Chapter 8: How Could There Be Such a Massive Mutated Plant Outside the West Wall?! Danger!
“Holy mother of…”
Long Shi, Old Hu, and the others walked up to the tricycle, their faces plastered with the bewildered shock of country bumpkins seeing the world for the first time.
“How much? Eighty-three City Coins?!”
Long Qian was hardly faring any better.
Learning that her bag of crystals and assorted scrap metal was worth eighty-three coins, the shock on her face was not a fraction less than that of the companions who had just tagged along.
“Yes.” Ling Jing nodded. “What would you like to purchase?”
“Auntie Qian, trading for City Coins with Boss Sister always gets you more!” Lina, acting as an experienced veteran, piped up knowingly.
In her mouth, Ling Jing had already been upgraded from “Boss” to “Boss Sister.”
“Then I… these roasted sweet potatoes can purge two percent of toxins, right?”
Suddenly having fifty-some coins turn into eighty-three had swept Long Qian off her feet; she barely knew what to buy first.
“That is correct.”
“Then let’s start with five! No… six!”
“Certainly.” Nimble and practiced, Ling Jing packed six roasted sweet potatoes into paper bags and handed them over to Long Qian.
“Xiaoya, over here. You and Long Shi force-feed five of these sweet potatoes to Geli, and give this one to Lina and her sister.”
“Got it.”
Long Qian turned back around. “And I’ll also take—”
“One moment, please.”
Ling Jing glanced at her interface.
—[Novice Quest: Complete 10 transactions (3/10)]
Buying six sweet potatoes in a single go only counted as a single transaction.
“For the rest of the items you wish to buy, could you have someone else step forward and purchase them one by one?”
Ling Jing asked politely, dropping a subtle hint.
At the same time, her gaze swept across the group standing behind Long Qian.
“Sure. Boss, is there a purchase limit per person?” Long Qian asked cautiously.
“Not at all.” Ling Jing smiled. “Consider it doing me a small favor.”
“No problem, no problem at all.” Though puzzled, Long Qian agreed without hesitation.
“Great. Then I’ll give you your change first.” Ling Jing scooped up the remaining forty-seven City Coins in two handfuls and dropped them into Long Qian’s pocket.
Long Qian turned around to brief her crew.
“Hello, I’d like one potato.”
“Hello, I’ll take a sweet potato.”
Who knew how they had worked it out amongst themselves.
Aside from the person laid out unconscious to the side, the remaining seven stepped forward one after another.
Some asked for sweet potatoes, while others asked for potatoes.
Ling Jing handled each exchange while keeping one eye on her interface.
(4/10)
(5/10)
…
Distributing the money so they could line up and buy things individually felt utterly redundant, like taking off your pants just to fart.
Yet it worked wonders for Ling Jing.
“Here is your potato.”
As the potato was handed over, the transaction counter on the interface ticked up once more.
It reached 10/10.
—[Congratulations! You have completed the Novice Quest!]
[The official Management Interface has been unlocked for you! /Confetti /Confetti /Confetti]
Seeing that Long Qian’s group had no immediate plans to buy more, Ling Jing lowered her head and gave the screen a light swipe.
She began to examine this “official Management Interface.”
Geli woke up to a jostling rhythm.
Though he was awake, he couldn’t even open his eyes.
Pain. Excruciating pain wracked his entire body.
It felt as though his limbs and internal organs were submerged in sulfuric acid—a torment that stripped skin and tore sinew.
So this was what the final stages of emerald mist corrosion felt like before death.
Thump.
He was set down on the ground.
Auntie Qian and the others were probably looking to erect a gravestone for him.
Geli thought dazedly.
In the apocalypse, the living endured endless misery, while the dead had nowhere to rest.
This was fine, too.
Having a grave mound after passing wasn’t a luxury everyone got to enjoy.
“…Take, take this.”
Trembling, he used every ounce of strength left in his body to tug free the necklace against his collarbone. “Take… this.”
It bore the name of his late dog. It should fetch half a City Coin.
“Keep it yourself.”
Someone spoke by his ear, casually tucking the necklace back into his collar.
Geli could no longer tell who was speaking.
The next instant, a warm mass of food was shoved into his mouth.
“Mmph?”
What was this?
The pain had corroded his five senses alongside his body; he couldn’t taste what was in his mouth at all.
