As soon as he let go, the wild chicken—now named Sir Peckington—instantly ran off, scratching the ground with its claws. However, it didn't get very far before the hen chick caught up to it.

And, as if it had actually understood Kim Haru's words, the little chick stood right in front of Sir Peckington, chirping away as if to stop it from running off.

Seeing Little Nugget and Sir Peckington playing (?) happily together, Kim Haru decided not to pay them any more attention.

What mattered most now was building a chicken coop for these two new farm members. He couldn't just leave them in the fenced area forever. Right now, the crops hadn't sprouted yet, so it wasn't a big deal, but once they did, the chickens might wreak havoc on them.

But... how exactly was he supposed to make a chicken coop?

Kim Haru fiddled with a pile of wood and bamboo sticks for quite a while but couldn't figure out how to construct one. Remembering that the chick came from the system, he thought the system might offer a solution, so he opened the system interface.

When he got to the crafting menu, Kim Haru found that he had acquired a new blueprint for a [Small Chicken Coop], sitting quietly next to the [Basket] blueprint. It was probably given to him along with the chick, but he hadn't noticed it because it flashed by too quickly.

The blueprint for the coop primarily called for woven bamboo strips, with wood used only to reinforce the corners.

Staring at the large amounts of bamboo strips in the blueprint, Kim Haru silently put down the materials in his hands.

... Maybe I should just let them roam freely?

But free-roaming wasn't an option. Even in rural areas, chickens that were let out during the day would still need to come back to the coop at night to sleep. And if there was wind or rain, he couldn't just leave these two little creatures outside in the elements.

Letting them into the cabin was also out of the question. Kim Haru vividly remembered visiting a farmhouse once and being utterly grossed out by the chicken poop all over the floor. Sure, that was from a whole flock of chickens, but who's to say these two wouldn't make a mess just the same?

In the end, Kim Haru resigned himself to following the system's instructions, step by step, as he tried to weave a chicken coop.

Fortunately, weaving the bamboo strips for the coop was less complicated than making a basket. All he needed were flat sides on four panels. Following the system's guidelines, Kim Haru slowly managed to weave four relatively even panels.

Ugly as it was, at least it would do the job.

Next came the assembly.

Kim Haru stood the three wooden poles upright to serve as the corners of the coop and began attaching three bamboo walls to them. The system suggested using the leftover bamboo strips from the weaving to secure the walls, but after struggling with it for a while—each time he let go, the walls would come loose—he gave up and decided to tie them tightly with some rope instead.

The system begrudgingly accepted this solution.

The last bamboo wall was only tied halfway, leaving it movable. This was the door of the simple chicken coop.

Kim Haru placed the coop beside his cabin, conveniently under the shade of a tree, with a stack of wood just behind it. After settling on the perfect spot, he flipped his hoe over to use it as a makeshift hammer and banged the four corner posts into the ground with a few solid strikes to secure the structure.

The last step was to make a roof for the coop.

According to the system's requirements, the roof needed to be made of thatch. Kim Haru, unable to find any thatch, glanced over at the pile of soybean stalks and, after sizing them up, decided they'd work just fine as a substitute.

The system remained silent, not objecting.

He first laid some appropriately sized wooden sticks horizontally and vertically to form a base, then spread the soybean stalks over the top. Worried about rain leaking through, Kim Haru layered the stalks several times. Once that was done, he followed the system's instructions and smeared some mud over the top to hold the stalks in place.

This was to prevent the wind from blowing the soybean stalks away.

Finally, all that was left was dealing with the drafty gaps in the chicken coop's walls.

In the system tutorial, it suggested sealing the gaps with mud. Kim Haru had seen similar walls in rural homes before; they were well-insulated and kept the interior at a decent temperature.

However, in order to get the mud to stick properly to the bamboo walls, dry without falling off, and become sturdy once set, straw had to be mixed into the mud.

Staring at the crafting method in frustration, Kim Haru eventually gave up on using mud for the walls.

It's just about keeping out the wind and rain, right? I'll just find some cloth or something to cover the gaps. If only I had bought nails and a hammer. If I had those, I could have split these wooden boards and nailed them together to make a much sturdier wall than one made out of bamboo strips!

But in this post-apocalypse world, tools like hammers, which could also be used as weapons, had long been snatched up by survivors. Nails, too—anything containing iron had been collected and melted down by metal-type ability users to forge weapons for killing zombies.

Kim Haru rummaged through the pile of leather he had bought earlier, now finally finding a use for it to wrap around the walls of the coop.

The chicken coop was finally more or less complete.

After finishing the last step, Kim Haru stood up straight and clapped his hands in satisfaction.

Then, he saw the system's evaluation.

[ Chicken Coop ]

Evaluation: Barely usable, substandard chicken coop.

Kim Haru: "..."