Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Ying Yuanxing decided to send only garlic and strawberries, as the nation's resources were limited. These two crops offered the most promising results; if a method to cultivate them on Lanxing could be developed, the benefits for Xia State would be immeasurable.

Overnight, the shadow employees brought by Xuan Ying had tilled a vast expanse of land. Ying Yuanxing cordoned off a small garden plot near the wooden cabin, planting a few of each seed variety. The remaining land was divided into two sections—one for garlic and the other for carrots.

Though he still had strawberry seeds collected from the fruit, Ying Yuanxing wasn’t planning to use too much farmland for them, as he wasn’t yet certain about their efficacy. If the cultivation period proved lengthy and the resulting strawberries turned out ineffective, it would be a significant waste.

Ying Yuanxing sowed the seeds while Lan Ying followed behind to water them. Xuan Ying, meanwhile, kept track of where water was needed and brought the farm’s well over so Lan Ying could water the crops.

Watering the garden was a bit more involved, but since the plot was small, Lan Ying managed it easily. However, when Ying Yuanxing began sowing garlic and carrots, Lan Ying initially thought it would be a simple task—just remembering two data points: the water amounts for garlic and carrots on the first day. But as he worked, he noticed something was amiss.

Why were there so many?

In the past, watering took longer because the crops in the field varied in type and growth stages, making it like solving slightly complex problems while avoiding mistakes. Still, it usually was done in about an hour.

But now, with only two crop types, the watering amounts were straightforward—either one or two. It required no mental effort, and the work went incredibly fast. Yet, Lan Ying estimated he had been watering for two hours, and it still wasn’t over.

Lan Ying wasn’t the only one who noticed. The audience had spotted the issue much earlier.

Did Ying Yuanxing plant way too much today?

"Did I miss part of the livestream? Where did the host get so many seeds?"

"I’ve watched every single day without missing a stream. Even during breaks, the streamer was also resting. How did he suddenly get so many seeds?"

"It’s like seeing a friend strike it rich overnight—shocking and confusing."

"Did the state provide them? The state just sent An Ning to find Ying Yuanxing, and now he’s got all these seeds. If the state had these resources, why didn’t they say so earlier?"

"No way. If the state had this ability, they wouldn’t have been so excited over just a few Weird Plants Ying Yuanxing sent before."

"But these extra seeds are real. If the state didn’t provide them, then Ying Yuanxing must have. If he could get so many seeds, why didn’t he act sooner?"

"Why dig too deep in the chat? Whatever the reason, the host planting so much garlic and carrots is a good thing, right? If he still only sold a hundred plants a day, who knows when we’d even get one garlic plant for warding off evil? Now, the progress is at least ten times faster."

"My guess is it’s tied to the streamer’s abilities. But as said earlier, we shouldn’t speculate too much. What if foreign parties catch wind of it and stir up trouble?"

"Let’s drop it. Regardless, this is great news. Luckily, the streamer already has help—otherwise, tilling and watering this much land would be impossible even if he worked nonstop."

"True. I hope the host expands the farm’s territory. Before, with so few seeds, expanding wouldn’t have made sense. But now that there are more seeds, the farm seems too cramped."

"I think it’s fine for now. The host’s farming skills are incredible—crops ripen in just days. This much land is enough for the time being. Expanding further might make it harder to manage."

Zhao Zhangyan was also watching Ying Yuanxing’s stream. Seeing An Ning repeatedly forget things made him sigh in frustration, though he was relieved that An Ning had at least remembered before leaving.

It wasn’t that they were unaware of An Ning’s forgetfulness. But among all the candidates who could contact Ying Yuanxing, An Ning’s flaws were minor compared to others, whose issues could have led to conflicts rather than solutions.

Watching Ying Yuanxing plant so much garlic and carrots, Zhao Zhangyan’s expression turned serious. He had seen the audience’s speculations, but if the state hadn’t provided the seeds—which he would have known about—then Ying Yuanxing must have obtained them himself.

