Season 4: Chapter 93. Giant Merchant (3)
Even after the game ended, Sang-Hyeon continued to calculate the value of his possessions. He didn’t know how many fishing rods he would buy, but one thing was certain. The streamers immersed in Cheese Village content wouldn’t stop anytime soon.
It was already past 1 A.M., and most of the streamers were still broadcasting. The cause of all this chaos was none other than All Black. Originally, streamers like Miho and Takoyaki only streamed in the evenings. Now, they kept streaming late into the night, all for the sake of finding that legendary land.
“Huff... Puff... Oh, All Black... Where are you!?”
The stats of Almond’s Fertile Soil had absolutely dazzled them. Once they obtained it, every farm would be perfect. Naturally, all the streamers focused on this goal.
— I'm going to die at this rate.
— Where is it?
— The reality of the Pirate Age, lol
“Eek! Eek! Did I... die again!?”
Of course, danger always lurked outside of the village. However, the streamers didn’t hesitate to try again.
“For the Perfect Farm!” Acorn Jelly, already a self-proclaimed Fertile Soil expert, was no exception.
— Let’s go~
— gogogo!
— All Black is right there!
— Flat Earth, let's go~
— Hahaha, so much fun!
— Perfect Farm, let's go!
“Let’s gooo~!” Bubblegum also followed Acorn Jelly's lead.
— Soil Expedition, lol
— Totally unreliable teammate...
The two of them, fully geared with makeshift equipment made of cheap wood and stone, ventured outside the village. They had spent all their wealth on farming, but still needed to prepare for whatever lurked out there.
Whoosh.
[Leech Spider]
A spider, which Almond never encountered, suddenly jumped out and attacked Acorn Jelly.
Thud!
“Whoa!? A Leech Spider!” Acorn Jelly swung his sword.
Thunk! Thunk!
— Why is its name like that?
— Hahaha, he’s going to die.
— Spider kill, lol
— It’s still too weak.
— Giant Spider, damn.
Then, more Leech Spiders dropped down from the trees.
Thud!
Thump!
He tried to block their attacks with his shield, but one of them began spitting out webs.
[Web Wrap]
“Ugh!”
The webs covered Acorn Jelly and restricted his movements.
“G-Gum, bro! Over here! Bro!?” The tangled Acorn Jelly searched for Bubblegum. By the time he found him, Bubblegum had already died.
“What the? When!?”
— Hahaha, no way
— That was way too fast, lol
— He basically fainted just by looking at the spider, didn’t he? Hahahahaha
— Aaaah, he died, lol
Swoosh!
The spider’s attack landed a few more times, and Acorn Jelly collapsed to the ground.
“Gah...!”
Thud.
[Dead]
He lost all his items.
“Ah... This is insane.” Acorn Jelly sighed in despair.
— Hahahahahahaha
— Can he make it?
— He needs to get proper gear first, lol
— Get some iron, please
— At this rate, he won’t even make it out.
Despite everything that happened, Acorn Jelly wasn’t a bad gamer. He once specialized in games like Kingdom Age, a game that only skilled players could excel at. In other words, Acorn Jelly possessed pretty decent skills and game sense. However, even he found it hard to survive outside Cheese Village at the moment.
[Bubblegum: How the hell did Almond find All Black while wandering around like that!?]
Bubblegum, who had instantly died, asked the server chat.
— How did you die so fast?
— Of course, chatting after dying is the rule, lol
— How did Almond even leave and come back so quickly?
Almond had wandered outside the village for a long time without any gear at all.
[CreamPuff: I bet Almond’s gear was just that good, lol]
[Bubblegum: But Almond dropped all his gear in the beginning, so he was totally unequipped.]
[CreamPuff: Huh?]
[WhiteChicken: Damn.]
[SweetRadish: As expected of Almond...]
[Pickle: He found the fertile soil without any gear??]
Finding Fertile Soil without any equipment and returning to the village alive? Those who had just ventured out found that unimaginable. Acorn Jelly had something to say about it.
[AcornJelly: He did have gear, though. He was holding an Iron Sword earlier.]
Acorn Jelly clearly remembered because Almond had thrust the sword in front of him. It was definitely an Iron Sword.
[CreamPuff: Iron? So you mean he went out with no gear and made an Iron Sword??]
[SweetRadish: He made an Iron Sword already? Where the heck did he go??]
[Pickle: Insane... Did he come back from hell or something?]
Rumors about Almond spread more and more.
***
The moderators chuckled from the corner of the village as they read the server chat.
“Seems like they don’t know that we’ve maxed out the monster spawn rates at night.”
“We didn’t tell them.”
The Cheese Village server had a hidden setting. At night, the number of monsters increased exponentially. Some even grew stronger.
“They might notice that the numbers are higher, but they probably don’t realize that the monsters are stronger.”
In the game, it wasn’t unheard of for entire waves of monsters to swarm the land at midnight.
“Well, it’s still early evening for now. It’ll only get harder as the night goes on.”
“Right. It’ll get tougher as it gets darker.”
As the moderators said, searching for All Black at night was nearly impossible.
[Miho: They said this was a healing game, but I got tricked! I died again!]
The streamers struggled to even step outside the village.
[BlackTea: Miho's charm doesn't work here, huh? She’s so weak now. Haha]
[Miho: It's not that! The monsters are way too strong!]
— Hahahaha, seriously
— Beauty bias is cold-hearted...
— Even the monsters won’t spare you now, haha~
— Miho is just weak, huh?