“Don’t worry about anything else, just swallow it down!” someone urged.
Geli swallowed instinctively.
…Except it was endless.
The moment he choked down one mouthful, another was shoved right in.
Swallow, shove, swallow, shove…
He was choking!
Geli broke into a violent fit of coughing.
Someone swiftly poured a mouthful of water down his throat.
Immediately after, another huge bite of something soft and squishy was jammed into his mouth.
…Was it his imagination? Why did the stuff in his mouth taste a little sweet?
It even seemed a bit hot.
Mmph! Who the hell was shoving food down his throat? So rough! This bite was jammed straight against the back of his throat, nearly making him gag.
After blindly forcing down who-knew-how-many bites, Geli forced his eyes open in sheer desperation.
Squatting before him was the culprit shoving sweet potato into his mouth.
Long Ya! Figures.
He knew it—who else had no sense of restraint and had never learned how to spell the word “gentle” from the womb, if not Long Ya!
Geli painfully swallowed the bite in his mouth, raising a trembling hand to grab Long Ya’s eager wrist. “W-wait a second… You’re going to choke me to death.”
“Whoa! He really woke up!” Long Ya shouted.
The people nearby crowded around instantly, every single one clutching a… potato?
Wait, when had his vision become so clear?
Hadn’t his eyesight been corroded to a blur by the poison?
Wait, what?
Sweet potatoes?
Potatoes??
With his own eyes, he watched Long Shi take a massive bite out of the potato in his hand before leaning in to ask, “How are you feeling?”
Potatoes were edible now???
Haha.
He was already dead, wasn’t he?
Turns out you enter a fantasy world after dying.
“Hiss—“
Seeing him zone out, Long Ya reached out and gave his cheek a brutal pinch.
“Ow, ow, ow…”
“Oho, you actually feel pain? The green really faded a bit!” Long Ya hollered.
“Whoa, incredible! Roasted sweet potatoes are that good at purging poison? How many did you feed him?”
“Just finished the fourth one. There’s still this one left,” Long Ya said.
“What… sweet potatoes?”
“Your lucky star is shining. A miraculous boss set up a stall right here, selling roasted sweet potatoes and roasted potatoes,” Long Shi said, squatting beside him.
“Can’t wrap your head around it, right? Neither can I. But they’re genuine roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, and they actually detoxify you. Count your blessings,” another person added.
“And besides…”
The companions gathered around him began talking all at once, each chiming in to explain.
A moment later, Geli finally grasped the situation through a haze of shock, confusion, disbelief, and sheer bewilderment.
So, everything that had just been shoved down his throat was sweet potato?
He looked down at the final sweet potato Long Ya had tossed into his lap, telling him to eat it himself now that he was awake.
It smelled so good.
It looked expertly roasted—the reddish-brown skin had split open, oozing dark orange, caramelized nectar.
So just now, with his taste buds completely numb, he had wolfed down four whole sweet potatoes?
What an absolute waste of heavenly gifts.
He desperately wanted to regurgitate them just so he could eat them all over again.
Geli swallowed hard, taking a reverent, careful bite of the roasted sweet potato in his hands.
So sweet, so…
RUMBLE!
A sudden, deafening crash drew everyone’s attention.
What was that?
The crowd whipped their heads around, only to see a massive boulder nearby sent flying. A brownish mutated plant wobbled out from behind it, rearing its head.
It stood a full three people tall! It looked like a gargantuan, mutated bamboo shoot.
“Damn it, it must have been drawn by our noise!” Long Qian’s face hardened as she drew the machete strapped to her back.
“How could there be a plant with such high vitality and mutation levels outside the west wall?!” Qiu Jie shoved his unfinished potato into his pocket, pulling two iron rods from his hips.
“Old Hu, get Geli on your back and take Lilin and Lina out of here, fast! Long Ya, you and Xiao Zhou help the boss retreat!”
Long Qian reacted instantly.
“Got it!”
“Everyone, please remain calm.”
Just as everyone stood on high alert, a cool, steady female voice rang out.
Having finished browsing her interface, Ling Jing looked up and cast a calm, indifferent glance at the colossal mutated bamboo shoot lumbering toward them. “Feel free to continue enjoying your meal.”
The crowd bracing for battle: “?”
