Chapter 1: The Pioneer
“Big brother, your house is up ahead.” The little boy stopped beside a mottled old road sign, pointing towards a wooden house in the distance.
“But… I don’t dare go any further.” There was fear in the boy’s voice. “Monsters won’t cross this road sign into the village, but outside the road sign, even during the day, monsters might run out of the forest…”
Chu Jiu looked at the wooden road sign that read “Forgotten Forest” and then at the rugged path ahead, looking completely bewildered.
He clearly remembered that just a second ago, a runaway heavy truck was crashing towards him…
How, when he opened his eyes again, was he standing in a strange little mountain village filled with exotic atmosphere?
Chu Jiu glanced again at the child who led the way. The boy, named Aman, was seven or eight years old, wearing rough linen clothes and pants, barefoot in boat-shaped wooden shoes with upturned toes, a perfect “boy gathering wheat” from a classical oil painting.
Did he really travel through time?
Chu Jiu closed his eyes tightly and found that there was indeed a system in his mind.
This system, which called itself a “farming game cheat,” explained to Chu Jiu in a mechanical voice.
Chu Jiu was dizzy listening, but he also understood:
At the moment of his death in a car accident, he had traveled to another world. This world had suffered a monster invasion hundreds of years ago, its civilization had stagnated, and people basically lived at the mercy of nature.
The place where Chu Jiu traveled to was a remote village called “Bean Village.” The large area outside the village, including the entire mountain forest, was now a desolate wilderness.
As Aman said, the area outside the road sign was indeed dangerous and no one dared to set foot in it.
However, Chu Jiu’s identity was precisely that of a “pioneer” who came to develop this wilderness.
Chu Jiu tried to adapt to his current situation and tried his best to sound generous and calm: “Okay, thank you Aman for leading the way, I’ll go by myself.”
Aman said again, “However, the ‘Pioneer Hut’ you live in has a special deterrent effect. It should be safe inside the hut.”
After speaking, he took out two things from his pocket and handed them to Chu Jiu:
“Big brother, this is what my grandpa gave you.”
Aman’s grandfather was the village chief here. Logically, the village chief should have led the way today.
But the old man had injured his leg a few days ago and was unable to move, so he had to let his little grandson lead Chu Jiu.
“He said it’s not easy for young people to come and develop the land, and he hopes to help a little.” Aman spoke very sincerely.
As soon as he finished speaking, the system popped up two lines of text:
[Obtained Flint and Steel Set X1]
[Obtained Refined Edible Salt X10]
Flint and steel and salt were very practical items.
Chu Jiu thought for a moment and took out a portion of honey from the “pioneer gift pack” given by the system and gave it to Aman: “This is for you, you can mix it with water, it’s very sweet.”
Hearing the word “sweet,” Aman’s eyes lit up: “Great! Thank you, big brother! Big brother is a good person! I’ll take it back for grandpa to drink!”
Aman held the small wooden jar and ran away happily.
Chu Jiu put away the flint and steel and salt and walked to the wooden house along the bumpy mountain path.
The wooden house was a dilapidated two-story building.
Chu Jiu took a deep breath and pushed open the wooden door.
“Creak—”
The hinges made a hoarse sound.
The sunlight fell into the house through the doors and windows, revealing the interior furnishings at a glance—
There were actually no “furnishings” in the house.
There were no tables, chairs, or benches.
The first floor was divided into two rooms, an inner and an outer room. Both rooms were empty. The outer room had an old-fashioned stove made of bricks, which could be used for cooking.
As for the second floor—
Chu Jiu originally wanted to go upstairs to take a look, but found that the wooden stairs were already rotten and crumbling. With each step, they creaked and dropped pieces, and he feared that they would collapse before he even reached the second floor.
So Chu Jiu could only temporarily pretend that the second floor didn’t exist.
He walked to the window, found a relatively clean spot to sit down, and first rummaged through the “pioneer gift pack.”
500 copper coins, clean water, rope, a machete… all kinds of survival essentials, and even a set of “basic woodworking tools,” a slingshot that barely qualified as a weapon, and a small mirror.
But there was no food.
Did the system expect him to find food in the forest? This forest filled with monsters?
Just as he was wondering, a prompt popped up in Chu Jiu’s mind:
[The host has reached a specific area, the main quest has been triggered! The system panel has been activated!]
