But she was really short on money. She only had a little over 50,000 left, and she still needed to save some for gasoline and diesel—those were ridiculously expensive. Even if she spent all 50,000, she wouldn’t be able to buy much.

Luckily, the original owner’s parents weren’t home often. Worried about their child’s safety, they had installed sturdy doors and windows. While they weren’t bulletproof, they were much stronger than standard ones.

Ji He didn’t turn on the air conditioner. Instead, she chose to open the windows. By this time in the evening, the temperature wasn’t as unbearable as during the day. A slight breeze blew in, making it quite comfortable.

She walked to the bathroom, dragged out the bathing bucket, and started filling it with water. Then, she slipped into her personal space.

The space’s time limit had now accumulated to eight hours. Ji He didn’t want to waste it, so she planned to act quickly.

First, she installed the fences. The black soil area was limited, so she didn’t allocate too much space for them—just 10 square meters in total. It was enough for now. If it wasn’t enough in the future, she could expand it later.

After setting up the enclosure, she retrieved some grass seeds that had been gifted by a vendor.

The shopkeeper had claimed they were an imported variety, great-tasting, highly nutritious, and loved by livestock. The yield was also high. He had encouraged her to give them a try.

Ji He carefully spread the seeds across the black soil, then installed the purchased feeding troughs before finally releasing the livestock.

They were all small, still just babies, and very obedient. When she herded them, they didn’t resist.

But they seemed hungry, each one constantly calling out to her.

Ji He led them into the pen, then quickly fetched feed and fed them one by one. Only when she saw them happily eating did she breathe a sigh of relief.

Raising livestock, if nothing else, really consumed a lot of feed. Though she had received quite a bit from vendors, it wouldn’t last long.

Ji He calculated in her mind—she needed to start planting food as soon as possible. That way, she wouldn’t have to buy animal feed.

For staple crops, she would plant potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn—high yield and easy to manage.

As for vegetables, she wouldn’t plant any for now. There was a vegetable market nearby, and fresh greens in the morning market only cost a few cents. It wasn’t worth planting them in her space.

She’d wait until winter, when vegetables became expensive, to start planting.

After watching the livestock eat their fill, she cleaned up their waste and stored their cages in the inventory space.

Then, she went to the pond. The aquatic plants she had planted yesterday had already grown a bit. With these, the fish in the water could have hiding spots and food when they got hungry.

Ji He took out some inflatable rafts, placing one on each side of the pond to use for now.

She had no other choice. There were no wooden boats in the space yet, and she didn’t want to get soaked every time she fed the fish.

Once she had more money, she would get a proper wooden boat.

After scattering fish feed, she climbed up the small hill to check on the saplings she had planted yesterday.

The saplings were growing well. Although they were of various species from different climates, they coexisted harmoniously, looking vibrant and full of life.

Ji He hesitated—should she water them?

After some thought, she decided to water them lightly, just enough to prevent them from drying out.

She used water from her inventory space, gave them a gentle sprinkle, and then left the space.

The water in the bathing bucket was nearly full. Ji He stored it away and left the bucket running to collect more. She kept the door open so she could hear if it overflowed.

Then, she went to the storage room and found an old basin. She took out the potatoes and sweet potatoes she had bought yesterday.

Playing the tutorial video she had downloaded, Ji He picked up a potato and examined it closely. Unfortunately, these potatoes were too fresh—none had sprouted yet.

She set the potatoes aside, took the basin outside, and dug up some soil. After moistening it with water, she buried the potatoes inside.

With that done, she placed them into the planting space and left them alone.

Sweet potatoes were trickier—they needed seedlings.

Ji He looked at the unsprouted sweet potatoes in her hands and thought for a moment. She cut them in half with a knife, then found some plant ash from the stove and coated each piece before setting them aside.

Then, she grabbed another large basin, filled it with soil, moistened it, and carefully placed the sweet potato halves on top.

After finishing, she stored the basin in her planting space. She planned to wait a few days—if they sprouted, she’d figure out the next steps.

She had learned all this from watching videos. Whether it would actually work, she wasn’t sure.

Next, she took out another basin, filled it with corn seeds, and soaked them in warm water overnight. She would plant them the next day.

Once everything was done, Ji He washed her hands and turned on her computer. The files she had downloaded before going out had finished. She selected more technical materials—farming, animal husbandry, and other practical guides—and started downloading them.

These were useful for daily life, and downloading them in advance didn’t take much effort.

After that, Ji He lay on her bed and projected her consciousness into the storage space.

The first thing she saw was the pile of internal organs she had collected yesterday—an actual small mountain.

Even though she had only collected them for a short while, she had been fast, accumulating a huge pile. Ji He estimated there were at least a few thousand pounds.

She didn’t have time to deal with them now, so she ignored them and started organizing the space with her mind.

She had been in a hurry before, so everything was scattered and unorganized.

Now, she categorized everything properly—food in one section, seasonings in another, clothes in another, daily necessities in one pile, and survival gear in another.

After half an hour of this, her head started to ache, her vision blurred, and she could no longer see clearly.

She had no choice but to withdraw her consciousness, lying on her bed and panting heavily.

Clearly, relying solely on her mind to organize the space wasn’t practical—she needed to pace herself.

After resting for about ten minutes, her headache eased slightly. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and stared at the ceiling.

Suddenly, she remembered—after completing yesterday’s task, she had received 13 copper coins to use in the system’s store.

Where was the store?

As soon as she thought of it, a screen appeared before her, displaying the words “Store.”

The store had several categories: Clothing, Food, Shelter, Transportation, Weapons, and Miscellaneous.

Curious, Ji He clicked on the Food section.

The first item on the list was mineral water—10 copper coins per bottle.

Seriously? She had worked for eight hours and couldn’t even buy two bottles of water?

Talk about cheap labor.

Ji He shook her head helplessly—what a ruthless capitalist system. Eight hours of work for this?

Little did she know, her wage was considered high. Many temporary workers who failed to complete their tasks had been fired outright.

Some had barely earned a few copper coins, not even enough for a single bottle of water.

After all, those chickens were huge. Even if someone managed to kill one, just plucking its feathers would take ages. Who nowadays even knew how to do that?

Many people struggled to process a single chicken in an hour, and if they left any feathers behind, they had to redo the whole thing.

Ji He didn’t buy the water. No way she was spending her hard-earned coins on that.

She browsed the store carefully—it had plenty of useful items, enough to cover basic living needs.

But the prices were outrageous, several times higher than in real life.

What was the point of such a store? Did they really expect underpaid workers to shop here?

She searched for weapons and found a variety—knives, stun batons, guns, bulletproof vests—but they were priced in gold coins.

The system helpfully provided the exchange rates:

1 gold coin = 100 silver coins
1 silver coin = 100 copper coins
1 gold coin = 10,000 copper coins.

Ji He glanced at the prices and immediately closed the interface.

Nope, she wasn’t even going to think about it.

She used the search function to find the cheapest item in the store—she had to see if everything here was just a scam.

Soon, the results appeared.