Chapter 11: Players

"Happy Li": A farming game has achievements too?

"Shorty Lu Ban": A cookie tin? What's it for? Why doesn't the young master have one?

"The Stone-Faced Pig-Raising Succubus": Cookies... they look delicious.

"Two Hours 'til Bedtime": I'm so hungry I'd eat anything right now.

"Got Nothing Better to Do?": That cookie tin must be something good, otherwise they wouldn't announce it to the whole server on the big screen.

Jiang Ye naturally saw the system notification, but...

The mushroom stretched out its left hypha—nothing there. Stretched out its right hypha—nothing there. Opened the item slot—still empty. Then it shook all eighteen hyphae—still nothing.

Where was the cookie tin?

The system made such a big fuss over this reward, but where was the cookie tin?

"Hey!"

A voice suddenly sounded from behind Jiang Ye, and a hand landed on his shoulder.

The little mushroom spun around and craned his neck.

A man had appeared out of nowhere in the general store. He looked to be in his seventies, with white hair and a white beard, beaming—a bit like a Santa Claus figure.

"Well, well, little mushroom, finally meeting you face to face!" Santa Claus greeted enthusiastically.

"Hello?" Jiang Ye blinked, totally confused.

"I'm the mayor of Sun Town," the old man said, introducing himself. "I was your grandpa's best buddy! He never told you about me? That old man was always so scatterbrained. Oh, I almost forgot!"

The mayor pulled a round cookie tin from his sagging shirt pocket—about six inches across and a good six inches thick—and held it out to Jiang Ye.

"Little mushroom, this is the cookie tin your grandpa left you. I've held onto it all these years. Now it's time to pass it on to you. Take good care of it!"

The cookie tin!

It was a blue cookie tin, a bit battered, with paint flaking off in spots to show the bare metal beneath.

He had to admit, the cookies printed on the lid looked pretty tasty.

Jiang Ye thanked him and took the tin. It felt way too light—he had a hunch it was empty.

"Little mushroom, welcome to Sun Town. You're gonna love it here. Make sure to drop by town often and have a chat with folks." The mayor looked rushed, pulling out his pocket watch and checking it twice: "I've got something really important to do. Gotta run—no time, no time at all."

Before Jiang Ye could get a word out, the mayor was already out the door, vanishing the second he stepped outside.

"Grandpa's Cookie Tin"

"An empty cookie tin. The cookies were eaten ages ago, but Grandpa couldn't stand to toss it. So what did Grandpa keep in here?

+???"

Jiang Ye read the system message—yep, no cookies inside. A little disappointing.

He gripped the edge of the tin with his hyphae, trying to pry the lid off.

He pulled. No luck...

The lid was on so tight, it wouldn't open.

He tried again. Still nothing...

A string of notifications popped up in front of Jiang Ye.

"Tip: Grandpa's Cookie Tin is a special item. Opens once a day at 6:00 AM, random draw of one item."

"Oh, I see..."

Jiang Ye studied it—a special item with a set open time. So he could open it once a day? Not bad at all.

"Mr. Mushroom! Hey, Mr. Mushroom!"

While Jiang Ye was checking out the cookie tin, the shopkeeper with the black-rimmed glasses hadn't been sitting around. He dug through boxes and shelves, pulling out a huge red backpack.

Thunk!

He plopped the red backpack on the counter and said excitedly: "Mr. Mushroom! Check out this backpack—12 more slots than the one you just bought! Huge capacity! A must-have for home, travel, or adventuring!"

Jiang Ye glanced at his own item slots, then at the red backpack. "How much is this in rupees?"

"Just 10,000 rupees!" the owner pitched.

Jiang Ye thought, way too pricey! No way I can afford that!

Besides, early game, a 24-slot backpack was plenty.

Jiang Ye smiled and shook his head politely.

The owner quickly stashed the backpack and pulled out something else from under the counter: "Check this out—I promise you're gonna need this!"

It was a copper hoe.

The shopkeeper had noticed Jiang Ye had more money than the other customers today, so he was pushing his goods hard, hoping for another sale.

"Check out this copper hoe," the owner said. "Top quality, won't rub your hands raw. Tills way better than those cheap hoes—saves you effort! Trust me, this hoe cuts your stamina use in half, so you can get twice as much done in a day!"

"Copper Hoe"

"A must-have for farming. Cuts stamina use a bit—stamina cost halved."

Jiang Ye's eyes lit up at the copper hoe. Man, I really need this!

Normally, tilling one plot costs 10 stamina. With the copper hoe, it'd only cost 5, so he could plant twice as much.

"How much for this hoe?" Jiang Ye asked.

The owner adjusted his glasses and smiled. "Just 600 rupees, sir."

Six hundred rupees...

Jiang Ye opened his system panel and checked his balance: 1,066 rupees. If he bought the hoe for 600, he'd only have 466 left.

The little money I have left probably won't be enough to buy seeds.

Having a new hoe but no seeds to plant feels a bit like putting the cart before the horse.

Jiang Ye wondered if he should wait until the Fangfeng Grass matured before coming back to buy the hoe.

"Hey!"

