Chapter 29: Community 135
[Life is an island, and we are all its residents.]
[Congratulations on clearing the Raft Survival + Island Survival instances.]
[Congratulations on successfully surviving for 28 days. You have obtained 1,620 Gold Coins (28 * 40 + 500).]
[You have defeated 100 game mobs, obtaining 3,000 Gold Coins (100 * 30).]
[Congratulations on obtaining 4 Land Item Cards, gaining 4 mu of land. You now have a total of five Land Item Cards, which can be synthesized into a personal instance.]
[Because you cleared this round of the game and performed outstandingly, the Special Mall is now open. You may purchase exactly 3 items.]
Special Mall? Chu Yun instantly perked up. A mall interface automatically materialized before her. It was much more complex than the one in the community convenience store, and its module categories were incredibly varied. There was no weapons option, but the major categories like food, clothing, housing, transportation, and daily entertainment were richly stocked with a dazzling variety of styles.
Chu Yun scanned the text at a glance. After quickly browsing through the categories she wanted, she made her selection. Her gold coins were limited; adding her previous remaining 2,750 coins, she now had a total of 7,370 coins.
She wanted to farm, so her top priority was the agricultural category. The automatic plow cost over ten thousand, so she had no choice but to give up on it due to a lack of funds. Fortunately, she had already obtained a hoe to till the land manually.
As a highly urgent necessity, she had acquired a solar generator during the “Life and Death Speed” sub-quest in the Highway Survival instance. By pairing it with a water pump to water the crops, she could save a massive amount of time. She selected a vegetable-watering pump set with a 100-meter hose, which cost her 600 gold coins.
A threshing machine was also vital. It could thresh various shelled crops such as rice, wheat, peanuts, corn, and soybeans. Chu Yun bought it without hesitation for 2,000 gold coins. She also bought a portable electric harvester for 500 gold coins.
All the agricultural tools cost Chu Yun 3,100 coins, leaving her with 4,270 coins.
Once her selection was complete, the fee was automatically deducted from her personal interface.
[The next round of the game will take place in 5 days. Please be prepared.]
The moment the system finished its final sentence, the white light dispersed, and Chu Yun appeared inside her small apartment.
She couldn’t wait to pull up the system interface to bind her Land Item Cards. Then, she clicked “Synthesize.” She now possessed a total of five Land Item Cards, giving her 50 mu of land. When Chu Yun entered her farm, she found the space had grown significantly larger.
[Congratulations on successfully collecting 5 item cards and synthesizing the personal instance—Happy Farm. Please check the operational guide.]
- As the owner and operational officer of the instance, you need to establish the corresponding rules for it. Any player entering the instance must abide by your rules, or they will be unconditionally expelled.
- You may issue tasks to players. Players are free to apply, and you will provide corresponding rewards. You are solely responsible for your own profits and losses.
- Instances are mutually independent. Once a task is issued and a player accepts it, it immediately becomes an official game instance. A player cannot enter two instance games simultaneously.
- Players who accept a personal instance task can bypass other games, with the exception of the instance owner.
- The instance can continue to be expanded.
- Other rules are left to be discovered on your own.
Simply put, she could establish her own rules and issue tasks just like a game. If she entered another game instance herself, the Happy Farm instance would temporarily become inactive.
She pulled up the farm interface. In the top-left corner of the Happy Farm miniature map, a few new control options had appeared: Issue Task / Invite Teammates.
Issuing a task allowed her to set task rules and rewards. Tasks were divided into long-term tasks, short-term tasks, and temporary tasks, which could be configured entirely according to the farm owner’s wishes.
Inviting teammates was equivalent to hosting a dinner party. Since it was already 12:00 AM and late at night, she planned to test these two functions tomorrow.
She possessed a spatial item, making it very convenient to move heavy machinery around. However, it wouldn’t be convenient if she had to recruit players for tasks right now. Therefore, considering future matters like transporting and watering, she arranged the plots of land into a single large rectangle, placing the brook along one of its long sides.
The system-configured brook could automatically adjust according to the length of the land; the brook that was previously 30 meters long had now extended to 90 meters.
Next, she placed the water pump, threshing machine, and harvester purchased from the Special Mall onto the ground beside the brook, and exited Happy Farm. With 50 mu of land, a task this massive was something she couldn’t handle entirely on her own.
Immediately after leaving Happy Farm, she briefly explained the situation regarding her personal instance in their three-person group chat and headed out. She planned to check out the central lawn of the community. Going by her past experiences, there would still be plenty of night owls out at this hour.
The old man from whom Chu Yun had previously bought a straw mat was currently on the community clearing with his grandson. This area was spacious and prime real estate, and it had subtly evolved into a gathering hub for players. People were venting about the game, chatting about the forum, talking about domestic matters, and even bartering items. When Chu Yun last came, there were only a handful of small stalls, but now they had clearly multiplied.
