Shared Inventory (INVENTORY)
Arugula [50]
Throwing Dagger [1]
Necklace of Wind [1]
Potato [100]
Carrot [100]
Corn [100]
Low-Grade Fishing Tool Package [1]
Sweet Potato [100]
Peanut [100]
In front of the eight people standing together, the shared inventory window appeared.
Everything inside it was the item that would go to the party’s top dealer.
And the top dealer of this group was Irim.
[Party Quest – Cave of Salvation Crops]
– CLEAR! –
Reward: All items obtained in the cave are monopolized by the person who dealt the most damage to the Giant Crop.
[All items in the shared inventory have been given to the top dealer ‘Rice’.]
Irim felt incredibly good as he looked at the now-abundant ingredients filling his inventory.
The other seven players stared blankly at the happily smiling Irim.
“Wow, seriously… I never imagined that person was Rice.”
“Ah! So that’s why he collected so much arugula.”
While the players whispered among themselves, Xyle approached Irim.
“I truly had no idea Rice was in our group. Please forgive my ignorance.”
“Ah…… yes. Haha.”
Irim didn’t quite feel how amazing he was himself.
So he could only give an awkward smile, unsure how to respond to Xyle’s words.
Xyle looked at Rice’s utterly innocent face and asked.
“But something’s strange. You had the skill to one-shot the boss, so why did you get beaten up so badly by normal monsters?”
“That’s……”
Just as Rice was about to answer, a message suddenly appeared.
[Achievement Unlocked!]
Achievement Obtained: Look at the Big One, Not the Small Ones!
Condition: Reduce the Giant Crop’s HP by 80% or more in a single strike
Reward: Hoe of Abundance
[Hoe of Abundance]
– An ordinary-looking hoe. The handle is engraved with the name “Fertile”.
Huh.
He never imagined there was a hidden achievement like this.
When Irim opened his inventory, the item called Hoe of Abundance had indeed been added.
He took it out and examined the handle.
Just as the description said, the name Fertile was written there.
Fertile… that green-haired kid.
Fertile.
In translation, it meant “fertile, rich.”
And this hoe belonged to Fertile.
Suddenly, the words Fertile had once said flashed through Irim’s mind.
“I hope you’re not an idiot. Look at the big thing, not the small ones. Only then can you obtain the real thing.”
Look at the big thing, not the small ones.
That was the exact name of the achievement Irim had just earned.
So that’s what he meant.
Fertile had already been giving players a hint about the achievement.
Of course, almost no one would understand it.
Even Irim only realized after achieving it.
In other words, Fertile’s words meant: “Only by unlocking the achievement can you obtain the real thing.”
Simply put, everything in the shared inventory that you get without unlocking the achievement was fake.
The real item to obtain from this cave was the Hoe of Abundance that Irim now held.
He had only tried his hardest because he wanted the fishing tool package, yet it accidentally led to this situation.
Meanwhile, Xyle, who was standing in front of Irim, felt extremely sour.
Rice hadn’t answered his question and suddenly took out a hoe to examine it; he felt completely ignored.
Only after a delay did Irim notice Xyle and hurriedly asked.
“Ah, um… what did you ask again?”
This was beyond ignoring; it was clearly toying with him.
“…Never mind.”
Xyle left those words coldly and turned away.
Even Xyle could guess why Rice had fought while taking so many hits.
It was probably to grow his base stats.
But he had asked because he suspected there might be something more.
If you don’t want to tell me, just say you don’t want to tell me.
Xyle was certain that Rice had caused all that chaos not only for base stat growth but for some other gain.
That must be why he ignored him and dodged the question in such a way.
It’ll be hard to smile the next time we meet.
The name “Rice” was recorded on Xyle’s blacklist.
Irim, unintentionally having upset Xyle, was about to apologize when,
[You have hunted the Giant Crop. Surviving players will be moved outside.]
a message appeared, and his vision was swallowed by bright light.
***
When the light faded, he was standing near the cave entrance.
Yet puzzled voices of players came from inside the cave.
“What the? There are definitely ten of us, so why can’t we enter?”
“Huh? The quest disappeared?”
“Haha. Finally found a bug?”
Because Irim had obtained the Hoe of Abundance, the “Cave of Salvation Crops” quest had vanished entirely.
Naturally, it was now impossible to enter the cave.
The players who had just come out of the cave explained nothing to those still confused.
They couldn’t.
No one except Irim knew anything.
And Irim himself didn’t particularly feel like explaining every detail.
He didn’t think being the center of attention was all that great.
The more eyes on him, the more things he had to be careful about.
Irim and the other six players climbed out of the pit where the cave entrance was.
