Chapter 9: Level Up! New Profession

Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Level Up! New Profession

On the ten mu of land before him, patches of green shoots had sprouted overnight, and they’d even grown a bit.

Rapeseed usually takes three to seven days to sprout after being planted.

Here in You City, rapeseed takes over two months to bloom. At this rate, it looked like they would blossom in just half a month.

This was the effect of the Growth Speed +1 attribute.

It was simply incredible.

If word of this growth speed alone got out, it would surely attract unwanted attention.

Fortunately, the special fast-growing rapeseed seeds had a limitation: the effects only worked when they were planted on land within the farm’s boundaries. They would lose their special attributes if planted elsewhere.

The game system’s anti-theft measures were quite thorough.

Soon, Zhang Lin once again received the day’s wholesale payment from Lin Tuo.

After the 24,000 yuan was deposited, he looked at the game screen in his mind. His balance was now 61,431.52 yuan!

After Liu De returned from his deliveries, he, Lin Dawei, and Lin Dayou went to the area planned for the rapeseed Flower Sea to continue developing the land and planting seeds.

They thought nothing of the fact that the seeds planted just yesterday had already sprouted.

The employees recruited through the game were directly influenced by the game system!

Over the course of the day, Liu De and the other two developed another 15 mu of land.

In the game in Zhang Lin’s mind, the total developed area reached 35 mu.

He checked the upgrade requirements:

1. 3 Workers (3/3)! 2. Earn 100,000 Profit (61,431/100,000)! 3. Develop 50 mu of Farmland (35/50)

’If they keep developing the land, I’ll meet the 50-mu requirement for the upgrade soon. After that, all that’s left is the profit requirement.’

’He actually felt this condition was a bit of a rip-off. Logically, any money earned should count as profit, but it seemed like any money he spent was deducted as a cost.’

’But the game was designed this way, so there was nothing to be done.’

’Still, with 1,000 jin of honey peaches a day, reaching that 100,000-yuan profit goal would be quick.’

...

「Two days later.」

Zhang Lin had set an alarm to wake up early. As soon as he was up, he checked the upgrade requirements on the game screen in his mind:

1. 3 Workers (3/3)! 2. Earn 100,000 Profit (88,431/100,000)! 3. Develop 50 mu of Farmland (75/50)

In three days, Liu De and the others had developed another 40 mu of land and planted it with rapeseed seeds.

On average, they were no longer managing to develop 15 mu of land per day.

It wasn’t that Liu De and the others were slacking off. With more rapeseed planted, they now had to spend time watering every day, so the area they could develop had correspondingly decreased.

This trend became more pronounced as the developed area grew. Besides, once a farm reached a certain size, manual watering would no longer be feasible.

’So, I have to get an automatic irrigation system.’

’But this was a dilemma. The seeds grew too fast. An irrigation system couldn’t be installed by outsiders in a single day, and they would surely notice something was wrong.’

’It was a vexing problem, indeed.’

In the past two days, Zhang Lin had acquired a total of 2,000 jin of honey peaches from the game and purchased 20 jin of special fast-growing rapeseed seeds, spending a total of 13,000 yuan. Selling the 2,000 jin of peaches brought in 48,000 yuan.

So, his profit was now 88,431 yuan, which was only about 20-some yuan different from his account balance.

The initial money in his bank account had been whittled down to just over 20 yuan after recruiting an employee, buying the first 1,000 jin of honey peaches, and purchasing a loudspeaker, printing services, a digital scale, and plastic bags.

’But today, all I have to do is spend 6,500 yuan on 1,000 jin of honey peaches and the rapeseed seeds, then sell the peaches. That’ll add another 17,500 yuan to my profit, and I’ll be able to level up.’

With that in mind, Zhang Lin immediately opened the game’s market and bought the entire stock of 1,000 jin of honey peaches and 10 jin of rapeseed seeds that had just refreshed for the day.

Once that was done, he got up, washed up, and left his room.

