Chapter 2 : Secret Farming Map

The old, musty smell stings my nose.

The cold air brushing against my skin, and my shivering body.

The rough fabric of my clothes feels unpleasant against my skin, cheap and scratchy.

My waist aches as it presses into the hard surface of what feels like a mattress, and the pillow… I don’t even know where they found it, but it’s so uncomfortable that my neck is stiff even while lying down.

This feeling… familiar.

“Ah, damn. What is this?”

When I open my eyes, the high ceiling I was used to is gone, replaced by the low wooden ceiling of a small hut.

There’s a window, but I can’t tell if it’s blocked by tall trees nearby or if it’s simply too dark for any light to get through.

The room is dim and cramped. Even with my arms and legs slightly twisting, they hover in the air.

“Give me back my Farming World, you bastards!”

I yell while struggling in vain, but there’s no response.

No sign of me being transported back to my mansion.

It’s clear that the game’s powers have thrown me out of my world.

Who did this?

I don’t know.

Is this part of the game’s intended quest, or did the game company just reclaim my server?

There’s no way of knowing.

[Congratulations on becoming the owner of the Secret Farming Map!]

This annoying message appears, and whether it knows how pissed off I am or not, it just continues to make me angry.

“Sigh…”

[The Secret Farming Map is a hidden quest map that is exclusively provided to only one user who accepts the quest.]

[This map is the only unique fracture dimension in all of existence…]

[Secret Farming Map]

[Resource Deposit: Unmeasurable (SSS+)]

[Resource Rarity: SSS]

[Map Size: Unmeasurable (SSS+)]

[Overall Difficulty: Unmeasurable (SSS+)]

I skim over the lengthy 500-character explanation and focus on the map’s details, even though it frustrates me.

As a ten-year veteran of the game, I can’t help but read every line carefully.

“SSS-level resource rarity…”

In the Farming World, resource rarity indicates how rare the items that can be obtained are.

To put it in RPG terms, it’s about what kind of item grade can drop.

For a typical tutorial map, the resource rarity would be C.

The map is small, and the deposits are minimal, so the rarest resource you could get would be a C-grade item.

I know this all sounds confusing, but anyone who hasn’t played the Farming World wouldn’t have the faintest idea about these grades.

Still, for anyone familiar with modern games, the system is somewhat relatable.

The resources you find in the Farming World often mirror items from reality, like ores or materials you’d find in a dungeon.

There were debates about whether the game borrowed ideas from real life, but honestly, it doesn’t matter if the names or functionalities match because no game company owns dungeons.

So, an SSS-level rarity map means that there are materials in the game that have never even appeared in reality, but I can farm them here.

“Is that even possible?”

The game itself integrates elements from reality.

For example, there’s an A-grade resource called Eight-Faceted Stone.

It’s an ore as big as a fist, worth billions, and only five have ever been mined in reality.

If these kinds of materials show up, it’s rumored that they also appear in the Farming World.

Some say the materials that eventually show up in reality are found first in the Farming World, and once people find out, they come searching for them, which is how I ended up here.

But does that even make sense?

Anyway, despite all the rumors, the frustration and curiosity are inevitable.

“Sigh…”

Of course, in this shabby, barely protective wooden hut that doesn’t even block the wind, it’s doubtful I’ll find anything even close to an SSS-grade resource.

“Shit.”

I know exactly what I need to do.

Even after ten years, I haven’t just played on the hardest difficulty maps.

To perfect those maps, I dug into many other worlds, and I’ve passed tutorial stages like this one at least ten thousand times.

But it got old.

“I’m not doing this.”

I don’t know what will happen next.

Did they kick me out of my world and give me this as some sort of game manipulation?

Or is it just a bug with the quest, and I can get my world back?

I’ll decide what to do when I find out.

For now, I just want to leave.

“Log out.”

[Logging out is not possible until the tutorial is completed.]

“Tch.”

These damn developers just love frustrating people.

I can tell exactly what they’re doing.

Yeah.

Enjoy the tutorial and if you don’t like it, then complain and ask for a refund or cancellation.

It’s like being forced to eat something and if it doesn’t taste good, then you can talk about it later.

It’s ridiculous.

Is this like those adult videos where they struggle, but once it’s in, they start moaning in pleasure?

This experience is unpleasant.

No matter how well-made the map is or how attractive it is to people like me, all it does is stir up resentment.

“Since it’s not fun, log out.”

[You cannot log out until the tutorial is completed.]

“Sigh…”

After about 10 minutes of this nonsense, I ended up surrendering.

Shouting at the empty cabin tree, the administrators probably aren’t even watching.

“Those bastards. I’ll see you outside.”

It can’t be helped.

The only thing I can do as someone trapped in the game is clear this damn tutorial, which is the only clue and hope.

I sat on the bed and started reading the system messages that were listed.

[Special benefits for the owner of the Secret Farming Map!]

[SSS+ Ability Selection]

[In order to survive in the tough Secret Farming Map, you need a powerful ability! Choose carefully the ability needed for survival and please cultivate the map as the owner of the dimensional rift.]

“SSS+ level?”

After reading the first special benefit, I couldn’t help but jump up from the bed.

SSS+ level.

This level is similar to the hunters in reality.

Each hunter has a rank for their abilities, and the higher the rank, the stronger the power, which is used to hunt monsters in dungeons.

The difference from the farming world is that in reality, SS is the highest rank.

Well, I’ve never seen SSS rank in the farming world, so I guess there’s that.

Anyway, in this game, SSS+ is a level that transcends even the best.

Even with the final SS+ rank, at least in this game, it’s god-like.

Anything related to that ability becomes possible.

For example, if you reach SS+ in swordsmanship, you can freely use ultimate techniques like the ‘Igiokkeom’ from martial arts novels.

There were many things that required a bit of realism, such as stats, which were pretty necessary, but it’s still difficult to achieve even SS+ rank.

Even after 10 years of playing, I’ve only achieved a few in the last year or two.

But SSS+?

Are they giving that away?

“Hmm…”

I’m feeling a bit less angry now.

If they give out such a benefit early on, then maybe things will change.

One of the worst reasons for this farming world’s reset is probably the early growth part, which I’m sure 90 out of 100 players would complain about.

It’s just too tedious and hard.

The other meaning of realism and freedom can be exchanged for hellish grind and unfriendliness.

But what if you erase one perfectly?

The difficulty of other interconnected things will drop noticeably.

For example, if I use my SSS+ ability selection to choose farming skills and make them SSS+ level, I can get farming skills that took me 10 years to acquire in a single day.

I can create a farm bigger and better than this pathetic cabin with a fully automated farm in my world.

Of course, I know it’s impossible to gather the resources to make that farm realistically, so I don’t intend to use my SSS+ selection on farming.

“What should I choose?”

Whatever happens, I have to choose an SSS+ ability to clear the tutorial.

There are a few things that come to mind.

An ability that will let me breeze through the early stages.

An ability that will help me finish the tutorial quickly.

An ability that will still be useful and something I’ll like if I ever return to this map.

After finding the common points of these options, I narrowed it down to a few.

When I divided them further, it came down to one of two choices.

A base or hunting.

I had to choose one from the two main contents of the farming world.