Four types of wild vegetables appeared randomly beneath trees and by the river: purslane, dandelion, plantain, and purple-back cabbage.

Shen Xin picked a purslane. The item description stated, “Consuming this will restore ten stamina points.”

She took a bite, and then almost vomited.

It was indeed as gross as it sounded, but her stamina bar did replenish.

Wild vegetables might come in handy during emergencies, but Shen Xin had no intention of eating another bite.

Upon completion of the quest, she received [Spring Water × 1] and [Bread × 1].

The game guaranteed players would have at least one meal to consume per day. As Shen Xin chewed on the bread, she doubted the benevolence of the UOL company.

She had played many games produced by UOL before, and the company loved surprising players, using contrast to enhance the gaming experience and effects.

Shen Xin suspected that all the game’s planners were psychology graduates, constantly manipulating player expectations.

In that case, perhaps there would come a day when the side quests no longer offered food rewards. Survival games revolved around eating and drinking…

At this thought, Shen Xin’s mind raced to an unsettling conclusion.

She ran to the shop and asked Old He, “Boss, how much bread do you have left in stock? All of it!”

The economy of the small town was underdeveloped, so the entire shop sold only bread.

Old He didn’t expect someone to ask such a question and responded, “Let me see… There are 491 loaves left.”

491 loaves… That sounded like quite a lot.

Then she asked, “When do you restock?”

“Hm… I usually restock at the beginning of each season, but since you volunteers arrived, I’ve been thinking of changing to weekly restocks.” Old He frowned deeply. “But it seems like the signal has been bad lately; I haven’t been able to contact the supply ship.”

He picked up the phone and dialed a string of numbers, only to be met with a busy tone on the other end.

“It started yesterday. How strange. Why all of a sudden can’t we get through?”

Upon saying this, Shen Xin felt an even worse feeling.

Her experience of being screwed over by the UOL before told her that it was very possible that Utopia Island would never receive more supplies.

Isolation from the outside world and self-sufficiency—wasn’t that what a Paradise was supposed to be?

” ding.”

The electronic manual made a sound. Shen Xin took it out and saw that a new red line of text had appeared beneath the main quest.

【 Utopia Island’s secret (2/5) 】

Shen Xin was speechless. Earlier, she had hoped against hope that she was overthinking, but this hidden quest confirmed her worst suspicions.

It seemed like not only survival, but also solving mysteries, would be required of her.

The only good news was that she’d discovered the developers’ plot ahead of time.

Shen Xin carefully reviewed everything that had happened since entering the game.

Upon arriving on the island, the game’s premise had suddenly changed, and players were now in a state of high alert. After discovering the small town, the mayor would reassure the players, providing them with a place to live, stores to buy food, and NPCs to romance, gradually lulling them into a false sense of security.

In truth, the island was already submerged in a latent crisis. If the players didn’t discover the problem soon, they’d become frogs in a pot of slowly boiling water, their circumstances worsening with each passing day.

Sure enough, UOL was truly something else.

Thankfully, she had chosen to be a farmer. With the ability to farm, she figured she wouldn’t starve, at least.

Shen Xin ran to the shop and asked, “Boss, how many seeds are left?”

Old He flipped through his notebook. “Forty packets of green beans, sixteen packets of white radish, and fifty packets of others.”

“Are the seeds also stocked from outside?”

“That’s right, every seed I sell has been specially treated. Even though they can’t reproduce, they grow much faster!”

Shen Xin fell silent.

It looked like she’d have to strike first.

“Do you buy things here?” Shen Xin took the items she’d picked up out of her backpack and laid them out.

Old He bought the honey and wild vegetables, giving her a total of two silver coins and sixty copper coins.

Honey was extremely valuable, worth two silver coins, while each stalk of wild vegetable cost five copper coins.

“You’ll have to sell the stuff in the water to Uncle Li, the fisherman. As for construction materials and ore, you should go to the carpenter and blacksmith.”

Different NPCs purchased different goods; Shen Xin made a mental note of this. She spent her earnings on two loaves of bread, fourteen packets of white radish seeds, and five packets of spinach seeds, leaving her with only five copper coins remaining.

After leaving the shop, Shen Xin went to the carpenter’s store.

The carpenter bought each piece of wood for three copper coins. Shen Xin had chopped down a tree, consuming ten stamina points, but only received five pieces of wood.

Picking wild vegetables seemed more worthwhile…

Shen Xin weighed the pros and cons and decided not to sell the wood she had on hand. She walked around the entire village but couldn’t find a fisherman named Uncle Li.

What should she do if she couldn’t find him?

She ran to the mayor’s office. “Mayor, where does the fisherman live?”

Mayor Wang sat behind his desk, and when he saw Shen Xin, his expression flickered. He turned to grab a map.

“Old Li? He lives by the beach, right here.”

Shen Xin studied the map, then looked back at the mayor, growing more convinced that this man had something to hide.

“Mayor,” she asked tentatively, “there was a shipwreck yesterday. Have you contacted our families?”

She didn’t know if her character had a family, but she figured she might as well ask.

As expected, Mayor Wang’s face fell, and he stammered, unable to respond.

Recalling the strange behavior of the shopkeeper earlier, Shen Xin pressed on. “Is it because the signal is bad on the island, so calls can’t get through?”

“Ah, yes! The phone lines are temporarily down. It’ll be fixed in a few days.” Mayor Wang wiped away his sweat, then pulled out a pack of cookies from a drawer and handed them to Shen Xin. “Don’t worry. I’ll definitely notify you once I have any news.”

