The peaceful first-floor Territory.
I liked the fishing chair very much.
If I leaned back and watched the sun gradually set, time passed quickly.
This was an endless plain.
When the sunset spread, the immense sky split in two.
The natural black of space and the vermilion of the sun meshed together, and night slowly arrived.
It was a waste for only me to see.
“Could I bring tourists into my Territory?”
Since I owned so much land, all kinds of thoughts came to mind.
Compared to other travel destinations, there was somewhat less to see, but entry took one second.
Traveling in two seconds round trip!
The content: healing on your own!
It might become a product that went over well with office workers.
TWINKLE, TWINKLE!
The stars in the sky gave me advice.
They told me to wake up from my dream.
It meant that I could invite guests only after my civilization had reached a certain level.
[Invitable Guests: 0]
It was true?
My Territory was still primitive, so a great many functions remained locked.
“To raise the tourism tech tree, I’ll need to diligently build up my foundation.”
The way to build that foundation was simple. I just needed to raise the farming tech tree like crazy.
Then I might get tourism tech as a lucky byproduct.
“For now, I’m just a pitiful civilization selling Black Beard Algae, but I have an ambitiously prepared new product.”
Chlorella!
It was on a completely different level from Black Beard Algae!
It was less fishy!
It was green too!
Wow! I really wanted to eat it!
“Once sales begin soon, the Territory’s history will be rewritten.”
[Aqua.... Puffed-up-slurpy! ( ◡̀\_◡́)ᕤ]
“But will there really be many customers who want Chlorella?”
[Aqua.... Dripdripdrip! (꜆꜄꜆◡̀\_◡́)ᕤ]
We did not eat Chlorella either.
It tasted bad.
TWINKLE, TWINKLE!
Only a few stars encouraged us.
***
Korea had all kinds of internet communities.
Tower Climbers formed communities too, and among them was one where only Ranker-level Tower Climbers gathered.
It was called 「Epsilon」.
The admission requirements were extremely strict, but it offered the highest-quality information more accurately and quickly than anywhere else.
It had prestige.
Middling Tower Climbers considered joining Epsilon the goal of their entire lives.
That Epsilon became noisy.
\========
Title: Is Black Beard Algae seriously real?
Author: Mana Concentration Master
Views 4821 | Likes 47 | Dislikes 11
Which guild made this?
The mana condenses like crazy, wow lol.
↳ Ugh, these advertising bastards have gone insane with viral marketing.
↳ This place is full of Rankers. Who would run viral ads here, you moron?
↳ The first comment hasn’t tried it lol. It’s absolutely not viral marketing.
↳ Black Beard Algae? Isn’t that literally moss? You eat that? Fucking hilarious.
↳ I saw the effect in real time too.
↳ Only people with strong stomachs should eat it. I just kept going back and forth to the bathroom after eating it.
\========
The cause of the uproar was Black Beard Algae.
It was a product spread across the market by a seller named <Lord Merchant>.
In only a day, rumors had spread throughout Epsilon. They said that if you ate this, even mana that had run away from home returned.
Even so, it was soggy, fishy algae.
Even killifish would not eat it.
↳ I’ll buy it.
↳ I’ll pay double.
↳ I’ll pay four times.
A situation had arisen where even the verified experts admitted to Epsilon could not get any to eat.
There was still room for controversy.
Because it was algae.
Arguments broke out.
\========
Title: You guys eat it yourselves 🖕🖕
Author: Prefers Direct Deals
Views 3821 | Likes 17 | Dislikes 51
You have Ranker pride, you bastards.
Even frogs pass on Black Beard Algae lol.
Give up your mammal titles, you morons.
↳ Don’t be fooled. A few factions are starting propaganda to stockpile Black Beard Algae.
↳ There aren’t any suckers getting fooled by stockpiling propaganda, right???
↳ Fuck, they’re even rigging things to buy Black Beard Algae? Why is this world like this?
↳ The fact is that Black Beard Algae has been selling out every day and is out of stock....
↳ Even if snake bastards like the author try propaganda, the business is already finished....
\========
Epsilon was an absolute mess. Since it was full of Rankers with dense information networks, the rumors about Black Beard Algae were spreading quickly.
\========
Title: Anyone need Black Beard Algae?
