Chapter 18: Switching Forms

Fangfeng Grass matures in 3 days. Once mature, it can be sold to town residents for 35 rupees each, or kept for cooking.

Fangfeng Grass is a single-harvest crop—it won't regrow after being picked, and its selling price is relatively low, but...

Jiang Ye, in his mushroom form, had already dashed over excitedly. These Fangfeng Grass plants cost no seed money—this was pure profit!

The Fangfeng Grass was fully mature, its surface leaves tall and dense, with white radish-like root sections visible in the soil. Pulling them up felt just like yanking radishes.

Pop!

Jiang Ye's mycelium grabbed the leaves, pulled hard, and yanked out the first Fangfeng Grass.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Jiang Ye never knew picking veggies could feel so therapeutic—almost addictive.

One after another, the Fangfeng Grass was pulled out. Harvested crops were automatically stored in the item slot, stackable for easy storage.

Harvesting didn't cost any stamina. Within a minute, Jiang Ye had picked all 15 Fangfeng Grass.

"First harvest successful! Congratulations on unlocking the Cooking feature!"

A system notification popped up in front of Jiang Ye. At the same time, the flapping of wings sounded above the mushroom's head.

A pigeon named Little White landed, carrying a letter.

"A letter from the bar owner"

"Hey new neighbor,

I heard you've been living on that huge farm for a few days now. Managing such a big place all by yourself must be tough—I bet you're always running around like a headless chicken, haha, just like me.

Lots of adventurers have come to town recently, and the bar's been keeping me swamped. Sorry I couldn't stop by in person. I wanted to get you a little something—I'm letting you use the bar's kitchen. That way, you can whip up all kinds of good eats without needing to expand your house. Of course, the bar opens at 6 PM and it gets crazy busy, so the kitchen's only yours during the day. Hope that's cool with you.

Oh, almost forgot—good luck out there!"

Jiang Ye opened the letter and saw it was the kitchen! Of course, in a farming game you gotta grow stuff to unlock the important stuff later.

"Social Feed"

"Mushroom Soup": My Fangfeng Grass is all grown!

Jiang Ye couldn't help but brag on the social feed.

"Lu Ban the Five-Footer": ...

"Mushroom Soup": How's your cilantro doing, young master?

"Lu Ban the Five-Footer": ...

Jiang Ye's mycelium scratched its mushroom cap, feeling like that string of dots from the Five-Footer young master was dripping with sadness.

"The Man Who'd Be Smoked Fish King": Mushroom! You're awesome! Is Fangfeng Grass good? What's it taste like?

"Mushroom Soup": Dunno, haven't eaten it yet.

"The Man Who'd Be Smoked Fish King": You've set the young master off. He was weeding like crazy yesterday and passed out from exhaustion. Hahaha, I'm dying laughing.

Jiang Ye figured that's why the Five-Footer young master had been quiet on social all day yesterday—he must've passed out from exhaustion.

Jiang Ye couldn't help but think how lucky he was. With the hardworking and sweet Knight Snail Dorin lending a hand with weeding and watering, stamina was never a problem.

"Sleep at 2 AM": I'm running low on stamina too. What do I do?

"Nothing Better to Do": Upgrading your tools cuts stamina use.

Jiang Ye had bought a new copper hoe earlier, and it really did cut stamina use in half.

"Nothing Better to Do": The easiest way is to eat food—it restores stamina right away.

"Lu Ban the Five-Footer": If I could find food, this young master wouldn't be growing his own veggies...

"Nothing Better to Do": You could also hit the mines. I heard mining or fighting monsters can drop mystery potions—secret elixirs that permanently boost your max stamina.

The mines!

Jiang Ye's mushroom form caught the key word and hopped excitedly on the spot.

"Mushroom Soup": So you get copper and iron ore from the mines?

If you get iron and copper ore, you can craft a bike, which makes trips to town way easier.

"Le Yi Li": That's right.

Le Yi Li, a big roguelike fan, suddenly popped up and started rambling about everything there is to know about the mines.

To go to the mines, you gotta buy a pickaxe first—otherwise you can't break any rocks.

"Le Yi Li": The town has pickaxes for 1000 rupees.

Pickaxes aren't cheap.

On top of the pickaxe, you'll also need to buy a weapon.

"Le Yi Li": The mines are full of little monsters, and the deeper you go, the more there are. Weapons are a must.

Jiang Ye opened his inventory to check his 2,000+ rupees and wondered if he'd have enough left for a weapon after buying a pickaxe.

"Le Yi Li": You can just grab a tree branch and use it as a weapon, honestly.

The game is super open—branches, pickaxes, hoes, even watering cans can all be used as weapons. Though they're all pretty crappy, honestly.

They break easily, are slow, deal low damage, and feel clunky—definitely not as good as real weapons.

"Le Yi Li": If you don't know what you're doing, going into the mines alone is risky. Better to find a guide at the bar or hire a mercenary.

Jiang Ye thought, that's gotta cost even more!

Le Yi Li had no interest in farming at all and spent every day down in the mines fighting monsters. He seemed pretty experienced.

"Le Yi Li": Oh yeah, if you see weeds on the road, hit 'em with your weapon—there's a chance they'll drop green or blue rupees.

Jiang Ye's mushroom eyes went wide. Cutting grass drops money?!

Green rupees are worth 1, blue ones 5. Not much, but hey, free money.

"The Cold-Faced Pig-Raising Succubus": Do you drop money?

