Nan Liujing read just this one post before logging out of the chat section; he had too much work today and no time to browse the forum.

He headed to the Trading Zone to clear out the backlog of trade requests. After another low tide, many players had accumulated enough plastic items, so Nan Liujing completed five paid orders for simple water collectors in a row, making a modest profit of 25 basic materials.

Then he quickly searched the trading section for the keyword “seeds.” He hadn’t realized it until he searched, but the number of seeds listed was surprisingly high—and they were all selling at rock-bottom prices.

【Lettuce Seeds x5 for Wooden Plank x1. No wet planks. Urgent.】

【5 Strawberry Seeds for 2 Palm Leaves. Only this trade. No haggling.】

【Wheat Seeds x15, trade for Wooden Planks x5, or Iron Nails x4. Flexible, open to negotiation.】

【Rice Seeds x10, trade for 500ml of purified water. No ordinary freshwater! Must be purified water! Read carefully before clicking.】

“Why is everything so cheap?” Nan Liujing couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. Although farming is a bit of a hassle in the early stages, once you get the hang of it, it provides a steady stream of food later on. Players have an entire island at their disposal, with land everywhere. Once you set up a water collector, you’ll have plenty of freshwater for irrigation—there’s no reason not to farm, right? This is the food supply.

Even if some people find it too much trouble, or are limited by resources and don’t want to do it themselves, you’d think there would be players with ample resources who would want to farm—so why sell seeds at such rock-bottom prices?

However, this question was immediately answered after reading the item descriptions for a few seed-related items at the Nan Liujing attraction.

【Lettuce Seeds☆】

【Category: Seeds】

【Seeds for a leafy green vegetable with a very short growth cycle. It has a crisp texture. Can be harvested 4 days after planting. Can only be planted in farmland.】

【Suggested Price: 109 Sol】

“Ready to harvest in 4 days? That’s so fast.” Nan Liujing was initially startled by the incredibly unrealistic growing cycle, but upon a second glance, he noticed the last line and froze again. “Can only be planted in farmland? What does that mean? Can’t I plant them on the island’s wasteland?”

Thinking back carefully on the island’s soil—barren, cracked, and hardened, with not a single weed growing—it did indeed seem unsuitable for planting.

Nan Liujing then recalled the apple sapling on the island with a growth cycle of a hundred years. No wonder the item description required him to transplant it along with the soil from the oak barrel. So the island’s soil simply couldn’t support crops.

It made sense that players had likely tried every possible method before listing the seeds cheaply in the marketplace, only giving up once they confirmed they truly couldn’t be planted.

Seeds that won’t grow are no different from trash. From that perspective, the prices in the trading zone are actually a bit steep. No wonder some listings have been up for ages without selling.

“But trash is just a resource in the wrong place. These things are useless to others, so they’re perfect for me.” Nan Liujing raised an eyebrow. “Could it be that I really am a natural-born farming prodigy?”

After all, the reason he’d even considered farming in the first place was that he’d found a free voucher for poor-quality farmland in a coupon bundle delivered by the newspaper delivery bird. Thinking, “Why not take advantage of a free offer?” he redeemed it. Later, he received a series of farming tool coupons and a composting composter making blueprint, and even built a basic farmhouse. Feeling that his farming setup was now complete, he was ready to get started.

At first, he thought having just one plot of poor-quality farmland wasn’t enough, and he’d planned to clear a few more plots of wasteland once his farming tools arrived. Now, however, the vast player community has already proven to him that this approach won’t work, which actually saves him the trouble.

“With only one piece of poor-quality farmland, I’ll have to think carefully about what to plant.”

A single plot of poor-quality farmland can only support 25 crops or 1 fruit tree—there’s no contest here; he definitely needs to plant crops. As for what to plant…

Nan Liujing thought it over carefully for a moment, then purchased 5 lettuce seeds, 5 watermelon seeds, 5 potato seeds, 5 tomato seeds, and 5 wheat seeds. The total cost was 3 wooden planks and 2 palm leaves.

These five types of seeds cover vegetables, fruits, and staple foods. On Earth, these crops have different growth cycles and requirements for season, soil, and humidity, but none of these issues exist in this gamified world.

