Chapter 13 - Mood Changes
Zhao looked at the two, but they stayed silent with their swords on their necks, so he didn't want to deceive them. It seemed like the only thing he could do was allow the two of them to follow him into the spatial farm. It was bound to happen. Sooner or later, he would have had to let his family know about the space.
Zhao smiled. "Okay, put down your swords. I'll let you come with me. Ready to go?" Before the two could say anything, the three figures instantly disappeared and in the next moment they were at the farm.
Rockhead's and Blockhead's eyes opened wide as they looked around them. It seemed like out of nowhere a barn, a thatched hut, and a field of radishes magically appeared in front of them. Zhao saw that the two were still holding their swords against their necks, and so he patted their shoulders. "Isn't it about time you put down your swords?"
Recovering from everything they were seeing, Rockhead and Blockhead actually put down their swords, not daring to go against Zhao's words, which now seemed sacred and worthy of respect. Zhao also felt this change in them and he thought that they were now finally regarding him as a master. But he didn't think too carefully about it.
He looked at the growing radishes and everything else, but there was no change. He remembered when he played the game, from time to time, it would automatically refresh with weeds and insects. Those enemies of crops were the reason Zhao came back to check. Fortunately, the ground did not grow these things. Although the farm gave him prompts on when the radishes would ripen, it did not tell him things like when the weeds would grow or when the insects would appear. Right now what he needed was money. He only had two hundred gold coins at the moment and the radishes would be a good source of money, so he had to make sure that the radishes were okay.
Rockhead and Blockhead were still at Zhao's side, but now they were somewhat pale. Originally, they had only listened to Green, but after coming here, Zhao's status in their hearts was now higher than Green's. It was precisely because of this space that Zhao showed them. He was like a God and his commands were sacred. Therefore, Rockhead and Blockhead would have such thoughts.
But Zhao didn't realize this. He just carefully checked the space to see if there had been any changes. Nope, absolutely no change. Everything was normal. Although he did level up, except for the seeds, he didn't get anything. But he wasn't disappointed. Although he couldn't rest until he made more money, he still had a crop of radishes. If Green takes too long to come back, he could still sell these radishes in the spatial farm and make a little money that way. Zhao's understanding of vegetables in this world was too small. He didn't know which vegetables could be easily sold. If he just randomly grew a bunch of crops, there's a chance that no one would buy them, making it difficult to earn money. So he didn't grow anything for now.
Radishes were a good seller in this world. So he stuck with radishes since they were the safest approach. Zhao had to be careful. He couldn't make any wrong moves. It was not only his life that would be affected, but the entire future of the Buda clan. Zhao clearly knew that he didn't just inherit Adam's body, but he also inherited this family and now he was responsible for it. Right now all he wanted was stability, while being low key about it. One wrong step and their lives would be over.
Seeing that the space hadn't changed, Zhao nodded and stood up. He turned to Blockhead and Rockhead and said, "Well, there's nothing. Let's go out."
Both of them followed Zhao's lead, naturally not opposed to his orders. "Yes, sir."
Zhao looked at the two men and could not help but be curious, but he didn't find anything strange. Followed by the two, he left the spatial farm and went back to his room.
Looking around, he saw that the door was shut. No one had come inside. Zhao was relieved. He turned to Blockhead and Rockhead. "Come on, we're going outside the castle. I want to check out the land of the Black Waste and the moat." He led the two out. In the past, Blockhead and Rockhead would have stopped him because Green would not have let Zhao leave the castle, but now they didn't say anything and instead just silently followed behind him.
The three arrived at the castle square where they found arranged piles of supplies which had been organized by the slaves before. Taking this opportunity to experiment, Zhao placed some of the supplies inside his spatial barn and was happy to discover that the barn would give him a prompt on how the supplies were classified and the number of supplies inside. Zhao even discovered that, in fact, he did not need to go into the space itself to control everything. When he wanted to see something, a screen would project itself in front of him, and it seemed like Blockhead and Rockhead couldn't see it. This screen was very conveinent.
While the three walked out of the castle's main entrance, Meirin and Meg were watching over the slaves who were working on their tasks at the abandoned mine. But even if they weren't watching, the slaves would not have been lazy because Zhao gave them a goal. As long as they try, sooner or later they would no longer be a slave, which for them was the biggest motivation. Meirin and Meg found that these slaves were particularly energetic today. Every person seemed to be working at full strength. A task that originally would have taken an hour to finish, now only needed just half an hour.
Zhao did not go to the mines. He believed that the slaves would work hard so there was no reason to go over there and see. The first place he headed to was the moat. The moat wasn't very wide, but he could see that the construction was good. The entire river had a stone base, and although no one had lived here for many years, the river was still very clear. From what he could see, there were two sources of water that allowed the moat to refill itself. One was an area of spring water, while the other was from an underground stream that came from the mountains. It was strange that the mountains had a subterranean stream which flowed into the moat, but this gave them clear running water. So it might be possible to raise fish. The real problem was that the moat was connected to an outlet which would drain the water away. In that case, then they would have to make some changes to the castle's drainage system, which would mean renovating the moat as well. The issues just keeps on piling up. Zhao frowned and noted it down for later.
He then went over to the Black Waste. If these black lands could be modified, then there's a lot work to be done there as well, such as farming, irrigation, and harvesting. Farming seems simple, but when actually trying to grow anything good it is incredibly difficult. Although Zhao had never planted anything before, he still had some understanding of farming. Countries place a lot of importance in agriculture. Back on Earth, there would be news about farming, including mentioning the need for water conservancy during periods of droughts. These kind of messages can be heard every year. But in this world, he didn't know if there were even such things as water conservancy facilities around. Everything he knew about this world came from Adam, and there was nothing in Adam's memories about farming.
Zhao led Blockhead and Rockhead towards a piece of black land not far from the castle. He then squatted down and grabbed a handful of soil.
Zhao used to live in the northern oil city of China where there was a lot of black soil called oil sand. The oil sand was like sand laced with oil, giving it a black hue. When he touched the soil here, it felt like the oil sand from his old world. He could not stop his heart from sinking. If this was really oil sand, then it was all over. He knew how infertile oil sand could be. He wished that this soil only coincidentally felt like oil sand.
Zhao turned to Blockhead. "Blockhead, dig out some of the soil so I can research it after we go back." Obeying his orders, Blockhead immediately took out his sword and used it to dig up the ground. After he dug up a decent enough pile, Zhao told him to stop, and with a wave of his hand the black soil was moved into the spatial barn, stored there for later research.
After storing the soil, Zhao looked at the large Black Waste and could not help but sigh. He really hoped that his spatial water and earth could transform the land here. Otherwise, if they wanted to develop this land it would be next to impossible.
Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.
thank you for the chapter :3
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