In Gagel’s conference room.

“What’s happening with the locust swarm in Africa? I think it’s time to reduce their numbers.”

Knowing that Gagel is deliberately reducing the food supply to some extent, political pressure from the United States and Europe began to rise as food prices continued to soar.

“Starting tomorrow, we plan to mass-spray a newly developed insecticide that is harmless to humans across the African continent using drones.”

The director in charge of Africa’s food supplies answered Chairman William’s question.

“Good. What’s the price?”

Although moving under pressure, Gagel’s business style was to somehow gain benefits. So Gagel secretly negotiated with African governments and received compensation.

“We have agreed to receive farmland and mines from each government.”

African governments complied with Gagel’s demands in order to maintain their regime, as the atmosphere was such that riots could break out at any moment due to food issues.

“Well… not bad. The insecticide is definitely safe, right?”

“Yes! You don’t need to worry. It won’t harm humans even if ingested in large quantities, but locusts can’t tolerate even a small intake.”

“Okay. Next report, Vice Chairman.”

“Yes!”

At William’s call, Michael began to report.

“We have removed all of the skeleton tombs on the second floor of the tower and turned them into experience farms, and we are working on expanding the experience farm to the third floor.”

“And the revenue?”

“The current revenue is 10,000 tower coins a day. Roughly 10 million dollars…”

Michael continued his report confidently, oblivious to what he was actually doing.

***

Black Tower’s Administrator Zone.

Munch, munch.

Aileen was chewing songpyeon that Sejun gave her, filling her cheeks until they puffed up.

Sejun didn’t give Aileen a giant songpyeon, but Aileen used polymorph magic to take on a human form.

Now, in the high mana concentration of the administrator area, Aileen could use polymorph magic without any burden.

Gulp.

“Heeheehee. Delicious! Yum. Yum.”

Aileen stuffed in two more songpyeon in a row. At first, she thought that turning into a human was shameful, but after transforming to meet Sejun, she found the human form to be incredibly pleasing.

If she were in her original dragon form, she would need to chew about 2000 rice cakes to feel full, but in her human form, two were enough to fill her mouth.

“Heeheehee. I should return the favor too.”

She wanted to repay him with cooking, but Sejun always insisted on cooking himself.

‘Heeheehee. Sejun thinks so much about me. I’ll save cooking for later.’

Aileen decided to save her cooking to surprise Sejun later. It definitely wasn’t because she lacked confidence in her cooking.

And then,

“I should also enchant my scale and give it as a gift.”

She decided to gift Sejun a unique, special item. Kaiser’s enchanted scale for Sejun made Aileen very envious. Now that she had more magical power, she could make one too.

“Polymorph, release.”

Thud.

Aileen returned to her original form.

“Where is it?”

Aileen rummaged around the place where she kept her things, looking for the box where she had collected the scales that had fallen off during her infancy. Dragons knew that their scales and teeth were excellent materials, so they typically saved them.

“Ah! Here it is.”

Aileen picked up one of the scales.

Then,

“Ouch!”

She bit her finger, causing a small wound. Unlike Kaiser, Aileen couldn’t just use her magic to engrave spells yet.

Drip. Drip.

Aileen smeared the falling red blood drops on her claw,

“I have to finish before the blood dries!”

Scribble. Scribble.

She quickly began to engrave the magic circle with her claws.

***

“I need to plant this again.”

Sejun collected the seeds from the screaming pineapple that the golden bat had left behind after sucking its juice and planted them in the field.

[You have planted the seeds of the screaming pineapple.]

[Your job experience has slightly increased.]

[Your proficiency in Seed Sowing Lv. 6 has slightly increased.]

[Due to the effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1, your proficiency in Seed Sowing Lv. 6 has increased by an additional 5%.]

He thought he would try growing it since it was a new breed. As long as he didn’t harvest it himself, there would be no problem.

After planting the seeds,

“Let’s do the dishes now.”

Sejun began to clear the dishes he and the animals had eaten from.

Just then,

[The tower’s administrator says she enjoyed the songpyeon you gave her.]

[The tower’s administrator says she has something prepared for you too.]

“Huh?! Something prepared? It not…food, is it?”

He prayed it wasn’t food, unable to forget the pond poisoning incident caused by the health soup that Aileen had given him in the past. No, he could never forget it. It had been a great shock to him.

[The tower’s administrator says it’s not food but an item.]

“An item? Phew.”

Sejun sighed in relief that it wasn’t food, but

[The tower’s administrator apologizes for disappointing you.]

[The tower’s administrator says she will prepare food next time.]

Aileen thought Sejun was disappointed.

“No! No! I’m not disappointed at all! Don’t ever cook again, Aileen! I’ll do the cooking for the rest of my life!”

Sejun vehemently denied it, forcefully putting an end to Aileen’s cooking.

Then,

[……]

“Aileen?”

For some reason, Aileen didn’t respond again.

Instead,

“Huh?”

In Sejun’s hand, a black heart-shaped necklace appeared, covered in incomprehensible characters.

“What’s this?!”

The solid black heart was about the size of a thumb’s knuckle and was quite cute.

However,

‘It’s not something weird, is it?’

The red unknown characters on the black heart gave an ominous feeling.

Still, since a trustworthy being had given it, Sejun closely examined the necklace.

[Young Dragon’s Scale Necklace]

→ The great black dragon Aileen Pritani engraved a magic circle using dragon blood on this scale that fell off when she was young.

→ It is clumsily made as it’s her first creation.

→ Destroying the scale will activate the highest-grade healing magic spell.

