Season 4: Chapter 181. Working Holiday (1)
Winter arrived quietly in Cheese Village.
Wooosh!
The fields froze, and crops no longer sprouted. Food production had stopped.
【Cheese Village “Agricultural Frost Damage.” Only the Lord’s Blessing Remains】
That headline came from The Bubble Daily. Only the Knights, ruled by Lord Almond, still produced crops.
[Miho: Truly, this too is Lord’s grace...]
[GreenTea: The Lord has saved us again...]
[HornRamen: Simply divine!]
The comments all praised, worshipped, and submitted to the Lord. They had no choice.
“Hey. What kind of comment is THAT supposed to be, huh?”
A gauntlet fist slammed a villager against a wall. One of the Worker Knights in Obsidian was patrolling like a hound.
“You dare summarize the Lord’s glory with just ‘simply divine!?’ ONLY THAT!?”
“N-No! I meant it sincerely!!”
The Knight dragged Horn Ramen away.
“You will now write a praise for the Lord with at least one thousand characters.”
“Okay! Okay! I’ll write it. Just let go!”
— LMAOOOOOO
— A thousand-character praise?!
— Tell me again how this is a healing village?
The Knights’ rule only tightened. Food was scarce unless the Knights supplied it, and viewer count plummeted.
“P-Please! Just a little food. My family will starve! We’ll die!”
Starving meant losing viewership. Death meant being disconnected.
“Then join the Knight auditions and perform Show & Proof! Get those filthy hands off me!”
“Heuk! Sorry!!!”
The Workers were wolves in iron.
— Perfect villain energy
— Exactly what I tuned in for
— LMAO the suffering is content
The worse they behaved, the more viewers laughed. Cheese Village entered deep winter, and most bowed to power. Most, but not all.
During the snowstorm...
“Iron ore for sale~ Iron for sale~”
A mother and son trudged through the snow, dragging sacks behind them. Zelu, the traitor’s child, and Choco Shroom, the brand-new mother against her will.
“Iron ore~! Can be used for tools!”
It was absurd. Without Fertile Soil, farms would be dead. Tools meant nothing.
White Chicken burst out of a house. “Are you out of your mind!? Can’t you see the crops are DEAD!?”
Whack!
A stone slammed into Zelu’s forehead.
“Heh. Dirty little miner. Pathetic.”
— LMFAO
— “Miner” is now a slur, help
— ZELUTO RETURNS
— LOL
The chat laughed, and so did Zelu’s viewers.
— LOL child abuse arc is peak comedy apparently
Deep inside Zelu, something twitched. The heir of Zelo, with a dark inheritance, clenched his head.
“B-Begone, demon! You will not control me!!”
“Zelu, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” Choco Shroom fastened his coat buttons.
He shook, and his pupils trembled. “There’s... there’s a demon inside me! Father! Father Zelo is inside me!”
— HAHAHAHAH WHAT POSSESSION ARC IS THIS
— Demon is literally just his dad LOL
— The power of genetic evil
“Your father isn’t a demon, Zelu. He’s gone. Long ago. The real devil is...”
She turned dramatically toward the towering power of this world, the fortress.
“The Demon lives in Ah-Sung.”
— Ah-Sung LMFAO
— “True evil resides in Ah-Sung” ~ mother of the year
— I can’t breathe
Zelu pointed at a lavish emerald-roofed mansion. It was Green Tea’s home. Once an honest journalist, he now grew wealthy under the Knights’ banner.
“He abandoned the righteous Farmer’s Daily and sold out to the Knights! A scribal collaborator! A fraud!”
— LMAO
— Just called him a writing collaborator lmao
— Little rebel child built differently
“Justice doesn’t always win, Zelu.” Black Pepper, a black-robed shadow in the snow, suddenly appeared.
“B-Black Pepper?” Choco Shroom froze.
Even here, Black Pepper continued hunting for vengeance.
“But someday, we will correct everything, Zelu. Your father will be avenged...”
“When?”
“Huh?”
Zelu stared her dead in the eyes. “When EXACTLY will you avenge him?”
“We... we are searching for power. A new force...”
“I don’t care about power. My mother and I are freezing and starving. Buy our iron ore. NOW.”
Food for iron? Black Pepper hesitated.
“That’s... difficult. We too must survive...”
“That’s why my father died, huh? Because you’re cowards.”
Black Pepper recoiled.
Zelu roared, “Get lost! Penniless bums!”
— THE CHILD IS HIS FATHER'S SON
— Get lost, you broke revolutionaries!
— Black Pepper: Avenger arc ruined by 12yo
Then, more boots crunched across the snow.
“Zelu. Iron ore, was it?” It was Donuts.
Black Pepper vanished with a trailing shout, “One day you will understand our cause, Zelu!!”
“What was that about?” Donuts blinked and shrugged, then faced the boy. “So. Iron, huh?”
Zelu brightened instantly. “Yes! Yes, Elder! You were my father’s friend, right?! Please buy more.”
“F-Friend!? Who!? No! We just, uh, worked together! Briefly!”
The chat reactions flooded the overlay.
— Oh no...
— lmaoooo
— Noooo!
— traitor...
— He’s doomed!
“Anyway, just... give me one box of ore.” Donuts clearly wanted to pay quickly and disappear.
