Chapter 370

[There’s no clear answer for this quest. The reward changes depending on what you do.]

“How did you clear it?”

[The world I visited had expelled the Old gods, but the monsters remained. The survivors were dying, hunted by those creatures. I gathered them, built a city, and wiped out the monsters. Took about… half a year.]

Lee Taeyeon had once mentioned the 77th floor too.

She said people there didn’t trust one another.

Not just mistrust—she said it was to the point they didn’t even see each other as fellow humans.

It was a world of chaos where you had to kill the other first or be killed.

That was probably because the Old gods had corrupted their minds. Taeyeon had once grumbled about how many items she’d had to use to clear it.

[Usually, people solve it through brute force. The quest’s goal is just stabilization. Even if only a few people survive and they’re mentally broken, as long as they can live somehow, that’s enough.]

Their lives don’t matter—only meeting the quest conditions does.

[So what are you going to do?]

“I’m not doing it like that.”

The world Taesan had arrived at was nearly identical to the Earth that had been headed for destruction.

A rehearsal for how to restore a ruined Earth.

Taesan wasn’t just focused on clearing the quest. He planned to try various approaches.

“You should leave.”

A child spoke to Taesan as he wandered around the city.

“This city is dying. You’re young and strong, so you should be able to make it to another city somehow. And they’d probably take you in too.”

“I’m not going.”

Taesan answered calmly. The child shook his head in disbelief.

“You won’t be treated well.”

The city of the abandoned was slowly dying with no visitors.

In that situation, a young outsider like Taesan stood out far too much.

It didn’t take long for everyone in the city to learn about him.

The people looked at Taesan with suspicion.

This place couldn’t produce anything. It only consumed, day by day—a city discarded and left to rot.

In such a place, a strong, healthy man wasn’t welcomed. If anything, he was seen as a threat—someone who could use force to take what he wanted, and who would require more food than others.

Still, they didn’t drive Taesan out.

Everyone in this city had been deemed useless and thrown away. Because of that, the people here stuck closely together. Though wary of Taesan, they didn’t reject him.

But that didn’t mean they treated him warmly. They kept their distance.

Only the old man and the boy spoke with him.

Taesan stood at an open field on the outskirts of the city, silently staring at the ground.

The land was polluted.

Even [makeshift cultivation] couldn’t be used here. In his previous life, there had been items that could neutralize the pollution, making limited farming possible. But he didn’t have those items now.

“What are you doing?”

The old man approached, thumping his lower back. Seeing Taesan holding a seed and staring at the earth, he shook his head, having understood what Taesan was trying to do.

“A seed? That’s a rare thing you’ve got. But unfortunately, it’s hopeless.”

It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried. After defeating the monsters, they had planted leftover seeds in the soil.

But nothing sprouted. The toxicity of the polluted earth overwhelmed any attempts at growth.

They had wasted every last seed that way.

“Don’t be stubborn—leave this place. Young man, this is our grave. There’s no reason for you to be buried with us.”

The old man spoke with quiet sorrow.

Taesan didn’t answer.

He just thought.

And then, he decided.

Kiiiiing!

Golden light surged into Taesan’s hand. The old man’s eyes widened as he stared blankly.

“……That’s—?”

He had lived through the war against the Old gods.

He remembered the hideous monsters that filled the skies.

And the overwhelming golden radiance that crushed them.

What he saw now in Taesan’s hand was the same golden light.

“I can’t cover the whole city…”

But for a small field like this, he could easily cover it with [Divinity].

The [Divinity] expanded, enveloping the clearing. The small field became Taesan’s domain.

All forces not permitted by Taesan were expelled. The polluted earth was purified, beginning to recover its life.

“O-oh…”

Taesan scattered the seeds.

He had brought several from Earth during his quest.

The old man’s pupils, already wide, dilated even further.

The seeds sprouted rapidly.

Shoots burst forth. Leaves unfurled.

Golden kernels formed and green husks enveloped them.

In less than a few minutes, dozens of stalks of corn filled half the clearing.

In the gray city, green plants boldly sprouted.

Taesan nodded.

“It works.”

He spread his divine domain in a small area and activated [makeshift cultivation] there.

The cultivation was a success. At this rate, the city’s food problem could be resolved.

Since the domain itself purified pollution, expanding its size could also make their homes safe.

“Bring the people.”

Taesan turned to the old man, whose jaw had nearly dropped to the floor. The old man stood frozen in disbelief.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to move.

The people who saw the golden light began approaching cautiously. They were shocked at the sight of corn.

“Wh-what is this?!”

“Corn! It’s corn!”

People’s eyes went wild, and they rushed forward. Taesan didn’t stop them.

Word spread quickly, and before long, everyone in the city had gathered.

They tore into the corn like it was a war. The small field of corn wasn’t enough to feed everyone, but that didn’t matter.

In the place where corn had been torn out, more corn grew again.

“Oh, ooooh!”

The boy, who had arrived late after hearing the news, let out a cry of awe and yanked off a corn stalk. He tore the husk off in a frenzy and stuffed it into his mouth.

“Ah…”

The kernels were hard since they weren’t cooked. Chewing was difficult, and it caught in his throat.

But it was fresh.

It wasn’t moldy, nor was it half-rotten—it was vibrant, fresh corn.

The boy had only experienced such a thing as a baby—so long ago he could no longer remember it.

