Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World-Chapter 217: Windy Chaos on the Farm

The crops in the fields had all been harvested, leaving the farm looking barren except for a single patch of vibrant green mutated wheat, which was still strolling around leisurely.

Oh, the lotus leaves in the pond hadn’t withered yet. The surrounding mutated plants also showed no signs of shedding their leaves for autumn. Could this be the difference between mutated and ordinary plants?

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Although the lotus leaves hadn’t withered, the seed pods had grown one after another. They were big and plump, making Kim Haru crave some silver ear lotus seed soup.

Now that he was full and ready to digest his meal, he decided to act on his craving. Grabbing a sickle, he asked Go Okrim to find a long stick that could reach the seed pods, intending to harvest a few for eating.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

While Go Okrim went to look for the stick, Kim Haru checked on the chicken coop and pigpen.

The insulation equipment in both buildings was working fine. The temperature displayed at the entrances was moderate, and inside, the ducks, Little Nugget and Sir Peckington, and the two black pigs in the pigpen were all comfortably settled.

There would be no issues getting through the winter.

While inspecting the chicken coop, Kim Haru didn’t forget to check on the duck eggs.

The eggs were still warm to the touch, showing no signs of hatching yet. Resisting the urge to crack one open to check their progress, Kim Haru carefully put them back in place.

As his hand brushed against the straw used to line the nests, he recalled the pile of straw stored in the granary.

Tomorrow, he decided, he would visit the orchard to ask the orange tree, chestnut tree, and lemon tree if they needed anything to stay warm for the winter.

Kim Haru remembered reading in his previous life about wrapping trees to protect them from the cold. He didn’t have plastic sheeting, but using traditional methods—wrapping the trunks with straw—would work just as well.

Of course, if the fruit trees didn’t need it, he wouldn’t go to the trouble. After all, these weren’t ordinary fruit trees but mutated plants.

"Hyung, how about this one?" Go Okrim returned with a long, thin stick in hand.

Kim Haru glanced at it and didn’t know what to say.

A stick? That was clearly a hardened vine. Did Go Okrim think he didn’t recognize plants? While Kim Haru wasn’t familiar with many, this particular vine was one he had stripped countless times to use as rope. Even with a poor memory, he couldn’t fail to recognize it.

Looking at Go Okrim, who obviously knew exactly what he’d brought, Kim Haru sighed.

Fine, fine. If both parties were willing, so be it. A vine was a vine, but since it had disguised itself as a stick, it could serve as one for now.

"Here, you hook the lotus pod over, and I’ll cut it," Kim Haru said, pointing to a pod not far from the shore and directing Go Okrim.

"I got it!" Go Okrim deftly extended the "stick" to fish for the pod. As soon as it touched the lotus pod, the tip of the "stick" bent into a hook, easily grabbing onto it.

And the lotus pod? Under the subtle manipulation of the inconspicuous mutated lotus, it didn’t resist at all. Instead, it obediently allowed itself to be pulled in front of the sickle and cleanly cut off.

The mutated lotus, seemingly worried that Kim Haru wouldn’t be able to reach the pods farther away, secretly moved them closer to the shore whenever he turned around to place the harvested pods.

To an observer, the interaction between Kim Haru and the lotus pods looked like a game. Every time Kim Haru turned his back, the pods scrambled to move. The moment he turned back, they froze in place as if nothing had happened.

It was immensely entertaining.

As for whether Kim Haru noticed?

Well, at first, he genuinely didn’t. But when all the lotus pods were suddenly within arm’s reach, it was impossible for him not to realize.

"I’ll go peel the lotus pods. You go add some fertilizer to the lotus plants," Kim Haru eventually relented, softening his stance. "And that thing in your hand as well."

...

"Kim Haru-hyung, it’s getting windy!"

Kim Haru was awakened by the noise outside just in time to hear Go Okrim say this.

The wind outside roared ferociously, slamming against the windows like an enraged villain throwing a tantrum and smashing everything in sight.

The wooden cabin provided by the system didn’t look like much, but when it came to stability, it was flawless. In the middle of this raging wind, it stood as firm as a mountain, with not a single corner or edge lifting up.

This gave Kim Haru a false impression of the wind outside. When he pushed open the door, a gust of wind rushed in, nearly knocking him over.

"What’s going on?" Kim Haru stared at the scene in front of him, seriously suspecting that he hadn’t just slept for a day but for an entire month.

The farm’s open space was littered with debris—broken branches and leaves scattered all over. The lotus pod stems he had cut the day before were also lying around, and the lotus pods that had been peeled but not yet processed were rolling across the ground, blown everywhere by the wind.

Some of the lighter items hadn’t even hit the ground yet; they were swirling through the air, caught in the wind.

The sounds Kim Haru had heard while in his bedroom were mostly from these airborne objects colliding with the wooden cabin, as well as the noise of them crashing to the ground only to be swept back into the air by the wind.

Looking at the mess around him, Kim Haru felt like this wind had blown every dead branch and leaf from the nearby forest right into his yard.

Around the small farm, the mutated plants were being tossed around by the gale. The thicker trees held their ground, but the softer vines were in trouble, swaying wildly in the wind like ropes. Kim Haru was worried that at any moment, they might snap.