90 Smallville: Dead
98.
As Kara introduced her name, the farmer's system updated the task panel after a long absence: "Say hello to ????", progress: 3/4. This task made her a little puzzled: perhaps there was some connection between Clark Kent, his dog, and the blonde alien girl Kara that she couldn't see.
If Clark were here, Aria would probably ask him for confirmation immediately. But he had a more important task at hand, so the farmer had to put this side quest aside for the time being and introduce his farm to Kara.
"This is a dog." Aria held a white puppy in front of Kara. The puppy showed no sign of danger when it was lifted up. Its tail slapped the farmer's arm and it stuck out its tongue and tried to lick Kara's face enthusiastically.
"This is a cat." The farmer squatted down and petted the dozing cat, Selena. At first, she simply wagged her tail to express her displeasure, but when she saw the farmer didn't retract his grip, she bit her hand as a warning—with such force that it barely left a mark.
"Xiao Sai's fur should be very comfortable to touch in the winter, but it sheds a bit in the summer... Oops."
Selina bit down a little harder, and the farmer uttered a sigh and tactfully paused his slander. However, the next topic sounded quite dangerous: "Do you want to try touching it?"
"No, thank you." Kara looked at the big cat in front of her, who gave her a condescending look. She took a step back politely and tried to dissuade the farmer from his tragedies. "Maybe she doesn't really want to be petted?"
The farmer pulled his hand out of Selina's mouth without a care in the world, looking as if he was so in love with her that he couldn't help it: "It's okay, Selina's way of expressing love is a little special, her bite doesn't hurt..."
After introducing her two treasures, Aria stood up and walked over to her with the white puppy, her nonexistent tail practically sticking up in the air. "Welcome to the farm! This is pretty much all the important stuff in my room. Now let's go see yours!"
She just rode out on horseback to contact Susan to urgently build an online cabin. According to the game settings, it must have been built by now!
Aria pulled Kara out of the door. Another brand new wooden cottage had been built in a short time, shining with the luster of new wood next to the farmer's cottage.
"This..." Kara looked at the new house in amazement, feeling the need to reassess the level of civilization here. This speed and efficiency clearly didn't belong to a primary civilization. Perhaps the system here was different? Perhaps magic was helping them?
Rao, before leaving Krypton, she had never imagined that there was a race that lived such a wonderful life... It was like playing a game.
"Don't worry about the money," Aria led her into the online hut, unpacked the packages on the ground, and handed the initial tools to Kara one by one. "The town development fund paid for most of the house. We only need to spend a hundred gold..."
She recited a bunch of words that Kara couldn't understand. Kara played with the things in her hands - after a period of adaptation, she was able to control her strength within the range of not damaging the objects, but if she wanted to use them like she did on Krypton, she would still worry about damaging the tools.
"You can try bending them hard," the farmer encouraged Kara when he saw her hesitate. "Tools in this game don't have durability, so use them however you want."
Aria saw through her worries and casually tapped the ground with her pickaxe. "It's just a game, don't worry about breaking anything! Besides, these things can be remade with the materials, so it doesn't matter if they break!"
Kara weighed the tools in her hand, taking courage from the farmer's words: "Is this how we harvest those green flowers?"
“No, it’s not,” Aria shook her head. “We need to make some new kegs before we harvest the hops…”
"I've never played two-player mode before," the farmer said, pulling out a round bucket from somewhere, "but I think it would be a shame not to take advantage of this feature of the game."
She raised a sly smile at Kara, who seemed a little confused: "Come and give it a try!"
"I'll count to three, two, one. When the countdown is over, we'll knock on this bucket together..."
At the summer farm, Kara and the farmer simultaneously swung their pickaxes at the wine barrels. The barrels in front of them trembled violently as if their lives were threatened, and then they decisively broke in front of Kara, splitting into two as if by magic.
"Wow!" Kara couldn't help but exclaimed. The scene before her completely exceeded her understanding of science.
The farmer's face showed more excitement than surprise. She put the extra barrel aside and cheered, "It worked!"
Kara couldn't help but reach out and touch the split barrel. It felt and looked exactly like the original. "How did it become two? Is it magic?"
"Can we think of it as a rule?" Aria propped up her chin. She rarely explained games in such an academic way, but she felt that this would make Kara understand more. "Just like the rule of life like 'must go to bed before 2 o'clock,' this farm is full of various rules. We just need to understand and master them."
"Never mind that for now," she said, swinging her pickaxe happily. "Let's do it again!"
