Chapter 354: I'll Teach You a Lesson with Carrots
"What do you want to compete in?"
[The slave of the Green Tower confidently says that she can handle anything.]
'What's with this confidence?'
Sejun couldn't understand Ophelia's confidence, but
"Then, whoever harvests the tastier carrots wins."
A competition is ruthless. He decided to win right away.
'I'll teach her a lesson with carrots.'
I've suffered from tasteless carrot terrorism, but this is a lesson with delicious carrots. Hoho. Isn't this too generous of me?
While Sejun was basking in his own coolness,
[The slave of the Green Tower happily agrees.] Ophelia accepted the challenge.
"Okay. Then I just need to send you 1,000 carrots I harvested too, right?"
Sending even one carrot would ensure his victory, but he decided to treat her to 1000 delicious carrots, considering she'd be serving him for another 500 years.
Sejun entered the huge storage behind the kitchen area, followed closely by Cuengi, Ajax, and Blackie.
The storage behind the kitchen was a newly built building due to the increasing amount of harvested crops. Inside, there were several compartments each filled with different types of crops.
"There's a lot stacked up here?"
Sejun remarked as he saw the crops harvested by the tenant Mushroom Ants filling up each warehouse.
Other cat interns and employees were trying to sell them vigorously, but there was a limit to their bundle capacity.
Sejun silently stroked Theo's head, who was clinging to his knee. It was about time for him to head down...
Then he remembered, the God of Abundance, Leah, mentioned that a piece of the door connecting to the 10th tower is on the 80th floor, so he needed to obtain the Land Deed too.
"Meow? Chairman Park, why are you suddenly looking at me like that, meow?"
"Huh? It's nothing."
"Something's fishy, meow!"
"Ah. This isn't the time!"
Distracted by Theo's suspicious gaze, Sejun quickly headed to the carrot storage and started packing 1000 Carrots of Agility to send to Ophelia.
"Guys, pick the ones with the least remaining shelf life."
Since it was just a competition to send tasty carrots, there was no need to send ones with a longer shelf life.
Besides, a dragon would eat 1000 carrots in less than three days.
"Puhuhut. I'm a good picker, meow!"
Cuengi!
[Cuengi is good at it too!]
"Yep! Hyung! I'll do my best!"
Kihiihit. Kking!
'Heehee. It's food!'
Upon Sejun's instruction, the group picked carrots with less than a week of shelf life remaining and packed them into boxes.
And then,
"Blackie, who told you to eat?"
Kking!
'I picked this one myself!'
Fenrir was caught red-handed by Sejun while eating the carrots and was confined in the sling bag, where he nibbled on carrot pieces cut by Sejun and fell asleep.
A while later,
"Transport."
After packing the carrots for Ophelia into boxes, Sejun used the tower transport.
However,
[Transporting 200 Carrots of Agility (100kg) to the Green Tower.]
[Would you like to proceed with the transport?]
Sejun could only transport 200 carrots.
"Huh?"
Thinking about it, the capacity of the temporary storage was 100kg, but how did Ophelia manage to send 1000 carrots?
Ophelia had unconsciously poured her magic power into it, increasing the transport capacity.
However, unaware of such a possibility, Sejun, with his modest magic power, couldn't do the same.
"Does she have a bigger temporary storage than me?"
Sejun thought that Ophelia had a larger storage than him. A slave having a bigger storage than himself...
'...How presumptuous.'
His pride was unintentionally hurt.
"I should take this opportunity to expand mine too."
So, he began to expand his temporary storage.
[You can expand your temporary storage capacity to 200kg for 1 billion Tower Coins.]
[Would you like to expand?]
"Yes."
[Expanding your temporary storage capacity to 200kg using 1 billion Tower Coins.]
[You can expand your temporary storage capacity to 300kg for 1.5 billion Tower Coins.]
[Would you like to expand?]
"Yes."
Sejun continued to expand his temporary storage capacity up to 1100kg, surpassing Ophelia.
Ophelia's carrots were big, weighing 1kg each.