[Main Quest: Please increase the development level of the specific area to over 90% within three years.]
[The main ways to increase the development level include exploring the map, producing items, and adding production facilities.]
[Area development requires a large number of “development points.” You can obtain “development points” in various ways, such as completing other people’s commissions and selling products.]
[After completing the quest, the host can choose to live in any world.]
[Special Note: After completing the quest, the host’s remaining development points can be exchanged for the currency of any world at a ratio of 1:1000. For example, if the host chooses to return to the Huaxia (a.k.a China) world and holds 30,000 development points, the host can exchange them for 30,000,000 Huaxia yuan (~ 4.1 million USD).]
Chu Jiu, who had always relied on part-time jobs and scholarships to make ends meet, suddenly opened his eyes wide: How many zeros was that?
He held his breath and counted carefully twice, confirming—thirty million.
If he saved 30,000 development points, he could get 30 million yuan directly when he returned to the real world three years later!
Chu Jiu couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
In an instant, even the drafty house became lovely, and the monster-infested forest outside didn’t seem so scary.
He smiled foolishly and clicked on the system panel.
The activated system was divided into three columns: [Personal Status], [Spirit Beast Status], and [Area Status].
Chu Jiu first clicked on [Area Status]:
[Open Area: Forgotten Forest
Map Openness of Each Area: Forgotten Forest—3%
Overall Area Development Ratio: 0.1%
Current Development Points: 0
Current Facilities: 1 Pioneer Hut]
…Well, the development status was 0.1%, a long way from 90%.
Chu Jiu clenched his fist and clicked on [Spirit Beast Status].
He didn’t know what “spirit beasts” were, but they sounded pretty powerful?
Perhaps it was the golden finger the system gave him?
However, the system popped up a gray prompt box: [Spirit beast summoning conditions are not yet met, the option is temporarily unavailable.]
Tsk.
Chu Jiu could only go back and look at [Personal Status] again.
Well, level, stamina, spirit power, equipment, skills…
Huh? What skill was this?
He currently had three skills: an active skill [Greased Soles], which allowed him to [escape quickly when monsters attack, the lower the monster level, the higher the escape success rate; can only be used once every five minutes].
And two passive skills, one [Concealment], which significantly reduced the probability of being discovered by monsters, also with a higher success rate against lower-level monsters; the other was [Eye of Truth]
[Eye of Truth: Due to the host’s special experience, you can see the true purpose of most monsters. For example, the brightly colored and terrifying-looking Screaming Mushroom, which others dare not eat, but the host can see that it is non-toxic and harmless, and a delicious food.]
Looking at the skill name, and the name “Screaming Mushroom,” and then thinking of the place name “Forgotten Forest,” Chu Jiu let out an “ah” sound.
So that’s how it was!
During the summer vacation, he had taken a job: doing “item description proofreading” for an independently produced farming game, which was to check if the descriptions of various items in the game were correct and consistent with the illustrations.
There were as many as tens of thousands of items in it. Chu Jiu stayed up for more than ten nights to check them one by one, until his eyes were red and sore, and he couldn’t stop crying at the screen.
There was a mushroom-shaped illustration, and the item name was “Screaming Mushroom,” and the corresponding gathering area was exactly “Edge of the Forgotten Forest.”
He didn’t expect that the game would become a system bound to him? And this experience had become a passive skill?
No matter how this game became a system cheat, if used properly, it was a golden finger for collecting food!
Chu Jiu’s eyes narrowed into two curved lines.
Without delay, he pulled out the machete from the gift pack and ran briskly towards the forest.
*
The vegetation in the mountains grew lush and verdant. Trees several people tall formed a continuous forest, with large patches of ferns underneath.
It was afternoon, the sun was not high, and the forest was rather dim and cold.
But Chu Jiu was fearless.
In his memory, there were no high-level monsters in this scene. And with the skills [Concealment] and [Greased Soles], he could practically walk sideways in the forest.
Walking a few more steps into the forest, in addition to the chirping of birds, he could also hear harsh screams, like a child throwing a tantrum.
Aman had said earlier, “There’s a monster in the forest that looks like a big mushroom, screaming every day, it’s very creepy.” “Fortunately, it doesn’t move, as long as you don’t get close, you won’t be attacked.”
Now that I think about it, what Aman was talking about must have been the Screaming Mushroom.