The old man held the stall at the very edge. When Chu Yun arrived, they were working with their heads down. This time, his grandson was doing the labor while the old man guided him from the side.
Before entering the game, machinery had gradually phased out manual labor, leaving fewer and fewer of these traditional craftsmen with a livelihood. He hadn’t expected their trade to enjoy a resurgence inside the game world.
The bamboo baskets were very sturdy. According to the old man, he and his grandson had gathered a massive amount of bamboo and wood on the island, enough to last them a long time. Chu Yun bought the two finished bamboo baskets and placed an order for 10 more. Finding his profile in her friends list, she transferred a payment of 50 gold coins along with a deposit.
The old man basically made only one basket a day; his output was low and his clients were scattered, making Chu Yun by far his largest customer.
Being able to utilize two baskets this large and placing such a massive order meant she had a lot of things to pack. The old man was startled; rumor had long since spread that the young girl before him was the most formidable figure in this community. Looking at this display, she was clearly making a new move.
He began to grow rather eager.
“Uncle Zhang, do you know if anyone in our community has farming experience? I’m looking to hire 5 farmers who know how to till the land, and I’ll provide compensation.” The old man’s surname was Zhang, as Chu Yun had seen in her friends list.
“Oh, what a coincidence! My neighbor, Brother Li, has farmed his entire life. Who knew that at over fifty years old, he’d be dragged into this wretched game? He doesn’t have any skills other than farming, so his days have been quite bitter. Come, come, come, I’ll take you to him right now.”
Uncle Zhang left his stall in his grandson’s care and, completely disregarding the hour, frantically led Chu Yun to find the man, terrified of losing a massive order.
Uncle Li lived in Room 204, located on the outermost ring directly diagonal from Chu Yun’s room, sharing a space with a man around his age. When they were selecting rooms, they had deliberately teamed up based on their age group, terrified that living across a generational gap would make daily life uncomfortable or lead to being disliked.
Consequently, several consecutive rooms in this area were occupied by the elderly and children. Uncle Zhang told her that the elderly and children in the community basically gathered in this single corner.
“Brother Li, open up quickly,” Uncle Zhang knocked on the door.
“What is it?” It took Uncle Li quite a while to emerge from the room, his face sallow and his expression haggard—a clear picture of malnutrition combined with poor rest.
“Come out quickly! This young lady says she’s looking for a few experienced farmers to till the land, and she can pay gold coins!”
Seeing Uncle Zhang wasn’t alone outside the door, Uncle Li hadn’t expected an unfamiliar young girl to be with him. Judging by her outfit and expression, she lived very well. His own appearance before his future employer was truly a bit shabby, and he rubbed his head uncomfortably.
“Do you really need us?” Uncle Li found it a bit strange. What use was learning to farm in this game? Fleeing for one’s life left no spare time to grow crops.
He had only just mastered how to use the friends chat function on his personal interface and had absolutely no idea a forum existed, unlike Uncle Zhang’s family which had a school-aged grandson; young people picked up everything quickly. Therefore, he had no idea that Land Item Cards even existed.
Chu Yun stated, “Yes, I need 5 people. Work starts tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM. If you have others to recommend, you can bring them along to Room 501.”
“Is… is that so? That’s fantastic! I’ll bring the men and arrive on time tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM.” The sallow face of Uncle Li, who had worn a frown for over a dozen days, finally broke into a smile, and even his haggard spirit improved significantly.
With everything finalized, Chu Yun returned home, washed up, and lay down on her comfortable bed to sleep. This time, the interval between games was a full 5 days, giving her plenty of time to do what she wanted.
At 6:00 AM, Chu Yun opened her eyes right on time. The bed provided by the system was highly conducive to sleep, causing the physical fatigue of the past few days to vanish entirely in an instant.
Opening her door, the crisp morning air washed over her face. She took a deep breath as the air filled her lungs—cool, with a trace of leaf fragrance that instantly snapped her mind awake. Her room sat directly backed against the small woods, which were immediately adjacent to the beach. At this moment, she could still hear the waves crashing rhythmically against the shore.
A beautiful day had begun!
Chu Yun washed up and ate a hasty breakfast, then issued two tasks on her personal interface’s farm instance module.
Task 1: Requires 2 managers. Duties: Miscellaneous management work for Happy Farm. Reward: 20 Gold Coins + lunch and dinner. Task duration: From 6:00 AM to 12:00 AM, flexible hours.
Task 2: Requires 5 cultivation workers. Primary duties: Tilling, watering, and harvesting. Reward: 10 Gold Coins + lunch and dinner. Hours: From 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Not long after the tasks were issued, with some time still remaining before 7:00 AM, she heard quiet discussions outside her door, the voices carrying traces of delight and urgency.
