Jung had a growth spurt around the age of 13. He is nearly as tall as his best friend, Kwang. He did resemble a beanpole in comparison to his friend, whose side baby fat is transforming into real muscles.

However, as he bent down on the ground of the forest, his new-found height is wreaking havoc on his flexibility. And his back muscles.

Jung happily plucked the berries from the hidden bushes. He'd been cultivating the berries for months now deep in the forest, and it was just the right month to harvest the damn thing.

I hope Eun Mei likes my berries, he thought excitedly. He had already eaten some of the fruit and to his own tongue, it tasted good.

Jung had earlier prepared a presentable basket for this occasion, complete with ribbon and some frilly shit. He also brought a smaller wooden box to fill with berries for his mother.

When he grabbed all the picked fruit that he can, he started walking back home with a spring in his step.

Tomorrow will be the great leader's birthday, and it's a big day for most North Koreans. The town is already filled with colorful banners hanging in the streets, the side alleys are cleaned, and undesirable junk piles are relocated somewhere unseen. And the townsfolk will surely wear their best dresses for the occasion. It's as good as any to celebrate with the people you like and spend some time with them.

He stretched his aching back and readjusted his crackling shoulders as he looked around the forest. The sound of crickets and the rustle of the trees as the wind gently shook them were all soothing to Jung’s soul. The medicinal plants and herbs are not yet fully grown and in season, so he let them be.

2 years ago, Jung could simply sense and detect certain plants that he found to be useful as basic remedies. It is part of his specialized skill called "Herbology." It forced him to look at the forest with new eyes and made him feel that the place he lived in became more useful than ever. Most important of all is the poultice he could make with the green and red plants that normally grow near the camphor trees. This one is helped by his other skill called "Alchemy." His parents needed it in the colder months since their lungs seemed to close, making it harder for them to breathe properly. Having them readily available is really helpful to him and his family since the medicine for those ailments is really expensive if you buy them in town.

He always wondered if the expensive medicine in the pharmacies had the same effectiveness as the one he made. But there is no way to compare except to buy and use it which he did not have the money to pay for.

So every time he goes to the forest near his home, he gathers as much as he can since he wants to stock up on the herbs, especially since once it is ground into a poultice, they have a very long shelf life.

He was walking back home with his berries when a newly highlighted purple flower caught his eye just under a nearby tree, which was covered with other weeds and bushes. His head turned slowly, and he went pale. “Oh no, … no, no, no, no!” he said to himself

New Unique Chain Quest!

You have found a rare, unique plant. Find a way to reproduce it and help it flourish

Requirements: Produce 25 more plants just like this.

Time Duration: 5 years

Reward: Unknown

Failure to complete: All accumulated skills will decrease by 1 level.

Jung glared down at the yellow-petaled flower swaying merrily at one corner of the tree. How can this be a unique quest when I already have another quest just like this?! He thought miserably.

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He focused his eyes on the "failure to complete" clause, and this time, more information came out. He already suspected this and theorized what would happen, but this is the first time he got a confirmation. The "All accumulated skills will decrease" message was a dead give away. His last unique quest only threatens a random number of levels to be decreased. But now it was all of them. Just to be sure, he re-read the additional message info.

Warning!

Any skill that goes below level zero will have a severe impact on the user's health. This may lead to permanent impairment or even death.

This is bad, Jung hee thought, now suddenly worried. Last he is able to shore up a lot of those level 0 skills, but he had accumulated more skills this year. And the list is only getting longer. The problem is that he never had enough skill points available to upgrade all of them even with the massive fallout from the last unique quest. Some of them he left at level 0 because he felt he never had any use for them such as game board savant, or baking. And those skills that are level 1 are also in danger if he thinks about it.

But now he is in danger because of those low level skills. After doing a quick perusal, he counted that as of now, he has 9 skills that are still level 0 and another 52 skills he left at level 1. He figured that at least a skill has to be at level 2 to give him a buffer. Right now he only has 4 skill points left.

Luckily, like the last one, he has five years to figure out the plant but even then it is not a guaranteed success. For one, if this plant is unique, then he has to keep it alive for at least that long to learn its secrets, meaning that he needed to cultivate the plant and try to multiply it as quickly as possible to increase its survival. The good news is that he has some experience with this from the last unique plant that he cultivated. That plant has a reserve lot in his garden,a hidden grove in the forest, and another backup place in a nearby cave he discovered when he was younger. All of them are growing just fine and the next phase of his plan is to plant several of them in the wild.

