwort there, it might become really special.’

“Transport,” he said. He sent the mugwort seeds to Ophelia. This time, he made her pay for the delivery. He didn’t want to pay for her twice in a row; that would be too much.

After sending the mugwort seeds, Sejun said, “Okay, everyone, let’s go to sleep.” He finished his day and went to bed.

The next morning, “Here you go. Have a good trip,” Sejun said.

“Meow? Why are you giving me these?” Theo asked, sounding sad. He had been helping Sejun all morning, carefully putting crops into leather bags. Sejun was handing him the bags now.

“Take one-third of these to the Cobb Kingdom, one-third to the Red Ribbon Kingdom, and sell the rest on the 4th floor of the Tower,” Sejun explained.

“Meow? Am I going to work?” Theo asked.

“Yes,” Sejun said.

“I don’t want to go alone! Let’s go together, Chairman Park!” Theo whined. He didn’t want to leave Sejun’s side.

“No, I’m busy,” Sejun said firmly. He wanted to use the last land paper for the 73rd floor. He had gotten three of these papers from the black rabbit before.

“But, we can go to the 73rd floor of the Tower together later,” Sejun offered.

“Hehehe. Okay!” Theo was happy he would still get to spend time with Sejun. He smiled.

Sejun, knowing Theo was easily pleased, ate breakfast.

“Get in,” he said. He put his group into his storage space and opened the land paper.

[The paper for the 73rd floor farm land is ready to make you the owner.] Suddenly, Sejun and his group disappeared from the Black Tower.

*Crunch.* “Ehehe. How can a carrot be so delicious?” Ophelia giggled, still eating Sejun’s carrot. She patted her stomach happily.

Without thinking, she dropped the mugwort seeds Sejun had sent onto the floor. She was still angry about losing the contest and having her slave time increased by 500 years. But the carrot was just too good to be truly upset.

Just then, Brachio’s voice called out, “-Ophelia, come here for a moment.”

“Yes, Grandma! I’m coming!” Ophelia quickly went to the Green Tower’s main office area.

Back on the 99th floor, where Ophelia had been, something strange was happening. *Wiggle. Wiggle.* The mugwort seeds that had fallen on the floor started to move. Tiny roots pushed into the ground.

“Grandma, did you call me?” Ophelia asked, seeing Brachio.

“Yes. Come and try this,” Brachio said. She held out some food: cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and potatoes. She explained, “I bought ten of each from the Black Tower.”

“Huh?” Ophelia noticed an orange vegetable among them. It looked similar to the carrot she had just eaten.

*Crunch.* She picked it up and bit into it. It tasted exactly the same!

“Grandma, is this… is this from the Black Tower farmer?” Ophelia asked, surprised.

“Huh? How did you know?” Brachio asked back.

“Ugh… You should have called me sooner!” Ophelia groaned. If she had tasted these before, she wouldn’t have challenged Sejun to a carrot contest. She wouldn’t have become a slave for 800 years!

Tears welled up in Ophelia’s eyes. She felt so unfairly treated.

*Crunch. Crunch.* But she kept eating the carrot. ‘It’s so unfair… but so delicious…’

Her mouth curved into a smile even as tears ran down her face. Ophelia’s expression was very strange.

“Ophelia, are you… are you alright?” Brachio asked, looking worried. Could her granddaughter have gone crazy from the shock of becoming a slave? Had she turned into a mad dragon?

“Yes, Grandma, I’m fine,” Ophelia said quickly, trying to look normal. Luckily, Ophelia’s face went back to normal, and Brachio seemed relieved.

[Arrived at the Black Tower 73rd floor.] [Moved from the 99th floor to the 73rd floor.] [Descended 26 floors.] [All stats increase by 26 because of your Retrogressor Title.]

Sejun arrived on the 73rd floor of the Black Tower. He quickly looked around, like a scared rabbit, to see if anything dangerous was nearby.

But before he could see anything, *THWACK!* Something slammed into Sejun’s back. He flew forward, rolling across the rocky ground.

[Your Unbreakable Body skill is activated!] [Using magic to protect your body.] [Magic is very low!] [Dragon Scale skill is activated!] [Scales of the Great Black Dragon Kaiser are breaking!] [Used 1 Orb of Life.]

Skills and magic rushed to protect Sejun all at once.

‘What was that?!’ Sejun thought, trying to get up. He looked back at what had attacked him. It was a gray monster made of rocks. It was a piece of Kuruga, the 7th Destroyer, a monster made of rock that could crush mountains.

Just then, *Clang!* “Squeak!” Fenrir jumped out of Sejun’s storage space, right above the rock monster.

‘How dare you attack my butler?! I’ll protect him!’ Fenrir shouted in his mind and jumped down at Kuruga.

“Hey! You hurt Chairman Park!” Theo yelled, jumping out too.

“Meow! I’ll punish you!”

“Kkueng!” Kkuengi barked angrily. [You hit Kkuengi’s dad! Kkuengi is mad!]

“You hit Sejun hyung?! I’ll smash you!” Ajax roared. Theo, Kkuengi, and Ajax all charged at the rock monster, even faster than Fenrir.