Farmer Card

In late autumn, yellow leaves fell beneath a steady autumn rain. A cold wind blew, and there was no word for it but sorrow.

Li Wei walked alone along a path in the park, like an abandoned stray dog. He was soaked and chilled through, from the outside in.

His bleak mood, the bleak world around him—it all seemed to mirror the bleak life he was destined to lead.

Just as he was going numb,

a "beep!" sounded beside his ear. It was an ordinary sound, but for some reason, he had the strange sensation that time itself had stopped.

Even the fine mist of rain seemed frozen in place, every droplet suddenly clear.

Then a gray, dusty card appeared before him, level with his eyes.

He couldn't make out any details on it. All he could see was thick gray mist swirling across its surface, until, in the blink of an eye, it filled his entire field of vision.

Everything around him vanished, leaving only the gray mist.

Then he found himself suddenly back to normal, as if what had just happened had only been an illusion. But at that very moment, lines of text began forming in the mist, slowly scrolling before his eyes.

[One-star Farmer Card bound]

[Class changed to Novice Farmer]

[Professional Talent acquired: Fertility of cultivated land increased by 30%]

[Entered corresponding world. World difficulty: One star]

[World setting: Unknown]

[Mission requirements: Survive for at least 36 months and accumulate at least one unit of Standard World Resource]

[Mission success reward: Unknown]

[Mission failure: Relevant memories erased, Farmer Card stripped away, return to original world, and chance to awaken permanently lost]

[Friendly reminder: Do not make yourself seem out of place. Violators will bear the consequences]

--

"What is all this supposed to mean?"

Watching the lines of text scroll past, Li Wei was completely baffled. He even wondered if the combined blows of being laid off, getting dumped, and falling ill had made him so miserable that he was hallucinating.

But the next second, the text faded, and the mist around him quickly vanished with it. What appeared before his eyes was no longer a park strewn with yellow leaves beneath the autumn rain, but a completely unfamiliar valley. Lush green forests surrounded it, and in the distance, he could just make out snow-capped mountains.

White clouds dotted the deep blue sky, and the sun shone brightly, though the weather wasn't hot.

A few enormous green-headed flies buzzed past, while some unknown insects chirped in the lush grass.

Little white flowers dotted the landscape. It seemed to be early summer.

Not far away stood several crude, filthy shacks. Beside them was a clumsy, ancient ox cart with its wheels fallen off. Nearby, an emaciated old ox placidly munched on grass.

On the other side of the shacks, someone had cleared a small patch of ground. A bonfire burned there, with a blackened earthen pot set over it. A disheveled woman stirred it vigorously. The smoke from the fire mingled with the strange smell of whatever she was cooking, inexplicably reminding Li Wei of snot...

W-what...

After standing there dumbfounded for three to five seconds, he finally looked down at himself. Something felt wrong with him, too.

Sure enough, his clothes and shoes were gone, along with his phone, keys, and watch. In their place was a foul-smelling, coarse garment like tree bark—a sack with four holes cut into it. He even realized he wasn't wearing any pants; he was wrapped in nothing but a scrap of cloth.

And shoes were out of the question. He stood barefoot in a pile of muck, feeling the runny mud mixed with cow dung squish between his toes. It was downright bizarre.

But a gray card that had appeared in his hand at some point helped him keep his wits about him. He could clearly sense that the card and he were bound together, sharing the same fate.

"George, what are you dawdling for? Go gather firewood. Father needs a dry shack."

The disheveled woman suddenly turned and shouted at Li Wei. She spoke quickly, with a strange accent he had never heard before, yet somehow he understood her.

But... Father?

After a moment's confusion, Li Wei noticed a man lying in another shack. An older woman sat beside him, caring for him, but she was crying quietly.

It looked like a family of refugees.

As countless thoughts flashed through his mind, the gray card in his hand suddenly vanished, as if it had slipped inside him. At the same time, he saw a status panel that seemed to appear whenever he wanted, guided by his thoughts.

[Name: Li Wei]

[First Class: Novice Farmer]

[Destiny: One-star Farmer Card bound; automatically gained 5 Free Attribute Points]

[Health: 20 (Terminal Illness)]

[Stamina: 50 (Weak, -50)]

[Strength: 3 (Weak, -3)]

[Agility: 1 (Weak, -3)]

[Defense: 1 (Frail, -2)]

[Current Status: Terminal illness and weakness caused by moderate hunger. Stamina will fall rapidly. Estimated time until death: 30 days]

--

"Have my stats been turned into numbers?"

