A huge thanks to GreenKiTea for the Kofis. Enjoy the bonus chapters!

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Inside Alfonso’s suitcase, the item most useful to Nan Liujing was actually a box of unremarkable specimens.

The specimen box resembled an eyeshadow palette with hundreds of shades; it had four layers and was foldable, looking quite impressive when fully unfolded. Each small compartment contained dried specimens of leaves and flowers, as well as seeds.

Although not all the seeds were recognized by the system, Nan Liujing still found 28 seeds among them, and according to the item description, each one is a magical plant, and they’re quite expensive.

Even the cheapest one costs 320 Sol.

However, the high price is only one issue; on top of that, the growing conditions for these magical plants are each more finicky than the last. Some require an “environment with a constant breeze,” others “die upon exposure to light,” and there’s even one that “must listen to symphonic music every day, but bad music will cause it to wither.”

“Every single one of them acts like a spoiled rich kid,” Nan Liujing muttered to himself as he found an empty tin can to store the seeds in and carefully placed it in the five-drawer chest.

These seeds weren’t something he could grow at this stage; for now, it was more important to focus on cultivating crops and stockpiling food for himself.

By now, he had gone through all of Alfonso’s luggage. Nan Liujing put the specimen box back into the suitcase, placing it alongside his manuscripts and the toiletries bag, which now contained nothing but a toothbrush. He took out the piggy bank, though what caught Nan Liujing’s eye wasn’t the money inside, but the piggy bank itself.

He decided that whenever he came across a bank, he would cash the money in the piggy bank and send it back to Alfonso.

Although he really was pretty poor, there was still a slight difference between “taking someone else’s belongings” and “taking someone else’s money.” Even if the item itself might have been more expensive, Nan Liujing still felt, for some reason, that the latter was a bit harder to accept.

And to be brutally honest with himself, he was so poor that whether he had those 4,800 sol or not made little difference. Since that was the case, he might as well choose the option that made him feel more at ease.

He carefully wiped away his fingerprints and a few cat hairs, closed the suitcase, took out a blank sheet of paper, and wrote with his non-dominant hand: “I found these on the beach. Sorry—it was already damaged when I found it. I don’t know what’s inside, but I hope the owner gets it back.”

He twirled the pen a couple of times. Nan Liujing wrestled with his moral compass once more, then finally sighed, silently crumpled up the sheet of paper, pulled out a new one, and began to write: 

“I found your suitcase. I’m sorry I took most of the items inside. I’m broke. I’m returning your manuscript and specimens exactly as they were (I took a handful of seeds—I want to try growing them). Sorry again.”

Glancing at the handwriting on the paper, Nan Liujing patted his conscience with satisfaction: “Well, in the end, I chose honesty.”

He wrote the address on the back of the folded letter; he’d hand it over to the mail-delivering bird along with his suitcase later tonight. Nan Liujing still didn’t know how much it would cost to mail the letter, so he’d have to stay up late tonight to wait for the bird to come and tell him.

Thinking of the mailbird, Nan Liujing suddenly remembered he still had a few one-time-use space cards left to check, so he hurried back to the dining table. The cards contained freebies he’d snagged with coupons and prizes from postcard raffles.

Nan Liujing poured himself another glass of water and flipped through a couple of the cards. They were fresh freebies.

The coupons he’d sent out yesterday had returned to him today in the form of two ciabatta loaves and an iron axe.

【Ciabatta (Tomato & Basil / Black Olives)】 

【Category: Food】

【A savory bread shaped like a slipper, also known as “slipper bread.” Restores 20 Stamina points upon consumption.】

【Suggested Price: 140 Sol.】

【Condition: Fresh】

【Iron Axe】

【Category: Tool】

【An iron axe with a wooden handle and a blade forged from refined iron; it’s more efficient to use and consumes less stamina.】

“Hey, it worked after all.” Nan Liujing was quite pleased at this point, whistling as he hoisted the heavy iron axe.

