The Duke's Passion - Chapter 17 - An Odd Negotiation

I put all the warning tags to give myself creative freedom, but the story isn't filled with excessive gore or swearing.This is my first time writing other than for school projects. The gender-bender tag is only for the beginning because I wanted to try writing from a female's perspective and needed an excuse for why my MC reads a little tomboyish. The gender-bender fades into the background over the first few chapters; please don't let the tag keep you from trying out my story.Synopsis:Second chances are rarely earned and even rarer given. Follow a new life in a new world where anything is possible. Our MC wakes up, stuck as a baby, needing to decide how she will live her new life. Let's see what future she can forge when hard work rewards her with status points and skill levels.Author's Note: I'm currently slowly going back and rewriting my earlier chapters, so if you're starting to read this for the first time, try not to be alarmed if the quality suddenly goes down after reading a few chapters. I started writing this story almost three years ago, and I think I've improved as a writer since then. I appreciate your understanding; enjoy.

A Webnovel Author who died after installing a strange farming game was reincarnated into a brutal, apocalyptic world. Armed with only his wit and a quirky farming system, he finds himself surrounded by ruined cities, mutated beasts, and desperate survivors. The world is on the brink of collapse, but his system insists on growing crops and raising livestock in the middle of the wasteland.At first, he thinks it’s a joke—a farming system in the apocalypse? But soon he discovers the hidden potential of his system. The crops he grows can strengthen his body, grant unique abilities, and even repel the deadly monsters that roam the land. However, the system has a mind of its own, and not everything is as it seems.Now, balancing survival and farming, he must build a haven in this hostile world, gathering strange allies along the way, all while uncovering the secrets behind his reincarnation. As his farm flourishes, so does his power—making him a target for dangerous factions and ancient forces that lurk in the shadows.Can a peaceful farmer rise to become the hero this broken world needs? Or will his fields of hope be crushed by the horrors that await?

“I don't want to die anymore, so I'll aim to be the strongest――!”After being stabbed by a random attacker, he was reincarnated in Japan, a place where 'demons' like yokai and monsters exist――and moreover, he was born into a family of 'exorcists' who exorcise these monsters!Exorcism is an important job that involves killing monsters, but it is also a dangerous job where people can die.Therefore, he――Itsuki, made a decision.In order to never die again, he would become strong.He aimed to be the strongest and practiced magic tirelessly since he was a baby――until he realized.“Huh? Isn't this too much?”This is the story of an exorcist who, despite being an ordinary person, became the strongest without realizing it due to excessive effort.

After being awakened from their slumber, billions of people found themselves dispersed in various sealed crypts. Surrounded by earth, they each had only a shovel.