6 Farming
The bags from the super market miraculously appeared on the floor. With an idea already in mind, Lian began ripping open a bag of soil and pouring the contents into one of the pots.
After opening up the other bags and making sure that none of the soil spilled onto the carpet, Lian took a seed and placed it in the pot. He waited for an entire minute but nothing happened.
"Damn it…I knew that my idea was too good to be true!"
"No... I won't believe that I can't cheat the system! What could I be missing…?"
He began formulating some new ideas. After continuing in this state for a few more minutes, an obvious plan came to mind. It was a worth a try.
Lian quickly headed to the kitchen downstairs, picked up a plastic container, and began filling it with water.
While waiting for it to reach the brim, he heard a sound coming front the front door. Flustered, Lian instantly stored what he had in his hands, and grabbed a cup from the nearby cabinet.
"I feel like an undercover spy. Looking like I'm drinking water while I'm really a master schemer! Hehehe…"
Mother's voice: "Lian, is that you in the kitchen? Help me bring these bags to the living room!"
Lian: "…"
Lian: "Yeah mom, I'm coming!"
"I probably didn't need to be so rattled…"
He placed the cup back in its cabinet, and started carrying the groceries to the living room. There was no need to use the storage this time.
Most of the bags consisted of organic fruits and vegetables. Although Lian's family had to be a bit tighter with their spending, his parents never compromised with their children's health.
While walking back and forth, he started thinking about his mother, along with some positive future changes he can make in his family with the new system.
Lian's mother, Tengtong Buyao, at the expense of her sleep, spends most of her time either helping his dad with his condition, dealing with house chores, or at work to help pay for living expenses and his father's medication.
Unlike most foreign mothers, despite having been a doctor herself, she never forced her expectations onto her sons and just hoped for them to have stable jobs and live happy lives.
Thinking back, Lian knew that these past few years he'd always used the excuse of being incapable and spoiled as a child to stay in his room, barely study, and waste his life away.
Despite that, his aging mother still continued working hard for the family. Although she continually encouraged Lian that studying and getting better grades will lead him to better opportunities, she never forced him or threatened to cut off his provisions.
He started somewhat tearing up thinking of how shitty of a son he must be for being so ungrateful. Clearing a few tears, his mind became more resolute on reaching his goals.
"Stop being a self-pitying fuck. You've always been wondering if you could help your family, while blaming it on your incapability and doing nothing…Well, here's your chance! Now that you have the system, things can change. "
"After all my transgressions, if I don't end up creating an eternal heaven for my parents, I swear that I've truly failed as a human being!"
As he continued carrying the groceries, he began discussing ways with the system to make this dream a reality and prevent any tragic mishaps.
The system instructed him that the key to achieving his goals was to unlock his character and achieve higher levels. Besides his own motives, this now gave Lian even more of a reason to train.
Eventually, there were no more bags left in the front door, and he began heading back upstairs.
Mother: "Lian! Did you eat yet?"
Lian: "Yes mom!"
Mother: "That's good! Have you been studying at all today?"
Lian: "Yeah, mostly!"
Mother murmuring: "Ahh…I hope so. I just don't want you to suffer in the real world when you get older…"
He went back to the room and closed the door. A container filled with water appeared in his hands and he began to pour it over the soil.
*System: User has learned a new skill: Farming.*
*System: User has gained 1 exp point in: Farming.*
*System: Current experience to reach lvl 2: 1/10.*
"So it does work this way! It seems simple, but as long as I have soil and water, I can literally farm exp by placing seeds into the pot. Ingenious!"
*System: INT stat has increased by 0.1. Keep up the smart work.*
Lian felt a small tingle in his mind and as his thoughts became just a bit clearer. The effects weren't significant but the change was still noticeable.
"Hmm? What a pleasant surprise! So it looks like I can also increase character stats not just by leveling up, but also by performing tasks related to them. How interesting…"
After shamelessly praising himself for a brief period of time, he put on his earphones and played some music while he continued placing seeds into the pot.
Continuing this for the next few minutes, his arms started aching. He came up with a better idea and tried pouring the entire bag of seeds onto the soil.
*System: Nice try, but better luck next time!*
*System: User has gained 1 exp point in: Farming.*
Realizing that he couldn't cheat the system to the utmost extent, he still wasn't too disappointed. After all, individually planting seeds for only a few minutes had already allowed him to reach level 3 in farming.
For less than half an hour of effort, he gained a lot of new knowledge with regards to farming. He mainly received information on the subject of increasing success when trying to grow plants. Nonetheless, he also somehow managed to learn some basic knowledge with regards to herding sheep and raising cattle.
Although he was eager to try a lot of new skills, Lian knew that rushing wouldn't do anything. He would still learn a few skills at a time. Since he wanted to be a master of all trades and not just have a superficial understanding of the skills he learns, taking one step at a time would be key.
Besides, if he really needed to use a random new skill in a last minute situation, he could probably reach level 2, or even possibly level 3, within minutes.
Unfortunately, although everything up to now seemed easy, Lian knew that he reached a roadblock that needed to be discussed.
