For the next twenty days, Jiang Le maintained his early-morning routine, driving out to various wholesale markets before dawn to stock up on supplies—from fresh fruits and vegetables to grains, oils, and flour, all the way to various types of fresh meat. Starting as a complete novice, he gradually picked up a few tricks of the trade, learning how to buy cheaper and fresher goods. The wholesale markets were filled with merchants making large daily purchases, and Jiang Le blended in among them, hardly standing out.

After storing all the day’s purchases in the warehouse, Jiang Le parked his car and returned home. Just as he had done before leaving, the first thing he did upon returning was head to the farm to check on the vegetables and poultry.

The fields no longer looked like the dark, barren expanse they had been earlier. Several different types of vegetables had already entered the middle stage of growth; from the outside, they were taking shape, and their vibrant, tender green color was soothing to the eye. Among them, the Chinese mustard greens were indeed growing the fastest; in just twenty days, they were almost fully grown.

Compared to the outside world, this growth rate was actually slightly faster. Jiang Le believed this was most likely because the weather conditions on the farm were much more stable than outside—neither too hot nor too cold—keeping the crops in an optimal growing environment at all times.

At this point, the vegetables in the field show no need for watering or fertilizing; the only indicators are their maturity levels. The mustard has reached 95% maturity, while the bok choy and lettuce are at 92%. Once the small progress circle completes a full circle, the first harvest can begin.

In other words, by the day after tomorrow, the first batch of vegetables planted here will all be ready for harvest.

Thanks to the experience gained from watering, fertilizing, and feeding the poultry over this period, Jiang Le’s personal level progress bar—which was barely visible to the naked eye at the start—has now filled to about a quarter. Jiang Le speculates that once he successfully harvests this first crop, his personal level will advance to Level 2, though he’s unsure exactly what changes this level-up will bring.

In comparison, although the poultry have grown noticeably, they are still only in the juvenile stage, and it will be quite some time before they are ready for harvest.

However, after being fed by him for the past few days, they had all come to recognize Jiang Le and knew he was the one who provided their food. As soon as they saw him approaching, they immediately gathered around him.

Jiang Le glanced at the poultry feeders; there was still some feed left from what he had put out that morning before leaving, so he didn’t feel the need to feed them right away. He simply poured out the murky water from the troughs and replaced it with fresh water.

Additionally, a “Clean” prompt was flashing in the corner of the pen. Jiang Le retrieved a broom from the tool shed and swept the morning’s mix of chicken and duck droppings—along with a small amount of feed that had been trampled into the ground—into a dustpan. He turned and dumped the waste into the compost bin.

The compost bin immediately began the decomposition process.

Jiang Le set down the broom and dustpan, pulled out the small drawer at the bottom of the compost bin, and found some dark-colored material inside—the byproduct of the manure and other waste he’d thrown in two days earlier, now fully decomposed. This could be stored for use as fertilizer.

However, the amount of fertilizer currently produced by the compost bin was still too small, so fertilizing the vegetable patch still relied on the various fertilizers Jiang Le had purchased from the real world. After more than twenty days of purchasing, the existing warehouse capacity had been used up almost entirely, and the types of supplies displayed on the electronic screen at the entrance were densely packed.

Most of the money on hand has been spent on these recent purchases. During this time, Liu Jianhua has been contacting Jiang Le every now and then, with only one goal in mind: to haggle over the price.

Jiang Le ignored him completely, sticking firmly to his asking price of 1.2 million.

Over the past couple of days, the Liu family must have finally reached an agreement. Fearing that this bargain might fall into someone else’s hands, Liu Jianhua called Jiang Le yesterday to tell him that he was willing to pay 1.2 million yuan and hoped Jiang Le would find time to return to his hometown to complete the property transfer as soon as possible.

Jiang Le didn’t care what the Liu family thought; all he cared about was getting the money.

After booking a train ticket to return home in three days, Jiang Le called his landlady to tell her he planned to terminate the lease.

