Chapter 46

Chapter 46

As Ying Yuanxing pondered, his phone rang again—the grocery store owner. On the other end, the owner sounded anxious and impatient, clearly having lost all patience after two days of back-and-forth.

"1.2 million. If you can pay, the store is yours."

Ying Yuanxing recognized the finality in the owner's tone. Any further delay, and the deal would likely fall through. Though he currently had less than 500,000 Weird Coins, even with Xuan Ying's contribution—a shortfall of nearly 700,000—Ying Yuanxing agreed without hesitation.

The Weird world had banks, but most Weird beings dared not deposit their Weird Coins there, fearing these private institutions might abscond with their money. Transactions were predominantly cash-based, and deliveries typically cash-on-delivery.

The grocery store owner, naturally, wouldn't trust Ying Yuanxing with a bank transfer, nor would he risk a courier with such a substantial sum. 1.2 million Weird Coins was no small amount; he would have to collect it himself.

After agreeing on the city and location for the transaction, Ying Yuanxing hung up, letting out a long breath.

He had at most two days to raise the remaining 700,000-plus Weird Coins. While he wasn't sure how much hay Chen Yuan could sell, he couldn't put all his eggs in that basket. Unconventional methods would be necessary.

Dawn Bureau.

"Director, Ying Yuanxing has new products listed," a staff member reported immediately after receiving a notification from JoyBuy.

"What's for sale? Price? Stock?" Zhao Zhangyan asked, hoping Ying Yuanxing had set high prices.

If prices were low, the state would have to compete with ordinary citizens to funnel money to Ying Yuanxing. But if they were high, most people wouldn't have enough Weird Coins, and wealthier individuals in the country would understand the state's intent and wouldn't interfere.

The staff hesitated, and Zhao Zhangyan frowned. "What's wrong? Is there an issue?"

"Ying Yuanxing has listed three types of blind boxes, priced at 20, 200, and 2,000 respectively," the staff explained. "Stock levels are 25,000, 1,500, and 150 units."

"Where did he get so much stock?" Zhao Zhangyan blurted out. While they didn't know every single item in Ying Yuanxing's inventory, they had a good grasp of it. After all, Ying Yuanxing's gains were largely the result of his diligent farming—nothing particularly unexpected.

"Director, with blind boxes, he might not need that much actual product. Some boxes contain items of little value or unsold stock, while others might hold highly sought-after products at a price lower than their market value. If you're lucky, you might hit the jackpot with one purchase, but if not..." The staff trailed off, but Zhao Zhangyan understood the implication.

Zhao Zhangyan sighed, realizing Ying Yuanxing was clearly desperate to resort to such a scheme.

"Is the release still at noon? Any purchase limits this time?" Zhao Zhangyan asked.

"The 200 and 2,000 coin boxes have no limits, but the 20-coin ones are still capped at 20 per account," the staff replied.

After a moment's thought, Zhao Zhangyan understood Ying Yuanxing's reasoning. The cheaper the blind box, the more tempting it was to buy. A low price made it easy to think, "Just a few more, what if I get something valuable?" But sometimes, "a few more" turned into a lot more.

This purchase limit would prevent people from gambling excessively, pouring too much money into blind boxes and getting trapped by escalating sunk costs.

Zhao Zhangyan gave the order: prepare accounts and funds, and as soon as the blind boxes went on sale, buy them all. If they could purchase every last one, they would effectively transfer the money to Ying Yuanxing.

As for whether ordinary people would buy them, Zhao Zhangyan glanced at online comments accusing Ying Yuanxing of scamming and figured even if some did, the numbers wouldn't be high.

What Zhao Zhangyan didn't see, however, was that despite the criticism, the attitude among the livestream audience was different.

Shen Yan had moved back into her old apartment building. The government had not only cleared out the negative energy but also renovated the place. The once-dilapidated building, reeking of decay, now possessed a vintage charm with a bright, clean interior.