He stared at the new plant. This one is yellow and thin and tall. Unlike the first which is pinkish red but turns into magenta in certain light. The problem with that is everything he learned from the first plant might not be applicable with this one.

"Aack! This quest is giving me headaches!" Jung said. He wondered how he is going to find out what it could do, for of course that will be the next part of the quest. Of course, he can use the single microscope in the school clinic to get more data about the plant again, but that can potentially kill the plant even if he only gets a small sample. No, he needed to replant the unknown flower near his home and make sure that it is secured. Then see if he can get seeds from it and plant those as well. When he has a few of the plants swaying in the breeze will only be the time he will be confident enough to get some samples for him to study.

Jung scratches his chin in annoyance. The shittiest part of it all is that he didn't know what he is going to get after he completed the mission. The last one is very specific at least. The damn quest could not even give him a hint to motivate him in doing the quest. It was simply too vague, too open-ended to be either interesting or challenging. His only motivation really is the consequences if he fails the quest since it could potentially kill him. For all he knows the plant is an ingredient to a new candy.

He sighed. What else can he do? So he gravely accepted the quest with his mind and then carefully grabbed the flower together with a handful of dirt so that he can relocate it somewhere more secure, like his own garden.

Reluctantly, he used the box he intended to use for his mom’s gift and place the flower inside it after he packed dirt to secure the plant... Jung drizzled it with a few water from the water bottle he carried and then placed more dirt to make the plant more comfortable. As an afterthought, he consciously walked the path with the most sunlight.

Before he left, he looked and checked if there are any similar flowers nearby but he didn't see anything resembling the flower. Where did it come from anyway? If the damn flower isn't local in the area and the system just magically transplanted the thing here, then it will be harder for him to find the right temperament to keep the flower alive since this is not its normal habitat.

That means a lot of research is needed to keep the flower alive.

It took him one and a half hour to walk back home and find his mother already in the garden. Jung took longer than usual because he needed to keep a slower pace because he wasn't sure the flower would not bend from a fast transportation. His mother noticed Jung walking toward her and she eyed the flower in his arms. Her eyebrow raised in a smattering of interest and amusement.

"What do you have there?" She asked, dusting her hands over her favorite dark pants.

Jung shrugged. "I found it in the forest," He said honestly. "I just find it interesting and I'll see if I can grow it as well."

Jung's mom eyed it for a moment. She asked pertinent questions like what the topsoil looked like in the place he found it, or if it was in direct sunlight. Jung reported what he could before handing the flower over to his mom. Then he helped her tuck it in one corner of the garden and placed some wooden lean-to as a basic protection for the budding flower.

"I had to admit it looks beautiful, and I haven't seen something like it. It's like a hybrid of orchids and the gumamela plant."

"I like fruit-bearing plants better," Jung announced.

His mom sighed deeply. "Then why did you bring that plant in our garden in the first place?"

Jung had no answer to that. There is no way he could explain to her the system after all this time. They continued grafting plants and cleaning weeds in their garden for the next hour as they chatted away before his mom stood up to prepare dinner.

"Finished up here and go take a bath."

Yes mom," Jung said absently. He continued to tie an unruly tomato branch to one side with small strings to help it get more sunlight in the morning.

Then he cleaned himself and readied for dinner. His smile returned when he grabbed the sack that held his berries and he eyed them critically. They still look presentable. He plans to give his mom her share during dinner so he washed himself up to prepare for dinner. Only then did he notice that his dad was not yet home.

"Where is dad?"

"There is another emergency back in the co-op and they needed his help again," she grumped. "I've already set aside his dinner so don't worry, just eat your own food."

"Okay," He frowned absently. He visited the co-op earlier and he did notice the sense of dread from the entire cooperative because they were informed of certain officials from the government were about to visit them and check their reports and other files.

Jung could not understand the sudden fear. The cooperative is doing well and is made up of hardworking individuals, so why do they always act like criminals and be wary of government officials? Even Father. He always has this ... not fear, but a sense of cautiousness when dealing with the representative of the fatherland.

He shrugged. He acknowledges that he didn't know everything, but his dad is the greatest and he is sure he will be able to resolve this sooner or later.

His wandering mind was distracted by the soup his mom placed on the table. Oooh, this vegetable soup has some meat on it! lucky!