Jiang Le’s landlord was a local elderly woman in her seventies with a kind disposition; they had gotten along well during the years he’d rented from her. Upon hearing that Jiang Le wanted to terminate the lease, the elderly woman kindly asked him why.

Jiang Le used a career change and his plans to return to his hometown as an excuse, and the elderly woman didn’t press the matter further. She simply agreed to come over in the next couple of days to handle the lease termination.

Since most of the procurement had already been taken care of, Jiang Le didn’t set an early morning alarm that day. Instead, he slept until she woke up naturally, then logged into the farm space as usual to check on the crops’ growth.

After a night’s rest, the progress bar for the Chinese mustard greens had reached 99%, while those for the bok choy and lettuce were at 97%. Based on this, he estimated that by tonight at the latest, he should be able to harvest all the vegetables from this first batch, earning a large amount of experience from his first planting.

Jiang Le couldn’t help but feel elated, though he didn’t linger at the farm for long. Although he didn’t need to go shopping today, he still had plans to carry out.

Over the past few days, Jiang Le had thoroughly scouted the markets in the villages and towns surrounding Hai City. He had picked up on which markets sold what, which spots were popular with locals, and who sold high-quality vegetable seedlings.

Driving to a local farmers’ market on the outskirts of town, Jiang Le found a small stall run by a local farmer selling vegetable and fruit seedlings. Cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, peppers—seedlings of all kinds were available, growing fresh and vibrant in their nutrient pots.

Jiang Le hadn’t purchased these seedlings before. On one hand, it takes a long time for them to grow to maturity and produce a harvest; on the other hand, all these seedlings were Grade 1, and since Jiang Le was also currently at Grade 1, he couldn’t plant them in his farm.

But now that the first crop is about to mature, as soon as Jiang Le’s level reaches Level 2, these seedlings—just like chicken and duck chicks—can be placed directly into the farm for cultivation, saving a significant amount of time on initial cultivation.

Jiang Le bought some cucumber, cherry tomato, and chili pepper seedlings from several farmers, specifically choosing varieties that grow relatively faster.

Back home, Jiang Le first placed the seedlings in a cool, shaded corner of the house, then headed back to the farm.

He had been out for a few hours, and the progress of the Chinese mustard greens in the farm had finally advanced from 99% to 100%. Every plot of land was a lush green expanse, with the words “Ready for Harvest” displayed above it. A small bamboo basket was placed on the ridge of each plot—likely prepared by the farm system for harvesting.

Full of energy, Jiang Le began harvesting plot by plot. His earlier hunch had been correct: the experience points gained from harvesting far exceeded those from previous tasks like watering and feeding. Almost as soon as he finished a plot, his personal experience bar would jump forward a little.

So even though harvesting each plot required considerable effort, Jiang Le thoroughly enjoyed the process. By the time he had harvested all the Chinese mustard greens, dozens of small bamboo baskets filled to the brim had piled up along the ridges—all of which he could keep for his own consumption.

As time passed, the nearby bok choy and lettuce also entered the final countdown to harvest, with their progress bars reaching 99%, ready to be harvested at any moment.

At this point, Jiang Le’s personal experience progress bar had also shifted from a quarter full to three-fifths full. But there was one more thing that took Jiang Le by surprise: while he was harvesting the Chinese mustard greens, he noticed that as he picked them, a small experience progress bar next to the greens was also flickering.

Around the 25th plot harvested, the system notified Jiang Le that the Chinese mustard greens had successfully upgraded to Level 2. This upgrade does not apply to the current batch of greens, but rather to the seeds they leave behind.

Whenever a crop is successfully grown on the farm, the farm warehouse automatically stores its seeds.

For example, at that moment, Jiang Le saw the icon for “Level 2  Chicken Feather Seed” on the electronic screen in front of the warehouse. When he hovered his hand over it, a brief description appeared beside the icon: “Level 2  Chicken Feather Seed: On the surface, they still appear frail and delicate, but only they know they now possess a core forged through trials. Ordinary winds and rains can no longer knock them down, and ordinary caterpillars can no longer gnaw holes in them.”

