Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World

These ability users were responsible for protecting the Safe Zone, guarding against unexpected crises like zombie hordes or mutated creatures.

Among them were some ability users like Hwa Jian, who had little combat power.

The rest were ordinary people without abilities.

However, Kim Haru's farming didn't require ability users.

Once the preliminary preparations were done, almost everyone in the Safe Zone—men and women alike—was equipped with a hoe. Some, unable to get iron hoes, even made stone hoes from hard rocks. Find more chapters on My Virtual Library Empire

There were quite a few people using stone hoes.

Kim Haru didn't mind; as long as they found the tools comfortable to use, it was fine by him.

With the tools ready, the first step was, as usual, to clear the land.

The land now under Kim Haru's name was technically called arable land, but in reality, aside from the research facility area, where the researchers occasionally replanted for experiments, the rest had been abandoned. To plant seeds, the land had to be tilled again.

The stones in the soil were all cleared away, and the larger clumps of dirt were broken up. Occasionally, they unearthed some plant roots, but they weren't mutated; they were dried out and withered beyond recognition.

Near the outskirts of the safe zone, however, someone digging up the ground unearthed a living root. After a sharp scream, an ability user, who was always on alert, quickly burned the root to ashes.

"It's fine. It's just the lowest level of mutated grass," they reassured.

After burning the root, the ability users comforted everyone and continued their patrol along the safe zone wall.

The person who had been startled but unharmed let out a sigh of relief. Once their nerves settled, they went back to digging the soil.

With a single strike of the hoe, the lingering fear quickly turned into a sense of joy.

Perhaps it was the land itself that had a certain appeal for the people here. Just the thought of being able to personally grow food on the land in front of them brought a deep sense of security.

Besides, this was Kim Haru preparing for the entire Safe Zone to survive the winter. How could they not contribute their share?

The whole Safe Zone worked together, waking up early and working late into the day. Even though the land clearing was exhausting, just two days later, a large area of the field had been tilled and was now soft and ready for planting.

Kim Haru took out all his potatoes, cabbages, and soybeans.

This included the ones he had planned to sell in his shop.

"Boss, these are your personal stock..." Hwa Jian, whose ability was too weak to be assigned any patrol tasks, had taken on the farming duties as well. Every day, he also cleaned the shop, even though the system-managed shop didn't actually require cleaning.

When he saw Kim Haru take all the inventory from the shop, Hwa Jian couldn't help but feel puzzled.

He knew that what his boss was doing was helping the entire Safe Zone survive the winter, but perhaps because of his post-apocalyptic selfish tendencies, he couldn't help but feel that using his personal stock to help everyone was somewhat unfair.

Hwa Jian admired his boss and didn't want him to suffer a loss.

"It's fine," Kim Haru said without stopping his work. He quickly packed up the things he needed and took them away.

Although Kim Haru had already prepared himself to make a loss when he decided to help the Safe Zone through the winter, in reality, he wouldn't lose anything. From the moment the Pyeongseong Safe Zone Commander handed over the control of the Safe Zone to Kim Haru, he had access to all the crystal core within the Safe Zone, which meant he could take whatever he wanted without issue.

Of course, Kim Haru would never do something so dishonorable.

From now on, the daily rewards for the people farming, including their food, would be provided by the Safe Zone, so Kim Haru didn't need to pay for anything.

Even if Kim Haru had to give something up now, once the harvest came in, if he wanted, he could easily recover what he'd put in. Of course, he could.

Once the entire winter passed, what would he not gain from this? How could he lose anything?

Hwa Jian, having been worn down by the hardships of the apocalypse, just hadn't thought of that.

The first batch of seeds had already been planted, all provided by Kim Haru. This batch wasn't enough to fill all the fields, and at most, it covered about one-eighth of the entire Safe Zone.

Kim Haru thought for a moment and decided to plant some rice in a small section of the land that had already been cleared.

Rice and wheat needed 100 days to mature—about three months. If everything was planted later, relying on fertilizer to shorten the growth period might cause issues. Since there weren't enough short-term seeds, he decided to plant a batch of long-growing crops first and wait for them to mature slowly.

After the seeds were planted, the land clearing continued, while the already cleared sections of land were designated for building fermentation pits in suitable corners of the Safe Zone.

Fertilizer was a necessity. To grow more food before winter, they had to rely on this fertilizer.

Making the fermentation pits didn't require Kim Haru's direct guidance. Many people in the Pyeongseong Safe Zone had farmed before the apocalypse and knew how to build these pits. Even if someone didn't know, there were the researchers from the plant research institute to help.

At this stage, it wasn't just Kim Haru who was busy; the researchers at the plant research institute were also working tirelessly.

Once the fermentation pits were dug, Kim Haru needed to personally sprinkle the crystal cores into them. Fortunately, this task didn't require much physical effort. He simply rode around on a balance scooter, stopping at several points, and finished the task with ease.