Just as he was hesitating, someone patted him on the shoulder.

Jiang Ye almost thought it was Santa Claus—Mr. Mayor—coming back.

He turned around to look—it wasn't the mayor.

It was a stranger, a guy who looked about 20 years old. Yellow hair, purple eyes, a blue T-shirt, brown baggy shorts, and a big straw hat.

He wasn't bad-looking, but... he was a total mess, covered in dust and mud, like he'd just crawled out of a sewer.

"Hey..." Jiang Ye managed to get out—greetings came with gifts, after all.

The yellow-haired guy excitedly checked Jiang Ye out and said, "You're Mushroom Soup, right? I just saw the system-wide announcement, so I knew you'd be at the general store!"

"And you are?" Jiang Ye figured that since he mentioned the system, he definitely wasn't an NPC.

The yellow-haired guy wiped his right hand on his dusty T-shirt and stuck it out to Jiang Ye, saying, "Hey, hey, I'm The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King! We've traded before, remember?"

"Oh, it's you." Jiang Ye suddenly realized. He hesitated for a moment, then extended his mycelium to "shake hands" with the yellow-haired guy.

Shaking hands with mycelium made Jiang Ye nervous—would he blow his cover?

The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King gently squeezed the mushroom's mycelium, and his face instantly turned bright red. He grinned like an idiot and pulled his hand back, muttering, "Gosh, your hand is so small."

Jiang Ye forced a laugh. No kidding. But it seemed he hadn't been exposed—the disguise ring worked great!

The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King went on, "I really didn't expect you to be so beautiful—a real stunner!"

Jiang Ye: "???" His smile froze.

Mycelium sprouted from the mushroom head, curling into question mark shapes.

Jiang Ye was shocked—in the yellow-haired guy's eyes, he was actually a girl!

In his dream, the adventurer had also mistaken Jiang Ye for a girl, and Jiang Ye had thought it was just a fluke. After all, today in Sun Town, the bakery owner Mina had called him handsome, and both the General Store Owner and the mayor saw Jiang Ye as male.

Who would've thought...

The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King kept stealing glances at him, and when he noticed Jiang Ye looking back, he shyly tugged at his T-shirt and said, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not usually like this..." so messy.

The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King explained, "I've been looking for the fishing rod I lost earlier, and I just fell into a sewer, which is why I'm such a mess."

Jiang Ye forced a laugh, thinking The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King must have some bad luck on him.

"You okay? Find your fishing rod?" Jiang Ye asked.

Since they were on the same server and could meet in Sun Town, that basically made them neighbors, so Jiang Ye felt it was only natural to show some concern.

In the game, every player had their own farm. During the newbie protection period, other players couldn't visit your private farm, which stopped players from robbing or looting each other.

But in peaceful main cities like Sun Town, players could meet up and chat.

Little Yellow Hair, being fussed over by a "beautiful lady," blushed even harder and said, "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm tough—just took a fall. It's just... I still haven't found my fishing rod."

Just from his ID, you could tell how much The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King loved fishing—in real life, he was a total angler. After losing his rod and failing to find it, he'd gone to the fishing tackle shop first, but came back empty-handed.

The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King said angrily, "I heard the tackle shop was selling a beginner rod for 500 rupees, so I rushed over to buy it, but someone beat me to it!"

Another player named Smoked Fish King had snagged the daily limited beginner rod.

The yellow-haired guy said, "All the other rods at the tackle shop are way too expensive—thousands of rupees. I can't afford them at all."

The tackle shop owner, being a nice guy, told him the general store nearby sold cheap fishing nets. They weren't great, but they could still catch fish. The yellow-haired guy headed to the general store, happened to see the system-wide announcement, and then ran into the "beautiful lady" Mushroom Soup.

"Oh no!" The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King slapped his forehead. "Almost forgot—I came to buy a fishing net. Boss, I want to buy a fishing net!"

The General Store Owner pointed to the net hanging on the wall and said, "Sir, that's 550 rupees. You've got a 5% discount coupon today, so you can take this net for the super low price of 522 rupees!"

"That expensive?!" The yellow-haired guy's eyes widened as he looked down at his money pouch.

He licked his lips awkwardly and asked, "Boss, can you do 500?"

The owner adjusted his glasses and said seriously, "Sir, we don't haggle here. We already made an exception with the discount today."

"But, but..." The yellow-haired man fumbled with his money pouch.

It seemed The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King didn't even have 522 rupees in his pouch—at most 500.

The owner said, "My fishing net is woven from natural mycelium, very sturdy and durable—not like those cheap, inferior nets! This price is a real bargain, sir."

Three strands of mycelium could be twisted into a fishing net, and selling it for 522 rupees was indeed not cheap.

Thinking about it, Jiang Ye's eyes suddenly lit up brightly: "I have a fishing net here—do you want to buy it?"

To a Little Mushroom, three strands of mycelium were no different from three strands of hair.

"You have a fishing net?" The yellow-haired man was overjoyed but also a bit hesitant, asking, "How much?"

Jiang Ye smiled: "500 rupees."

"Really?!" The yellow-haired man nodded eagerly. "I'll buy it, I'll buy it!"