Chapter 39: Community 135
Zhang Xiaomei looked smugly at the leisurely Chu Yun in the crowd, a victorious smile on her face. She clicked ‘Exit’, but didn’t disappear. As she was feeling confused, a loud beep beep beep alarm sounded overhead, much like a police siren. The sound was so deafening that everyone on the farm heard it.
They looked around blankly for the source of the sound and saw a panicked Zhang Xiaomei under the fruit trees.
[Player Zhang Xiaomei attempted to abscond with goods, violating the farm instance rules. She will be expelled from the instance and permanently blacklisted.]
The moment the voice faded, Zhang Xiaomei was forcefully booted out, leaving behind a massive pile of freshly picked lychees on the ground.
The crowd was dumbfounded. No one dared to pick up the lychees on the ground; after all, someone had just been blacklisted for breaking the rules. In the end, Xu Dongdong asked the little girl selling lychees to tidy them up. As she gathered them from the ground, Shengnan let out a deep sigh of relief, silently thankful she hadn’t agreed to the woman’s demand.
Booted from the instance, Zhang Xiaomei finally felt regret, but it was too late—she was already blacklisted by the farm instance.
Inside Happy Farm, this public execution of Zhang Xiaomei completely severed any opportunistic thoughts other players might have harbored.
A permanent blacklist! No one could fight against the system’s rules, and no one was willing to risk losing both their goods and their access. Because of this, a new wave of rule discussions swept through the forum, and the pathetic Zhang Xiaomei was used as a cautionary tale in thread after thread.
Zhang Xiaomei’s incident didn’t draw much attention from Chu Yun. She merely cast a sidelong glance before turning back to eat a slice of watermelon while watching her movie. For just a split second, she felt she had seen that person somewhere before, but abandoned the thought a second later.
If she could forget her, it meant she wasn’t important.
Chu Yun was living very comfortably. Wang Mao had placed a low coffee table beside her lounge chair, holding a fruit platter and a pitcher of water. The fruit platter was never empty, as Wang Mao seized every opportunity to serve her tea and water.
Tourists had a time limit. After three hours, one batch of tourists was helplessly forced out, and a new batch entered, repeating the same actions: buying vegetables, then sitting down to watch TV. A movie usually lasted about an hour and a half, so she managed the time well, generally allowing each batch of players to watch two full movies.
This scene somewhat resembled the rural production team era of the 1970s. Back then, supplies were scarce and entertainment activities were few. The most popular and beloved leisure activity was watching open-air movies.
As soon as the sky turned dark, the men, women, and children of the village would carry their little stools and scramble for the best spots, waiting for the projectionist to set up. It was just that what they were watching now wasn’t a black-and-white film, but an ultra-high-definition color television.
Chu Yun was like that projectionist. Whenever a movie finished and she selected the next one, the players around her would stare at her unblinkingly, praying inwardly that she would pick a program they liked.
Chu Yun had bought two televisions in total. The other one was set up on the central lawn of Community 135. The TV leaned against the glass door of the convenience store, which perfectly allowed it to plug into an outlet inside the shop.
She had selected a 60-episode TV drama series, setting the playback time from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM. After one episode finished, the next would play automatically, interspersed with ten minutes or so of educational and science channels. She wasn’t afraid of it being stolen; the remote was in her hand, allowing her to turn it on and off at will. Stealing it would be useless since it couldn’t be played without it.
Thus, everyone sat there behaving themselves. Chu Yun not only had a super television, but she also owned Happy Farm, which sold reasonably priced fruits and vegetables. No one wanted to offend her.
When Chu Yun went to set up the super television, many people on the lawn saw her.
A community only had 2,000 people, so gossip was scarce. The gossiping old women all said it was brought over by the girl from Room 501. This girl was incredibly formidable; not only had she opened the first player instance, but she also contributed a television for everyone’s entertainment. The forum was full of envious voices, painting a vivid picture. Word spread from ten to a hundred, and Chu Yun became known throughout the entire community—and even beyond—as a living saint.
At this moment, a dense crowd of players was gathered on the lawn of Community 135. They sat or stood, occasionally discussing the TV plot with the strangers beside them.
