Chapter 74
Meanwhile, in a safe zone in the Capital Area.
It wasn't only the Gallery that was ablaze with excitement at the news that potatoes had been produced.
“They say it's potatoes!!! Potatoes!!!”
“We might get to eat potatoes!!!”
The outside world was ablaze with excitement too at the news that potatoes had been produced.
“Just how long has it been... since we last ate potatoes...”
“Can we really eat potatoes too...?”
It was only natural that they were this excited.
There were limits to the food they could consume after the apocalypse.
And that remained true even after the System opened the Shop.
Since most of the food available to them was processed, eating freshly grown produce had been nothing but a dream.
Just as the survivors were beginning to harbor hope one by one.
“Potatoes... I can't believe it. Potatoes.”
Mythos Guild Master Yoon Seo-jin was harboring hope as well.
“They... They look delicious...”
In her mind, scenes of eating fluffy boiled potatoes were replaying endlessly.
She had forced herself to look calm, standing with her hands clasped behind her back for appearances, but she couldn't stop salivating.
More than anything, the fact that she could supply potatoes to her guild members dominated her thoughts.
“Guild Master!! Let's go to Anseong right now!”
“Let's try a potato!”
Guild members whose eyes had lit up at the news rushed to the camp carrying their gear, ready to head for Anseong immediately, but.
“No... Not now.”
Seo-jin shook her head firmly.
“W-Why not!!”
“You said we could eat potatoes!”
“...It's dangerous.”
At her words, all the guild members fell silent.
After the Galleries merged, the dead zones had disappeared.
But the only things that had vanished were the anomalies and the fog restricting visibility.
The fact that mutants that had spread from other regions were still roaming around remained unchanged.
Of course, aside from Runners and Witches, there weren't many mutants even Awakeners couldn't shake off.
But the dead zones themselves hadn't been investigated much to begin with, so they also needed to check whether a safe route existed.
‘And even for an Awakener, it's quite a distance to travel there and back on foot...’
Besides, that wasn't the only problem.
They would have to carry the potatoes back themselves.
The problem was simple, but complicated at the same time.
They couldn't travel between regions quickly and safely.
“Why don't we select a scouting party and open trade with Anseong?”
“The scouts are the fastest people in the guild, so wouldn't that increase the odds of them arriving alive?”
“What good is that if someone gets injured or killed every time they go?”
“Th-That...”
That was why Seo-jin was lost in thought.
Should they really risk their lives just to eat potatoes?
Were potatoes even worth that much in the first place?
‘They are worth it... I really want to eat potatoes...’
Unsolvable worries continued to surge through Yoon Seo-jin's mind.
‘Should I try to make a contract with Speedrun?’
They had at least gotten acquainted through Si-yeon, their youngest member, thanks to regular pest control, so perhaps she could talk things over with Speedrun.
It was while she was thinking such thoughts.
Brrrrm-! Screeeech-!
A strange sound came from outside the camp.
“...Hey!!!”
“...Look over there!!”
“...What the hell is that!!!”
The guild members outside reacted to the sound too.
“Wh-What was that sound?”
“I-I've never heard that before.”
The guild members who had been standing guard beside Seo-jin dashed outside the camp.
‘C-Could this be...?’
The moment Seo-jin also stepped outside the camp.
“Huh?”
“Yes...?”
They all froze where they stood, as though unable to believe the sight unfolding before their eyes.
“W-What is that?”
Breaking through the cloud of dust was a one-ton truck like those they had seen before the apocalypse.
“A t-truck...?”
“It's an electric truck, isn't it?”
“There are... still cars that can move?”
“W-Who on earth...?”
Slam-!
At that moment, the vehicle door cautiously opened, and a man got out.
“Um... this is the Mythos Guild, the one that asked whether it could sign a guild-wide contract... right?”
He was Anseong Tangtang Ramen, a newbie from the South.
Boxes of potatoes were piled in the truck's cargo bed.
Seo-jin looked back and forth between the truck and the man before speaking.
“W-Where did you get this truck...?”
The answer was shocking.
“Um... System-nim sent it to us...”
“?!!!”
“??!!!!!”
At those words, the entire guild was thrown into an uproar.
“Y-You mean System-nim sent a truck...?”
“System-nim? A vehicle???”
“Th-This makes no sense...”
