***
“What the heck is this?”
The field he had carefully cultivated was completely dug up.
All the vegetables and potatoes that were about to be harvested were ruined.
The crops were trampled, torn, and some were even half-eaten and discarded.
“Who would do something so barbaric…”
If they had wanted the crops, they could have just taken them stealthily.
But why go to the trouble of destroying the field?
Anger flared up inside him.
“If I catch them, I won’t let them off easy.”
Hae-jun’s eyes blazed with fury.
He wanted to catch them and make them pay the price.
He wasn’t talking about money. He had quite a lot of money in the real world, and even here, he could make enough money to live comfortably by occasionally selling crops at the general store.
‘I’ll make them restore the ruined field and crops.’
Hae-jun took a step back from the field and carefully observed the crime scene(?).
He had read many mystery novels and when he watched dramas or movies, he preferred detective stories.
It was said that even a dog that guards a Buddhist temple for three years will learn to chant sutras. The current Hae-jun was like a scientific investigator, trying to find traces of the culprit in the devastated field.
“Hmm…”
The field was dug up indiscriminately.
The fruits were crushed and torn off.
There were even some stalks that had been cut with something blunt.
This wasn’t the work of a human.
This was like…
‘An animal? Like a bear or a wolf.’
He formed a tentative hypothesis and looked around carefully. As expected, there were animal footprints.
And conclusively, there was a small hole in the fence on one side.
“I see. The culprit is a wild animal?”
He swallowed a bitter laugh.
Since it wasn’t a human, it was difficult to assign responsibility.
Still, he had to do something to prevent it from happening again.
Hae-jun immediately covered the hole in the fence with wood and repaired it more sturdily.
He cleaned up the dug-up field and planted new crops. Fortunately, he had materials in stock in the warehouse, so it wasn’t a problem. The only thing he felt was a slight sense of loss from seeing his carefully cultivated crops damaged.
If he had spent months cultivating them like in the real world, the damage would have been considerable.
“I’ll let it go this time. If these guys do it again, I won’t let them off easy.”
.
.
.
The next day.
“Oh, come on…”
Hae-jun muttered as he looked at the dug-up field again.
The creature had dug through the reinforced fence and ruined the field as if it were nothing.
This time too, the crops were a mess. At this rate, he might not have enough ingredients to sell to his customers.
Creak-
“What the heck? Is this happening again?”
Chloe approached him in surprise while he was feeling bewildered.
“Oh.”
“Surely it’s not eating the chickens and goats, is it?”
“Probably not. It seems to be focusing on the fields, so I don’t think it’s a carnivore.”
“Phew. Thank goodness… Oh, no. What am I going to do? All the fields I worked so hard to cultivate are ruined.”
“Let’s endure it just one more time. If it happens again, we’ll have to come up with a plan.”
“A plan?”
Hae-jun nodded, clenching his fists.
‘I’m done being lenient.’
And then, the next day.
The culprits(?) dug up the field again as if to mock Hae-jun’s determination.
“These bastards! This is war.”
Anger flared up inside him.
He vowed revenge.
He would catch the creatures that were ruining his precious fields and make them pay the price.
Hae-jun brought an armful of wood that he had cut down to repair the fence.
Sawing, snip, snip.
Hammering, bang, bang, bang.
“What are you doing?”
[What are you doing?]
Chloe and Pote asked.
“Preparing for war.”
“War?”
[Oh no, who’s attacking our peaceful farm? If there’s a war, we should run away. Hurry, pack your things…]
“It’s not like that.”
[Then what is it?]
“It’s a war against the unidentified animals that are destroying my fields.”
[What are you making?]
“Just wait. You’ll see when it’s finished.”
Hae-jun hammered away silently.
Bang – bang – bang – bang
The sound of his hammer, filled with anger, echoed through the farm.
Several hours passed like that.
“Hehe… It’s finished.”
Hae-jun smiled as he looked at the completed war tool(?).
There was a hint of madness in his eyes.
[What is that? Are you making a new chicken coop? But if the gaps are that wide, the chickens will all escape?]
Pote asked, and Hae-jun shook his head.
What he had made looked like a chicken coop, but it wasn’t a chicken coop. It was a capture trap, not an automatic door-closing system, but a manual capture trap like the ones used to catch chickens.
It was the best device Hae-jun could make with his skills.
“Tonight. I’ll definitely catch them.”
The mysterious attackers took advantage of the night to sneak into the farm, ravage the fields, and leave.
There was more than one set of footprints, and most of them used similar paths to raid the fields.
