TL: Hanguk
[TL Note: Before starting this chapter, I strongly recommend reading about the game of Go-stop, which will be played in this chapter, to better understand it. Link – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-Stop]
Inside Sejun’s subconscious.
“Hmm…” fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
Where am I?
Sejun looked around at the suddenly changed surroundings.
The vast farmland stretched so far that the end couldn’t be seen, and it was filled with crops and fruits. A clear blue river flowed through the center of the farm.
Next to the river stood a small cabin. In front of it, Sejun’s farm companions was gathered, having a meal together.
The sky was layered with hues of blue and pink, creating a beautiful sight.
Countless shooting stars drew glowing pictures in the sky before falling to the ground.
The stars that landed on the ground turned into gods and dragons, joining for meals with the farm companions before disappearing while playing on the farm.
At that moment
Paah.
-It must be tough for you, having to endure among such powerful beings.
A being radiating a strong light appeared, looking down at Sejun and speaking in a warm voice.
“Ugh. Who are you?”
Sejun asked about the stranger’s identity, unable to look directly due to the intense light.
-I can’t tell you now. Take this.
Instead of answering, the being sent a ball of blue light toward Sejun, which was absorbed into his body.
And then
[The power of creation is converted into the most suitable talent and skill for Black Tower Farmer Park Sejun’s survival.]
[Talent: Master of Deflection has been awakened.]
[Skill – Bunker Lv. 1 has been learned.]
Messages appeared in front of Sejun.
-If you had been stronger, I could have given you something better…
That being’s words irritated Sejun, but
“Thank you.”
Since it was a free gift of talent and skills, Sejun gratefully accepted and checked what he received.
[Talent: Master of Deflection]
→ You instinctively deflect attacks, minimizing damage.
→ As a master, the first attack will be deflected, reducing its power by 99%.
[Skill – Bunker Lv. 1]
→ You can create a 10-square meters bunker with walls 5 meters thick to protect yourself.
→ The bunker reduces external physical damage by 5% and external energy by 10%.
While they were helpful, the talent and skill weren’t anything particularly outstanding.
‘Why not just give me something better?’
Sejun grumbled internally.
-You’ll be facing some hardship from now on.
The glowing being spoke to Sejun.
Then
“I don’t want to. I’m not going to face hardships.”
Feeling defiant toward the words about hardship, Sejun retorted.
-What?
“I’m going to keep living this comfortably! I absolutely won’t face any hardships!”
That’s what I want.
As the glowing being stared at Sejun in disbelief,
“By the way, do you know anything about the Creator God who ran away after just building the tower?”
Guessing the being might know something about the Creator God, given its use of the power of Creation, Sejun asked.
-You little…!!!
The being enveloped in light, provoked by Sejun’s words, chased Sejun out of his subconscious.
-Who’s been spreading rumors that I ran away when it was a strategic retreat?
Muttering angrily, the glowing being left Sejun’s subconscious to catch the culprit who spread the strange rumor.
***
Slap. Slap.
“…”
Hmm. These soft paws… is it Theo?
Sejun, still unable to open his eyes, analyzed the paws slapping his face in a half-asleep state.
“Chairman Park, wake up, meow!”
Slap. Slap.
As expected, it’s Theo.
“Vice Chairman Theo, I’m awake.”
Feeling the heat rising in his cheek, Sejun quickly opened his eyes and spoke.
“Aileen noona, the Great Hybrid Chairman Park is awake, meow!”
“Really!? Sejun, are you okay?! Are you hurt anywhere?!”
Aileen, who had been preparing a nutritious porridge for Sejun, rushed over.
For Sejun, it was a great relief.
If not, Sejun would have been forced to wake up after being fed porridge made by Aileen while unconscious.
No. He might not have been able to wake up at all.
As Sejun regained his senses,
[Safe Zone Duration: 55 minutes 31 seconds]
“Huh?! A safe zone?!”
He finally realized that the miracle he had used had created a safe zone on the 99th floor of the Black Tower.
Heh. Did I perform another incredible miracle?
As Sejun was feeling smug,
“Sejun, we don’t have much time! Let’s play quickly!”
Aileen hurried him along.
“Yeah! Got it!”
But, what should we play?
A moment later.
“Vice Chairman Theo, what do you feel like?”
“Puhuhut. This one, meow!”
Sitting on Sejun’s lap, Theo selected a card with his front paw.
“Hehehe. Is that so?!”
Sejun grinned slyly and placed the card Theo had chosen.