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": Whoa! I'm heading out to cut grass now!

"Le Yi Li": Be careful when cutting grass. Like slimes, lizardmen, skeletons, and Bokoblins like to hide in the grass and ambush people.

"Mushroom Soup": (scared expression)

"Le Yi Li": I get chomped to death by a mob every day, and suddenly I'm like, this game's actually pretty fun.

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": ...

"The Cold-Faced Pig-Raising Succubus": ...

"Two O'Clock Sleep": ...

"You Have Nothing to Do": ...

"Mushroom Soup": ...

The social channel suddenly turned into a bunch of dot dot dots, and Jiang Ye joined the dot-dot-dot army.

"Mushroom Soup": Um... does it hurt to get chomped to death?

"Le Yi Li": A bit.

"Mushroom Soup": Oh no, I'm scared of pain...

Based on Le Yi Li's experience, after being killed by a monster, some adventurer will haul your "corpse" away and drag you to the town clinic to patch you up.

"Le Yi Li": That's pretty nice of the game, so you don't have to hike back out of the mine.

Getting killed can leave you with light or heavy injuries. If it's light, you'll be out until 6 AM the next day. If it's bad, you might be out cold for two or three days.

"Mushroom Soup": But if you wake up in the town clinic, I'd still have to walk all the way back to the farm from town.

"Le Yi Li": Nah, you can just hang around town until 2 AM and just pass out. That way you wake up back at your farm the next day.

Jiang Ye: "..." Is it really that straightforward?

"Le Yi Li": Waking up from passing out feels a bit like a hangover, which is still better than getting chomped by a mob.

Jiang Ye: "..." So you can play the game like this?

Mushroom had question marks all over his head.

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": Just wondering, if a mob kills you, do you drop stuff from your inventory or money?

You know, the death penalty mechanic.

"Le Yi Li": No idea about that.

"Le Yi Li": My inventory's so broke it's got nothing worth dropping.

Jiang Ye closed the social channel. It was already getting late, and he still had to make a trip to town, so he needed to get going ASAP.

Mushroom ran over to water the rest of the crops and then bolted toward town.

"Oh, I forgot to watch TV." After running a good distance, Jiang Ye suddenly remembered he hadn't watched the weather report.

But the weather today looked great.

Sunny with a few clouds, cool, and not too hot.

"Almost there, just a bit more!"

A mushroom ran and ran, occasionally wiping sweat off its cap with its mycelium. A bike was really necessary—he needed to make one ASAP.

Sunny Town was right in front of him, and Mushroom let out a sigh of relief and hopped in with a "boing boing boing."

"Wow!"

The moment he stepped into town, a raspy caw came from overhead. Jiang Ye didn't even need to look up—it was definitely a crow.

A massive crow circled overhead, its wings spread so wide they blocked out the sun, casting a huge shadow over everything.

Quite a few residents stopped in their tracks, staring up in surprise, murmuring to each other: "The crow's back again!"

"It's that troublemaker bird again."

"Shh, keep your voice down. This crow never forgets."

It was that blue-eyed crow—Jiang Ye could spot it from a mile away.

The crow circled round and round, flying with agile movements. It seemed to be holding something in its claws...

"Is it a letter?" Jiang Ye wondered. Has the crow turned into a carrier pigeon?

Just then, someone rushed over, shouting: "Stop! Stop! Bad bird!"

"Stop! You bad thing!"

"My wig! My wig!"

Mushroom turned to look, confused.

The one shouting seemed to be Mr. Mayor, Santa Claus, but Santa Claus shouldn't be bald.

The mayor covered his bald head, red-faced with anger, jumping and cursing at the crow in the sky.

So what the crow held wasn't a letter, but a wig...

The crow cawed a series of times, and amid the mayor's curses, it threw the wig, tossing it directly into the stream under the small bridge.

Plop!

The mayor stared in despair at the wig in the water, shouting: "This is infuriating! You bad thing!"

The mayor tried to throw stones at the crow, but the crow had already fled after its prank, spreading its wings with a whoosh of wind as it flew deeper into town.

Then...

Jiang Ye heard more shouts from afar: "My book! My book!"

This time, a bookstore was vandalized. The owner chased out from inside, and the crow turned in the air, dropping not feathers but pages, tearing them all to shreds one by one.

When the wind came, the scattered pages were blown away, drifting like petals.

Mushroom looked up at the sky, thinking, what a truly mischievous bad bird.

A huge book page flew toward Jiang Ye, bigger than the mushroom, nearly covering the whole thing underneath.

Mycelium shot out and curled around the loose page.

Bottom right corner: 238—probably the page number.

Top left corner: "Sun Town Strange Tales"—probably the title.

The middle section read:

—If you turn on the TV at 01:47 AM, you'll hear eerie screams.

—On rainy nights, scarecrows tend to get possessed by weird stuff.

—Don't look a blue-eyed crow in the eye, or you'll lose what's most precious to you.

—Little monsters like to steal underwear, especially purple ones. I heard they really need it.

Jiang Ye gave it a quick once-over, then his gaze locked on something.

Purple briefs?!

Suddenly, the system control panel buzzed.

He opened it and saw a new entry in the log.

"New task: Increase charm value to 99."

[Friendly Reminder: Increase charm value to 99 to transform from 'Mushroom Form' to 'Human Form'.]

"Friendly Reminder: 1 pair of men's purple briefs = 1P (charm point) value."

"So get out there and collect those men's purple briefs!"