On a cold winter day, a Thorn Rat was nestled in its burrow, enjoying the cozy warmth.
Beside it were piles of fruit and grain, enough to last until spring.
Most of these things came from the nearby woods and shrubs, and a small portion came from the neatly arranged clumps of plants.
The Thorn Rat doesn't understand standardized farming, but it knows there will be plenty of food around its burrow.
As the cold wind howled, its nose twitched, then its eyes snapped open.
It's the taste of the food.
The Thorn Rat's keen sense of smell helped it identify the type of food—its favorite grains—and it seemed quite fresh, emitting a just-ripened aroma.
It cautiously poked its head out of the nest, looked around but didn't see any large, threatening creatures.
It then located the seed, blending seamlessly with its gray fur and the snow, and nimbly ran towards the grain.
The Thorn Rat popped a mouthful of Scarlet Millet into its mouth, still sniffling as if it wasn't enough. Unfortunately, it couldn't find any more Scarlet Millet, so it had to turn away dejectedly.
Just then, he felt something snag on his cheek pouch, followed by a strong tug as he followed a faint, thin thread.
"Whoosh!"
With a soft thud, the Thorn Rat vanished from its spot.
Wuhu!
A sound that didn't quite sound like a human came from the wilderness. [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] had transformed back into a fisherman, holding a struggling Thorn Rat and showing it to the non-existent audience around him.
Just then, a cold wind howled, as if cheering for his bountiful harvest.
[ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] suppressed his excitement and began to think once again.
Now that the initial plan has been successful, in what direction should we optimize it?
Firstly, regarding the bait, it seems there's not much room for improvement left.
Scarlet Millet is the best bait he can think of right now.
This plant grows rapidly, and its seeds inherently possess a certain ability to grow within flesh and blood.
Although this ability is not as powerful Blood-Drinking Thornbush, it is exactly what he needs.
After all, the announcement specifically requested live Thorn Rat; if the Blood-Drinking Thornbush is used, the Thorn Rat might be sucked dry very quickly.
The seeds of the Scarlet Millet can perfectly fit the oral environment of a mouse. These small animals that like to hoard food will stuff the Scarlet Millet into the food pouches on both sides of their cheeks. Under such temperature and humidity, the Scarlet Millet seeds will immediately begin to grow and germinate, and the barbs that are covered with barbs will also be revealed at this time.
Everything made perfect sense.
But [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] still felt the efficiency was too low.
Although it only took less than three minutes to catch this Thorn Rat, making a lot of money from it is still too difficult.
He thought for a moment and decided to use a method that every fisherman uses to increase production.
Baiting, adding hooks, adding rods!
[ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] pulled the barbed Scarlet Millet out of the mouse's mouth, then rendered the little creature with its thorny short tail harmless before stuffing it into the cage he had prepared beforehand.
Following the trail left by the Thorn Rat, [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] found the Thorn Rat's lair and began to raid it.
He never imagined that even a rat's burrow in this World of Disorder could be made so realistically. With a shovel, he dug up the grains and dried fruit, happily pocketing these natural burrowing materials.
Five minutes later, the Thorn Rat's treasure was scattered across a vast expanse of white snow, attracting greedy little animals.
Meanwhile, [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] sat upright in the center of the wasteland, with six fishing rods in front of him—no, they should now be called rat rods—arranged like the ribs of a folding fan, completely covering a radius of 10 meters and 120 degrees in front of him.
The scent of grains began to slowly Spread, and a few minutes later, all the Thorn Rat around [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] were fully activated.
The mice had no idea what awaited them. Barbed Scarlet Millet and various other seeds and fruits were randomly scattered across the snow, and the Thorn Rat were not intelligent enough to distinguish them.
On this snowfield, several miles away from the river, [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] reaped the most wonderful harvest since its launch.
As it turned out, the number of mice far exceeded the players' expectations; they couldn't catch them simply because it was winter, and the little guys were all in their burrows eating and sleeping soundly.
The rat hooks in front of me rose and fell in rapid succession, so fast that just one second I had cast the hook, and two seconds later another Thorn Rat was already on the hook.
The harvest was so fast it was unimaginable; [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] simply couldn't fathom how many rats were on this wasteland.
However, when he thought about how these seemingly Fragility rats could become early-game bosses like the " Rat King," he felt that he had done something to rid the people of a menace.
Once the cage behind him was completely full, [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] suddenly realized that things couldn't continue like this.
How can I become arrogant and complacent just because of a temporary bumper harvest?
When you have mastered a unique technology, the only thing to do is to aggressively expand and seize blue ocean markets!
With that in mind, he began to gather the rat hook in front of him, and stopped throwing the rat out again after it had taken the bait.
After marking several rat burrows with a stick that had Alienation from his body, he picked up a large cage of Thorn Rat and headed toward Valhalla.
Enough said, let's cash out first!
They hurried to the Greenhouse, where [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] met [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ], who had just returned from the castle.
After explaining their purpose, the Greenhouse owner stared in astonishment at the nearly one hundred Thorn Rat crammed into a large cage, speechless with surprise.
"You... you caught it all by yourself?"
"Yes, I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but you won't go back on your word, right? Don't try to lower the price because of that."
[ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ] shook its head and said:
"No, the bounties posted by players all have a deposit held by the Adventurers' Guild, and this particular request isn't actually being processed through my account..."
"Anyway, you won't be shortchanged, but I didn't expect there to be so many. If you're willing to help me dig a big pit and lock these rats in first, I'm willing to buy your batch of rats at a higher price in my personal capacity."
Hearing [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ]'s tone, as if he were an NPC assigning a quest, [ Ever-Changing Master Ye ] felt an inexhaustible surge of energy within him.
It's not just about money, well, of course, money plays a part...
Anyway, he knew he would catch more mice in the next two days and become the champion mouse catcher in this timed mission, so helping the other party dig a pit was no big deal, except for one thing...
He looked at the [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ] and said seriously:
Can you pay me in cash?
"Ah?"