Although the card didn’t match the one on the board, once Theo made his choice, all calculations became meaningless.
Snap! Snap!
“Double! Give me two ‘pi’ cards each.”
Aileen collected six ‘pi’ cards from the opposing teams, placed them on the board, and started calculating the score.
“We got 5 points. I’m going with ‘Go!’”
Looking at the remaining cards and those laid by the opponents, Aileen called out in a triumphant voice.
Sejun’s initial plan hadn’t been this.
Hehehe. Just the two of us, Aileen and me…
Sejun had intended to have a date with Aileen, without any interruptions.
But
Wha… what should I do?!!!
As a single man with no dating experience, Sejun’s mind went blank when he thought about being alone with a woman.
So, he quickly changed the plan and started a game of Go-Stop with everyone, so they could all play together.
Since precious time was ticking away, he couldn’t waste even a minute.
Thus, Sejun, Aileen, and Theo won their first round as a team.
-Agh!
Kellion, the representative of the Four Dragons Council, was in a tough spot because Sejun had taken all the points from the table. After thinking long and hard, he decided to abandon his Sam-gwang set.
Flip.
But when he turned over the card, it was a Bi-gwang card.
“Uhehe. Kellion-nim, I’ll gladly take that!”
Snap.
Uren, who was next, took the Sam-gwang set using a cherry blossom card from the hong dan set.
-Are you an idiot?!
-Why did you throw away the gwang card?!
Ramter and Tier scolded Kellion for his move.
But
“Huh?!”
The card Uren flipped over had a cherry blossom on it.
“It’s ppeok.” (TL: If you have read the rules, this situation occurs when a player has two matched cards, and then draws a card that matches those two cards. This is called “ppeok”. In this case, the three cards will remain on the layout, and the player cannot take the matched pair or gain any cards. If the next player draws a card that matches those three cards, they can take all four cards.)
As expected, misfortune struck Uren again.
Piyo?!
[How could you just take whatever they give you?!]
“Uren hyung, I’m really disappointed.”
While Uren was being berated by Piyot and Bayon, his own teammates
Moo!
Thud!
The Minotaur King took a Bi-gwang card.
Flip.
He confidently turned over his card, but
One gwang.
Moo…
Quietly, he put the card down.
And so, after going around again, it was Sejun’s team’s turn.
“Puhuhut. Chairman Park, this is the one, meow! This will end it, meow!”
“Hehehe. Got it.”
Snap! Snap!
Sejun took the discarded card Uren had placed and used it to take a one gwang card, ending the game.
“It’s ppeok, so hand over one ‘pi’ card each.”
Aileen collected a card from each of the three teams.
“10 points… 3 ‘Gwang,’ Hong dan, and 1 Go, so… 17 points. Stop.”
After calculating the score, Aileen announced.
“Cuengi’s team is ‘pi-bak’, so 34 dried sweet potato chips, and the other teams are both ‘gwang-bak’ and ‘pi-bak’, so 68 chips each, please.”
She collected the dried sweet potato chips, which were the stakes of the game.
And
Kihihit. Kking! Kking!
[Hehe. So exciting! My Butler won again!]
“Sejun-nim, fighting!”
Kkiruk!
Shalaranga!
“Fighting!”
Caw!
Blackie and his subordinates cheered as they watched the pile of dried sweet potato chips growing into a mountain beside Sejun.
“Stop!”
After Sejun’s team’s third consecutive win,
-We’re cleaned out…
Moo…
Kuiik…
The 300 pieces of dried sweet potato chips that had been distributed to each team at the start of the game had all returned to Sejun.
[Safe Zone Duration: 10 minutes 31 seconds]
-Ahem. Then we should go drink. Theo, you come along too.
Moo.
[It seems we should also go for some special training.]
“Uren hyung, didn’t we have something to do too?”
The dragons, Minotaur King, and Bayon wisely excused themselves from the scene.
“Meow?! Hybrid Vice Chairman Theo doesn’t drink alcohol, even with the dragon-nims, meow!”
Kueng!
[Cuengi is going to play with dad today instead of special training!]
“Bayon, did we have something to do?”
Of course, there were some clueless ones trying to linger, but thanks to the helpers who were trying to assist with Sejun and Aileen’s date, they were quickly dealt with.
Finally, Sejun and Aileen were left alone.
“…Shall we take a walk?”
“Sure.”
As they walked, they exchanged trivial, light-hearted conversations, but laughter never left their faces.
It was fun.
