First, I scouted out some suitable land for mass production. Since the cherry tomatoes, Starlight Food has been in the habit of buying up surplus land in other regions in advance, so all I had to do was make a selection. I didn’t even have to go out of my way to buy land.
In fact, there’s even a separate department that runs around the country measuring land to find suitable plots. It seems that the plants from Hana’s tooth all show monstrous growth potential, making it convenient to secure land.
The plants from Hana’s tooth showed such survival skills that they could grow even in barren or concrete conditions. So, all I had to do was choose flat land that wasn’t too fertile. I avoided land with slopes or other difficult farming conditions as much as possible.
After selecting some suitable land, I moved the plants while maintaining tight security. This was necessary because the plants only grew normally around Hana’s tooth. If this main plant were to wither or die, it’s still unclear what would happen to the other plants.
This main plant was kept under tight security in a building that wouldn’t budge even in earthquakes, tsunamis, or typhoons. Since the building to house one plant was already completed, I added the newly developed tobacco plant there. The stem that would grow these tobacco leaves would be protected for millennia, as it had no lifespan.
—
Kim Sehee visited the tobacco farm. The tobacco had already grown quite a bit. While it usually takes months to grow, the plants from Hana’s tooth boasted an oddly fast growth rate, so it wasn’t surprising anymore.
However, the unique nature of tobacco plants posed some challenges. Tobacco farming required much more manual labor compared to other crops. While other plants could be handled with farming machinery or tools, tobacco had to be processed entirely by hand. There was no room for machinery.
So, once this trial farming was over, I’d have to hire a large number of employees again. This was partly why the government didn’t interfere much with Starlight Food’s operations.
Starlight Food had almost transformed into a full-fledged agricultural company. As a result, the number of people hired far exceeded that of other companies. Managing vast farmland, harvesting, and handling various tasks piled up like a mountain. It was one of the industries that hired as many people as manufacturing.
And Starlight Food wasn’t just reliant on domestic sales. Rice was sold to Japan, the newly launched Tangle to the U.S., and they had even succeeded in supplying the notoriously difficult U.S. military. They were taking a different path from the leech-like companies that relied solely on domestic markets.
Frankly, even if domestic sales were banned, Starlight Food wouldn’t bat an eye. They could just sell all that volume overseas. In fact, there were cases where tourists from other countries bought Starlight Food products while visiting Korea, as the company hadn’t yet expanded to their countries.
“By the way, I’m a bit worried…”
“What’s the issue?”
“I looked into tobacco farming, and it doesn’t seem like an easy task.”
Kim Sehee didn’t know everything. Of course, she wouldn’t have known if tobacco hadn’t grown from Hana’s tooth. She wasn’t a smoker, after all.
“Tobacco farming isn’t very good for your health, I hear.”
In fact, domestic tobacco farms were rapidly declining.
When cultivating tobacco, these plants emit nicotine. So, without realizing it, farmers could become addicted to nicotine. Some people complained of dizziness or even fainted while farming.
But Kim Sehee’s worries were soon dispelled by an employee’s remark.
“Ah, the tobacco leaves from Hana’s tooth don’t emit nicotine. What you’re worried about won’t happen, Boss.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
It was a moment of relief for Kim Sehee. If they couldn’t grow it due to nicotine, she had no idea what they’d do.
And so, the trial tobacco leaves were successfully cultivated. Now, it was time to experiment with these tobacco leaves.
—
“This tastes amazing, doesn’t it?”
“Right? I can’t even remember the other cigarettes I’ve smoked before, whatever tobacco leaves they used.”
The Starlight Research Institute conducted various experiments. They tried everything, even the smallest details, to extract as much research data as possible.
The participants’ reactions were very positive. Most of them said the taste of smoking was great. It was also known that there are many types of tobacco, each with a different flavor. However, the tobacco leaf from Hana’s tooth received unanimous praise from all participants, without any disagreement.
The biggest advantage of Hana’s tobacco leaf was that it didn’t require any chemical additives.
Tobacco doesn’t just contain tobacco leaves; harmful toxic substances are also added and smoked. These include tar and DTD, which are harmful to humans.
Initially, Hana’s tobacco was made with the same ingredients as regular tobacco and given to the participants. A hundred participants joined the experiment at the Starlight Research Institute. Since continuous smoking is bad for health, they had as many people as possible share the smoking.
“This is too strong, I can’t smoke it.”
“I’m coughing too, why is the taste so intense?”
All ten participants complained of discomfort when the tobacco was made like regular cigarettes. The taste was too strong, and they kept coughing as if they were smoking for the first time.
Since the taste was so strong, they started removing the chemical additives. Normally, removing these would make the tobacco taste bland, and smokers would dislike it, but Hana’s tobacco leaf was different.
“This is just right.”
“This is the best tobacco I’ve ever smoked.”
The participants preferred the tobacco with no chemicals. In fact, it was hard to even call it tobacco. It was just a single tobacco leaf, but all the smokers praised it unanimously.
Normally, if tobacco were made with just tobacco leaves, nine out of ten smokers would find it tasteless and look for other brands.
“Can we even call this tobacco?”
“Right?”
“There are no toxic or chemical substances in it… just nicotine. Now we can’t say tobacco is very harmful to health, can we?”
As the researcher said, a tobacco with only nicotine left was hard to imagine. A mysterious tobacco that could even take care of smokers’ health had been born.
—————————————–
Individuals could grow tobacco from seeds, harvest it, and make tobacco or do whatever they wanted with it. However, selling tobacco would immediately violate the law.
This was why the Starlight Food representative called a KT&G official. There was only one company in the country that could buy tobacco leaves at a reasonable price. It was a state-owned enterprise but had become privatized. KT&G was also the company that bought domestically produced tobacco leaves.
“We at Starlight Food will supply tobacco leaves.”
“Huh?”
The official realized why he had been called. Such a big proposal…
Wiping the sweat pouring down his face with a handkerchief, the official spoke.
“This is quite sudden… I’m a bit taken aback.”
However, as domestic tobacco farms were dwindling, if they could sell at a reasonable price, it would be good news for KT&G.
The domestic tobacco leaf market share was declining, and the government had been giving them hints. KT&G felt wronged too. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to support domestic farms, but they couldn’t stop farmers from quitting due to hard work and disease.
So, they had recently been reducing imports of foreign tobacco leaves.
“If the price and quantity are right, it’s good for us.”
The official spoke within the limits of what he could say.
