Cen An desperately wanted to know why he’d ended up in the wilderness after taking a perfectly ordinary nap.

Wait… it wasn’t exactly wilderness. He scanned his surroundings. Not far away stood some dilapidated cottages—seemingly a village. A winding path stretched beneath his feet, and ahead, an elderly man was leading the way.

Cen An kept his composure and continued walking, raising his hand to tap the icon floating before his eyes.

This icon was all too familiar—it belonged to the farming game he’d been playing for the past six months: Happy Farm.

The familiar interface unfolded before him.

【Welcome back, Host! Claim your newbie gift pack!】

Cen An froze again. Not only had he traveled through time, but his farming game had become real?

Before he could examine it further, the old man ahead turned back. “Young man, you said you needed a place to stay. How about this house? With a bit of cleaning, it could be livable.”

Cen An instinctively looked up. Before him stood a dilapidated little shack, its roof torn and leaking, not even a door in sight…

This… was livable?

The old man seemed to read his thoughts, pulling out his tobacco pipe and puffing away. “The place is a bit run-down, but at least it has four walls. You can chop some wood to board up the doors and windows. It’ll be livable. Plus, there are ability users patrolling the village, so it’s safer than out there. These days, just finding a place to stay is a blessing.”

Ability user… He committed the term to memory, then asked calmly, ”What’s life like in your village?“

”Same as always,“ the old man replied, lowering his head to puff on his pipe. ”It’s been three hundred years since the Cataclysm. The mutant beasts keep multiplying, food grows scarcer, and the fields yield no grain. Young man, do you want this house? I’ll be heading back up the mountain later to hunt for food.“

”I’ll take it.“ Cen An nodded. Crops wouldn’t grow in the fields? Good thing he had his Farming System. ”One more question—after buying the house, can I use the land around it?“

”There are few people and plenty of land now. Use it if you want, as much as you need.“ The old man was surprisingly straightforward. ”Just give me 200 crystal cores.”

Cen An naturally had no cash on him. He opened his newbie gift pack.

【Congratulations! You have obtained: Axe x1, Pickaxe x1, Hoe x1, Iron Sword x1, Crystal Cores x500】

Sure enough, the rewards were identical to his previous life.

He took out 200 crystal cores. The old man accepted them, a smile spreading across his face. “Seeing you came empty-handed, and since it’s still early, hurry and find some food. The mountains near the village are regularly cleared of mutant beasts by ability users, so it’s fairly safe. If you want to buy or sell anything, head to the small market east of the village.”

Cen An nodded and thanked him.

After the old man left, he silently summoned the system.

“System?”

【Host, the Happy Farm System is at your service.】

“Did you send me here?”

【Insufficient permissions. Cannot respond.】

“Can I go back?”

【Insufficient permissions. Cannot respond.】

Cen An sighed. This system lacked intelligence—it was merely a programmed script. It seemed pointless to ask further.

He opened the system interface with practiced ease.

【Farm Name: Enter

Level: 1

Experience: 0/5000

Wealth: 300 Crystal Cores

Land Owned: 0

Fish Pond: 1000 Crystal Cores to unlock

Ranch: 3000 Crystal Cores to unlock

Backpack: Axe x1, Hoe x1, Pickaxe x1, Iron Sword】

Turning the page revealed 【Seed Purchase】 and 【Land Purchase】.

Cen An had always been terrible at naming things, so he entered the name he’d used before in the name field: 【Harvest Farm】.

He then opened the seed purchase page.

Just like in his previous life, the only seeds available to newcomers were bok choy and radish. More advanced seeds would unlock only after upgrading the farm.

Cen An spent 50 crystal cores to buy a pack of bok choy seeds.

He then opened the land purchase page and spent 200 crystal cores to buy a plot of [Fertile Black Soil]. With this purchase, his remaining [Wealth Value] on the system page dropped to just 50 crystal cores.

The purchased land needed to be placed on an open, level area. Cen An took out his hoe, leveled the empty space in front of his door, and selected it for placement.

Before the house, the grayish-white sandy soil began to shift and churn. Soon, it transformed into a block of fertile black soil, roughly sixty to seventy square meters in size—about the size of a classroom.

Cen An took out the bok choy seeds and planted them one by one. The packet contained 150 seeds, enough to cover the entire plot.

【Congratulations! You have gained x5 EXP】

【Congratulations! You have gained x5 EXP】

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

Cen An dismissed the system prompts and finished planting the entire packet. Glancing at his EXP, it now read 【750/5000】.

It was frustrating—all the progress he’d grinded out in his previous life was gone. Otherwise, he could have instantly become a tycoon now.

Fortunately, the recipes and formulas he’d collected in his previous life remained intact. With these, as long as he had sufficient materials, he could produce finished goods.

“Hm?” Cen An scrolled to the bottom of the system page and noticed something amiss. In his previous life, Happy Farm only reached Level 9 at most. He had already reached Level 8, needing just a few hundred more experience points to reach the highest level.

Now, however, a Level 10 appeared after Level 9. Could it be that the game from his past life was incomplete?

Moreover, the universal currency in this world was crystal cores, and the game’s currency was also crystal cores. Was there some connection?

These questions were bound to remain unanswered for now, so Cen An simply gave up on them.

In just over ten minutes, the seeds he had planted had already sprouted.

A light touch revealed a prompt: [Baby Bok Choy: Maturity Time 3 days 2 hours]

Cen An exhaled in relief, yet his heart immediately sank again. The vegetable had indeed sprouted, but growing this fast would surely attract strange looks. He certainly didn’t want to be dragged into some research institute…

[Host doubt detected. System prompt: Activate Virtual Reality Protection Scene? Activation cost: 1 Crystal Core/day.]