Grandpa Zhang and his grandson sat relatively far away. He still had to weave bamboo baskets; Chu Yun had placed several more orders with him. With Chu Yun’s business booming, he was also making money alongside her. Because his work took up too much space and would disturb others watching the show, he deliberately sat further away.
The super television was massive, and its audio quality was superb. The video resolution was 3240P, three times clearer than real-world ultra-high-definition. Therefore, even sitting far away, they could see perfectly clearly.
Lunch was cooked by Shengnan. She was swift and agile; with just two people helping out, she prepared a meal for eighteen people in half an hour. Three dishes, one soup, plus an after-meal fruit. There was no meat, but everyone still ate with immense joy.
Many things aren’t cherished when they’re around; only when they’re lost does one realize their preciousness. Everyone ate their plates clean, not wasting a single grain.
The baby chicks and ducklings, which served as their future source of meat, also had their growth cycles shortened by tenfold after drinking the water enhanced by the zombie crystal nucleus and eating the farm’s vegetables. They were now half-grown youngsters, and it was estimated they would start laying eggs in a few days. The farm employees said they could save the eggs to hatch a few more broods of chicks.
The task of caring for the chickens and ducks was handled by a 10-year-old girl. Her mother had a physical disability and poor mobility. Life for a single mother was hard enough; raising a little girl on top of that made their days incredibly bitter.
The moment the little girl saw the message Chu Yun posted, she knew her chance had come. Panting heavily, she sprinted to Room 502, becoming the very first person to interview.
She said she wanted to support herself so her mother wouldn’t have to work so hard.
Moved by the little girl’s innocent face, Xu Dongdong decisively gave her a spot. The little girl usually did chores diligently, so caring for the chickens and ducks was effortless for her. Aside from watching over the poultry, she also helped Shengnan sell fruit; the fruit stall was the most popular one.
After she joined, she didn’t need anyone to order her around at all. Wherever she saw work to be done, she immediately ran over, so all the farm staff adored her. She was eager to learn; whenever there was something she didn’t know, she would ask the uncles and aunties here. The staff were mostly simple rural folks with warm, honest personalities, so they were all very willing to teach her.
She deeply cherished this hard-won job. She earned 10 gold coins a day, with lunch and dinner included. Sometimes, when the harvest was good, the boss would generously distribute some vegetables and fruits for them to take home.
She had already brought back a large basket of fruits and vegetables for her mother. Every time her mother received them, she would stroke them like treasures. Previously, the gold coins her mother earned could only buy enough staple food to fill their stomachs. Now that the boss gave them so much, her mother could extravagantly enjoy fruit every day as well.
Since they were all doing physical labor, Chu Yun specifically instructed them to prepare more staple foods. At first, everyone was a bit bashful, until they saw Wang Mao eat bowl after bowl of rice while clutching a plump ear of corn. Not only did Chu Yun say nothing, she even handed him a sweet potato.
Thus, everyone let go of their reservations and began eating heartily. The corn was sweet, crisp, and smooth; the sweet potatoes were soft and delicate. Even eating them plain didn’t feel cloying. Condiments were sold in the community, and the boss was generous, preparing several buckets of cooking oil each time. Stir-fried in vegetable oil, the green vegetables smelled incredibly fragrant.
The final batch of tourists was from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
Just past 5:00 PM, a new batch of players entered.
When players first entered, they were all spawned in the clearing in front of the marketplace. Now that the crowd dispersed, they could clearly see the surrounding scenery.
“Bald Bro, it’s finally our turn! Look, how wonderful this place is. I really wish I could stay here for the rest of my life.”
The man addressed as Bald Bro smacked the back of his subordinate’s head hard and scolded, “I’m warning you, don’t get any crooked ideas! Didn’t you hear those game rules? Are you looking to die?!”
“Hehe, no way, Bro! I just have a loose tongue, a loose tongue!”
The bald man finally nodded in satisfaction. “Good. It’s not like we’re short on that bit of money; if we save up, we’ll have enough.”
“Right, right, right!” the four lackeys beside him chorused.
