CH 15

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: CaiCat

Assistant Editor: GaeaTiamat

Another half hour passed, and the corn was ripe. Wen XingYao held the golden scythe in his hand, intuited that it wasn’t the right tool for harvesting corn, and silently put it back into his backpack.

When Bai Li returned with a wooden face, he saw Wen XingYao was sitting crouched in the doorway of his hut, one hand on his chin, as he stared idly at the ground. “What are you looking at?”

“Zerg.”

Bai Li, “????”

“Look at…What?”

He didn’t know that there was an Interstellar species in his game that people hated the most. He followed Wen XingYao’s guidance, saw a group of ants that were working together to carry a grain of wheat into a small hole, and was speechless for a long time.

“…It’s just an ant. An ordinary insect.”

“Oh. No wonder it’s so small.” The man who was crouched down stood up, and  pretended that nothing had happened. “Li Bai, the corn I planted is also ripe. Is that not harvestable with a sickle?”

When he heard Wen XingYao’s words, Bai Li turned his head to look at the cornfield.

The thick and strong corn stalks were about two people high, and each bore ten huge corn stalks. The light green skin was unable to envelop their shape, and revealed the plump, golden grains inside. At first glance, it was clear that their owner had poured countless fertilizers and magical springs on them; it represented love and expectation.

Together with the gain effect that Bai Li put on Wen XingYao before he left, this batch of corn could be said to be of extremely high quality and a very rare existence.

Sure enough, for people who were willing to put down their money, this kind of field’s attitude was really absolute. Bai Li first gave Wen XingYao an approving glance before he signaled the other to follow his instructions.

In the game, players could help others with fertilizing or watering, but the step of harvesting could only be done by the owner of the field. Otherwise Bai Li would have gone forward to do it, instead telling him, and Wen XingYao following each step.

Fortunately, Wen XingYao was an extremely smart student and perfectly replicated what Bai Li said. One hand grabbed the corn stalk, while the other hand grabbed one of the ears of corn  and gently broke it downward. The broken corn ears automatically went into the backpack, and then the same action could be repeated.

When all the ears on a corn plant were broken off, the bare stalks quickly withered and fell to the ground before dissipating into the air.

Bai Li found that Wen XingYao’s home had more than nine plots of land. Fifteen more spots in fact.

Having noticed Bai Li’s gaze, Wen XingYao was quite proud. “I had nothing to do just now, so I reclaimed a few more plots of land. I can plant more when the time comes, and the harvest will become greater.”

Anyway, he had more fertilizer and more spring water, so he could afford to raise so much land. Obviously, he owned five agricultural planets under his name, but Wen XingYao felt that all those planets didn’t give him as much sense of achievement as the fifteen plots of land in front of him.

After a brief exchange, Bai Li also went back to take care of his own land. He didn’t plant a new crop before he left, but intended to follow suit with a crop of corn.

When it came to planting, everything was engraved into his bone marrow and soul, whether it was digging a hole, putting seeds, filling the soil, pouring ordinary streams. He did it all with a sense of rhythm, which was a very comfortable visual experience in the eyes of onlookers. It was as if Bai Li wasn’t planting a field, but was performing some kind of elegant art.

Wen XingYao accidentally looked up and then glanced in Bai Li’s direction from time to time. Even his own farming posture began to imitate Bai Li unconsciously, but he was so careful that Bai Li, who was obsessed with farming, didn’t notice.

In fact, Bai Li’s mind had already drifted towards how to optimize the game while he was doing the farming work. He had been in the game for several hours today, and had indeed discovered quite a few details that he had previously overlooked.

First of all, each player’s house, including the fields near the house, needed to be enclosed by a fence. This was private land and it was best to distinguish it from the public. And with the fence, the inside space could be their own. In the future, if they wanted to rebuild their house, they could expand their area and planting area, or add other functional buildings, which would be free. However, if they wanted to expand the land, naturally, it wouldn’t be free.

When the time was ripe, a land expansion card could be arranged in the mall.

At the same time, a fence would also serve to prevent strangers from entering and snooping. Of course, the latter required the fence to be built higher in order to work, and this could be decided by the players themselves. Plus, the task of building a fence could be issued by the old village chief later.

Second, the destination of the crops after they were harvested had to be planned in detail again. In the beginning, Bai Li only designed the village chief to buy the grain back, but the players’ reactions told him that it was likely to be very difficult to get players to sell the grain they grew.

Since the smell of wheat alone could dazzle them, then selling it would be like plucking flesh from their hearts. It was better to develop more ways to use the crop properly!

After he thought for a while, Bai Li added a satiety and energy value system to the game. The former made people feel hungry, the latter made people physically tired, so when those two values dropped to a certain level, players needed to replenish themselves through food or rest until the value slowly recovered in order to continue working.

