【 Congratulations, player! Farmer profession level +1, obtained [Steel Hoe Blueprint], the hoe blueprint is now fully unlocked; chance of obtaining high-quality crops +100 percent. 】

【 Congratulations, player! Cooking skill level +1, 30 percent chance of receiving extra food when cooking. 】

Spring, Day 13: The passion fruit ripened.

The ripe passion fruit was especially sweet. Shen Xin cut one open and ate it, feeling her happiness quotient rise rapidly.

“Copper hoe, iron hoe, steel hoe.”

There were already three types of hoes in her handbook, so Shen Xin could skip the lower levels and directly craft the best hoe.

Come to think of it, she’d never even thought about making a copper or iron hoe. During her first few days on Earth, she had been busy fishing and tilling the land, but since she could reuse the plot of land, she had no need for an upgraded hoe.

Now that she had basically pulled herself out of poverty, Shen Xin had time to improve her quality of life.

“Steel hoe, materials required: steel x5.”

Shen Xin didn’t have any steel. She searched through the entire crafting list but found no way to create steel.

It wasn’t just that; there were no instructions for creating the copper or iron needed to craft a copper or iron hoe either.

“Am I going to have to buy this stuff?”

Jing Yan came to pick up his meal for the day, then froze upon hearing Shen Xin’s question. “Iron? Copper? I have some.”

He promptly produced a few ore samples.

“After the twentieth level, stone monsters appeared in the monster cave. Some drop coal, while others drop ore. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, right? So it’ll probably need those two elements.”

Upon hearing that they’d have to go into the monster cave, Shen Xin grew troubled.

“How are the monsters below the twentieth level?” she asked.

Jing Yan thought back briefly. “For the stone monsters, each one has two hundred health points and deals one hundred damage per attack. They usually appear in groups of three to five.”

These numbers were indeed frightening. Shen Xin’s current health points could only withstand three blows at most before she kicked the bucket.

On top of that, the ordinary warrior’s longsword she held could only deal enough damage to tickle the stone monsters.

Whether for self-defense or obtaining minerals, she needed to acquire a weapon with high attack power.

Having made her decision, she turned around to cook in the kitchen, but Jing Yan followed her.

“I’m still thinking about something,” he said.

“Please do share,” Shen Xin replied.

“I decided this morning that I wouldn’t make those celebrities repeatedly die.”

“… You just decided that this morning?”

“Isn’t that right? I really want that first-place prize.” Jing Yan pulled out a small notebook with pages full of equations.

“Aren’t there votes cast by the audience after the competition?” Jing Yan pointed to the data at the top of the page. “I’ve made some inquiries. Among us, Mingyue is the strongest; he has twenty-eight million fans. However, not every fan will vote for their idol. If I’m being generous, let’s say each of his fans can rally two or three friends to vote for him. That would give us a total of one hundred million votes, enough, don’t you think?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Jing Yan continued, “The audience votes make up thirty percent of the final score, so he could potentially earn an additional thirty million points.”

“I get one point for defeating a green slime and ten points for defeating a stone monster, but the more monsters defeated, the more points earned. Also, the professional scores are calculated ten times higher than normal.” He circled the final number. “Therefore, I only need to earn forty-two million points to surpass Mingyue and win first place.”

Shen Xin lifted a hand and clapped it on Jing Yan’s shoulder. “Seems like making them repeatedly die is a more reliable strategy.”

“Right?! I also thought so!”

Shen Xin was speechless for a long while until she managed to trade some food for all the ore on his person, thereby unlocking the [Simple Furnace], [Smelting Furnace Blueprint], and [Blow Furnace Blueprint].

The simple furnace could smelt copper ore. The ingots obtained from smelting copper could be used to forge a smelting furnace, which could melt iron ore. The ingots obtained from smelting iron could be used to construct a blow furnace, in which, after adding coal in the correct proportion, one could finally produce a small piece of steel.

Who knew it would be such a nesting-doll kind of operation?

Shen Xin spent half a day building a simple furnace out of stone and clay. After placing the copper ore inside, she needed to burn it for an afternoon just to obtain a copper ingot.

She counted the ore she had exchanged from Jing Yan.

“Probably… won’t even be enough to make a smelting furnace.”

Relying solely on Jing Yan to chop monsters and mine ore wouldn’t do. It was time to get a weapon.

The only means of obtaining weapons she knew of seemed to be fishing treasure chests.

There was no point in hoping for anything from the river, so Shen Xin shifted her gaze southward. Based on past experience, it seemed that the chests in the sea were more likely to yield better results.

On her way to the beach, Shen Xin ran into the two men who had miraculously survived.

Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie, unaware of what misfortune awaited them, found themselves once again face-to-face with the person they dreaded encountering the most.

“Eh? You guys aren’t dead?” Shen Xin asked, but before she could continue, the two turned to bolt. Shen Xin quickly pulled out her shovel, blocking their path with its longer reach.

“Don’t run, don’t run! I’m not gonna hit you.”

Fan Qing, having experienced Jing Yan’s wrath firsthand, quickly bowed in greeting. “We aren’t running, miss. What can we do for you?”

Shen Xin punched him. “What ‘miss’? Is that an appropriate way to address me?”

Fan Qing looked mature enough to be in his thirties—yet she was only twenty-three!

He swiftly corrected himself. “I-I meant, Miss Chief.”

Shen Xin stared at him, baffled by this man’s eccentricities. “What are you two doing now? Still robbing people?”

“No, no, we’ve turned over a new leaf,” Fan Qing said with a grimace. “It’s just that life is difficult these days; even though we’ve stopped causing trouble, we’re barely scraping by.”

As he spoke, two genuine-looking tears rolled down his cheeks.

