That Time I Wanted to Be a Farmer Prologue (OG)

The sounds of chirping birds, the wind ruffling the leaves in trees, the smell of nature, it was… perfect.

The question was…

What am I doing here!?

My eyes snapped open wide. The first thing I saw was blue clouds and tree canopies casting a shadow on the sunlight.

I was sleeping under a tree…

How?

Why?

For what?

“...”

“...”

“...oh…yeah.” A peculiar memory surfaced. A small flashback reminded me of a meeting I had with a white-robed individual. He looked— felt supernatural at that time.

This individual offered me a second chance. To be perfectly honest, I don’t recall anything for which I would need a second chance.

Regardless, his offer to get away from modern-day pressures and start again away from all the taxes and bills was a welcoming gift.

On top of that, he offered a perk— so I couldn’t say no.

However, I didn’t want to fight Demon Kings or save the universe from freaks; thankfully, I didn’t have enough ‘Karma’ for those…

So he…

“Just yanked me here! That son of a bitch!” I swiftly stood up and looked around; all I could see were trees in all directions. I quickly walked away from the tree I was sleeping against, away from the tree canopy, and looked around even more.

But at that moment, I felt an urge to look up.

“...What the…”

A transcendent gem of sorts smacked into my forehead! 

I swiftly closed my eyes, expecting a lot of pain and maybe a broken neck, but nothing happened.

“...”

“...”

I slowly opened my eyes and swiftly inspected myself. My fingers touched the area where the impact should have been, but there was nothing there.

“Hell no. I haven't been here for five minutes, and I'm already seeing things.” I mumbled to myself before sighing in annoyance and looking around. Maybe it was a water droplet? Or something else?

I was, after all, I was transported god knows where. 

“...Ugh… thinking without clues is pointless,” I complained for a moment before looking around.

My first idea is to look for clues.

‘I still don’t know what IS my perk.’ For a second, I narrowed my eyes.

‘I hope it's not the trip to the isekai world itself! That would be suicidal.’

After taking a deep breath to calm myself, I returned to ‘my’ tree.

“...Hoh, at least SOMETHING!” I exclaimed with minuscular relief and heavy sarcasm.

I leaned down and picked up an axe. It was meant for wood chopping.

After inspecting a perfectly-looking axe, I recalled what I asked of that being.

It was to live a relaxing life. However, that powerful being didn’t like it, so he turned my life into a survival series.

“Well… it's better than nothing. At least I got a tool.” I tried to look at this in a positive light because, honestly, I was pissed and terrified at the same time.

“Regardless, can’t brood here,” I mumbled to myself as I looked around. My eyes ended up on a sapling tree. It was much shorter than the rest of the trees. 

Good for practising and, at the same time, serve as materials for temporary shelter.

“Let’s do it then.” I pumped myself up, walked over to the tree, and proceeded to test-swing it. 

The sharp metal struck the tree trunk. The sharp tool ended up embedded in it. 

“...”

“...Yeah, it’s harder than dealing with firewood.” I needed to use more force to pull it out. After some wiggling, it was finally out, but it was draining my stamina.

I do have experience chopping wood; it is one of the perks of living in rural areas. But chopping a living tree is a little bit more difficult.

However, it made me more focused on trying to do ‘damage’.

At that moment, I imagined striking from different angles and trying to cut a piece out so that it would fall.

An image I tried to make into reality became borderline obsession, which came out from despair and anger.

“...”

“...”

At that moment, something ‘flipped’ inside of me, and my movement became more fluid and the swings more deadly.

The damage to the trunk was more evident, and the tree eventually gave in and started to fall.

I needed to step aside as it was falling in my direction swiftly.

“...what the hell was that!?” I looked at my hand. All of a sudden, I felt more confident in using an axe! It was not magic; most of the time, magic has a magic confirmation of some sort.

Well, at least in the books, that’s how it is supposed to be.

‘And then there is an invisible type of magic… is it one of those?’

After realising that I do have a starting ability, a chunk of worry and anxiety went away from the corner of my mind.

‘Now, I need to test whatever this is.’ I looked at the axe, which I felt like I had repeatedly used for several years.

With a casual spin of the axe, I started removing branches, and then it was time for the tree trunk to be chopped up!

One, two, three, four— 

A bunch of swings later…

The tree was chopped into blocks in a matter of no time.

“...Damn… something is off here.” I inspected my hand after finishing chopping it.

It felt like I had accumulated experience or filled up a progress bar because the longer I did this, the better, stronger, and faster I became with the axe.

It was hard not to see this like a video game character progress.

“Pity, I can’t see the stats sheet,” I mumbled in disappointment as I swung the axe around. By this point, I could play with this dangerous tool.

However, I had no time for this. As I looked around and then into the sky, the way the sun was casting shadows, it appeared that time was flying quickly when I was having ‘fun’.

