American: Native Empire

Chapter 3: Cheat Keys from the Modern World

Chapter 3 < Cheat Keys from the Modern World >

Chief Spirit. Did you sleep well?

Yes. Did you sleep well, Straight Tree?

Of course. You must be hungry, Ill bring you some food right away.

Okay. Im counting on you today.

With that, Straight Tree disappeared outside the door.

Its finally getting warmer.

It had been about eight months since he came here.

He had gone through autumn and winter, and now it was spring when the buds sprouted.

During that time, Kim Ki-woo learned the language used in this tribe, Creek. He spent almost all of his time learning the language.

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There was no ordinary name here.

The natives of this village were given names based on their individual characteristics when they grew up a bit. 

They didnt name them before that because the death rate was so high.

That is, having a name meant blessing that they had survived.

Straight Tree was named after his straight personality like a tree.

There were also other names like Clear Lake, Black Mud, Wide Leaf, etc. that were quite fresh.

Compared to that, Kim Ki-woo was called Wakan Tanka, meaning Sacred Spirit, or Chief Spirit.

Lets get started for real.

Kim Ki-woo had learned a lot of facts so far. He just kept quiet because learning the language was the top priority. It was time to move now that it was spring.

The biggest achievement he had done so far was to find out exactly where he was.

He was near the Chattahoochee River in Alabama. The cotton belt of the central lowlands of the United States. 

That is, a plain where cotton was produced intensively.

How did he know that?

Because he had a world map in his bag.

Although he only had one large map due to the capacity limit, it was a map that contained a lot of information.

The map showed where major resources such as iron, coal, and oil were located, and how the rivers were connected in detail.

He was able to confirm this by comparing the map with the actual terrain.

The location is not bad.

No, rather it was very good.

Alabama was one of the top ironmaking industrial areas in modern America.

It was because there were abundant iron ore, coal, and limestone in the area near Birmingham at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains.

They are essential resources for civilization development.

And there was also a plain suitable for food production.

It was a blessed land indeed. North America had many rivers flowing through it like veins in a human body. 

Thanks to that, he could develop quickly through water transportation. And there was also a vast prairie for food production, and plenty of resources.

There was a reason why America became the worlds only superpower.

It was ironic in a way. Thanks to America, he was able to gamble like this with an imperfect time machine.

But Kim Ki-woo was trying to change America from the roots. 

If he succeeded, America would not be a melting pot of races with whites as the majority, but a country of Native Americans.

Have a meal, Chief Spirit.

As he was thinking about this and that, Straight Tree brought him food.

Food obtained from hunting and gathering. It tasted terribly bland.

Of course.

There was no way it could satisfy Kim Ki-woo, who had lived on various foods in the modern world. But Kim Ki-woo ate it all without making a face.

He knew that this was a privilege.

The others ate much worse food than this. Food was always scarce.

But that can be solved in a few years.

No, it was more accurate to say that it was already being solved.

One of the few things in his bag that had a high importance.

Now the chicks that the chickens laid are growing up.

He had brought five modified eggs in his bag.

The five eggs took up quite a lot of space in the already scarce space, but looking back, it was an excellent choice.

Especially since North America had almost no livestock. But thanks to the eggs he brought in his bag, he could raise chickens in North America.

The five chicks hatched from the eggs had grown into adults, and the eggs they laid continued to hatch and increased their numbers. 

Soon he would be able to eat chicken meat here.

Modern-bred chickens!

When he could stably kill and eat chickens, the eyes of the tribesmen who had suppressed their complaints by force because it was done by the Sacred Spirit and Chief Spirit would change 180 degrees.

The tribesmen still didnt accept the livestock system very well. They thought it was very inefficient to feed precious food to animals that they hunted and ate.

They seemed to admire him for bringing out animals they had never seen before, though.

Then shouldnt he increase that food?

Kim Ki-woo finished his meal and put his bag on his shoulder. 

And as planned, he went to the land where the tribesmen crudely farmed.

Wherever Kim Ki-woo went, Straight Tree followed him. Today was no exception.

The only difference was that ten other tribesmen followed him besides Straight Tree.

Usually women did farming, but Kim Ki-woo brought only men. He needed men to farm as he intended.

When they became an agricultural society, male farmers would be the main ones.

Do you know why I came here?

Isnt it to farm?