A glimmer of hope stirred in Li Wei's otherwise bleak heart. He noticed that if he focused on one of his attributes for more than a second, a "+" sign appeared beside it. So they could be upgraded.

Could he cure his illness this way?

He was so excited he nearly trembled. The words "late-stage cancer" had all but destroyed his hopes.

Without hesitation, he focused on the Health attribute and chose to increase it.

It was simple. In an instant, a warm current seemed to flow down from his head and spread throughout his body. His whole demeanor lifted, though it soon sank again. Even so, he truly felt much better.

His Health attribute now read—[30 (Serious Illness)].

His current status had changed, too: he was now expected to die in six months.

"Holy shit! Hahaha!"

Li Wei laughed wildly to himself, tears streaming down his face. Nothing could bring him greater joy than seeing hope with his own eyes.

He continued adding points.

[40 (Illness)]

[50 (Chronic Illness)]

--

But when he raised his Health to 50, his initial euphoria began to give way to calm.

He'd been given five Free Attribute Points at the start, but it would probably be hard to get more later. How should he allocate them?

He checked his current status. With the chronic illness, his life expectancy had risen to three years—exactly the length required by the mission.

So, as long as I don't starve, freeze, or die in some other accident, I should be fine. And if I can find a doctor in this world, I might live even longer.

After thinking it over, Li Wei focused on his other attributes one by one.

Stamina, Strength, Agility, and Defense could each be upgraded with one Free Attribute Point.

So it came down to how he chose to spend them.

"I'd better wait and see. I can allocate them based on the situation."

Li Wei wasn't in a hurry anymore. Having 50 Health felt like being half-healthy again. The long-missed feeling of being merely under the weather lifted his spirits, and even made his thoughts clearer and more rational.

"It must've poured last night."

"This spot is fairly high up, so it wasn't hit by a flash flood. But they didn't dig drainage ditches around the camp, so water still flowed back into the shacks."

"If this is a family, then my cheap father must be sick or injured."

"Is this a family of four?"

"The ox cart's broken, but it still has a rain cover. There seem to be some supplies inside."

"I don't see any roads nearby, so are they really fleeing? Is this land unclaimed?"

"There's no doubt about it: even though the mission doesn't require me to keep the others alive, if I'm left on my own, there's no way I'll survive three years in an environment like this."

"Besides, I'm bound to a Farmer Card, so I'll need to cultivate farmland to make use of it. But that doesn't mean farming has to be my main focus. I'll have to gather, hunt, build, and cook, too. This mission is brutal! They gave me a Farmer Card, but expect me to do the work of a hunter, carpenter, cook, and even a blacksmith and mason."

"Finally, what did that warning mean? Am I not allowed to reveal anything about the outside world in front of the natives? 'Violators will bear the consequences'—ha, are they going to tie me up and burn me as a demon?"

Li Wei pondered as he paced around the camp, measuring the area with his steps.

A hundred and twenty paces east of the camp lay the center of the valley. A stream ran merrily through it. It wasn't very deep, and he didn't know if it had fish or shrimp, but at least they had a water source.

The stream was full of rocks washed down from upstream, large and small. Some were black; maybe they contained iron ore? The rocks could also be used to build houses or walls.

Across the stream stood a dense forest, clearly untouched by development. Some dead trees had fallen in a jumble, and thick weeds and vines formed a wall. Deep within the shadowy woods, dense fog drifted, making the place look eerie.

But if they wanted to survive here, they would have to develop the forest.

It would be an excellent source of timber.

Li Wei didn't dare venture deep into the forest. He only gathered plenty of completely soaked firewood near its edge.

That part was easy enough.

Before long, he had gathered a large pile. He pulled up some weeds and braided them into a rope, then tied the firewood into a bundle and carried it back. They could never have too much firewood.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

After Li Wei had carried back several loads of firewood, his cheap father suddenly began coughing violently in the camp. Before Li Wei could even react, he heard a burst of crying.

His cheap father had kicked the bucket that quickly.