Where did Ying Yuanxing get so many Weird Plant seeds?

Zhao Zhangyan stopped focusing on the stream and immediately called a meeting to discuss this question.

The conclusion? This ability might be related to Ying Yuanxing’s insistence on buying the general store.

"Chief Zhao, you're watching the livestream too. As soon as Ying Yuanxing got his hands on that grocery store, he had Xuan Ying analyze which Weird Plant had the most Weird Qi and whether it had any special effects. Obviously, he was scoping things out for large-scale planting now, which means he already knew back then that he could obtain so many Weird Plant seeds," one person said.

"So, what’s the story with this grocery store?" Zhao Changyan asked.

The others looked at each other before someone replied, "Perhaps the grocery store is also a Weird Artifact, and only after gaining ownership can one use it."

As for why Ying Yuanxing could obtain so many Weird Plant seeds by using the grocery store while the previous owner seemingly couldn’t, they couldn’t figure it out. However, it wasn’t appropriate to ask Ying Yuanxing directly. After all, the Dawn Bureau records the abilities of participants but generally avoids probing into them—they’d learned that the hard way.

If word got out about a participant’s abilities, they could be targeted during the competition for Weird Artifacts in the game.

If Ying Yuanxing truly had the ability to mass-produce Weird Plant seeds, it was best that only he knew how to use it. Otherwise, too many folks might start eyeing it.

"Good thing Ying Yuanxing pushed to buy the grocery store back then," Zhao Changyan sighed in relief. He’d backed him hard on the decision to purchase the store, though privately, he’d had his doubts, feeling that the effort Ying Yuanxing put into acquiring it might not have been worth it—holding off might’ve taken the heat off.

But now, it seemed fortunate that Ying Yuanxing had been so determined. If they had missed this opportunity and some other anomaly had caught on to the grocery store’s peculiarity, they might never have had another chance to buy it.

Zhao Changyan glanced at Ying Yuanxing’s livestream. The camera switched to an overhead view, revealing fields packed so tight it’d give anyone the creeps. But all Zhao Changyan saw was hope sprouting between the plots.

Thousands of fields, easy—at least thousands planted with garlic. And with about ten garlic plants per field, that meant tens of thousands of garlic plants, enough to make a significant impact.

Zhao Changyan immediately reported the news. When the top brass in Xia State saw the update, they were overjoyed.

He didn’t forget to notify the Weird Agricultural Research Institute either. The experts there had nearly gone gray with worry over those few Weird Plants. Everyone knew Weird Plants were mankind’s lifeline, yet they couldn’t thrive on Earth, which weighed heavily on the researchers.

Originally, they had planned to conduct further studies once the Weird Plants stabilized, but for now, they could only focus on carefully nurturing them, too afraid to risk any experiments that might accidentally kill the precious specimens.

After receiving Zhao Changyan’s message, the agricultural experts felt some of the pressure lift from their shoulders. Not only could Ying Yuanxing’s abundance of seeds ease their burden, but more importantly, studying rare, one-of-a-kind samples meant they couldn’t risk bold methods—every move had to be cautious.

But with more research subjects available, they could afford to roll the dice a little, potentially uncovering ways to cultivate Weird Plants on Earth.

However, when the experts brought this up, Zhao Changyan’s expression stiffened. He had just instructed An Ning to tell Ying Yuanxing to hold off on sending more Weird Plants for now and prioritize his own needs. He couldn’t very well send someone else to say, "Since you have so many Weird Plants now, how about sending a few more?"

Even if he could stoop to asking, there was no good go-between.

Zhao Changyan sighed inwardly. This was one of the inconveniences of participants being in the anomalous world—no way to talk directly. The Salvation Game didn’t support dialogue, and even the JoyBuy app lacked a comment or messaging feature. They had no choice but to accept these communication barriers.