“Uuuhuuu…”

The boy cried as he devoured the corn. The others weren’t much different. Everyone wept as they ate.

Before long, their stomachs filled, and only then did their reason return.

“Why is corn growing in a place like this?”

“No—more importantly, that golden light surrounding the earth…”

In their confusion, their gazes turned to the old man and Taesan, standing there blankly.

“Old man, what’s going on?”

The old man didn’t answer. He simply stared at Taesan.

Everyone’s attention shifted to Taesan. He ignored it and opened his inventory.

“Let’s see if this one works.”

Taesan sowed black seeds in the remaining space. The observers’ eyes widened.

Vines began to grow.

The fruit expanded rapidly. Before long, plump watermelons filled the rest of the clearing.

Everyone stood frozen with the same stunned look the old man had worn.

A shocked silence fell over them.

Then the atmosphere shifted swiftly. Taesan was no longer a stranger to be viewed with suspicion.

Taesan became the ruler of the abandoned city.

In a city that had produced nothing and was slowly dying, the food crisis had suddenly been solved. It would have been strange not to follow him.

[Makeshift Cultivation. That’s a really interesting skill. How’d you even think of getting something like that?]

Even the spirit sounded curious. The Labyrinth was a place to conquer, not to live in.

Basic food could be bought in the shop, so the spirit had never considered cultivating anything.

Only those players who found themselves in the unique situation of returning to Earth had acquired the skill.

Taesan asked the boy,

“Do you have any livestock here?”

“Uh, over this way.”

The boy fumbled as he guided Taesan. Along the way, he kept glancing at him and finally couldn’t hold back his question.

“……Did you really come here to save us?”

Some people had started cautiously whispering that Taesan must be a savior sent to rescue them from this ruined world.

They spoke of him as a deliverer who would guide them, a messenger of the gods.

Especially the elders, who claimed they had seen a similar power in the past, lent weight to the rumor.

Taesan replied,

“Something like that.”

The boy’s face lit up.

“I knew it!”

He looked delighted, as if his belief had been proven right.

Inside the small pen he led Taesan to were two emaciated pigs.

They didn’t even have the strength to move—just lay there, barely breathing.

“Oh man. No one’s been taking care of them.”

The boy frantically tossed corn their way.

The pigs perked up their ears and, wobbling, came over and began eating the corn.

“I was keeping them alive with bits of precious food just in case. But we were reaching our limit—I was thinking of slaughtering them soon. But now that we have corn, maybe we can get meat…”

The boy’s eyes sparkled. Taesan had been thinking along the same lines.

[Makeshift Cultivation] only applied to plants.

It wasn’t a skill for raising livestock.

In his previous life, no one had really bothered. They were struggling just to survive—they couldn’t afford to be picky about food.

But to live with a future in mind, meat was essential.

And they would need a lot of it.

Staring at the pigs, Taesan pulled various ingredients from his inventory.

Blue flowers, green leaves, and other materials.

He had been collecting ingredients whenever he had time—ones for [Alchemy] and [Partial World Alteration].

Most of them had been used in battle.

The ones that couldn’t be used in combat had remained unused until now.

Among them were materials that accelerated growth, but Taesan had never had a reason to use them.

Now was different. Taesan began taking out the materials.

“Huh?”

The boy gasped. The materials began to resonate, drawing out a strange power.

Taesan focused.

He was finally mastering the [Alchemy] he’d learned from the gremlin.

Kiiiing!

As the ingredients harmonized, the power of alchemy enveloped the pen.

The pig that had been nibbling at the corn suddenly let out a scream.

“KWEEEH!”

“Aaah!”

The boy clamped his hands over his ears. It was a piercing cry that could tear eardrums.

“Wh-what?”

The pig’s flesh began swelling rapidly. Its eyes turned bright red.

The pig let out another screech and pounced on the other one. The boy panicked even more.

“W-what?!”

“So this is how it works. I can refine it better next time.”

Taesan had confirmed it—he could use [Alchemy] to assist with livestock breeding and growth.

The issue now was where to get livestock.

Earth had fallen. Finding proper livestock was nearly impossible.

“Maybe I can bring some back as a reward from the Labyrinth.”

[Nobody’s ever asked for something like that… but if you want it, they’ll probably give it to you. Ask them after clearing the floor—maybe they’ll hand it over as a bonus.]

Now that he had confirmed livestock breeding was possible, Taesan summoned Minerva.

“Whoa. This place is totally dead, huh.”

“Can you purify the air around here?”

Polluted air affected life itself. Labyrinth players had enhanced bodies and could withstand it, but newly born people couldn’t.

Minerva was the [Spirit King of Wind]. She ruled over nature itself. The possibility was high.

“Hmmm… it depends on the situation, but the power of the Old gods is mostly suppressed now. I might be able to do it.”

Minerva closed her eyes and concentrated. The wind, the flow of air, began to change slowly.

In that moment, the people noticed it. That the polluted air had shifted. That breathing had become just a bit easier.

The air was being purified.

“It’s working.”

“I can’t cover a wide area though. The pollution’s too dense. At best, I can manage just this city.”

“That’s good enough for now.”

People finally began to realize everything Taesan had done.

They followed him even more devotedly.

The city that had been on the brink of collapse… was returning to life through the hands of a single man.