CH 5

What an evil rich man! Bai Li gritted his teeth and opened the first gift pack that belonged to him. A familiar light flashed by, but the opened item had a slight difference from Wen XingYao’s.

At the same time, both of them saw a line of golden text appear in the lower left corner of their vision.

[Congratulations to player “Li Bai.” Through the first charge of the gift package they obtained the precious item: golden hoe (permanent)!]

When this line of text appeared, not only Wen XingYao, but also Bai Li froze.

Bai Li couldn’t help but doubt his own memory, if he remembered correctly, the chance of opening a precious permanent item in the first-charge gift pack was adjusted to 1%, which meant that only one out of a hundred people could open something like a golden hoe. But now, he and Wen XingYao were the only two people who have used up this probability?

This wasn’t 1%, but 50%!

If the other party knew that he was the designer of this game at this time, would they suspect that he was operating in the dark? Bai Li blinked innocently, and took out the shiny golden hoe under Wen XingYao’s curious gaze.

This was a small, delicate hoe that was only the length of an adult’s forearm, and because it was made entirely of gold, it shone in the sunlight with a rich hue. Bai Li took it in his hand and played with it for a while, thinking that it felt good in his hand and would be useful for weeding later.

At this time, he heard Wen XingYao across from him faintly give a “Huh?” He looked in the direction where the sound was coming from.

Wen XingYao could also see the appearance of the rare item, and at the same time his eyes also glanced at the small gold hoe several times, his whole body permeating with the desire for the precious item.

“This hoe, can you…” sell it to me?

“Oh, it’s a bound item.” Bai Li saw a line of small words on the item introduction and read out softly. He also forgot whether or not he had set it up this way, but there was no harm in directly binding rare items.

The unspoken words were cut off on the spot, and Wen XingYao almost choked. Okay, this was also fine.

“Huh? What did you say? Can I what?”

“Nothing, I just didn’t expect that this great gift package can actually only be bought once.” Wen XingYao said in mourning.

Bai Li not only did not comfort him, but even tried to slightly explain with a smile, “It’s said to be a ‘First Charge Bundle’, how could it be possible for someone to buy it an unlimited number of times?”

That was the reasoning, but Wen XingYao was also still a little reluctant. He turned over the store, but couldn’t find a second thing to spend his money on. The designer of this game was a little too lazy!

Bai Li observed Wen XingYao’s reaction, and his wealth-hating mentality subsided a lot. He planned to go offline later to improve the goods in the mall. The game was just getting started, he had to meet the players’ expectations as much as possible.

But for now, it was time for them to complete the newbie quest.

The two of them chose two weed patches not far from the creek and started working.

At first, Wen XingYao didn’t know how to “weed” and had no “weeding” method, and the sight of half a person high weeds almost made him give up directly. But when his hands grabbed a few grasses, he suddenly remembered something and looked over in the direction of Bai Li. With just one glance, he quickly withdrew his hand as if he had been burned by something. Then he peeked out of his game backpack and took out the plain, ordinary hoe. He bent down and slammed the sharp blade into the ground, in his haste, in the same way Bai Li had done.

It just happened to land on the root of the weed.

Wen XingYao’s eyes lit up, and his body was surrounded by inexplicable joy. He secretly cheered. Perfect!

He wasn’t a dumb person, and quickly learned the right way to weed. The hand holding the handle of the hoe was gently lifted upwards, bringing the huge roots of the weed out of the soil. 1 

Wen XingYao’s emotions were difficult to describe when he saw the huge rhizome come out of the ground. It was as if the stone that pressed on the bottom of his heart had been moved by a big invisible hand, but also like the crater of a volcano that was about to erupt had cool snow water poured on it.

Originally, he didn’t open a golden hoe like Bai Li, and also didn’t have the opportunity to buy an additional gift bag, so he inevitably felt some anxiety in his heart. However, in the process of laboring just now, that feeling of anxiety actually was quickly replaced by a sense of accomplishment from digging up a weed. His full heart and eyes were on that big weed, and when he looked at the surrounding barren grass, his blood boiled.

Finding that Bai Li had advanced almost five meters on his mission ground during his own daze, Wen XingYao hurriedly bent his head down, and with a bewildered smile on his face, he worked feverishly.

One tree, two, three, four.

Five steps, six steps, seven, eight steps.

After about half an hour, Bai Li finally finished the weeds in the field. Since he knew that the task after that was to build a place for himself, he relaxed, straightened up his body and hammered his slightly sore back.

Just then, he saw Wen XingYao, not far away, had also slowly stopped.

His action or reaction was a bit peculiar, so Bai Li couldn’t help but stop and watch.

At first, Wen XingYao waved the hoe in his hand, tossing the weeds daintily behind him, without looking back. But when he reached a certain location, his whole body suddenly stiffened for a moment, and then, suddenly jerked his head up, his face showed a look as if he had just awakened from a dream. He had a look of disappointment, as if the world had been lost.

Bai Li was sure that the system had reminded him that his task was complete. Was that a reason to act so exaggerated?

“Hehe!” Bai Li didn’t hold back, and laughed out loud.

