Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World-Chapter 89: A Harvest of Surprises

Kim Haru was brimming with confidence.

Until, with a soft snap, the basket fell apart in his hands once again.

"...Is this thing really that hard?" He stared dejectedly at the scattered bamboo strips he had been wrestling with, utterly confused.

Why couldn’t he manage to secure it properly? And how was he supposed to transition between the flat base and the cylindrical shape above? Was he supposed to tie it with string? But he hadn’t seen anyone else use string in their baskets, either.

Kim Haru refused to back down and started to wrestle with the bamboo strips again.

He couldn’t believe that he was clumsy with his hands. It seemed so simple—could this be one of those cases where your brain and eyes understand, but your hands just don’t follow?

As the night deepened, Kim Haru finally managed to piece together a basket about half a meter wide.

However, as far as appearance went... it was undeniably ugly.

Kim Haru was disheartened.

Read lat𝙚st chapters at fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓ Only.

He decided to give up.

Opening up his system’s merchant title, he checked on his shop. After two days of renovations, it was almost ready. By tomorrow, it should be fully set up. And conveniently, the second wave of vegetables he had planted would mature by then. After harvesting them, he planned to head to the safe zone the day after.

He’d bring the bamboo strips along as well, to see if he could find someone skilled at basket weaving.

After taking a bath and playing a couple of rounds of a game out of habit, Kim Haru went to sleep.

Before falling asleep, he was already thinking about checking the traps he had set in the mountains tomorrow to see if they had caught anything. If possible, he also wanted to investigate where those wheat seeds had come from.

At ten in the morning, Kim Haru opened his eyes.

He completely missed his breakfast.

Kim Haru who is long accustomed to this kind of schedule, didn’t mind skipping breakfast. He grabbed his gaming console and while still lying in bed, he played a game for couple of rounds.

Unfortunately, he could only play in single-player mode. He hadn’t played any of the games in this world before, so it was a novel experience. It would be great if they could eventually connect to the internet. He wondered if the people of this post-apocalyptse world had any plans to restore the network.

After finishing the games, he was fully awake.

Kim Haru got up, washed up, and headed outside. Sure enough, the vegetable patch on the left side was fully matured, while the wheat on the right had sprouted some new shoots.

However, the wheat wasn’t growing as uniformly as the vegetables on the other side. Kim Haru wasn’t sure whether this was because the fertilizer wasn’t from the system, or because the seeds weren’t the one provided by system.

He could clearly see that out of the ten wheat plants, one was noticeably taller and darker green than the others. The remaining nine were growing at a similar pace, with the tips just about half a finger’s length above the soil.

Compared to the cabbages, soybeans, and potatoes that matured in three days, the growth rate of the wheat was noticeably slower.

Kim Haru reached out to touch one of the wheat plants and opened the system interface.

It displayed the current growth status of the wheat plant he was holding and the estimated number of days until maturity.

This was one of the system features Kim Haru had discovered earlier: as long as he touched a plant, he could use the system to check its basic status. This greatly eased his worries about not knowing how to farm.

After all, he knew that the growth process of crops wasn’t always smooth. There could be diseases or pests, and he wasn’t a professional. Without this system’s inspection feature, he would have had no choice but to let the plants die if something went wrong.

The wheat plant in his hand was shown to be in good condition, with an estimated time to maturity of 100 days.

This surprised Kim Haru a bit.

He had previously speculated that the cabbage, potatoes, and soybeans—being from the system’s starter seed package—were likely to have an unnaturally fast, three-day maturity period, a special perk for beginners. And now it seemed his assumption was correct. Judging by the second batch of crops, it seemed likely that only the cabbages, potatoes, and soybeans matured in three days.

As for other seeds, Kim Haru had already guessed they might grow at a normal crop pace.

But now, it seemed there might still be some differences.

Kim Haru was familiar with wheat as a plant. It generally came in two varieties: spring wheat and winter wheat, planted in the spring and fall, respectively. Spring wheat had a growth cycle of about 100 days, while winter wheat that was planted in the fall, usually took around 300 days to mature.

Since it was already winter, Kim Haru had expected the system to show a growth cycle of 300 days for his wheat. However, to his surprise, it displayed only 100 days, the same as spring wheat.

He wasn’t sure whether this change was due to the system, the nature of this world, or perhaps the effects of the apocalypse on the plants.

The data he had was too limited, so he couldn’t draw any accurate conclusions.

But regardless of the reason, this result wasn’t bad for Kim Haru.

He used the system to inspect each wheat plant one by one. The first nine plants were similar to the first one he touched: in good condition, with a growth cycle of around 100 days. That was until he reached the last plant.

The final wheat plant, the one that had grown noticeably taller, had a description in the system interface that read.

...

[ Wheat ]

[ Growth Status ]: Excellent

[ Maturity Date ]: ???

...

What’s with the question marks?

Kim Haru tried clicking on the question marks, hoping for a more detailed explanation, but nothing happened.

After two attempts, he gave up.