Healing in the Countryside with a Baby Dragon - Episode 1 Prologue: The first day of farming

“A mana stone is lodged in your brain.”

This shocking news came to me, Baek Jin-sol, at the age of 31.

The initial shock, as if I’d been hit in the head, faded quickly.

Amid the doctor’s endless rambling, my first thought was:

“At least now I can rest.”

Perhaps it was a relief. Or maybe resignation.

If anyone else heard me, they’d call me crazy and point fingers, but honestly, I was exhausted.

When I was 5, I lost my parents to monsters that emerged from a gate.

Overnight, my life difficulty shifted from normal to hell mode.

But I hung on, desperately trying to survive.

For 10 years, then 20 years. Now, it’s been 26.

Once the difficulty level of life goes up, it’s not easy to lower it again.

Sometimes I’d think:

“Am I supposed to live like this forever?”

Do I have to keep living this intense, busy life for the rest of my days?

Late at night, when I lay in a dark, cramped room, with no starlight to comfort me, the walls seemed to close in and choke me.

I’d wanted to run away more than a few times, but what can you do? If you’re alive, you have to keep going.

But now, instead of a chip, there’s a mana stone lodged in my brain.

What terrible luck do I have.

It was almost laughable.

“So, if the mana stone were lodged in any other part of your body, we could attempt removal, but since it’s in your brain, it’s hard to do anything about it,” the doctor explained calmly.

“Is this common?” I asked.

“This is the first time I’ve seen it. Mana stones usually settle in a body part. I’ve never seen one in the brain.”

“And it can’t be removed?”

“We could try, but there’s a high risk of complications. Still, if the patient wishes—”

The doctor’s eyes gleamed as he looked at my head, as if a challenging puzzle had ignited his ambition.

He seemed to be already thinking about how to open up my skull.

I wasn’t about to be his experimental subject.

“Is there any way to recover without surgery?”

“Well, in very rare cases, the stone disappears if you undergo an awakening.”

Awakening or brain surgery, huh?

Either way, the odds weren’t great.

If I’d been lucky enough for that, my life wouldn’t have been in hell mode to begin with.

By now, I wasn’t even inclined to be bitter about it.

“Prepare for surgery,” he suggested.

“No, I’m fine.”

“But the mana stone in your brain could trigger abnormal symptoms at any time,” the doctor warned.

“So, I’m living with a ticking time bomb in my head?”

“Yes, precisely.”

At his words, I couldn’t help but grin.

Living with a bomb in my head.

“Well, it sounds thrilling.”

The doctor gaped at me like I was crazy.

I didn’t care.

I stood up and walked confidently out of the consultation room.

Once outside, I checked my phone. Missed calls and messages had piled up.

Even on my day off, work inquiries were constant—typical of a toxic company.

As I walked through the narrow hospital hallway and stepped outside, I made a decision.

“Let’s quit.”

Using this brain mana stone as my reason, I resolved to break free from the chains of the world.

Now, I was free.

A few months later, deep in the mountains of Gangwon-do.

I drove a one-ton truck along a narrow road, leaving the national highway behind.

A peaceful road.

To my left, mountains. To my right, the ocean. The scenery was refreshing.

How long had I been driving?

“There it is.”

I spotted a small village off the side of a quiet road, where houses were clustered together.

Beyond them, there was a single house with an orange roof peeking out from the trees.

That’s where I would be living from now on.

I stopped the truck and got out.

Taking a deep breath, I inhaled the fresh country air.

“Ah, it smells like manure.”

It dawned on me that this was fertiliser season.

I held my stinging nose for a moment.

“But the view is nice.”

I took in my surroundings with my eyes instead.

Behind me were towering mountains; in front of me, the wide-open sea.

And between them, an old-fashioned house nestled in just the right spot.

The stone wall surrounding it gave off a warm, homey feeling.

There was a decent-sized yard, too.

