Episode 143 – Planarium (1)

Planarium (1)

After logging out, in the waiting room. I was reflecting on the achievements I had gained in the game.

[Betting Success]

[Additional quest rewards will be given.]

◆ EXP + 2,137

◆ Level Up!

◆「Enhancement: A ring that looks ordinary but isn’t 」

The experience points had increased sevenfold from the original 300, and the item had been enhanced.

「A ring that looks ordinary but isn’t (Enhanced)」

：Casting speed reduction [5%]

：Agility increase [1.2]

The ring that Soliette coveted. It was definitely a ring that suited a rogue.

I was fiddling with it for no reason.

“…….”

The things I said today were weighing on my mind, but now she needs to know herself.

Just as the saying goes, ‘know thyself and thou shalt win a hundred battles’, she needs to overcome herself more than anyone else.

She needs to learn how to become stronger on her own.

In that process, I want to help her, and I will try to be helpful, but……

Someday.

When she finally stands on her own.

For some reason, I feel like I won’t be there.

“……Shall I try it?”

Well, that’s a matter for the future.

I flicked two fingers─index and middle─like throwing a card. By consuming magic, a card came out.

“Memory.”

「124 / 130」

Recent Change: -1

I’m not very confident because there’s not much capacity left in the 「Notepad」.

First, I closed my eyes gently.

“Memorize.”

The target to save is not the card itself, but the skill that makes up the card.

That, which might be similar to a formula, is stored in the 「Notepad」.

“Huh.”

For a moment, magic was consumed in a lump. The Magic Core vibrated strongly.

“……Did it work?”

I opened the 「Notepad」 again.

「129 / 130」

It seems to have worked, but the capacity it occupies is only 5. Is it because this Gambler class itself is largely ‘me’?

“Nice.”

Anyway, it was a success.

I completely logged out.

“Log out.”

* * *

“Ah, I’m hungry…….”

Immediately after logging out, back in Soliette’s [Room 206].

I instinctively rubbed my stomach.

“……Why am I hungry?

It was strange. I had eaten a lot in the game.

“Is it because it’s a game?”

Does the food in the game only satisfy the hunger in the game? It’s unnecessarily real.

I took the CD out of Soliette’s game console and returned to [Room 107].

“Shall I try it?”

I tried using 「Card Draw」 first.

With a swoosh, a blue card stuck to my finger.

“It worked.”

It works, but it just looks like paper material and doesn’t seem to have anything special.

“…… It’s a dud.”

The effect of the card is merely 「Firecracker」. It’s not special like in the game. Probably because the luck stat isn’t applied.

In this case, it’s not very useful-

“No, wait a minute.”

The 「Card Draw」 brought into reality consumes magic. It also takes place through the medium of a ‘card’.

Then, isn’t this also a kind of ‘formula used like a tool’?

“…….”

I quietly looked at my right forearm.

The ancient magic proliferating from the root of 「R-elix: Treasure Hunter」. If I combine this with 「Treasurization」, it might have quite a synergy.

─Meow.

Just then, Grawl crawled out from the cushion.

“Oh, everything alright?”

─Yes, Master. Elise said she would take care of the student ID.

“Really?”

Right now, a mana core extracted from my 「Notepad」 is hanging on his necklace. Thanks to that, he can maintain his form and use his smartphone even when he’s far from me.

He’s even started using social media lately.

His username is [Grou——].

He posts selfies as if his owner took them.

“Grawl, can you create some land for farming?”

─What for?

“Self-sufficiency.”

The second quarter of the College Board is as crucial as Bethune. The principle of self-sufficiency, as stated by the person in charge, feels all too natural and urgent for me, someone who has experienced [Planarium].

Perhaps food itself might be the top priority.

─It’s entirely possible. Also, I’ve collected a lot of loot. There’s a lot here, probably because the mana concentration and quality are high.

Grawl lifted his cushion. There were more mana cores, mana stones, and even Gether than on the mainland.

“Good job. I’m taking 70% of the mana cores. You can have the rest.”

─Why? Why 70%?

Grawl frowned.

“I have something to do.”

I immediately absorbed the chunk of mana cores into my「Notepad」. The total capacity increased to [142].

─Ahhhh! Why! Ahhhhh!

Kyaaaa-! Grawl arched his back and screamed.

“I have a goal.”

Bringing the class of gambler itself from [Bethune Dungeon]. Of course, the luck stat is impossible, but I plan to make other skills and ‘items’ as much as possible mine.

“Let’s go out for now. Come on.”

─No, no, no, I want to lie down, lie down, lie down.

