Defensive Gardening (6)

"Hey Frosty! Can we get another drink here? Oney says her eye is hurtin because of the rain. And she says not to skimp out on the liquor!"

"Only if you can pay for it!"

"Of course! Do I look like a mooch?"

Clock, the homeless man with arms of two different lengths spread apart his trench coat, displaying the canned food neatly stacked inside while the bald woman with one eye sitting next to him nodded enthusiastically.

"Where the hell were you hiding that?"

"Fufufu, that's for me to know and you to find out Frosty. You're 50 years too early to pat me down. I've got all sorts of hiding places in this old body of mine! Even in prison, they weren't able to strip me of my goods, and I was butt naked." Clock laughed raucously

"Old man….sometimes sharing is not caring. Try to have some dignity." Cyril looked at him with a thoroughly disgusted expression. When some of the people caught on, they began jeering at him and teasing him.

"No! Wait! That's not what I meant!"

"Sure, sure."

"You have to believe me, Frosty!"

"The snowman? He melted last summer. My name is Cyril!"

"Nah, the new one. Jack. Real pale, skinny boy. You look like you could be twins."

Cyril: ಠ_ಠ

"Get wrecked."

He immediately flipped off the speaker, causing the room to burst out in laughter.

The dining area had become rowdy, as more than 100 people sat eating and drinking after coming in from the red rain, which was spreading and dissolving things in a manner nobody could figure out. 

Sometimes, it dissolved people, buildings, clothing, or nothing at all. It seemed to be playing Russian roulette.

The people here came after word spread that he was delivering food. Others came when they saw his modest two-story building glowing with electricity and standing firm despite other buildings breaking down or dissolving. 

Once they traded food, items, or information, they were let inside.

Quite a lot of people didn't want to enter and just wanted to stay on the land that wasn't being affected by the rain, to which Cyril had told them no and that if they stayed, they would die. He planned on remodeling later and didn't want to be concerned about people.

Of course, they ignored his request.

He could sense quite a lot of people still staying on the waystation land, although everybody gave the lake a wide berth. Apparently, they had heard about the snake.

"Hey Frosty! More water!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."

The dining area continued being rowdy as more people came, and Cyril expanded it, adding more tables.

Normally, there would be issues with that many people gathered in one small place, but…..

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

A deep growl sounded out, causing the floors and walls to vibrate and the room became silent as everybody turned to the culprit.

A large jet-black wolf with baleful yellow eyes stood up slowly, its head brushing against the high ceiling as it stared at the people, grabbing at the young man dressed in all-white clothes with a small rainbow feather necklace encased in a glass marble.

Still growling, the wolf took a step forward, and Cyril, who had been grabbed by the collar, was quickly released with his clothes patted down neatly.

"Hey. It was a mistake, right, Frosty? No Cyril! Just some light fun."

"Chill out, dude. We didn't even hurt you like that. What's the big deal."

"We just wanted some more food, man, but you were being stingy. We just made a mistake. Can't a person make a mistake?"

"Of course you can. But you can make a mistake outside of my place. I don't like people who break the rules, so leave and don't come back." With a bright smile on his face, Cyril tapped the floor with his foot, and three small glowing portals opened beneath the three men.

The men fell into the holes while screaming, and then the glowing portals shut.

"Sometimes it's good to take out the trash, right?" a bright voice spoke as the white-haired boy gathered the plates and cups on the table before heading back to the kitchen.

Nobody talked until he was gone, and even then, the previous volume couldn't be found as the black wolf continued to stare at them.

Above the wolf was a simple sign written on a white poster board with a black marker.

Oasis Rules

1. Don't cause any trouble while inside

2. If you come back after causing trouble, pay 100 life energy coins or become wolf dinner

(First Offense - Dumped in a street somewhere)

(Second Offense - Dumped in the lake where a wild, giant snake lives)

It was the set rules without a lot of thought put into it, but after seeing several violators disappearing into the glowing portals, the majority of the people behaved.

********************

While the guests were eating, Cyril was nursing a nosebleed while preparing the area where the people who expressed interest and traded valuable information would sleep.

Utilizing two of the rooms the sanctuary spark had created, he labeled one for women and one for men, stuck a paper with the arbitrary rules, and stacked sleeping bags inside.

Then, with some effort, he began rearranging the waystation, sticking the bathroom between the two rooms and twisting the ground floor hallway so that the dining area only led outside and to the two rooms and bathroom while the upstairs staircase only led to the common room and outside.

Since Fen could enter any room not assigned to a guest, and Alexei moved around with him, it was the perfect setup to ensure the two different groups never met each other.

After that, Cyril opened a locked door that led to an empty storage area, which had now been filled with rows and rows of tightly packed harvested plants.

He sat on the floor, changing out the bloody tissues in his nose, before taking a deep, shaky breath.

"You're overdoing it."

"I'm almost done. Stop nagging me."

"Tsk."

Alexei clicked his teeth before glancing at the stacked plants.

"You really went all out in becoming a farmer."

"Gardening has become my passion and newfound dream."

"Lie again."

"I'm serious. This is the most efficient way to make money, and since I'm pretty sure they're going to balance patch it after I use it, I tried to exploit it as much as I could, unfortunately…"

Cyril glanced down at the shrunken feather that seemed to be hibernating before clicking his teeth in sadness.

