Chapter 22: Delivering well-wishes to the family

TL: Hanguk

"Who is it?"

A young man's voice came from behind the door.

"Ah, I've come on behalf of Mr. Park Sejun."

"What?! Mom!"

"Honey!"

The inside of the house became noisy at Kim Dong-sik's answer.

'What's going on here?'

As Kim Dong-sik was wondering if he should break the door down and go in,

Clink.

The door lock opened.

And

"Sorry for making you wait. Please come in."

A man in his 20s opened the door from the other side.

'Se-jun's younger brother?'

Kim Dong-sik entered the house with a gift set of Korean beef. The house showed signs of age, but it was warm and well-maintained.

In the living room, there was a man in his 50s who looked similar to the man who opened the door.

'Se-jun's father.'

It seemed that Se-jun's mother was in the master bedroom due to the earlier commotion.

"I'd like to formally introduce myself. I'm Kim Dong-sik, the leader of Team 5 in the Phoenix Guild."

"What? The Phoenix Guild?!"

Tadadadak.

Se-jun's younger brother, Se-dol, hurriedly began searching on his smartphone.

Members of a guild like Phoenix would each have appeared on TV and been interviewed at least once. They were famous figures, especially the leader!

If he was a leader of a Phoenix Guild team, there would be tens of thousands of photos of him on the internet.

And after finishing his search, Se-dol alternated between looking at the smartphone's photo and Kim Dong-sik's face.

"Yes... It's true. This is really Kim Dong-sik, the leader of Team 5 in the Phoenix Guild."

"Then, Se-jun is..."

"Of course, my brother is..."

It seemed that Se-jun's family was misunderstanding the situation.

"I've come to deliver this on behalf of Mr. Park Se-jun."

Kim Dong-sik hurriedly handed over an envelope to clear up the misunderstanding.

However,

"Se-jun..."

"Hyung..."

It led to an even bigger misunderstanding.

"It's not a will. It's 50 million won."

"What?!"

"...?!"

Se-dol quickly pulled out the contents of the envelope.

What came out of the envelope was a dazzling check with '50,000,000 won' written on it.

"Mr. Park Se-jun asked me to tell his family that he's doing well. And this is my gift."

Kim Dong-sik offered the Korean beef gift set.

"Is our Se-jun really doing well?"

"Yes, he's doing well."

"Ah, thank you"

"Honey!"

Se-jun's father, Park Chun-ho, quickly snatched the check from Se-dol's hand and ran to the master bedroom.

***

After Se-jun sent a message saying he had entered the tower, his family requested the Korean Awakened Association to check if Se-jun was still inside the tower when he didn't return for over three months.

However, as there was still no contact after two months, they began to think negatively.

In that situation, when Kim Dong-sik said he came on behalf of Se-jun, they misunderstood that he had come to deliver the news of his death.

A moment later

Park Chun-ho, who had gone into the master bedroom, came out with his wife, Kim Mi-ran.

"Thank you. Our Se-jun is really okay, right? But why hasn't he come out?"

"Because of the quest, he can't come out. Aunty, you don't have to worry."

Kim Dong-sik confidently answered. The quest was an idea that Kim Dongsik had come up with spontaneously. Occasionally, there were quests in the tower where, if you left the tower, the quest would be invalidated.

Moreover, he had a brief conversation with Sedol, who said that it had been just over five months since Sejun entered the tower.

In ten years, no hunter had reached the 40th floor of the tower, and Sejun had reached it in just five months? He was a genius of the ages!

Kim Dongsik began to have more and more fantasies about Sejun's talent. Then, he also noticed Sedol. Sedol had a good physique, and if his older brother had such incredible talent, there was a high likelihood that the younger brother also had talent.

He was tempted. He wanted to personally give Sedol a ticket to awaken his powers.

However, he didn't do so since he didn't know what Sejun might think.

Becoming a hunter provides opportunities to gain fame and money, but to achieve that, one has to risk their life. That's why many hunters didn't recommend their family members to become hunters.

Without permission, awakening Sedol's powers could worsen their relationship.

"Then, I'll get going."

"No, please at least have a meal before you go."

"No, I came straight here after leaving the tower. My family is waiting."

"Oh, I'm sorry for holding you up. Please be careful on your way."

"Alright, I'll be going now."

Kim Dongsik left Sejun's family and exited the house.

Whirr.

The contract in Kim Dongsik's possession began to burn with a blue flame, signifying the contract had been fulfilled. It was a magical flame, so it didn't burn anything else.

"Mission accomplished."

Vroom.

Kim Dongsik started his car and headed home. Now, it was time to take the Magical cherry Tomatoes and secure his position as the head of the family.

***

Day 161 of being stranded.

As soon as he woke up, he marked a line on the wall before washing his face.

"They must have received it, right?"

Sejun thought about his family. Surely, the Magical cherry Tomato had become known outside, so they would know that he was alive.

So, he wanted to send money to let them know that he was really doing well.

At that moment,

Buzz.

The poison bees were busy flying around near the tall corn stalks.

"Huh?"

As Sejun approached, he noticed that the corn stalks, which he had not paid much attention to before because they were growing like weeds, now had flowers blooming at the tips.

In addition, the sprouts of the seed potatoes he bought from the seed store were also growing.

"I'm sorry, guys. I haven't been paying much attention to you lately."

Swoosh.

Sejun hurriedly washed his face and watered the corn and potato sprouts, apologizing.

Thanks to that, the rabbits also started working as soon as they woke up.

Out of 200 corn seeds, 139 had grown, and out of 400 seed potatoes, 282 sprouts had emerged. The germination rate of the seeds he bought from the seed store seemed to be fixed at around 70%.