Lin Yan had made her son breakfast, as always. After calling Zhang Lin over to eat, she asked with great concern, "Lin, you’ve been leaving early and coming back late these past few days. How is that peach business of yours doing?"

Her son was shouldering over a million yuan in debt for the family, and with her current situation, she couldn’t really help. But she was so worried she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

"Don’t worry, Mom. Business is great. I’ll be able to pay off the family debt very soon!" Zhang Lin quickly reassured her.

And he wasn’t lying.

He was making 20,000 yuan a day from 1,000 jin of honey peaches, and he was about to level up today. After that, his wholesale quota would probably increase.

What’s more, the rapeseed Flower Sea was still in the works. By the time the initial 500 mu were fully planted, the first batch of flowers would likely have started to bloom, which was bound to cause a sensation.

So, paying off over a million yuan in debt was definitely not going to be a problem.

Seeing her son so certain, Lin Yan relaxed considerably. She then moved on to the question that concerned her most: "Lin, didn’t you say you got a girlfriend..."

As soon as Zhang Lin heard that question again, he quickly cut in, "Mom, she had to leave for a training trip yesterday. She definitely won’t be free for the next few days!"

Without giving his mom a chance to ask anything else, he quickly shoveled down the rest of his breakfast and bolted out the door.

After all, it’s not like he could just materialize a girlfriend to bring home.

When he arrived at the farm, Liu De had already gone out to make deliveries on the cargo tricycle.

Liu De soon returned and set out for the second delivery run.

Once he had finished both delivery runs, the 24,000 yuan payment from Lin Tuo came through.

"Your account ending in... received a deposit of 24,000.00 yuan. Current balance: 105,957.52 yuan."

His profit total also surpassed 100,000, reaching 105,931 yuan.

In that instant, a series of prompts from the game system sounded:

[Congratulations! You have met the upgrade requirements. Game level increased to LV2!]

[Congratulations! Upon leveling up, Recruitable Employee Types +1.]

[Congratulations! Upon leveling up, a new wholesale agricultural product has been randomly added: ’Sunshine Rose’. Wholesale Quantity: 500 jin/day. Product stock has been refreshed!]

After the level-up prompts, the first thing Zhang Lin did was check his game stats on the screen in his mind:

Player Name: Zhang Lin

Level: 2

Upgrade Requirements: 1. 6 Workers (3/6)! 2. Earn 500,000 Profit (105,931/500,000)! 3. Develop 200 mu of Farmland (75/200)

Bank Card: 62122614*******

Balance: 105,957.52 yuan

Total Farmland: 2,000 mu!

Special Structures: Color Steel House, Warehouse!

Milestone Progress: 0.1%

After leveling up, the upgrade requirements had changed, just as he’d expected.

The required number of workers increased to six, the profit goal was now 500,000, and the farmland development target was 200 mu.

Fortunately, his progress hadn’t been reset to zero; the new goals simply built upon his existing numbers.

However, that wasn’t Zhang Lin’s main focus. This level-up had come with three separate reward notifications.

The first was the addition of a new type of recruitable employee.

Liu De and the others were just ordinary farmhands. Curious, Zhang Lin opened the list of recruitable employees and saw that it had, indeed, changed:

1. Ordinary Farmhand (7,500/month)

2. Agricultural Irrigation and Hydropower Specialist (8,500/month)

In addition to the Ordinary Farmhand, there was now a new option: the Agricultural Irrigation and Hydropower Specialist.

He clicked for more details. The description for the Ordinary Farmhand noted they were "skilled in operating various types of agricultural equipment."

But when he saw the description for the Agricultural Irrigation and Hydropower Specialist, his eyes lit up.

This was a technical worker who specialized in water conservancy and hydropower.

Water and power systems for agricultural use are different from standard ones, which is why this was a separate specialization.

’I was just agonizing over how to set up an irrigation system for the expanding rapeseed fields. Isn’t this the perfect solution?’

’This is exactly what an Agricultural Irrigation and Hydropower Specialist excels at!’