The group strolled around the fruit and vegetable stalls with novelty, planning to buy a handful of fruit and head over to watch TV. Just thinking about it felt blissful.
“Bald Bro, look quick, isn’t that…” a sharp-eyed lackey pointed excitedly at a figure strolling not far away.
“You’re a grown man, why are you dawdling? Can’t you say it all at once?” the bald man cursed, turning to follow the direction of his lackeys finger.
“Holy shit, isn’t that… isn’t that the Big Shot?” To confirm it clearly, the bald man led his lackeys and sprinted toward Chu Yun.
Having watched movies all day, Chu Yun was walking around when she caught sight of a group of people rushing frantically toward her from the corner of her eye. Her brows relaxed; finally, something had come her way. Everyone had taken over all the chores, and lying around all day had truly been too boring.
However, these people looked very familiar. Hmm, wasn’t this the bald man’s group she had met on the island’s mountain peak?
“Wow, it really is you, Big Shot! We meet again!” The bald man and his lackeys were extremely grateful to Chu Yun. If she hadn’t eliminated the bearded man, they wouldn’t have their little lives to be standing here right now!
Seeing them was within Chu Yun’s expectations; anyone would want to come check out the first player-owned personal farm instance. But she hadn’t expected it to be so soon. After all, her acquiring the bearded man’s two Land Item Cards was thanks to them stepping aside.
Chu Yun nodded. “Mm, yeah, I opened this farm. How is it?”
The bald man let out an exaggerated exclamation, “Big Shot, you are absolutely amazing! But it’s not surprising, you were already super formidable to begin with.”
The lackeys behind him chimed in to flatter her alongside the bald man. This bald guy’s group didn’t have bad intentions, but they were very street-smart. However, living in such a world, being a bit more calculating allowed one to live better. Chu Yun also acknowledged this way of living.
To fulfill her past promise, Chu Yun gifted them each 20 pounds of rice, 10 pounds of vegetables, and 10 pounds of fruit for free, saying she could send them more when new varieties were available. The bald man’s group wasn’t bashful, readily accepting the gifts. Look at all these supplies—they would be enough to eat for a long time!
Noticing the envious gazes of the surrounding crowd, the bald man felt immensely smug.
After accepting the items, the bald man didn’t try to use their past connection to demand anything further.
Understanding this, Chu Yun asked them, “Do you want to come here and do tasks?”
The lackeys’ hearts leaped with joy, wanting to agree on the spot, but they still looked toward the bald man to hear his opinion.
The bald man was very reluctant, but he gritted his teeth and refused, “Maybe not. Us grown men are thick-skinned and tough; we’re better suited for doing tasks in game instances. More opportunities, more rewards, right?”
He had seen it—the employees selling vegetables and farming here were all frail women, elderly folks over fifty, and even a little girl. He knew Chu Yun had specifically saved these jobs for these people. He didn’t have the face to bring his brothers in and snatch the livelihoods of the old, weak, sick, and disabled.
Chu Yun nodded. “Mm, alright then. I’ll activate permanent tourist qualifications for you. In the future, if you find new vegetables, fruits, or poultry that can be raised, you can bring them over. We’ll trade, and the price will be highly negotiable.”
“Yes, yes! Big Shot, you have no idea, the number of players fighting for a spot is insanely high. If Xiao Fang hadn’t woken up early, we would have missed this opportunity today.” The bald man and the lackeys beside him hurriedly displayed their personal interfaces.
Permanent tourist qualifications! They would never have to fight hundreds of millions of people for a spot again.
After bidding farewell, the group couldn’t wait any longer and ran off to watch the movie. Having gone without any recreational activities for so long, they were itching all over.
Because Chu Yun sold fruits and vegetables here and required players to pay, the instance rules she set allowed the use of personal interfaces and the world forum.
At this moment, the most discussed topic on the world forum was Chu Yun’s Happy Farm.
“The farm owner is so generous! I saw their employee meals—they’re incredibly good. Three dishes, one soup, an after-meal fruit, unlimited staple foods, and they even get paid in gold coins.”
“Isn’t that the truth? You can’t even earn 10 gold coins a day in a survival game. They must have gotten insanely lucky to claim such a god-tier task.”