→ Usage Restrictions: Park Sejun, acknowledged by Aileen Pritani, Strength 100 or more

→ Creator: Aileen Pritani

→ Grade: B+

Unlike Kaiser’s scale, it had to be worn, did not automatically activate, and had a lower grade, but it was all okay.

It was Aileen’s first creation, and she even used her blood, so he was thankful and happy just to receive it. But there was one problem.

“Did you make this for me to use?”

Sejun’s current strength stat was 17.8, and a strength of 100 or more was needed to destroy Aileen’s scale. Aileen seemed to have given it to him to use when his life was in danger, but to Sejun, it was merely a collectible accessory.

“I’ll accept the thought.”

When Sejun put on the necklace that Aileen had given him,

“President Park, let’s go to sleep now, meow!”

Theo came out of the kitchen with Iona and said,

“What about the dishes?”

“Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. We’ve finished them!”

Under Iona’s leadership, the animals had finished cleaning the dishes.

“Really? Good job. Let’s go to bed now.”

“Okay, meow!”

“Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. Yes!”

Sejun took Theo and Iona and went to sleep.

***

“Alright.”

Sejun got up.

“Meow…”

Placed Theo on his knee, and

Swoosh.

Made a mark on the wall, beginning the 279th morning of being stranded.

Kkwek!

Kkwek!

In the dawn, diligent mushroom ants who had already harvested mushrooms on their backs greeted Sejun on their way to the field. Since there was no need to count the harvest anymore for job quest, Sejun let the mushroom ants harvest freely.

“Right. Hello. Going to eat breakfast?”

Kkwek!

In response to Sejun’s question, the mushroom ants moved their antennas up and down.

The mushroom ants had been simultaneously pruning and eating in the cherry tomato field since lunch yesterday.

For Sejun, it was killing two birds with one stone, as he could handle both the pruning and the ants’ meal.

In addition to pruning, the mushroom ants also helped with other farming tasks. Since their original job was similar to farming, once the rabbits taught them a few things, they quickly became skilled farmers.

While Sejun was greeting the mushroom ants,

Snore.

Snore.

Theo and Iona were still sleeping, snoring.

“First, let’s eat breakfast and then try making Garaetteok¹. Where’s the rice dough?”

Sejun looked for the wealth-devouring rice dough, which he received from Kellion. The rabbits had carefully set it aside in one corner of the kitchen.

Sejun approached the rice dough.

“Huh?!”

The shape of the rice dough had changed slightly. It felt a bit bigger?

“What’s this?”

Sejun examined the condition of the rice dough.

“Huh?!”

There was additional information.

[Relic: Wealth-devouring Rice Dough]

…

..

.

→ Its abilities have increased by swallowing a massive amount of wealth.

→ You can choose between rice dough and rice flour when the wealth-devouring rice dough swallows wealth. (1 Tower coin for 1kg of rice dough, 0.5kg of rice flour)

→ Usage Restrictions: Lv. 50 or higher, Magic Power 50 or higher

→ Creator: Pongpong

→ Grade: AA+

“A massive amount of wealth?”

Sejun had only used 10 Tower coins, but he had no idea that Kaiser had spent 10 million Tower coins.

He had been wondering whether he should dry the rice dough to make it back into flour for the dough of rice cake and Makgeolli, but the problem was solved all at once.

Though Kaiser had spent 10 million Tower coins, they could now make tastier Makgeolli, so it was a win-win for both Sejun and Kaiser.

“Let’s eat breakfast.”

Today’s breakfast was roasted sweet potatoes and cherry tomato juice, since they had eaten all the food prepared yesterday.

Then he mixed a little water with the rice flour, made it into a slightly clumpy state, and the dough was ready to be steamed into garaetteok. But it was still lacking in stickiness.

Of course. There was one last process to add stickiness.

“Cuengi, pound it very hard!”

Kreong!

At Sejun’s command, Cuengi raised its branch overhead, ready to hit the rice dough with full force.

‘Oops!’

Sejun realized he had used too strong a word in his excitement.

“Sto…”

As Sejun was about to quickly stop Cuengi,

Squeak!

A cry from the black rabbit echoed from a distance.

Kreong?!

Cuengi quickly turned its head towards the sound. Brother black rabbit?!

Squeak!

The black rabbit, moving swiftly, suddenly appeared next to Cuengi, wearing dazzling golden clothes. Brother’s here!

Kreong!

Cuengi eagerly greeted the black rabbit passionately. Brother!

“Black rabbit, you’re here, meow?”

“Kyoot. Long time no see.”

(Hello, Brother Black Rabbit!)

After almost 10 days, they were greeting the black rabbit.

“Black rabbit, it’s nice to see you… but how about floor 55 of the tower? There’s no trouble, is there?”

Sejun asked with concern.

Squeak!

[I came to get carrot seeds.]

The black rabbit replied, hopping onto Sejun’s shoulder. The black rabbit had come to plant carrots on floor 55.

“Got it. But since you’re here, could you pound this?”

Sejun pointed to the rice dough, he was always curious how chewy a rice cake pounded with the black rabbit’s hammer would be.

Squeak!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

At Sejun’s request, the black rabbit began pounding the rice dough, putting emotion into it as if relieving stress.

‘Black rabbit, you… you’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?

Indeed, rebuilding a kingdom was not easy. Sejun thought he must take good care of the black rabbit before it returned to 55th floor of the tower.

*****

TL Notes:

1) Garaetteok: Another type of rice cake. Read more here -> https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/garaetteok.