Chapter 4: Mission Accomplished

The players were abruptly awakened from their sleep, rising one after another to gather in the main room. Zhu Chen yawned, wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes. “What’s going on? Didn’t they say the first night would be for a good, restful sleep?”

Hong Qi stepped outside to investigate what had happened, while Zhu Chen mumbled about never having gotten up so early before. Xia Wulei couldn’t help but nudge him with her elbow. “Didn't you say your task required you to fetch water early in the morning? And you still want to go back to sleep?”

Zhu Chen froze for a moment, then nodded—right, he had forgotten about that.

Before long, Hong Qi returned, his expression grave. “The red lanterns hanging under the villagers’ eaves have all disappeared.”

At this, his gaze involuntarily shifted to Xia Wulei. If he remembered correctly, she had seemed quite interested in those lanterns just yesterday.

Xia Wulei responded confidently, “Those lanterns are supposed to be the eyes of the mountain gods, right? They gave me the creeps, so I just took care of them myself.”

Hong Qi was momentarily speechless; that actually made a lot of sense.

But with over twenty households in Yun Village, the collective volume of those lanterns must have been considerable—did Xia Wulei really manage to handle them all alone?

Feigning modesty, Xia Wulei waved her hand. “No need to thank me.”

Hong Qi was left speechless.

Well, it was fine. Hong Qi had planned to gather people to remove those lanterns today anyway; it always felt like they were being watched by ghosts.

Since Xia Wulei had taken the initiative, it seemed she was quite capable.

No one asked how she managed to deal with the lanterns; everyone had the same thought—what else could be done but discard them?

“But at night, aren’t you afraid of ghosts? Acting alone is a sure way to die in a horror movie,” Zhu Chen couldn’t help but say, and Yu Huaiyu nodded in agreement.

Unexpectedly, Xia Wulei laughed. “It’s fine, I’m not scared.”

For some reason, everyone found that smile a little unsettling.

This all went back to the previous night.

After a quick wash, Xia Wulei returned to her room. Once she confirmed Yu Huaiyu was asleep, she quietly slipped out.

The night was dark and windy. Before leaving, she borrowed a small stool from Aunt Wang and busied herself along the country dirt path.

[Soil fertility increased by 3%]

[Soil fertility increased by 3%]

[Soil fertility increased by 3%]

...

Hearing the soothing sounds nearby, a wide smile almost stretched to her ears.

---

On this trip, she collected a total of 26 lanterns, raising the soil fertility to 78%.

Xia Wulei felt somewhat regretful that she couldn’t push it to 100 and start planting.

As she carried the stool back, a pale, bluish hand suddenly shot out of the shadows by the roadside and grabbed her ankle!

A chill ran down Xia Wulei’s spine as she looked down to see a ghastly white face suddenly appear before her.

The ghostly face was gaunt, with black pupils filling the eye sockets, its mouth open wide, revealing sharp teeth as it crept closer.

Instinctively, Xia Wulei tried to break free, but a system prompt halted her.

[Congratulations, player! Energy entity detected. Energy containment index: 30%]

The little ghost, clutching Xia Wulei’s ankle, grinned eerily, waiting for the beautiful scream to erupt.

Scream, be afraid—your fear is our most delicious nourishment!

But after a long wait, Xia Wulei remained expressionless.

The little ghost grew confused. Did it scare her silly?

Looking up, Xia Wulei met its gaze with a kind expression.

“Oh, what perfect timing—we’re all here now...” she said.

The little ghost was baffled.

Xia Wulei had intended to convert the ghost into fertilizer directly, but the system refused, stating that only objects without signs of life could be transformed.

Now Xia Wulei was indignant. This ghost was already dead—how could it have any life signs?

The system was stumped and said it needed to consult higher authority, asking her to wait.

While Xia Wulei argued with the system, the little ghost sensed trouble and tried to sneak away, retracting its hand, but Xia Wulei stomped on it.

“Can you have some fertilizer awareness? Why run? If you run, what am I supposed to submit for the task?”

Impatient, Xia Wulei dropped the remark and continued negotiating with the system.

The little ghost on the ground felt tearfully helpless: “Why did I even come out on the first day...”

Eventually, the system lowered the threshold for fertilizer conversion to include unconscious objects.

Pleased, Xia Wulei nodded and looked down at the curled-up little ghost. “Do you want to do it yourself, or shall I?”

The ghost was confused, then Xia Wulei suddenly produced a long-handled object from nowhere and brought it down on its head.

---

The Transcendent Realm, Lower Level.

Also known as the Realm of Demons, countless spirits and monsters of various forms survive here.

These creatures must enter different small worlds to absorb energy from players in order to grow.

The little ghost Xia Wulei encountered belonged to the lowest tier, possessing little power, relying on scaring players to harvest emotional energy.

If lucky, it might even injure someone and drink some blood.

Yet, unexpectedly, on the very first day of this newbie dungeon, it was sent back.

Returning to the lower level, the little ghost was bewildered. A passing elder ghost patted its shoulder.

“Hey, weren’t you playing in that newbie dungeon? Got killed by a player? So soon?”

Entering a dungeon required payment in soul energy; if lucky, they could earn it back from players, but if unlucky, being killed meant the ticket cost was lost.

Before entering, the little ghost had already formed a solid body; now it returned semi-transparent, evidently dead in the dungeon.

The little ghost shivered, panicked. “There’s a tough new player who eats ghosts! I have to warn the others!”

It hurried off, leaving the elder ghost puzzled.

“Players eat ghosts? Aren’t they afraid of indigestion?”

...

[Congratulations, player! Primary task completed: Cultivate the wasteland!]

Xia Wulei clapped her hands, satisfied as the system’s prompt sounded.

[Primary farming unlocked. Exchange market opened. No points detected for the host. Convert excess energy to points?]

A clever housewife cannot cook without rice; Xia Wulei naturally confirmed.

The extra 8% energy converted into 8 points—fair enough. She glanced at the exchange market, similar to an online shopping platform, with main and subcategories. Currently, only primary crops were unlocked.

Besides crops, there were poultry, livestock, fish fry, shrimp fry—all land, water, and air covered.

For now, Xia Wulei could only gaze enviously at the grayed-out options, strengthening her resolve to expand and grow stronger!

The primary crops included rice, corn, wheat, and potatoes. Two points could exchange for one seed bag. Xia Wulei exchanged for one bag of each and sowed the seeds on the land within her space.

Thanks to the system, the seeds automatically arranged and buried themselves; she didn’t have to do any manual work.

Primary crops matured in ten hours. After finishing, Xia Wulei happily returned to Aunt Wang’s house to sleep.

The disappearance of the red lanterns had little effect on the players, but the villagers were different—without the lanterns, every household wore an anxious expression.

No one planned to expose Xia Wulei; her voluntary handling of the ghostly matters was something everyone secretly appreciated.

Encountering ghosts carried great risks—many had lost their lives seeking clues.

With conclusions drawn, the players went back to their rooms to rest; after all, by real-world time, it was just past five in the morning.

Only Zhu Chen was summoned by the system to fetch water, from a source five kilometers away.

His face darkened as he stepped out, carrying two large, heavy wooden buckets borrowed from Aunt Wang.