Straight Tree reacted as if he was asking something obvious. 

Kim Ki-woo stared at the wide plain with the Chattahoochee River behind him and smiled.

Farming is farming. But what were going to do from now on will change our lives.

Our lives?

Straight Trees eyes sparkled.

He was very smart. For a man of Neolithic civilization, he had a clear mind.

While other tribesmen disliked livestock, Straight Tree thought of some of the ripple effects that chickens would bring in the future.

It was quite amazing for a human of this era to think of this much.

Is it because of this hoe?

Ah, that too, but thats not what I want to talk about right now.

He had spent quite a lot of time making about ten hoes during the winter. 

Although he couldnt make plows without cows or horses, it would be much easier with hoes.

Of course, he still didnt have iron, so he made them with wood. He felt like he had to make iron as soon as possible whenever he saw the hoes.

Then what are you talking about?

This.

Kim Ki-woo lifted up a can he took out of his bag.

What is this?

Have you heard of it? Its called improved seeds.

Seeds

The heavy feeling that ran up his forearm. It was a feeling that anyone who went to a party would feel lovely.

Hehehe.

A sinister laugh burst out of Kim Ki-woos mouth.

This will change the world.

A small murmur. 

Of course, the sound wave didnt last long and disappeared into the air as if it was washed away. But the aftertaste lingered for a long time for Kim Ki-woo.

*

Before they recklessly executed the time machine from the modern to the past, each of the ten subjects was given a bag.

But depending on the weight of their body, the weight and type of things they put in the bag were different. 

The success rate of the time machine decreased sharply as the weight increased. 

The only thing in common was that they removed electronic devices because they didnt know what interference would occur.

Kim Ki-woo was lucky enough to fill his bag generously because his weight was about 62kg.

Five of the subjects took a small pistol and dozens of bullets. But Kim Ki-woo and the rest didnt take any modern weapons at all.

Instead, they took various things that were trivial, but powerful enough to advance civilization quickly if they went to the past.

For example, eggs, seeds of plants and grains that were improved in modern times, modern maps or blueprints of various innovative things.

They had a hard time filling them up, let alone pistols and bullets.

And now Kim Ki-woo was sure that his choice was excellent.

Hehehehe.

He kept laughing at his mouth. Kim Ki-woo knew that his laugh looked sinister and tried to suppress it as much as possible, but it didnt stop him.

Are we finally harvesting today?

Straight Trees voice trembled faintly. He could tell how he felt just by hearing his voice.

It was natural. He had been watching crops that were different from grains grow throughout spring, summer, and finally autumn.

Yes. Were harvesting wheat today.

Wheat! He was going to harvest wheat in North America before the Europeans came!

Kim Ki-woo felt nostalgic.

But this was just the beginning. Corn, cotton, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, barley, etc. 

Various crops would be harvested one after another. And they were improved enough to have large grains.

Various modern crops would spread across the North American continent from now on. Starting from Kim Ki-woos farmland.

Dont get your hopes up yet.

Yes?

I know you want to taste them, but except for chicken feed, well use most of them as seeds for a while. You know what I mean, right?

Ill tell them at the meeting.

As expected, Straight Tree knows my mind best.

Hehe, thank you.

As he said, food was scarce. Of course, most of the tribesmen would want to eat them as food instead of using them as seeds. He had to stop them.

Straight Tree scratched his back of his head as if he was embarrassed. 

Then dandruff fell to the floor like snowflakes. Kim Ki-woo thought briefly as he watched the scene.

I need to make soap soon.

Of course, it was still a long way off.

*

It was as expected. As soon as wheat was cultivated, the tribesmen clung to it like hungry ghosts who couldnt eat it.

But Kim Ki-woo and Straight Tree. And even their followers shouted against it, they were able to save most of the seeds.

But he would be able to achieve self-sufficiency in food with farming alone in a few years. 

Especially tuber crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes would play the biggest role. 

By then, chickens would also explode in numbers, and eggs would be enough to boil and eat.

The amount of crops from modern seeds in the first year was not much due to lack of seeds, so harvesting was relatively easy. But he felt full without eating them just by looking at the inflated seeds.

But what Kim Ki-woo was thinking about right now was not food. 

He was fiddling with something he had been working hard on lately with one hand.

< Cheat Keys from the Modern World > The End