Grawl flopped down and flailed his arms and legs as if swimming.

“I’ll smash your smartphone.”

─…Let’s go.

I went outside with Grawl.

Outside the dormitory, I strolled through the forest of [Planarium]. To find some land suitable for farming…

Then suddenly.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle-

The sound and smell of meat cooking wafted from somewhere.

“What’s that?”

I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

In the middle of the green forest, a statue with dawn-colored hair and eyes like the Milky Way.

It was Gerkhen.

He was roasting a whole pig on a bonfire he had made himself, clutching a large bag of sugar in one hand.

“Oh, you’re here.”

I sat down next to him. Gerkhen responded as if he found it absurd.

“You’re the one who came.”

“What’s up?”

“……”

He asked, glancing sideways at me.

“……Do you have a student ID?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Then he didn’t say anything. He just shook his head with a strange expression.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle-

But the sight of the roasting pig was no joke. It was so beautiful, I couldn’t resist.

“Let’s share. I’ll help you out later.”

“……Eat.”

“Oh~ Great. You won’t regret this.”

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle-

It seemed almost fully cooked.

“Hey, after eating this, I’m going to find a spot for a greenhouse. Will you help?”

“A greenhouse? You mean the one used for crop cultivation?”

“Yeah.”

Gerkhen said, cutting the roast pork with his own sword.

“For that, you need a land deed.”

“Have you been drinking? Where would you find something like a land deed in [Planarium]?”

* * *

“Land deeds vary by location, but places more than 6 km away from the center are 3.5 achievement points per square meter. If it’s close to the center, it can be up to 200 achievement points per square meter.”

For your information, the center refers to the lighthouse in the middle of the [Planarium Academy]~

The employee at the College Board [Exchange Center] explained with a bright smile.

I asked blankly.

“How do I earn achievement points?”

“You can’t earn them yet since school hasn’t started, let’s see… Shion, you have 200 achievement points based on your first quarter grades, and Gerkhen, you have 500. These are initial scores, so you can use them now. It’s a privilege of diligent seniors!”

“…If I have this land deed, does that land become mine?”

“For two quarters it does. If you plunder or attack a land with an owner, not only will you be subject to administrative sanctions, but your achievement points will also be significantly deducted. Of course, this would be disadvantageous for scouting.”

I looked back at Gerkhen.

“Hey, let’s pool our money and build two 100-square-meter greenhouses.”

“Let’s not.”

I grabbed Gerkhen, who was about to turn away.

“But I’ll have a 90% stake. I’ll give you 10%.”

9 to 1.

At that, Gerkhen responded with a face that was beyond disbelief, almost as if his soul had left his body.

“…Would you do it if you were me?”

“Hey, hey, hey, do you know how to farm? I’m a farmer. Farming- Wait. Hey, stop.”

I quickly grabbed Gerkhen, who was trying to turn away again.

“Okay. You get an additional 10% stake, plus the right of first dibs on the fruit crops grown in the greenhouse.”

“Fruit?”

“Yeah. Things like strawberries, apples.”

Suddenly, Gerkhen’s ears perked up. They noticeably perked up. What is he, a rabbit?

“…Pineapple, kiwi, watermelon, grapes, even melon.”

I listed the fruits one by one. Gerkhen seemed to be imagining it, his lips twitching, but he soon came to his senses.

“Those are fruits that can’t be grown in the same place.”

He’s smart. The problem is that delicious fruits each require different climatic conditions to grow.

“I can do it.”

“Twenty.”

“Twenty is for you, sir. I’m at two hundred thousand.”

“……”

“Sorry. Let’s do this: we’ll see if it works and then decide. But you only take a 5% stake.”

Gerkhen looked at me, questioning whether I was sincere. I nodded, and he rubbed his temples.

“If you pay more than 70% of the investment costs but only get a 5% stake, would you agree?”

“Okay. Let’s revise it to a 10% stake then. But if I fail at growing the fruits, I’ll give you all my shares. How does that sound?”

This too is a bet. A gambler’s bet.

“Think carefully. Even if you use twenty thousand achievement points, you can’t farm fruit on your own, can you?”

“……”

Gerkhen fell silent for a moment, but soon looked me straight in the eye and asked in a low voice, as if discussing a political issue.

“Can mangoes be included too?”

* * *

Thud-! Thud-!

We laid down a large roll of plastic on the flat ground. This amount of material was available in the [Material Room] of the [Planarium Academy] grounds.

“This place seems good.”

It’s a leyline that simultaneously triggers Grawl’s sense of leveling the ground and my 「Treasure Hunter」.

