Chapter 112: A Massive Farm Expansion
Sure enough.
Ling Jing located the [Silo] in the Farm Supermarket.
Price: 600.
Currency: Fauna Tokens / Flora Tokens.
Either currency worked.
Back when her pockets were nearly bare, Ling Jing had only skimmed through the catalog, not bothering to browse what she couldn’t afford.
Much like the System Mall, the Farm Supermarket catalog seemed endless the further down one scrolled.
The variety was staggering, prices spiked sharply the deeper she browsed, and many items were so esoteric she had no idea what purpose they served.
The silo had been listed just a page or two past the seeds, which was how she retained a vague memory of it.
Six hundred Fauna or Flora Tokens would have practically wiped out her converted reserves in the past.
Now, however, times had changed.
Returning from a massive foraging sweep, Peace Envoy Ling Jing had converted every last beast and plant core in her possession.
Her current balance across both currencies stood at: Fauna Tokens – 2,425, Flora Tokens – 3,520.
A 600-token silo was well within her means.
Ling Jing checked the item description first:
[Silo (A dedicated storage facility for preserving hay, silage, and other raw feed ingredients. Capacity: 500,000 liters)]
Good enough. Time to spend.
Tokens unspent were as good as worthless, offering zero interest.
If this could gradually secure a steady supply of animal feed for future livestock, it was essentially printing money.
[Silo] purchased.
Paid with Flora Tokens.
Keeping a reasonable buffer, Ling Jing placed the silo directly behind the [Cultivation] plots.
A cylindrical red-brick structure rose from the soil, capped with a pitched wooden roof.
It looked remarkably spacious, stood tall, and took up very little lateral ground.
Now the conversion prompt on her harvested wheat and rice could finally be processed. She selected Option 2 for both.
She checked the box to retain this preference so the system wouldn’t bother asking again.
With byproducts like brown rice bran, wheat bran, and wheat straw secured, however, they couldn’t be fed to the animals as-is.
Ling Jing opened the coop status; the feed slot still only accepted the pre-packaged poultry feed bought from the Farm Supermarket.
What if I drag and drop?
Inside the system’s pixelated farm interface, the milled bran and grains were automatically bundled into neat sacks.
She tried dragging a bag of brown rice directly into the chicken coop, only for a prompt to pop up:
[Raw feed ingredients cannot be used directly for feeding. Processing is required at a [Feed Processing Station].]
Ling Jing glanced back at the Farm Supermarket.
[Feed Processing Station (Processes various specialized feeds for livestock and poultry.)] Price: 1,000 Fauna Tokens / Flora Tokens.
A processing station too.
It felt suspiciously like bundled purchases without so much as a tutorial prompt.
Then again, turning raw agricultural byproducts into balanced feed in the real world involved no small amount of labor.
Her current farm setup operated very much like a farming sim, where a single processing station automated every blend of feed.
That was convenient enough.
She had already bought the silo; she might as well grab the processing station.
Parting with another 1,000 Flora Tokens, Ling Jing purchased the unit.
She placed it right next to the silo behind the fields.
Another neat wooden structure broke ground, blocky and square, sporting a cozy little chimney on its roof.
On the pixelated farm interface, a matching icon with a puffing chimney popped into view.
[Feed Processing Station] — [Idle]
Ling Jing tapped the station’s console to inspect its operation.
The production menu unfurled:
Raw Material: Wheat Bran – 112 catties. Can produce Poultry Feed / Swine Feed: 112 units.
Raw Material: Rice Bran – 24 catties. Can produce Poultry Feed / Aquaculture Feed: 24 units.
Raw Material: Broken Rice – 36 catties. Can produce All-Purpose Feed: 36 units.
Raw Material: Rice Hulls – 60 catties. Can produce Ruminant Feed: 30 units.
These units… Ling Jing tapped on the wheat bran and selected poultry feed.
A sack of [Poultry Feed] slotted into the production queue, displaying a three-minute processing timer.
Wheat bran deducted by 10 catties, and available production units decreased by 10.
I see. Different feeds use different unit conversions.
Ling Jing had the gist of it now.
Since she wasn’t raising any other livestock yet, she maxed out the production queue using all available wheat and rice bran.
Once finished, it would yield 13 sacks of poultry feed.
Flora Token balance remaining: 1,920.
Time to plant.
Time to plant with a vengeance!
Ling Jing purchased nineteen additional plots. Combined with her previous eleven, her holdings expanded to thirty plots in total.
The fresh ground was sown entirely with wheat, rice, and corn.
Six plots of wheat, six plots of rice, and seven plots of corn.
She rearranged the layout into three neat rows of ten plots each, grouping identical crops together.
Now the fields truly looked like an expansive plantation.
When she had only managed a handful of plots, watering had felt effortless; with thirty plots to tend, clicking each one individually proved rather tedious.
Ling Jing tapped frantically across the [Cultivation] panel, only resting her hand once every single plot was thoroughly watered.
Next came [Livestock].
One duck coop plus ten meat ducklings: 550 Fauna Tokens.
Ducklings took slightly longer to mature than chicks—seven days in total.
They shared the same feed: standard poultry feed.
She topped off their feed trough and water bowl.
Fauna Token balance remaining: 1,875.
Ling Jing rubbed her hands together—time to raise pigs!
Time to lay the groundwork for a reliable, steady supply of pork.
Level 1 Pig Pen: 500 Fauna Tokens, capacity of five head.
Piglets cost 100 Fauna Tokens each.
She purchased one pen and five piglets, spending an even 1,000 Fauna Tokens.
Swine feed cost 50 Fauna Tokens per portion, sustaining five piglets for a full day.
Pigs had a much longer growth cycle, requiring 12 days to reach maturity.
Ling Jing bought a six-day supply of swine feed, leaving her with 575 Fauna Tokens in reserve.
—The Feed Processing Station couldn’t cover all her animals’ dietary needs just yet, so keeping a reserve of Fauna Tokens for emergencies was essential.
The pig pen was placed a comfortable distance behind the chicken coops.
She opened the console to provide the piglets with feed and fresh water.
Alright, that was about set.
Looking up, with the crops, chicken coops, duck house, and pig pen interconnected, the grounds were finally taking on the shape of a proper estate.
A massive farm expansion.
Between the restaurant and the farm, both operations had scaled up considerably tonight, undergoing sweeping transformations.
The rain canopies were pitched, the wings expanded, the farm broadened, and another automaton recruited to the workforce.
Another day of relentless, productive labor.
Ling Jing was thoroughly satisfied with the night’s yield.
She stretched her arms high overhead.
It was getting late.
Time for a shower, a foot soak, and sleep.
Rest up and recharge.
Come morning, the Rainy Season Time-Limited Quest would begin!
…
Seed City, Central Clock Tower.
Three in the morning.
Commander Yves was still in session.
Every division leader of the city guard, alongside two high-ranking inspectors, sat around the table.
The atmosphere in the room was suffocatingly tense.