Just as everyone stood there speechless with their mouths hanging open.
Seo-jin was the first to speak.
“But even if you had a truck... how did you get past the mutants...? It must have been dangerous...”
“...Let's just say I didn't avoid them.”
“?!”
In response to her question, Anseong-gye—the real identity of Anseong Tangtang Ramen—showed them the front of the truck.
The truck's bumper and front were badly crumpled and covered in blood.
Looking closer, unidentifiable chunks of meat dangled from the cracked windshield and bent wipers.
“D-Don't tell me you just... drove through them like an idiot...”
“Phew. Let's just say bumper cars were... quite fun.”
Only then did Seo-jin realize how Anseong Tangtang Ramen had crossed into the Capital Area.
“My conviction that I must sell System-nim's potatoes. That, at least, is genuine.”
Anseong Tangtang Ramen answered, his eyes gleaming with a strangely fanatical light.
*****
Title : Breaking News!!!! A Potato Seller Has Come to the Capital Area!!!!!!
(Roughly, a photo of potatoes being unloaded from the cargo bed of a truck that's about to be scrapped. JPG)
The Anseong farmers have arrived to sell potatoes in front of the Mythos Guild's Orange Zone branch and at Migeum Station Plazaㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Potatoes are on sale right now!!
?!
ㄴ Eeeh?
ㄴ A potato seller came!!!
ㄴ They got here this fast?
Did they walk here??
ㄴ Wait, didn't they say they couldn't deliver...!
ㄴ They came in a truck.
ㄴ A tr?uck
ㄴ Huh?
ㄴ A truck?
Title : Wait, the Anseong guys had a car?
I haven't seen a car running since the apocalypse, and it's been a while??!
Where'd they get gas?
That thing looks like an electric truck.
ㄴ An electric truck...? There are still places with working charging stations???!!
Apparently System-nim sent it to them ㅇㅇ
ㄴ ????
ㄴ Huh???
[Anseong Tangtang Ramen] System-nim even installed an EV charging station in our region!!!
ㄴ What!!
ㄴ He installed a charging station too!!!
This is unbelievable.
ㄴ He laid down all the infrastructure for them...
ㄴ ㄹㅇ That's fucking amazing.
So System-nim is even giving the southern guys cars!!
ㄴ This is blatant regional discrimination!!!
ㄴ R e g i o n a l D i s c r i m i n a t i o n
ㄴ C a p i t a l A r e a L i v e l i h o o d G u a r a n t e e
ㄴ G i v e U s F a r m i n g R i g h t s T o o
ㄴ B u i l d U s S m a r t F a r m s
[Healer Union] “Guarantee something-or-other!!!”
ㄴ Guarantee something, anything!!!
ㄴ Give the Capital Area cars too!!!!
ㄴ Hand over a truck!!
ㄴ Give us a truck!
ㄴ Give us a truck!!
No, these bastards are actually doing a truck protestㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ ㄹㅇ This is what a truck protest is.
ㄴ (Roughly, a truck-sized 'ugh' meme. JPG)
ㄴ Ugh.
ㄴ Ugh, truck, ugh.
ㄴ Kyaa
Hey, you idiots, the important thing isn't that a car is running right now!!
ㄴ Potatoes have started circulating!!!
ㄴ We can eat potatoes!
??? : It's a potato party!!!
ㄴ Where are they selling potatoes? I'm heading there right now ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Supplies have been released near the markets by Migeum and Jeongja Stations, go go go
ㄴ Fuck, potatoes, get ready ㅎㅎㅎㅎ
It was news that a mysterious truck had appeared from the southern region.
“Kyaa, it actually works...”
I was laughing as I read the comments.
How was I able to send them a truck?
“I'm a building owner (for real).”
The answer was in the underground parking lot.
I had taken the elevator to B2, the underground parking lot.
What was here, as expected, was Jomssaem's...
Grrr-!
Not a crotch, but some whatever-the-hell-that-was...
“Mm-hmm. Jomssaem is everywhere and anywhere.”
As expected, wrecked cars so mangled they were impossible to identify were strewn throughout the underground parking lot.
“Jomssaem!! What am I supposed to do if you crush all the cars!!”
And several vehicles were buried in Jomssaem's mass of flesh.
Anyway.
