Lu Xingshi was a transmigrator, though the way he had transmigrated might have been a little off.
When normal people transmigrated, they usually became humans or some other living creature, then got a cheat like a system.
But not him. He had gotten a cheat after transmigrating too—a farming and management game without even a name. More importantly, in theory, this game could not even be considered his cheat. Rather, he himself was this farming and management game.
So Lu Xingshi initially suspected that he had been split down the middle when he transmigrated.
And there was a high chance that this farming and management game of his was an unfinished prototype. He could directly alter his own underlying code.
In other words, he could cheat. He could open the console and make all kinds of changes to this farming and management game, though there were two small problems.
First, he could not understand the game code. So when he first started making changes, a whole pile of problems cropped up—fire falling from the sky, grass growing in the clouds, and all manner of vicious bugs. Fortunately, he fixed them all at once.
After that, he would inspect the code every time before making any changes, becoming far more cautious.
For example, he would compare the variables in the game code for crop growth while fertilizing, or look for the data changes after livestock got sick and recovered. That way, he could identify the game code for crop growth and the data for livestock diseases, then alter them directly.
With that, he could make crops mature instantly or let livestock skip the treatment stage entirely.
However, that led to the second problem: energy consumption. Every modification came at a cost.
As a farming and management game, selling things was naturally an unavoidable stage. Selling crops, livestock, and byproducts earned a currency called Gold Coins, and those Gold Coins seemed to be his food.
That was right—they were his food.
His existence seemed to require Gold Coins to sustain it. About a hundred Gold Coins would automatically be deducted each day. When he first noticed his Gold Coins decreasing on their own, it truly gave him a fright. Only after observing it for three to five days did he figure out the pattern.
This was also one piece of proof that he was this management game rather than its player.
Secondly, altering game data also consumed Gold Coins. The amount depended on two factors: the importance of the code Lu Xingshi altered and the number of changes he made.
There was no need to worry about Gold Coins, though. As long as he managed things normally, they would never run short. Like right now, he not only had a nine-figure amount of Gold Coins, but also heaps of vegetables, fruit, chicken, duck, fish, meat, and related goods he could not even be bothered to look at.
That brought some trouble of its own. For example, if he instantly ripened a crop, then calculated the profits after selling it, he often found he had not earned anything at all. Sometimes he might even lose money. So he more often traded time for Gold Coins. Unless there were special circumstances, making modifications was not very cost-effective.
This ensured his own survival, since he feared he might not have enough food.
As for modifying Gold Coins, he had tried that too. It took roughly two Gold Coins to create one Gold Coin through modification. The more he modified, the worse the loss.
Lu Xingshi also had plenty of doubts. For instance, how were these energies produced? It gave him the bizarre sense that energy was not conserved. But after investigating for so many years, he still could not make heads or tails of it, so he could only set it aside for the time being.
As for how long he had stayed in this farming and management game, he did not know. This game was an unfinished product, and many things were missing.
For example, anything related to the concept of time. And many things seemed to be mere textures. He had also dug out plenty of things from his own code, such as the Nuclear Power Plant Blueprint, Combat Module, Spirit Monsters, and so on. Yet they were all empty shells, completely unusable—nothing more than names.
But he had not dug up nothing at all. He had also found the Iron Pickaxe and Ore, adding another source of income.
"Let's see how much work my Game Villagers have done today." Lu Xingshi floated out.
That was right—floated. He looked like a chibi miniature ghost overall. This was not his true body either. At first, his viewpoint had been fixed in an overhead view. Only after gradually feeling his way forward did he gain this completely intangible body.
It was roughly equivalent to controlling an invisible character.
As he drifted out, he saw large numbers of Game Villagers at work: feeding chickens and ducks, weeding and fertilizing farmland, scattering fish feed into ponds, and so on.
These Game Villagers should have been similar to the game characters used by players. Lu Xingshi could directly merge himself into them and gain their abilities.
Though Lu Xingshi called them Game Villagers, they were not actually small. They were of normal human size. It was only because Lu Xingshi's overhead viewpoint had been so high before that they had seemed small.
The Game Villagers had four abilities in total: Planting, Animal Husbandry, Gathering, and Crafting. All of them had levels.
Without Lu Xingshi's control, these Game Villagers would work on their own, though they had limitations. They would not sell or purchase items themselves; Lu Xingshi had to buy things for them. Nor would they plan anything out. Without buildings like chicken coops and farmland, they would not move at all.
So he had built the entire upstream and downstream industry bit by bit, stumbling into pits along the way before finally achieving this most efficient layout.
At the beginning, there had actually been only one Game Villager. All the extras had been created by Lu Xingshi using Gold Coins. Converting a single Game Villager cost ten thousand Gold Coins.
He did not convert any more now, because the place was already overcrowded. Any more would be unsuitable. Interactive targets had volume, causing collisions and crowding. Too many of them would instead make movement sluggish.
"Not bad. Another beautiful day." Lu Xingshi liked watching this scene. He did not actually enjoy talking to himself, but speaking when necessary ensured that he retained his language ability.
Then he drifted back and opened the game interface. The interface contained Gold Coins, resources, and a great many other things. He dragged it to the very bottom, where there was a progress bar.
DLC: Download Progress 99%
DLC referred to downloadable follow-up content for the game, such as expansion packs and other additional content.
This had appeared long ago. Purchasing it cost one million Gold Coins, and Lu Xingshi had saved up for quite some time.
However, he had not expected that the truly long part would not be saving up one million Gold Coins to buy it, but the download process. Since there was no day-night cycle or time system, Lu Xingshi had no idea how long it had been downloading.
In any case, it had been stuck at 99% for a very long time. He merely checked it as a matter of routine.
Just as he was about to close it, the progress bar reached 100%.