-They are all here Elder.

‘In front of me was a large group of people from all ages, wearing old and tattered clothes’

Fucking hell, I was an eletronic engeneer main course student! Not a social warrior!

I can only thank my years investigating and dealing with people for my courage in dealing with crowds…

Thank you acting school...

-Hello everyone, I know some of you were shocked when I got hurt but it was nothing but a scratch.

-I gathered all of you here since I want to discuss the future goal and condition of the Village.

-Today I went to the warehouse with Richard and we have confirmed that we have exactly one month's worth of food.

/Whispers whispers/

‘Their expressions weren't good’

They must be worried about the situation.

-I know I know. You are all worried if we will make it, but I will say one thing. The worst has already passed! Winter has passed and it's the time of Spring!

-Currently, I have already set a solution for our problems.

-I know that some of you have heard that I was collecting money right? A scary thing without a doubt.

-But that is only for emergencies, if things go down the drain, we can always contact the nearest village and acquire some supplies.

-But we cant depend on others. Not when we can still do so much more.

-If you are all willing to hear what I have to say, please stay silent. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them.

Please don't ask questions…

-... No questions? alright…

-Excuse me El-Lord Elder…

-Don't put the Lord in front, I am not a Lord. Elder is fine miss.

'She wasn't beautiful, her face was covered in dirt, but she at least tried to keep her posture'

-Oh-Okay… It’s like this. Winter was rough and the many blizzards have destroyed our homes. We need to patch them up since most of the nights are still rather chilly… If someone were to get a cold…

[DING]

[A request has been made by one of the villagers]

[Description: Many of the old houses did not manage to survive the winter intact.

Fix the broken buildings so that the people don't catch colds during the night.

Number of houses: 0/5

Time limit: 5 days

Average Happiness +5

Failure to complete this request may end up in several sick villagers]

Damn! That can’t happen! Sick villagers can't work, and if they can't work, our work speed decreases! And in the end…

One may die. Morale will drop and we will end up worse than before.

-Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I will try to find a solution for this in the meantime.

‘She nodded'

-If no one has any requests or any questions, it's time for us to start!

-From now on I will be dividing you all into 2 groups.

-The search group and the Workforce.

-The search group will consist of the children and old who can't do heavier jobs, their objective will be to go to the abandoned houses and search for any supplies, we never know what we may find there...

-Excuse me, Great Elder!

-Yes mister. And as I said before, there is no need for any suffixes, Elder is fine.

-Yes Elder… I just wanted to say that some of those houses are dangerous, poisonous insects and small animals may still live inside. Bringing the kids and the old may be too dangerous.

-Hum… You are right. Let's leave the smaller kids here in the Elder’s house, the bigger kids who already know how to take care of themselves will accompany the old in search of any supply left behind.

-Safety is the priority, so don't push yourselves!

-To guarantee your safety, a group of 5 men should go with you. This should be enough for now.

I hope it is at least...

-The other group made up of the rest of the adults will come with me to the Farming plots to clean and plant new seeds…

-Elder! Sorry for interrupting, but a few days ago we had a ferocious storm and many of our farming plots ended up destroyed. I don't think we will be able to plant there today.

… Has this place been abandoned by God?

-Don't worry, it's better to try than to do nothing.

-Everyone who has farming tools and seeds, please go to fetch them, if you have any tool that can help the searching group then, please.

-I have an old bow in my house somewhere, but I don't know how to use a bow, it may be useful.

-Oh? I know how to use one! And I have some arrows! I used to hunt with my father back in the day…

‘Slowly, the villager's enthusiasm grew as they discussed and tried to help each other

[DING]

[Your speech has motivated the villagers! They now have hope!]

I did what?

[Average happiness + 10]

[Reputation + 15]

[The villagers are motivated!]

[Motivated

Effects

10% Better work efficiency

10% Fewer accidents]

[Your Skills, Communion Lv0, Influence Lv0, and Command Lv0 have leveled up!]

My Skills!

It makes sense now, why those villagers just accepted my words and orders like it was nothing!

What I said had many holes and even some lies… In truth, I don't have a plan at all.

But they still did not question me.

It was probably due to the combination of the Elder’s house, my clothes and cane, and my Skills.

It was impossible for these low-level villagers to resist…

And now my Skills even leveled up. Will it reach a point where they will just obey me without even thinking?

It scares me when I think about this possibility…

-I only need to wait until the other villagers are back then we can start…

…

‘10 minutes later, the group approached the Elder’s house’

‘Their clothes had changed and they now had some rusty tools in their hands’

… Better than nothing I guess.

-Is everyone ready? Let's go!

Why did I want to go to the crop fields?

Because of this:

[Small Crop field (Destroyed)

Unexplored]

That's right, I wonder what would happen if I explored this place. What would I gain?

This is also a chance to test another thing. And that is if I need to be close to gain the rewards from exploring.