Hae-jun decided to use that to his advantage. He would set up the capture trap in the path the creatures used to take over the fence and put a lot of bait that they would like inside.
He would wait patiently for the right moment and then, when they appeared, he would catch them all at once!
“What do you think? Will we catch them?”
[Yes!]
Pote’s eyes lit up.
Indeed, he had quite enjoyed catching wild hens and taming them.
Even the wild Mongchi.
“Meow~!!”
“It’s okay. Mongchi. I don’t need your help.”
“Meow~!!”
“Okay, okay. But you have to be quiet. They might notice you.”
“Meow.”
“You too, Pote.”
[Of course.]
The sun set and darkness fell upon the farm.
Hae-jun, who had set up the capture trap, deliberately turned off all the streetlights and went into hiding.
***
The full moon was hidden by the clouds, losing its light.
Darkness descended upon the surroundings.
Rustle, rustle-
Thud, thud, thud-
As he was dozing off, he heard the sound of something digging the ground in the distance.
[Wow, I think they’re here!]
“Shhh.”
[Shhh.]
“Meow.”
He tried his best to suppress his presence.
Sensing something strange, the creatures’ movements stopped for a moment.
And then, not long after, the sound of something digging the ground was heard again.
Hae-jun, who was camouflaged with leaves, kept a close eye on the area where the sound was coming from.
And finally.
‘There!’
The clouds that had been covering the moon cleared, and the mysterious attackers revealed themselves.
‘So it was those guys.’
The mysterious attackers. Their true identities were a herd of black pigs with fur and hooves darker than darkness.
They crawled under the fence very stealthily and walked towards the field.
The capture trap set up in their path, the abundant crops piled up inside it as bait.
It must have been an irresistible temptation for the herd of black pigs.
“Oink, oink.”
The one that seemed to be the leader cautiously inspected the area around the capture trap.
‘Come in…’
Sensing no particular threat, the leader black pig carefully stepped into the capture trap.
Pote looked at Hae-jun as if asking why he wasn’t pulling the rope.
Hae-jun shook his head discreetly. What he was aiming for was a clean sweep. If he missed even one, the creatures would target the fields again. So he had to catch them all at once.
Gulp-
His hands were sweating from the tension.
Hae-jun quietly adjusted his grip on the rope.
Another pig entered the capture trap.
‘Come on in.’
And just as the last black pig entered the capture trap and was enjoying its last supper,
Swish-
The door closed as he pulled the rope hard.
“Yes!”
[We did it!]
“Meow!”
He felt a different kind of thrill and exhilaration from chicken hunting.
“Hoo. I told you I’d make you pay for digging up my farm.”
***
Daylight broke.
“But what are we going to do with these guys?”
Chloe asked, looking at the black pigs trapped in the capture trap.
“Well… I didn’t think that far ahead.”
Catching them and punishing them… That was his initial goal.
Hae-jun hadn’t thought about what to do after that.
“I think they were just hungry, so let’s just release them.”
“If we release them, they’ll just raid the farm again.”
If they were attacked anymore, he wouldn’t have enough food to sell to his customers.
His stock was already running low after several days of attacks.
“What if we feed them?”
“Raise them? Hmm…”
Hae-jun thought for a moment.
They didn’t lay eggs like chickens, and they couldn’t get goat’s milk like goats.
If they were cows, he could use them to plow the fields.
But what could he get from raising pigs…
‘Pork belly?’
Come to think of it, he couldn’t even remember when he had last eaten pork belly.
When he was in the military, he often ate it with his juniors when they went on leave or on overnight stays, but he couldn’t remember ever eating it after he entered the gosiwon.
Thick pork belly sizzling on a griddle, a few pieces picked up with chopsticks and placed on a lettuce leaf, topped with ssamjang, garlic, chili pepper, and pickled scallions, and washed down with a glass of soju.
Gulp-
He swallowed his saliva and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down violently.
He felt sorry for the live pigs, thinking about pork belly, but pork belly with a glass of soju was a human instinct… No, it was the instinct of the Korean people.
But he couldn’t just raise them recklessly.
Even if they grew fat and plump, Hae-jun didn’t have the guts to slaughter a pig.
‘That’s right. There was a pigsty in the village!’
When he was searching every nook and cranny of the village looking for Mia, he accidentally came across a pigsty at the end of an alley. The owner was so fierce-looking that he had just exchanged a brief greeting and left.
He could raise them well and hand them over to the pigsty, or he could ask them to slaughter them and get the meat.
“Okay. Let’s raise them.”
“That’s great.”
Chloe clapped her hands in delight at Hae-jun’s decision.
