Chapter 8: Great Luck and Prosperity!
Game Lobby.
Encounter on a Narrow Road: "I was curious about Hunting Boss's shop, so I went to check it out. Guess what I saw? The tomatoes Hunting Moment sells are ridiculously expensive. One tomato exchanges for five basic materials, and he even wants three small tomatoes for one heart of energy. Is he crazy?"
"I'm speechless. Even if you gave me those kinds of tomatoes for free before the game started, I wouldn't eat them. They're only good for filling a gap between teeth!"
Lush Green Grass: "Indeed, the tomatoes Hunting Moment is selling are too expensive. Today is the first day of the game. Everyone should help each other. How can someone be a profiteer and harm their own compatriots?"
"Moreover, Hunting Moment targeted me today. I believe I've never done anything wrong, and everything I do is for the benefit of everyone!"
Long Aotian Ben Ao: "What? One small tomatofor five materials? I can't even exchange that much for a pack of instant noodles!"
Encounter on a Narrow Road: "It's that expensive, and his tomatoes are still sold out. You guys are a bunch of spineless weaklings, rushing to get ripped off and practically licking his boots! What if we just don't buy them? Can Hunting Moment really come over and kill us? This is the early game, we still have beginner protection!"
The Stubbornness of the Bald Girl: "????"
"What are you talking about? What's the loss? It's a normal trade, just buying a tomato. It's a willing transaction. Neither the seller nor the buyer has complained, yet you guys are getting worked up!"
Dreaming of Becoming a Live-in Son-in-Law: "Exactly. You guys are boring. Could Hunting Boss be selling tiny tomatoes? I just bought one; it's bigger than both my fists combined, four to five times the size of a normal tomato. Exchanging this kind of tomato for five materials, I think Hunting Boss is the one losing out!"
Dreaming of Becoming a Live-in Son-in-Lawquickly posted a picture of the tomato in the lobby.
Encounter on a Narrow Road: "What does that prove? It's just a bit bigger than a regular tomato. How can he sell it for this price?"
"And why am I speaking up for you all? Isn't it because I want to drive the price down so everyone can benefit? You people are incredibly stupid!"
White-Clothed Tea Brewer: "No, that's not it. The tomato Hunting Boss sells is especially delicious, better than any tomato in reality! I was starving all day, but eating just one filled me up, and my whole body is full of Strength. I feel like I could take on two people tomorrow!"
Encounter on a Narrow Road: "That's hilarious. Someone who knows would think you're discussing tomatoes, but someone who doesn't would think it's some kind of miraculous elixir. A single tomato has such a huge effect—filling you up and boosting your Strength?"
White-Clothed Tea Brewer: "That's just the fact. You can't do anything even if you don't believe it. Anyway, I'm going to buy Hunting Boss's tomatoes every day from now on!"
White-Clothed Tea Brewer didn't continue speaking, but everyone else in the chat lobbyrealized something.
A single tomato from Hunting Boss is filling and can replenish physical Strength. This means that if they have one tomato, it could save their lives during a critical shortage of supplies!
After all, not everyone is that lucky or has the courage to open boxes and kill monsters!
Many people are ordinary; they don't have many supplies and just want to survive!
The clever ones quickly went to check Yu Qi's trading shop, only to regretfully discover that all the tomatoes were sold out.
Star River Enters Dream: "Everyone, calm down. I think what White-Clothed Tea Brewer said makes a lot of sense. I previously speculated that Hunting Boss likely possesses plant-related skills, accelerating seed growth."
"Now I can basically confirm it: Hunting Bossdoes have the ability to accelerate growth. Since it's an in-game ability, it's not impossible for the resulting tomatoes to be larger and capable of replenishing human stamina."
"So, Encounter on a Narrow Road and Lush Green Grass, you don't need to make a fuss. If it truly has this effect, a mere five basic materialsis not expensive at all. You might not even be able to buy them later!"
These messages in the lobby were quickly scrolled past.
Yu Qi naturally couldn't see these messages, but after waking up, White-Clothed Tea Brewer and Dreaming of Being a Son-in-law both sent messages in the backend, briefly describing yesterday's discussion and subtly asking if there would be tomatoes available today.
She replied yes, but they would only be listed in the evening, and she could reserve a portion for the two of them. Then she closed the chat lobby.
Next, Yu Qi checked her own backend again and discovered private messages from Encounter on a Narrow Road.