“One, one whole box!?” Zelu’s eyes lit like the sunrise.
“The Union is the last functioning farming union. We’ll need materials when the thaw comes. Better stock tools now, huh?”
“Yes! As expected of Father’s friend.”
“I told you that is NOT what happened!”
Zelu tightly packed a crate and slid it forward.
Ding~!
A single coin flicked through the air. One gold wasn’t enough for half a crate, not even a quarter.
“Mr. D-Donuts? That’s not the right price...”
— lmao he changed from “Elder” to “Mr.” instantly
— Zelu dark route speedrun
— From Father-Friend to Stingy Merchant real quick
“Tsk tsk. You’re young, so I’ll educate you. In winter, iron is DIRT cheap. When an adult gives you money, you say ‘thank you,’ and that’s it.”
Zelu stared, still and quiet.
— He will remember that.
— Zelsuke Uchiha arc begins.
— This boy is NOT staying in this village alive lol
Then, Zelu decided. “No. Hell no. I’m not selling for that.”
He accepted the demon in his chest.
“What!? To an adult!?”
“Give. It. Back. Old man!”
“You really are JUST like your father!”
“That’s right, you bastard!”
Whack! Thud!
Zelu swung his pickaxe with Miner level strength and floored Donuts.
— LMFAOOOOOOOO
— the cursed bloodline awakens
— child casually committing battery on a civic leader LOL
Donuts didn’t die.
[Stunned]
He collapsed.
Zelu grabbed extra coins, hoisted the ore crate, and turned to run. However, a hand seized his wrist.
“Zelu, I told you never to use that power!”
“M-Mother?”
“That power is evil. It killed your father! You must never awaken it!”
“That was... the power of a Miner?”
She hesitated before slowly and tragically nodding. “Yes. That was mining power.”
— I’M SCREAMING PLEASE
— the forbidden craft: mining lmfao
— sealed technique: pickaxe swing
Zelu lowered his head in silence. “Mother... we can’t live like this anymore.”
“Zelu...”
“If it’s to escape this wretched village... I will awaken Zelo and the mining power within me.”
“Zelu!?”
He clutched his chest. “UaaAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!”
— CHAT ASCENDED.
— launch countdown: 3, 2, 1...
“I, I understand! Just stop screaming! You want to go to Paprika, right!?”
“AAAAGHHH! Gagk! GAK!”
“We’ll go!! Paprika!! We’ll escape!! Just please, stop!!”
Minutes passed.
“Hah... hah... I feel... calmer now...”
And so, the two fled to Paprika Village, dreaming of a different future.
***
Ding.
[Almond has logged in.]
Almond appeared in Ah-Sung at dawn.
“Hm.”
Oddly, the place was empty. Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato were nowhere in sight. None of his knights were present either, except one.
[ForeverAlone]
“Lord! You’re here!!” ForeverAlone sprinted over, thrilled beyond reason.
“ForeverAlone, what are you doing awake at this hour?”
“Working, sir! You granted me Fertile Soil, so I must earn my share!” He grinned like a man blessed by God.
— Head Knight profession: Farmer
— A true knight tills the fields at 5 am
— He only logged in to be on camera with the boss fr
Before Almond could respond, Meringue approached.
“Lord! Reporting!”
ForeverAlone glared daggers at her, but she ignored him completely.
“You’re early too, Lackey Meringue. What is it?”
“Z-Zelu... Zelo’s son... has escaped Cheese Village!”
“Escaped? And who is Zelu?”
“Zelo’s child, sir!”
“When did he have a child?”
“It... happened. Recently.”
— Almond needs to catch up!
— Zelu the runaway ninja!
— romance DLC → parenting DLC → exile DLC speedrun
“So, Zelo’s son escaped. To where?”
“Likely Paprika Village. With his mother, Choco Shroom.”
Almond’s expression twitched.
— Almond.exe has stopped working
— Family lore update crashed his brain
— Mother-route speedrun successful
“Shall I pursue? We must make an example...”
ForeverAlone stepped forward. “I will go! I will retrieve him myself!”
— ForeverAlone Black Ops arc??
— man is frighteningly eager
“No. Leave them.”
“Sir?”
It hardly mattered anyway if they ran to Paprika.
“We are attacking Paprika today.”
— HE ESCAPED STRAIGHT INTO THE RAID TARGET LMAOOOO
— speedran freedom just to enter the zone of conquest
“We need Miners, and Cheese villagers refuse to mine. So, Paprika will do it.”
It was an occupation, but Almond phrased it sweetly.
ForeverAlone reworded it. “Then... it’s migrant labor import?”
“No.” Almond raised a hand and gently corrected him. “It’s a working holiday.”
“Ah...!”
— WORKING HOLIDAY??? I’M CRYING
— colonization → rebranding speedrun
— Breaking News: Knights launches a Youth Visa Program
Clap!
ForeverAlone applauded like a devout follower. “As expected of the Lord!”
The chat followed like a choir.
— Project Name: WORKING HOLIDAY
— Corporate tyranny aesthetics on point
— This is how empires market expansion now
Paprika would soon become the Working Holiday Mining Zone. They would provide skilled labor for Cheese Village. This was dictator Almond’s grand vision for outward expansion.
“Once our troops gather, we march.”
“Yes, Lord!”
They saluted sharply and sprinted off to prepare.