The remaining problem was where to raise them.
Pigs are animals that cannot be raised in a small space. It is often said that pigs are dirty animals, but this is a misconception caused by raising them in cramped pens and not cleaning them properly. If they are raised in a spacious area with a clean environment, they are very clean animals.
‘That’s the only place, I guess.’
Hae-jun, with the help of his farm family, moved the black pigs to the place he had in mind.
.
.
.
“Wow, how did you think of this place?”
Chloe asked in admiration.
“I thought they would be able to roam around freely and forage here.”
The place Hae-jun had chosen was the grassland to the west.
He asked James to build a fence around part of the grassland and released the herd of black pigs there.
Pigs are omnivores, and he had once seen a documentary about how pigs in Spain’s Iberian Peninsula are raised on acorns.
The western grassland was spacious and rich in acorns, making it an ideal place for the black pigs to live.
They wouldn’t have any reason to invade the fields since there was plenty of food here. If he brought them crops just in case, they would eat them, so he wouldn’t have to worry about attacks anymore.
Just as Hae-jun had expected, the creatures roamed around in a friendly herd, eating the fallen acorns.
Feeling good after their meal, they even rolled around in the mud and took a bath.
“Grow up well.”
“Oink, oink!”
***
Some time later.
In front of the fence of the western grassland, Hae-jun’s face was filled with worry.
‘This is completely out of my calculations?’
The cause of his worry was none other than the black pigs.
It wasn’t because they were raiding the fields.
The problem he was facing this time was their fertility.
“There are already 40 of them.”
As they were released in the grassland where food was abundant, the number of pigs increased exponentially.
From the initial 4 to 8… 16… 32… 40.
40 in just one week.
He couldn’t handle it anymore.
At this rate, the western grassland would be filled with pigs in a few days, and they would start invading the fields again because they were running out of food.
“What are you worrying about? Just eat them.”
James, who had visited the farm to repair the fence, advised Hae-jun, licking his lips.
“Hehe… That guy looks really delicious. If I pickle the hind legs in salt and make ham! Ugh, I can already imagine a glass of wine. Okay. Tonight, it’s ham and wine.”
“That’s the spirit, isn’t it?”
“Of course. They’ll be perfect to eat if we slaughter them now.”
Hae-jun went down to the village and headed straight to the pigsty.
***
“What the heck is this?”
The field he had carefully cultivated was completely dug up.
All the vegetables and potatoes that were about to be harvested were ruined.
The crops were trampled, torn, and some were even half-eaten and discarded.
“Who would do something so barbaric…”
If they had wanted the crops, they could have just taken them stealthily.
But why go to the trouble of destroying the field?
Anger flared up inside him.
“If I catch them, I won’t let them off easy.”
Hae-jun’s eyes blazed with fury.
He wanted to catch them and make them pay the price.
He wasn’t talking about money. He had quite a lot of money in the real world, and even here, he could make enough money to live comfortably by occasionally selling crops at the general store.
‘I’ll make them restore the ruined field and crops.’
Hae-jun took a step back from the field and carefully observed the crime scene(?).
He had read many mystery novels and when he watched dramas or movies, he preferred detective stories.
It was said that even a dog that guards a Buddhist temple for three years will learn to chant sutras. The current Hae-jun was like a scientific investigator, trying to find traces of the culprit in the devastated field.
“Hmm…”
The field was dug up indiscriminately.
The fruits were crushed and torn off.
There were even some stalks that had been cut with something blunt.
This wasn’t the work of a human.
This was like…
‘An animal? Like a bear or a wolf.’
He formed a tentative hypothesis and looked around carefully. As expected, there were animal footprints.
And conclusively, there was a small hole in the fence on one side.
“I see. The culprit is a wild animal?”
He swallowed a bitter laugh.
Since it wasn’t a human, it was difficult to assign responsibility.
Still, he had to do something to prevent it from happening again.
Hae-jun immediately covered the hole in the fence with wood and repaired it more sturdily.
He cleaned up the dug-up field and planted new crops. Fortunately, he had materials in stock in the warehouse, so it wasn’t a problem. The only thing he felt was a slight sense of loss from seeing his carefully cultivated crops damaged.
If he had spent months cultivating them like in the real world, the damage would have been considerable.
“I’ll let it go this time. If these guys do it again, I won’t let them off easy.”
.
.
.
The next day.
“Oh, come on…”
Hae-jun muttered as he looked at the dug-up field again.
The creature had dug through the reinforced fence and ruined the field as if it were nothing.
This time too, the crops were a mess. At this rate, he might not have enough ingredients to sell to his customers.