'Hehehe. Does this mean I win both in the competition and in capacity?'
Sejun was pleased with himself.
[Transporting 2200 Carrots of Agility (1100kg) to the Green Tower.]
[Would you like to proceed with the transport?]
"Transport."
Sejun packed an additional 1200 carrots with a short shelf life, sending a total of 2200 carrots to Ophelia.
[How would you like to pay the 8 million Tower Coins for the inter-tower transportation cost?]
[You have options of prepayment or collect on delivery.]
"Collect... Prepayment."
Sejun was about to send it as collect on delivery but chose prepayment instead.
He showed his generosity for a commendable slave who self-extended her slavery from 300 years to 800 years.
***
99th Floor of the Green Tower
"Hmph! How dare you challenge me with carrots?"
Ophelia snorted at Sejun's words.
She had harvested over 100,000 carrots so far, and she had never tasted any carrot better than those she grew herself.
So, she thought that's just how carrots were supposed to taste.
A short while later.
[2200 Carrots of Agility have arrived.]
With a bright pillar of light, the carrots appeared in front of Ophelia.
"Pfft. What? These are much smaller than mine."
Ophelia scoffed as she looked at the carrots sent by Sejun. Such small carrots, perhaps because he was a trivial being, even the size was trivial.
She was sure of her victory without even tasting them.
"But I should at least taste them."
Ophelia picked up one carrot and bit into it.
Crunch.
"...?!"
Crunch.
"...!!!"
'What... What's this? Carrots shouldn't taste this good...'
As Ophelia ate Sejun's carrots, all her standards for what a carrot should taste like shattered.
'Then what were all the carrots I harvested until now?!'
As Ophelia was lost in thought,
Crunch, crunch.
Her mouth did not stop, and quickly one carrot disappeared.
"Carrots were supposed to taste this good?!"
She couldn't understand. What difference was there between her and the Tower Farmer of the Black Tower that made the carrots taste so different?
But she had to admit it.
"My carrots were garbage..."
Crunch.
Ophelia nervously chewed on Sejun's carrots, muttering to herself.
And then,
[You have lost the farming contest.]
[You have failed the quest.]
[As a penalty for quest failure, 500 years are added to your period of slavery.]
Ophelia became Sejun's slave for 800 years.
***
[You have won the farming contest.]
[You have completed the quest.]
[As a reward for completing the quest, 500 years are added to the Green Tower slave's period of slavery.]
"Hehehe. Nice."
Sejun smiled as he checked the message.
Considering the expected lifespan of a human, Sejun would likely die before Ophelia completes her 800 years of slavery, but having more of anything is always better.
"Ah, right! Slave, plant this."
Sejun took out a pile of Tenacious Mugwort seeds from the void storage. These were harvested from mugwort flowers while picking mugwort on the 62nd floor of the tower.
'The 62nd floor has ordinary soil, so the effects weren't great, but'
Since the Green Tower is a place overflowing with vitality, he thought growing mugwort there would produce special effects.
"Transport."
So, he sent the mugwort seeds to Ophelia. Of course, this time he sent them with payment on delivery. Sending it prepaid twice in a row would spoil her.
After sending the mugwort seeds to Ophelia,
"Alright, guys, let's sleep."
Sejun finished his day and went to sleep.
The next morning.
"Here. Have a safe trip."
"Meow? Why are you giving this to me, meow?"
Theo, who had been diligently helping Sejun since morning, packing crops into several leather pouches.
Theo asked in a voice filled with a sense of betrayal as Sejun handed those leather pouches to him.
"Give one-third each to the Kingdom of Kov and the Red Ribbon Kingdom, and sell the rest on the 4th floor of the tower."
"Meow? Are you sending me to work, meow?"
"Yes."
"I don't want to go alone, meow! Let's go together, Chairman Park!"
Theo resisted being away from Sejun's lap and threw a tantrum, but
"No. I have things to do."
Sejun flatly refused. He planned to use the last remaining land deed from the 73rd floor of the tower that he received from Black Rabbit.