Yet Zhao Changyan’s melancholy vanished when he saw the pre-orders the next day.

"XX Bureau research-only link—100 orders. No randos allowed. Orders won’t be shipped. Is this specifically for the Dawn Bureau?"

"Feels like the streamer might be avoiding naming the Dawn Bureau outright in case unfamiliar anomalies see it. After all, even anomalies browse the JoyBuy app now."

"Maybe the streamer’s worried Dawn Bureau members won’t get any. The stock was changed to 100,000—probably closing after they secure their orders."

"Isn’t the streamer afraid someone might fake a Dawn Bureau address and scam those 100 Weird Plants?"

"Em... the address probably requires internal Dawn Bureau verification. With so many eyes watching, who’d be stupid enough to try?"

"Anyone who tries probably wouldn’t want to stay in Xia State afterward."

"But a single garlic plant is only 500 bucks? Even pasture grass costs that much. So cheap!"

"If sold to the public later, it’ll probably stay at this price. From now on, I’m squirreling away cash to grab one for home or carry around to ward off anomalies."

"Looking into portable planters to keep garlic secure."

"Any flowerpot manufacturers out there? Better start researching—this is a money-making opportunity. Before long, every home’s gonna have a garlic pot for protection."

"Looks like there are about 30,000 garlic plants now. If each yields ten cloves, that’s 300,000. If those are replanted, it becomes 3 million, then 30 million... Billions ain’t a pipe dream!"

"Hope is within reach. First time I've felt hope this tangible. I'm so happy I feel like running circles downstairs."

"Calm down, don't get too impulsive. It wouldn't be good to scare people."

"If you're feeling overly excited, I suggest opening JoyBuy to trade positive emotions for Weird coins. Start saving them early. I just got really excited too and exchanged for fifty Weird coins. Then I checked the news and felt excited again, though not as strongly as before, so I'll hold off on exchanging more for now and just enjoy this happiness."

"I exchanged some too. I used to be reluctant to spend positive emotions, but exchanging a little now feels fine."

"Save up for garlic—let’s gooo!"

Although Ying Yuanxing specified in the product title, some ignored the title or tried gaming the system. Quite a few of the 100,000 orders were placed, but Ying Yuanxing only shipped garlic shoots and strawberry sprouts to the Dawn Bureau.

Of course, there were more garlic shoots. As for strawberry sprouts, considering strawberry seeds were hard to come by, Ying Yuanxing only sent some grown from strawberry seeds. He hoped the agricultural experts at the research institute could figure something out with them.

After sending out these hundred plants, Ying Yuanxing considered selling the remaining garlic to all Xia people. Though there were fewer than 40,000 plants, making the chance of getting one a one-in-ten-thousand shot, the coverage would still be relatively broad.

Ying Yuanxing also planned to impose a one-clove-per-person monthly limit. This way, after several rounds of sales, the odds could jump to one in a thousand, or even one in a hundred.

He spelled out his plan live on stream, repeating it three times to ensure viewers got the message before resuming his work.

As Ying Yuanxing expected, the audience lost their minds with excitement.

Was the chance of a needle in a haystack low? Yes.

But compared to the previous odds of one in millions, this was much better. At least a city might secure a hundred or so.

Some wealthy individuals immediately offered high prices, willing to pay 500,000 Xia bucks per garlic—some bids hit a million. But aside from those in desperate need of money, few were willing to sell, even before the rush began.

While dried fish had been an escape tool, garlic—if it worked as Xuan Ying claimed—could keep evil spirits out at home or protect safety outdoors, making it far more valuable than dried fish.

After Ying Yuanxing’s announcement, the Dawn Bureau weighed in and warned, disclosing the challenges of cultivating Weird Plants and telling folks to stash or eat the garlic but think twice before planting it.

The news disappointed some, but not too much. If Weird Plants were easy to grow, there wouldn’t have been so little progress in past years. At least garlic still had its protective effects even if left unused.