” ding.” Her handbook chirped again.

Her backpack was already full, so Shen Xin grinned, took the cookies, and returned to the farm, where she crafted two chests.

Each chest cost twenty planks and had twenty grid spaces for storage.

She put everything she wasn’t using into the chests, then left with her seashells, food, and axe.

The fisherman lived near the entrance of the harbor, which was quite fitting for his profession.

Shen Xin picked up things as she walked, harvesting all the wild greens along the way to the fisherman’s hut.

At the shore, the waves had once again brought in various shells and sea snails, which Shen Xin dutifully gathered into her backpack.

It was a pity she hadn’t seen any beehive; those were quite valuable, and she definitely would have gone to sting the beehive if she had found one.

With a slight sense of regret, Shen Xin knocked on the door of the fisherman’s hut.

Uncle Li, a hirsute old man, opened the door. “Oh? A new arrival?”

“That’s right. I heard you buy seafood.” Shen Xin displayed the shells and such.

Uncle Li counted the items, packed the shells into a box, and gave Shen Xin two silver coins and ten copper coins.

Shen Xin did some mental math. Collecting shells was the most lucrative, followed by buying greens at the market, and then selling lumber.

“Young lady, you ever fished before?” Uncle Li lit a smoke and looked at her through half-lidded eyes.

“I have.”

In the game, she’d caught plenty.

“Good, good.” Uncle Li exhaled two clouds of smoke and then retrieved a blueprint from beneath his cabinet. “Take this. If you have time, go fishing. Nothing is reliable; fishing is best.”

Shen Xin accepted it, discovering it was a blueprint for a basic fishing rod. After handing over the blueprint, Uncle Li said, “You can fish from the shore. Don’t go out to sea lately; it’s not safe.”

“What’s happening out at sea?”

Uncle Li grimly smoked his cigarette in silence, then opened the back door of his house. Shen Xin saw numerous shipwreck remains.

Frowning deeply, Uncle Li said, “There’ve been a lot of wreckage washed ashore lately. I just went out to sea yesterday, and for no reason, my boat broke in half. It’s not a good sign…”

Ding.

The guidebook chirped, and the number after the hidden quest turned into (4/5).

Old He, Mayor Wang, and Uncle Li all gave related information, but the progress meter showed “4.” What was the fifth clue? Did the System fail to notify her or had she missed something?

Either way, it wasn’t important right now. Shen Xin flipped through the guidebook’s blueprints; a fishing rod required wood, fishing line, and a hook.

The fishing line and hook could be purchased from the fisherman at a low price, so Shen Xin stocked up. She then picked a tree nearby and used some stamina to craft a fishing rod.

A pier had been built near the fisherman’s house. Standing on it, Shen Xin cast her line into the ocean.

She had played some fishing games before: there were ones that tested one’s reflexes by having to reel in the line at the right moment, ones that required controlling the float to match the fish, and so on. But Paradise’s take on the genre was different.

The reel of the fishing rod could rotate, corresponding to the directions up, down, left, and right. The player had to turn the reel to match the direction the fish was swimming in.

The higher level the fish, the faster it swam.

Shen Xin caught two fish and quickly adapted to the mechanics of fishing.

It was just a rhythm game, how hard could it be?

After an hour, Shen Xin’s stamina was approaching dangerously low levels, but she managed to sell her caught fish for twelve silver coins.

“That’s so much!” Shen Xin said, startled. “I could fill the entire store with what I can catch.”

Fortunately, she had food on hand to replenish her energy. Shen Xin continued to fish and sell, filling her entire inventory before stopping to restock.

After completely depleting her food supplies, she had over forty silver coins.

“Am I making this game out to be too difficult?” Shen Xin contemplated this for a few seconds. “It’s only day two, though—who knows what’ll happen…”

She put away her fishing rod and took a detour around the town, picking all the wild greens she could find along the way, which she sold to the shopkeeper.

With forty-six silver coins in hand, Shen Xin felt much more confident, daring to look at the seed racks in the back of the store.

Potatoes, 6 days to maturity, 30 copper coins.

Coriander, matures in 3 days, 35 copper coins

Broccoli, matures in 10 days, 50 copper coins

Strawberries, matures in 8 days, 100 copper coins

Passion fruit, matures in 10 days, 125 copper coins

Mustard greens (can be planted in spring and summer), matures in 10 days, 150 copper coins

Shen Xin stared at the list, speechless.

Sorry, it was her ego that had gotten ahead of itself.

But purchasing more expensive crops was necessary.

Watering the seventy-four units of crops at home was already tiring enough as it was; planting some higher-priced crops could alleviate the financial burden.

As before, she prioritized crops that could grow repeatedly.

Shen Xin purchased [Strawberry seeds × 40], then exchanged the remaining six silvers for bread.

Having emptied the entire shelf, Old He went to the storehouse to restock. Shen Xin returned to her farm to chop down trees, clearing out another patch of land and incidentally completing another side quest, earning her [Additional Wood × 5].

With bread replenishing her energy, Shen Xin hurriedly planted the white radishes, spinach, and strawberries.

By nine o’clock at night, her stamina was at forty-eight points. Following the principle of not wasting food, Shen Xin chopped down another tree, went to the riverbank to fetch water, and managed to drain her stamina down to thirty-three before collapsing onto the bed to sleep.