'I need to observe them a bit more.'

Sejun watered the growing corn and potatoes and prepared breakfast.

Today's breakfast menu was dried sweet potato slices, which had been sun-dried yesterday, and carrots. He had flipped the sweet potato slices once before going to bed to make sure they dried well.

Sejun picked up a dried sweet potato with his fingers to see if it had dried well. It was well-dried on the outside, so it didn't stick to his hand.

"Good."

Sejun was satisfied and put the dried sweet potato in his mouth.

Chewing on it, the unique scent of dried sweet potatoes and the concentrated sweetness from the sun-dried moisture delighted Sejun's taste buds.

And

The chewy texture unique to dried sweet potatoes added to the enjoyment of eating.

The rabbits, having finished their carrots, looked at Sejun with hopeful eyes, as if asking if they could eat the new food.

Sejun nodded, and the rabbits rushed towards the dried sweet potatoes.

With ecstatic expressions, the rabbits began to eat the dried sweet potatoes, seemingly intoxicated by the enhanced sweetness.

[The Tower's Administrator asks if you've forgotten something.]

"I got it."

Sejun filled the plastic bag he had used for the apples on the first day with dried sweet potatoes.

"Eat up."

The entire bag of dried sweet potatoes disappeared.

[The Tower's Administrator is delighted with the sweetness of the dried sweet potatoes.]

Sejun quickly began to eat the dried sweet potatoes as well. He had dried 40 sweet potatoes, and they were likely to be gone by the end of the day.

After breakfast, Sejun took three carrot tops with about a finger's length of stem left, which the rabbits had eaten and left behind, and went to the field where he had harvested sweet potatoes a few days ago.

The field had already been leveled by the black rabbit with a hammer, and two rabbits with shovels had created furrows, making it a perfect place to plant new crops.

Sejun dug up the soil and planted the carrot tops so that the stems were not buried in the dirt.

[You've planted the tops of carrot roots.]

[The probability of carrot roots taking hold increases due to the effect of Seed Sowing Lv. 2.]

[The proficiency of Seed Sowing Lv. 2 increases very slightly.]

After accidentally discovering that carrot tops could sprout on their own, Sejun banned the rabbits from eating the tops.

He planted about 3-5 carrot tops left by the rabbits every day. Of course, a few of the previously planted carrots were preparing to flower and produce seeds.

When planting the third carrot top,

[The proficiency of Seed Sowing Lv. 2 increases very slightly.]

[The proficiency of Seed Sowing Lv. 2 is filled, and the level increases.]

"Oh!"

The level of the Seed Sowing skill increased. This is what's great about farming. As you work hard, little by little, it builds up and gives unexpected rewards.

Today was another rewarding morning.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm."

Sejun hummed a tune as he began harvesting cherry tomatoes.

While harvesting cherry tomatoes,

[You've obtained 1mL of honey from cherry tomato flowers.]

[The proficiency of Beekeeping Lv. 2 increases slightly.]

[You've obtained 1mL of honey from cherry tomato flowers.]

[The proficiency of Beekeeping Lv. 2 increases slightly.]

...

..

.

"Why isn't there any honey from cornflowers?"

Sejun clearly saw the poisonous honeybees busily coming and going to the cornflowers, but there was no message saying that he had obtained cornflower honey.

"Is there no honey in the cornflowers?"

As Sejun wondered if there was honey in the cornflowers,

Bing? Bing!

The black rabbit approached triumphantly. See this? I leveled up!

It seemed that he had caught piranhas and leveled up again. At this rate, isn't he a piranha butcher?

"Huh?"

Sejun noticed a dried sweet potato dangling from the black rabbit's hip as it walked. It seemed to have stuck to the rabbit while it was eating earlier.

"Puhahaha. Were you saving this for later?"

Sejun removed the dried sweet potato that was stuck to the black rabbit's hip.

Dduddeuk.

It felt like something was being torn off.

Bing!

The black rabbit screamed, perhaps because it stung. Tears welled up in the black rabbit's eyes as if it really hurt.

"Ah?!"

Looking at the dried sweet potato in Sejun's hand, black fur was stuck all over it.

"Sorry."

Bing!

The black rabbit lay down on Sejun's lap with a tormented expression. It hurts, so pat me quickly.

"Okay."

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Sejun patted the black rabbit's plump buttocks and took a brief break.

And just when he was about to get ready,

Tuk.

Before the poisonous honeybee entered the hive, it placed something that looked like a yellow candy in Sejun's hand.

[You have acquired 10g of cornflower pollen clumps.]

[The proficiency of Beekeeping Lv. 2 has slightly increased.]

"Cornflower pollen clumps?"

It seemed that the poison honeybees were coming and going to the cornflowers because of this pollen instead of honey. Sejun put the cornflower pollen clump from his hand to his mouth to examine it.

Smooth.

As soon as it entered his mouth, the cornflower pollen clump melted in his saliva like cotton candy.

"It's sweet."

As Sejun smiled,

Tuk. Tuk. Tuk.

[You have acquired 10g of cornflower pollen clumps.]

[The proficiency of Beekeeping Lv. 2 has slightly increased.]

...

..

.

The poisonous honeybees placed one cornflower pollen clump each in Sejun's palm and went back to their hive.

Before he knew it, Sejun's one hand was full of 15 cornflower pollen clumps stacked high.

"Uhm."

As Sejun put another cornflower pollen clump in his mouth to savor the taste,

"I'm back, meow!"

Theo returned after finishing the third sold-out event and Sejun's errand.

*****