Inside the rattling vehicle, Oh Hyunseong sat in the passenger seat and watched the quiet scenery pass by outside the window.

"I didn't expect you to come all the way to Seoul to pick me up."

"It's the first time I've seen my friend's face in five years. I should at least provide this much service. What, are you touched?"

"I was, until you said that."

"Hahaha!"

The man spouting nonsense beside him was Kwon Gyeongmin, an old friend from his hometown.

Despite being born and raised in the city and even running his own business there, the guy had suddenly settled down in the countryside and gotten married.

Ever since then, whenever he met Hyunseong, he had strongly urged him to follow suit and move to the countryside and take up farming.

This time was no different. The moment Hyunseong brought up the idea, Gyeongmin had driven all the way to Seoul without hesitation.

"You have no idea how surprised I was when the guy who never listened no matter how much I talked suddenly said he was moving to the countryside."

"People's minds change as they get older."

"Is it because of what happened?"

"What happened?"

"Your injury. You suddenly stopped contacting me, and then I found out you'd been badly hurt. Surgery after surgery, then rehabilitation... Just how serious was it? Didn't you say you had an office job?"

"Well... I went out to a site for a bit after everyone thought the monster subjugation was over, and I got caught up in an accident. Just bad luck."

Hyunseong gave him a suitably vague explanation.

He had completely left his life as a hunter behind and retired.

Through sheer force of will, he had submitted his resignation letter while being evacuated by helicopter, and as the government had promised him beforehand, it was accepted immediately.

But that did not mean he had been able to move on with his life right away.

The injuries he had sustained during his final operation had been so severe that it took him more than three years after surgery just to regain consciousness.

After that, further treatment and rehabilitation kept him in the hospital even longer.

Five years had already passed since his final mission.

Even now, his doctor had warned him to avoid strenuous movement as much as possible.

"Damn. Talk about getting hit out of nowhere."

"It's all in the past. I'm not moving to the countryside because of the injury, either. More importantly, I'm wondering whether it's really okay for me to just up and move like this."

"Hah. You're only thinking about that now?"

Kwon Gyeongmin grinned.

"If you're moving to the countryside, it's best to go somewhere you already have connections. You don't have family there, but you've got me, so don't worry."

"Marriage really made a man out of you."

"Are you kidding me? I was born a man's man. Anyway, there's nothing to worry about. They say moving to the countryside isn't as easy as people think, but I've already gone ahead, cleared the path, and tested it for you. There's no hostility toward outsiders, and everyone there is nice. There are quite a few younger people too."

Gyeongmin began telling him all about the village.

Since it would be Hyunseong's new home from now on, he listened carefully.

After finally escaping the city, the last thing he wanted was to become an outsider who could not fit in with the local residents.

As they talked about one thing after another, mealtime soon arrived.

Feeling hungry, the two men stopped at a highway rest area and ordered some food.

"Ugh. This tastes like shit."

Gyeongmin set his sausage down with a thud.

Of course, the whole potato Hyunseong was holding tasted just as awful.

"Cheap synthetic meat and some factory-made potato that tastes like it's made of sawdust."

"What can you do? Things have been rough for everyone since Gates appeared. We still have to eat."

"Man, how do people in the city live on stuff like this?"

"Isn't it pretty much the same in the countryside? Naturally grown crops are affected by the impure energy monsters give off too."

The emergence of Gates had brought a massive upheaval to humanity's food supply.

Hunters had stepped in and eliminated the monsters, but the impure energy those creatures had already released remained behind, directly and indirectly affecting the environment.

Of course, the residual impure energy was not strong enough to have any meaningful effect on humans.

But once it seeped deep into the soil, it hindered the growth of crops and livestock and made them sick.

As a result, humanity's food production plummeted.

To overcome the crisis and somehow maintain the food supply, companies began flooding the market with synthetic meat and synthetic crops produced in factories.

These new foods were remarkably economical and efficient.

They simply tasted atrocious.

Genetic technology had also been used to develop naturally grown crops and livestock resistant to impure energy, but those tasted terrible as well.

Compared to factory-made food, they sacrificed a great deal of productivity in exchange for only a slight improvement in flavor.

The wealthy gravitated toward premium, customized synthetic crops, leaving small rural communities like this as practically the only places still promoting naturally grown food.

"No, even then, it's nowhere near this bad. Naturally grown food tastes way better. What kind of meat has the texture of chewing construction paper?"

Gyeongmin protested vehemently.

It was certainly true that naturally grown food tasted better than cheap factory-made products.

To be more precise, in terms of both taste and price, the order was roughly:

premium synthetic meat > naturally raised meat > cheap synthetic meat.

But all three were still atrocious compared to the meat people had eaten in the past.

Even the wealthiest members of society, who enjoyed steaks costing millions of won, were eating meals worse than the leftover cuts once sold at an ordinary neighborhood butcher shop.

By now, even Hyunseong could barely remember what food had originally tasted like.

Perhaps the frightening thing about humans was that they could eventually grow accustomed even to food like this and simply carry on.

"Who would've thought the food we ate without a second thought as kids would feel this precious now? It doesn't even have to be anything fancy. Even just one potato... I'd like to taste one again before I die."

"You think that's possible? We'd probably have to raid some secret seed vault buried underground somewhere."

The two men chuckled and left.

The truck carrying them rattled up a sloping road.

As soon as they arrived in front of the house that was their destination, Gyeongmin immediately started dragging Hyunseong around from place to place.

