novelraw Chapter 1: Farmer Card
Chapter 1: Farmer Card
Late autumn season, yellow leaves drifting down, coinciding with continuous autumn rain. When the cold wind blew, how could one word "melancholy" suffice to describe it?
Li Wei walked alone on the small path in the park, like an abandoned stray dog, soaked through and chilled to the bone from inside out.
His gloomy mood and the bleak world perfectly matched what seemed like his destined gloomy life.
Just as he was feeling numb.
"Beep!" A sound rang in his ear. This was normally an ordinary sound, but for some reason, he had the illusion that time had been suspended.
Even the fine misty rain seemed clearly frozen in place at this moment.
Then, a dusty gray card appeared before him, exactly level with his line of sight.
But he couldn't make out any details on it, only feeling like gray thick fog was swirling, until in the blink of an eye it filled his entire field of vision.
Everything around him disappeared, leaving only the gray thick fog.
Then he found himself suddenly back to normal, as if what just happened was just an illusion. But right at that moment, lines of information continuously generated within the thick fog, slowly scrolling before his eyes.[One-Star Farmer Card Bound]
[Class Changed to Apprentice Farmer]
[Acquired Class Talent: Fertility of cultivated land increased by 30%]
[Entered corresponding world, world difficulty: One Star]
[World Background: Unknown]
[Mission Requirement: Survive at least 36 months and accumulate at least one unit of standard world resources]
[Mission Success Reward: Unknown]
[Mission Failure: Erase relevant memories, strip Farmer Card, return to original world, permanently lose awakening opportunity]
[Friendly Reminder: Don't make yourself stand out, consequences for violators are your own responsibility]
——
"What is all this?"
Watching these lines of scrolling information, Li Wei only felt confused, even thinking that due to the consecutive blows of being laid off, heartbroken, and falling ill, he was so grief-stricken that he was hallucinating.
But the next second, the information dispersed, and the surrounding mist quickly faded away too. What met his eyes was no longer the park with continuous autumn rain and yellow leaves covering the ground, but a completely unfamiliar valley. Surrounding the valley were emerald green forests, and further away, white snow-capped mountains could vaguely be seen.
In the azure sky, white clouds drifted, the sunlight was bright, but it wasn't hot.
Several large green-headed flies buzzed as they flew past, and unknown insects chirped in the lush green grass.
Clusters of small white flowers dotted the area, seemingly indicating it was early summer.
Not far away were several crude and dirty shacks. Next to the shacks was a clumsy, ancient ox cart with its wheel fallen off. Nearby, a scrawny old ox leisurely ate green grass.
On the other side of the shacks, a small clearing had been made. A bonfire burned there, with a black earthen pot placed over it. A disheveled woman was vigorously stirring it. The smoke from the firewood mixed with some strange food smell inexplicably made Li Wei think of snot...
This... this...
After being stunned for a good three to five seconds, he finally looked down at himself because he felt something was off about him too.
Sure enough, his clothes, shoes, including his phone, keys, and watch were all gone. Replacing them was a set of stinky, coarse, bark-like burlap clothes, like a large bag with four holes. He even discovered he wasn't wearing pants, only a piece of ragged cloth wrapped around him.
As for shoes, forget it - he was currently standing barefoot directly in a pile of mud. The sensation of the watery mud mixed with cow dung happily squeezing out between his toes was indescribably bizarre.
However, a gray card that had somehow appeared in his hand provided him with a bit of rationality, because he could clearly sense that this gray card was now bound to him through fortune and misfortune, sharing his fate.
"George, what are you dawdling for? Go gather firewood quickly. Father needs a dry shack."
The disheveled woman suddenly turned her head and shouted at Li Wei. Her speech was rapid, her pronunciation strange, something he had never heard before, yet he miraculously understood.
But, father?
After a moment of confusion, Li Wei noticed that in another shack, a man was lying down, with an older woman tending to him while weeping softly.
This seemed like a refugee family.
While numerous thoughts flashed through his mind, the gray card in his hand suddenly disappeared, as if hiding within his body. Simultaneously, he saw a status panel that seemed able to appear at will with his thoughts.
[Name: Li Wei]
[Primary Class: Apprentice Farmer]
[Fate: One-Star Farmer Card Bound, automatically gained 5 free attribute points]
[Health: 20 (Terminal Illness)]
[Stamina: 50 (Weak, -50)]
[Strength: 3 (Weak, -3)]
[Agility: 1 (Weak, -3)]
[Defense: 1 (Frail, -2)]
[Current Status: Terminal illness, and weakness caused by moderate hunger. Stamina will rapidly decrease. Expected to die within 30 days]
——
"Has the character been digitized?"