When he woke up and saw that his makeshift axe had disappeared, he knew it must have worked—the messenger bird had taken his makeshift axe away. But when he actually saw the new axe with its metal head, he still felt a deep sense of joy.

Although axes like this are a dime a dozen on Earth—you can buy two for 40 yuan—nothing stands up to comparison.

Anyone who’s spent more than ten days chopping wood with a wooden axe bound by just a single layer of metal would understand the sense of redemption Nan Liujing was feeling at that very moment.

He took a sip of water and picked up his last disposable spatial card; no matter what he drew from the postcard raffle, nothing could dampen his current mood. He looked down at it.

【Alchemical Golem】

“Pfft—cough cough cough, what?”

He didn’t even have time to swallow that mouthful of water before it shot out. Nan Liujing was choked into a fit of coughing, slumped over the table for a long while, coughing until his eyes were blurred with tears. He hastily wiped his eyes with his sleeve and looked closely at the space card again.

【Disposable Space Card】

【Type: Item】

【A single-use alchemical item produced by the Alchemy Association that can store items; it becomes unusable after a single use.】

“It’s actually real… What prize category is this thing in?” After two seconds of stunned silence, Nan Liujing suddenly sprang up and ran to flip through yesterday’s newspaper. Nan Liujing held up the newspaper, his hands trembling, his eyes widening in shock.

“First prize…”

“Whoa! I won!”

Overjoyed, Nan Liujing immediately leaped to his feet, grabbed the spatial card, and flung it: “Come out! Alchemical Golem!”

Let me see your true form! 

Just how high-level of an automaton would it take to win the First Prize title?

A flash of white light swept through the room, and the single-use spatial card vanished into the glow, replaced by a blurry silhouette.

Nan Liujing opened his eyes wide, not wanting to miss a single second.

At that very moment, the figures of dolls from countless literary works flashed through his mind like a carousel of images—from BJDs to silent beauties to Pinocchio, and even two classic Tin Man characters made a surprise appearance.

Finally, as he waited with bated breath, the glow gradually faded, and the figure became clearer and clearer. Nan Liujing held his breath in excitement; time itself seemed to stand still in that moment.

He saw… a… parrot?

Its head was deep blue, and its body was covered in large patches of green with a gradient effect, shimmering with a distinctive metallic sheen in the sunlight.

It was larger than a regular bird, resembling a medium-sized parrot, standing quietly on the floor. It tilted its head and met his gaze, neither moving nor making a sound. The more Nan Liujing looked at it, the more familiar it seemed; it took him a moment to realize he did, in fact, recognize this type of parrot.

To be precise, he’d seen it in movies.

In ten movies featuring pirates, eight of them had one—it’s a veteran.

This is a Peony Parrot, native to the Amazon basin. It has a gentle temperament, isn’t noisy, is easy to care for, and is incredibly good-looking—making it a top choice among pirates.

When it spreads its wings to fly toward you, its tail feathers unfurl like petals, revealing a rainbow-like pattern: the inner ring is a beautiful red, followed by a hint of yellow-green, and the outermost layer is a copper sulfate-like blue—a stunning shade that also appears on the undersides of its wings.

【Alchemical Golem – Jinks】

【Category: Item】 

【A bold experiment by the Alchemy Guild to counter the claim that “alchemy cannot create life.” They imbued a parrot-shaped alchemical artifact with the sinful soul of a pirate captain, but the result was an alchemical golem incapable of thought or reason, capable only of following orders. The only consolation is that this alchemical golem still retains a few of the pirate captain’s skills.】

【Skills: Navigation, Memory】

【Navigation: The alchemical golem Jinks can operate a ship to navigate the complex and unpredictable seas. However, since it lacks thought and intelligence, it requires the coordinates of its destination.】

【Memory: A parrot’s little brain is clever, but the same cannot be said for a parrot-shaped alchemical golem. Due to limited capacity, after recording one set of coordinates, it takes 7 days before it can record the next.】

【Suggested Retail Price: 7,000,000 Sol.】

“Man, a seven-million-sol parrot.” Nan Liujing carefully picked up the parrot from the ground and placed it on his arm.