[Remaining usable tiles: 14 spaces]
I still had some tile ownership left after unlocking the camping section warehouse, and on a whim, I tried owning the parking lot.
“It works.”
The moment I owned the blueprint, vehicles that had been crushed beyond recognition appeared.
It wasn't all that surprising.
After all, owning my blueprints was what restored the tiles to normal.
“I am the god of restoration.”
Of course, at first I had no idea what vehicles were available, so I did a bit of a vehicle gacha.
“Fuck... I don't need passenger cars!!”
Well, I did need them, just not for my current purpose.
I claimed another tile.
“Oh...!! A Lamborghirine!!!!”
Fuck, I'll take that for a spin sometime when I have a spare moment. It looks fucking hot.
[Remaining usable tiles: 4 spaces]
“Come on! Come on!!!”
As I kept claiming suitable tiles one by one.
[Remaining usable tiles: 1 space]
“Aaaagh.”
The moment I claimed the last tile.
“There it is!!!!!”
When I claimed the parking-lot tile near a place resembling a loading dock, one-ton trucks parked side by side appeared.
This is it! This is exactly the picture I wanted!
“Trucks are what logistics needs...!”
Still, if I'm distributing agricultural and marine products, the picture looks better if I actually use trucks.
So I immediately sent one each to Cheonan, Anseong, and Pyeongtaek.
Anyway, after closing the Gallery, I looked around the underground parking lot, which had been restored by about one-fifth.
There really wasn't anything special.
Everywhere except the areas I owned was a sight no one could bear to look at.
“Good lord... Why couldn't that person get out of the car...?”
One thing did catch my eye.
[Way to Yeouido Subway Station]
Come to think of it, the Starplex where I was was a department store on the level of a landmark.
“So it's connected to the subway.”
I was wondering whether owning the subway would make it operational too, when.
Ding-!
A one-on-one message arrived from Healer Union.
- [Healer Union] : Myeongmyeongbaekbaek!!! What are you doing, sleepyhead?
- [Jobless Troublemaker] : No, no, I'm Jobless Troublemaker.
- [Healer Union] : Yeah, yeah, right! Have you tried the potatoes that came to the Capital Area this time??
- [Jobless Troublemaker] : Oh, no, I haven't tried them yet.
- [Healer Union] : I get a daily wage from the System, so I have some mana stones to spare~
- [Healer Union] : I'm eating potatoes with the guild members right now...!! They're seriously so delicious ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
- [Healer Union] : Even the Guild Master loves them ㅠㅠ
“I'm glad everyone likes them.”
Okay, Healer Union was enjoying the potatoes.
I wonder how the others are doing.
- [Speedrun] : Krrrraaaagh, potatoes have come to the Capital Area, so I'm heading back from the Red Zone right now
- [Head Mod] : Me too.... I was going around enforcing fixed prices... and I'm going to go eat one ㅇㅇ
- [Shop Wiki] : I already bought one and am eating it...
- [Shop Wiki] : Food vendors are buying potatoes in bulk, steaming them, and selling them... They're so... so delicious...
- [Shop Wiki] : Adding this farming content was such an excellent choice...
“Hmm.”
Since the others were satisfied too.
“Maybe I should try some too... with the newly harvested potatoes alongside some meat?”
It was no exaggeration to say these were the first crops produced since the apocalypse.
“Two? Hmm, deliver three.”
I checked the CCTV at the Anseong smart farm and had the three potatoes remaining there delivered to the Gardening Garden.
“Ugh, potatoes, ugh...”
Then I took the elevator upstairs again.
****
The outside world was positively festive.
“It's potatoes!! Potatoes!!!!”
“The potatoes are heeeere!!!!”
That atmosphere had sprung from the potatoes produced in the southern region and distributed throughout the Capital Area.
“Mr. Kim! Give me one potato!!!”
“Try the new potato-and-rat-meat stir-fry!!!!”
In the offline markets, including the black market, steaming freshly boiled potatoes were being traded.
Potato stew, made by slicing potatoes into a large pot and boiling them, was also being sold.
“Sniff... It's really a potato... It's so fluffy...”
“I can't believe it's this delicious even without salt...”
“Potato soup.... It's really delicious...”
“Hehe... It's so waaarm...”
Tears they didn't even know they had flowed from the eyes of those eating the warm potatoes and potato dishes.
