The SSS+ Rank Hunter Who Farms

9. Game Master Cheat Map

Resources are extremely important in this world.

Wars have even broken out over resources.

A country covered entirely in deserts can become enormously wealthy with just oil, and the discovery of natural gas can lead to the invention of new energy sources.

The development of civilization has always been accompanied by resources.

How much of the Earth's finite resources each nation possesses can, in a way, be considered a measure of that nation's power.

In that sense, the United States has so many different resources that there's a running joke about it being a ‘game master cheat map.’

Even in modern times, when people say there's nothing left to mine, new resources and new energy sources keep appearing as if on cue.

The same was true in the new world known as the Hunter society.

- Why are there so many resource dungeons in the U.S.?

- Well, for starters, it's got a lot of land.

- By that logic, China should be number one.

- Because it's a game master cheat map...

- For real, lol. There's a reason America is America.

Since neither Hunters nor dungeons could be explained by modern civilization, there was no clear answer to the question, ‘Why only in the U.S.?’ However, several theories did emerge.

First, the U.S. had many powerful Hunters.

With its large population and the benefits of being a superpower, the country attracted Hunters from other nations. Additionally, it leveraged its formidable military to aggressively tackle dungeons.

The sheer size of its land meant it had a high absolute number of dungeons, and because it frequently raided high-ranking dungeons compared to other countries, more resource-rich dungeons emerged there as well. This was currently the most plausible theory.

Of course, plausible didn’t mean certain.

Even though India and China, which had the largest populations in the world, were following closely behind, the U.S. still remained the top resource-rich country.

"And yet, even the United States was experiencing a shortage of dungeon resources, leading it to rely on imports. Meanwhile, the prices of these resources, now called 'new dungeon energy,' were skyrocketing globally.

To the point where people were saying that, in today's world, investing in dungeon-related resource stocks blindly made more money than having a regular job.

In other words, dungeon resources equaled profit.

However, even dungeons didn't yield abundant resources.

On my Secret Farming Map, however, the quantity was so vast that it was classified as immeasurable.

"This changes things."

When I first saw that the login-logout cooldown was seven days, I didn’t think much of it.

A game where logging in and out takes seven days each time?

Might as well not play it.

If a game is frustrating, it's only natural to quit.

I was already on the fence about continuing even if I got my original map back, so I figured it was a good excuse to let it go.

But now that I had found a reason to return to the Secret Farming Map, I had to reassess my stance on the login-logout issue.

"I need to reduce the cooldown."

Going in once and only coming out every seven days wasn’t necessarily a huge problem.

I still didn’t know how many points it would take to level up.

However, I was certain that being able to move back and forth frequently would be beneficial.

Right now, the best I could bring out were D-rank wood, rocks, and weeds, so it didn’t matter much. But I’d soon be able to gather at least C- or B-rank resources.

I needed to gather enough farming points to unlock a few active skills or abilities and start mining sellable resources—then, I could invest in making the login-logout process more convenient.

With that decision made, I felt like every moment was too precious to waste.

"Dungeons aren’t what’s important."

Who cares about being an SSS+ rank Hunter or whatever? If I had a mountain of resources sitting in my backyard, there was no point in wasting time hunting for mere scraps.

I was about to log in immediately but hesitated.

"…Still, it’s seven days."

Being hasty was fine, but when encountering a new system, it was always best to go over everything carefully, step by step.

More than anything, I had never imagined I’d be in a situation like this. But now, I was in a position to turn all the ‘what-ifs’ I had once imagined into reality.

Back in the golden days of Farming World—though ‘golden days’ might be a stretch since they were so brief—the Farming World Community was full of discussions like this.

- Ah... I really want to have a barbecue party in Farming World.

- Then just do it.

- I can grill meat and eat it with veggies wrapped in leaves, but there's no ramen.

- For real, lol. What's the point of setting up a nice campsite-like base if we don't even have ramen?"

- Won't they patch it? It'd be nice if they let us buy modern food.

- I'd pay a high price for it, no question.

- Now that you mention it, ramen does sound good.

It wasn’t like they wanted some grand feast.

Players who worked hard to build up their bases just to immerse themselves in Farming World's unique healing atmosphere would spend their nights gazing at the countless stars in the sky, enjoying the untouched nature—only to find themselves craving modern food.

And now, I had become the first person who could actually make that a reality.

I immediately stepped out of my room.