Creak-
“What the heck? Is this happening again?”
Chloe approached him in surprise while he was feeling bewildered.
“Oh.”
“Surely it’s not eating the chickens and goats, is it?”
“Probably not. It seems to be focusing on the fields, so I don’t think it’s a carnivore.”
“Phew. Thank goodness… Oh, no. What am I going to do? All the fields I worked so hard to cultivate are ruined.”
“Let’s endure it just one more time. If it happens again, we’ll have to come up with a plan.”
“A plan?”
Hae-jun nodded, clenching his fists.
‘I’m done being lenient.’
And then, the next day.
The culprits(?) dug up the field again as if to mock Hae-jun’s determination.
“These bastards! This is war.”
Anger flared up inside him.
He vowed revenge.
He would catch the creatures that were ruining his precious fields and make them pay the price.
Hae-jun brought an armful of wood that he had cut down to repair the fence.
Sawing, snip, snip.
Hammering, bang, bang, bang.
“What are you doing?”
[What are you doing?]
Chloe and Pote asked.
“Preparing for war.”
“War?”
[Oh no, who’s attacking our peaceful farm? If there’s a war, we should run away. Hurry, pack your things…]
“It’s not like that.”
[Then what is it?]
“It’s a war against the unidentified animals that are destroying my fields.”
[What are you making?]
“Just wait. You’ll see when it’s finished.”
Hae-jun hammered away silently.
Bang – bang – bang – bang
The sound of his hammer, filled with anger, echoed through the farm.
Several hours passed like that.
“Hehe… It’s finished.”
Hae-jun smiled as he looked at the completed war tool(?).
There was a hint of madness in his eyes.
[What is that? Are you making a new chicken coop? But if the gaps are that wide, the chickens will all escape?]
Pote asked, and Hae-jun shook his head.
What he had made looked like a chicken coop, but it wasn’t a chicken coop. It was a capture trap, not an automatic door-closing system, but a manual capture trap like the ones used to catch chickens.
It was the best device Hae-jun could make with his skills.
“Tonight. I’ll definitely catch them.”
The mysterious attackers took advantage of the night to sneak into the farm, ravage the fields, and leave.
There was more than one set of footprints, and most of them used similar paths to raid the fields.
Hae-jun decided to use that to his advantage. He would set up the capture trap in the path the creatures used to take over the fence and put a lot of bait that they would like inside.
He would wait patiently for the right moment and then, when they appeared, he would catch them all at once!
“What do you think? Will we catch them?”
[Yes!]
Pote’s eyes lit up.
Indeed, he had quite enjoyed catching wild hens and taming them.
Even the wild Mongchi.
“Meow~!!”
“It’s okay. Mongchi. I don’t need your help.”
“Meow~!!”
“Okay, okay. But you have to be quiet. They might notice you.”
“Meow.”
“You too, Pote.”
[Of course.]
The sun set and darkness fell upon the farm.
Hae-jun, who had set up the capture trap, deliberately turned off all the streetlights and went into hiding.
***
The full moon was hidden by the clouds, losing its light.
Darkness descended upon the surroundings.
Rustle, rustle-
Thud, thud, thud-
As he was dozing off, he heard the sound of something digging the ground in the distance.
[Wow, I think they’re here!]
“Shhh.”
[Shhh.]
“Meow.”
He tried his best to suppress his presence.
Sensing something strange, the creatures’ movements stopped for a moment.
And then, not long after, the sound of something digging the ground was heard again.
Hae-jun, who was camouflaged with leaves, kept a close eye on the area where the sound was coming from.
And finally.
‘There!’
The clouds that had been covering the moon cleared, and the mysterious attackers revealed themselves.
‘So it was those guys.’
The mysterious attackers. Their true identities were a herd of black pigs with fur and hooves darker than darkness.
They crawled under the fence very stealthily and walked towards the field.
The capture trap set up in their path, the abundant crops piled up inside it as bait.
It must have been an irresistible temptation for the herd of black pigs.
“Oink, oink.”
The one that seemed to be the leader cautiously inspected the area around the capture trap.
‘Come in…’
Sensing no particular threat, the leader black pig carefully stepped into the capture trap.
Pote looked at Hae-jun as if asking why he wasn’t pulling the rope.
Hae-jun shook his head discreetly. What he was aiming for was a clean sweep. If he missed even one, the creatures would target the fields again. So he had to catch them all at once.
Gulp-
His hands were sweating from the tension.
Hae-jun quietly adjusted his grip on the rope.
Another pig entered the capture trap.
‘Come on in.’