Aside from the Xia State government, Shen Yan was most grateful to Ying Yuanxing. Without his dried fish, she would likely have been devoured by a Weird creature by now.

After seeing the blind boxes, Shen Yan counted her money and decided to buy ten. Though the product description made it clear that purchasing blind boxes would likely result in a loss, she wanted to help Ying Yuanxing.

Shen's mother fully supported her daughter's decision and also prepared to buy ten blind boxes.

"Mom?" Shen Yan was surprised. Her mother had always been frugal, and buying blind boxes was likely to be a losing proposition—a kind of unprofitable venture her mother had never engaged in before.

"He's your benefactor, and I have no other way to repay him. Now that he needs money, the least I can do is buy some blind boxes to support him. I just wish I had saved more Weird Coins," Shen's mother said.

To Shen's mother, this was simply a donation. In the past, they had watched contestants risk their lives in the Weird Game but couldn't help at all. Now that they had the means, they wanted to lend a hand where they could.

Many viewers shared this sentiment. Even if some hesitated to buy ten or twenty blind boxes at once, they could still afford one.

Other viewers weren't looking to help but saw it more like tipping during a livestream.

After all, Ying Yuanxing's broadcasts had calmed them, but the Weird Game livestream didn’t allow tipping. Previously, buying his products had felt like taking advantage of him, but now, with blind boxes more likely to result in losses, it felt even more like a voluntary tip.

Once Ying Yuanxing listed the products, he began preparing the blind boxes. However, the sheer quantity was overwhelming, so he had to enlist Xuan Ying’s Clone to help. Otherwise, packing over twenty thousand blind boxes alone would take him a full day and night.

Before long, it was midnight. Ying Yuanxing usually didn't pay much attention to sales since his products always sold out quickly. But this time, he felt nervous—would customers still shell out for blind boxes?

After hesitating for two seconds, seeing the clock strike twelve, he took a deep breath and pulled up the sales page.

This time, he didn’t expect everything to sell out immediately. As long as enough sold before his meeting with the grocery store owner to cover the cost, that would be enough.

Seeing that the blind box page didn’t display a "sold out" notice, Ying Yuanxing wasn’t too disappointed—he'd braced himself for this possibility. But when he checked the inventory to see how many had sold, he froze.

The ¥2,000 blind boxes were completely sold out—all by a single account. Wait, no—five were bought by others, meaning this account had purchased 145.

The ¥200 blind boxes were also sold out, with another familiar account buying most of them—1,000, while the remaining 500 were purchased by other accounts.

As for the ¥20 blind boxes, Ying Yuanxing watched the inventory steadily decrease. Clearly, many people were buying them every second. The initial stock of 25,000 lasted for a while but soon sold out as well.

Ying Yuanxing blinked, staring at the account that had spent the most. The shipping address looked familiar—it was the same national institution that had bought out his first online hay sale.

Buying one or two would be understandable, but spending nearly ¥300,000 on 145 blind boxes? Would government workers really spend that much?

He checked most of the addresses, then thought back to the packaging of the seasonings the Weird Trash Can had bought for him. Searching online, he found no matching addresses. He had never noticed this before, but now, once he paid attention, the oddities jumped out at him.

Ying Yuanxing looked at his phone, hesitated for a moment, but still didn’t dare to send any probing content. He didn’t know enough about the situation, and acting recklessly could not only endanger himself but also potentially harm others—that would be a mistake.

The audience didn’t notice Ying Yuanxing’s dilemma, but the Dawn Bureau had psychologists monitoring him 24/7. Naturally, they noticed his behavior and immediately reported it.

“Are you saying Ying Yuanxing has already guessed the existence of Xia State but isn’t sure about the specifics?”

After receiving confirmation, the Dawn Bureau promptly arranged for a suitable agent to find a way to inform Ying Yuanxing.

Although Ying Yuanxing would be back on Earth in at most a month and learn everything then, it was still better for him to know sooner rather than later. Since his focus was on farming, understanding the situation early would allow him to plan his crop planning more effectively.