However, if it couldn’t be planted, garlic wouldn’t last as long. Many urged the Dawn Bureau to accelerate research, pushing for a dried-fish-style garlic boost—even if diluted, one clove could pack the punch of ten, making it worthwhile even without cultivation.

Without public pressure, the Dawn Bureau was already working overtime to squeeze every drop from the garlic. Initially, they tried blending it into food like dried fish, but the results were poor.

Then a researcher proposed garlic cologne, extracting the odor compounds to repel anomalies when sprayed.

The idea was sound, but cologne had drawbacks—it evaporated too quickly, and people might douse themselves facing anomalies, wasting precious garlic.

Soon, another researcher suggested garlic breath mints.

Seeing confused looks, they explained, "After eating this candy, your breath reeks of it. Many anomalies track humans by breath—if it smells like garlic, they might leave quickly."

"Cologne scents fade, but candy releases odor from the mouth or even leaves traces in the body. Maybe we could extract residues from…"

Before they finished, the room went dead silent. While thorough resource use was ideal, suggesting extracting from waste after consumption was too much.

"Definitely not edible. Use it for cologne instead—just don’t eat it. But with limited garlic, extraction is too tedious. Once more people consume garlic candy, residues will accumulate, and we shouldn’t waste those." The researcher trailed off, then circled back.

"Please… don’t tell anyone this was your idea," someone muttered.

Even understanding the intent, anyone using that ‘perfume’ would hunt you down.

But could they afford not to use it?

The researcher who spoke thought about it and felt it wasn't quite right. It was obvious that, for a period of time, humans would push utilization of Weird Plants to the max. While this approach might be kinda gross, with so many people in the country, whipping up some perfume could potentially save a life.

Once this idea was conceived, the Dawn Bureau quickly began experiments. Garlic candy was soon produced. Garlic bulbs and scapes yielded the most garlic candy, while garlic sprouts were slightly less productive but still decent. Essentially, one garlic plant could produce nearly twenty pieces of garlic candy. Multiplying forty thousand by twenty resulted in nearly eight hundred thousand candies.

The effectiveness wasn’t significantly diminished, and the candy could be held in the mouth for a long time. A single piece could make a person exhale garlic breath for two hours. If you ran into an anomaly, as long as one didn’t act recklessly, there would basically be no problem.

...

While anxiously waiting for the garlic sale, Shen Yan was also anticipating news from the Dawn Bureau. She believed the Bureau’s method of utilizing garlic would surely be better than anything she could think of.

It wasn’t that she distrusted her own intelligence—she simply had more faith in the elites selected by the state.

When the Dawn Bureau finally released the news, Shen Yan clenched her fists and read through it repeatedly, her excitement through the roof.

Realizing how uplifted she felt, Shen Yan immediately opened JoyBuy and cashed in some Weird coins. Looking at her account balance, she called out, "Mom, do you have two hundred Weird coins? I’ve saved up three hundred. Should I transfer them to you?"

"No, I’ll transfer mine to you. Your phone is faster, and your fingers are quicker. You should be the one to grab the garlic," Shen’s mother said, coming out from the kitchen and swiftly transferring the Weird coins to Shen Yan.

Shen Yan’s phone was one she had won from a blind box purchase. Initially, she had wanted to sell it—though slightly outdated, it used to be top-of-the-line and could fetch some money. But her mother had insisted she keep it.

At first, Shen Yan disagreed, but her mother’s reasoning shut her down: "A better phone makes it easier to score goods. If your phone lags, you’ll have even less chance of getting Ying Yuanxing’s farm goods later."

The reasoning was blunt, and Shen Yan had no choice but to keep the phone. Now, as she prepared to compete for garlic, she felt a wave of relief—thank God she had upgraded. With only one in ten thousand people able to secure garlic, her old phone would have left her with little confidence.

While the Xia State was buzzing with excitement, people abroad were pissed about the news.