“Like this, a row of greenhouses. Like that, another row of greenhouses. Two rows of greenhouses side by side.”

I drew lines in the air.

One hundred pyeong each, two hundred pyeong in total.

However, Gerkhen still looked doubtful.

“Let me repeat. If you fail to keep the contract, all the land is mine.”

“Fine. But how do you plan to use this remote land?”

It’s about 6~7km away from the center, the lighthouse. It’s hard to find without a map.

“……”

After a long silence, Gerkhen answered in a single word.

“……Storage.”

“Hey, quiet. You go catch some meat. We’ll eat after work.”

“If other crops are impossible, in case mangoes and melons-”

“I got it. Go catch some meat.”

“……”

Gerkhen, who turned around, grumbled and went into the forest.

I tore the land deed I bought from the [Exchange Center]. Then, a blue grid pattern floated in the air.

“Because the mana quality is high, everything is possible.”

[Planarium] has 2~3 times the mana density of the continent, but the quality of mana itself is unbelievable.

I adjusted the grid pattern here and there with my hand to set the base for the greenhouses.

Two of one hundred pyeong each.

─Master. Shall we build the greenhouse right away?

“Melons and mangoes, no, can melons and mangoes be grown together?”

─Yes~ It’s possible with very high-quality. The mana here is very good, isn’t it~

“Okay. Proceed.”

─But, please only take 60% of the mana core, not 70%. I need to live too.

“Got it.”

─Phew! Please sit and wait, Master! It’s a piece of cake to build a greenhouse, not just a house!

I sat down. I watched Grawl work.

Actually, it’s not even work.

All Grawl does is strut around with his nose in the air like a noble cat, and the ground flips over by itself, a sturdy frame that can replace steel is erected, the plastic is smoothly applied, and even the entrance is automatically created.

─It’s done~ Please check.

I went inside the greenhouse. The grid-patterned fields were divided according to the fruit to be cultivated.

─Look here. This is for melons. This is for kiwis. The temperature and characteristics of the soil are set differently, so each crop can grow in the most suitable environment. It’s a very~ magical space.

“You did a great job.”

─But how do we get the seeds? All external food rots, and seeds are food too, in a way.

“Not all external food rots, only the ‘food that souls can eat’ rots. Souls don’t eat seeds. They don’t grow because they don’t have ‘mana’.”

“Why, it’s like leaving the door slightly ajar during ancestral rites. They say the soulss come in through that gap and eat the food, right?

In a place where the soul forms a substance, like [Planarium], the soul directly consumes the ‘mana’ of the food. That’s why external food spoils.

However, the soul doesn’t eat things with faint mana like seeds, and even if that seed grows into a crop, if it grew in the land of [Planarium], it still leaves it alone.

To the soul, ‘external food’ is ‘food full of energy accumulated in the world of the living.’

─Wow… You’re an expert, master~

“Well, yeah.”

I’ve been staying here for quite a while.

The other name for this [Planarium] is ‘where the soul stays’. It’s perfect for the living to take refuge and stay.

──Oh, what’s that!

Then, a stupid and loud noise flows from outside the vinyl greenhouse door.

──There’s something! Is it a phantom house! There’s a door!

“…What’s with him.”

I opened the door of the vinyl greenhouse.

“Uh, why did the door open!!!”

“……..”

Layla, who falls back clutching her heart noisily.

Even the cup that she held tightly in her hands fell down and spilled out.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, really! Shion, what are you doing!! You surprised me!”

“Pick that up.”

“What, oh! My snails!”

Layla hurriedly poured the snails squirming on the ground back into the cup.

“I was going to boil them for soup later…”

“So that’s what it was for.”

I’m speechless.

“Aren’t you going down?”

“No. I stayed to build a base for the second quarter. What are you doing here, Shion? Planning to be homeless?”

“…….”

I silently looked at Layla.

It’s not that, but the incident in Trick City keeps coming to mind. The day she appeared as Mila, protecting ‘Dale Kal’.

We both hid our identities.

“Hey. What was your name?”

“What, what?!”

She suddenly narrowed her eyes.

“You, I was your Secret Friend and you don’t know my name?! Who did you think I was then! You’re ungrateful!”

“I mean your full name. I know your name.”

“……Hilton Ramsey. What’s in front.”

She still asks with suspicious eyes, narrowing them thinly.

I answered, taken aback.

“Layla.”

“What, you knew.”

Layla Hilton Ramsey.

I repeat that name and try to spell it in my head.

Layla Hilton Ramsey.