“So, this is the final destination of my life?”

I’d spent all the money I’d saved for marriage on this house, my last refuge.

Here, I planned to tend a garden, fish in the ocean, and enjoy my last peaceful days.

I decided to forget about the ticking bomb in my brain for now.

After all, I’d come here to escape the world’s chains and find happiness.

First, I needed to unload my belongings.

Since I’d been living in a tiny one-room apartment, it didn’t take long.

Looking back, it seemed absurd.

“How can the same amount of money get me so much more here?”

In Seoul, the same amount barely got me a one-room apartment, but here in Gangwon-do, I got a small house with land.

It hit me just how crazy real estate prices had gotten.

Not that it mattered anymore.

As I sat on the porch, cooling off, I heard a buzzing sound.

“Ugh?”

My head began to ache.

Wait, this can’t be happening.

On the first day of my peaceful life, am I really about to have an episode?

Of course. Life in hell mode never leaves me alone.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Clenching my teeth against the pain shooting through my head, I wondered if I should call an ambulance.

I grabbed my phone, but it slipped out of my hand and fell to the floor.

My head was tightening more and more.

At this rate—

“Huh? The pain’s gone?”

Suddenly, the splitting headache disappeared.

I lay down flat on the ground in the yard.

As I blinked, tears streamed down my face.

Was I supposed to feel relieved that I’d survived this, or despair over the fact that it could happen again at any moment?

A bitter laugh escaped me.

Meanwhile, the sky was crystal clear.

“Damn, at least it looks nice,” I muttered, staring up at the sky.

But then I realised something.

The sky was still rippling.

What? Why hasn’t it stopped?

Could this be an aftereffect?

And then—

“Huh?”

Something began to fall from the distorted sky.

Was that a shooting star? In broad daylight?

But it kept getting closer.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!”

An unidentified object from the sky hurtled toward me.

I tried to get up and run, but—

Boom!

With a loud crash, it slammed into my garden.

The impact shook the ground, and dirt flew everywhere, covering me as I tumbled over.

“Ugh, damn it!”

As if having a mana stone lodged in my brain wasn’t bad enough, now a meteor?

How could the universe be this heartless?

Even in hell mode, there’s a limit to how bad things should get!

Just as I was about to unleash a stream of curses—

“Meteor? Aren’t meteors valuable?”

I suddenly remembered a news article I’d read.

Someone had won the lottery of life by finding a meteorite.

Could this be? Could the heavens be giving me a ticket to reverse my fortune?

I scrambled over to check.

A shallow crater.

Inside, a round, silver object.

“A meteor!”

Its smooth surface gleamed, looking luxurious at first glance.

It was the size of my torso—easily worth millions.

Heart pounding, I reached out and placed my hand on my ticket to a better life.

Crack—

The meteor began to split open.

Wait, meteors can crack open?

A small fissure spread across its surface, expanding quickly.

And then—

A pair of eyes glimmered through the opening.

At that moment, my body froze.

Was this not a meteor but a monster’s egg?

My mind raced.

In a world where gates open and monsters appear, who’s to say something falling from the sky has to be a meteor?

Of course. Life is always in hell mode.

Half-resigned, I waited to see what would emerge.

“Pya!”

With a cute cry, a small creature broke out of the egg.

Its scales were pure platinum, without a single blemish. Two diamond-like horns sparkled on its forehead.

It had wings and short limbs.

Its eyes sparkled like the sky and sea combined.

“Pyarrr!”

The tiny creature shook off the eggshell and looked at me.

“Pya pya!”

It smiled brightly.

Then, the creature toddled over and hugged my leg.

Drawn in by its dazzling eyes, I instinctively reached out and patted its head.

[You have been chosen by a great being.]

[An SSS-class dimensional dragon has selected you as its father.]

“Huh?”

“Pya pya!”

And so, on the first day of my life in the countryside, I became the father of an SSS-class dragon.