It was happiness.
104.28.193.250
The mood was ripening.
[Safe Zone Duration: 20 seconds]
“Aileen…”
Realizing there wasn’t much time left, Sejun stopped walking and called Aileen’s name.
“Yes…”
Aileen also stopped walking and looked at Sejun with a shy expression.
I don’t know when we’ll be able to face each other like this again.
There might never be a moment like this again.
So…
“Thank you for calling me to the tower. And, would you go out wi….”
Sejun, summoning all his courage, looked directly at Aileen and started saying what he had always wanted to say.
At that moment
-Kahahaha! Sejun, I’ve brought the guy who swallowed your reward!
Kaiser, who had flown to the Silver Tower and captured Kwin, appeared, drowning out Sejun’s voice.
However
(Will you go out with me?)
Aileen, who had been focused solely on Sejun, managed to catch his words with all her senses.
[Safe Zone Duration: 1 second]
“Yes! I’ll go out with you!”
Smooch!
Aileen quickly kissed Sejun on the lips and rushed back to the Administrator’s area.
Of course, Aileen, who almost missed receiving the confession, got angry at Kaiser as soon as she returned, and
-Granddaughter!
In an effort to soothe Aileen, Kaiser abandoned Kwin and quickly retreated to the Administrator’s area as well.
[The Safe Zone is no longer active.]
“…”
“The Great Hybrid Chairman Park has passed out again, meow!”
Theo, who had been at the fountain, quickly ran over to Sejun, who had fainted while standing.
The safe zone only protected Sejun from being affected by others’ auras, but physical contact was another story.
Fortunately, thanks to Sejun’s newly acquired talent, Master of Deflection, which deflected 99% of Aileen’s ‘attack’(?), he survived once again.
“Puhuhut. As expected, Chairman Park is truly great, meow! He survived even after touching Aileen noona, meow!”
Seeing that Sejun had only fainted after physical contact with Aileen, Theo’s respect for him grew even more.
But his face has gotten even more ugly, meow!
Rub. Rub.
Theo started massaging Sejun’s face diligently.
A few minutes later.
“Mmm.”
Sejun regained consciousness.
[Would you like to exchange 70 million Harvest Festival Commemorative Grapes for the Blessing Stone of Uncle, the God of Grapevines?]
“Yes. And exchange the remaining grapes for Blessed Grape Wine.”
Before the harvest festival ended, Sejun went to the exchange shop and used all the Harvest Festival Commemorative Grapes.
“Here, take this with you.”
“Thank you, Sejun-nim!”
He prepared for farewell by distributing food to the foxes who were returning.
And then
[The Great Harvest Festival of Abundance and overflowing Magic that everyone can enjoy, has ended.]
[The 1,000 foxes summoned from the Nine Towers during the harvest festival return to their daily lives.]
As the harvest festival ended, the foxes returned to the places where they lived.
Once the festival concluded, the residents of the Black Tower who had come up to the 99th floor to participate in the Harvest Festival also began to descend the tower one by one.
At that moment
“Hey guys, hold on a second.”
Sejun called out to the black bears from Kueng gang who were on their way down to the 1st floor.
“Take these and tell the skeletons to sell them.”
Sejun handed the black bears 1,000 Seedless Grapes for Beginners, the reward for the Grape Harvest Contest, and said,
“Oh, and make sure to give 100 of them to Kyung-chul, got it?”
Sejun felt that the previous gift to Kyung-chul, who had introduced him to Flamie, wasn’t enough, so he decided to give an additional present.
“Yes! Leave it to us! We’ll make sure to deliver it!”
With that, the residents and Kueng gang’s black bears descended the tower, leaving the farm in peaceful silence.
Whooong.
Suddenly, the wind began to blow.
“Feels nice.”
Sejun said as he stretched out his arms, enjoying the breeze.
Wooooo.
But soon, the wind grew stronger and more turbulent.
“Grrrr. I’ll kill you all!”
Kwin, whose madness had worsened while he was unconscious, had gone berserk.
Moo!
Kuoooong!
Kueng!
Of course, there were many kind helpers here who could calm the madness.
Bang!
Thud!
Kueng!
The wind quickly settled down.
And then—
Kihihit. Kking! Kking!
[Hehe. It’s time for the great Blackie to step in!]
Blackie headbutted the fallen Kwin.
*****
For extra chapters, you can read them on my Patreon at /HangukTranslations.
Join our Discord for announcements or to report any mistakes.
/Z2Z6TdQk4g