"Little Skeleton, even though I don't know if it'll be you the next time I summon you, I want to thank you for today's work," Shen Xingyan said softly, gently stroking the skeleton's smooth skull.
Thanks to the 10% increase in growth progress and the normal growth of the wheat, the progress had reached 20% in just one day. However, this also came with a corresponding volume of work. In one day, Shen Xingyan received so many notifications about the need to tend to the field that he was already getting used to them.
In the real world, wheat usually needs 6-7 months to mature, and the work of fighting pests, weeding, and watering is not as intensive. But in the Star Source world, everything is different. Here, wheat matures in just 10 days without the use of a professional skill, and Shen Xingyan had halved that time, which made tending to the field even more demanding.
Notifications came in one after another without stopping: "Pests need to be caught," "Time to pull weeds," "Watering is required." As soon as Shen Xingyan and the skeleton finished one task, a new notification would appear. Even for a rookie with maximum stats like Shen Xingyan, his stamina was dropping very fast, which spoke of the enormous amount of work.
Fortunately, he had bought two steamed buns from the Star Source store for two of the ten copper coins he had been given, so he wouldn't run out of stamina. Shen Xingyan had heard that when growing high-level seeds, he would also need to apply fertilizer. It's not for nothing that they say the Farmer profession is hard.
He was lucky that the little skeleton was helping; otherwise, he would have barely managed. Despite the fatigue, Shen Xingyan didn't give up and continued to follow all the instructions. The experience of his predecessors reminded him: if you don't work, you won't have money, and you'll have to continue living in poverty.
Shen Xingyan worked without stopping for two reasons. First, if he ignored the prompts for too long, the Star Source would increase the harvest's ripening time. Second, it affected the final yield. With all the work done on time, the harvest could be twice as large as usual, and sometimes even more. Typically, one mu yields 300-1,000 kg of wheat, and the exact amount depends on the volume of work done.
Almost 12 hours had passed since the start of planting. During this time, Shen Xingyan and the skeleton only rested occasionally, mostly performing various tasks. Shen Xingyan was tired, but he could continue—after all, the more he did now, the bigger the harvest would be in five days.
However, Shen Xingyan's time in the Star Source world was coming to an end, and he had to return to reality. As a rookie, he was only allowed to be here for 12 hours a day. He could increase his stay by reaching Level 20 or by paying money.
Looking at the skeleton that had been with him for over 10 hours, Shen Xingyan felt regret, but he had no choice. He was glad that the skeleton hadn't disappeared yet, which meant that the hardworking helper would be a constant presence during each visit.
"After I'm gone, keep working according to the prompts, as long as you can. Standing here and waiting to vanish sounds pretty dreary. It's better to keep working to distract yourself," Shen Xingyan said to the skeleton.
As he said this, he suddenly felt a certain strangeness in his words. He realized it sounded like the speech of an "evil capitalist" before the Primal Energy explosion—pretty words that hid the desire to squeeze everything out of the "skeleton worker." However, considering that the skeleton didn't have such thoughts or stamina limits, the guilt quickly vanished.
Shen Xingyan gave these instructions to the skeleton because only some notifications with rewards were voiced by the system. Routine maintenance tasks were displayed as icons above the field, which the skeleton could see. After Shen Xingyan's explanation, the skeleton understood what to do when different icons appeared.
Admiring the skeleton's abilities, Shen Xingyan said goodbye to it and pressed the exit button. In the blink of an eye, his consciousness returned to the real world.
After its master's sudden disappearance, the skeleton stood motionless for a while. Not waiting for Shen Xingyan to return, it turned to the field, where prompt icons had reappeared, and without hesitation, it began to carry out its master's last instruction—to work according to those prompt icons!