12 Weeding like Mad

Lian opened his task window.

System: *New Farming Task: Solve the Weed Problem!*

System: *Task: Pull 10k weeds from the vegetable field by 8am tomorrow.*

System: *Weeds Pulled: 0/10k*

System: *Upon completion, user will be rewarded with Farming exp.*

Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Lian knew that time was of the essence. He didn't care about attracting any unwanted gazes and ran to the previously shown storage facility.

Being already at level 5, he could be classified as a veteran so he knew exactly what was required. Carrying a garden trowel, he ran towards his destination. Along the way, he kindly greeted both male and female workers.

After Lian made sure that he was far away from everyone else's view, he could finally begin his weeding task starting from the carrot field. All long weeds needed to be taken care of straight from the roots.

"Let's just fucking do this! I hope that my back doesn't break from all this work…"

After pulling out the first weed, he received a notification.

*System: User has gained 1 exp point in: Farming.*

*System: Current experience to reach lvl 6: 5025/100k.*

"This gives farming exp too? Sweet, more exp for me!"

Pleased, he continued for about an hour. His technique were efficient and he managed to pull around 600 weeds by noon. However, despite his currently healthy body, it was hard to be motivated.

Lian rehydrated then sneakily pulled out a cheap music player and some earphones from the system for scenarios such as these.

Stretching for about a minute, he continued for another 30 minutes until he had enough. The music pushed him to be faster but the earphones kept getting tangled which was frustrating. By now, he only managed to pull a total of around 850 weeds.

Lian: "Hey system! Aren't we supposed to be able to cheat life? Is there any way that I can play music directly to my head?"

Lian: "I know that it's a first world problem but you know how much of a whiny piece of shit I am."

System: "…"

System: "There is indeed a way for the user to have such an ability. However, there is a condition."

Lian: "What is it?"

System: "The user must first learn the music skill."

Lian: "What the fuck? That's it?"

System: "Yes."

Lian: "Then why can't I learn an ability whenever I gain a new skill?"

System: "Each ability has its own restrictions. I was created spontaneously and the settings are random. Therefore, the organization in terms of some aspects still needs work."

System: "Once the use's character becomes stronger, cheating the heavens may become easier."

Lian: "Okay, got it. Give me a second…"

Lian: "Fuck! I'm sleeping in my main body and hate when I have to wake up in the middle of the night because it ruins my sleep."

Lian: "Whatever…I have the "Game Character" ability, so I can ignore those details. I'll just wake up for a few minutes…"

Sitting down, Lian waited for his main body to start a random free music course online. After a few minutes, he finally received a notification.

*System: User has learned a new skill: Music.*

*System: User has gained 1 exp point in: Music.*

*System: Current experience to reach lvl 2: 1/10.*

*System: User has gained a new ability: "Stereo"*

*System: "Stereo": allows the user's mind to stream all forms of music, radio playlists, and sounds as long as they have existed on earth. As the user is not technically downloading the music or playing it out loud, copyright issues are non-existent. *

Lian: "Hmm… although I can't play this out loud, this is still ridiculously overpowered. I literally have a living stereo in my brain."

Lian: "Then again, it's too bad I can't play this stuff out loud and record it to make a prof-… I mean ahem ahem… copyright is a serious issue and offenders must be prosecuted!"

System: "…"

Lian meant this as a joke. Although he never saw himself as a righteous person, after some moral debate and a few failed attempts along with some warning emails, he finally drew the line at selling other's content for profit.

In the past, he had always illegally downloaded music, like most people. But, he could understand why it could be problematic.

To an extent, he could even sympathize with artists or writers. Although Lian never created a work that lead to others illegally downloading his content, he has had a similar experience in the past on a minor scale.

"I remember back in middle school when I was still somewhat motivated, sometimes I used to work all night on an assignment. Afterwards in class, everyone wanted to copy off of me. That pissed me off!"

"Now, imagine working an entire year on a project then having some random person stealing a quarter of its profits! Yikes…"

Switching his focus back to the system, he couldn't help but grinning. Lian stored his music player and earphones, then set the stereo to play an upbeat playlist; continuing to pull weeds at an even faster pace.

If he could describe the experience of having music playing directly in his head, it would be like constantly living in a movie. It also somewhat allowed him to heighten his focus. Moreover, his ears didn't hurt, the volume was just right, and he could turn it off at any time.

Alternating between songs, rehydrating and stretching, snack breaks, greeting passersby, and continuously weeding in different fields, Lian finally managed to pull 5943 weeds.

Every part of Lian's body was currently aching. It was now sundown, and everybody was heading back to their rooms.

"I'm sore as fuck! If it wasn't for the music I probably wouldn't have managed for more than a few hours before giving up."

"Continuing right now would be inefficient...so…I'll sleep at the same time as everyone else and head back to the fields at around 1am to finish up the task."

"If someone notices me sneaking out, I honestly don't care. As long as I get my exp…"

After returning his tool, Lian began walking back towards his residence while thinking back over to the random but suspicious events that occurred throughout this long day. All would most likely be unravelled soon enough.