Jiang Ye’s hands gripped the saber tightly, his body frozen in place. After a long moment, he realized he was holding it backward, his stance resembling a ritual suicide rather than an attack. He quickly switched to a proper grip.
*Ka-ba ka-ba ka-ba* The alien beasts were burrowed into the crops, heads down and happily munching, completely oblivious to the person approaching from behind.
The field was planted with corn. The stalks were short, only reaching Jiang Ye’s waist. But each stalk bore up to five ears of corn, plump and full.
The small alien beasts, having eaten for who knows how long, had already gnawed through more than a dozen corn stalks, leaving a mess everywhere!
"Damn, they really can eat!"
A surge of anger rose in Jiang Ye. He crept forward cautiously, trying to make no sound.
He reached a distance of two meters and finally got a clear look.
It was a small, dark beast, about the size of a puppy. But its body was covered in black scales, somewhat like a miniature pangolin. It reminded him of the creature from the Calabash Brothers cartoon that was captured by the Scorpion Spirit to save the second brother and the old man, and then fell off a cliff to its death. Da Feng Novel.
Jiang Ye took a deep breath, lunged forward, and swung his saber down!
The small beast had no time to react. Its back immediately took a blow!
A sharp, piercing scream.
The small beast bolted, darting several meters away before disappearing into a hole in the ground about the size of a bowl.
Jiang Ye stood dumbfounded. He had used all his strength, yet he hadn't managed to cleave through. The beast’s scales were unbelievably hard.
The saber recoiled, numbing his hand!
However, it wasn’t without effect. Two black scales had fallen off onto the ground. There was a saber mark on each scale.
Jiang Ye bent down, picked them up, and felt them in his hand. They felt very much like some kind of plastic product.
Pocketing the scales, he walked to the hole the beast had disappeared into.
The hole was dark, and he couldn't see anything inside.
Jiang Ye directly thrust his saber into the hole and poked vigorously!
He had expected to stab the beast to death and pull it out like a skewer of lamb.
But the hole was longer than his samurai sword. He only poked into air.
"So deep?" Jiang Ye was surprised.
After a moment of hesitation, Jiang Ye decided to harvest the crops first.
That little beast had escaped for now, but it might come back at any time to ruin the crops. The only solution was to harvest them quickly and lock them up in the base.
The crops he had planted earlier were all grown.
There were five different types of crops in total.
The most abundant was corn, a vast expanse of golden ears.
Next were oranges and apples. The apple trees were extremely short, only reaching his knees. But each apple tree bore five fist-sized fruits, so heavy they even broke the branches!
Jiang Ye marveled again. "These genetically modified crops are truly monstrous."
There was also rice. Although the area was not large, it was very conspicuous. The rice plants were the tallest among the crops, at least 1.8 meters high. The rice ears were as large as brooms, and each grain was comparable to a peanut, which was astonishing!
The last type had not yet revealed itself. Judging by the shape of the leaves, it should be potatoes.
Jiang Ye started harvesting the corn.
The corn ears were ripe and fell off easily when broken, making harvesting quite convenient.
After toiling for over an hour, he finished harvesting all the corn.
He counted them: 425 and a half!
There was half an ear because it had been gnawed by the small beast.
With so much corn, Jiang Ye’s base was completely filled, leaving no room to move.
Jiang Ye tossed an ear of corn into the trading pod and activated the resource selling function.
Information immediately appeared on the screen:
[Item: Corn Ear]
[Item Description: Safe genetically modified corn ear, plump kernels, suitable for popcorn. However, the taste is poor, like chewing plastic foam. Only broke people would eat it.]
[Estimated Price: 10 Yuan]
[Sell?]
Jiang Ye’s spirits lifted. Ten yuan for an ear of corn?
This price was good!
425 ears of corn meant a total of 4250 yuan! He was less than six thousand yuan away from upgrading to a Level 3 base!
With so much piled up, it was useless. Jiang Ye decided to sell four hundred of them.
He first picked out 25 ears of corn and put them in the storage box.
For the rest, he didn’t count them, just mindlessly threw them into the trading pod and mindlessly clicked sell.