They simply thought that they couldn’t go outside because they weren’t as strong as Almond.
[SweetRadish: Almond, what even...]
[Pickle: Is this the MVP of the world championship?]
[GreenTea: How did he do it...?]
Almond had already logged out, yet mentions of him grew by the minute. In their minds, Almond was a legendary adventurer who had ventured out into the wild with no gear, defeated countless monsters, and found All Black.
[Bubblegum: Guess it wasn’t just luck that he won the LIL tournament with me~]
[Takoyaki: I think I rank that above even the world championship. Just my personal opinion.]
Everyone started re-evaluating Almond’s past achievements once more.
— Hahahahaha, Takoyaki, speak your mind!
— Is it really the same as playing with pros?
— Winning while wearing sandbags is tough, lol
— Aah, was that from Bubblegum? Haha
Even the smallest things came back into the spotlight.
[GreenTea: So that’s why the thread and the needle changed~]
[CreamPuff: That's why he asked for an extra 0 at G-Star, huh~?]
— Hahahahaha, G-Star, lol
— Tch, just give him an extra 0, it’s not that hard.
— For real, lol
— Hahahaha
As the streamers kept chatting, Acorn Jelly couldn’t resist jumping in.
[AcornJelly: Guess it wasn’t just luck that I found the Perfect Shot~]
[BlackTea: But what even is this Perfect Shot?]
[AcornJelly: ... Never mind.]
Kingdom Age was still an unpopular game.
— Hahahaha
— What even is that, you nerd?!
— You just went quiet because a girl spoke to you, haha
— Aah, haha
— Black Tea really doesn’t know, huh? Haha
Acorn Jelly, who tried to join the chat and got burned, quietly resumed preparing for his next adventure.
“All Black exists...”
— We all know that, you know?
— Hahaha, this guy is legit, lol
— Aah, hahaha
— We already know, lol
— Acorn Jelly said it first! Give him some credit!
***
The next day, Sang-Hyeon woke up rubbing his eyes.
“Hmmm.”
He checked the time on his phone. It was 9 A.M. Swiftly, he raised his legs and jumped up.
“Ha!”
He was definitely full of vigor compared to his usual slow mornings.
‘Let’s see how things turned out.’
Cheese Village kept running even after he logged out. He worried about the prices of his items dropping if someone else found the same things, especially the Fertile Soil.
‘Hmm...’
Sang-Hyeon quickly scrolled through the edited videos of popular streamers. By just glancing at the titles and comments, he could tell what had happened the day before. For the streamers who hadn’t posted edited videos, he could find more information from different online communities.
Then, he discovered something surprising. Except for Zelo and Choco Shroom, who had spent the night in the mines, none of the Cheese Village residents had made any progress.
[That damn fertile soil, lol]
[Did they seriously not find it?]
[So many monsters, how could they find it??]
[At this point, did Almond just lie about it?]
All the other streamers had wasted their time wandering around for Fertile Soil.
[Sweet Radish’s farm is huge now, it’s crazy, haha]
[Farmer King Sweet Radish, damn.]
[Wow, pro level class~]
The only noteworthy thing was Sweet Radish’s farm doing quite well.
[How come everyone is just focusing on farming??]
[Almost every major streamer is focusing on farming.]
[Guess farming is the best way to make food, huh?]
Right now, nearly everyone in Cheese Village had dedicated themselves to farming. Securing the survival basics was key on the first day of the server, and farming was most suitable to ensure survival.
[Farming doesn’t require you to go outside, making it great for survival.]
Various dangers existed in Survival Craft, but the biggest one was monsters. Farming allowed players to avoid such risks while satisfying hunger. If done right, it could even lead to surplus produce and prosperity.
The moderators had intended this. Surplus crops were necessary for an economy to start. Therefore, everyone went crazy over farming, especially when Sang-Hyeon showed them the Fertile Soil. Their eyes went wild.
“Whoa. Acorn Jelly... is still searching for it?”
Acorn Jelly was still livestreaming.
[All-night stream: For the Perfect Farm]
What was the Perfect Farm, anyway? That guy sure had a knack for coming up with strange concepts.
‘This is why no one believed it...’
Now, Sang-Hyeon understood why no one believed in the Perfect Shot before.
‘So they didn’t find it, huh?’
Sang-Hyeon felt relieved. In fact, a small amount of Fertile Soil still remained in that strange village. He hadn’t realized its value at first, so he hadn’t taken all of it. Of course, only twelve squares were left. Ruthless as always, Sang-Hyeon worried that even that would affect the market price of his soil.
“Good.”
Once he realized nothing had happened, he joyfully jumped out of bed.
‘The manager used to say...’
He recalled a basic sales proverb he once heard at Ah-Sung.
‘Always find the buyer first.’
When selling something, one always had to look for who would buy it first. In simple terms, it was demand research. No matter how good the product was, it was useless if no one bought it.
Fertile Soil was the same. No matter how good it was, what was the point if no one could buy it? Whether they didn’t have the money or gave up on farming, Fertile Soil would be useless without customers.
‘It has to go to the right hands.’
Sang-Hyeon decided to time his next log-in carefully. In order to sell the Fertile Soil at the highest price, he needed someone who could pay the highest price.
‘When Sweet Radish logs in...’
The current Farmer King, Sweet Radish, possessed the most buying power and would be the most eager for Fertile Soil.
[Translator’s Notes]
The All Black constantly mentioned is a reference to One Piece. In the manga, there is a legendary All Blue, an ocean that is pure blue and overflowing with life.