The SSS+ Rank Hunter Who Farms

18. Dimensional Trade Merchant

Calling the previous owner a useless weakling who perished in a Level 2 Biome… would be unfair, considering the inheritance I received from her was quite substantial.

"I’ll make good use of it. I’ll carry on your legacy."

Should I say it’s thanks to her? Or should I regret that she didn’t live longer to leave even more behind?

If traces of her remain here, there could be more elsewhere—should I allow myself to hope?

"I don’t know… I’m sorry, Master."

As expected, asking Lulu yielded no answers.

Still, I decided not to abandon hope.

If there was an orchard here, then there might be other key locations from Farming World as well.

Would the previous owner, who put so much effort into making this orchard, really have stopped at just this?

If I could write a review, I’d give her five stars.

"I can still feel the previous owner’s warmth... And she left behind plenty of things to sell, which is great!"

"…Huh?"

One hundred Star Fruits—whether I sold them for Farm Points or in reality—would become a reliable emergency fund. I also planted fifty Healing Herb seeds in an appropriately cleared space within the orchard.

The layout wasn’t particularly pretty since a few trees stood in the middle of the field, but I wasn’t planning to use this place purely as farmland anyway. I intended to use it as a temporary farm-slash-orchard.

I had already tilled a field in my front yard, planning to plant seeds when I found them. But now that I had discovered this perfectly walled-off orchard, it made no sense to risk planting Healing Herbs in my front yard, where monsters could come and wreak havoc.

Even if just one or two got eaten, the loss would be significant.

If things went wrong, an entire field could be ruined.

I could always plant lower-value seeds in the front yard instead.

Healing Herbs were the most valuable seeds I had on hand and the most useful at this stage, so they went here. But I had quite a variety of other seeds as well.

And more than anything, I found an abundance of seemingly useless yet strangely valuable tools.

That might sound like a contradiction, but I meant it literally—they were tools that were useless in the grand scheme of things but still had their uses.

Things I would never spend Farm Points on if I were thinking rationally.

Yet, if I had them, they were actually quite handy.

One prime example was the ‘Fruit Basket’ stored in the orchard’s warehouse.

[Medium-Sized Fruit Basket]

- Rank: D

- A straw basket for holding fruit. It appears capable of holding a considerable amount.

- Reduces the weight of fruit by 30%.

- Made to a size of 150 × 3.

A fruit basket like this was practically essential for harvesting from an orchard.

For small-scale orchards, I could just pick the fruit and store it directly in my inventory. But since farming wasn’t my only goal, my seven-slot belt wasn’t for miscellaneous items—I needed space for essential survival gear, weapons, and emergency food or drinks.

Once an orchard reached a certain size, constantly moving fruit in and out of the inventory became a hassle. It was much more convenient to load everything into a basket and carry it all at once.

Just from the twenty trees I had harvested, I collected slightly over a hundred fruits.

If I stored them in my belt, it would take up two slots. But with this basket, I could consolidate everything into a single slot.

Plus, its 150 × 3 size meant I could store up to 150 stacks in one slot.

The only downside was that it could only hold fruit, but still—while it wasn’t worth buying with Farm Points, it was definitely useful.

Most Farming World players preferred to craft these instead of buying them, as it was more cost-effective. But even then, crafting required obtaining the recipe through quests or purchasing it separately.

Since there were two medium-sized fruit baskets in the warehouse, I used one to store the Star Fruits and took the other one back home with me.

[Day 5]

I had already planted and watered them in the morning. If I watered them once more tomorrow, I could harvest them on the morning of the seventh day and head out on the eighth.

My first goal of finding a village was still in progress, and my to-do list was piling up. But in a Farming World like this, it was important to tackle immediate goals one at a time.

It would be great if I could plan everything out and execute it all at once, but with so many tasks ahead, I could easily get overwhelmed or hit a roadblock.

"Go fetch some water."

"...A fairy isn't supposed to be doing this kind of work."

"Oh, then what are you supposed to do? Just eat, sleep, poop, and waste space while spouting nonsense? You said you were a Manager helping me develop this dimension. Yet here I am plowing the field, and you won’t even fetch water?"

"...Fine."

She wasn’t a huge help, but an extra pair of hands—no matter how small—was still convenient.