Both he and the sanctuary spark had dreams that couldn't be fulfilled.

His infinite money glitch plan hit a snag: the sanctuary spark couldn't absorb enough ambient mana to maintain itself while rapidly growing dungeon plants for Cyril to harvest.

He had pushed it throughout the day, testing the ideal plant growth process and then repeating the process of planting, moving water from the lake to water the plants, and mass harvesting.

Additionally, as the sanctuary spark had to force more energy to grow the plants, the quality deteriorated, with the later growth visibly inferior to the earlier ones, but that wasn't his concern.

As a result, he had grown over 20,000 kg of different plants, and by the time Alexei came back, he had completely wrung the sanctuary spark dry, causing it to fall into a light sleep. 

And because the sanctuary spark only had enough energy to maintain the bare minimum operations, he felt more tired when he did things like open doors, rearrange the waystation interior, and keep track of the people inside.

It was literally eating away at his mental and physical strength. Hence, once he started expanding the dining area, he experienced constant nosebleeds.

But the fruit of his labor was almost visible.

After separating the plants he wanted to keep vs exchange, according to his calculations, he collected about 20,000 kg of plants, which was 20 million life energy points or 20,000 employee points when exchanged.

It sounded like a large amount, but when compared to the items he truly wanted in the Employee store, he was dirt poor.

For example, a single-use barrier to protect the entire waystation for 24 hours costs 50,000 employee store points alone.

If he had a week longer to farm, no two weeks, it would have been possible, but now…

Turning to Alexei, Cyril held his hand out.

"Are you sure you can't give me any more coins? A couple hundred thousand more?"

"Shall I kill everyone here and give you their coins? You said a couple hundred thousand? It wouldn't be enough, so I'd have to kill a lot of people in the city as well. Is that okay?"

Alexei's expression was completely serious, and Cyril was the one to look away first.

Cyril: "Let's not do that."

"Too bad."

Since he had to use what he had, Cyril quickly organized the items he wanted.

At the top of the list is the absolute must-have item.

Healing Hot Spring: 5000 Employee Store Point

A hot spring that has healing properties. It will help recover mana, heal injuries, and recover fatigue. A minuscule amount of the healing effect of the hot spring water will be applied to all water in a waystation.

With that, 1/4 of his budget was completely gone.

Next up was a skill he had thought deeply about before finally selecting it.

Landscaping Lv 1: 10000 Employee Store Point

Reshape the earth and control the plants around you to create the perfect, whimsical garden.

When Cyril told Alexei that gardening was his new calling, he absolutely meant it. He planned to become the best whimsical gardener the world had ever seen and would build unique gardens that had never been seen before.

Weren't trenches whimsical? They could be filled with water for a swim or poison or sprinkled with whimsical seeds that could take root in anything and rapidly grow into a scrambled mess.

Walls were whimsical, too, right? Especially when filled with poisonous plants and created to such an absurd height that nothing could cross it.

What about plants? Plants in the shape of spears were the pinnacle of whimsy. Their delicate points were like needles, and the poisonous berries growing on them were like polka dots, just ready to paint people in the colors of nature.

He would build the most murderous garden ever in the name of whimsy.

With only 5000 employee points left, there were no more big-ticket items that he could afford.

He spent 3000 Employee Store points on an item called 'Key,' which seemed to match the door skill.

The final 2000 points were used to raise his gardening, herbalism, and gift of gab to the current maximum of level 10 and split the change among the remaining skills.

With only a scrap amount of coins left and satisfied that his calculations were correct, Cyril began the exchange process.

And in the dead of night, while most people were sleeping, the land of the waystation began vibrating as an aggressive remodel was taking place.

Earth walls with colorful orange flowers embedded in them surrounded a small two-story building on top of a small hill in concentric circles.

There were trenches with seeds sprinkled with faint white seeds and berry-filled bushes of different types lining those trenches. Hidden within the bushes were sharpened branches of different plants.

Lush green grass had been converted to sharp green spikes that had sticky purple juices on them.

Beautiful flowers and trees were dotted everywhere, and a sweet scent filled the air.

Every attraction was properly labeled with a yellow and black warning sign, and a thin path led from the house on the hill to the road in the distance.

It was a spectacular sight that looked like a garden you would find in a fantasy book.

Unfortunately, the creator and owner of such a sight was completely dizzy, had an excessively high fever with a nosebleed that wouldn't stop, and was spouting nonsense.

And the entire land of the waystation was covered in a thick white fog.

"Alexei, I want to die. Please. I don't think I can survive. Kill me."

"No."

"Please put me out of my misery. Just one chop to the neck. Take me out. I believe in you."

"We're not leaving! What are you going to do about it!"

"Alexei, who are all these people?"

It was 3 minutes until a certain person's task started.

Alexei glanced at the feverish kid lying on a sofa with dazed eyes, pleading for death before turning towards the group of homeless people who were refusing to leave after seeing the white fog that made it impossible to see your own hand left in front of you and a family of four that was coming down the steps.

None of these people were supposed to meet, and yet here they were. Meeting.

"Lexie, I'm ready to join my ancestors. Tell Amari that she can have my inheritance."