‘I need a shelter. A basic roof and walls should do it for the night.’

I looked around, and there were quite a few options to choose from.

The majority of these trees were tall and thick. If I cut even one into planks, I could have enough to make a basic shelter to keep rain and wind away.

‘And then… what about water and food?’ 

Just thinking about that makes me grimace.

Well, I do have a strange superpower.’

I swung my axe around briefly before walking to the much taller and wider tree.

After taking my position, I swung my axe, and upon contact, the entire tree trembled!

“Holy…”

I checked out, and to my disbelief, my single swing had reached the middle of this huge tree trunk! 

“...”

For a second, I pulled back and took a deep breath. What I was seeing was absurd and, by all means, magical, but I needed to get a grip and get this tree cut down.

“Okay, once more.” 

I walked to the side and closer to the end of the cut, positioned to swing it once more.

Part of me was excited to see this again. I even imagined how it would go down.

“...Hmm?”

At that moment, I felt a strange surge and the need to cut. So, without wasting any more time, I let it loose. With a supernatural surge, the swing went through, and the tree was cut down cleanly.

With a loud crack, the massive oak-like tree with wide branches went down, causing the shade it cast to disappear.

“...Damn…”

I looked at the fallen tree and then at the axe. A trail of smoke came from the sharp edge of the axe.

The swing was so fast that it caused friction.

“...Well…shit.”

I mumbled to myself. This was not as bleak as I initially thought.

‘I was already thinking of retreating to the caveman lifestyle. But it turns out I won’t need to.’

A small smile appeared on my lips as I started with branches first.

Now that I have some leaves, I could make a fire. With this strange power, maybe I could develop a form of ignition magic to create fire.

Unless all of this is coming from the axe…

Midway through the cutting, my motions turned automatic.

A casual swing and a thick branch have fallen off. Rinse and repeat until all that is left is the tree trunk.

“...Hmm…”

I walked around for a second, pondering how to do it.

But then I recalled how sawmills do it.

With a curious look, I walked to the bottom part of the fallen trunk and placed the axe on it. I pressed it and tried to push it.

However…

“...Strange… does my power not turn on like this?” 

For a moment, I pondered, trying to think of a way. Should I use more of my imagination?

“...Was it my imagination? I mean…” 

I ended up sitting on the trunk while crossing my legs and arms, pondering how to activate my superpower.

At that moment, a cloud passed by, casting a shadow on the place once more.

“...That’s it! Friction, grinding and all that stuff!”

As Realisation hit me, I felt a surge from within, washing through my whole body.

“...what the…”

‘...Hold it! Pondering? Accumulating… is this… laws? A.k.a Dao!?’

A stray thought tingled at the back of my head.

Could I be in a Cultivation world? It could be, but I don’t have legitimate proof! I can’t see floating islands in the sky, and the trees look believable enough.

“...I don’t look Asian either.” I checked myself on the metal of the axe.

In addition to that, I have my regular clothes and sneakers. Considering how anime and manga logic works, I am isekai’ed and not reincarnated.

That kind of stuff never happens in Chinese novels. They usually reincarnate or get inserted into bodies.

‘So that they could cultivate in a new world. If I am dropped in the middle of the cultivation world the way I am, I should be a dead man.’

“Ugh… overthinking doesn’t help! Let’s just go with the flow!” 

With that in mind, I jumped back on my feet and looked at the trunk.

Time to cut!

Once again, I pressed the axe at the side of the trunk, not the middle, but the side. I want to turn the round trunk into a perfect square before cutting it into planks.

I wasn’t expecting the axe’s edge to glow white and send a streak of light through the whole tree trunk!

“...Holy…shit!”

I ended up falling on my ass after seeing this happen! I wasn’t expecting a reaction like this!

None of this made sense to me! I wasn’t here for more than a couple hours but I can already do this!?

To see if I was not being lucky, I tried again, this time making a horizontal cut in the upper area.

Sure enough…

A white beam of light and a chunk of tree cut!

“...”

I tried again, and this time, a vertical cut on the right side…

And again… a clean cut!

“...Damn…”

To finish this off, I cut the lower half horizontally.

“...”

In mere moments, I got a pristine tree trunk turned into a log ready for use.

“...”

But part of me is baffled by all of this.

“You know what?” I took a deep breath, then exhaled as if resigning to this.

“I guess he did keep his promise with this. I can live a chill life I wanted.”

As I decided to accept this madness, my gaze was on the axe. I could see the blade of the axe becoming… sharper. More intense? There was a presence of heaviness in the weapon.

All I could think of was that the weapon was refined through those couple of hours.

Probably, I mean, what else could it be?

With this acceptance and a new goal in mind, I decided to build that shelter… and maybe a log house—something like that…

‘But I need to test if this power works, not with just the axe.’

My gaze went to the axe before towards the log.

“But first, shelter. Then exploration.”