Farming Games are All About Grinding

While eating, Han Qiwu couldn't resist grabbing a bottle of rice wine and drinking straight from it.

It paired just too perfectly.

Once full and satisfied, he suddenly heard some cracking noises.

Following the sound, he saw that Xiao Lai in the icy environment was cracking open.

Much like failed ceramics, cracks spread all over Xiao Lai's body, looking quite unsettling.

"Evolution failed?" Han Qiwu anxiously ran over, hoping to see if there was a way to save it.

Before he even got there, the cracked Xiao Lai suddenly leapt up, scattering its fragmented outer shell, revealing a smaller Xiao Lai inside, about a size smaller than before.

[Blue Slime evolution successful. Species has been changed to Blue-Red Slime.]

Han Qiwu: ".....Blue-Red Silk Slime, huh?"

Just as the notification said, catching Xiao Lai made Han Qiwu realize that its surface color had turned into alternating stripes of red and blue. It looked a bit like some kind of primitive tribal totem and had even grown a pair of cute little stubby arms—red on the left, blue on the right, round and chubby, with a satisfying texture.

He opened Xiao Lai's stats to take a look.

Post-evolution, Xiao Lai had finally reached maturity. Its star rank had increased by one, and it had also learned two new skills: Magma Breath and Lava Armor.

"Xiao Lai, try out the new skills."

Following the command, Xiao Lai shook its head and swiped both its stubby arms upward.

[Non-combat scenario. Cannot activate this skill.]

Alright then.

Guess we'll wait to test it out in the mine later.

Placing Xiao Lai down, Han Qiwu took a few steps away and clapped his hands, signaling Xiao Lai to move over by itself.

Xiao Lai looked at Han Qiwu in confusion, bounced in place twice, and reluctantly wobbled its arms.

Han Qiwu: "...Those stubby arms of yours, are they just decorative? Can wiggle but can't move?"

To teach by example, Han Qiwu sat on the ground and effortlessly shuffled forward a few steps using his hands for support.

"Your turn."

Xiao Lai's tiny bean-like eyes instantly lit up. It eagerly imitated Han Qiwu's posture, extending its stubby arms to the ground and coordinating with its little backside to bounce forward.

Boing, boing, boing.

Bouncy and elastic, Xiao Lai excitedly hopped around the yard waving its stubby arms everywhere.

The freedom of movement felt amazing!

Though it could jump around before, it used to require so much effort, and its backside would always end up sore.

Master is so clever!

Thinking this, the delighted Xiao Lai raised its stubby arms to give Han Qiwu a thumbs-up.

Han Qiwu chuckled, walked back to his spot, finished off the grilled fish, tidied up the grill, and started watering plants, chopping wood, and training tirelessly in the yard.

More than two hours later, an exhausted Han Qiwu climbed into bed, pulled out his phone, sent Mr. Tang a "Goodnight" message, and fell into a deep slumber.

In the brightly lit laboratory break room, Tang Qingying couldn't wait to check her phone.

When she saw that it was just the two words "Goodnight," she felt a bit disappointed, pouted softly, and replied, "Hmph! Goodnight!"

Diary: April 3rd

Clink, clink, clink (sound of Gold Coins scattering)

Income...1024 Gold (Golden Carp)

Income...35400 Gold (Mayonnaise)

Farming experience +405

Foraging experience +895

Fishing experience +0

Battle experience +3514

Mining experience +2421

Relationship changes:

None

Current funds: 93516 Gold

Total earnings: 589408 Gold

"Pop, pop, pop"

What woke Han Qiwu up early in the morning wasn't a dream.

It was the sound of Xiao Lai slamming its backside.

The rascal was too excited to sleep last night and hopped around everywhere.

It annoyed Xiao Dian to no end.

Can you not bounce around and interrupt my 'Bright Sword' binge-watch session?

Fire the cannon!

Han Qiwu got up, washed up, and opened the log to review.

The mayonnaise income was still decent, though it's unfortunate he hadn't learned how to craft a strawberry jam maker yet. If he had, strawberry jam production would certainly skyrocket.

The gains in battle experience and mining experience were also alright. He figured it wouldn't be long before he hit level six.

As for now…

Time to activate some genetic edits!

Han Qiwu walked into the yard and was just about to crouch down to edit the strawberry seedlings when a glance revealed something surprising.

This batch of strawberries had ripened!

"So... can I still edit them like this?" Han Qiwu tentatively touched a strawberry seedling and paid the fee to activate the seed propagation gene.

[Strawberry Seedling (Editable)]

[Currently editable genes: Seed Propagation (Activated), Runner Propagation (Not Activated)]

[Activating Runner Propagation requires 100,000 Gold]

After unlocking the gene, the familiar three-line prompt immediately popped up.

Han Qiwu was already familiar with strawberry propagation methods. Sexual reproduction used seeds, and asexual reproduction used runners. Each method had its pros and cons and needed to be chosen based on the situation.

"Another 100,000 Gold to activate a gene? This isn't a gene editor; it's a pay-to-win black hole," Han Qiwu muttered with a pout, scrolling to the next menu.

[Editable options under seed propagation: growth time, required growth factors, yield range, fruit sweetness, genetic trait inheritance capability, virus defensive power, and more.]

A dozen or so adjustable parameters popped up under seed propagation, all at default values of zero.

"Wait, even growth time can be adjusted? That's amazing." Han Qiwu tentatively set the growth time to one day, growth factors to sunlight, yield range to five each, sweetness to double that of sucrose, strong genetic inheritance, and virus resistance to 100%.

Well, it's just a test.

After setting the values, a preview appeared.

[Using this current template requires 10,000 Gold per strawberry seedling.]

[Template seed survival rate: 0%. Success rate: 0%.]

Han Qiwu: "...Well, this is awkward."

Zero survival rate? Then what's the point? To kill seedlings?

"No wonder it lets you set whatever you want—turns out it has no fixed parameters. Go wild all you like; if it's too outrageous, it just won't sprout." Han Qiwu helplessly canceled the template and went back to tweaking.

An hour later.

Han Qiwu sat on a stool with a furrowed brow.

After fiddling with it for so long, none of his templates fit his expectations. High-performance settings resulted in low survival rates; focusing on survival produced weak traits worse than premium market strawberries.

"This seed propagation thing is such a scam. Starting everything from zero and having no experimental data to rely on makes it ridiculously tough." Han Qiwu sighed, standing up to start harvesting strawberries instead.

Although frustrated, he wasn't discouraged. No matter what, being able to see survival rates already saved a lot of time and effort—it was far better than adjusting things blindly and finding out too late that nothing would grow.

While harvesting strawberries halfway, Han Qiwu had an idea: "If seed propagation means manually adjusting parameters, could runner propagation automatically inherit the parent strawberry's parameters? That way, I could use those as reference points, making adjustments much easier."

What's 100,000 Gold anyway?

I'll pay up!

Let's test it out with a cork float later!