Game well, and combine work and rest.

Together with this, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, dishes, cups and chopsticks and all kinds of spatulas could also be bought from the village chief.

Bai Li quickly conceived of those things and added them to the shelves of the old village chief’s store. In order not to have the players get aesthetic fatigue, he deliberately made a lot of different patterns, and made enough to sell for a while.

If those who bought it could not sell it, would those who missed it be able to eat it? It smelled good and tasted even better!

While Bai Li kept on envisioning, the game also quietly changed. When he finished planting nine plots of land and finished tending the plants according to his custom, he looked up and saw Wen XingYao’s hands were covering his stomach as he frowned, “Li Bai, you updated the game…Why didn’t you say so first?”

To suddenly be hungry, it was like his originally full stomach was suddenly empty, like a big hole, who could bear it?

Not to mention Wen XingYao, Bai Li himself actually felt a strong sense of hunger. He smiled in embarrassment and took the initiative to say, “I optimized some of the content. You feel hungry because you have planted too long, and now you need to eat some food to replenish yourself. The village chief sells white buns with simple seasonings. We can go buy ready-made or make it ourselves.”

There was a place that sold food? Then what are you waiting for, let’s go!

The two looked at each other, put down the work in their hands and went out to find the old village chief.

At the entrance of the village, they found the village chief’s location had a long queue. A group of tall, long-legged fierce men and women who were dutifully lined up in a long line, as they looked nervously at the front. To see their posture, it was as if they were afraid they would be robbed.

Two people walked to the end of the line, and waited in turn. On the way, Wen XingYao patted the shoulder of the person in front of him, to ask him what happened.

What a coincidence it was that this person was still someone they knew.

“It’s you?”

“King Pili?”

Xiong Pili heaved a response, “Hey!” Then, and only then did he look at Bai Li with a puzzled face, trying to recall who this person really was.

Bai Li remembered that he had changed his face in the game, so Xiong Pili shouldn’t be able to recognize him. On the contrary, Xiong Pili’s appearance had not changed much, only the pair of round hairy ears on top of his head were missing.

“I’m Bai Li,” he introduced himself with a whisper to the man.

“So it’s Mr. Bai!” Xiong Pili was happy that he had rejoined Bai Li in the game so soon.

After they added friends, Xiong Pili told Bai Li and the others the reason why everyone was lining up there.

“Why, the game just updated suddenly, everyone soon found out about the satiety level, and then they were all hungry. The game has only one NPC, the village chief, so we ran over to ask the village chief what to do. The next thing you know, one of the guys found a white steamed bun in the village chief’s store. They are only 2 copper coins a piece. It’s super cheap, so the guy bought one and took it out. It was as big as half his face! The first bite of the steamed bun was a skeptical one, and then he couldn’t stop eating it. In less than a minute, he actually ate up such a large steamed bun, and now people are still in line, all are said to be using all their copper coins to buy steamed buns.” After he said that, he lifted the back of his hand to wipe the corner of his mouth, and swallowed heavily once more.

“Mr. Bai, Demon Xing, now you should know why all of us people are lining up here.” Xiong Pili spoke with regret, “I should have known that I shouldn’t have thought of planting the seeds before coming here, it’s not good that I’m so far back in line, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to eat the legendary white buns. You guys should know, this steamed bun won’t be sold out, right?”

Oh, the ‘legendary’ one was here!

“Don’t worry. They won’t sell out. There are enough,” Bai Li said softly.

As the designer of the game, his words were the most convincing, not to mention that the appearance of white bun was also Bai Li’s initiative, and the unlimited supply was also set by him. As a matter of fact, after he heard Bai Li’s words, Xiong Pili’s eyes lit up and he muttered a few words. “I forgot about that.”

He didn’t say any more, probably because Bai Li didn’t want to reveal his identity to the public.

The people in front of the group didn’t notice the conversation of the three people at the end. Their minds were completely occupied by the sudden appearance of the white bun. There was no time to care about others.

As each player succeeded in buying the white buns, the line became shorter and shorter, and the sweet aroma filled the air. The players who hadn’t yet bought them became more and more greedy, and the sound of their swallowing became much louder.

Finally, it was Xiong Pili’s turn to buy. He wasn’t polite, and used all the coins he had saved from his previous quests to buy steamed buns, then held one in each hand and put the rest in his backpack.

The white steamed buns were soft and fluffy, but they looked pocket-sized in his big fan-like hands, so he didn’t have time to look at them. Xiong Pili couldn’t wait to stuff one of them into his mouth. A big bite, and when the sweet but not greasy taste exploded in his mouth, his tears flowed down with a swish.

“True! Good! Eat! Ahh! What divine delicacy is this?!”