"Instead, let's go together up to the 73rd floor."
"Puhuhut. Okay, meow!"
Theo, happy to be with Sejun a bit longer, smiled and replied.
After persuading the simple Theo, Sejun had breakfast and
"Stay inside."
He put his party in the void storage and unfolded the land deed.
And then,
[The summoning function for the initial engraving of the land deed for the 73rd floor farm has been activated.]
Sejun and his party disappeared from the Black Tower.
***
Crunch.
"Ehehe. Why is this carrot so tasty?"
Swoosh.
Ophelia, who had lost the farming contest and had 500 years added to her slavery, was eating Sejun's carrots and foolishly laughing as she scattered the mugwort seeds he sent on the floor.
Despite being furious for having her slavery extended, the deliciousness of the carrots kept making her laugh.
Then,
-Ophelia, come up here for a moment.
Brachio called Ophelia.
"Yes, I'll come right now!"
Ophelia hurriedly moved to the administrative area of the Green Tower.
The 99th floor of the Green Tower where Ophelia had left.
Wriggle, wriggle.
The casually thrown mugwort seeds began to squirm and take root in the ground.
"Grandma, you called for me?"
Ophelia asked Brachio, who had called her.
"Yes, my child. Come and try this."
Brachio took out crops she had bought from the Black Tower, including cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, ten of each.
"Huh?"
Among them, Ophelia noticed an orange crop that looked similar in size to the ones she had just seen.
Crunch.
When she tasted it, it was exactly the same.
"Grandma, is this crop grown by the Black Tower's Tower Farmer?"
"Huh? How did you know that?"
"Ugh... why didn't you call me sooner!"
If she had eaten these sooner, she wouldn't have competed in farming with Sejun, and then she wouldn't have added 500 years to her slavery...
Feeling unjustly treated, Ophelia's eyes moistened.
Crunch, crunch.
Yet, Ophelia didn't stop eating the carrots.
'I feel wronged, but it's delicious...'
Thanks to that, her lips curled up while her eyes were tearful, making Ophelia's expression strange.
"Ophelia, are... are you okay?"
Brachio looked seriously at Ophelia. Could it be that our granddaughter had gone mad from the shock of becoming a slave?
"Yes, Grandma, I'm fine."
Fortunately, Ophelia soon returned to her normal expression, reassuring Brachio.
***
[You have arrived at the 73rd floor of the Black Tower.]
[You have moved from the 99th floor, the top floor, to the 73rd floor.]
[You have descended 26 floors.]
[<Title: Retrogressor> effect is activated, all stats increase by 26.]
Sejun, upon arriving at the 73rd floor of the tower. Like a sunfish, he quickly scanned the surroundings for any signs of danger.
However,
Thud!
Before he could finish surveying the area, something struck Sejun's back forcefully, sending him rolling across the ground.
[<Power: Unbreakable Body> is activated.]
[Consuming Magic power to protect the body from breaking.]
[There is not enough Magic power to protect the body.]
[Dragon Tribe Skill - Dragon's Scale is activated.]
[The great Black Dragon Kaiser's scale is destroyed.]
[One Life Orb is consumed.]
Powers and magic activated consecutively to protect Sejun.
'What's that?'
As Sejun was sent flying, he spotted the creature that had attacked him. It was a gray monster made entirely of rock.
It was a fragment of Krueger, the Destroyer of Mountains, 7th seat of the Apostles of Destruction.
At that moment
Clank.
Kking!
'How dare you attack my servant?! I'll protect my servant!'
Fenrir opened the void storage onto Krueger's head and lunged towards it.
And then,
"How dare you touch Chairman Park, meow! I'll teach you a lesson, meow!"
Kueng!
[You hit Cuengi's dad! Cuengi is angry!]
"How dare you hit Sejun hyung?! I'm going to smash you to pieces!"
Outrunning Fenrir, who was leading the charge, Theo, Cuengi, and Ajax all attacked Krueger.
*****
4/5