Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World-Chapter 359: Fluttering Helpers and New Goals

Before Haru could decide what to do, the Ginseng Spirit clarified, debunking all his guesses. "It's not what you think. It has nothing to do with conditions or demands. The thing is, these little ones—don't let their human-like appearances fool you—they're nothing but a facade."

The Ginseng Spirit sounded exasperated.

"Their minds are completely empty. They act purely on instinct, much like the Starlight Armored Bug. Honestly, their brain capacity might even be smaller than the bugs'. Trying to negotiate employment, exchange, collaboration, or contracts with them is just a waste of energy."

Kim Haru: "..."

He hadn't expected that at all.

Looking at the fluttering sprites, Kim Haru thought, Maybe their beauty is something they exchanged for their brain capacity.

"Then why are these little ones being so obedient now?"

Kim Haru had already noticed that the butterfly sprites were no longer flying about chaotically or spinning webs randomly.

Instead, they were hovering obediently in place, waiting.

Before the Ginseng Spirit could answer, Kim Haru heard a sweet and lazy meow.

Following the sound, he saw his Fuzzbal who is lounging on the window sill, casually grooming her fur.

Kim Haru suddenly remembered—his Fuzzball was no longer just a pretty face.

She was now a powerful cat capable of commanding even bugs to carry out her orders.

Sure enough, the Ginseng Spirit explained, "Fuzzball passed on the instructions and rules directly to them. Now these butterfly sprites have basic obedience capabilities. You can tell them which flowers to pollinate."

In essence, these butterfly sprites were now on par with the Starlight Armored Bug in functionality.

Kim Haru nodded, indicating his understanding.

"Fuzzball, you're amazing. I'll steam some fish for you tonight."

After praising the key contributor to the situation, Haru led the sprites toward the melon fields.

There were around fifty of the sprites, each small in size but collectively taking up a bit of space.

Initially, Kim Haru had worried that it might be too exhausting for them to pollinate so many flowers.

However, when he assigned them their tasks and watched them work, he was once again astonished.

He had no idea where these little sprites were hiding their tools, but in the blink of an eye, each one had a tiny basket in one hand and a small stick in the other.

The baskets were incredibly delicate—normal-sized for the sprites but smaller than Kim Haru's fingernail.

The stick looked like it might be made from flower stamens.

Combined with the sprites' charming appearances, Kim Haru almost mistook it for a magic wand.

Then, the sprites began pollinating.

With a gentle tap of their small sticks, the butterfly sprites would touch the flower stamen, and a soft puff of pollen would gather at the top of the stick.

Then, they would knock the pollen into their baskets, where it would settle.

Despite how tiny the baskets were, they could hold a surprising amount of pollen.

The butterfly sprites were busy, extracting pollen from one flower stamen and scattering it onto another, occasionally emitting a happy little "ee" sound.

The tone was short and cheerful, making it clear they were in high spirits.

It seemed that the mutated plants hadn't made a mistake after all.

Kim Haru began to think about how he could create little nests for these sprites and prepare food for them.

He wondered if he could find something they liked in the books in his study about what butterflies eat.

While Kim Haru was overseeing the pollination, Go Okrim and Kang Hose had already finished most of the other tasks around the small farm.

After lunch, Kim Haru, holding Fuzzball, went to the safe zone.

There were two main reasons for this trip.

The first was to withdraw the mission about finding the mutated bees at the Ability User Center.

Since he now had the safer butterfly sprites, he no longer needed the dangerous bees.

The second reason was that Kim Haru planned to organize a team to go out in search of new crops.

This had been on his mind since winter.

In order to level up from a beginner farmer to a small farm owner, he needed to grow ten mature crops.

However, now that he was progressing from small farm owner to large farm owner, the number of crops required had multiplied.

He now needed to mature one hundred different crops.

With the current crops on the small farm, he could never meet the requirement of one hundred.

As for the mutated plants in the mountains around, they couldn't be considered because they weren't food or agricultural products.

Furthermore, Kim Haru felt that his supplies were severely lacking.

Many times, when he wanted to cook a nice meal, he found he didn't have enough ingredients.

At this point, he was already getting tired of what he had on the farm.

The reason he hadn't gotten tired of it yet was partly due to Go Okrim's improving cooking skills and partly because Kim Haru understood the current situation in the post-apocalypse world and couldn't afford to be too picky.

Since it was now early spring, it seemed like the best time to search for seeds.

Once the trade gathering started, he might not have as much free time to go out.

In any case, the decision to search for new crops was set.

...

Everything that Kim Haru wanted to accomplish, the entire Pyeongseong Safe Zone would put in their best effort to achieve—especially since this time, his goal was to search for new cultivatable crops, a mission of great significance to humanity.

The day after Kim Haru informed Moon Baein about his plans, he received word that the team had already been assembled and was ready to depart at any time.

Naturally, Moon Baein was adamantly against letting Kim Haru go alone.

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Even though he was fully aware of Kim Haru's strength, he still couldn't feel at ease.

It wasn't a matter of trust but rather a concern for safety.

Fortunately, Kim Haru didn't mind.