Stepping through the mud, Chu Jiu followed the sound, and without much effort, he found the Screaming Mushroom at the root of a large tree that took several people to encircle:
A giant mushroom that was half a person tall, with a red umbrella-like cap with white spots, and was screaming with all its might.
Putting aside everything else, just its size and scream were enough to be frightening.
Even more terrifying was that its scream came from a mouth full of sharp teeth.
On its light brown, coarse, and hard surface, there were no other organs, only a black hole of a mouth, as if it could bite off half a person’s head in one go.
This rather intimidating and terrifying magical creature automatically turned into a mushroom encyclopedia card with a red cap and white spots in Chu Jiu’s eyes, with an explanation attached below:
[Screaming Mushroom: A common plant in the Forgotten Forest.
Although it looks like a terrifying poisonous mushroom, it has no offensive power and tastes surprisingly delicious!
The “big mouth” on its body is just a disguise to scare away predators.
Remember to remove the hard outer skin and its bright umbrella-like cap when eating!
Main gathering area: Edge of the Forgotten Forest]
Chu Jiu walked over with the machete and aimed at the mouth.
“Eeya ya ya ya—”
After a long string of ear-piercing screams, the Screaming Mushroom fell.
[Obtained Screaming Mushroom X1]
Chu Jiu threw the corpse of the Screaming Mushroom into his backpack.
This backpack was naturally given by the system. Its storage space was unlimited, and the items inside would remain the same as when they were put in, so there was no need to worry about them rotting or deteriorating.
Chu Jiu didn’t go back immediately.
He cut down some arm-thick branches and picked up some dry branches at the edge of the forest, spending a total of 2 stamina points to obtain [Branches X5] [Firewood X10] [Dry Grass X50].
Now he had all the tools he needed to roast the mushrooms.
Returning to the simple pioneer hut, Chu Jiu first whittled more than a dozen wooden skewers from the branches, then removed the head and skin of the Screaming Mushroom, and cut it into strips and skewered them.
After skewering them, Chu Jiu looked at the skewers and thought that these white, clean, fat, and thick pieces looked almost the same as roasted chicken leg mushrooms.
Then, he piled up the firewood, used the dry grass as kindling, lit a fire in the old-fashioned stove, and placed the Screaming Mushrooms on the fire.
The firewood crackled, and wisps of moisture quickly seeped out of the white and tender slices of the Screaming Mushroom, and the delicious aroma spread with the heat.
Chu Jiu swallowed his saliva, found the refined salt given by the village chief, and sprinkled a little on top.
After a few more minutes, the mushroom was already dripping with juice, and the surface had turned an enticing golden color.
Chu Jiu didn’t have chopsticks or a bowl, so he grabbed a skewer, blew on it, opened his mouth, and took a bite—
Mmm! So fresh!
The texture was soft and tender, the juice was abundant, and the mouth was full of the unique flavor of mushrooms, with a hint of meat-like umami.
It was so much tastier than the chicken leg mushrooms he had eaten before!
Just as Chu Jiu was marveling at why the mushrooms in this other world were so delicious, the system suddenly popped up with a prompt:
[Host has obtained a new recipe, “Quick Craft” skill has been activated]
[Quick Craft: After preparing the materials and tools, you can obtain the corresponding finished product by selecting the corresponding item or facility recipe.
Note: Quick Crafting items consume spirit points, Quick Crafting facilities consume pioneer points.
Special reminder: The more familiar the host is with the recipe, the less time it takes to craft, and the fewer spirit points or pioneer points are consumed.]
As expected of a game cheat, there’s such a shortcut mode.
Chu Jiu checked the new recipe he had just obtained—[Salt-Roasted Screaming Mushroom].
[Recipe Name: Salt-Roasted Screaming Mushroom]
[Recipe Attribute: Item Recipe]
[Recipe Usage Requirement: Spirit Points X3]
Chu Jiu tried using the recipe to make a skewer of “Salt-Roasted Screaming Mushroom,” which cost three spirit points and took five minutes.
It was probably about half the time it would take to do it himself.
Considering that the initial spirit points were only 40, Chu Jiu decided to stick to the traditional method of roasting mushrooms.
In no time, all ten skewers of Screaming Mushrooms were gone.
Chu Jiu was very satisfied with his first meal since crossing over.
