Antonio: “Hey Lian! I didn’t see you at dinner. Did you get lost?”

Lian: “No, I just grabbed a quick bite and went back to the fields. I like peace and quiet.”

Antonio: “I see... well it seems like you do have some abilities. Just as long as you don’t overwork yourself!”

Lian sighed inwardly.

“You’re the one with the droopy eyes.…”

They continued the conversation with Antonio giving Lian a briefing on some of the main tasks in which he could participate throughout the day; including a general idea of what the tasks entailed.

As long as work was done and no one else was bothered, Lian could chose to either work in the fields, help with livestock, or transport produce. However, machines were off-limits.

Antonio: “Just take things one step at a time. I’m sure you’ll at least be able to touch the basics in one aspect by the end of the month.”

Lian: “Yeah, hopefully so!”

“More like become the king of farmers…”

Afterwards, Antonio excused himself and headed back outside. Based off of Lian’s previous encounters with the man, he was able to infer that Antonio was going back to work.

There was probably some reason behind Antonio’s rigorous work schedule but Lian decided that it wasn’t yet time to investigate. Piling up too many different tasks would just be problematic. One can only do so much.

Upon arriving upstairs, Lian dropped by the washroom and took off his clothes. He washed them then put them to dry in his main body’s room through the storage.

After activating “No Washroom Needed”, he summoned a similar-looking set of clothing and headed to his room. He then closed the door and began setting up his sleeping bag and pillow.

Lian: “System! Since I can technically time my music playlists with my stereo skill… couldn’t I also set an alarm in my head for when to wake up as well?”

System: “Indeed.”

*System: INT stat has increased by 0.1. Keep up the smart work.*

Once again, Lian’s felt a brief jolt that cleared his mind and would help him make decisions and come up with ideas more easily in the future.

Lian: “Goodness… I love easy leveling!”

Lian: “On the other hand, this rate of increasing stats just seems a bit too simple…I can’t help but get suspicious…”

System: “The user does not need to worry about the legitimacy of their stats. Although the INT stat seems easy to level now, as it increases, progress will became significantly more difficult.”

Lian: “Sigh…I had a feeling that this would be the case.”

He set the alarm for 1am and crashed.

*Beep baddum beep dadadada beep boop bop*

Lian: “Alarm, close!”

“Fuck, this thing is kind of headache inducing… I need to learn how to adjust its volume later.”

He woke up almost fully functional as lacking a few hours of sleep or even staying up once in a while would have no effects on his status or energy levels.

Carefully making sure to wake no one up, he snuck out of the house.

“If people still wake up from the sounds, I’ll just make up some bullshit about strengthening character through hard work.”

He continued towards the vegetable fields…

Senor Pablo’s House

Senora Romina was knitting while her husband Senor Pablo just woke up from his nap. As he was now older, he would usually sleep 4-5 hours at a time, twice a day.

Senor Pablo: “What do you think? This place has changed a lot since we were younger hasn’t it?”

After a few seconds, Senor Pablo began wondering why his wife was being unresponsive. However, after looking off at the window, she turned back to him while completely ignoring his question.

The workers in the field could technically be considered a large family. Most of the time, although there was a curfew, no one would really care for what others did as long as they didn’t cause trouble or have any bad intentions.

Therefore, being that the workers were considered family, from time-to-time they also tended to be concerned for each other’s well-being.

Senora Romina: “Why are the youth so eager to overwork themselves? I can understand the circumstances of that other child, but this one…”

Senora Romina: “Was it you who offered him an extra shift? It’s unhealthy. Go bring him back!”

Curious about Senora Romina’s intent, Senor Pablo walked to the window. He was able to vaguely see the shadow of a man walking towards the fields. Looking back to his wife, he silently shook his head.

Senor Pablo murmuring: “He shouldn’t be up to anything too serious…”

Storage Facility

Antonio and a few others were working late in order to load produce onto the transport trucks leading to the city. The night was pitch black and the only lights were either from the starry sky, the storage rooms, or flashlights aimed at the trucks.

While carrying over a large container of eggs, Antonio overheard a conversation from his older colleagues.

Mateo: “I’ve never seen that kid before. Is he new?”

Samuel: “Yeah, I heard that he’s from the city. He’s a newbie who just joined the orphan house today.

Mateo: “Then what’s he doing so late? What a weird one. If he’s not used to the schedule, he probably won’t even be able to last another day.”

Nicolas: “I’d reckon so too… he’d need at least a year to acclimate…life in the city just isn’t the same…”

Antonio dropped the container and peaked at the direction in which they were talking about. As it was still dark, all he could see was the back of a man carrying a gardening trowel.

Antonio: “Is that…Deigo?”

Fields

Lian briefly engaged himself in some stretches. After setting-up a blood-boiling playlist, he once again began weeding away…