The hellish night choked with the hissing of rotting spores finally passed. Slowly, dawn broke over the eastern horizon of Suka Makmur Village, tearing away the curtain of night with a pale, reddish glow. Yet instead of welcoming a bright morning filled with birdsong and refreshing dew, that day's dawn illuminated the most horrific and heart-wrenching spectacle in the village's agricultural history.

Beneath the thin morning mist, the sweeping expanse of western plantations that had once stood grandly with a sea of lush green leaves had vanished completely without a trace.

Every single acre of the hundreds of hectares of farmland had transformed into a flat, pitch-brown plain of mud. From those muddy pools billowed thin wisps of steam reeking of a stifling, sickening stench—an intense aroma of organic rot and sulfur that instantly turned anyone's stomach.

Amidst that miniature hellscape, Kasim and Mardani stumbled across the farm path, which had devolved into soft, clinging muck. Both men looked deathly pale like living corpses, their clothes caked in black mud and their eyes staring hollowly into the devastation before them.

"I-impossible... this... this has to be a nightmare..." Kasim trembled, his voice raw and nearly swallowed by the morning wind. He dropped to his knees in the wet muck, clutching his head tightly. "Last night... last night the leaves were still green! Why... why is everything turned to porridge now?!"

Mardani collapsed beside Kasim, breathing in ragged, erratic gasps. Tears streamed heavily down his cheeks, streaking his mud-splattered face. "It's gone... everything is gone, Mang Kasim! Not a single stalk survived!"

All around them, the sight was utterly heartbreaking. The melon stalks that had stood so sturdy moments ago now lay broken and helpless, sinking into the mud. The massive, luxurious golden melons hailed as symbols of the villagers' wealth now lay shattered and burst, completely melted into pools of rotting, punctured slime swarmed by blowflies.

Moments later, the roar of a luxury car engine broke the morning quiet. Pak Darma’s black sedan halted abruptly by the edge of the agricultural road. The door flew open roughly, and Pak Darma stepped out looking utterly disheveled. His tight batik shirt was creased and filthy, his gold chain hung crookedly around his neck, and his face was ashen like a man who had just lost his soul.

Pak Darma sprinted down the pathway, panting heavily. He stared wide-eyed at the expanse of black mud before him, refusing to believe the reality meeting his eyes.

"M-my primary farm... my dozen hectares of F1 hybrid melon fields...!" Pak Darma shrieked hysterically, clutching his own collar. He dropped to his knees in the foul mud, ignoring how instantly soaked and ruined his expensive trousers were. "Those imported seeds cost fifty thousand a piece! I poured a billion and a half rupiah in loans from banks and city lenders into this place! Where are the returns?! Where are those billion-dollar fruits?!"

Spotting Pak Darma, Kasim scrambled over on hands and knees, grabbing the loan shark's trouser cuffs with trembling hands.

"Boss Darma...! Help us, Boss!" Kasim wailed in utter despair, tears spilling freely. "We haven't even paid off last season's fertilizer debt, and now yesterday's seed capital is due next week! If our farms turn to rotting sludge like this, what are we supposed to pay the bank with, Boss?! We're all going to jail or losing our homes!"

Pak Darma shoved Kasim's hands away viciously, breathing wildly. The loan shark's normally arrogant face mirrored high-octane panic. Inside his mind's calculator, astronomical losses flashed endlessly, hammering his brain.

"J-jail...? Don't talk stupid, Kasim!" Pak Darma snapped in a terrified, shaking voice, staring blankly at the mud. "It's not just you guys who are ruined! I... I'm going bankrupt right along with you! The capital I lent out across this village tops three billion rupiah! All those land deeds held as collateral in my hands are completely worthless now that the dirt has turned to toxic sludge!"

"Then what happens to us, Boss?! What happens to us?!" Mardani sobbed, collapsing beside Pak Darma and weeping hysterically. "We've all gone dead broke in under twenty-four hours!"

Billions of rupiah hailed as the golden age of Suka Makmur Village vanished without a shred left behind, evaporating into the foul morning wind.

Suddenly, amid the frantic sobbing of the loan shark and his foreman, a piercing, heartbreaking scream rang out from the eastern edge of the beds.

"MY CHILD...! SARI...!"

Everyone along the path snapped their heads around in shock toward the source of the cry.

An elderly white-haired farmer—Mang Udin—lay sprawled face-down in the middle of the black mud pool belonging to his own farm. The frail old man no longer cared about the filth or stench clinging to his body. He clawed frantically at the muddy earth with bare hands, screaming hysterically for his daughter, who had spent years helping him labor in the fields.

"Pak Udin! Don't do this, Pak! Pull yourself together!" shouted a few farmhands rushing over to pull the old man to his feet.

Mang Udin fought them off. He wept uncontrollably, mourning their fate over the grave of their life savings.

"It's all gone... our final capital for my daughter's schooling, decades of savings, everything wiped out without a trace!" Mang Udin shrieked hysterically, scooping up a handful of rotting sludge to hurl into the air as he wept upward at the gloomy morning sky. "Why... why didn't we listen to that boy yesterday... Why were we so arrogant...!"

Mang Udin's hysterical screams echoed piteously across the vast expanse of the black mud sea.

There was no more mocking laughter. No more arrogance from wealthy farmers.

All that remained was the sobbing of agonizing, too-late regret over the smoking ruins of Suka Makmur Village's agricultural empire.