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The giant apple Nyx had bitten turned out to be a person. Despite the bite, he still helped the weary travelers.
"So are you lost? I can guide you to Crop City. Co!"
He led Maria and her family to a large city filled with Vegetable and Fruit people.
They were all really cute and funny-looking. They sold other fruits and vegetables they fard or hunted themselves.
Players of all shapes and sizes ca here to buy their produce at very reasonable prices. These were perhaps the highest-quality goods available, so Maria made her purchases as well.
She ended up spending over a million system points on hundreds of kilograms of vegetables and fruits of every kind, sending them into her Soul Realm both to eat and to plant.
The best part was that these crops brimd with spiritual energy and mana. Eating them helped restore those energies or even increase them over ti.
"It’s a peaceful town in here. I’m grateful you purchased so many veggies and fruits!" Appletun said. "Co again any ti!"
"Sure!" Maria replied. "Hmm, wait—is there a God here?"
"Gods?" Appletun wondered. "Everyone believes in the Legendary Farr, who breathed life into his vegetables and fruits. But nobody has ever seen him, so it’s just a legend."
"Legendary Farr, huh?" Maria mused. "Have you been attacked by any faction recently?"
"No, not that we recall!" Appletun answered. "It’s all good in here... maybe the factions aren’t interested in eating their veggies, hahaha!"
"They’re all focused on extracting resources for quick power. Sothing like eating a healthy diet isn’t a fast path to growing stronger, I guess," Maria reflected. "Anyway, thank you for everything, Appletun!"
"See ya!" Appletun waved his hand and walked back toward town.
As Maria and her family chatted on their way to the portal, she glanced upward, sensing a very strong presence.
She had asked about gods because of the powerful aura lingering in the sky above.
"The Legendary Farr, huh?" Maria wondered. "A god of harvest, I assu... but it exudes so much Spirit Energy. Okay, I’ll go check on him."
Maria nodded, telling her family to wait as she shot into the skies and vanished amid the clouds.
Rising high above, she scanned the beautiful expanse.
She noticed sothing remarkable.
Above the endless clouds, giant crops grew everywhere.
Soone was using the clouds as soil and cultivating fields here.
"Woah..."
The sight stretched for hundreds of kiloters.
Maria followed the energy signature and finally found him.
"Another day, another nice yield! Co on, little guys, you’re all free."
It was a scarecrow dressed in farr clothes, smiling warmly as dozens of little fruits and vegetables leaped from the sky, transforming into spirits of the world.
He radiated a rich aura of spiritual and divine energy, yet Maria couldn’t quite determine if he was a God of Harvest or a Spirit of Nature.
Or perhaps he was neither.
"Hey, nice farm you’ve got here."
"Haha, thanks, I have worked hard in—WOAH?!"
The scarecrow gasped and tumbled to the ground as he stared at Maria.
His size was enormous—around fifty ters tall—and the crops he grew were equally massive.
"Sorry for scaring you. I was just checking around the place," Maria said with a smile. "You’re the God of this world? It’s nice! I like the na, Verdelore."
"Y-You’re the first Player who has ever visited ... How were you able to pierce through my barrier?" he asked in astonishnt.
"What?" Maria tilted her head. "Wait, there was a barrier? I’m so sorry. I should have knocked at least."
"Are you mocking ...?" the farr sighed.
"Not at all!" Maria insisted. "Sorry, I really didn’t see it..."
"You’re really strong... What is this scary aura?" The farr looked worried. "W-What do you want from ? I am just minding my own business here. I worked hard to create the world of my dreams after I escaped my original world being destroyed, you know?"
"Oh, I see... So you’re from that world of Spirits?" Maria asked.
"Hm?! How did you...!" He was shocked.
"I see, it makes sense now! You’re a spirit!" Maria said.
"What? No," the scarecrow replied, shaking his head. "I used to be a scarecrow in a farm hundreds of thousands of years ago... Over ti I gained a spiritual soul by watching the crops and helping my owner. Haha, good tis. I scared him a lot back then and he almost burned . Since then I helped him every day... Eventually I traveled the world planting his crops to honor his passing, feeding the poor. Over ti I sohow gained a lot of power for so reason... and when the world exploded, I was able to escape with my little Spirit Realm. But I’ve grown it into quite the big field, huh?"
"I see... How amazing. By feeding the poor for so many years, you gained Faith from thousands, perhaps millions of people," Maria said. "Eventually all that Faith turned you into so kind of God."
"So that’s how it worked..." the Farr sighed. "I always wished I could go back and save so people. I was unable to save a single person. It all happened so fast, and when the world began to collapse, an explosion sent flying into the void. I worked on my little spirit land for many years until it grew this big, and then the tower appeared... again."
"And like before, it could also get eaten again..." Maria said.
"Eaten?" he asked.
"Let tell you the truth about the tower." Maria touched his large head and transferred the knowledge.
"What?!" he gasped. "No... my beautiful field! Is it going to get all eaten one day?! I’ve seen the Calamities too, but I take care of them! But this is... I always share my food. People from many worlds can co and take anything they want, as long as they don’t eat the people... but my whole world...! Then what else would I have left?"
"That’s it, Farr," Maria said gently. "Nothing... It’s an endless cycle. No matter how we try to run and create new worlds, the tower will find us one day and devour everything."
"..."
The Farr fell silent for a long mont, sighing deeply as he sat down.
"Can I do sothing to help you?"
"Just counting on you when the ti cos is enough."
"Counting on ... how?"
"One day, not too far from now, we’ll fight the Tower Master and the Administrators, and then I will destroy the tower," Maria explained. "I have a plan... and I’ll need your cooperation for when that happens. It’s a plan just in case what I think might happen... doesn’t happen."
"I see you’ve planned a lot," he said. "Even in the worst-case scenario?"
"Yes." Maria looked up into the skies. "So what do you say?"
"Okay... I’m in. Despite your dark aura, you are a kindhearted person," the Farr said with a warm smile. "I have the power to see through people’s hearts and detect their true intentions, to know when they lie... but you are an honest person. You’ve gone through so much suffering and pain, yet... you’re still a good person, despite everything."
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