“Not necessarily blind luck. They might be from the same community, so they got let in through the back door!”
“To the person above, don’t cry sour grapes just because you can’t reach them! What’s wrong with someone giving a few extra perks to their own community? If you’re not happy, go get your own personal instance and open our eyes too.”
“I agree with this poster. For this kind of business, of course you’d prioritize people you’re familiar with! The instance owner did nothing wrong.”
“I’m begging you, let there be another personal instance! Only 4,000 application spots a day is nowhere near enough. I want to eat watermelon too! I want to watch TV dramas too!”
“Yeah, my roommate bought a pound of watermelon and gave me a bit. The taste was absolutely divine. I haven’t watched a show in so long either; I really want to just binge-watch a series in comfort!”
“Be patient, they released spots early this morning. If we camp out early tomorrow, we’ll definitely snag one.”
Other instances?
With so many people across the server, the total number of Land Item Cards was actually quite substantial. She also hoped for a few more instances to appear, preferably with different functions, which could enrich the boring community life.
The hired employees all performed excellently, so Chu Yun didn’t bother picking new ones, changing their tasks back to long-term tasks.
Over the next few days, task applications remained incredibly hot. The tasks released early in the morning were fully claimed within minutes. Everyone brought their own stools; the moment they entered, they made a beeline for the television area to find the best spot and sit down to watch a few hours of TV.
Bound by the rules, no one dared to fight or brawl, so they got along exceptionally well. When only a few minutes remained, they would head to the vegetable area to pick a few preferred veggies, then exit the instance—they were absolute masters of time management. Because of this, the sisters selling vegetables were very free most of the time. After helping finish some other chores, they would stand by their stalls, staring at the television not far away with great relish.
In the following days, Chu Yun specifically set up a stall next to the fruit stall to serve as a trading post.
After multiple tasks, many players should have accumulated quite a few useful item cards and supplies. She intended to collect some rare resources from players, such as Land Item Cards, zombie crystal nuclei, space backpacks, and so on. Land Item Cards and zombie crystal nuclei were accepted without refusal; they were indispensable for her farm instance.
Other rare items depended on the players’ willingness. Those who trusted her could collateralize their supplies with her first. Based on the agreed-upon trading price, Chu Yun would pay a 10% advance deposit. Once a willing buyer was found and the gold coins were received, she would pay the remaining 90%. Those who didn’t trust her could simply register and make a record here first. Once a suitable buyer was found, Chu Yun would notify both parties and issue a trading task to complete the sale. For every transaction, she would take a 1% commission.
This stall was particularly popular, so Chu Yun recruited two more staff members from her community. They handled communication, explanations, and record-keeping; during the actual transaction, Chu Yun would provide the final confirmation.
Players loved this stall. Players with abundant supplies would come here to sell items they didn’t need, exchanging them for large amounts of gold coins before heading to the fruit and vegetable stalls to buy food. Those who were capable and looking to buy rare items would pick what they wanted or write down their demands. After the last Tycoon Simulation, most players had saved up quite a few gold coins, so their spending had bumped up a notch.
Over these few days, Chu Yun successively bought 6 Land Item Cards and one zombie crystal nucleus. Based on her previous prices in the system mall, one Land Item Card cost 100,000, and she also paid 100,000 for the zombie crystal nucleus.
Many item cards were obtained by several players or an entire team. 100,000 gold coins was considered filthy rich across all communities, so after converting it to gold coins, each of them received more or less 10,000 to 50,000.
Xie Jia was one such player who accidentally obtained a Land Item Card. Coincidentally, after getting separated from Chu Yun’s group due to a whirlpool in Raft Survival, she was washed to the other side of the island. There, she encountered her two roommates whom she had teamed up with. By a stroke of luck, they found a supply pack and obtained a Land Item Card.
She had the ambition to synthesize a personal instance, but acquiring subsequent Land Item Cards was too difficult. Lacking Chu Yun’s formidable combat skills, she consulted with her teammates and sold the item card. Now, each of them had over 30,000 extra gold coins on hand, effectively becoming rich overnight. Each of them bought a large slice of watermelon and a bag of chilled lychees, sitting happily to watch the show. Survival was too painful; having a chance to let themselves enjoy life was also exceptionally nice.
