Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World

Maybe the phrase revitalize the farming business struck a chord with the system, as a prompt suddenly popped up.

[ System Mall: Everything You Need, All in One Place. ]

Seeing this slogan-like message, Kim Haru immediately grinned knowingly.

[ Okay, I'll check it out when I need it. Just don't set the prices too high, alright? This concerns our future business! ]

The system remained silent after that.

While he spoke, Kim Haru's basket had already been filled to the brim.

Before setting out, he had specifically asked people in the Pyeongseong Safe Zone who were skilled in weaving to make a tightly woven basket.

Now, the basket was packed with tomatoes of all colors, piled together like a collection of vibrant balls.

While harvesting, Kim Haru had tasted a few.

Of course, before taking a bite, he had Fuzzball help check whether they were safe to eat.

The fruits grown on his personal farm had been specially adjusted to control the mutagenic virus levels—not only were they virus-free, but they were also rich in various nutrients beneficial to the human body.

However, this wild vegetable field was a different story.

Fortunately, after Fuzzball's inspection, the fruits turned out to be of decent quality.

Although they contained trace amounts of the mutagenic virus, consuming them wouldn't cause significant harm.

Given Kim Haru's habit of eating mostly normal food, his body could metabolize the mutagenic virus level within two days.

Not just Kim Haru—everyone in the Pyeongseong Safe Zone was no longer as afraid of eating mutated plants.

With a steady supply of ordinary food, their bodies could efficiently purge any mutagenic virus intake.

Since it was edible, Kim Haru naturally helped himself.

The tomatoes from the same plant had different flavors depending on their color.

The cooler-toned ones tasted saltier, while the warmer-toned ones were sweeter.

He even found white and black tomatoes growing on the same vine—

The white ones had a texture similar to whipped cream, while the black ones tasted almost like chocolate.

With the eggs stored in his farm, he could probably whip up a cake to try later.

However, there weren't many white and black tomatoes.

They seemed like occasional genetic mutations rather than a common variety.

Kim Haru didn't dwell on it and simply continued picking, leaving the tomato plants as bare stems standing in the field.

After finishing with the tomatoes, he moved on to the chili peppers.

This time, the peppers no longer dared to explode randomly and were obediently picked one by one.

Just their spicy aroma alone was enough to make people's noses tingle.

Imagine cooking a full winter feast with these chilies—it would be an absolute delight!

But if he wanted to supply the entire Pyeongseong Safe Zone, this vegetable patch was far too small.

By the time Kim Haru finished picking the chilies, the others had also rested enough and gathered to help with the harvest.

This included Do Seungjin, Chung Hwangeun, and Jang Dojung, who had been circling the giant pasture grass.

"Pick the beans directly, but leave the overly mature ones on the vines for seeds. Dig up the bok choy with the roots—did you bring hoes? Cut the chives and green onions, they'll regrow from the roots. Lettuce is the same as bok choy—uproot it entirely. If you see any that are about to flower, leave them for seed collection."

Kim Haru stood on the side, directing everyone.

Honestly, he would have preferred to dig up all the crops and transplant them.

However, after thinking it over, he decided against it.

If these were just ordinary vegetables, he wouldn't hesitate to take them all and replant them either on his farm or in the safe zone.

The soil under his care was much cleaner, and with proper water and fertilizer, the crops would definitely grow better than here.

But these weren't ordinary vegetables—they were sentient mutated plants.

Given the unpredictable risks of mutated plants, he couldn't bring them to a place with a high population.

That meant they could only be planted on his farm.

However…

Kim Haru was worried that his existing mutated plants on the farm might get jealous.

Don't think plants can't get jealous—until now, the leaves on the Little Oakie branch managing the pigsty still hadn't grown dense enough.

They were sparse, making it look almost bald.

At first, Kim Haru didn't know the reason behind this and even worried that Little Oakie might be sick.

However, no matter how he checked with the system, it always showed that Little Oakie was perfectly healthy.

Kim Haru even searched in the study about what to do when a tree had too few leaves, and the information suggested that it might be due to a lack of certain nutrients.

So, Kim Haru started giving Little Oakie extra meals.

But later, Kim Haru discovered that the more fertilizer he gave Little Oakie, the more leaves it lost.

In the end, it was the Ginseng Spirit who couldn't bear to watch any longer and told Kim Haru to stop tormenting the poor little thing.

That was when Kim Haru finally realized—Little Oakie, the very first mutated plant he added to his little farm, had been getting jealous of the other mutated plants around it.

The other plants didn't dare to do anything openly in front of Kim Haru, so they secretly released the pressure as high-level mutated plants to suppress Little Oakie and causing it to stress.

Because of this, Kim Haru scolded the other mutated plants with a helpless laugh.

Of course, he also gave them all some fertilizer to be fair.

As for Little Oakie, its special treatment was naturally revoked.

Little Oakie didn't mind at all, and its branches grew new leaves at a much faster rate.

Even a plant like Little Oakie, which had been living in the same forest as these plants, could be the target of jealousy.

If he were to bring some wild mutated plants home from elsewhere, the plants at home would probably throw a fit.