Chapter 3: Night Falls

"Agree to barter?"

"One bundle of firewood" = "Spicy Grilled Rainbow Bream"

Jiang Ye stared at the system prompt that popped up, almost drooling just from reading the words. He decisively pressed "Agree."

Ding-dong—

A chime sounded.

"You have a new package. Please check it."

A white box appeared in his inventory, tied with a red bow. It had a nice ceremonial touch.

With just a light tap on the white box, the package automatically unwrapped, revealing a plate of fragrant grilled fish before him.

"Spicy Grilled Rainbow Bream"

"A delicacy grilled with brushed-on sauce—mouth-numbingly spicy, crispy and fragrant without being greasy, so crispy even the bones are edible!

+99 Satiety

+45 HP

+20 SAN"

Jiang Ye stared at the spicy grilled fish that was much bigger than he was. This smelled way too good, and the portion was huge and filling.

A little mushroom doesn't have a mouth, but a little mushroom still has to eat. He didn't need any tutorial at all—his hyphae shot out like bamboo shoots after rain, instantly wrapping the spicy grilled fish on the plate, bundling it up like a zongzi.

Jiang Ye closed his eyes in pure bliss and let out a deep, satisfied sigh.

Even though he had no idea what a rainbow bream actually was, the flavor was absolutely amazing. The meat was tender yet firm, without that muddy taste river fish often have, or that fishy smell sea fish have. The spicy, slightly numbing sauce was just right, never overpowering the fish's natural flavor.

Best of all, a mushroom doesn't need to pick out bones. His hyphae were super corrosive—whether fish meat or fish bones, everything just dissolved, and he could chew it all up and swallow it down.

It only took 10 minutes for Jiang Ye to devour the entire fish.

His hyphae elegantly wiped themselves off, like he was drying his hands.

Jiang Ye opened his light screen to check his stats—his satiety had indeed risen to 100, and his SAN had also climbed to 100.

Very satisfying.

"Social Chat"

"Mushroom Soup": Smoked Fish King! Your Spicy Grilled Rainbow Bream is absolutely delicious!

Five stars, no question! Jiang Ye couldn't help sending the message.

"Man Who Wants to Be the Smoked Fish King": The recipe is ridiculously easy. Just grab any fish and some chili peppers, grill them over firewood, and you're done. Simple and super tasty! Even a fishing nut like me with zero cooking skills can pull it off!

Jiang Ye thought—that does sound pretty simple.

"Lu Ban 1.5 Meters": First, you need a fish. Who's got a fish to sell to this young master? I'll pay 50 grand!

The fishing rod came from the newbie gift pack, while Jiang Ye had gotten... a cat bed.

The mushroom glanced back at the tent-style cat bed, then turned to glance toward the front door.

It was still early, and with a full belly, Jiang Ye decided to head out and explore the farm and the big wide world beyond. Who knows what he might find.

Pushing open the wooden door, the sun had already climbed to its peak overhead.

It was spring—the sun was warm, the breeze was cool, and even the air was crisp and fresh. Especially after stuffing himself, the little mushroom felt full of energy.

The little mushroom hopped out of the wooden cabin, lifting his head to gaze into the distance.

Straight ahead should be the farm gate, beyond which was an unknown world. As long as Jiang Ye went out and walked around, the thick fog on the map would lift, and he'd be able to see what the area was really like.

"Let's go!"

Jiang Ye was raring to go. The little mushroom bounced forward—boing, boing, boing!

The little mushroom had barely hopped three times before something blocked his way.

"Twig"

"Can't be used for lighting or burning, but it's an important material for crafting certain items. I hear you can pick these up and sell them for cash.

1 Rupee"

Key takeaway: can be picked up and sold for money.

The little mushroom reached out with his hyphae, picked up the twig, and stuffed it into his inventory.

The ground of the abandoned farm was littered with twigs, scattered all over the place, some in the way. Jiang Ye just picked them up as he went, stashing them all in his inventory.

Twigs couldn't be stacked in the inventory—in other words, each twig took up its own inventory slot, which was obviously a pain.

Jiang Ye's inventory only had 12 slots total.

"Beginner's Inventory"

"A mysterious space that can hold almost anything. Can be expanded and upgraded using Rupees."

Sure enough, Jiang Ye saw that the inventory could be expanded—obviously, it would cost some Rupees to expand.

"Spend 2,000 Rupees to expand your inventory to 24 slots?"