He patted his stomach, got up, found a sheltered corner in the inner room, carefully spread out 10 portions of dry grass, and made a temporary bed.
These grasses had been sun-dried in the wild for a long time, and although they weren’t soft enough, they smelled of sunshine.
Just as Chu Jiu was about to lie down with his clothes on, the system popped up with another prompt:
[Congratulations to the host for successfully surviving the first day.]
[Please take out the “Camera Mirror” from your backpack and leave a video log of your pioneering activities for the day.]
Chu Jiu was stunned: Camera Mirror…? So that ordinary little mirror was a camera?
Also, a video log of pioneering activities… who was it for?
The system popped up with a new prompt:
[Leaving a video log is an important part of the pioneering mission.]
[When the host is in the pioneer hut, a video must be recorded every day unless there are special circumstances. The system will evaluate the content of the video. If the content is excellent, the host can receive additional pioneer points.]
Chu Jiu recalled movies like “The Martian,” where the protagonist would indeed talk to the camera every day about his activities and make logs for future reference.
Seeing the words “additional pioneer points,” Chu Jiu immediately perked up.
He found the “Camera Mirror” and began to meticulously introduce what kind of magical creature he had cut down, how many branches he had harvested, and what dish he had made.
To be honest, this mirror was actually similar to a cell phone on Earth:
It could be held in one hand, and there were touch-sensitive buttons on the screen. Pressing them would activate the recording mode with a small red dot flashing.
Chu Jiu finished talking about his achievements for the day in one breath.
The content was rich enough, right? He should be rewarded with some pioneer points, right?
Just as he was secretly expecting it, the system gave the settlement result:
[Content is too basic, no reward for this log.]
Chu Jiu: …
He frowned, shoved the mirror face down back into his backpack, and fell onto the pile of grass with his clothes on.
*
Arsa Star, Royal Capital, the Imperial Marshal Lu Qingyan’s residence.
At eleven o’clock late at night, one of Lu Qingyan’s adjutants, Colonel He Fang, rushed to the marshal’s living quarters.
Just as he reached the door of the living quarters, he saw Adjutant Jiang and Doctor Sun coming out of the room.
The doctor still being by the marshal’s side at this hour was not a good sign.
If he had a choice, He Fang would have preferred not to disturb the marshal.
But he had no choice.
The marshal had instructed that this matter must be reported to him in person as soon as possible.
Therefore, despite Doctor Sun’s opposition and Adjutant Jiang’s frown, He Fang gritted his teeth and knocked on the door.
Behind the heavy wooden door, the low growl of a wild beast could be faintly heard.
He Fang’s heart tightened: Was the marshal’s spiritual entity… on the verge of losing control again?
Three years ago, in order to wipe out the insectoid race that had torn through space-time and escaped to another world, Marshal Lu and several of his generals had nearly exhausted all of their spiritual power.
Since then, their spiritual entities had been losing control and even going berserk more and more frequently.
In order to forcibly control their spiritual entities… the marshal and the others had endured inhuman pain, but it had little effect.
Thinking of this, He Fang couldn’t help but grind his teeth with hatred for the insectoid race that had invaded.
Not a single one of those insects, if any were still alive, could be spared.
Half a minute later, the low roar disappeared.
It was replaced by a deep voice: “Enter.”
Adjutant He pushed the door open and gave a respectful military salute to the man sitting in the shadows.
Lu Qingyan nodded slightly, indicating that He Fang could report.
He Fang: “Your Excellency, we have detected the same space-time fluctuations as three years ago!”
“We suspect that the insectoid race hiding in other worlds has once again torn through space-time!”
As he spoke, He Fang opened the terminal in his hand and brought up a holographic projection:
“During the space-time fluctuations, we detected a live video of unknown origin on the StarNet, transmitted entirely by spiritual power.”
“In the video, an individual who appears to be a human male is speaking some incomprehensible words.”
“This… may be an insectoid disguised as a human, sending out secret codes to its accomplices!”
Lu Qingyan’s eyebrows raised slightly.
On the other side of space-time, Chu Jiu turned over on the pile of grass, smiling and talking in his sleep: “Thirty million… thirty million…”
I’m so excited for this new novel! I love the Farming Sim type genre, it reminds me of Stardew Valley tbh. Thanks as always for your translations, hope you have a nice day!