Chapter 34

There was another function besides the Farming Simulator function. Namely, Seed Synthesis. It was similar to Material Synthesis, except it could combine more than two things at once.

Keith had many thoughts when he saw the Farming Simulator function priced at 5 million CP. What should he choose? The somewhat guaranteed money-making Equipment Enhancement or the uncertain Farming Simulator? It didn’t take long for Keith to come to a decision. Obviously, it would be the Farming Simulator.

Having decided that, Keith spent the next few hours using every braincell he had to find other items that might unlock more functions. Sadly, he came up short. He didn't unlock any more functions despite collecting a few more obscure items.

Fine, whatever.

The next day, after working out, Keith took the orbs and farmed some level 250 monsters at a Rift far from any major cities. Thankfully, Uncle Doven pretty much had the whole world mapped out, so he could find Rifts that weren’t very populated. Over the next three days, Keith collected all the items he could, and together with Adeiv’s paycheck for the week, he finally reached 5 million CP.

Keith quickly returned to his room and opened the Grimoire’s shop to purchase the Farming Simulator function. With one tap, 5 million CP was gone, just like that. It took him several weeks to accrue 5 million CP, so who knew how long it would take to get Mana Battery. If he had that, there was no need for the orbs. He could just cast everything himself. Well, as long as he found a way to generate and store enough Mana beforehand. Oh well, a problem for another time.

Keith returned to the Grimoire’s front page and found a new tab at the top called ‘Minigames.’ Uh? Would farmers get mad if they knew his Grimoire referred to their craft as a game? Best to keep it to himself.

Opening the tab, Keith found a box with the picture of a field. The top of the box had the words ‘Farming Simulator’. When Keith tapped the box with his mind, a massive screen popped up, startling Keith so much he took a few steps back. Chuckling to himself, Keith focused on the screen and instantly became overwhelmed. There were all sorts of buttons, icons, and words, similar to his magic tablet. It seemed this Farming Simulator minigame wasn’t as simple as he thought.

Keith eventually understood everything the minigame had to offer after spending a good chunk of an hour parsing through all the information. To be honest, he felt conflicted. On the one hand, the Farming Simulator was amazing. Not only could Keith grow crops and harvest them automatically in a sealed dimension within the Grimoire, there were additional functions he could purchase like Seed Synthesis that added onto the minigame.

If that was all, there was no problem.

However!

According to the minigame’s rules, he could only plant one seed per plot. Keith’s farming dimension currently only had one plot. To increase his farm’s plots, he needed to spend money. Ok, fine. It was just a bit of money, right?

No!

Each seed had a corresponding growth time, and numerous factors affected this: dirt, water, sunlight, and compost. As it stood, the quality of Keith’s dirt, water, sunlight, and compost was 1. To increase their quality, he needed to spend money. Not CP, but gold in the real world.

Keith ground his teeth and gave his Grimoire a new look. Why was it so greedy? Now, not only did he need gold to withdraw items in his Grimoire, he needed to invest in a farming minigame. Fine, fine. Keith decided to run a few tests before he came to any conclusions.

The seeds Keith collected a few days ago were in the storage tab. Thankfully, he could transfer them into the minigame at no cost. Interestingly, their description changed once in the game.

[Rare] Watermelon Seed

Growth time: 24 hours

Harvest quantity: 1 Watermelon, 1 Watermelon seed

Mutation chance: 0

Failure chance: 50%

Simple enough, but Keith found the growth time too long. Agh! Invest! So what if he spent a little money? He still had a bit over 100,000 gold from Adeiv’s last check. With that said, Keith repeatedly pushed the upgrade buttons for dirt, water, sunlight, and compost. Go, go, go!

Keith saw his farm's stats change in real-time, but the cost increased exponentially with every upgrade. He immediately stopped when he saw that a single upgrade cost over 1,000 gold. Glancing casually at his balance, Keith froze in shock when he saw how much he spent. What the hell? Getting dirt, water, sunlight, and compost to quality level 50 took over 50,000 gold. Exponential growth was so scary.

Keith gave a quick prayer to his lost gold. Although he felt heartbreak, he consoled himself by saying he was helping the economy fight inflation. Every gold coin Keith spent on the Grimoire was one less gold in the world. Wasn’t he a good citizen? Yes, his thinking was right.

Now that the farm’s qualities improved, there should be some changes, right? Keith expectantly opened the information for a watermelon seed. Oh my!

[Rare] Watermelon Seed

Growth time: 45 minutes

Harvest quantity: 3 Watermelons, 1 Watermelon seed

Mutation chance: 0.1%

Failure chance: 0%

Just look at that growth time and harvest quantity. Fantastic. There wasn’t even a failure chance to boot. Of course, a watermelon seed was very ordinary, so its requirements weren’t too stringent.

Finding the growth time acceptable, Keith promptly ordered his Grimoire to plant the watermelon seed in the only spot he had. While he waited for it to grow, Keith checked the price of a watermelon seed and a ripe watermelon. The profit margin was minimal. Extremely so. Keith expected as much. There were tons of people with innate gifts suited for farming, so the market was fully saturated.

Keith remained positive. He didn’t need to sell the crops he grew. Now that he had a personal farm in hand, it meant he could passively accrue CV and CP. But there was still one factor Keith was unsure of. Mutations. How good were they? There was only one way to find out. However, relying on one plot to land that 0.1% mutation chance would take too long. Keith looked at his remaining gold and took a breath.

Invest!

Go, go, go!

It only took a few upgrades before Keith ran out of money. Agh! Damn you, exponential growth! 50,000 gold was only enough to expand his farm to 25 plots. Keith forced himself to calm down. This was all for the greater good in the fight against inflation. Yes, Keith made a great sacrifice today.

Now that Keith had 25 plots for seeds, the odds of getting a mutated watermelon were much higher. Keith calculated with his fingers. Drat. The chance was still too low. Fine, back to killing monsters for gold! For the economy!