Thanks to GreenKiTea for the Kofis. Enjoy the bonus chapters!

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Qiyu was actually quite concerned.

Because “God Has No Form” was so generous—he’d sent over some beef jerky before even receiving the information Qi Yu had compiled about the wandering merchant.

After the event ends, a transaction fee will be charged for trades. However, friends can gift each other items up to three times a day, with a maximum of 99 items per gift. 

Qiyu has seen people complain about this in the chat channel more than once, and Civil Engineering Brother  has also mentioned it privately in the group. However, he didn’t complain himself, saying, “Isn’t this perfectly normal? Don’t you have to pay taxes when doing business on Earth?” 

Unless you’re doing business on a large scale, three gifting opportunities a day are more than enough for daily use.

This time, God Has No Form sent not only spicy dried meat but also a different kind—the air-dried variety—500g of each. Qiyu tried a strip; the air-dried flavor didn’t have the same rich texture as the spicy one, but it was salty and fragrant—and also particularly delicious.

When sending the package, God Has No Form casually mentioned that he wouldn’t be available to reply for a while—he had to go monster hunting. 

Qiyu immediately felt a twinge of anxiety: he’d just been thinking about collaborating long-term with friends in Zone 88 so he could always have delicious jerky to eat.

Worried, he began to ponder his next move, already planning to make more magic scrolls to sell to him once he acquired more parchment paper and magic potions.

A friend who can make delicious jerky—he absolutely mustn’t die by accident. 

He began examining the valuable treasure he’d just acquired.

【Advanced Storage Backpack: An alchemical item. 

Choose from three appearances: ring, bracelet, or brooch. Capacity: 500 slots. Maximum capacity per slot x999; extends the shelf life of stored items.】

Wow, 500 slots. It really lives up to its price tag of 500 emerald crystals. 

The backpack’s design features a bird carved from a single blood-red gemstone, which sparkles brilliantly in daylight. All in all, it’s the kind of style that, the moment you put it on, seems to scream “I’m rich” right across your face.

It’s beautiful—truly a high-end product worth a whopping 500 emerald crystals. 

Qiyu tried out all three forms and liked each one. He decided to switch between them every month. 

He then went to inspect the high-grade farmland worth 100 emerald crystals; it didn’t seem much different from the standard-grade farmland.

Qiyu took it out, examined it from all angles, and finally decided to place the farmland right in front of the refuge—next to the statue of the goddess. He took out the Golden Apple seed: compared to when he first obtained it, its appearance hadn’t changed one bit.

A rare and delicate magical plant. Qiyu silently read the system’s message in his mind and gently placed it on the ground.

【Planting successful.】

The moment the Golden Apple seed touched the soil, it melted like flowing water and vanished without a trace.

If it weren’t for the system’s notification that the planting was successful, Qiyu would have almost suspected that this high-grade soil simply wouldn’t accept seeds. Unlike other crops, no growth countdown appeared above the Golden Apple sapling’s head—just a few simple words: “Seedling Stage.”

Qiyu crouched down and observed it for quite a while, but couldn’t make head or tail of it. He stood up and looked at the statue of the Goddess of Nature beside him, hoping that the Goddess of Nature would bless the sapling so it would survive.

Come to think of it, speaking of Bless… I guess I could do that, too?

Qiyu raised the Heart of the Great Tree Staff; magic surged through it as he cast a basic blessing spell on the newly planted Golden Apple sapling. He wasn’t sure if it would work, but after all, the magic he’d learned from the Elves surely couldn’t harm a plant, could it?

A notification popped up on his personal panel: 【Blessing successfully cast. Golden Apple sapling’s vitality +1.】

It really worked!

Without another word, Qiyu cast the Bless spell again.

But this time, there was no reaction at all.

Maybe the Bless spell only works once a day?

The advanced farmland covered quite a large area. Qiyu took out the mist star flower seeds he’d obtained that day and planted them along the edge of the field.

Unlike the Golden Apple seed, the silver seeds sprouted almost the moment they touched the ground, producing silver seedlings that seemed to shake their only two leaves with great vigor. 5    【Mist star flower: Ornamental plant. Status: Thriving.】

Qiyu, who had been very worried after hearing what the traveling merchant said and was just about to cast a blessing spell, said: …Didn’t they just tell me that this little thing is hard to keep alive? 

He hesitated for a second, playing it safe, and cast a blessing spell. It wouldn’t hurt to try—he might as well treat it as practice.

After planting the mist star flower and the scent tracing grass,

The scent tracing grass, still covered in soil, looked to be in good condition.

Qiyu wasn’t sure if he could keep it alive, so he planted it in a separate, unused beginner’s farmland plot. After thinking for a moment, he cast a blessing spell on it as well.  After waiting a short while, an information message finally popped up above the scent tracing grass.