The parrot’s sharp claws gripped him with just the right amount of pressure, and its bean-like eyes followed his every movement. In the parrot’s gaze, Nan Liujing saw a clear, innocent foolishness.

Nan Liujing gently stroked its head; it felt fuzzy and cool to the touch, more like an artificial toy than a living creature.

In a sense, this is indeed man-made. It’s just that while other toys are powered by springs, this one is powered by the pirate captain’s evil soul.

“…But then again, alchemists in this world even use souls as alchemical materials. Just how evil must those alchemists be who were disbarred and put on the wanted list for attempting human transmutation?”

When you think about it, it’s still pretty outrageous—manipulating souls is actually legal.

Nan Liujing tapped the parrot: “Jinks? Can you… talk?”

The parrot opened its beak: “You—I am Jinks, the alchemical golem. It’s a pleasure to serve you.” 

“Please state your request.”

“Wow, you sound just like a call center agent.” Nan Liujing poked the parrot’s head again, nearly knocking it off its perch. “Transfer me to a live agent.” 

“Quack.” The parrot silently steadied itself and let out a gurgle from its throat.

Nan Liujing leaned back, braced his palm against the edge of the dining table, and perched himself on the table’s edge. He raised the parrot on his outstretched arm to eye level and asked, “Jinks, what can you do for me?”

“I can sail,” the parrot said, its voice tinged with a stiff, matter-of-fact tone. “Can you?” Nan Liujing looked at its wings and asked pointedly.

The parrot let out another “quack”: “Please enter the destination coordinates, and I will plot a course for you.”

“That’s what you’re saying…” Nan Liujing chuckled, glancing at the tablet beside him. “Do you pay copyright fees to Google Maps?”

The tablet remained silent and eventually went to sleep due to prolonged inactivity.

In that case, Jinks was like a stripped-down version of a navigation and autonomous driving system. Nan Liujing instantly figured out how to use this alchemical golem—

After reaching a resource island using a random nautical chart, he could command Jinks to memorize the island’s coordinates, allowing him to travel back and forth at will without needing to use the chart again.

He wouldn’t even have to worry about stamina—if he couldn’t finish hauling everything today, he could just come back tomorrow.

Resource islands—which, in theory, could only be explored once per player—would become Nan Liujing’s private playground, where he could come and go as he pleased.

Even if Jinks could only memorize one set of coordinates every seven days, that would be enough. After all, he wouldn’t always end up at a resource island.

He still had three nautical charts—meaning three exploration opportunities—and hoped to find an island worth recording the coordinates for before the charts ran out.

As for whether to sell the Alchemy Golem worth as much as 7 million? Nan Liujing didn’t even give it a second thought.

No way—there’s probably only one of these in the entire Impermanent Sea. If he sold it, where would he find another one with similar capabilities? Stepping out of the farmhouse, Nan Liujing first placed Jinks onto the small wooden boat.

The parrot spread its wings, fluttered up to the mast, clung tightly with its two sharp talons, and perched there, unable to move.

Nan Liujing stood at the dock with his hands on his hips: “You’ll be living here from now on. Right, you don’t need to eat, do you?” 

Jinks silently wiggled his claws: “Quack.”

Even as they walked toward the animal hut, Nan Liujing still couldn’t figure out how an alchemical parrot with the soul of a pirate captain could make such a racket.

Inside the animal hut, all four little animals had already been tamed, and the results were immediate—even the timidest white-feathered chicken dared to cluck twice in greeting when facing Nan Liujing.

Recalling the little tip for boosting affinity from the newspaper, Nan Liujing patted each animal on the head in turn: “Good boy, good girl. Good morning.” 

“Cluck, cluck.”

“Baa~”

The white-feathered chicken stretched out its neck for him to scratch it, while the black-faced sheep closed its eyes in bliss and nudged his calf with its head.

Nan Liujing felt as if he could see little pink hearts floating above the animals’ heads—the Shepherds’ Association really did have something going for it.

