This blunt and bare-bones?

After waking up, Chen Fan washed up briefly, then stood in the doorway of the Wooden Hut and looked out at the steady drizzle.

The Rain wasn't particularly heavy today.

The Rainy season he knew simply meant more Rainfall, but in this world, Rain fell twenty-four hours a day without stopping. Sometimes it was a drizzle like this, and sometimes it was a downpour.

"..."

He looked at the cracked earth outside.

It had Rained for days, yet there was no sign of flooding. The ground was still cracked, its narrow fissures resembling the soles of a farmer's feet. Like bottomless monsters, they swallowed every drop of Rain.

There wasn't even any standing water.

As far as he remembered,

the weather in this world was fairly normal outside the rainy season. Such continuous rainfall during the wilderness rainy season clearly wasn't normal weather, especially since... when the rainy season arrived early, strange entities often became unusually violent.

He didn't dwell on it.

He looked at the two remaining exotic treasures in his hands. The meatworm wraith tide from the day before yesterday had left him three in total. The other was the building module blueprint, "Copper Pipe."

The one in his hand was a miniature knife.

It was about the size of a keychain.

-

"Exotic treasure name": Great Knife.

"Exotic treasure grade": White Grade.

"Exotic treasure effect": Deals considerable damage to low-tier strange entities.

-

"..."

Chen Fan frowned slightly as he looked at the exotic treasure in his hand. This wasn't his first weapon-type exotic treasure. The spear Crippled Monkey always carried was one too.

But Crippled Monkey's exotic treasure had an incredibly imposing name: "Godslaying Spear."

Why was this exotic treasure called...

Great Knife.

This blunt and bare-bones?

It didn't have any special effects, either. The Godslaying Spear even had a size-changing property.

Forget it.

He set the exotic treasure aside, planning to give it to Zhou Mo when he returned. It was still a weapon-type exotic treasure, after all, and dealt more damage to strange entities than ordinary weapons.

As for the other exotic treasure,

it was rather unusual.

A cluster of tiny black specks wrapped in a membrane—a seed-type exotic treasure.

-

"Exotic treasure name": Flesh Wraith Parent-Child Seed.

"Exotic treasure grade": Green.

"Exotic treasure effect": Must be planted in "Level-2 Farmland." Matures in seven days, yielding a pair of Parent-Child Fruits. If two people each swallow one, they can communicate mentally within a hundred li. Effect lasts one month.

"Planting requirements": Water with strange entity blood every two hours, and use strange entity corpses as fertilizer.

-

"Good stuff."

Chen Fan quietly tucked the seeds into his clothes. This exotic treasure solved one of his biggest current problems: the lack of communication methods. For instance, right now, he had no way to contact Zhou Mo while he was out on field duty.

The planting requirements were just a little troublesome.

He would need to assign people to tend them at regular intervals.

Fortunately,

he had his two farming specialists, the Heng and Ha generals, so that wasn't a concern. They could take turns watching over the seeds and handle it perfectly.

This was the first green-grade exotic treasure he had obtained.

Its effect was better than he had imagined, too.

Once ripe, the Meat Strange Parent-Child Fruit would probably be a sought-after commodity even at North River Market.

He stepped out of the Wooden Hut.

At a glance, he noticed the change on the City Wall. A crude little shelter made of wooden slats had been built on top, with a few discarded pieces of clothing draped over its roof. It wasn't large, but it offered some protection from the Rain.

He had told the Heng and Ha generals to build it before he went to sleep.

It looked pretty good.

Otherwise, standing watch meant getting drenched all night, every night. Nobody could withstand that. Their bodies weren't made of iron.

"Station Master."

Chen Fan passed through the City Wall and reached the outskirts of the Camp. Qi Chong, who had been busy doing something in the Farmland, immediately jogged over. "We've harvested everything."

"The ten Monkey Head Mushroom seedlings produced ten Monkey Head Mushrooms."

"The eight eerie stone vein plants produced eighty eerie stones."

"It's all in the Warehouse."

"Mm."

Chen Fan nodded lightly and walked toward the Warehouse outside the Camp. He pushed the door open and went inside. A row of Monkey Head Mushrooms and a layer of eerie stones were neatly arranged on the shelves. The yield wasn't particularly large. He picked up a Monkey Head Mushroom and held it under his nose, sniffing gently.

He took a bite.

An earthy taste mingled with sweetness flooded his mouth.

"Huh?"

A flicker of surprise crossed Chen Fan's eyes. He finished the Monkey Head Mushroom in no time. It tasted surprisingly good, but more importantly, it felt warm in his mouth, like a rush of hot liquid. It didn't feel like eating raw food at all.

And after swallowing it,

he could faintly sense that his physical constitution had indeed improved a little.

It really was good.

There were nine left.

The Camp had exactly ten people.

"Take the remaining nine and give everyone one each. This Rain will keep falling for a while. Improving everyone's constitution should help keep them from getting sick."

That slight improvement in physical constitution would hardly affect their fighting ability, but it could reduce the likelihood of illness.

Chen Fan glanced at the eighty eerie stones on the shelf, then took the Flesh Wraith Parent-Child Seed from his clothes and handed it to Qi Chong. "I'll upgrade the Farmland to Level 2 shortly. For the next few days, you and A Le will take turns tending these seeds."

"They're rather delicate."

"They need to be watered with wraith blood every two hours."

"Crippled Monkey buried quite a few strange entity corpses in the field. Dig some up when you need them."

"Understood!"

Qi Chong answered enthusiastically, then carefully accepted the membrane-wrapped seeds with both hands and cradled them in his palms.

"..."

Chen Fan gave Qi Chong a slightly odd look. Why had he suddenly become so enthusiastic about farming?

Just yesterday, he could clearly tell that Qi Chong wanted to go out on field duty like Zhou Mo and was somewhat resistant to farming. He had even planned to talk to Qi Chong later to ease that reluctance. Why had it suddenly disappeared today?

It was hard for someone to work through something like that on their own in such a short time.

Had someone talked to Qi Chong?

He glanced at A Le, the rugged, stubble-faced man following Qi Chong, and nodded thoughtfully. Then he patted Qi Chong on the shoulder and said with a smile,

"Keep up the good work."

"We'll have more farmland in the future. When that happens, you'll miss how easy you have it now."

"Heh heh."

Qi Chong grinned. "Don't worry, Station Master. I'll make sure this field is properly looked after!"

"Off you go."

Braving the drizzle, Chen Fan walked over to the Farmland and spent ten eerie stones to upgrade the plot outside the Camp to Level 2.

A panel appeared before him.

-

"Farmland upgraded to Level 2."

"This building has no upgrade paths."

-

"Looks like not every building has upgrade paths to choose from."

Chen Fan said nothing more and simply looked at the Farmland before him. After the upgrade, the soil had changed from yellow to black, visibly becoming much more fertile.

The Farmland was small,

but he didn't have many seeds, either. With only a dozen or so seeds to plant, this plot was more than enough.

Only after finishing all this did he walk to an empty patch of ground outside the Camp.

Thanks to the "1.0 Heating System," he had slept fairly comfortably during the day. The hut was much warmer.

But...

The hot water in the Copper Pipes didn't circulate on its own, after all. He had woken up from the cold twice and gotten up to replace the hot water in the pipes both times.

It was rather troublesome.