Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Hiring Market?" Lu Yunqi looked at the various talents in the market in surprise and muttered to himself, "I thought it would be some kind of golden finger or system mall, but why is the first one a Hiring Market? What's the use of a Hiring Market?"

Just then, the System Sprite jumped out: "In answer to your question, Master, the Hiring Market is exactly what it sounds like. You can use your points to exchange for corresponding talents in the Hiring Market. They come in a variety of types. Right now, you have thirty points, which can be exchanged for one Level 1 talent. Level 1 talents are strength-based, and they can work as ordinary farmers, ordinary bricklayers, ordinary laborers, or ordinary guards. They're physically strong and have basic farming and repair skills, but no specialized skills."

Lu Yunqi understood and his eyes lit up. "You mean I don't have to farm myself? I can just hire NPCs?"

Xiao Jiu replied, "Yes, Master, but NPCs aren't free either. You have to pay them wages every month. The system will buy back the crops you grow, and the system credits you earn from selling them can be used to pay the NPCs' wages. Anything left over can be sold to provide for your own living expenses."

Lu Yunqi said disdainfully, "How much money can that be? The Lu family's private treasury has more money than the imperial treasury! ...Well, you did remind me of something. I need to find a way to move the family treasury here. But there's no rush—let me develop this place a little first!"

This place was all wasteland. Even if he moved the treasury here, he couldn't just leave the money on the ground, could he?

Xiao Jiu added, "NPCs are absolutely loyal to their master and will never betray you. As long as you pay their wages on a fixed monthly basis, they will serve you diligently. But if you're late on their wages, your reputation score will decrease, and the NPCs will refuse to serve you. So it's best to use your first earnings to pay the NPCs' wages."

Lu Yunqi understood and asked, "Then what should I plant first? What can earn me income within a month?"

Xiao Jiu replied, "The system has opened the Seed Market for you, Host. You can go to the Seed Market to find crop seeds that can pay for themselves within a month, and plant them today. By the end of the month, you'll receive some planting income. NPC wages can be delayed by at most three to five days, so please plan your actions according to the rules."

Lu Yunqi quickly opened the Seed Market and indeed saw many types of seeds listed. He sorted them by growth cycle and found five crops with growth cycles under a month.

They were:

First: Sprout vegetables (bean sprouts, radish sprouts, garlic chives, etc.). Bean sprouts or radish sprouts can be harvested within ten days, while garlic chives take about twenty days.

The advantage is that they don't need large fields—a single plastic greenhouse is enough. Low investment, quick returns, and you can make your money back in no time.

Second: Fast greens (lettuce, bok choy, and other fast-growing leafy vegetables). The average harvest cycle is thirty to forty days, with stable buyback prices. One mu of land can earn over ten thousand yuan a month.

Third: Chives. Regular planting takes thirty to forty-five days, with stable prices and the ability to harvest multiple times.

Fourth: Mushrooms (shiitake, oyster mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms). The cycle is about forty days, but you need to prepare spawn bags.

Fifth: A new type of loofah (apple-shaped loofah). The harvest cycle is fifty days, but it can be continuously harvested for three months.

Obviously, his best choices now were the first three, especially the first one, which had a short payback period—he could make money in just ten to twenty days.

He checked the wages for each NPC and found that strength-type NPCs cost three thousand yuan per month, while the buyback value of chives per mu was about six thousand yuan, and fast greens per mu was six to ten thousand yuan.

Without hesitation, he decided to plant fast greens. The system's bok choy and lettuce had similar buyback values, but butter lettuce was more expensive—eight to twelve thousand yuan—so he decisively chose butter lettuce.

The system's prompt came: "How many butter lettuce seeds would you like to purchase, Host? A. One mu; B. Half a mu."

Lu Yunqi thought about it—half a mu it was. He'd plant some sprout vegetables on the other half mu. So he chose B.

Soon, half a mu of butter lettuce seeds appeared in his hands, and he poured them directly into the drone's seed compartment.

The next system task also sounded: "Step four of reclaiming one mu of wasteland: sow the seeds into the tilled soil."

Lu Yunqi checked the drone and directly clicked the seeding button on the system's remote control. The drone scattered the seeds evenly across the field.

But the system didn't give a task completion notification. He then remembered that he'd only bought half a mu of seeds.

What about the remaining half mu of land?

To avoid having half a mu with no harvest, Lu Yunqi purchased garlic seeds for a quarter mu and radish sprout seeds for the other quarter mu in the Seed Market.

Radish sprout seeds could be sown directly with the drone, but garlic seeds couldn't—they had to be planted by hand, one at a time.

Lu Yunqi didn't want to plant them himself. After all, this was his Idle Master Planting System, so he had to hire NPCs.

Since he had thirty points anyway, he waved his hand generously and directly hired a strength-type NPC.

The NPC was dressed in modern work clothes, was slightly plump, and had an ordinary but friendly face. He stepped forward and respectfully bowed to Lu Yunqi, saying, "Greetings, Master. I'm your first employee, Zhang Wei. You can assign me any work. My salary is three thousand yuan a month, working eight hours a day. Please be sure to pay me on time."