There was still hay in the feed trough, and water as well. The animals fed themselves every day; there was no need to hand-feed them. Nan Liujing dug out two eggs from the haystack and left the animal shed with a spring in his step.

Spots of green were sprouting across the pasture, and the grass was growing vigorously.

Passing by the beach, Nan Liujing picked up today’s sea salt jelly and interacted with Nian Gao for a bit.

Hei Tang was rolling mud balls on the nearby ground. Yesterday, Nan Liujing had already determined the slime maker’s production time—six hours.

At 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. yesterday, another land slime subspecies appeared. Since it would take until the early hours of the morning to complete all three, Nan Liujing didn’t wait for it and only came to collect it this morning.

After giving the machine a few firm taps, an earth-colored slime was spewed out of the large funnel and plopped onto the ground. Before it could even get back up, Hei Tang had already trotted over.

“Meow~” The kitten rubbed against Nan Liujing’s pant leg in a sweet, high-pitched voice, then turned and used its paw to hook the new mud ball.

Now it had five mud balls to kick around and play with.

Hei Tang happily swatted at the slime and ran off, its tail held high like a little antenna.

Nan Liujing noticed that along the path where the slime had rolled yesterday, a few spindly weeds had actually sprouted here and there. This soil-improving effect was—well, just too slow.

He’d have to make more slime. Nan Liujing decisively shoveled another large pile of soil into the slime maker.

Nan Liujing didn’t spare even the weeds; he pulled them all up and tossed them into the compost bin.

The bucket of lemons and tangerines he’d tossed in yesterday had turned into 20 units of fertilizer today—enough to fertilize the watermelon patch for four days. However, checking the countdown, the watermelons were due for harvest tomorrow, so he’d spread the remaining fertilizer on the strawberry and sungrass plots.

Fertilizer is essential—it’s what improves crop quality. As quality improves, the star rating goes up, and as the star rating goes up, so does the price. Nan Liujing is also working on a class change quest to earn 100,000 Sol from the natives, so he has to be meticulous about these details. After collecting his midday supplies and returning to the farmhouse, Nan Liujing began thinking about the rest of his work for the day.

Now that the work on the island is done and it’s not even noon yet, should we strike while the iron is hot and head out to sea, or just take the day off?

“Right, come to think of it, I haven’t even taken a close look at the committee’s assignments yet.”

The notice had been posted next to the mailbox for several days now. Nan Liujing had passed by countless times, yet he’d never once stopped to take a look. Earlier, he’d even said he’d set aside a whole day to go over the assignment in detail, but now he’d almost forgotten all about it.

“Better to just dive in than to overthink it—let’s do it today.” Nan Liujing got up—his butt hadn’t even had time to warm the seat yet—and strolled out the door again.

He hadn’t checked it in a few days, and the number of sticky notes on the bulletin board had increased again. It seemed to be some kind of alchemical device—the sticky notes representing quests would automatically increase or decrease, which was quite convenient.

Purchase-type quests were still the most common. Nan Liujing flipped through a few seeking Sun Grass, with varying prices; he raised an eyebrow, then found a few more seeking Pine Needle Grass.

“Urgently need 3 Pine Needle Grasses; accepting unit prices of 1,800 Sol or less.” 

“Long-term purchase of Pine Needle Grass; unit price 1,200 Sol.”

The suggested retail price for pine needle grass in the item description is 1,500 Sol, but the locals don’t buy it at that price. It makes sense when you think about it—if the buying and selling prices were the same, what would be the point of all the trouble?

Those who need it urgently offer high prices, while those who aren’t in a rush buy at lower prices—it’s only human nature.

After all, the price listed in the item description is merely a “suggestion” and serves only as a reference. Players are, after all, from outside this world and aren’t familiar with local market prices.

As long as you sell at the suggested price, you’re sure to make a sale as long as there’s demand. Take Victor, for example—Nan Liujing sold so many items to him in one go, and he never haggled over the price.

So that price definitely meant a profit for him. Nan Liujing figured the suggested retail price was probably close to the market price.

