The SSS+ Rank Hunter Who Farms

14: Underground Lottery

Was Farming World ever a mainstream game?

If asked, I’d have to say no.

Still, back in the early days of Hunters and Dungeons—when virtual reality became the trend and everyone was shouting about Sword Art Online—the gaming world was in a chaotic, three-way battle.

RPGs, MOBAs, and FPS games fought fiercely for dominance, constantly shifting in rankings. Any well-designed game could gain immense popularity, drawing in players of different tastes.

Virtual reality only amplified their appeal.

RPGs evolved from simple keyboard-clicking raids to physically fighting colossal monsters. Players could explore worlds firsthand, upgrade their characters, customize gear, and escape reality. With every new boss, world-first kill events turned into national competitions, drawing billions of viewers. RPG lovers saw it as proof that the genre was immortal.

As for MOBAs? Even in the PC era, League of Legends had dominated the number-one spot for over a decade. With just their fingers, players could earn the title of ‘pro,’ securing million-dollar salaries, even reaching the hundreds of millions.

The rise of e-sports turned gaming into a legitimate profession. When MOBAs transitioned to virtual reality, failure wasn’t an option. Even then, RPGs occasionally stole the spotlight during world-first kill events. Still, MOBAs remained the undisputed king of e-sports. If anything, their popularity only grew.

FPS games, on the other hand, never quite reached the same heights as RPGs or MOBAs. Gunplay, while fun, had its limitations compared to the strategic depth of the other two genres. However, Battle Royale-style FPS games secured a firm foothold, serving as a reliable secondary game for RPG and MOBA players. FPS games also hosted global tournaments and even managed to claim the number-one spot—just once.

Beyond these three, other niche PC game genres gained unexpected popularity when combined with virtual reality. Zombie apocalypse games, for instance. And in a way, Farming World followed a similar path.

When players could experience realism firsthand, even minor genres gained mainstream appeal. Perhaps that’s why, for a fleeting moment, Farming World claimed the number-one spot at launch.

Not because it was a farming game.

It succeeded because, despite its open-world farming focus, it embedded strong, flavorful RPG elements. One of those elements was this lottery farming system.

A jackpot could be hiding anywhere.

The entire game world served as a vast farming zone, teeming with resources. The potential was limitless. Of course, Resource Rarity was capped based on the map’s grade. And yes, breaking through that limit was an extremely low-probability event.

But the chance still existed. It wasn’t just about Resource Rarity.

Even the most basic materials—the ones nobody paid attention to—could, with a stroke of luck, turn into something valuable. That was the lottery system.

Players called it the underground lottery.

To be precise, it wasn’t underground but rather a lottery on the street.

The probability itself was extremely low.

It might as well not exist.

0.001%.

Seeds dropping from weeds or trees were a rare reward.

1% probability.

Ore dropping from any random rock was the same.

What triggered at 0.001% was a hero reward.

This hero reward yielded a resource that was one tier higher than what was being farmed.

And it was quite a good one.

[Glass Stone]

- Rank: C+

- A gemstone naturally processed by absorbing nothing but moonlight for 1,000 days, making it excellent at absorbing mana.

- When crafted into an accessory and worn, it increases the effect of mana-consuming skills by 20%.

There were so many different resources in Farming World that it was hard to memorize them all.

Considering that all of these also existed in dungeons, even if a hero reward dropped, it was still a matter of luck.

But the Glass Stone I picked up was a jackpot.

"Isn't this auction-worthy?"

A useless bum who wasted ten years playing Farming World wouldn’t know the real-world market prices of resources.

However, rare resources from Farming World were valuable in reality as well, and it was common in the Farming World community for people to calculate the real-world price of rare resources they farmed, as if they had actually earned that money. That’s how I picked up this knowledge.

That’s also where I learned about Healing Herb.

The information might be outdated by a few years, so the prices might have changed…

The same went for Glass Stone.

My memory was a bit hazy since it was old information, but I was pretty sure I saw someone say that if you got a Glass Stone, you should immediately put it up for auction.