And just as the last black pig entered the capture trap and was enjoying its last supper,
Swish-
The door closed as he pulled the rope hard.
“Yes!”
[We did it!]
“Meow!”
He felt a different kind of thrill and exhilaration from chicken hunting.
“Hoo. I told you I’d make you pay for digging up my farm.”
***
Daylight broke.
“But what are we going to do with these guys?”
Chloe asked, looking at the black pigs trapped in the capture trap.
“Well… I didn’t think that far ahead.”
Catching them and punishing them… That was his initial goal.
Hae-jun hadn’t thought about what to do after that.
“I think they were just hungry, so let’s just release them.”
“If we release them, they’ll just raid the farm again.”
If they were attacked anymore, he wouldn’t have enough food to sell to his customers.
His stock was already running low after several days of attacks.
“What if we feed them?”
“Raise them? Hmm…”
Hae-jun thought for a moment.
They didn’t lay eggs like chickens, and they couldn’t get goat’s milk like goats.
If they were cows, he could use them to plow the fields.
But what could he get from raising pigs…
‘Pork belly?’
Come to think of it, he couldn’t even remember when he had last eaten pork belly.
When he was in the military, he often ate it with his juniors when they went on leave or on overnight stays, but he couldn’t remember ever eating it after he entered the gosiwon.
Thick pork belly sizzling on a griddle, a few pieces picked up with chopsticks and placed on a lettuce leaf, topped with ssamjang, garlic, chili pepper, and pickled scallions, and washed down with a glass of soju.
Gulp-
He swallowed his saliva and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down violently.
He felt sorry for the live pigs, thinking about pork belly, but pork belly with a glass of soju was a human instinct… No, it was the instinct of the Korean people.
But he couldn’t just raise them recklessly.
Even if they grew fat and plump, Hae-jun didn’t have the guts to slaughter a pig.
‘That’s right. There was a pigsty in the village!’
When he was searching every nook and cranny of the village looking for Mia, he accidentally came across a pigsty at the end of an alley. The owner was so fierce-looking that he had just exchanged a brief greeting and left.
He could raise them well and hand them over to the pigsty, or he could ask them to slaughter them and get the meat.
“Okay. Let’s raise them.”
“That’s great.”
Chloe clapped her hands in delight at Hae-jun’s decision.
The remaining problem was where to raise them.
Pigs are animals that cannot be raised in a small space. It is often said that pigs are dirty animals, but this is a misconception caused by raising them in cramped pens and not cleaning them properly. If they are raised in a spacious area with a clean environment, they are very clean animals.
‘That’s the only place, I guess.’
Hae-jun, with the help of his farm family, moved the black pigs to the place he had in mind.
.
.
.
“Wow, how did you think of this place?”
Chloe asked in admiration.
“I thought they would be able to roam around freely and forage here.”
The place Hae-jun had chosen was the grassland to the west.
He asked James to build a fence around part of the grassland and released the herd of black pigs there.
Pigs are omnivores, and he had once seen a documentary about how pigs in Spain’s Iberian Peninsula are raised on acorns.
The western grassland was spacious and rich in acorns, making it an ideal place for the black pigs to live.
They wouldn’t have any reason to invade the fields since there was plenty of food here. If he brought them crops just in case, they would eat them, so he wouldn’t have to worry about attacks anymore.
Just as Hae-jun had expected, the creatures roamed around in a friendly herd, eating the fallen acorns.
Feeling good after their meal, they even rolled around in the mud and took a bath.
“Grow up well.”
“Oink, oink!”
***
Some time later.
In front of the fence of the western grassland, Hae-jun’s face was filled with worry.
‘This is completely out of my calculations?’
The cause of his worry was none other than the black pigs.
It wasn’t because they were raiding the fields.
The problem he was facing this time was their fertility.
“There are already 40 of them.”
As they were released in the grassland where food was abundant, the number of pigs increased exponentially.
From the initial 4 to 8… 16… 32… 40.
40 in just one week.
He couldn’t handle it anymore.
At this rate, the western grassland would be filled with pigs in a few days, and they would start invading the fields again because they were running out of food.
“What are you worrying about? Just eat them.”
James, who had visited the farm to repair the fence, advised Hae-jun, licking his lips.
“Hehe… That guy looks really delicious. If I pickle the hind legs in salt and make ham! Ugh, I can already imagine a glass of wine. Okay. Tonight, it’s ham and wine.”
“That’s the spirit, isn’t it?”
“Of course. They’ll be perfect to eat if we slaughter them now.”
Hae-jun went down to the village and headed straight to the pigsty.