Before coming to this instance, she hadn’t expected the instance owner to be an old acquaintance, but thinking about it, it wasn’t surprising. Chu Yun had always been the most dazzling presence in the crowd.
With the addition of 6 Land Item Cards, Chu Yun’s farm expanded into a 4×4 layout, totaling 16 mu of land. For the 6 extra mu, she intended to use 2 mu for fruits and vegetables, 1 mu for livestock, 1 mu to expand the marketplace, and leave 2 mu temporarily empty. Because the marketplace area expanded, the number of people for her tourist tasks increased from 1,000 per session to 2,000 per session.
With players from all communities gaining half as many chances again, everyone talked about it with great delight.
Aside from various rare supplies, Chu Yun also collected a few fish fry, a grapevine, bamboo, loofah, and small oyster mushrooms.
She raised the fish fry in the brook, having the farm employees feed them ground corn and vegetables. The bamboo was planted separately on 1/3 of a mu. Bamboo grew exceptionally fast, and a few days in the farm equated to dozens of days in a plant’s growth cycle. By the time many players entered for a second time, they found a bamboo grove had sprouted on the farm. Mature bamboo could be chopped down and sold at a fair price to Uncle Zhang and his grandson to make various bamboo products, while the smaller shoots could be dug up to eat.
Now, the crops in her farm were incredibly diverse. Staple foods included rice, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes—4 types in total. Vegetables included lettuce, garland chrysanthemum, cauliflower, napa cabbage, rapeseed, tomatoes, pumpkin, water spinach, bamboo shoots, loofah, and oyster mushrooms—11 types in total. Fruits included lychee, mango, apple, kiwi, orange, and grape—6 types in total. Meats included chicken, duck, and fish—3 categories in total.
Following the lychees, the mangoes also matured. With a fragrant aroma filling the air, the fruit stall welcomed another massive influx of players who loved mangoes.
Chu Yun still saved the seeds, planting 20 more of both lychees and mangoes.
On the 9th rest day, the fish fry, baby chicks, and ducklings had all grown up. The fish laid a batch of eggs, conservatively estimated to yield over 50 fish, darting through the brook like little tadpoles. The hens and ducks could lay 3 eggs a day—one each in the morning, noon, and evening. The farm staff marveled at the hens’ exaggerated egg-laying speed. After marveling, they cheerfully collected them one by one, placing them in a designated shed.
Four chicken and duck coops had been built in the farm using bamboo. Two were reserved for the current chickens and ducks to use, and the extra two were for storing eggs. The bedding inside the coops was made of sun-dried rice stalks.
The rice had been harvested many times. The leftover rice stalks that Uncle Zhang couldn’t use up for weaving would be placed in the chicken and duck coops, to be replaced with new ones a few days later. The old ones were used to compost fertilizer, and the composted fertilizer was then sprinkled on the land to enrich the soil. Combined with the fertilizer produced by the restrooms, it was just enough for the dozen or so mu of land.
The farm workers were all experienced agricultural experts. Chu Yun’s daily job was merely to patrol the empire she had built, occasionally heading to the trading post to trade for an item.
Xu Dongdong and Yu Wenhao were much more diligent than her. Xu Dongdong was chatty and had fashioned a red armband for himself; whenever newly entered players didn’t know what to do, they would catch him to ask questions. Yu Wenhao was a down-to-earth person who really enjoyed watering the fields; every day when the hour struck, he would grab a hose and run off spraying water everywhere.
On the final rest day, Chu Yun calculated her assets. She had prepared a set of condiments and several medical bandages. Over the past few days, combining what she had earned from selling fruits and vegetables and deducting the wages paid to the employees, her personal balance currently stood at 58,000 gold coins.
A new game would begin tomorrow. Although her farm currently boasted abundant supplies, the variety wasn’t rich enough. She wasn’t someone to stop here; she still needed to explore other instances. The games had to continue, but cultivation also needed to carry on, so Chu Yun suspended all tasks except the farming ones.