I will have a group explore some of the crop fields while I will help another, and then with the other group searching the houses, I can have a good grasp of the extent of this mechanic.

I want to test the range of this mechanic!

…

-Did we arrive?

‘I was slightly tired from having to walk while carrying these “heavy” tools’

Yes, I took out the ‘farming kit(Normal); from the inventory.

Unfortunately, we didn't have even one Tier-1 farmer in this fucking place! Otherwise, I would’ve given these to him.

-Yes Elder, we are in the crop zone.

‘This was a small area where 20 Small Crop fields were set up’

According to the map, there should be many more Crop fields around the village, but their state was much worse than this one. Some were even overrun with roots and posts. We couldn't clean them now.

-We are currently 15, we will divide into groups of 2 and clean a patch of land.

I will watch on the side… This body wouldn't even last a few swings of a Hoe.

…

This place is truly at its last legs.

Not even the weeds were growing well in this place… It is probably due to the storm… I hope so at least.

[DING]

[Your workers have cleared a patch of Small Crop field (Fertile)]

[You have gained 2 wood, 1 seed bag (Food crops)]

Wood and seeds… Not bad, we were lacking seeds anyway… And as I saw previously, these seeds are of a decent quality, much better than the almost rotten seeds used by these villagers.

[Small Crop field (Fertile)

You can plant seeds in here

This action will require the need of a Farmer]

Why is it fertile?... The storm? Thinking logically, perhaps the storm turned over the soil revealing the fertile soil underneath?

Should I do it?...

Hesitating a little, I clicked the window.

[The nearest Farmer is going to perform your order]

!

‘Close to me, one of the farmers looked at me and nodded. He came to me and extended his hand as if waiting for something.’

… Does he want the seed bag? Thankfully I had already removed it from my inventory and placed it inside my pockets.

‘He picked it up and made his way to the cleaned Crop field’

‘He talked with the villagers that were working in there and pointed at me, they seemed to understand him and let him do the job’

And strangely enough, a timer appeared on the map above the crop field.

[10 Minutes… 9:59… 9:58...]

So this is how it works. He didn't look possessed, it was as if he knew what to do.

And 10 minutes to plant the seeds… It normally takes much longer than this… Just what is happening?

And aren't the other farmers going to suspect anything?

[DING]

[Your workers have cleared an Old abandoned house]

[You have gained 4 wood, 1 farming kit(Poor), 1 cooking kit(Poor), 13 Small Bronze Pieces]

That was sudden.

‘But I had a smile on my face

Looks like I don't need to be close. This means I can stay away and collect the rewards.

I only need to find a way to transfer the items from the inventory to the real world without having the villagers suspect.

They already acted surprised when I showed them the “good quality” farming tool I “found”. Much less if I started to spit out food and money.

[DING!]

[Your workers have...]

I should go to the Elder’s house for now and think of a plan.

Not before making sure all of these seed bags were planted.

‘I went to an old broken shed close to the farming plots and waited’

I was waiting for them to finish cleaning the fields and for the farmer to finish planting.

…

9 minutes later…

(Due to the 10% bonus)

This was faster than I thought what happened?

Oh! The motivated bonus effect! It makes sense now. They are working 10% faster...

‘Most of the initial plots had been cleaned. It was time for the farmer to finish planting’

Annnnd…

Nothing?

I looked at the map to see that the timer had disappeared.

No messages or anything of the like?

'I opened the map and clicked in the Crop field'

[Small Crop field (Fertile)

Growing seeds: 4 days

A Farmer has to take care of this field for one hour every day, else there is a risk for the crops to die]

[Fertile

Effects:

Plants have a chance to provide double the amount of resources when harvested]

-...

This… Can’t be fucking real.

4 days for the plants to grow? And a chance to wield twice the amount?!

Even if I don't do anything the villagers are going to suspect this!

I should be happy, but this situation isn't really in my favor either.

Normally I wouldn't be scared by these people, but this body is super frail. If one of those more muscular men hit me, I might die.

And I cant even flee. Just where should I go?

I can think about this latter, let me focus on this right now.

"A Farmer has to take care of this field for one hour every day, else there is a risk for the crops to die"

It isn't a problem to leave the Farmers to take care of the plots for one hour every day, they already do that after all.

-I have four days… In the meantime, I can raise my reputation and their happiness.

Raising my skills will also make sure they are under my control…

I placed the seed bags and tools I got during this time and called one of the farmers.

-Did you call me Elder?

-Look at what I found! Good quality tools and seeds!

-...

The farmer was surprised, but he soon picked the tools and seeds and made his way to the others. He thanked me multiple times while he picked the tools.

Thankfully he didn't suspect me… I guess working with rusty tools isn't that great...

[DING]

[Average happiness + 5]

[Reputation + 10]

That easy?... Oh yeah. Half of this village are farmers, of course, this is going to be the effect.

I clicked some more fields on the map and made my way to the Elder’s house.

Things were finally starting to get better.