“Virtual Reality Protection?” This was something absent from the game in his previous life. Cautiously, Cen An tapped to activate it. The system instantly deducted one crystal core.

Cen An watched in disbelief as the entire patch of baby bok choy vanished in an instant. Even the [Fertile Black Soil] he’d just purchased disappeared, leaving only a grayish-white patch of empty ground before his house, as if nothing had ever been there.

After adding himself to the whitelist, he could see the real scene, ensuring his planting wouldn’t be delayed.

Cen An was quite satisfied with this reality protection system.

Leaving the bok choy to grow on its own, Cen An turned and entered the dilapidated little house he’d just acquired.

Inside, the dilapidation was even more apparent. A partition wall divided the small space into inner and outer rooms. The inner room held a tattered bamboo bed, while the outer room’s corner contained a rotten bamboo basket—nothing else.

Cen An sighed deeply. Even back in the orphanage, he’d never lived in such a shabby place.

He picked up the bamboo basket. Rotten as it was, it still served its purpose.

He retrieved the axe and iron sword, placed them inside the basket, and turned to ascend the mountain.

The game Happy Farm also featured gathering mechanics. While waiting for crops to mature, venturing into the wild for foraging could yield decent rewards.

Especially now that his home was bare, he needed so many things!

“Wood, iron scraps, dry grass, food… The more the better, the more the better…”

Cen An silently repeated to himself as he followed the path up the mountain.

Perhaps because it had rained recently, Cen An spotted a cluster of mushrooms shortly after starting his ascent.

【Congratulations! You obtained Wood Mushrooms x5】

Wood Mushrooms and salt could make Grilled Mushrooms. If he found bird eggs, he could make Wood Mushroom Egg Stew…

Pondering recipe combinations, Cen An gathered the entire patch.

【Congratulations! You have obtained Wood Mushrooms x12】

Venturing deeper, Cen An soon heard voices.

He wasn’t the only one gathering. Looking up, he saw several villagers also picking wood mushrooms.

Not adept at socializing, Cen An quietly moved away from the area. He pulled out his axe and began chopping down trees.

Half an hour later, a Longleaf Tree lay felled.

【Congratulations! You have obtained Wood x3】

【Congratulations! You have obtained Longleaf Leaves x3】

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

After cutting ten more pieces of wood, he paused to rest when a sudden scream pierced the air.

He instinctively looked over to see the villagers he’d seen earlier in complete chaos. A dark shadow darted frantically along the ground. He focused his gaze and recognized it as a sharp-toothed rat.

In the game, sharp-toothed rats were Level 1 monsters he could handle with his axe. But the sharp-toothed rats in this world were entirely different: larger in size, more bloodthirsty and ferocious.

More importantly, in the game, a monster bite only costs a few drops of health. In reality, it meant actual injury!

He watched helplessly as the sharp-toothed rat bit into a villager’s calf, tearing off a chunk of flesh and swallowing it whole, its black beady eyes gleaming with greed.

These mutant beasts actually fed on human flesh. It seemed this world was far more dangerous than he’d imagined.

The villagers froze for a moment before snapping into action. They rushed forward with weapons, surrounding and killing the sharp-toothed rat.

One man dug a crystal core from its skull, then stripped off its hide. The rat meat was discarded.

It seemed that the mutant beasts of this world, like the monsters in games, were inedible. Though game monsters’ meat could be used for fishing bait or animal feed.

The injured villager was carried down the mountain by others. Whether he could survive remained uncertain. Cen An didn’t linger to watch, instead continuing his gathering.

This time, however, he was increasingly cautious, keeping his iron sword close at hand.

After gathering 30 pieces of wood, he discovered another patch of ground fruit.

Resembling potatoes in shape, ground fruit was a common wild food in the game, much like wood mushroom. He picked up his hoe and gently dug, revealing five or six fist-sized ground fruit rolling out.

【Congratulations! You have obtained ground fruit x4】

【Congratulations! You have obtained ground fruit x2】

No farming player could resist the satisfaction of such a harvest. Cen An plowed the entire patch, reaping a full ten ground fruits before stopping.

“Thank goodness for the backpack. Otherwise, I’d have no idea how to carry all this stuff,” Cen An muttered, wiping sweat from his face.

The sun began to dip toward the west, and after a full day’s work, his stomach started to rumble.

A farming enthusiast would never let themselves go hungry. He scanned the food currently in his backpack. “Getting by with what I have isn’t impossible, but well…”

What farming enthusiast doesn’t love good food? After all, back home, his only pastime was cooking.

Scanning his surroundings, he spotted a soy sauce fruit tree and plucked a few berries. Gathering 3 wood and 2 dry grass, he lit a campfire.

Warm flames lapped at his body as Cen An sat down cross-legged. Flipping through recipes, he planned to make wood mushroom sauce mixed with ground fruit puree.

He took 2 wood mushrooms and 1 soy sauce fruit, cooking them over the fire into a batch of mushroom sauce. Instantly, the rich, earthy aroma of fungi filled the air, bold and delicious.

He peeled and mashed the roasted ground fruit into a potato-like paste. Pouring the hot mushroom sauce over it, his wood mushroom sauce with ground fruit puree was ready. Not only was it delicious, but it also restored a significant amount of fullness.

No bowls or chopsticks were available. Cen An grabbed a piece of wood, whittled a wooden bowl with his axe, and carved two chopsticks.

Just as he was about to dig in, the grass beside him suddenly rustled.

He turned to see a furry, plump creature tumbling out. Covered in silvery fur, it resembled a silver-haired pillow.

The little pillow rolled to his feet, scrambling up awkwardly. Its two shiny black eyes gazed longingly at the wooden bowl in his hand, emitting a soft “Mmm~”

Cen An stared at it for a long moment, hesitating. “Fat as a piglet… a puppy?”