Chapter 5
The field was ready.
But he couldn’t just plant the seed potatoes.
He had to go through some essential steps before planting.
After taking a break, Woojin picked up a knife and took out a potato.
“He said to cut it around the eye.”
He recalled the lesson from his past rural experience and cut the potato.
It was not a problem to plant it whole, but it was not very cost-effective to do so.
If he cut it into 3-4 pieces, each weighing about 30g, with the eye in the center, he could harvest more potatoes and be more efficient.
Then he coated the cut pieces of potato with ash.
It was to disinfect the potatoes and prevent contamination.
Once everything was ready, he took them and planted them.
He planted them one by one, leaving a gap of about 25cm between them.
“I’m done.”
The planting work was not that hard.
Woojin looked down at the finished field with a proud smile.
The final step, harvesting, was a matter of time.
“Should I go wash up then?”
He had cooled off his sweat while resting, but his body was soaked with sweat again in no time.
Farming was not something anyone could do.
Woojin went out of the shed to get rid of the sticky feeling.
“Meow.”
Left alone, Uyu wandered around the saplings.
Then, a blue-green powder rose from the green leaves of the saplings like fireflies.
After taking a shower, Woojin took out a banana milk from the refrigerator in the kitchen and drank it.
Banana milk after washing up was always cool and sweet.
But did his uncle eat anything?
There was no trace of him eating anything in the kitchen.
“Uncle, did you eat?”
He didn’t answer at all, as if he was immersed in the game.
“…Did you make do with cup noodles?”
He usually didn’t skip meals, so he wouldn’t have missed one.
Should I just eat by myself?
Gurgle.
He had been hungry all day, plowing the field and planting potatoes.
Banana milk alone was not enough to satisfy his hunger, as his physical fatigue was considerable.
He needed to get some proper nutrition.
He was hungry and had no energy to cook himself.
Should I just boil some ramen?
He had bought enough ramen, four packs of five each, when he bought groceries.
Weeeng-
As he put water in a pot and placed it on the gas stove, the phone rang.
It was Yoojung.
“Hello? Are you busy right now?”
Her voice sounded excited over the phone.
“No, why?”
“Do you have time tonight? I want to have dinner with you.”
“I’m not in Seoul right now.”
“Huh? Where are you? Okcheon?”
“Yeah. It’s my uncle’s house.”
“Then I’ll go to Okcheon. Can I see you for a bit?”
“It’s far away. Why don’t we just talk on the phone?”
“I want to talk to you face to face!”
What’s going on?
“Okay. Call me when you get to Okcheon.”
Woojin turned down the gas flame.
The water was already boiling slightly.
It would be a waste to throw it away like this.
Woojin opened the door where his uncle was.
“Uncle, do you want some ramen?”
His uncle was wearing a headset and talking to someone while enjoying the game.
He said he got a recommended game, but it was an FPS game?
He even put skins on his character, so it looked like he spent some money on it…
It was about farming guns and ammo, supplies, and fending off zombies that were swarming in.
“Wow… Wait. Did you skip your meal?”
He couldn’t believe what he saw with his own eyes.
He thought he had made do with cup noodles at best, but there was nothing on his desk.
He never skipped a meal. How could he skip one now?
“That looks like an addiction to me.”
At this point, he regretted buying him a computer.
Woojin had no choice but to go to the kitchen and boil one ramen for himself.
He would have ordered delivery food if he hadn’t made dinner plans with Yoojung.
“Uncle, no matter how fun it is, eat first.”
“Kya! Woojin, you’re my only hope.”
His uncle ate the ramen as if he was inhaling it with a touched expression on his face.
He must have been very hungry.
“Eat slowly. Do you want me to do the dishes for you?”
He put down even the cup of barley tea that he had poured for him and left the room.
Yoojung came down to Okcheon as promised.
“It’s been a while… Well, not really, since I saw you at the college town last time.”
She greeted him with a bright smile, and Woojin nodded with a smile.
“Yeah. What’s up with you?”
“I’ve been busy and couldn’t see you much. I got a day off today.”
Yoojung was a top-notch prospect.
So she was always busy.
“I see.”
“I’m hungry. Let’s talk while we eat.”
More than anything, he wanted to fill his hungry stomach.
He had been starving all day because Yoojung said she would come down to Okcheon.
“Okay. Where do you want to go?”
“Blood sausage soup, okay?”
Woojin entered the nearest blood sausage soup restaurant.
He scooped up the broth as soon as the soup came out.
The rich bone broth seemed to wash away the fatigue of his body.
It was so hot that it felt like his tongue was burning, but it was fine with the radish kimchi.
“Why are you eating so fast… Take it easy.”
Yoojung poured him some water and said.
“You try starving for a whole day. How can I eat slowly?”
“Did you not eat today?”
“Yeah. What did you want to talk about?”
It must be something important if she came all the way down to Okcheon to see me in person.