With that, Zhang Wei's employment contract was automatically generated in the system.

Lu Yunqi raised an eyebrow and asked, "Zhang Wei, right? Do you know how to grow garlic chives?"

Zhang Wei nodded: "Basic planting is a basic skill. You don't need to worry about that, Master."

Lu Yunqi nodded: "Plant garlic on this quarter mu, but... you need to plant it in this shape."

With that, he drew a circle on the ground and pointed ahead, saying, "At intervals of one handspan, draw another circle, and plant the garlic seeds in these circular patterns."

Although Zhang Wei didn't understand why he wanted this, he still did as he was told. Lu Yunqi watched him plant with skill and confidence, then left through the Anywhere Door and returned to his room.

Back in his room, Lu Yunqi drew a blueprint, opened the door, and called for Liu Bao.

Liu Bao was practically like Cao Cao—he appeared the moment he was called. He ran over and asked, "Young Master, what are your orders?"

Lu Yunqi handed the blueprint to Liu Bao: "Here, follow this blueprint and buy a dozen or so large vats. Put them in my room. I have a use for them."

"A... use? Young Master, what do you need large vats for?"

Lu Yunqi hissed and gave Liu Bao a kick on the butt: "Why ask so many questions? When I tell you to do something, you just do it!"

Liu Bao grinned and replied, "Alright, Liu Bao will go right away!"

Soon, Liu Bao purchased over a dozen large vats, stacked them up, and carried them into Lu Yunqi's room. Fortunately, his room was spacious enough—otherwise, those vats would have filled the entire room.

Lu Yunqi looked at the vats with satisfaction and nodded: "Alright, you're done here. I'm going to rest. Don't bother me unless it's important."

Liu Bao said "Oh" and backed out with a confused look on his face.

After closing the door, he muttered to himself, "What's gotten into the Young Master these past couple of days? What is he so busy with?"

But when it came to the master's affairs, servants like them couldn't ask too many questions. They just had to follow orders.

Lu Yunqi, meanwhile, struggled to move all the vats into the Wanjing Wasteland. When he got there, he found that Zhang Wei had already completely finished planting the garlic—neatly arranged in circles.

He liked employees who worked efficiently. He praised, "Not bad, not bad! Well done!"

Zhang Wei patted the dirt off his clothes and asked, "You flatter me, Master. Do you have any other orders?"

Lu Yunqi said, "Yes, yes, yes. See these vats? Cover them all over the garlic. I want to grow garlic chives, so the sprouts can't be exposed to light."

The system said he needed a greenhouse, but he only had half a mu of land—he couldn't build a greenhouse. So he had to use the vats to cover them.

Zhang Wei nodded: "Alright, Master. Leave it to me."

Strength-type NPCs were indeed strong. He covered the vats one by one, finishing the whole process in just over ten minutes.

Lu Yunqi finally understood the essence of the Idle Master Planting System—it was indeed idle. With NPCs, all he had to do was give orders.

Zhang Wei looked at the reclaimed wasteland and said, "Master, if you have no other orders, I could take advantage of the mower still being here and clear the weeds around the area. Do you think that's necessary?"

Lu Yunqi nodded: "That's absolutely necessary! Thank you, Brother Zhang!"

Zhang Wei said, "No trouble at all, just doing my job."

After speaking, Zhang Wei pushed the lawnmower over to cut the grass, while Lu Yunqi opened the system interface. The fourth step of reclaiming the acre of wasteland was finally complete, and the task reward was an irrigation drone.

Great, he didn't even need to guess the next task—it was obviously to water the acre he'd just planted.

As expected, the next task arrived right on cue—water the field.

Using the system interface, he flew the drone over the reclaimed farmland, evenly irrigating it with water from the Jade River.

After watering, the system notification chimed again: "Congratulations, Host! You have completed the initial planting tasks, earning sixty system points, one level-one building blueprint, and unlocking the technical NPC talent."

Lu Yunqi raised an eyebrow, studying the blueprint in his hand thoughtfully. It was a simple wooden field cabin built with mortise-and-tenon joints.

Why would the system give him a building blueprint? Did it want him to build a little wooden cabin by the river?

He opened the talent market and took a look—technical talents were level-two NPCs, including architects, pastry chefs, seamstresses, cooks, carpenters, stonemasons, and so on.

To turn a blueprint into an actual house, he'd need three NPCs: a carpenter, a stonemason, and an architect—which wasn't realistic right now.

With no other choice, he could only keep reclaiming wasteland for now and earn more money.

Unexpectedly, the system's next task had nothing to do with construction—it was to hire an NPC for himself!

What a coincidence!

He could already guess that one!

==========Author's Note:==========

With NPCs around, our boy can finally kick back and relax~

A chill, laid-back farming story, hehe. If you like it, drop a positive review!

Love you all, mwah~