"The previous owner suddenly had to move to Seoul and wanted to get rid of the place cheap, so I snapped it up. Apparently, if it hadn't been for his chronic illness, he'd have lived here for the rest of his life. I'd already had my eye on the land, so I bought it without a second thought. I've kept it empty all this time for you."

"Huh... What were you going to do if I never came?"

"It took longer than I expected, but I figured you'd come eventually. Back then, you just looked... exhausted, I guess."

"Was it that obvious?"

Hyunseong gave a bitter smile.

"So? What do you think?"

"The house is in much better condition than I expected. But... isn't it too big? Including the annex, you could fit a huge family in here without a problem."

"Isn't that a good thing? City people go crazy over having more floor space."

"The way you talk, anyone would think you've lived out here for decades."

"Hahaha!"

Gyeongmin laughed heartily and brushed it off.

Saying the house was not the important part, he took the lead and dragged Hyunseong past the yard.

Then he said something Hyunseong had never expected.

"All the land above and below here is private property. From over there all the way to waaaay over there."

"What? All of this? You're joking, right?"

Hyunseong's mouth fell open.

Gyeongmin had said there was land for farming, so Hyunseong had assumed he meant something like a small kitchen garden. But even at a rough glance, this was several thousand pyeong at the very least.

Of course, not all of it was farmland. There were roads and empty plots mixed in, but even while driving up, Hyunseong had assumed they were fields belonging to the villagers.

"I'm not joking."

"Are you messing with me? I said I was moving to the countryside, not starting a business. There's no way I can manage this much land on my own..."

"You don't have to use all of it. Unlike the city, nobody thinks it's strange to leave land unused out here. If you've got nothing else to do with it, build a pavilion and live like some carefree immortal. And stop muttering. Look over there."

At Gyeongmin's words, Hyunseong turned his gaze.

They had been talking face-to-face, so he wondered what exactly Gyeongmin wanted him to look at.

But the moment he turned, he found himself staring blankly.

The view was wide open, overlooking the entire village at a glance.

It was spectacular.

Now he understood why Gyeongmin had spent years pestering him about some land he had found.

"It's a little separated from the village itself, but I figured someone like you would actually prefer that."

"...You got that exactly right."

Seeing Hyunseong's reaction, Gyeongmin chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.

"I've got something to take care of, so I'm heading out first. Stay here and get acquainted with your new house. See you tomorrow."

Having unexpectedly found himself saddled with far more house and land than he had ever imagined, Hyunseong stared blankly down at the scenery for a while before shaking his head and beginning to unpack.

He had never been the type to travel with much luggage, so getting organized did not take long.

The house was absurdly spacious anyway, enough that he could practically shove everything wherever he pleased.

"All right, everyone. Come out."

"Whimper!"

Hyunseong stepped into the yard and summoned his spirits.

Since there was plenty of room, he called all of them out at once, and several hundred tiny spirits poured forth.

They darted around excitedly, playing everywhere.

"Looks like you like the new place."

A satisfied smile appeared on Hyunseong's face as he watched them.

They possessed no combat ability and had never accompanied him onto the battlefield, but they had lived alongside him ever since the early days after his awakening.

And yet he could not remember the last time he had seen them this happy.

I suppose the city must've felt suffocating to them.

The lower spirits contracted to him each possessed the attribute of fire, water, life, or earth, and their appearances differed depending on their element.

Among every awakened person in the world, Hyunseong alone could use all four elemental attributes.

Though at this point, he wondered what significance that even had anymore.

Either way, it made sense that they would prefer a place filled with natural elements over a city packed tightly with concrete.

"Then I guess I should get to work too."

Hyunseong headed for the small kitchen garden attached to the yard.

The enormous stretches of land beyond the yard were frankly too intimidating for him to even consider doing anything with, so he decided to start with the more manageable kitchen garden.

Even if he had retired to the countryside, he could not exactly spend the rest of his life doing nothing.

Of course, even this small garden was not something he could take lightly.

He had spent his entire life killing monsters without knowing much else, and he knew absolutely nothing about farming.

Even when he had first thought about moving to the countryside and taking up farming, it had been little more than a vague wish and an impulse.

That was why Hyunseong pulled his secret weapon from his pocket.

I'll start with the easiest thing first!

In his hand were the lettuce seeds he had bought in Seoul beforehand.

Lettuce supposedly grew readily as long as you watered it.

He had heard somewhere that people even grew it on apartment balconies, which made it seem like the easiest possible opponent for him.

Hyunseong began sowing the seeds while looking up instructions on his phone.

Naturally, he had not spread compost or lime beforehand or done anything else of the sort.

He was not about to launch into serious farming right away. For now, he simply wanted to try things out and see how they went.

"Whimper!"

The spirits, watching Hyunseong with curiosity, began gathering around one by one.

The tiny spirits clustered around the spots where the seeds had been planted, then started floating above them and dancing.

Watching them play while tracing out a small circle, Hyunseong let out an amused chuckle.

"Don't ruin anything, okay?"

The spirits nodded vigorously.

With the work finished, Hyunseong dusted the soil from his palms and went back inside.

By the time he finished organizing everything after the move, the rest of the day would probably be gone.

The next day.

Hyunseong stood in front of the kitchen garden with a bewildered expression.

The lettuce had taken root overnight and shot upward, growing into lush, fully mature plants.

In just one night.

"...What the hell is this?"

Chapter 2

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