“You’re an actor in real life too?” Shen Xin asked.

“No, no, we’re both game streamers.”

“Oh.”

So there were two more “Xiao Fengs” out there, just as inexperienced.

Shen Xin wanted to introduce them to each other, but this would have to wait for another time.

She asked the duo, “That’s right, there are no more fish in the river. Do you know about the situation in the sea?”

Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie shook their heads. “We don’t know. The monsters outside are too strong right now, so we haven’t left the town for a while.”

It seemed like she would have to investigate the coast herself.

Shen Xin asked, “I’m going to the beach. Would you two like to come?”

“Huh?” Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie didn’t understand what Shen Xin was up to.

They turned their backs on her and whispered amongst themselves.

“Bro Fan, what do you think is going on?”

“How would I know?”

Xiao-Jie pondered for a moment. “Eh? Mr. Jing isn’t here. Do you think she wants us to escort her since she has nobody else to protect her?”

“It’s possible!” Fan Qing immediately recognized the logic behind this. Putting aside whether they could defeat the monsters along the way, they had no weapons in hand right now and were unwilling to help others without compensation.

Thus, the two turned back and declined with fake smiles, “No, no, we still have business to take care of, so you go ahead, Miss Shen.”

“Are you sure you won’t come? We could go fishing, at least.”

“No, no, absolutely not.”

Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie sneered internally.

Hah, women. We’re not dumb, don’t try to use us as tools.

“Fine.” Shen Xin turned around and left, her departure causing apprehension to bubble up within Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie.

“Uh, Fan-bro, she really left?”

“She sure did, without even turning back,” Fan Qing confirmed, slightly baffled. He’d expected Shen Xin to plead with them a little more. As fighters, both he and Xiao-Jie were certainly in danger while traversing the forest, but Shen Xin was just a farmer; going alone would likely mean certain death for her.

“Wait!” Fan Qing suddenly perked up. “Come on, let’s follow her!”

Xiao-Jie allowed himself to be pulled along, perplexed. “What’s up with you, Fan-bro? Where are we going?”

“Are you stupid?” Fan Qing patted his head. “Listen up, I bet our stuff dropped on the ground after we died. Mr. Jing probably won’t find our crappy knives appealing, but this farmer might! It’s very likely that one of us is carrying her knife right now; if she dies, we can just pick it back up! We might even make a fortune!”

Xiao-Jie had a sudden epiphany. “Brilliant! You’re so smart, bro.”

“Stop talking nonsense, keep it down.”

The two slowly tailed Shen Xin, hiding behind thick trees and waiting for her to be killed by the monsters.

As expected, quite a few blue slimes lurking in the woods attacked her. These slimes were stronger and more difficult to deal with.

Shen Xin held her knife in both hands, and Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie watched, thinking, As expected, she’s using the knife.

In the next second, Shen Xin was entangled with the slimes.

Without the buff from a warrior level, she couldn’t dispatch the monsters as effortlessly as Jing Yan, but her attacks were still precise and efficient.

After dispatching two slimes, Shen Xin quickly pulled out two loaves of bread to replenish her energy. Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie watched, their envy palpable.

As expected of a farmer, she never lacked for food.

Because nobody had left the town, no one had gone out to hunt the slimes in the wilderness, either. The more monsters surrounding Shen Xin, the greater the pressure on her.

However, practice makes perfect.

At some point, Shen Xin managed to take down a blue slime with only one strike. According to the damage dealt by an ordinary longsword, it should have taken seven or eight strikes to kill a single slime.

Shen Xin was taken aback for a moment, forming a guess in her mind. Recalling the location where she’d dropped the knife, she attempted to slice through the heads of the slimes at approximately the same spot, just a little higher. After trying it on two or three, one of the slimes instantly perished.

It was the monster’s fatal weakness!

Somewhere within a slime’s head was a weak point, and if that precise spot was severed, it would result in a one-hit kill!

In her previous encounters, Shen Xin had always used a hoe or axe to fight off slimes, but these tools lacked precision, so she had never discovered this weakness. Now that she had mastered the technique for taking out slimes with one strike, she swiftly dispatched more, leaving a generous spread of loot on the ground.

“Whoa!” Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie couldn’t help letting out a cry of surprise.

Wow, where did their confidence come from? This big sis clearly didn’t need them to protect her, okay?

These two had practically eaten an entire bear’s heart and a leopard’s gall when they decided to rob her.

After dispatching the slimes, Shen Xin looked at the two men suspiciously. “Why are you here?”

“After giving it some deep thought, we realized we shouldn’t let a lady face danger alone, so we’ve come to see how things are going.”

Fan Qing’s words were so self-righteous that Xiao-Jie felt his face burning.

Shen Xin nodded. “It’s fine, let’s head back. If any danger is to be faced, it will be the monsters facing it.”

Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie looked at the ground, covered in slime drops.

Indeed.

“No, no, no, every person brings an extra set of strength. C’mere, Dajie, we’ll escort you to the fishing spot.”

Shen Xin was pushed toward the beach by the two. Though they claimed it was an escort, they’d only hide nearby and cheer her on when monsters came.

As the number of monsters approaching her grew, Shen Xin swung her axe. “Stop cheering! You’re going to summon the entire forest with your cheers!”

Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie could only hide and quietly cheer her on until they reached the beach.

After witnessing Shen Xin’s fishing prowess, Fan Qing and Xiao-Jie once again bowed down to her.

Fan Qing said with complete admiration, “You must have played thousands of games to be this good, right?”

Yet Shen Xin’s expression shifted slightly. “No, no, I’ve never played games before; don’t spread such rumors.”

Fan Qing was baffled. Who are you trying to fool? Hey, big shot, we may be strong, but don’t pretend to be something you’re not.