【Scent Tracing Grass: Maturing, cannot be harvested.】

It worked!

When he went to check on the other plants, Qiyu noticed something.

Whether it was the grass, vines, lily of the valley, baby bok choy, or rainbow pumpkins planted yesterday—regardless of plant level—the plants growing in the field were all thriving…

Qiyu looked at the creeping vine plant that had just been planted. Could it be that this rare, magical plant’s ability is… to boost the vitality of other plants? If that’s true, then that’s truly amazing.

After planting the plants, Qiyu walked into the wooden cabin. He planned to organize the information about Duo Ju and share it with a few close friends. As soon as he entered the cabin, his attention was drawn to a certain golden, shimmering object.

It was a very familiar little cat—one he’d seen just a short while ago. 

A miniature golden figurine of a kitten stood proudly on the wooden table. 

Unlike Duo Ju’s outfit, this kitten wasn’t wearing blue overalls; it only had a pretty red bow tied around its neck.

【A gift from the wandering merchant Duo Ju.】

Qiyu suddenly remembered that he had originally planned to continue exploring the Star Forest for a while longer, but Duo Ju had told him he’d be receiving a gift from a trading client, so he’d come early.

Later, while trying to collect enough emerald crystals, he’d completely forgotten about it. Clearly, the kitten—who always keeps his promises—remembered! 

Qiyu reached out and stroked the adorable little kitten’s head, and the beautiful little kitten suddenly “poof”—turned into a golden little star and vanished. 

All that remained on the table was a golden box and a golden piece of paper.

【Dear Human, by the time you see this gift, Duo Ju will already be back on the road, meow. Spring in the Forest of Stars is rainy, so to keep my beautiful fur from getting wet, I’ll have to make my own little umbrella.】

At the bottom of the note was a defiant paw print.

When Qiyu opened the golden box, the sudden brilliance blinded him for a moment. It was filled to the brim with emerald crystals. 

【A gift from Duo Ju, the Golden Maneki-neko. Coins are this race’s greatest love. Without a doubt, this is a precious gift.】

Qiyu carefully cradled the box. As the emerald crystals sparkled, he felt as though he were seeing the kitten’s emerald eyes—eyes even brighter than these crystals. 

01 Survival Chat

The other three members of the survival squad received a lengthy message.

Qiyu organized some of the information: The wandering merchant has a chance to appear at the refuge once a month, carrying a list of six items. The currency is emerald crystals; if you don’t have enough, you can sell your own goods to the merchant.

This was followed by a price list for various resources.

His text wasn’t particularly long, but every word was essential. It was the typical “few words, maximum impact” style of a top-tier player.

After Civil Engineering Brother and the others finished reading, they were just about to praise the top player when another string of text appeared.

It had already been made very clear—could this be some kind of hidden information? Everyone hurriedly focused their attention on the text: “……”

???

A user with a very familiar ID, also going by “I Love Survival Game,” impersonated a big shot in his group and posted a message that was several hundred characters long. 

The entire post was filled with praise for a little kitten with fur as dazzling and brilliant as gold—how cute, how friendly, and how endearing it was.

They became good friends—oh, and they exchanged gifts. 

Qiyu, thoroughly satisfied after gushing about the friend he’d met that day, turned around and sent a copy of the stray merchant’s message, “God Has No Form,” to him as well. Of course, he didn’t forget to include that final bit of praise.

The other party didn’t reply right away.

Qiyu understood; he’d mentioned earlier that he was busy farming monsters.

Cut to 01 survival squad.

To “Civil Engineering Brother” and his two companions, Qiyu sent friend requests to all three of them.

Civil Engineering Brother sent 200 units of wood.

Dare Not Open My Eyes gifted a bottle of Basic Stamina Potion.

Tranquility Yields Transcendence gifted him a common ring that added +2 to Attack.

Qiyu didn’t hesitate to accept them; he knew this information was worth the price. Then he remembered something else:

【I Love Survival Game: I’ve received a message—it’s currently spring in the Star Forest, and spring is a rainy season.】 

Duo Ju might have just been speaking off the cuff, or perhaps he was subtly hinting at something. 

After all, the safe period had ended, and as far as he could tell, aside from no longer being in the safe zone, things didn’t seem much different from before. He didn’t think it would be that easy.

The others acknowledged they understood.

【Civil Engineering Brother: Oh, right, I just remembered something—even before the hand-trading period ended, the Temple group was already buying up large quantities of materials like plastic.】 He found it very strange at the time; at that stage, plastic was really a useless item compared to other supplies.

【Civil Engineering Brother: Could it be that they knew some inside information in advance?】

【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: Heavy rain, most likely accompanied by a cold snap. In this survival game world, does spring mean something different from what it does on Earth?】