Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World

Kim Haru wasn't sure about the soil's ability to support weight above the tunnel, so he marked the path with small sticks, intending to reinforce it later with stone slabs or something similar.

Otherwise, if the soil turned out to be too soft and someone were to step over it only to fall through into pig manure… well, that experience would not be pleasant.

With the tunnel in place, Kim Haru decided the pigpen's layout needed slight adjustments too. He shaved down the area surrounding the tunnel entrance, creating a slope to channel waste directly toward the compost pit. This way, the waste would flow conveniently into the pit, and if it didn't, it would be easy to wash down with water.

With this last touch, the initial setup for the fertilizer production was complete.

In the pigpen, Little Snort was curiously sniffing around the newly made connection to the compost pit, cautiously poking its nose toward it and even attempting to stick its head in to inspect.

Kim Haru quickly instructed Little Oakie to block Little Snort. "Little Snort, you should try to be a clean little pig, okay? From now on, this is your designated bathroom spot. Every time you need to go, you come here. But be careful and don't fall in. If you do, I'll have to clean you up and roast you for dinner."

Little Snort: "!"

Humans are truly terrifying!

Little Snort immediately took a few steps back.

Kim Haru saw nothing wrong with his words. "Little Snort, you've already gotten yourself in trouble for wandering too far from your family to play and ending up caught by me. If you lose your little life just because you're too playful, that would really teach you a lesson, wouldn't it? But if you behave, I might even consider finding you a friend. This pigpen is huge, and having just one little piglet seems a bit lonely."

Kim Haru remembered that the people at the animal research institute mentioned the black pig they captured had wandered in from the north, at least implying there were more pigs out there. If a team headed to north soon, he might tag along or even post a task for other ability-user teams to bring one back.

He wondered if transporting a living mutated pig might be difficult?

Even though he hadn't successfully raised a single piglet yet, Kim Haru was already thinking about getting another one.

What could he do? Pork was just too delicious.

Hmm… He remembered there was an important step to making pork taste good.

Suddenly, Kim Haru recalled something from a novel he'd read: to make pork taste better and eliminate any odor, one had to castrate the pig.

Unknowingly, Kim Haru's gaze drifted downward toward Little Snort's underbelly.

This… hmm… feels a bit hard to tackle.

As an ordinary guy, just the thought of handling something like this could easily leave some mental scars!

Anyway, Kim Haru figured he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Besides, Little Snort was still young and had just arrived at the farm and it's not yet accustomed to the environment. He'd wait a month or two, let it get settled in, and then consider the matter again.

Kim Haru thought he'd ask Go Okrim to see if he'd be willing to handle it when the time came. If he also had second thoughts, he might just post a task in the safe zone to find someone else who is willing to do it.

...

Life on the farm passed by leisurely, and before he knew it, three days had gone by.

The soybeans, potatoes, and cabbages he'd planted in the reclaimed fields had reached harvest time. Altogether, they spanned a full thirteen acres, stretching out in a lush green expanse, full of vitality.@@novelbin@@

This time, Kim Haru couldn't just push all the work onto others and take it easy. With so many crops to harvest, every bit of labor on the farm was needed—everyone had to pitch in.

The two zombie-bots had completed their field-clearing tasks, and Go Okrim had erased their programs after that. A few days ago, he'd reprogrammed them for watering and assigning them to cover the areas that the sprinklers didn't reach.

This time, the two zombie-bots's program were wiped again and equipped with harvesting software specifically for cabbage. Their job was to neatly pull the cabbages from the ground and stack them in rows.

The soybeans were fairly easy to harvest, too. The pods were clustered on top, so it was just a matter of picking them off.

Only the potatoes that were more labor-intensive. Not only were they high-yield and heavy, but they were all buried in the ground, making it easy to accidentally damage them while digging.

Initially, harvesting potatoes would have been the perfect task for Little Oakie. Kim Haru hadn't forgotten it—he and Little Oakie gave it a try, but they quickly realized that the field was simply too far from Little Oakie's main body, so its roots couldn't reach this area.

Little Oakie's current level wasn't high enough to allow its roots to move through the ground like some other mutated plants. In the end, Kim Haru had to abandon the idea.

All day long, the two people and two zombie-bots were out in the field, harvesting the crops.

Even with all hands on deck, they hadn't finished by the end of the day.

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There was still an acre of cabbages left, which could be left to the two zombie-bots to continue harvesting at night. As for the soybeans, there were three and a half acres remaining, and even with Kim Haru and Go Okrim working together, they had only managed to harvest an acre and a half. The five acres of potatoes remained completely untouched.

"Ugh, I'm done for..." Finally lying down on his bed, Kim Haru felt soreness all over his body.

They had even rushed through their meals today and working well into the evening until they could no longer see in the field.