…
"The only thing you need to be careful about here is the crops outside..." The farmer led her to the farming area. Summer hops swayed into a sea of green, and a few insects flitted through the flowers, quietly flapping their wings. "Don't aim at them when you swing your pickaxe—there are so many hops, it's okay to damage a few occasionally. The one you need to be more careful about is an ancient fruit..."
As if suddenly remembering something, Aria stopped, her tail drooping in excitement, and the bright colors on her body faded away. Kara was a little worried. Although Aria's heartbeat was unchanging, she still took a few quick steps to her side. "What's wrong with you?"
The farmer responded with a barely calm voice: "I remember planting the ancient fruit in the ground, along with other summer crops..."
Now that she has a sprinkler, she doesn't have to get up early and stay up late to water the plants every day. Aria basically just scatters the seeds and is done with it, and she doesn't remember where they are for a while.
The good news is, she remembers it now.
The bad news is that the location of the ancient fruit in memory... is now covered by a life support capsule.
Kara had a vague premonition of disaster ever since she crashed into the cave, and now her premonition finally came true. She was at a loss as to what to do and lifted the aircraft so that the farmer could dig out the precious fruit plant, which was probably dead, from the soil.
Seeing how much the farmer cared about the plant, Kara grew nervous. She hoped it still had a glimmer of life, so she could perhaps try to clone it—but given the farm's current state, that would likely be a very long research project...
By the time the aircraft had landed on the ancient fruit, the farmer had given up hope. Judging by the meteorite's impact on the farm, her ancient fruit seedlings beneath the aircraft must have been reduced to ashes, leaving her with nothing. But Kara persisted, so she lowered her head and carefully dug in the soil.
The small, squashed plant body lay alone in the soil. When the farmer dug it out with its roots and soil attached, it had already been cold for a long time.
Ancient Fruit…her Ancient Fruit…damn game! If you want to kill someone, kill her, not the Ancient Fruit!
Kara frantically moved the aircraft aside, completely unsure how to comfort the farmer. This was the first time she'd ever encountered such a situation, and she was at a loss as to what to do. She knelt down and offered comfort, "I'm sorry... Aria, this is all my fault."
"Aria, don't cry, I will find a way to make it up to you." Although it is difficult to develop technology under the current conditions, she is willing to try her best and at least do something to make it up to the farmer.
"No, Kara. Don't blame yourself. This isn't your fault." After mentally beating up the random event and giving it a good beating, Aria felt her player's sanity return. She packed the ancient fruit, along with the corpse and the soil, into her backpack. She even managed to find the energy to comfort the anxious Kara, "And look, I'm not crying."
The farmer forced a smile. "If it's not a flying machine, then it's a meteorite falling from the sky. Bad luck is part of the gaming experience."
"And this isn't something that's saved only once. You can find other seeds later," she patted Kara's shoulder: "...there's still a chance." Although it would be a bit difficult for the farmer to find another ancient seed this summer, it's never a good thing to make the NPC sad.
...Or there is another way, she can ask other friends for help - if everyone makes a contribution, they can always find a solution, right?
…
Taking the newly developed antidote for Catwoman from Batman, the farmer pitifully took out the handful of soil.
"So what can you do?"
“…”
This was the first time in his memory that a farmer had asked for help - her trajectory, rushing here from the winery, made Bruce Wayne think that she had encountered some unsolvable emergency, so she immediately declined the drinking party and came here in another identity.
…I didn’t expect it was for a plant.
He hadn't even noticed the dead plants buried in the dirt until Aria explained. For some inexplicable reason, Batman had assumed the farmer was trying to show his displeasure by sending him garbage.
Taking the pile of soil from Aria, Batman moved the shriveled leaves that could be used as bookmarks through his black nano-carbon fiber gloves and performed an autopsy with professionalism. Judging from its condition, it had encountered a heavy pressure that was beyond the ability of plant life to withstand. Fortunately, the pressure came quickly, and the plant died without pain.
Bruce Wayne knows little about gardening, but fortunately Batman has excellent knowledge of biology. In front of the relatives who are unwilling to believe that the test subject is dead, the Dark Knight lifts the veil of fantasy and issues a cold-blooded death notice.
"It's completely dead."
It will be decomposed by the soil in two days.
————————
*Online hut construction only requires 100 gold and is built immediately. Kara also lives in a prefabricated house
* In the game, crops will disappear after being hit by meteorites. There are some changes here.
Bat: ...I know this is very important to you, but I regret to inform you...
Aria: Ah! (Faints)
The new chapter will be updated later, still being revised...
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