This person looked clear and cold on the surface, but inside was actually a simpleton?

As Wen XingYao looked over, he resumed his normal smile and waved towards him.

The two went together to the NPC village chief to turn in their quest. The second quest was really for them to settle down on the weed-cleared ground, for which the old village chief gave them a small tent each.

But as a paying player who had already spent 10 star coins, neither paid attention to that tent, but took out the ‘simple hut’ gained from the first gift bag.

After using the item, a four walled hut, covered with a triangular thatched roof appeared in front of the two. Bai Li looked around the house in a circle, and for the time being, had no intention to go in.

“Well, it should be good. Better than a small tent.” Bai Li nodded straight in satisfaction, and felt that he was really generous in planning the contents of the big gift bag.

Wen XingYao also nodded along, unsure of what to expect. He kind of wanted to go in and take a look, but seeing Bai Li didn’t move, he temporarily resisted the urge, thinking there would be a chance later.

However… 

“It’s getting late, I’m going to get offline today and come back tomorrow when I’m free to play. What about you, what are your plans?” After he admired the appearance of the small hut, Bai Li looked at the real time and found that more than an hour had actually passed. He was thinking that he still had quite a few things left to do, so he decided to leave it like this for tonight.

Wen XingYao was actually reluctant to leave like this. He wasn’t sure if he would have the chance to be online again tomorrow, but if Bai Li left, he would be the only one left here. After what just happened, he also found out that without Bai Li’s demonstrative actions, it would have taken him longer to complete his first mission. There was no telling what quests were waiting for him after that, and without Bai Li, Wen XingYao had a feeling that he would have a hard time getting around.

“Then I’ll go offline too, and we’ll play together tomorrow if we have the chance?” Wen XingYao had the presence of mind to extend an invitation.

Bai Li naturally wouldn’t refuse.

Before going offline, Bai Li hesitated for a moment, then still asked, “By the way, if there are new items in the mall, which ones do you hope will be available?”

Well, it was a good idea to do market research before leaving.

Bai Li’s question actually revealed quite a few details, and he was almost about to explicitly state his identity, but Wen XingYao recalled his earlier displeasure and didn’t find the strange point in Bai Li’s words.

He seriously said, “I hope, ah…I hope the mall can have more shelves with interesting items, gift packs, or more convenient weeding tools? Oh yes, if there can also be items that can cover the face, that would be even better.”

The previous hour or so of experience managed to get Wen XingYao interested in the game. Although there was a huge difference from the virtual reality game he remembered, he had to admit that the experience this game gave him was excellent. In the whole process of the game, he not only didn’t appear to be unable to control his burst of temper, but also in doing weeding tasks, felt the pleasure and relaxation of his body and mind.

Hey, it was really strange. It was obviously mechanical labor, but the more he did it, the better he felt.

What was the magic of this game?

Wen XingYao had reason to suspect that playing this game for a long time could give him great relief from his genetic breakdown disorder. And, even without this disease, he would quite like to play for a while longer.

That brought him to the issue of his identity being discovered.

As a virtual reality game, there was bound to be more than just two players, him and Bai Li, after which more and more people would definitely enter the game and become as interested in it as he was. And his identity…was actually not suitable for mixing among the crowd. Even in the war with the Zerg five years ago, he could fight alongside the entire interstellar people, but today was a time of peace. To risk appearing among ordinary players…well, trying not to cause a sensation was very difficult.

Weeding while surrounded by a large group of people. Tsk. When he thought about it, it gave him a toothache.

The best way was to hide that face of his.

At that moment, Wen XingYao incomparably regretted that when he created the character, why did he forget such an important thing? He didn’t use to be like that!

When he thought about that, he really made suggestions, but he didn’t think they would be realized very soon, so after he said that, he didn’t put too much thought into it. When Bai Li’s figure slowly disappeared, he only felt that there was something strange about Bai Li’s smile before he left.

After having stayed in the game for a while, he found that he was bored after Bai Li left, so Wen XingYao also followed him offline.

After he quit the game, he was still in good spirits, so he didn’t hurry to get out. He clicked on his address book and found his adjutant Tang Ying. He ordered him to find a group of soldiers who had serious genetic breakdown, but not so serious that they had to be sent to Hope Star, and enter the virtual reality game ‘Carefree Farmstead’ collectively. He wanted them to stay in it for at least two hours, and report their feelings on the game in turn when they came out.

As for the rest, he didn’t elaborate. As an Imperial Admiral, he had long been accustomed to giving direct orders, and of course, there was no need to explain much. If they had any doubts, they could go see it and would know.

After sending the message, Wen XingYao went to the StarNet and looked up other information about the game Carefree Farmstead. However, just as he saw that the game’s designer was named “Bai Li”, his eyes suddenly went black, and his consciousness fell back into a deep sleep.

Bai Li… Li Bai… were they the same?

As Wen XingYao began to fall into a deep sleep, the message he sent also received a reply from Tang Ying, [Admiral, you finally appeared!!! Where the hell have you been these days? We can’t find you anywhere!]

Unfortunately, the message sank like a stone.