Chapter 32 Resigning to Go Home and Farm (9)
"Second Uncle, there are leeches!" Bai Ye cried out for help.
Li Jianjun didn't even look up. "They're just leeches. Pick them off and throw them on the edge of the field."
"But it's slippery."
“I think you’re slippery, trying to be clever.” Li Jianjun continued working, taking a big step forward on his stool. “You’re a country bumpkin, what are you afraid of leeches for? You’re still picking aphids by hand in the greenhouse, aren’t you?”
That's different.
Bai Yexin said, "Aphids are aphids, just a small insect. Besides, it was requested by the supernatural beings, purely for work."
To be a good vegetable farmer, I even encountered maggots and had to carry manure every day.
But leeches?
The client didn't request it!
As if sensing Bai Ye's torment, the rice seedlings offered, "I'll help you. Give me some of your blood, and I'll tell you there are leeches everywhere underwater. I guarantee you'll avoid them all."
Bai Ye glanced at it expressionlessly, then blinked, coldly removing it with his hand.
Then, with a splat, it was flung to the edge of the field.
Finally, he sat back down on the stool and began pulling up the rice seedlings.
The rice seedlings sighed repeatedly, "Why can't inflexible humans meet customer demands? I can grow very well just by sucking a little blood. A yield of 10,000 catties per mu is not a dream. I can give it a ten-star rating."
Bai Ye laughed upon hearing this.
"First of all, there is no rice variety that can yield 10,000 jin per mu. At least not yet, no such variety has been developed. Don't make things up."
"Also, the weird rating system only has a maximum rating of five stars. Please check the facts before you brag."
The rice seedlings, their lie exposed, weren't annoyed at all; instead, they found it amusing. "Human, you seem to know a lot about us weirdos. Do you often come into contact with them?"
Bai Ye shook his head, "I haven't had much contact with them, I'm a newbie."
"Newcomer, you're very lucky to have met us high-level weirdos who don't hurt people much."
The rice seedling's casual remark alerted Bai Ye to something crucial. Could it be that this seemingly ordinary rice seedling could be so talkative, as if it knew a great deal?
He always knew that the rules in the strange world were unclear and relied entirely on triggering mechanisms.
But in Nightmoon Town, he didn't know many players, and even if they were to earn money to level up to level two, they didn't seem to know everything.
But what if you consult the supernatural itself?
As soon as the thought crossed Bai Ye's mind, he immediately put on a big smile. "Little rice seedling, you seem much more mature than the vegetables I planted. They're all little kids, the kind that never grow up."
"Of course! I'm a mature rice seed that has sprouted and grown. As a staple food, I have an unshakeable position."
"That's right, rice and flour, you and wheat each make up half the market."
"Human, you're being very attentive, trying to please me. What do you want?"
"It's nothing, I just wanted to ask you how you, as beings of the supernatural, distinguish yourselves in your strange world?"
This is especially important, and it's what Bai Ye most wants to know.
The rice seedlings swayed in the wind in the paddy field, laughing and joking, "You can beg me, but it's no use begging me. I want to drink some blood."
The night is silent.
"Just a little bit is enough, just to taste it. At most, it'll only cost you one health point."
Bai Ye felt a little flutter in her heart.
"I will not only tell you about the types of us weird creatures, but I can also tell you how to distinguish us weird creatures."
Great, it's a good deal.
Bai Ye immediately agreed and offered her finger, but at the same time, she opened the screen to monitor her own health points in real time.
"We agreed on 1 health point. Taking any more than that would be a breach of contract. I'm watching."
The rice seedlings sighed. Humans are indeed good at calculations, but it doesn't matter; something is better than nothing.
One minute later, Bai Ye lost 1 health point, and a rice seedling, having drunk its fill of blood, was satisfied.
Almost instantly, this rice seedling grew to twice its size, standing out from the other rice seedlings next to it.
The other rice spirits were filled with envy, their leaves trying to burrow into Bai Ye's hand, as if this human was easy to absorb.
The large rice seedlings violently whipped their leaves, causing the surrounding rice seedlings to tremble and fall silent.
Bai Ye witnessed this scene and was extremely surprised.
The large rice seedling wiped its mouth with its own leaves. "It's normal. I'm now a second-highest level of weirdness, and I have a bloodline suppression over them."
"The second-highest level is strange?"
"Oh right, I also need to give you a science lesson. Human, come here, I have something to tell you."
Bai Ye leaned closer, lowering his body.
The big rice seedling spoke eloquently: "We weird creatures don't have a physical form. The reason we appear in all sorts of forms is entirely based on our weirdness value."
"Is the quality of the eerie aspect good or bad?"
"Well, from -100 to 100, the higher the value, the more benign the eerie, and the more forms it can take. Like our Rice Eerie, and the Vegetable Eerie and Fruit Eerie you grow, they can grow freely as plants, or they can transform into humans and walk around. Because our value is around 50, it's considered pretty eerie."
Bai Ye agreed with this point; neither the vegetable ghost nor the rice ghost had any intention of harming him.
Even when very angry, with its fangs bared, it looks more like a threat.
Especially the Strawberry Ghost; it seems to be very weak at even protecting itself, let alone dealing damage.
Big Rice Seedling: "That Strawberry Monster's stats must be over 60. Human, you're very lucky. Take good care of it, and it will give you unexpected surprises."
Bai Ye immediately made a mental note: take good care of these little strawberries; they are key customers.