Dang, that's expensive.

Jiang Ye didn't have a single Rupee to his name, so he couldn't upgrade his backpack.

The good news was that one twig sold for 1 Rupee each—meaning he just needed to pick up 2,000 twigs and sell them to afford the intermediate backpack.

The bad news was that the shipping bin could only be used inside the cabin. Whether selling to NPCs or to players, he'd have to haul all 2,000 twigs back home first.

Jiang Ye did the math in his head—2,000 twigs, and he could carry 12 home per trip to sell. That meant he'd need to make 167 trips back home to upgrade his backpack...

Jiang Ye figured he'd better explore the big world first and find something more valuable to sell.

The mushroom picked up 12 twigs along the way and stuffed them in his inventory. The backpack was empty anyway, so why not—if he found something better, he could always swap them out later.

It took the little mushroom a good while to make its way through the overgrown farm.

There was no denying that the farm Grandpa had left him was truly vast.

The farm gate stood ajar, its wooden bars seemingly warped and wouldn't shut all the way.

Next to the gate stood a scarecrow. The mushroom looked up at it—next to it, the scarecrow looked like a giant.

"Scarecrow"

"A scarecrow that drives away crows and guards the farmland, working tirelessly day and night, though it occasionally feels lonely."

The scarecrow was made pretty sloppily, arms stuck straight out, a yellow straw hat on its head, not wearing any clothes, and a red scarf wrapped around its neck. It had no mouth or nose, only two pebbles stuck in the eye sockets, lopsided—the left eye larger than the right.

Jiang Ye looked up at the giant scarecrow, thinking, I might not even be as big as this scarecrow's eye right now.

No...

The little mushroom puffed up its stem.

I might be a little bigger than the scarecrow's eye.

Jiang Ye realized that after eating the spicy grilled fish, he must have grown. From a tiny mushroom only 1.8 centimeters tall, he had grown into a full 5-centimeter... little mushroom.

The mushroom went around the scarecrow, slipped right through the gaps in the farm fence, and continued exploring the big world.

Outside the farm was a small path, skinny and twisty, surrounded by lush trees, leading to who knows where.

Jiang Ye opened the map, and sure enough, it had revealed a bit more of the area. Looking closely, he could see many branches ahead on the path.

He decided to check out each of these paths in order, to see if he could find anything good, especially hidden treasure chests.

As an experienced gamer, Jiang Ye was certain that treasure chests were always hidden in the nooks and crannies of the map, especially in those dead ends that were right in your face. Players would glance over, think it's a dead end, and not bother walking over, having no clue there was actually something good inside.

"And then there are the blind spots." The mushroom took a few steps and glanced back.

There were many trees on both sides of the path, and as he walked along, the trees blocked his view. No matter how careful or meticulous, there would always be blind spots you'd miss. That's why "looking back" was so important.

"Look, a treasure chest!"

The mushroom jumped five centimeters in the air in surprise.

Sure enough, luck favors the prepared. Jiang Ye turned around and spotted right away a treasure chest hidden among the branches of a large tree.

"Basic Chest"

"A special box. What's inside?

+???"

Jiang Ye looked up—he had to get up close to it; he couldn't open it from a distance.

The mushroom got ready to climb the tree. Climbing a tree wasn't exactly easy for a human, but for a mushroom, it was a piece of cake.

Mycelial threads burst out fast, like countless tiny tentacles, sticking the mushroom to the trunk like a fridge magnet, then slowly moving upward.

It held firm, nothing to worry about.

The tree was somewhat tall, so Jiang Ye decided to take it slow and steady, not rushing, to avoid any accidents.

The chest grew closer, a red wooden box hidden among the green leaves, half-hidden. Among those leaves, he noticed something black.

Jiang Ye did a double take. Black leaves?

"Crow"

"???????"

The label popped up, and Jiang Ye went stiff.

A crow?

Sure enough, it was a crow.

It was a crow quietly perched on the branch, right beside the basic chest, like it was guarding the thing.

The crow was large, its feathers shiny black like polished jet. A pair of blue eyes, deeper than the ocean, more brilliant than any gem.

The worst part, the crow was tilting its head, staring at Jiang Ye with those glowing blue eyes.

Jiang Ye didn't dare move, thinking, I've heard crows will eat anything. So... would a crow eat a mushroom?

Rustle...

It wasn't the sound of wind through leaves—it was the crow flapping its wings.