【Watermelon Seeds☆】

【Category: Seeds】

【Seeds of a huge, round fruit that’s sweet and crisp! Ready to harvest 8 days after planting. Can only be planted in farmland.】

【Suggested Price: 430 Sol】

【Potato Seeds☆】

【Category: Seeds】

【Seeds for a round, yellow crop with a starchy texture. Can be harvested 5 days after planting. Can only be planted in farmland.】

【Suggested Price: 250 Sol】

【Tomato Seeds☆】

【Category: Seeds】

【Seeds of a bright red vegetable with a sweet-and-sour flavor. This is a continuous-harvest crop that can be harvested repeatedly. You can harvest it 5 days after planting, and again 3 days after that. You can harvest it a total of 3 times. Can only be planted in farmland.】

【Suggested Price: 240 Sol】

【Wheat Seeds☆】

【Category: Seeds】

【Seeds that grow golden wheat ears. Can be harvested 9 days after planting. Can only be planted in farmland.】

【Suggested Price: 200 Sol】

Nan Liujing put the seeds away and casually dismantled today’s wooden crate, obtaining 2 wooden planks and 2 iron nails.

Now that he had 12 iron nails, Nan Liujing thought for a moment and decided to craft a fence first. After all, only by determining the fence’s dimensions could he calculate how many he needed to make and how many materials he’d have to gather.

【Fence】

【Category: Architecture】

【A low fence constructed from wooden planks that provides some protection. Until its durability is depleted, other creatures cannot breach the fence.】

【Crafting Materials: Wooden Planks x2, Iron Nails x1.】

The corresponding materials vanished into his backpack, replaced by a brand-new icon appearing in the construction menu on his tablet.

Nan Liujing tapped a few buttons and placed the fence in a random spot outside the farmhouse. Since it could be moved at any time via the construction menu later, there was no need to worry about the exact location just yet.

As he finished, a dull thud sounded from outside.

Nan Liujing pushed open the door and discovered that a cross-like structure had appeared in the open space outside the farmhouse. The vertical plank was firmly embedded in the ground, though it was unclear how deep it went. The height above ground level reached 1 meter, with the length equal to the height, and the two arms of the cross each measured 0.5 meters.

“What would happen if I connected the fences?” Nan Liujing quickly crafted another fence and placed it right next to Fence No. 1.

Another “thud” sounded. The white mist gathered and dispersed, and what appeared before Nan Liujing was a section of fence with three vertical planks. The height remained unchanged, but the length had increased to 2 meters. An additional vertical plank had appeared between the two crosses, eliminating the possibility of the two arms “holding hands.”

“Is this like ‘buy two, get one free’?” He had clearly only used 4 planks, yet the fence now had 5 visible planks—making two fences and getting one plank for free

Nan Liujing was a bit pleased, feeling like he’d gotten a good deal.

It felt like he’d somehow managed to milk the system for all it was worth?

With the fence dimensions settled, Nan Liujing began crunching the numbers.

“The size of a basic farmhouse is 3×4 meters, and I’ll need to build a warehouse later, so I definitely have to leave room for that. And the farmland—it’d be best to include that too, just fencing off a spacious yard.”

The apple tree had to be included, of course. Since the fence would keep other creatures out, the mailbox would need to be moved elsewhere; otherwise, the newspaper delivery bird wouldn’t be able to deliver his paper.

It was a bit difficult to visualize everything in his head, so Nan Liujing simply squatted down, using an oyster knife as a pen to sketch on the ground, drawing a simple floor plan, then began outlining the yard.

“Leaving an extra meter on each side should be enough, right? One meter in the back, too. The front… let’s leave two meters, just in case the apple tree grows bigger? And the warehouse—I don’t know how much space it’ll take up, so I’ll set aside two meters for now. If that’s not enough, I can always add more later…”

After some calculations, Nan Liujing finally wrote down a number and circled it: “Done!” He planned to enclose a 14×5-meter rectangular yard, which would require 84 fence posts.

In terms of materials, that meant 158 wooden planks and 84 nails.