“It's, it's so delicious...”
“Really... truly...”
Because this food was in an entirely different league from the kinds of food they had eaten until now.
The energy provided by food made from newly produced crops was more than simply being able to eat healthy food.
It was something beyond that concept.
“We can even farm now...”
“We're... slowly getting our lives back.”
“It'll get... even better...! Even better!!!”
It was the strength to move forward into the future.
No matter how many waves of despair arrived and hardships came crashing down on them.
It meant the hope to endure all of it and move forward into the future.
And.
“It finally feels like we've integrated.”
“Yeah, this is the Unified Capital Area Gallery.”
It also became a catalyst that brought everyone together.
****
The next day.
Title : [Anseong Tangtang Ramen] Pioneering the Potato Road~~!
(Roughly, a photo of Mythos Guild members riding along in the back of a one-ton truck, going vroom. JPG)
The major guilds are retracing the route I took to secure the Potato Road~~~
Anyone heading to the provinces can use this Potato Road~~
Ooh.
ㄴ The Potato Road?
ㄴ Did they really find a safe route?
Then can we go without riding in a car?
ㄴ Judging by what these guys are saying, it sounds like we can walk too?
ㄴ But is the road itself okay?
ㄴ ㄹㅇ There were lots of half-destroyed roads...
[Anseong Tangtang Ramen] I didn't realize it when I came here, but... according to the Mythos Guild members...
ㄴ [Anseong Tangtang Ramen] They say this is the route Jinhyeok used when he headed north ㄷㄷ
ㄴ Holy shit.
ㄴ Kyaa
ㄴ Jinhyeok, you bastard, found and cleared a clean route for us in advance before heading north.
ㄴ He's a real Dark Knight.
But then that means Tangtang came here without knowing any of that.
ㄴ I can't even imagine how badly he wanted to sell those potatoes.
The Apocalypse's Potato Mun Ik-jeom, Teacher Tangtang ㄷㄷ
ㄴ Mun Ik-jeom, my assㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ ㅇㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ “I have to sell them...!!”
No, butㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ Why do the Mythos Guild members riding in the truck's cargo bed with masks on look so much like terrorists?
[Mythos] We're the scouting party... that's all... We're not terrorists...
ㄴ ㄹㅇ Looks like something out of a game.
ㄴ Potato terror, go go
ㄴ Let's go throw potatoes.
From now on, the post-apocalypse's Potato Nation is “Anseong.”
ㄴ Hey, Potato Nation.
ㄴ I heard they trade in potatoes there, not mana stones?
While the Gallery was buzzing with news that the Potato Road, a relatively safe route linking the Capital Area and the southern region, was being developed.
At the same time, on the second floor of Starplex, in the Gardening Garden.
“Hup.”
A man wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat pulled low over his head was digging into the soil with a hand trowel in the garden.
It was me, Speedy.
“Damn, this is hard as hell...”
After roasting and eating the three potatoes delivered from Anseong yesterday with some meat.
“They were fucking delicious...”
After tasting the roasted potatoes, I became obsessed with farming.
So I was trying to plant some of the potatoes I'd brought from the Botanical Hall in the garden.
Of course, this wasn't a smart farm, and there was no synergy, so they wouldn't shoot up overnight.
They'd probably be back to normal after 48 hours, but who cared?
“This is a post-apocalypse hobby.”
The important thing isn't the result but the process. If the process itself has meaning, that's good enough.
And farming was immensely helpful for mental healing. I had brought the straw hat I was wearing from the Living section.
“I respect you, farmer bros.”
Eat lots of potatoes grown on my smart farm and stay strong.
“All right.”
With that, the basic construction for reviving the Capital Area's rural farms and strengthening its foundation, as I had planned, was more or less complete.
I'd created daily quests, implemented policies, and done every damn thing that came to mind.
But there was a slight caveat to that statement.
It wasn't quite accurate to say I had fully strengthened the Capital Area's foundation, because there was still one place whose foundation I hadn't strengthened at all.
“Hmm...”
I activated the 3D map and gazed for a moment at one place untouched by my efforts.
“Then shall I go get it soon...?”
Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!! Clunk-!
Jomssaem, who seemed to have chimed in somehow.
I adjusted the straw hat I was wearing and muttered.
“The Green Zone.”