Author: Footwork Scammer
Views 1821 | Likes 87 | Dislikes 15
Wow, I bought one tub, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I just left it alone.
I opened it, and the fishy smell was absurd;;;
↳ I’ll buy it I’ll buy it I’ll buy it I’ll buy it.
↳ I’ll buy it too. How much money do you need?
↳ Why would money matter lol? Everyone here is a Ranker.
↳ Huh? What is Black Beard Algae?
↳ How did the guy above become a Ranker when his information is so slow....
↳ I need to buy it for myself, so I’m not telling you. Later.
↳ Buy what lol? The seller has gone offline.
\========
Keeeeeeek!
Give us Black Beard Algae!
That effect is fake!
It’s sold out!
Lord Merchant, open your store!
Epsilon, where only verified high-quality information had once circulated, was being covered in raw reactions.
Moreover, because Lord Merchant declared that Black Beard Algae sales would stop, a limited-edition premium began to form.
***
Cheongyeol headquarters.
FLASH!
Cheon Ryu-jin returned from the Tower.
“Thank you for your hard work climbing the Tow... Cough.”
The employees fell into severe respiratory distress. They were suffocating from the mana Cheon Ryu-jin spread in every direction.
‘Mana is pushing the air away!’
Even when they breathed, only mana entered their lungs, so naturally they could not breathe.
The employees were self-proclaimed and universally acknowledged elites, but in front of Cheon Ryu-jin, they felt the wall of talent every time.
“Fucking hell.”
Cheon Ryu-jin himself felt as though he were dying. He was not spreading mana to intimidate the employees.
“Where is Lord Merchant? What happened?”
Not water.
Not clothes.
Cheon Ryu-jin’s first words were to ask for Lord Merchant.
His mana was dissipating.
His power!
Grind.
Cheon Ryu-jin clenched his molars. The amount of mana Earth extorted was growing day by day.
Now, he experienced a drop in Realm every time he returned from the Tower.
“There has been no activity from Lord Merchant!”
The employees answered while watching his mood.
“You ill-mannered bastard... Where do you find someone who stops in the middle of doing business? Everyone, get out.”
“Yes!!!”
Unable to control his Mana Dissipation, Cheon Ryu-jin finally sent out an SOS. He called his longtime friend, Wol Ha-yeon.
“Hey, Wol Ha-yeon. What are you doing? Any Tower-grown vegetables left?”
“This crazy bastard. Is that your first greeting? Am I your vegetable shuttle?”
“Do you have any or not? Hurry.”
“Has your Mana Dissipation gotten worse?”
Wol Ha-yeon’s voice was noticeably worried.
The two had been classmates at the Academy.
They were geniuses who had stood out since their teenage years.
That was why they knew one another’s circumstances well. Mana Dissipation had always been Cheon Ryu-jin’s weakness, while Wol Ha-yeon had a separate weakness of her own.
When they were Academy students, they helped each other out, but even that became impossible to cover as each of their Realms increased.
The stronger one became as a Tower Climber.
The more severe one’s innate weakness became too.
There were dozens of Rankers who had been consumed because they could not control their own weaknesses.
“Mana Dissipation? It’s been worse lately.”
“How much worse?”
“It pours out with every breath like a fucking tidal wave, you bastard... You people with mana the size of boogers don’t know what that’s like.”
“I am absolutely not giving you Tower-grown vegetables. Die parched.”
The two bickered for a while.
“Wol Ha-yeon. You have good connections, right? Can you track down a guy called Lord Merchant? The Black Beard Algae he sold works the best.”
“There’s an uproar in Epsilon too... But you should not trust Lord Merchant too much.”
What was that supposed to mean?
Do not trust him?
“I sense the aura of a spirit from the products Lord Merchant sells.”
“Is he a Spirit Master?”
“Unfortunately, no Spirit Master in the world can possess that much aura.”
She sensed a spirit’s aura, but he was not a Spirit Master?
I understood what she meant.
“Lord Merchant is a spirit? Are you kidding with me?”
Cheon Ryu-jin replied sarcastically, but he could not laugh openly. Wol Ha-yeon was never wrong when it came to spirits.