Lights flashed continuously, and prompts flashed on the screen:
Sale successful! 100 Yuan has been transferred to your personal account!
Sale successful! 200 Yuan has been transferred to your personal account!
Sale successful! 180 Yuan has been transferred to your personal account!
Finally, the four hundred ears of corn were sold.
In the bottom right corner of the base screen, Jiang Ye’s personal assets jumped from 0 Yuan to 4000 Yuan!
He was still six thousand yuan away from upgrading to a Level 3 base.
Jiang Ye felt that if he sold a bit more of the crops, it should be enough! He might even upgrade to a Level 3 base today!
The rain outside had stopped. Jiang Ye slung his samurai sword at his waist and rushed out to harvest.
The second batch he harvested was oranges.
There were quite a few oranges, 140 in total.
But Jiang Ye was surprised that oranges were not very valuable, far less than corn.
[Item: Orange]
[Item Description: An ordinary orange, not sweet, but incredibly sour. Lemons would feel ashamed in its presence.]
[Estimated Price: 2 Yuan]
Oranges, unlike corn, were not easy to preserve. They would dehydrate and shrivel over time, and were prone to mold.
So, despite the low price, Jiang Ye sold a hundred of them to avoid them going to waste.
The meager 200 Yuan arrived, and his total assets increased to 4200 Yuan.
The remaining 40 oranges, Jiang Ye decided to keep as a source of hydration. He would eat a couple when he was thirsty.
The third harvest was apples, 150 in total.
[Item: Apple]
[Item Description: A genetically modified, fast-ripening variety of apple. The texture is like biting into silicone, with extremely low nutritional value. Its only use is for garnish, but it needs to be replaced daily as it shrivels very easily.]
[Estimated Price: 5 Yuan]
Hearing how bad they were, Jiang Ye gave up the idea of keeping any for himself. The price was decent, so he sold them all mindlessly!
750 Yuan arrived!
His personal assets rose from 4200 Yuan to 4950 Yuan!
Jiang Ye was very excited. He had thought it would take ages to save up the 10,000 Yuan needed for a Level 3 base, but he had unexpectedly saved nearly half of it so quickly.
He sped up and continued harvesting.
He used his samurai sword to cut the rice, hacking horizontally and felling the stalks.
The rice stalks contained a lot of sap. When cut, it sprayed out, creating a light mist in the field.
The rice lay dead everywhere.
The dark clouds dispersed, and the sun emerged, its rays intense, scorching the rice lying on the ground.
The rice ears dried out. A gust of wind blew, and the large grains of rice actually fell off, landing on the muddy ground. Each grain was as big as a peanut, white and glistening, looking quite magical.
Jiang Ye was taken aback. He hadn’t expected this to happen. He quickly gathered the cut rice, intending to transport it back to the base.
*Whoosh!*
As soon as he picked them up, countless large grains of rice detached and fell, bouncing on the muddy ground.
Looking at the rice ears, they were almost all empty husks.
Jiang Ye panicked. He went to pick up another handful of rice.
*Whoosh!*
*Whoosh!*
*Whoosh!*
All the rice was the same. With the slightest touch, large white grains of rice fell all over the ground.
Jiang Ye despaired. These rice plants were not as advertised!
Thousands upon thousands of rice grains were scattered on the muddy ground.
When would he ever finish picking them up?
For a moment, he even thought about giving up, letting the rice fend for itself!
But then he picked up a single grain of rice and took it back to the base for examination. His mind immediately changed:
[Item: Rice]
[Item Description: Potent genetically modified rice. Nutritional value is mediocre, and the grains are enormous. Whether for porridge or steamed rice, it’s a disaster, as it sticks to your teeth like glue and coats your mouth. Anyone who eats it will cry.]
[Estimated Price: 0.5 Yuan]
Five mao for a single grain of rice!
The price was too high!
Jiang Ye immediately perked up. He hadn't counted the exact amount of rice, but he had a strong feeling that if he sold all of it, he might actually be able to gather the 10,000 Yuan and upgrade to a Level 3 base in one go!