A glimmer of hope sprouted in Li Wei's originally gloomy heart because he noticed that if he focused his attention on any of his attributes for more than a second, a '+' symbol would appear afterward. So these could be upgraded.
Could he cure his illness this way?
At this moment, he was so excited he almost trembled. "Late-stage cancer" - these four words had almost destroyed all his hope.
So without hesitation, he focused his attention on the Health attribute and chose to upgrade it.
It wasn't complicated at all. In an instant, it was like a warm current flowed from his head, covering his entire body. His whole mental state and appearance perked up. Although it soon dropped back somewhat, he definitely felt much better.
Looking at the Health attribute again, it had changed to - [30, (Serious Illness)]
And the current status changed to expected to die in six months.
"Holy shit! Hahaha!"
Li Wei laughed wildly in his heart, tears streaming out. Nothing was more ecstatic than seeing hope with your own eyes.
Next, he continued to add points.
[40, (Major Illness)]
[50, (Chronic Illness)]
——
However, when he increased his Health to 50, he began to calm down from his ecstatic state.
Getting 5 free attribute points right at the start probably meant it would be hard to obtain more later. So how should he allocate them?
Glancing at his current status, the life expectancy for chronic illness had changed to three years, exactly the time required by the mission.
"So this means, as long as I don't starve to death, freeze to death, or die from other accidents, this point is no longer a problem. If I can find a doctor in this current world, my life expectancy could be extended further."
After some thought, Li Wei focused his attention on the other attributes one by one.
Stamina, Strength, Agility, and Defense - all four attributes could be upgraded using 1 free attribute point each.
So, it depended on how he chose.
"Better wait for now, add points according to the situation."
Li Wei wasn't in a hurry anymore. The feeling of having his Health restored to 50 was like being half healthy. This long-lost sub-healthy feeling truly made him happy, and even his thinking became clearer and more rational.
"Last night, there should have been heavy rain."
"This location is relatively high, so it didn't encounter flash floods, but because the camp didn't dig drainage ditches, water still flooded into the shacks."
"If this is a family, then my so-called father should be sick or injured."
"Is this a family of four?"
"The ox cart is broken, but there's still a canopy covering it, and there seem to be some supplies inside."
"No roads can be seen around, so are they really fleeing? Is this land unclaimed territory?"
"Undoubtedly, although this mission doesn't require ensuring others survive, if only I remain, it would be impossible for me to survive three years in such an environment."
"Furthermore, I bound a Farmer Card, so I need to cultivate farmland to be useful. But this doesn't mean I should focus solely on farming. Gathering, hunting, building, cooking - I'll almost certainly have to participate in everything. This mission is very demanding! Giving me a Farmer Card but requiring me to simultaneously handle the work of a hunter, carpenter, cook, and even blacksmith and bricklayer."
"Finally, what does that warning mean? Don't expose information that doesn't belong to this world in front of the indigenous people? Consequences for violators are your own responsibility? Ha, wouldn't I be tied up and burned as a devil?"
Li Wei pondered in his heart while also using his steps to measure the area around the camp.
From the camp, heading east 120 steps was the center of the valley, where a small stream flowed merrily past. The water volume wasn't large, and it was unknown if there were any fish or shrimp, but undoubtedly, there was a water source.
The stream had many stones washed down from upstream, large and small. Some stones appeared black - maybe there was some iron ore inside? Also, stones could be used to build houses or courtyard walls.
Across the stream was the dense forest, clearly never developed. Some withered trees fell haphazardly, dense weeds and vines forming like a wall. In the gloomy depths of the forest, thick mist wandered, looking very eerie.
But to establish a foothold here, this forest must be developed.
It would be an excellent source of timber.
Li Wei didn't dare venture deep into the forest, only gathering many completely soaked firewood from the edge.
In this regard, it was quite easy.
After a while, he had gathered a large pile. He pulled some wild grass, braided it into grass ropes, bundled it into a large bundle, and carried it back. For firewood, the more the better.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
After he had made several trips carrying firewood, in the camp, the so-called father suddenly started coughing violently. Before Li Wei could even react, he heard crying.
The so-called father had actually kicked the bucket so quickly.