I opened the pantry and pulled out a small pink carry-on suitcase.

Then, I started stuffing it with snacks, ramen, and cup noodles from the kitchen and pantry.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking these to eat in the dungeon."

I mean, whether it was a dungeon or the secret map, it was all the same in the end.

After packing the suitcase full of snacks and dragging it out, my sister finally noticed and freaked out.

"Ah! What the hell! Why are you messing with my suitcase?"

"I’ll use it well and bring it back."

"Ah, screw off! Give it back! Do you wanna die?!"

Back in the day, I would’ve lost against this little brat.

She might look like that, but she had awakened to at least D- or C-rank and was running dungeons as a Hunter.

But now, I am an SSS+ rank hunter with Strength as my main stat.

"Eek! What the hell?!"

I easily subdued her by pressing my finger against her forehead.

"What the hell, you?!"

Ignoring her, I walked into my room, locked the door, and called out.

"Login."

[Logging into Secret Farming Map.]

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It wasn’t a dream.

A shabby hut, and a yard in front of the slightly open door.

The small vegetable patch wasn’t even at the level of a garden tended by elderly folks in front of their homes—it was just there to barely clear the tutorial. Calling it the work of a ten-year veteran of Farming World would have been embarrassing.

Inside the wooden crate, a new addition had appeared—Big Rats’ meat.

"First, let’s put some of this in the icebox."

I couldn’t just bring anything and everything from reality into this place.

Would it even work? Testing it out, I carried some items in my hands, while others were placed in the two remaining slots on my belt, usually reserved for bread and water.

The ones in my hands had vanished.

Only the items stored in my belt inventory had survived the transfer.

I wasn’t sure if the missing items had remained in reality or simply disappeared, but at least the carry-on suitcase full of food had successfully transferred into my inventory.

So had the icebox.

I opened the icebox and stored the meat inside.

Even though the icebox was quite large, the Big Rats’ meat was massive—barely half of it fit inside.

Until I gathered enough resources to craft a refrigerator, the only option for handling perishable meats was to eat them quickly. It was a hassle.

Of course, in the early stages, there usually wasn’t enough breathing room to worry about stockpiling meat with an expiration date, so in a way, it was a luxury problem.

Well, I’d just have to keep eating it consistently.

And along the way, I was learning more about how things worked.

"As expected, inventory stacks are based on packaging units."

This was a well-known mechanic from the original Farming World.

If you stored multiple items inside an item pouch and then placed that pouch inside another inventory, it would count as one inventory slot.

For example, if you filled a five-slot item pouch with wood, stone, and other resources, and then placed that pouch in your inventory, it wouldn’t take up five slots—it would only occupy one slot.

Whether this applied to real-world objects was something only my experiments could confirm.

And it turned out it did.

Even something without built-in item storage, like my carry-on suitcase, was treated as a single inventory slot—allowing me to store dozens of food items inside it and bring them all here in just one belt slot.

Efficient.

This also meant I could apply the same trick in reverse—when carrying materials back to reality, I could organize them into seven-slot storage pouches while keeping some slots reserved for weapons. It was a useful inventory management strategy.

"For now, let’s just place the snacks and ramen here."

The basic hut came with a tiny sink and a shelf, like something you’d find in a 7-pyeong studio apartment.

It seemed like the game wanted players to cook for themselves, at least.

Now, those shelves were completely filled with snacks and ramen.

I’d also brought a bunch of seasonings.

Sure, you could grow crops or buy spices from in-game towns, but why bother when bringing them from reality was way cheaper?

Even though my mansion was gone, my heart felt more secure than ever.

"Man, this is amazing."

When I was a kid,

I used to build a bunker by hanging blankets over the tiny balcony in my room.

I’d secretly stash snacks in the closet, filling it little by little.

Late at night, I’d hide under the covers, reading fantasy novels borrowed from the bookstore, enjoying those stolen moments of freedom.

But this?

This wasn’t some makeshift bunker.

This was a real, perfect, private world—a space where only I could enter.

And all it took to give me that feeling was some ramen, a few snacks, and an icebox full of food.

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(T/N): 7-pyeong studio apartment - refers to a small studio apartment with a size of 7 pyeong. In South Korea, pyeong (평) is a traditional unit of area measurement, where 1 pyeong is approximately 3.3 square meters or 35.6 square feet. So, a 7-pyeong studio apartment would be about 23.1 square meters or 248.2 square feet.