"What about the other weird values? For example, in my first dungeon, I often saw decapitations happening all the time, which was really scary and bloody."
Big Rice Seedling: "It's just scary. The value is definitely still above 0, but it won't exceed 20. It's just the most common kind of weirdness."
"What about those below 0?" Bai Ye thought of something and immediately asked, "I was previously injected with an unknown liquid, which caused me harm."
"Those are evil spirits below 0; the higher the negative value, the more evil they are. However..."
"But what?"
"All evil creatures are anthropomorphic; they can never transform into any other form."
"Why?"
"Because humans are the most terrifying thing, don't you think?"
"..."
Bai Ye was momentarily speechless.
Afterwards, Da Daoyang provided a systematic popular science explanation of the strange ranking system.
All the strange creatures with values above or below 0 are categorized as ordinary, advanced, second-highest, and top-tier.
The only strange thing is the value of 0!
"Human, you must remember, Zero Ghosts are a variable. They are invisible and can even impersonate the most real humans. Hmm, like you."
Bai Ye's heart skipped a beat; this information was truly terrifying.
He couldn't help but think of Night Moon Town, where players gathered. Could there be any Zero Ghosts there?
"Alright, as the second-highest and most friendly of the ghosts, I have done more than enough for you. Now, pull me up and put me with the other rice ghosts."
"As rice plants, our mission is to achieve a yield of 10,000 jin per mu!"
With a loud shout, the rice seedlings swayed in unison, each shout of the slogan growing louder than the last.
Li Jianjun looked up and said, "The wind is picking up. We need to hurry, it might rain."
Bai Ye put aside his thoughts and hurried to work. The whole family worked for two whole days to finish planting the two acres of rice fields.
Finally, Bai Ye lay on the wooden bed, groaning and turning, unable to fall asleep.
Lower back pain, leg cramps, and other symptoms are all signs of overwork.
His already unhealthy body was suddenly struck by this; it's a miracle he wasn't crippled—life has been incredibly kind to him.
Ge Guifen brought in some plasters. "Xiao Fan, put this on and rest for a couple of days, and you'll feel better."
She then said with a pang of sympathy, "Young people haven't experienced hardship, that's why they're like this."
“Grandma, I’ve suffered before, I’ve suffered a lot,” Bai Ye retorted.
Ge Guifen laughed, “You suffer mentally, but we farmers suffer physically. I don’t understand mental suffering, but physical suffering is real pain.”
As he spoke, he tore open the plaster and slapped it onto Bai Ye's sore spot.
Then she rubbed it vigorously, and even though Bai Ye cried out in pain, Ge Guifen remained unmoved.
Baiye was "paralyzed," so the task of releasing water in the evening had to be left to the two elderly people.
As for dinner, he shamelessly ate it in bed.
It's not that I don't want to get up, it's that I can't.
That night, as I drifted off to sleep, the sound of fingernails scraping against a wooden board echoed continuously in my dream.
The sound was truly agonizing, like a sword hanging overhead, threatening to fall but not quite, causing everyone to live in constant fear.
"Crunch—crunch—"
"Crack!"
My nail is cracked.
Wait, something's not right!
It's a wooden board; the board is cracked. It's the sound of the board breaking.
Strange, why did I dream of broken wooden planks? And something seemed to be crawling near the window…
Bai Ye was half-awake, and opened his eyes groggily. The old wooden window facing the wooden bed had its entire frame gone.
Meanwhile, a dark shadow was struggling to climb upwards.
Under the moonlight, the shadowy figure had very long hair, almost dragging on the ground. He gripped the edge of the window frame with both hands, the backs of his hands exposed were dry and thin, with cracked skin.
The fingernails appear to be growing slowly.
Is this a dream?
Bai Ye opened his eyes, utterly puzzled.
The next second, the dark figure flipped most of its body onto the window frame, and its exposed fingernails grew another inch longer.
This is not a dream!
Bai Ye suddenly woke up, so frightened that he scrambled to the corner of the bedside. His first thought was that he had encountered a ghost.
Moreover, it's a demon, most likely Sadako.
But when the dark figure finally climbed onto the bed with its long body and lay down at his feet crying loudly, Bai Ye was certain.
These are vegetables I grew myself, and they are long beans that haven't been very active.
"Xiao Fan, this is tough! We're about to die from exhaustion."
"Is it going to grow any longer? I can still grow. We can grow to two meters long."
"A long bean that is not tender, crisp, or long is not a qualified long bean."
The shadowy figure looked up, revealing its features. Its once youthful, doll-like face was now withered and aged, resembling that of an old woman. And that wasn't all; its once-clear features were almost reduced to a two-dimensional plane, leaving only a bare skin.
What wonderful long beans they are! They just grow quietly and steadily, never causing any problems.
These vegetable monsters are the most obedient besides the okra.
"What happened? Who did this to you?"
They're almost ripe, just around the corner for harvest, who would dare to cheat my customers?!
The dark figure cried miserably, "Xiao Fan, you forgot to water the plants, and you haven't lifted the tarpaulin yet. It's so hot this evening, we're all suffocating."
Thinking of something, the shadowy figure added, "Poor Berry, she's probably dying soon."
"?"
"!"
Bai Ye was terrified out of her wits. The most delicate strawberry, those little fruit monsters!
Daogui said that they are the group of monsters with the highest numerical values, and if they are taken good care of, there will be unexpected surprises.
"I'm going to the field right now, don't be afraid, I'm going right now."
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