“I hope I’m wrong too. Even Spirit Masters do not want to get involved with spirits. They are truly spine-chilling bastards.”
Cheon Ryu-jin knew that too.
Spirits.
Those bastards claimed to be a high race of the Tower and treated humans like dirt.
If things turned against them, they twisted the mana of the Spirit Masters contracted to them and turned them into invalids. They were crazy bastards.
“There is already chaos because of a power struggle in the Spirit Realm....”
“They engage in political maneuvering too?”
“Of course. Recently, the Royal Family that had supported one axis of the Spirit Realm went under. All its members were scattered, and I heard even the Crown Prince was expelled....”
Oh-ho. So the spirits were in a sensitive period recently?
It did strangely line up with Lord Merchant’s appearance.
Had the people at the top changed, so they were helping the people below them—humans—for the sake of image management?
It was a common development in Korean politics too.
“Oh, right. Cheon Ryu-jin. Listen to this. I met an awful buyer on the Exchange? I sold cherry tomato seeds cheaply, but that double bastard left a one-star review....”
“Hang up.”
Cheon Ryu-jin ended the call.
It was a topic that did not interest him.
***
The Tower’s first floor.
Aqua and I clapped.
Clap, clap.
Finally! At long last! At last of all! Chlorella had been completely cultivated in one Farm (=about 356 sq ft)!
[Aqua.... Hooray! (づᵔ.ᵔ)づ]
Smack.
We high-fived.
The Farm was filled with green.
Chlorella grew by eating Black Beard Algae. Even microorganisms had a hierarchy.
‘How many days did it take to win?’
The sight of Chlorella and Black Beard Algae struggling against one another before Chlorella swallowed up the Black Beard Algae was wondrous.
I had sunk thirty million won into this upgrade....
Now, I needed to recover my investment.
“Now I really have to try a sample.”
The taste test I had put off and put off.
I scooped up Chlorella with my bare hands. It looked like a green algae bloom beneath the blazing summer sun.
But it was different.
The benefits of Chlorella were as follows.
It was rich in protein, helping muscle growth, and its large amount of chlorophyll helped remove heavy metals from the body.
Was that all? It had nine amino acids, vitamins A, B, and C, and even folic acid, known as an essential nutrient!
“Wait! That’s not all!”
[Aqua.... Extremely shocked!*( ⚆ ⚆)*]
Additionally, iron, calcium, magnesium, lutein, zeaxanthin, the antioxidant phenols, beta-carotene....
“Goodness, I’m out of breath.”
Wow! How incredible!
I should eat it right away, right?
But... Chlorella was damp and limp, looking like a green algae bloom beneath the blazing summer sun.
Ah. It was green algae itself.
My appetite vanished.
“......It’s a precious product, so I should yield it to the customers, right?”
[Aqua.... Actively agree! Customer satisfaction comes first! (；・ε・)ᕤ]
Tower Climbers must be desperately looking for Tower-grown vegetables. Could I really consume a precious product?
At that moment.
A quest appeared for me.
\=======
[Quest: Agriculture 1]
Objective: Sell crops worth a total of 100 million won
Reward: 「Crop Praise」 Skill
\=======
Wow.
I looked because it was a quest, but the objective was rather trivial.
“Is it okay for this to be so easy?”
This quest.
It was ignoring Tower prices.
“Earn one hundred million won? Earning one hundred million gold in a mobile game would be harder.”
My plan for the future was as follows.
Harvest Chlorella from the Farm!
Sell it on the Exchange!
Buy Low-Grade Magic Stones!
Expand the Chlorella Farm!
Return to Plan 1!
A perfect cycle.
Upload begins!
\=======
[Item: Fresh Chlorella]
Description: Very fresh~ Ha-ha\~
Weight: 100g
Price: ―
\========
...The price?
How much should I list it for? I decided to try a reasonable 100,000 won.
“I’ll upload five first.”
I closed the Exchange window.
DING, DING!
Exchange notifications rang madly, and a message saying [Products Sold Out] popped up.
“W-What?”
Why had it already sold? The sales proceeds entered my account.
[100,000 won deposited]
[300,000 won deposited]
[600,000 won deposited]
[1,000,000 won deposited]
[1,500,000 won deposited]
? What.
While five products sold, the price had risen fifteenfold.