Even just looking at its options, it was good.

An accessory option that hunters—especially damage dealers—went crazy for.

Particularly for mages, whose growth depended on money, having a ring made of Glass Stone was enough to determine their rank.

"This is huge."

Even outside of hunters, Glass Stone was a pretty rare gemstone in Farming World.

"Should I use it?"

The reason I was still so indifferent was that I didn’t have any active skills that used mana yet.

My passive skills were already enough for now.

"I’ll just take it with me for now."

Whether I sold it or used it myself, It wasn’t something I worked hard hunting for. I just picked it up while walking.

"Congratulations, Master!"

"Yeah, yeah."

"If you process it, it’ll definitely be useful!"

"I’m debating whether to sell it or not."

"Huh?"

When I voiced my dilemma, Lulu had a meltdown.

"No, Master! You have to use this to grow stronger! Farming is important, but even if you have a farm, you can’t easily get something like Glass Stone!"

Saying it was just C-rank didn't change the fact that gemstones were hard to obtain.

Especially a C+ Glass Stone—if its stats were slightly higher, it could even be A-rank or S-rank.

I made Lulu’s frustration even worse.

"What are you talking about? I’m not selling it in Farming World. I’m taking it to sell for cash."

"...Huh? In your world, Master?"

"Yeah."

"...Maaasteeerrr!!!"

Lulu freaking out wasn’t anything new.

"Even if you sold it for Rift Dimension currency, that would make sense, but selling it for mere lower-dimension money? This is absurd!"

"People on Earth trade like this all the time. Glass Stone here isn’t any different from Glass Stone on Earth, is it?"

"..."

Of course, if I thought about the future, Lulu was right.

Something that couldn’t be bought with money, I wasn’t even considering keeping—I was planning to sell it? And for mere paper money that was nothing more than kindling in Farming World?

But Earth was also my reality.

"The cup noodles and snacks you happily stuffed your face with yesterday? You needed Earth money to buy those."

"...Hng..."

More importantly, I could always get another one.

"If I need another, I can just make more money and buy one from Earth again, right?"

It was hard to obtain, but not impossible.

Sure, I’d need a lot of money, but Farming World’s Resource Rarity was SSS and its Deposits volume was SSS+ level. The fact that I had picked up a Glass Stone just walking down the road filled me with confidence.

Leaving Lulu pouting and mumbling to herself, I looked at the setting sun and headed home.

Judging by the situation, it seemed like it would still take a few more days to reach the village.

Anyway, I had until my logout cooldown to gather Healing Herbs, the Glass Stone, and anything else worth taking. There was no need to rush.

"Oh, right."

After returning home, I washed up and lay down on my bed. Then, I reopened the Farming Window to figure out something that had been bothering me while I was cleaning up the yard earlier.

"This server configuration seems a bit weird."

No matter how I thought about it, something felt off.

At first, I assumed it was natural. This map had an SSS+ Resource Deposits ranking, so it made sense that more resources would drop compared to regular maps.

But it wasn’t just the sheer amount of resources dropping—rare rewards seemed to be dropping at a noticeably higher rate.

Well, the probability was still a probability. If a ton of resources dropped, then naturally, the 1% chance for rare drops would trigger more often, since the drop table was rolling more times.

Even taking that into account, it still felt like the drop rates were too good.

That hero reward I got today, for example.

Compared to the total amount of basic resources I gathered while cleaning the yard, it should have been an incredibly low probability.

So, on the third night, I finally checked something that had been too obvious for me to question before.

"Map information."

A window opened, kindly displaying details about what kind of map this dimension was.

[Secret Farming Map]

- Rank: SSS+

- Active Map Effects:

   1. [Lv1] All crop growth speed +50%

   2. [Lv1] Rare/Heroic reward drop rate +500%

   3. [Lv1] 3% chance to upgrade crop rank upon harvest

   4. [Lv1] Experience gain +100%

I suddenly felt embarrassed for being so excited about picking up a ‘lottery ticket’ on the street.

This map itself was the real lottery.