…

When Shen Yan received her package, her mother’s delivery arrived as well. Seeing the Weird Trash Can delivering the parcels, the two still felt a little nervous—though it was just normal jitters around weird things, not fear that the Weird Trash Can would do anything harmful.

The twenty packages piled up were a sizable pile. Just as they were about to open the boxes, the Weird Trash Can stopped them, explaining that the boxes wouldn’t be collected immediately but would be retrieved later.

After all, a big part of the joy of buying blind boxes was the act of unboxing and discovering what was inside. Ripping open all the boxes at once would kill the fun.

Of course, Ying Yuanxing had another consideration in making this arrangement. He had earned a lot from selling the blind boxes, but if his suspicions were correct, this money was pretty much a gift from his customers.

He needed it, and he wouldn’t refuse their generosity, but he also couldn’t accept it without a second thought. He wanted to give something back.

However, all of this would have to wait until he secured the grocery store and could properly plan.

So Ying Yuanxing didn’t explicitly mention it—after all, raising expectations only to disappoint or delay fulfillment would bring some joy but also no small amount of anxiety.

Shen Yan and her mother carried the packages inside. Even though they hadn’t had high expectations when purchasing, now that the blind boxes were in their hands, they couldn’t help but want to test their luck.

Sharing a look, they began unboxing. Among the 25,000 blind boxes priced at twenty each, Ying Yuanxing couldn’t possibly fill them all with products from his farm—naturally, he’d included other items as well.

For example, when the Weird World and the Blue Star World came into contact, the converted products were useless to the Weird beings and could only be haphazardly listed for sale at extremely low prices.

At first, Ying Yuanxing hadn’t considered buying these to replace the blind box products. But after forming his suspicions, he swapped out some of the items in the blind boxes.

Shen Yan opened the box and froze at the sight of its contents.

“What? Did you get something good?” Shen’s mother leaned over and saw a well-packaged phone inside the delivery box.

The phone model seemed to be a new release from a year ago, originally priced at over six thousand.

“Putting this in a twenty-dollar blind box—Ying Yuanxing must be taking a loss,” Shen’s mother blurted out.

Meanwhile, other buyers who had purchased the blind boxes also discovered these items and began showing off their hauls.

Those with worse luck received goods worth a few dozen bucks, while the luckier ones, like Shen Yan, got high-value human products. Some even received Weird Food from the farm, such as a pack of dried fish—not a hundred-gram portion, but a whole pound.

As for the blind boxes delivered to the Dawn Bureau, what was inside gave everyone a huge shock.

“Quick, quick, call the agricultural experts! Ying Yuanxing sent us the fodder grass!” The staff member unpacking the box was so shocked that their mind went blank before shouting hoarsely.

Was fodder grass valuable?

Yes.

But harvested fodder could only serve a one-time purpose. If they had living specimens, they could conduct further research—whether by harvesting seeds for cultivation or hybridizing them with ordinary fodder grass, there was potential for hope.

Previously, they had wanted such Weird Plants, but unfortunately, only processed products were available on the market, while live plants were almost never sold. They had no way to study them.

The agricultural experts rushed over immediately. Seeing the fodder grass planted in the box, they handled it with extreme care, afraid the seemingly vigorous plant might wither.

Opening the other boxes, they discovered various plants—garlic, carrots, potatoes, and even a strawberry plant still bearing ripe fruit. Ying Yuanxing hadn’t harvested them.

In addition, there were other crop fruits and even a small packet of strawberry seeds.

This bountiful harvest threw the entire Dawn Bureau into a frenzy, especially the agricultural experts. When first summoned, they had been confused, but upon seeing the plants Ying Yuanxing had sent, their faces lit up. Even after receiving one plant each, they remained unsatisfied, eager for more.

But with demand far outstripping supply, scoring one plant each was a miracle—there were no extras to spare.

When Zhao Zhangyan heard the news, he fell silent.