It turned out to be the community players who were coming to claim the tasks today.
After Uncle Li and Chu Yun had reached an agreement last night, he had been so excited he couldn’t sleep all night. He brought several neighbors to Room 501 early in the morning.
Aside from Uncle Li, those who came included a sharp, capable woman in her late forties and three honest, upstanding farmers. Their complexions were dark, showing at a glance that they had spent many years working hard in the fields.
On the way over, some hadn’t believed the validity of the task, remaining deeply worried.
“Brother Li, you weren’t swindled by someone, were you? How can there be such a good deal? We only earn five gold coins a day in the game, yet we can get ten gold coins just for tilling the land? And it even covers lunch and dinner?” someone raised a doubt.
“No, I don’t think that girl is that kind of person.” Uncle Li was also very anxious internally. Although he also felt it was a bit unbelievable, he subconsciously believed Chu Yun possessed this kind of capability. Filled with doubt and excitement, the group arrived early at Chu Yun’s room together.
Next to arrive were Yu Wenhao and Xu Dongdong. Having received Chu Yun’s message in the group chat, they applied for the manager positions early in the morning. This was also the first time they were about to witness Chu Yun’s personal farm instance.
Chu Yun opened the door, and the group standing outside instantly fell silent, their slouched backs involuntarily straightening. Regardless of whether it was real or not, they still needed to put on a good performance before the girl who could potentially become their employer.
Chu Yun created a Happy Farm employee group. Every employee present scanned the code to enter the group, and subsequently, Chu Yun shared a task link.
Xu Dongdong acted as the explainer, guiding the older players through their personal interfaces to apply for the tasks.
Because what Chu Yun had issued was a private task, players scattered across other communities didn’t see the appearance of this personal farm instance. Otherwise, before Chu Yun’s farm had even taken shape, it would have whipped up another massive wave of shock.
The moment she clicked approve, everyone present instantly vanished from the spot, entering the Happy Farm Chu Yun had spoken of.
Every single person who entered the farm was filled with pure wonder. The people Uncle Li had brought looked around curiously. Seeing such a vast expanse of land, their hearts instantly settled; it turned out this girl truly possessed such immense capability and could genuinely provide them with a job.
They silently resolved to perform well, as this livelihood hadn’t come easily.
Before doing the Raft Survival and Island Survival missions, the crops she had planted in Happy Farm had already naturally matured. Having flowered and borne fruit, they had grown old and dried up on the plots.
Her seed reserves weren’t abundant, so these happened to be perfect for harvesting seeds.
Chu Yun pulled out a pen and paper to draw. Using one mu of land as a boundary, she divided the area into a $5 X 5 grid of plots. Two plots would be used to plant staple crops, two plots for fruit trees and vegetables, and one plot would be left blank for future use.
Next, she shared her planting plan with Uncle Li and the others. They were all veteran farmers, and once they received their tasks, they began to busy themselves.
Rice was planted in one plot, leaving two large packs of newly harvested seeds. Corn, potatoes, and the sweet potato vines gathered on the island occupied another plot, completely exhausting those seed supplies. Vegetables took up half a plot, consuming half a pack of seeds.
In the half plot adjacent to the vegetables, Chu Yun planted the kiwi branches at set intervals. She didn’t know what the 5 seeds inside the fruit seed pack were, but she had them plant those as well.
Presently, her remaining seeds consisted of less than half a pack of vegetable seeds and a pack of cotton seeds. Considering future crop rotations, Chu Yun intended to save seeds from this wave of planted flora. As for the specific operations and precautions, she left them entirely to Uncle Li and the others; with professionals holding the fort, she was completely at ease.
She didn’t put on the airs of a boss, laboring alongside Xu Dongdong, Uncle Li, and the others throughout the entire process.
Once the seeds were planted, she went about watering the land. Like other game instances, this place was a separate, independent minor world where her solar generator could be used freely. Chu Yun hooked it up in tandem with the vegetable-watering pump.
With the aid of the water pump, all the plots were quickly watered. Checking the prompts on the miniature map, the crystal nucleus reserve sat at 99.99%. Going by this rate of consumption, it could be used another 10,000 times, meaning she wouldn’t have to worry about energy issues anytime soon.
At noon, she issued two pieces of bread to each of her employees. The matured crops had all been saved for seed harvesting, so they could only be issued as meals next time.
Nonetheless, the employees who received the food were very happy, chewing on their bread with bright smiles.
During the noon break, Chu Yun sat to one side to browse the forum. As the owner of the personal instance, the rules were configured entirely by her; she had set it so that only she and the two managers could utilize their personal interfaces inside the farm.