He didn’t think he was losing out by selling at the suggested price—after all, hadn’t he seen prices even lower than the suggested price on the bulletin board? If he sold at those prices, he’d really be losing money.

“From now on, I’ll check the bulletin board before selling anything—I might be able to sell at a premium.”

But it was clearly unrealistic to expect to sell every single item at a premium just by checking this one bulletin board. People desperate enough to pay extra for something weren’t exactly a daily occurrence; most goods would still have to be sold through regular channels.

And haggling over the price of every single item was just too much of a hassle. Nan Liujing thought about how much effort it would take—all the talking and the prep work—and suddenly felt like just giving up.

He wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about doing business to begin with, so he might as well just sell at the suggested retail price.

He wouldn’t lose money, the buyer would make a small profit, and it would save time—a bright future for both parties. With so many items to sell in the future, he could even claim he was following a “small profit, high volume” business model.

Flipping through the sticky notes listlessly for a while longer, Nan Liujing paused when he spotted one that stood out.

“Hiring part-time workers.

Job Description: Travel to Chestnut Island to harvest chestnuts. Wage: Paid hourly at 500 Sol per hour.

Requirements: Submit at least x40 chestnuts per hour; the rest of the harvest is yours to keep. However, no pay will be given if the required quantity is not met. Travel expenses are not covered; coordinates will be provided. A meal is provided for shifts of three hours or more.

Coordinates: xxx:xxxx”

Nan Liujing’s immediate reaction was: “Whoa, what kind of exploitative factory job posting is this?”

He didn’t know how stamina was calculated for native inhabitants, but for ordinary players, without any buffs, each person has a stamina limit of 100 points. Gathering one chestnut consumes 1 stamina point, so meeting the hourly requirement would consume 40 stamina points—and to score that meal, it would take 120 stamina—it’s simply impossible.

Plus, chestnuts are probably also a resource measured in 100-gram units, so having to collect 4 kg of chestnuts in an hour is quite a challenge. Will there really be time left to collect some for yourself after completing the task?

If you can’t gather any for yourself, an hour of hard work will only earn you 500 Sol. Sol equals one three-star baked apple.

“Tsk, tsk. The world really has gone to the dogs. As expected, capitalists in every world are nothing but streetlamp ornaments.” He shook his head, confirming there were no other notices on the bulletin board.

He read every job posting on the bulletin board. Nan Liujing peeled off the sticky note and said cheerfully, “I’ve got nothing else to do today anyway, so I might as well go work and earn some money.”

What’s wrong with 500 Sol? That’s enough to subscribe to the newspaper for 10 days! 

And let’s be honest, isn’t his talent perfectly suited for this kind of manual labor? A 50% reduction in stamina consumption—it’s practically a gift from the heavens for a worker!

Who else but me for this job?

He’d only need to spend 60 stamina points to score a free meal plus 1,500 Sol—and if he worked quickly, he could bring home even more chestnuts.

He absolutely has to bring home the bacon! Time to put his speed to the test! 

He walked over to the makeshift dock with the sticky note in hand; the parrot was still perched on the mast.

“Jinks, take a look at these coordinates—can you find the place?”

Upon hearing this, the parrot stared blankly at the sticky note and muttered, “Quack.” 

“Okay. I’ve memorized the coordinates. We can leave anytime.”

“Great, let’s go right away,” Nan Liujing nodded, then suddenly turned around. “Wait a moment.”

Two hours later, he ran back carrying Hei Tang.

He was dragging the cat under his armpit, stretching it out into a long line. The cat was carried over with a bewildered look on its face, its hind legs swinging back and forth. 

“Meow?” Hei Tang lifted its head and let out a confused meow.

Nan Liujing cradled the cat in his arms, sat down, and then whispered to Hei Tang, “Hei Tang, I’d like to ask you for a favor. In a little while, I’ll… and you’ll… and then…can you do it?”

Hei Tang crouched on the person’s lap, leisurely licking its paws, and let out a deep purr. Piece of cake—just watch this kitty.