They had originally intended to help Ying Yuanxing, but by sending these plants, Ying Yuanxing wasn’t asking for their assistance—he was doing them an enormous solid.

From Ying Yuanxing’s refusal to attend exhibitions, Zhao Zhangyan had already guessed that Ying Yuanxing understood the uniqueness and rarity of these plants. Yet, upon vaguely discerning the truth, he unhesitatingly sent these crops over. This act left Zhao Zhangyan deeply moved.

Upon receiving the Dawn Bureau’s report, those who had previously debated whether to send Ying Yuanxing Weird coins fell silent, ashamed of their earlier hesitation.

As for whether to make the news public, there was little hesitation—the authorities chose to announce it. Although these Weird Plants might fail to acclimate to Earth's conditions and die, they were still the starting point of hope.

Moreover, with Ying Yuanxing around, they might find ways to purchase more plants from him. Even if the current batch died, they wouldn’t be driven to despair.

Announcing the news now would lift the nation's spirits.

As expected, the moment the news broke, the nation went wild.

Photos of each Weird Plant were posted publicly. Many netizens, as viewers of the livestream, had seen them multiple times—but only in the Weird world, not the real one.

Now, these Weird Plants had arrived on Blue Star. Though the time was still short, they looked thriving—perhaps they could survive. If they bore fruit and produced seeds, they could scale up production of these Weird Plants.

While they still relied on contestants in the Weird Game to obtain Weird Artifacts and Weird Food, their initial goal had been for players to bring back seeds. After all, the Weird world wasn’t their home base—nothing beat being self-reliant.

But after two years with no progress in cultivation, people had gradually shifted toward purchasing. Now, however, there was a chance to cultivate their own.

Though the extent of this hope remained uncertain, it was still hope.

Foreign observers had long been monitoring Xia State’s situation. While other players sold Weird Food and Weird Artifacts as middlemen—buying low and selling high—only Ying Yuanxing had a farm capable of producing Weird Food.

Though his output was limited and the effects seemed simpler compared to the diverse products of other players, his ability to produce Weird Food meant a stable supply, whereas others’ offerings were highly inconsistent.

Despite their envy, foreign critics wouldn't admit it. They believed that if Ying Yuanxing could do it, so could other players—they just hadn’t considered the possibility before. Once they tried cultivating Weird Plants themselves, they’d manage it too.

When Ying Yuanxing introduced blind boxes to earn more Weird coins, even those who couldn’t buy them and thus dodged getting ripped off couldn’t resist mocking him. Look at the player you’re protecting—his money-grubbing is so obvious.

Though their taunts were quickly suppressed each time, they persisted gleefully.

But their joy was short-lived. Upon seeing the Dawn Bureau’s announcement and the verified presence of Weird Plants in Blue Star laboratories, their smugness evaporated.

Wait, they thought Ying Yuanxing was just profiteering, but he was practically giving them away?

Why not keep all the Weird Plants on his farm? It was clear he cared deeply about them. While one-time harvests were understandable, strawberries could be harvested every four days—yet he still sold such a rare Weird Plant to the state.

This was the goose that laid golden eggs! If it were them, they’d never sell it. If selling strawberries, they’d even pick out the seeds to prevent others from growing them. Having exclusive rights meant maximum profits, and with it, they could wield power.

The profit potential was mind-boggling. The thought of Ying Yuanxing simply handing over the Weird Plants to Xia State—even if it was technically a sale—might as well have been a donation to them.

Even though it was Ying Yuanxing’s choice, they were furious—and even more envious.

If ordinary people felt this way, foreign governments were even more enticed. While they had access to ordinary Weird Artifacts and Weird Food, renewable Weird Food sources eluded them.

Though tempted, some countries considered softening their stance, while others still had hidden agendas.

Sure, Xia State had Weird Plants, but whether they could grow was uncertain. It was too early to engage—smarter to bide their time and see if Xia State could achieve any breakthroughs before initiating discussions.

...

“Not going in?” Xuan Ying asked Ying Yuanxing.