Woojin ordered another bowl of rice as he waited for Yoojung’s words.
“Actually, there’s nothing like that.”
“Huh?”
“I just wanted to have dinner with you after a long time. But there is something I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
“Did you quit being a hunter?”
Woojin’s spoon stopped abruptly.
“Yeah.”
“I see…”
Yoojung smiled bitterly.
They had awakened around the same time and made a vague promise to reach the top together.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“It’s okay! It happens!”
“Is that why you wanted to see me?”
“That too, but… I just wanted to see your face.”
She said that and looked at Woojin’s complexion.
“I’m fine. I’ve been traveling lately.”
“Traveling?”
“Yeah. I’m uploading it on YouTube. Do you want to see it?”
“Yes!”
She answered quickly and Woojin showed her his YouTube channel.
Yoojung watched the videos on the channel intently.
“I’m glad you look happy.”
Yoojung was very happy to see Woojin trying something new without being discouraged.
She even subscribed to his YouTube channel and said she would watch it often before she went back to Seoul.
[A man crazy about traveling JK: This is Boryeong, right? I’ve been here a few times before. But the jjajangmyeon looks really delicious.]
[Mickey Mickey: The atmosphere is so nice~]
The subscriber who commented on the first video also commented on the second one.
He seemed to like the video.
And Yoojung also left a comment.
He couldn’t miss it because it was the nickname she had used since she was young.
“Huhu, this is how it feels to get a lot of positive feedback.”
The first video had almost 500 views by now.
The second one had just passed 50 views, but it was normal for the channel to grow fast when one video exploded.
Woojin smiled contentedly and went back to the shed.
He had to feed Uyu and prepare for his next trip.
“Meow.”
As always, Uyu ran up to him and greeted him.
“Did you have a good time? Are you hungry?”
He had to feed him quickly.
But Uyu ran off to the field where he had planted potatoes instead of showing interest in food.
“Uyu! Don’t run around there! Huh?”
Woojin was about to catch Uyu when he froze on the spot.
“There are stems?”
Stems had sprouted in less than a day after planting.
Was that possible?
“Does the shed shorten the harvest time too…?”
He wondered as he touched the stem, and Uyu ran off to the sapling this time.
Woojin’s eyes followed him to the sapling.
“What’s wrong with it? The leaves are all wilted. Why is that?”
The glossy green leaves were wilted as if they were about to wither away at any moment.
Woojin quickly fetched some water from the lake and watered the sapling.
The wilted leaves came back to life again.
At the same time, blue-green fireflies rose from the leaves.
The fireflies flew in unison to the field where potatoes were planted and seeped into the soil.
Then, the stems grew noticeably higher.
“This tree was more amazing than I thought…”
He learned a new fact.
The sapling he brought had the ability to accelerate plant growth.
But the speed was beyond imagination.
“I can harvest them.”
He harvested potatoes that were ready in just one day after planting them.
Woojin took a hoe and dug up one by one of the potatoes in the field.
The potatoes grew nicely.
“If I said I harvested these in one day… No one would believe me.”
It usually takes 90-100 days after planting potatoes to harvest them.
The sapling shortened that time to one day.
The glossy leaves were wilted, and he tried watering them again, but they didn’t come back.
It seemed to take some time to recover.
“Meow.”
Uyu was already playing with a potato by rolling it around next to him.
“I can see why they say cats are owners and humans are servants.”
If it weren’t for Uyu, he wouldn’t have thought of planting the sapling or plowing the field and planting potatoes.
Woojin filled five boxes with potatoes and stopped working for a while.
“Wow, there are so many.”
There were too many potatoes left in the field.
He decided to deal with five boxes first and dig up the rest later.
Before that, he took out five potatoes and boiled them.
He wanted to taste the potatoes he had harvested himself first.
“They’re so hot.”
The freshly cooked potatoes were too hot to touch.
Woojin took a chopstick and poked the center of the potato and carefully peeled off the skin.
He brought the white flesh of the potato to his mouth and bit it slowly.
“Are the potatoes sweet?”
He didn’t add any salt, but the potatoes were so sweet.
He even felt a hint of savory flavor.
That was not all.
Something very subtle changed in his body.
“What is this?”
Woojin, who was rather dull for an awakened, looked at the potato with a suspicious eye.
Could it be affected by the energy that flowed from the sapling?
Nah, that’s too far-fetched.
Woojin moved all the potatoes in boxes to his uncle’s house.
His uncle, who was about to finish his game and go to the bathroom, saw the boxes and froze.
“Hey, what’s that?”
“Huh?”
“You said you planted potatoes, right? But why did you order five more boxes?”
“It’s a long story. These are the ones I harvested today.”
“Hey, you can’t harvest potatoes in one day. Stop lying.”
“It’s true. Anyway, please give one box to each of the people you know, uncle.”
He wanted to share his first harvest as a gift.
“Tell me now. You’re lying, right?”
His uncle didn’t believe him until the end.