“Quite a project,” Nan Liujing took a deep breath, then smiled again and casually wiped the sketch off the ground. “Never mind. There’s no rush anyway. We’ll take it slow.”

Besides, if the intelligence Li Shechu provided was correct, they might soon have a new source for gathering materials.

By then, this seemingly astronomical amount of materials might actually be easy to gather. Although Nan Liujing wasn’t entirely sure, his way of thinking was always this optimistic.

It wasn’t even noon yet. Nan Liujing looked up at the sky and pulled out the two giant marine animal carcasses he’d harvested last night from his backpack: a giant crab broken into several pieces and a giant octopus charred to a crisp.

His task for the day was to process these two carcasses into edible ingredients as quickly as possible.

Especially the giant crab. Crab is an ingredient that spoils easily; if it weren’t for Nan Liujing’s talent, which extends its shelf life, he suspected the giant crab wouldn’t have lasted through the night and would already be starting to spoil.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case yet; the item description for the giant crab still showed its status as “fresh.” Still, he had to work against the clock.

Nan Liujing drew his boning knife—a sharp, well-balanced tool nearly as long as his forearm that he’d looted from a treasure chest the night before. Preferring it to a short oyster knife, he chose this for extracting the crab meat.

A crab the size of a millstone yielded less than ten jin of meat. Unfortunately, the most delicious crab roe had been lost due to the giant octopus’s rough handling. Nan Liujing placed the extracted crab meat into a larger piece of crab shell, poured in some fresh water, and prepared to cook it directly over a fire.

Raw crab simply cannot be stored for very long, and Nan Liujing couldn’t possibly consume nearly five kilograms in a day or two. He had no choice but to cook the crab meat first, then take steps to extend its shelf life.

While picking the crab meat, he had already decided: there was one sealed glass jar left, and he could buy a few more to make canned crab meat.

Back when he was studying abroad, one of Nan Liujing’s friends had once gotten up at the crack of dawn to head to the docks. Before the sun had even risen and the roosters hadn’t yet crowed, he had gone among a crowd of restaurant buyers, snatching up a huge crate of ridiculously cheap live crabs, which they steamed and brought to a party.

The spread at the party that day was so lavish that the group ate their fill for half the night and still couldn’t finish it all. In the end, there were over thirty crabs left. Since everyone was too full to eat any more but didn’t want to waste them, they gave them to another friend at the party—Friend B, whose mother was a master at making pickles.

A few days later, everyone who had attended the gathering received a jar of canned crab meat handmade by Friend B’s mother. Nan Liujing, who had long suffered from the monotony of Western food, opened a jar, took a bite, and was blown away by the taste. He immediately went to ask for the recipe.

Friend B’s mother’s secret recipe stated that to make canned crab meat, the already cooked crab meat must be boiled a second time for sterilization and seasoning. Seasonings can be chosen according to personal taste, but common options include salt, cooking wine, and ginger slices; simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Prepare clean jars and lids, boil them in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes to sterilize them, then fill the jars with canned crab meat while they’re still hot—be careful not to overfill them. Place the jars in a steamer and steam for 30–40 minutes to sterilize them at high heat, then immediately tighten the lids. Don’t rush to take them out; let the jars cool naturally in the pot.

The same method can also be used to make fruit preserves.

Nan Liujing bought four more 1-liter airtight glass jars at the market. As for seasonings, since the crab is naturally salty, he decided he could skip the salt. Ginger slices and cooking wine are both used to remove fishy odors, but Nan Liujing felt he could manage without them.

All in all, there’s nothing to buy! Another saving!

The only challenge was not having a proper pot, so he had to make do with crab shells and a small stainless steel bowl. Poor little bowl—it had been through so much in just a few days that the bottom had already warped slightly from the heat.

It took several hours, but he finally managed to make five cans of canned crab meat.

【Canned Crab Meat★】

【Category: Cooking】

【Canned meat made from giant crabs, with almost no seasoning and a bland taste. Restores 30 HP upon consumption.】Food

【Suggested Price: 200 Sol. 】

【Condition: Fresh】