John particularly despised seeing news about the Xia State, especially anything related to Ying Yuanxing, a name he loathed. Every action of Ying Yuanxing struck John as fake as hell.

If Ying Yuanxing was truly as praiseworthy as the Xia people claimed, why did he only sell his products to them and not to people from other countries?

Though trade between nations had been severed, players' online stores weren’t restricted. Contestants from his country hadn’t barred Xia people from purchasing, yet Ying Yuanxing imposed restrictions.

John conveniently forgot that contestants from his country had sold Weird Artifacts and Weird Food at exorbitant prices. Even if Xia people had needs, they prioritized buying from their own contestants. Even within his own country, some considered purchasing Weird Artifacts from Xia contestants—at least they weren’t getting ripped off blind.

John wished he could avoid all news about Ying Yuanxing, but various platforms kept pushing updates about him, making it impossible to ignore.

Still, seeing Ying Yuanxing’s news wasn’t entirely without benefit—at least it got him raging, rapidly increasing his negative emotions and allowing him to exchange more Weird coins.

The Xia government’s suggestion to exchange only a hundred Weird coins per week struck John as a joke. After all, a hundred Weird coins could be cashed out for five hundred in currency. Even with inflation, pulling in fifteen hundred a week would make life incredibly comfortable.

His biggest worry was not being able to generate enough emotions to exchange. Ying Yuanxing’s news, however, helped him extract emotional value—one damn upside.

From what John knew, many shared his hatred for Ying Yuanxing. He had joined numerous groups where fabricated rumors circulated. Though aware they might be false, John chose to believe them—because belief fueled the negative emotions he needed to exchange for Weird coins.

Over time, his threshold for anger grew higher, but fortunately, Ying Yuanxing’s every move managed to hit his buttons to push perfectly.

"Goddamn Xia rats!" John cursed, clicking into the livestream to watch Ying Yuanxing, who, despite knowing the truth about the world, had only moped around for a hot minute before resuming his usual routine of wandering around Taoxi Village.

Ying Yuanxing wasn’t actually idling—he was exploring Taoxi Village. With little work needed on the farm for now (just daily watering after planting seeds), he wanted to see if there were any overlooked spots in the village.

Previously too busy to wander much, he now had some free time to investigate.

Compared to the game he knew, Taoxi Village was missing an ocean and a mine. The ocean could wait, but the mine was a must-have—farm development couldn’t progress without ore.

If Xia researchers could boost the product's kick, what if those products were used to make juice or brew alcohol? Would the effects be even better? But brewing required small kegs, and kegs needed metal.

At this thought, Ying Yuanxing sighed. Back when he played games, it was a daily rat race from six in the morning to two at night. Now, he wasn’t coasting either.

Of course, Ying Yuanxing didn’t search alone—he also hit up other anomalies if they knew anything.

As for the possibility that the other party might refuse to speak, Ying Yuanxing had a solution—first engage in conversation to slightly raise their favorability, then offer a stalk of forage grass. If their favorability increased, he wouldn’t take it back.

If it didn’t improve, he’d snatch it back and try another gift, always opting for the cheapest option to boost goodwill.

If he encountered someone truly uncooperative, with Xuan Ying by his side, Ying Yuanxing would also take the opportunity to practice his two-arm pinning technique and backpack lockdown skill, improving his self-defense abilities.

Watching Ying Yuanxing work the village like a pro, befriending various anomalous creatures, John couldn’t help but vent in the group chat again, exchanging Weird coins for cash in the process.

These chat logs were actually under full surveillance by the A-country government, but they didn’t care in the slightest. After all, Ying Yuanxing’s updates were fed to the public by them to help citizens extract more Weird coins—since the exchange process involved fees and taxes, the more citizens converted, the more the government profited.

Yet, in places unnoticed by most, the build-up of negative energy continued to rise. Sooner or later, someone would have to pay the price for such behavior.