Jiang Le stared at this somewhat cheesy description, feeling a bit surprised. He had originally thought that the experience gained from planting could only be used to level up himself and the system, but he hadn’t expected that ordinary crops from the real world could also be upgraded within the farm system.

Judging by this description, a Level 2 chicken feather vegetable should possess attributes that make it impervious to wind, rain, and pests. Although wind, rain, and pests don’t exist within the farm’s virtual space, if the seeds were planted in the real world, these two traits would indeed represent a massive boost in stats.

It seems that as long as he keeps planting, the crops’ attributes will continue to strengthen. There’s plenty of room for imagination regarding just how high they can ultimately be upgraded.

Unfortunately, Jiang Le currently doesn’t have enough land, so he can only temporarily store these Level 2 mustard seeds in the warehouse and consider planting and upgrading them once he has spare land.

After storing all the harvested Chinese mustard greens in the warehouse, Jiang Le checked the system’s experience bar again.

The system’s experience bar was progressing much more slowly than Jiang Le’s personal one; at this point, it had barely reached the halfway mark. It seemed this harvest wasn’t nearly enough to directly upgrade the farm system, but upgrading it once before the apocalypse arrived wouldn’t be a problem. He wondered what features the system upgrade would bring—at the very least, it would probably grant him more land to cultivate.

As Jiang Le pondered this, he turned his head and noticed that the planting progress bars for the baby bok choy and lettuce had already reached 100%. His eyes lit up, and he followed the same procedure to harvest them all.

These two crops yielded slightly more experience points than the Chinese mustard, but their planting area was smaller. Therefore, after harvesting, the crops themselves did not advance to Level 2.

However, Jiang Le’s personal experience points successfully advanced to Level 2 after the harvest was complete.

Just as his experience points reached the maximum, Jiang Le still had a single vegetable plant in his hand. With a “ding” in his ear, a virtual screen appeared floating in mid-air before him, displaying a line of text: “Experience points have met the upgrade requirements. Does the host wish to upgrade to Level 2 now?”

The word “level up” felt both unfamiliar and familiar to Jiang Le. In his previous life, he had seen too many superpower users gain greater power by leveling up their abilities. Now that he had this opportunity himself, it was impossible not to feel excited. But Jiang Le first finished harvesting all the vegetables and stored them in the warehouse before looking back at the screen and tapping “Confirm Level Up.”

He had originally thought that leveling up was merely a numerical change, but the moment he clicked “Confirm,” Jiang Le understood why the system had chosen to ask him first instead of upgrading automatically.

Jiang Le felt a force of unknown origin surge from his chest, rapidly spreading to every corner of his body, washing over his old flesh and blood. He could no longer stand; he fell to the ground and instinctively curled into a ball, trembling from the excruciating pain, clenching his teeth as sweat poured from every pore.

The alternating sensations of cold and heat seemed to blur his sense of time. Through his blurred vision, all Jiang Le could see was the system’s upgrade progress bar hovering before his eyes, slowly advancing from 1% to 99%, and finally to 100%.

As the pain subsided and his breathing gradually steadied, Jiang Le opened his eyes to find himself back in his room, having returned from the system space. Another day had passed; his body was soaked through with sweat, giving off a musty odor.

Jiang Le leaned against the wall to stand up. He walked into the bathroom, took off his clothes, and turned on the shower.

As the water washed over him, Jiang Le felt that the faint sounds around him were amplified in his ears in a way he’d never experienced before. He strained to listen and realized it wasn’t just the sound of the shower—even the sounds from the street, the stairwell, the tires of passing cars, and the coughs of passersby were amplified several times over.

And the arm he was leaning against the wall with had visibly thickened, no longer the gaunt, skinny form it once was.