On the way back, since there was no need to explore the surroundings, they moved faster.

Qiyu walked ahead, occasionally casting a fire spell to burn the dry branches, fallen leaves, and weeds on the ground into a single ball of flame.

If the fire got out of control, he’d use a Waterball spell to put it out.

As they went on, he grew more skilled, and he had basically mastered controlling the fire’s spread.

They walked on like this, clearing a clean path as they went.

Jiu asked curiously, “Mr. Human, what are you doing?”

Qiyu replied, “I live in the Star Forest. I’ll be walking this path often in the future, so I’m clearing it out in advance to make things easier later.”

Just as they were about to reach the shelter, a message popped up on the interface:

【Environment cleared. Star Forest tidiness increased by 0.0000001%. The player receives a gift from the forest.】

Duo Ju’s eyes widened in surprise.

He saw a speck of green light fly out of the forest and settle in front of Qiyu.

It was a silver seed.

【Miststar Flower: A specialty of the Star Forest, it has been the most popular plant for a hundred consecutive years.】 

“It’s a Miststar Flower seed!” Before Qiyu could figure out what was going on, Duo Ju had already called out its name.

The fluffy golden cat’s head leaned in, its gem-like eyes fixed intently on the seed: “You rarely see Mist Star Flowers in the market anymore. Ever since the Star Forest…”

Its words suddenly trailed off, and it gazed at Qiyu with sparkling eyes: “Mr. Human, would you be willing to sell it to me? I can pay a high price.”

Qiyu declined: “Sorry, I want to try growing it myself.”

Duo Ju was disappointed: “But Miststar Flowers are notoriously difficult to grow.”

Qiyu still shook his head.

He remembered the words from earlier—it was a gift from the Star Forest.

If it’s a gift, surely it wouldn’t just let it… die?

Qiyu glanced back at the path he’d just cleared, and a sudden inspiration struck him. He cast a still-clumsy basic Bless spell on the forest.

The Survival Panel remained silent and unresponsive, but Qiyu heard the rustling of tree leaves, as if they were thanking him.

“Is this Mr. Human’s domain?” Tachibana stood by the fence and praised, “It doesn’t look like you just moved in at all.”

It glanced at the advanced magic energy tower floating in the air and asked Qiyu, “May I enter the domain?”

Qiyu pulled open the gate: “Please come in.”

Duo Ju hopped and skipped into the domain, and the first thing it did was walk up to the statue of the Goddess of Nature, raise its hand to its chest, and bow: “Praise the great and merciful Goddess of Nature.”

Qiyu watched from the side and mimicked its posture: “Praise the great and merciful Goddess of Nature.”

After finishing the gesture, he hurried to inspect the fence.

The fence had lost a bit of durability. On the side where the Red Maple Forest was located, Qiyu saw a small white light on the ground.

Qiyu:?

【Drop from killing a Level 1 mutated creature, the White-crowned Bird. Do you wish to pick it up?】

It can kill mutated creatures… Qiyu looked at the ordinary energy tower.

Its energy level had now changed to 99/100. Clearly, the energy tower had launched an attack and killed the mutated creature that had entered the territory.

Judging by the two reports from the territory module, the unfortunate White-crowned Bird must have been taken out with a single strike the moment it entered.

It seems that at full energy, it can launch 100 attacks, meaning each attack consumes one-tenth of a Level 1 Magic Crystal’s energy.

Qiyu picked up the white light that had dropped, obtaining a snow-white… fluffy ball?

【White-Crowned Bird Fluff Ball: Common item, a toy much loved by children and felines.】

Qiyu held the fluffy ball, shook it in front of his eyes, then turned his gaze toward the wandering merchant.

Duo Ju didn’t wander around, nor did he enter the shelter.

Instead, it reached both paws into the small blue shoulder bag it was carrying and seemed to rummage through it with some effort.

“Ta-da!”

A gift box—clearly much larger than the shoulder bag—was cradled in its two paws. 

