Season 4: Chapter 101. Physical Education vs. Economics (3)

“

Haa... ha...

”

Breathing heavily, Zelo and ChocoShroom finally made it out of the mines.

“Mr. Zelo, are you alright?”

“Yes, yes... I’m fine. They won’t be chasing us anymore, right?”

“Yup~ they stopped a while back.” ChocoShroom gave him a big thumbs-up.

They had completely shaken off their pursuers.

“

Whew.

Well then...” Zelo grinned. “Shall we take a look at our inventory?”

They had crammed their inventories full of iron ore.

“I’ve got ninety-three.”

“I’ve got eighty-seven.”

— Kya

— Insane

— This is gonna make bank

— Oho

“With this much, we could make six full sets of iron armor?”

“Wow, you’re right! We’ll be rich in no time! Mr. Zelo, what will you do when you’re rich?”

“Me? I’ll buy some land, build a house, farm during the day, light a campfire at night, and share jokes with people. That’s the life I want.”

— Kya

— That’s the life...

— When I’m rich, I’ll confess to her!

— lol love it

With their dreams swelling, they made their way toward the village.

Zelo suddenly asked, “By the way, ChocoShroom, the price for iron ore hasn’t really been set yet, right?”

“That’s right... I don’t think people are in desperate need of it yet.”

Selling now wouldn’t get them the full value.

“No, you have to sell when people need it. That’s when it becomes real money.”

“

Uh...

really? Can’t we just sell now and later too?”

“If you sell later, it’ll be harder to raise the price. You know why black bean noodles are cheaper than pasta? They take more skill to make, but they’re half the price of pasta!”

“Oh... you’re right.”

— True

— Say what you want, Zelo-sama speaks facts

— A true patriotic youth lol

— It’s actually true tho

“What I’m saying is, we need branding. We need people to recognize its value first.”

“Then... what do we do?”

“Let’s take a break for a while.”

“Huh?”

Zelo had heard through the server chat how Almond had sent the price of Fertile Soil skyrocketing by hoarding every bit of it and disappearing.

“We’ve been up all night, I’m tired anyway. When we come back, people will be sick of the monsters and desperate to buy iron.”

“Ah!” Choco Shroom clapped excitedly.

“Wow. That’s genius. Let’s do that!”

— ChocoShroom is so cute lol

— She really plays along lol

— Logging out is genius?

— Why does Zelo look embarrassed? lol

The two of them logged out, unaware of the waves their decision would cause.

***

[Zelo has logged out.]

[ChocoShroom has logged out.]

“

Kyaaaaaaah!

”

Thud.

Miho collapsed to the ground. “P-Potatoes... my potatoes!!”

[Potato] [▼100%]

Potatoes had completely crashed.

Sweet Radish felt as shocked as Miho.

‘Is this even possible?’

A drop made sense. Prices fell when supply exceeded demand, and prices rose when demand exceeded supply. It was the basics of market law, but the early economy in Cheese Village differed from a real economy because most buyers were AI.

Real players, such as chefs and ranchers, also bought produce, but the majority of demand was driven by AI. And AI followed predictable movement ranges.

‘How did it get delisted?’

Even in extreme swings, prices would only move within a thirty percent range. The AI couldn’t have been responsible for a 100% collapse.

‘Whatever it was, lucky break for me.’

“

Whew.

” Sweet Radish exhaled in relief.

He had nothing to do with potatoes anyway. His eyes shifted to their crops.

[Tomato] [△21%]

[Chili Pepper] [△42%]

Both had increased significantly.

‘Nice, we got lucky.’

The mole raid had hurt them, but the prices were still in their favor.

[Corn] [▲280%]

One number stood out. Corn had massively surged.

‘What’s this now?’

Another rare spike had occurred because of the chefs.

“No corn?!”

“I’ll pay more for corn! Corn!”

To be precise, most of these aspiring chefs were still jobless in the game. To get the Chef class, they first had to clear a quest.

==== ====

[Job Quest]

Raise your Corn Porridge proficiency to 100%!

==== ====

Corn porridge required a huge amount of corn, and most players were still at around 12% proficiency.

[Pickle: No corn?]

[GreenTea: Where’s all the corn? Why are there so many chef wannabes? Let’s chill?]

[CutiePie: I’m going chef too hehe]

[GreenTea: Oh, hehe, idols are always welcome ^^7]

[BlackTea: ...]

[GreenTea: ?]

Many aspiring farmers had pivoted to becoming chefs after discovering negative status effects like

[Boredom]

and

[Nausea]

. Players wanted new dishes.

[CutiePie: Oh, but I already bought all my corn >_< teehee]

— LOL

— Kya

— This is K-popcorn

— Idol-level tea-bagging lol

Apparently, CutiePie had pre-bought her corn supply.