This person had been trying to haggle the price down in the backend ever since the tomatoes were listed, wanting to buy five tomatoes for one basic material.
However, yesterday Yu Qi had turned off all notifications and fully dedicated herself to practicing with the group of monsters outside.
As a result, this guy spammed her private messages in the backend, sending 99+ notifications.
Yu Qi decisively blacklisted Encounter on a Narrow Road, and even set up a rejection list for her trading shop.
From now on, Encounter on a Narrow Road and Lush Green Grass won't be able to enter her shop!
Opening the tent, the sky outside was already bright, and her watch showed 6:30 AM.
Yu Qi collected all the basic materials she had shot out yesterday using the slingshot, not even sparing the ten small pebbles.
These are excellent practice materials and can't be thrown away!
After putting all the basic materials into her space backpack, she suddenly stepped on something protruding on her way back.
Looking down, she saw a stiff Wild Chickenlying on the sand. Its feathers were almost completely plucked, and its eyes were wide open in death.
Yoho, a free chicken!
It's likely that during the chaos yesterday, this Wild Chicken was an innocent casualty, killed by some monster.
Why did you wander out in the middle of the night? Now you're dead, aren't you?
Yu Qi took a step forward and saw another Wild Chicken that had also died with its eyes wide open.
Wow, her Luck today is too good! Two free chickens!
Excitedly, she checked the Highway sides for hundreds of meters around, and only when she failed to find any more wide-eyed Wild Chickens did she slowly turn back.
Two chickens are still great! Even if they died with their eyes open, they'll taste the same when stewed!
Yu Qi casually listed the two Wild Chickens, also marking them for heart of energy exchange.
While munching on a tomato, she opened her homestead.
The simple thatched cottage had transformed into a small wooden house, and the small well beside the wooden house had gotten slightly bigger.
One plot of land had become three, and the Warehouse Slot were expanded by five, making fifteen slots!
Three plots of land mean she can plant fifteen seeds, allowing her to harvest more tomatoes today!
Yu Qi quickly removed the dried tomato vines, harvested some tomato seeds, and immediately planted fifteen new seeds.
This time, the tomatoes would ripen in seven and a half hours; the time had been shortened after the homestead upgrade.
Wait, what is this message?
Yu Qi was about to leave the homestead when she suddenly saw a message notificationnearby.
[System Prompt: Energy detected at 23:30. Automatically used one heart of energy to repair the Land Plot.]
[System Prompt: 6:30. Land Plot No. 1 successfully repaired and available for normal planting.]
Yu Qi: "????"
What? The homestead secretly used her heart of energy to repair the Land Plot?
Fortunately, it only used one; the amount isn't large, so it's acceptable.
Wait, yesterday there was only one Land Plot, so one heart of energy was used for repair. What about today's three Land Plots?
And what about when the homestead upgrades later, with hundreds of Land Plots?
Yu Qi felt dizzy. She decided that even if the number of Land Plots increased, she had to be cautious! She still needed heart of energy to upgrade her vehicle, otherwise, it wouldn't be enough!
She walked out of the homestead, finished the remaining tomatoes, and immediately opened her personal information.
[Player: Yu Qi (Age 20)
ID: 008250 (This ID is so lucky it looks like it was gifted when topping up phone credit)
Nickname: Hunting Moment (Are you the Wheelchair God of War of Mount Akina?)
vehicle: Electric Tricycle Level 2 (Max speed 20km/h, Power 100%. Resources required for upgrade: Iron Block ×150, plastic ×80, glass ×8, tire ×5, heart of energy ×30)
Today's Mileage: 0/40 km
health bar: 100% (You can't see me, you can't see me!)
fatigue value: 12 (After eating the tomato, your energy is very abundant today!)
Strength: 36 (Strength increased by one point, snail speed)
constitution: 19 (Still crispy pork belly)
Agility: 36 (Schrödinger's speed. When using WASD controls or grabbing red envelopes, you are faster than the monkeys of Mount Emei)
Luck: Unknown (You are very mysterious)
Overall Strength: 41 (Don't celebrate yet. You have been listed by the Shadow Tiger Clan as their greatest enemy in life)]
Yu Qi: "..."
I just hit them a few times, is there a need to be so petty?
However, she could roughly confirm that the tomato definitely played a role, likely eliminating some of the fatigue value, which is why people felt energetic.
The remaining tomatoes will definitely sell even better!
Encounter on a Narrow Road is indirectly promoting her!