Boom.

The gift box opened automatically, setting off a small burst of fireworks.

Qiyu’s Survival Panel automatically popped up a page.

Items from the Wandering Merchant, Duo Ju:

1. Advanced Storage Backpack. Value: 500 emerald crystals.

2. Felix’s Staff (Epic). Value: 100,000 emerald crystals.

3. Advanced Farmland x1. 100 emerald crystals.

4. Sanctuary Shield. 100 emerald crystals.

5. Energy Crystal Card. 10 emerald crystals.

6. Magic Potion 10ml, 8 emerald crystals.

After viewing all the items, Qiyu’s eyes shone almost as brightly as Duo Ju’s.

Each one looked practical and useful!

‌‌He quickly realized a harsh truth: he had, in total, only 3 emerald crystals in his pocket.

No, wait—one emerald crystal had already been used to activate the territory’s auxiliary planning module.

Duo ‌Ju noticed that although the customer’s expression hadn’t changed, his entire demeanor seemed to have grown somber, as if he’d turned into a damp mushroom crouching in a dark corner.

Gold is the norm.

When selecting desired items, it was always the same story.

Qiyu said somewhat sadly, “Your goods are fine; it’s just that I don’t have any emerald crystals.”

As he spoke, his face was devoid of any expression, and paired with his cold, aloof features, he looked like someone who wouldn’t be easy to deal with.

If it weren’t for the fact that Ju, as a merchant, was exceptionally sensitive to customers’ emotions, he would have been intimidated by that “ cold shoulder.”

It clearly hadn’t given up on its original plan: “If you’re willing to sell the Mist Star Flower seeds to me, I’ll pay 500 emerald crystals, meow.”

Qiyu shook his head and asked, “Do you buy things from customers?”

Ju: “Of course! A wandering merchant never turns down business that comes to the door.” 

Qiyu pulled out an elementary magic scroll: “Is that worth too little?”

Ju took it: “Elementary magic scroll, 20 emerald crystals each, meow.”

Qiyu’s eyes lit up. He took out all ten of his magic scrolls and traded them with Ju.

He received 200 emerald crystals.

Then he spent 8 emerald crystals to buy 1 magic potion. 

He still had 10 sheets of parchment paper in his backpack.

【Elementary magic scroll: Can be inscribed with spells up to Level 3. Materials: 1 sheet of parchment paper, 1ml of magic potion.】

Ten blank elementary magic scrolls were now ready.

This meant he could inscribe ten more magic scrolls.

Before inscribing the magic, he thoughtfully asked Duo Ju, “Is it okay if all ten are Fireballs?”

Tachibana stared blankly, realizing the customer seemed to want to inscribe the spells on the spot.

Its consciousness replied, “Sure, Fireball is considered quite powerful among basic spells and is very popular. However, a basic mage’s power is insufficient to inscribe an elementary magic scroll…”

…

Qiyu was focused on channeling his magic to inscribe the array and didn’t catch what it said.

It wasn’t until the ten Fireball spells were engraved that he turned his head: “Did you just… say something?”

“I didn’t say a word, meow!” Tachibana rubbed its paws together and looked at Qiyu with sparkling eyes. “Mr. Human, you really are a remarkable magical genius.”

Qiyu took that compliment as a sales pitch.

He sold the ten Fireball spells from his new furnace to Orange, earning 200 emerald crystals in return.

With that, he now had 392 emerald crystals.

It was a truly lucrative deal.

Qiyu looked at Ju with anticipation: “Do you have any parchment paper or magic potions for sale?”

Qiyu felt he could spend the whole day engraving!

Ju shook his head regretfully: “Customers can only purchase items on the list.”

Qiyu wasn’t particularly disappointed.

He rummaged through his backpack and pulled out two bottles of basic healing potions.