“Oh, no way.”

I slapped my forehead.

In Trick City, the full name of the hero ‘Mila’, who only a handful would know about 10 years later.

Mila Sayre. (Explaination at end)

If you remove Hilton from Layla Hilton Ramsey.

Layla Ramsey.

The two have the same alphabets. It’s an ‘anagram’ that holds true for each other, just by changing the order.

“I’m going crazy, really…….”

Who did I idolize before regression, and what comfort did I get from which hero—

“Why are you going crazy? What are you going to do here?”

“……Farming. If you get hungry later, come find me. I’ll sell it to you for achievement points or barter.”

“Huh. Shion, you’re a lunatic! Who would buy something like rice with achievement points?”

“There are fruits too.”

“Who’d spend achievement points on fruit?”

“Achievement points aren’t ice cream scoops, you know.”

“Your logic is flawed, so you’re nitpicking!”

“…You’ll understand eventually.”

Layla snorted and took a step closer. I quickly said,

“This is my land. If you enter, you’ll be deducted achievement points.”

“What! What’s that! Is there such a thing?!”

“Yes. But you can enter if I allow it.”

“Allow me.”

“No.”

“What!”

“Instead, when you come to buy food later, I’ll give you a special 20% discount. I’ll also give you a free tasting coupon for the first transaction.”

“……Huh?”

At that, Layla puckered her lips with a strange expression. She also raised her eyebrows slyly.

“Oh~ What’s this~? Why am I getting a discount? Shion, you’re suspicious~ What could it be~?”

“……”

Honestly, I can’t tell even while looking with my own two eyes.

I can’t believe it.

How could she possibly be the embodiment of the noble and dedicated hero ‘Mila’.

“What could it be~? What could it be~? Oh wait, what could it be? What could it be? Hidden camera? Hidden camera…… It’s a hidden camera!”

“Just get lost.”

“What did you say?!”

As I was about to chase Layla away, a thought suddenly struck me.

“Oh right. Hey, did you see that news?”

“Do you watch the news, Shion?”

“Yeah. They said a monster appeared in Trick City’s D-Section. Some suit reportedly defeated the monster?”

“……”

I casually mentioned it, and Layla immediately turned serious.

“Why are you asking me that?”

“You’re from Trick City.”

“……What are you talking about. And, it wasn’t a suit, it was a person named ‘Mila’. It wasn’t just the suit, they said she did it with some mage.”

She just blurted it all out.

“How do you know that? It wasn’t in the news.”

“……I’m a star from Trick City’s A-Section! Of course I know!”

She suddenly raised her voice for no reason, then suddenly scanned my face with a slightly strange look.

“Wait. Shion, are you……”

“What.”

She stared at me intently. Could she have caught on? I quickly dodged her gaze.

“Do you, by any chance, have a mage in your family?”

“……”

I was slightly surprised.

She must be referring to Dale Kal.

“What are you talking about?”

“No~ I think I may or may not have met someone who looks like you~”

She’s surely ‘Mila’.

“Never mind.”

Rustle-

The sound of shaking bushes. Woah- In the midst of Layla’s surprise, Gerkhen walked out, carrying a large wild boar on his back.

“……Oh Gerkhen! You caught a wild boar?! How did you catch it?!”

“Well.”

“……”

Layla blankly stared at the wild boar and then wiped the drool trickling down her mouth.

“Ooh, what a coincidence~ I also caught some snails. Look!”

She proudly held out a cup filled with about ten snails.

“It must be delicious. Shall we have a meal together~? Eating only meat can be tough! Let’s boil it and eat it together~”

At that, Gerkhen’s eyes slightly wavered. Layla brightened her face.

“Right! Snail soup must be delicious!”

Of course, Gerkhen was surprised not by Layla, but by the vinyl greenhouse that was suddenly completed.

He looked at me and quietly said,

“……Melon. Mango.”

I met his gaze and solemnly nodded.

“Nothing is impossible.”

“And snail soup too!”

I ignored Layla, who kept pushing the disgusting cup towards me.

____________________________________

Explanation:

[밀라] (세이어) – Mila Sayre

[라](예) – Lalya
[램](시) – Ramsey

Mila Sayre:

“밀라 세이어” consists of the following syllables: 밀, 라, 세, 이, 어

Laya:

“라 예” consists of the following syllables: 라, 예

Ramsey:

“램 시” consists of the following syllables: 램, 시

These Korean syllables are indeed anagrams of each other when rearranged:

밀라 세이어 can be rearranged to make 라 + 예 + 램 + 시 + 밀 + 어