The mushroom shuddered in fright, its mycelial threads twitching frantically. Jiang Ye scrambled down the tree in a panic, not looking back, and bolted down the path toward the farm.

Gotta survive!

The mushroom ran all the way back to the farm, squeezed through the fence, and huddled behind the shoddy scarecrow.

Jiang Ye panted heavily, peeking out cautiously. The crow hadn't followed. Good.

There's a scarecrow here, so the crow should be scared, right?

The little mushroom peeked out from behind the scarecrow's feet for a while, then suddenly noticed the sky darkening—it was almost sunset.

"Time flies..."

Jiang Ye realized that the game's clock didn't match real time at all—it ran faster.

It was getting dark, and there were crows outside. It seemed he should wait until tomorrow to explore the big world.

The mushroom walked into the cabin, closed the door, and eagerly placed the collected twigs into the shipping box.

"Sell the twigs?"

"+12 rupees"

On the first day, Jiang Ye earned 12 rupees.

He'd had a delicious grilled fish, earned 12 rupees, and had a warm cat bed to sleep in.

Jiang Ye realized he was truly an optimist—he actually felt quite content.

"Yes, this is

the life I've dreamed of." The mushroom crawled into the tent cat bed, flopped down with a thud, and rolled around twice in the spacious, soft bedding.

No rush, no rush. If you wanna grind, go ahead and grind. I'll save exploring the big world for tomorrow.

Comfortable...

A mushroom lounges contentedly on its "bed," pulling up the system screen to "scroll through the phone" before bed.

"You Got Nothing to Do": It's getting dark, folks. Remember to head home—don't go wandering around outside.

"Le Yi Li": Wait, does this farming game turn into a roguelike once it gets dark?

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": Good thing I grabbed some firewood, campfire's all set! I hate the dark—it's freaking terrifying!

"Five-Foot Lu Ban": Damn, it got dark way too fast outside, can't see a damn thing. I almost got lost and couldn't even find my way back home.

The mushroom rolls over and glances up at the window. The sky really does darken fast, and the only light left is the glow of the screen.

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": Hey folks, you guys hearing any weird noises?

"No-Go Wednesday": You're hearing it too?

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": You heard it too? I keep hearing someone outside my door yelling, "Where are you?"

"Sleep at Two": Don't freak yourselves out, it's just the wind.

"You Got Nothing to Do": I think I heard something too, but it sounded like someone knocking at the door.

"You Got Nothing to Do": Knock knock knock! Knock knock knock! Exactly like that!

Knock, knock... knock... Someone knocking at the door.

The mushroom watches the chat feed scroll endlessly, a chill running through its body. Wait... I think I heard knocking too.

Jiang Ye pokes his head out of the cat bed and glances toward the front door.

Knock... knock...

A faint tapping sound, and it doesn't seem to be coming from the door.

Jiang Ye lets out a small sigh of relief. Okay, it's not the door. Good.

Knock...

But the tapping doesn't stop—it sounds like it's coming from the window.

The mushroom turns its head stiffly, like a wind-up toy, jerking in fits and starts.

"Gah!!!"

Jiang Ye sharply sucks in a breath.

The window's shut, but it's drafty—doesn't seal right, with a gap about two fingers wide in the middle.

There's something standing at the window, swaying back and forth—it's the scarecrow!

Jiang Ye isn't mistaken. It's the scarecrow from the farm's entrance—yellow straw hat, red scarf—slowly and unevenly thumping its brim against the window. Thud, thud, thud.

"Mushroom Soup": It's the scarecrow!

"Mushroom Soup": The scarecrow's knocking on the window!

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": AAAAAHHH!!!

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": Damn mushroom, don't mess with me! I'm scared shitless!

Jiang Ye wants to scream too. I'm scared too, dammit!

"You Got Nothing to Do": Easy, easy, folks, don't be scared.

"You Got Nothing to Do": Remember, we've got beginner protection. Even if the scarecrow shows up at your door with a scythe, it can't get in. As long as you don't go wandering around at night, you're safe.

"Mushroom Soup": ......

Jiang Ye tries to comfort himself. Good thing my farm doesn't have a scythe yet.

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": Help, wasn't this supposed to be a farming game?!

"Le Yi Li": Wasn't this supposed to be a roguelike?!

"You Got Nothing to Do": It is a farming game, but we're running a farm in a horror-story town.