Just as he was about to ask the price, a message popped up on his Survival Panel:

【Player “I Love Survival Game” is the first player in the entire server to trade with the Wandering Merchant, earning the title “Treasure Magnet.”】

【Treasure Magnet: Automatically gains 10 emerald crystals daily; the probability of rare items in treasure chests increases by 10%.】

【Do you wish to post a server-wide announcement? Note: Server-wide announcements grant additional rewards.】

Rewards?

Broke to the point of having rummaged through his backpack several times, Qiyu didn’t hesitate for a moment: “Announcement.”

In an instant, all Survival Game players heard a voice in their ears. As the survival panel flashed, a pinned announcement appeared in the regional chat channel:

【Congratulations to Server 01 player “I Love Survival Game” for successfully completing their first transaction with the Wandering Merchant, earning a reward of 1 silver chest. 

Server-wide Bonus: All players in Server 01 receive a 5% discount when trading with the Wandering Merchant.】

In an instant, all major servers buzzed with activity due to the announcement: 

【Server 01? Why does that sound so familiar? Wasn’t that the one that triggered the announcement earlier—the one called “My Fate, My Heaven”? —Was that also from this server?】

【Damn! I knew it. Server 01 sounds like it’s no ordinary place. The players who can get into that server must not be total noobs, right?】

【The silver chest is awesome, but don’t you think the real highlight is the server-wide reward? After all, every single player in the entire server gets to enjoy that benefit.】

【Jealous of Server 01!】

【Pfft, a 10% off? What’s there to brag about? It’s practically no discount at all!】

【Hmm, I don’t really have any other complaints, but don’t you guys think this person’s ID is really weird?】

【I clicked it. What kind of “bootlicker” ID is that? As for the reward… I hope he didn’t actually end up “licking” his way to it, right?】

Compared to other servers, Server 01 is much livelier:

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: Holy crap, a server-wide announcement! Our server has its second player to trigger a server-wide announcement!】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Server-wide benefits? That player is so awesome!】

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: @I Love Survival Game, this player is so strong! Could you tell me what a “Wandering Merchant” is?】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Server-wide rewards—no need to say more. I’m bowing down to this player.】

【Roadside Drifter: No wonder they’re number one on the Shelter leaderboard. They may be low-key, but when it comes to rewards, they really go all out for everyone. Isn’t that way better than certain people who just like to bark?】

【I Am Domineering: @Roadside Drifter, who are you hinting at?】

【Roadside Drifter: Just telling it like it is. I’ll call out whoever jumps the highest.】

【I Am Domineering: You better pray the game doesn’t let players run into each other, or else… hmph.】

【Roadside Drifter: Oh my, now you’re resorting to threats? Scared me—I’m so scared, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.】

……

A certain group chat channel in the Temple.

【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not Heaven: Didn’t I tell you to go look in the forest? How come someone beat us to it?】

【Little Old Man: Sorry, boss. I really didn’t see any golden cat.】

【I Am Domineering: Yeah, boss. I haven’t rested since I got up this morning. If we can’t find it, there’s nothing we can do.】

【My Fate is Determined by Me, Not the Heavens: “A bunch of useless good-for-nothings!”

“My Fate is Determined by Me, Not the Heavens” was furious, and his hostility toward “I Love Survival Game” grew even stronger.

In his previous life, the wandering merchant hadn’t appeared that early.

He remembered that the newbie period had ended several days ago. One day, a player bragged in the channel about encountering a wandering merchant while out and about, and how lucky he was to get a useful item.

That player hadn’t even been on the leaderboard before, but thanks to that stroke of luck, they basked in the limelight for a while—until their ID turned gray not long after.

He believed that since he had been reborn, those opportunities naturally belonged to him.

Who could have imagined that I Love Survival Game would suddenly appear out of nowhere.

To maintain his status as the top player, he rarely spoke in the regional chat channel, instead letting others act as his mouthpiece. In reality, he cared deeply about how others perceived him, opening the regional chat channel every day just to read the praise and adoration directed at him.

At that very moment, the players in the regional chat channel were heaping praise on I Love Survival Game, which made him feel absolutely miserable.