They had just returned from a transaction in the neighboring city, having successfully acquired the general store. Ying Yuanxing was now its owner. Despite his earlier eagerness, he now stood frozen at the entrance.

The hand holding the key trembled slightly. To buy this store, he had spent 1.2 million Weird coins—virtually everything he had. Apart from unharvested crops in the farm, he'd sold anything of value.

If his guess was wrong, he’d have to start over from scratch. But with most of the farm’s weeds and fodder grass already harvested, getting it back to normal would take not one, but possibly two months.

Without his suspicions about the human world, two months would’ve been tolerable—farming required patience. But now, two months seemed like an eternity.

Ying Yuanxing wasn’t sure if he’d have done the same had he guessed the truth earlier. Perhaps—the more he knew, the greater the pressure grew.

“It’s nothing. Let’s go in.” Ying Yuanxing shook his head and opened the general store’s door.

Though the exterior was dilapidated, the interior was well-maintained, with empty shelves standing ready. The checkout counter stood at the far end.

As Ying Yuanxing approached the counter, a familiar screen popped up. He tapped it, and an extensive seed catalog appeared before him.

He had bet correctly.

Flooded with euphoria, his body trembled, and his knees nearly buckled. Xuan Ying, who had been watching him closely, shot out two tendrils to support him.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Ying Yuanxing shook his head, checked his remaining Weird coins, and scrutinized the seed prices. He didn’t act rashly—he had to optimize every coin.

After jotting down the varieties, Ying Yuanxing departed with Xuan Ying.

This move struck viewers as odd.

"What's going on? The streamer went to extreme lengths to scrape together the money for the grocery store, even selling everything he had, and now that he's bought it, this is how he acts?"

"Sure, it's his money to spend, but this is way too nonchalant. It's not 120 bucks—it's 1.2 million Weird Coins!"

"If Ying Yuanxing keeps acting this impulsively, even with his farm, he won’t do Xia State much good. Might as well let Xia State take over the farm."

"Please report the idiot above. Xia State doesn’t seize contestants’ assets."

"Though Ying Yuanxing’s behavior is a bit hard to understand, he just got the store. Whatever he plans to do with it, he’d need to plan first, right? So leaving after checking it out is pretty normal."

"Let’s just hope this store is useful. Otherwise, the streamer’s really taken a huge hit this time."

Ying Yuanxing pulled Xuan Ying to the farm and unpacked the fruits he'd gathered from a box, selecting those listed as available seeds.

The prices of each seed varied, but Ying Yuanxing wasn't certain if the more expensive ones contained more Weird Qi. He also had to consider the growing time—he needed to plant something that produced the most Weird Qi per unit of time.

Of course, if there were additional effects, that would be a whole different ballgame.

Ying Yuanxing still remembered the food he ate at the village chief’s house that increased his stamina meter. If there were Weird Food with such effects, there might be others with different effects—he just hadn’t discovered them yet.

Hung up on potential effects, Ying Yuanxing asked Xuan Ying in advance, since Xuan Ying had eaten quite a few of these foods before.

"This one can increase strength a little," Xuan Ying pointed at the strawberries.

To Xuan Ying, the strawberries' strength boost barely registered, but since Ying Yuanxing asked, even the slightest effect had to be mentioned. He had promised Ying Yuanxing not to hide anything, and keeping mum would still be hiding something.

"Increases strength!" Ying Yuanxing’s gaze at the strawberries snapped to attention. This was a fruit with special effects—it had to be carefully nurtured.

But amid his excitement, Ying Yuanxing couldn’t help sighing. Strawberries weren’t on the grocery store’s purchase list. If he wanted to expand their cultivation, he’d have to find a way himself.

Ying Yuanxing was thrilled, but the people at the Dawn Bureau were even more excited. The protection level for these Weird Plants was already high, and now it had been raised another notch. Apart from key researchers, even Zhao Zhangyan, couldn't easily inspect these Weird Plants—for fear of anything happening to them.