Then someone approached them as if they had been waiting.
With a face full of anger and huffing furiously, it was none other than the first to die in the cave, Ddichidak.
Already an hour passed?
In Real, if you game-over, you could only reconnect after one hour.
Irim hadn’t realized so much time had passed inside the cave.
But the other players had definitely felt it.
Normally a quest that could be finished within 40 minutes no matter how long it took had been delayed because of Irim.
Irim took more than 15 minutes to kill a single monster, and even moving to the next spawn point was slow because he kept collecting arugula.
The boss was taken down relatively quickly, but just reaching it had already taken over an hour.
Anyway, Ddichidak scanned the group and immediately walked to Xyle.
Then he held out his hand.
“Give it.”
“Give you what?”
“The necklace I dropped when I died.”
“Why are you asking me for it?”
“You’re the strongest here, Xyle. You must have dealt the most damage to the boss.”
Xyle’s face darkened even more, already in a bad mood.
“Ha, stop talking nonsense and get lost.”
“What did you say? Are you done talking?”
“I said get lost.”
“You fucking… did you just speak informally? Hey.”
In that instant, Xyle’s eyes flashed frighteningly.
His hand swung like lightning, and THUD! Blood spurted from Ddichidak’s head along with the impact sound.
“Argh!”
Ddichidak clutched his head and collapsed on the spot.
Xyle glared down at him with wide eyes.
In his hand was a blood-stained morning star.
Xyle spoke, grinding each word as he continued swinging the morning star.
“I, clearly, told, you, to, get, lost, didn’t, I?”
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
“You…… this……”
Ddichidak couldn’t even finish his sentence and became covered in blood before game-over.
At that moment, Xyle’s previously hidden name appeared and turned red.
A message appeared before his eyes.
[You have killed a player and entered the ‘Murderer’ state.]
[Murderer penalties are applied.]
[Murderer Penalties]
– Name can no longer be hidden.
– All monsters will attack first.
– Excluded from all achievements until the murderer state is removed.
– Guards in villages, towns, and cities will pursue you. Additionally, if killed by another player, the killer receives no murderer penalty.
– If caught by guards, you will spend 24 hours (real connection time) in prison.
After reading all the messages, Xyle spat on the ground.
“Damn it. I just got out of prison after clearing the murderer penalty yesterday, and now this shit again.”
He had already killed a player once before.
That time he did it inside a village, got caught by guards immediately, and was thrown in jail.
Every time he logged in, he opened his eyes in prison and could only be released after 12 hours.
But after his second player kill, the prison time required had doubled.
“Phew.”
Xyle sighed and looked at Irim.
“Be careful if we meet again, Rice.”
Leaving that chilling remark, he walked away.
Irim and the other players present were speechless at the sudden horrific scene.
Then they glanced at each other and scattered.
Irim’s mind became complicated all of a sudden, but he shook it off and went to find Fertile.
“T-this… you brought it?”
Fertile’s eyes widened.
“It’s yours, right?”
Fertile jumped down from the rock and immediately took the hoe.
He stared at it for a long time before walking ahead.
“Follow me.”
***
The place where Fertile stopped was roughly the middle of a vast, desolate plain.
With a face full of emotion, he spoke.
“Actually, I’m the guardian deity of this plain. I was born when this plain came into existence. This place never suffered from drought. The weather helped, but it was mostly thanks to me. Because I periodically made this land fertile… with this Hoe of Abundance.”
Fertile gently stroked the hoe.
“I enshrined it deep inside the cave I created and cast magic on the salvation crops to protect it. I only took it out when absolutely necessary, used it once, and put it right back in the cave. But… after the Demon King descended, I could no longer enter the cave.”
Wrinkles formed between Fertile’s brows.
“The salvation crops I had created to protect the Hoe of Abundance forgot about me. And this land forgot that it was fertile. I can’t fight. So I had half given up… I never imagined you would retrieve it.”
Having finished speaking, Fertile spat into his palms and gripped the hoe firmly.
“Now, watch closely what happens next!”
CRACK!
The Hoe of Abundance in his hand dug into the bone-dry, cracked earth.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
After digging a few more times, Fertile slipped his whole body into the hole.
Then, centered on that spot, green energy spread in all directions.
The barren land was covered with fine, nutrient-rich soil and became fertile.
Fertile, with only his green hair sticking out like sprouting grass, truly turned into grass, and a shoot burst from that spot, growing rapidly.
It soon became a huge, beautiful towering tree.
Grass grew around the tree, flowers bloomed.
Then it spread across the entire plain like an infection.
The sight of the empty plain being covered in green was nothing short of fantastical.
As Irim stared in awe, a hologram unfolded before his eyes.