[Pickle: Oh...]

[GreenTea: Ah... you get a pass because you’re an idol...]

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

[BlackTea: Wow, seriously lol]

The rest of the aspiring chefs found it increasingly harder to procure corn. Thus, the price spiked.

[Corn] [▲280%]

“

Gulp.

” Sweet Radish swallowed dryly and looked at Almond, who discreetly gave him a thumbs-up.

“

Ahem.

Then, shall we sell?”

“Go ahead.”

Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato opened their inventories and unloaded their crops.

Thunk. Thunk.

“They’re selling.”

“This is the power of All Black?”

“How much will it be?”

All eyes focused on them, including the Nonghyup members. Everyone knew they had Fertile Soil.

Thunk...

The verdict came in after they finished.

“Not much for All Black.”

“Yeah.”

They found it hard to believe that three people with Fertile Soil only produced three boxes. Even with regular soil, one could fill at least a box with decent land.

“Did the raid hit them that hard?”

Indeed, the tomatoes and peppers had taken direct damage from the mole strikes, which wiped out most of the yield.

Donuts approached Almond. “Oh my, are you alright?”

“Huh? Hello.” Almond finally noticed him and greeted him.

— Mr. Donuts

— Welcome, Donuts

— The wise teacher appears

— Does this guy just stare at charts all day? lol

Since no one knew what Donuts had pulled off earlier, they still remained friendly toward him.

“Thanks to you, we fended off the disaster yesterday.”

“Fended off?” Donuts glanced at the few boxes and tilted his head.

“Oh, not over there... I saved most of what I planted myself.”

Donuts assumed that meant potatoes. The rest of their crops had been destroyed, and the only thing left were the now-delisted potatoes.

“Ah... oh dear...” Feigning sympathy, Donuts seized the moment to make an offer. “Don’t sell today. Store it in our warehouse.”

His real big picture goal was to lure Sweet Radish and Almond’s faction into Nonghyup. He’d collect storage fees, build a bigger warehouse, and expand his influence.

“Warehouse?”

“Right, I have a refrigerated warehouse. You can store it there for a whole week. The quality might drop by a grade, but that’s still better than selling at today’s price. Normally, crops lose a lot of value if you don’t sell them the same day.”

“Oh. That does sound good.”

With a warehouse, the crops would be less affected by market fluctuations.

“We use it jointly in the Nonghyup, so the price is...”

“But I’ll just sell mine now.”

— Ah, not buying lol

— He thinks it’s potatoes hahaha

— Oh my god, he still thinks it’s potatoes

— It’s corn, sir

“Y-You’re selling? At this price? Oh no! What a reckless decision!”

“Thank you for congratulating me.”

Donuts’s face twisted in confusion.

— ??

— ?

— What’s happening?

His viewers felt just as baffled. None of them had seen this coming.

Thump.

The writing on the box Almond set down was the last thing they expected to see.

[Corn]

“Corn...?”

The word left Donuts’s mouth like his soul had been drained away. Murmurs spread through the market.

“Wait... it was corn? Not potatoes?”

“What the hell?”

“How did this happen?”

“A... a perfect magic trick...”

Everyone was shocked, but no one more than Donuts, who was responsible for this entire situation.

“C-Corn, huh?

Haha

, diversifying your crops is always good! Never put all your eggs in one basket!”

He clung to the belief that corn was just one of several crops Almond had planted. That belief didn’t last long.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

With every box Almond pulled out, the truth became harder to deny.

[Corn]

[Corn]

[Corn]

...

Every single box was corn. Almond had put all his eggs in one basket overflowing with corn. Murmuring from the Nonghyup side grew louder, almost to the level of cheers, but they weren’t cheers. They were screams.

“All Yellow?!”

“What the hell is this?!”

The real cheers came from elsewhere.

“

Waaaaah!

Corn!!!”

The chefs, desperate to buy corn at any price to progress their jobs, couldn’t hold back their excitement at the sudden flood of supply.

“Shopkeeper! We’ll sell all of this!”

The sheer volume of corn was staggering.

Bang. Bang. Bang...!

And still, more boxes kept coming.

“Here, and here, and here too.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Donuts could only watch like a man whose spirit had left his body. “How... how much is this worth?”

Someone answered for him on Almond’s stream.

[Nutz has donated 20,000 won.]

[Chikicha~]

That was as good as naming the corn’s price.

— Kya

— LMAO

— Holy crap

— Wait, it’s not potatoes???

— I thought it was potatoes too

— It’s like we’ve all been hypnotized lol

— Perfect magic trick hahahaha

— Korean PE high school grad >>>>> US Ivy League economics

— What’s the point of an Ivy League econ degree if you get wrecked by a high school grad lol

— Bet they’ve never seen a guy plant corn and convince himself it’s potatoes at the Ivy League