Lulu struggled to carry a watering can as big as her body, flying back and forth from the outhouse to fill it with water. Thanks to her, I didn’t have to keep running back and forth while planting other seeds in the field.

"Grab some Big Rats meat while you’re at it."

I still had three days left, but I planned to leave as soon as the cooldown reset, so I was already packing.

Since the cooldown lasted seven days, forgetting anything meant I wouldn’t be able to retrieve it for another week. I had to be thorough in preparing what to take.

Even though I hadn’t harvested anything yet, just finding the orchard made me feel well-prepared.

A hundred Star Fruits. Fifty Healing Herbs. Once harvested, I’d probably end up with over a hundred fruits and leaves.

I could cram the Healing Herb leaves into my carry-on suitcase.

Sure, the dirt and plant smell would stick to the fabric, but that wasn’t my problem.

As for the fruits, I could store them in the fruit basket, which meant they would only take up one slot in my belt.

"This is what you call a dimensional trade merchant."

"Master, do you have no intention of growing stronger?"

Lulu pouted, her voice laced with both irritation and concern.

I understood where she was coming from.

The previous owner had died. And since Lulu’s role was to help me develop this dimension, it probably seemed reckless to her that instead of gathering resources from Earth to invest here, I was just taking what I could and selling it off.

"Ah!"

Not that I cared. I had confidence in myself.

But something suddenly piqued my curiosity.

"About the village—if this dimension doesn’t have an owner, do the other NPCs still live here? And how do you earn Farm Points?"

In Farming World, NPCs were just system proxies created by the game company. Selling resources to them meant the system would dispense Farm Points in return.

But if this was ‘reality,’ NPCs shouldn’t exist, right?

Did beings like Lulu act as intermediaries, managing transactions on behalf of the god who ruled this dimension?

"If you open the village, you’ll need to restore it. While restoring it, you’ll also need to populate it with residents. Once the village is fully restored, merchants who travel across dimensions will start visiting, and you can earn Farm Points through trade with them."

"Oh, I see."

This was getting complicated.

Maybe it was because I hadn’t found the village yet.

I wouldn’t know for sure until I checked, but it seemed like the village restoration quest worked similarly to the ‘Achievement’ quests in Farming World—where you had to repair a ruined town hall by spending resources and Farm Points to fully restore it.

Then where did the NPCs come from?

From another dimension? Or is it another god at work?

"You’ll naturally find out as you restore the village."

"Got it."

I’d figure it out as I went.

Honestly, I thought Lulu wouldn’t give me an answer at all, so this at least confirmed she knew a little more than she let on.

"A dimensional trade merchant, huh…"

I had just made up that name on a whim, but it turned out something like that really existed.

A thought crossed my mind.

"Can I travel to other dimensions too?"

If there were beings who moved between dimensions for trade, wouldn’t I also be able to do it if I used my Farm Points to gain the necessary abilities?

"Uh… I’m not sure. I’ve never really thought about it…"

"Forget it."

I could look into it later, once I leveled up and had more points to spare.

For now, at least on Earth, I was the only dimensional trade merchant.

After spending some time tidying up the yard near the garden, I turned in early for the night.

And then came…

 [Day 6]

At 6 a.m., I woke up feeling refreshed after finally getting a full eight hours of sleep. I opened the cabin door to greet the morning air.

And then—

"Ah, fuck."

The neatly arranged field I had cultivated into a perfect checkerboard pattern was completely wrecked.

Not just here and there—almost everything had been torn apart.

Even worse, the crops that were supposed to be harvested today, the ones I had planted alongside the Healing Herbs, were completely gone without a trace.

The seeds I had planted yesterday? I didn’t even need to check to know that more than half of them were ruined beyond use.

"Those little…"

I had expected something like this might happen, but I hadn’t imagined they’d trash the place to this extent.

Sure, the crops in the front yard weren’t as valuable as the Healing Herbs, but they were still worth something. Once harvested, they could be sold for Farm Points and real money.

The reason I hadn’t bothered putting up fences or alarm bells was that the rats usually only ate a small portion.

I had even kept the bonfire burning before I went to bed.

With no food left, they should have just nibbled a bit and left. But no—this was pure vandalism.

"You're all dead meat.”

I had planned to look for the village today and return home tomorrow, but that wasn’t happening anymore.

"Lulu, lead me to the sewer."

These little bastards—no, these filthy rats—are getting wiped out today.