Chapter 504: The Farm Has Been Targeted by Farming Groups!
Oh my god, why is this dog biting me?!
A slight pain came from where he was bitten, and the fruits Zou Zhuo had been holding in his arms scattered all over the ground. The dog was still relentlessly chasing him. Panicking, he turned back the way he came and fled back to his own farm.
“Whew, at least it’s not chasing me anymore…”
After returning to his farm, Zou Zhuo received a system notification.
[You have been bitten by a dog. You need to pay 500 gold coins as medical expenses. This amount has been automatically deducted from your system currency.]
“Damn, this is such a rip-off!”
Zou Zhuo was speechless. Apparently, when bitten by the dog, the fruits he was holding would drop randomly. When he ran back, he only had about five or six fruits left in his arms. And now he had to pay 500 gold coins for medical expenses? How frustrating!
Obviously, the medical expenses were calculated based on the number of times he was bitten. The more bites, the higher the cost.
Zou Zhuo sold these fruits to the store. To his great surprise, even with just a few fruits, he still earned over 3,000 gold coins!
“Wow, high-level crops are really something else,” Zou Zhuo marveled.
“If I could steal all the fruits from the shop owner’s field, how much money would that be?”
Even if he got bitten to a pulp by the dog, it would still be worth it!
But then Zou Zhuo thought again: Chen Mo definitely wouldn’t make such a design mistake. Most likely, the more times you get bitten, the more the medical expenses would multiply, not just increase linearly.
With that in mind, Zou Zhuo wisely gave up any thoughts of stealing vegetables again…
And the worst part was that getting bitten by the dog deducted money directly from the system! That was just too shameless!
Zou Zhuo then visited his other friends’ fields and managed to steal a few radishes. Although these radishes weren’t worth much, Zou Zhuo felt very happy.
That’s just how people are—whether rich or poor, they all have a tendency to take advantage of small gains. It doesn’t matter how much you gain; as long as you get something for free, it feels great.
Of course, if you could score a big gain, you’d be over the moon.
An hour passed quickly, and Zou Zhuo still felt a bit unsatisfied. But he had already stolen most of the available vegetables and planted his own fields. With nothing else to do, he had no choice but to exit the relaxation mode.
…
Soon, other players began discovering some of the special features of "Leisure Farm" and started adding friends and stealing each other’s vegetables.
“Hey, this ‘Leisure Farm’ is actually pretty well-made. Basking in the sun inside feels way more relaxing than the system’s default environment!”
“Yeah, the pastoral scenery is way more pleasant than just blue skies, white clouds, and grasslands!”
“And you can farm too. Even though the controls are super simple, it gives you a feeling of returning to the countryside. I can’t help but want to recite a poem.”
“Planting beans beneath the southern hill, grass grows thick, bean sprouts are sparse…”
“Oh, you’re reciting that poem? I thought it was going to be… dog…”
“Ahem, you can actually keep dogs in the fields.”
“Hey? Have you noticed that the first person in our friend list seems to be Chen Mo’s account by default!”
“Yeah, I noticed that too. I even checked it out. His fields are full of high-level crops. I tried to steal a couple, but his dog bit me like crazy!”
“Damn, me too! I got bitten by his dog as well!”
“Huh? So that’s what the dog is for? To guard the yard? Then I want to get one too. Even though I’m only planting radishes now, I’d still hate to lose any.”
“But dogs are expensive. You have to spend real money to afford one!”
"Leisure Farm" allowed in-game purchases, but not everything could be bought. The items available for purchase were mostly decorative, like house skins, fence skins, doghouses, and so on.
In addition, some special features required a small amount of real money to unlock, such as buying dogs, dog food, or upgrading plots.
Upgrading regular soil to red soil, black soil, or even golden soil all cost money. Of course, you could also unlock them by saving up gold coins, but the gold coin cost would be much higher than the equivalent real-world currency.
Since gold coins could actually be exchanged for real items, this effectively created a channel for converting in-game currency into real-world money within the game.
Of course, there were also items that could only be obtained through direct payment, like dog food.
Because "Overwatch" was a free-to-play game, many players already had the Overwatch and Thunder Game Platform on their gaming pods.
As a result, "Leisure Farm" spread very smoothly. Some players who didn’t even play "Overwatch" or use a Thunder Game Pass also downloaded "Leisure Farm."
“Hurry up! Anyone playing ‘Leisure Farm’? Add me as a friend so we can steal each other’s vegetables!”
“Why haven’t you started playing ‘Leisure Farm’ yet? Get it set up quickly—I’m waiting to steal your vegetables!”
Soon, "Leisure Farm" spread through the VR gaming community at an incredibly unscientific pace…
Since this was the only decent game available in the relaxation mode for VR gaming pods, its expansion speed far exceeded most people’s imagination…
…
At the same time, many farming groups had their eyes on this new game.
“What? This game allows you to exchange in-game items for real stuff? Isn’t that a feature some rookie designer came up with? Aren’t they afraid of losing money to death?”
“Hehehehe, it’s our turn to shine!”
“Download this game on all the VR gaming pods in the studio. Everyone, start stealing vegetables like crazy!”
Strangely enough, the big farming groups didn’t seem to be targeting "Leisure Farm."
The smaller groups didn’t pay much attention to that.
For these groups, they had been bored with nothing to play in relaxation mode, and "Leisure Farm" was like a gift delivered right to their doorstep.
In immersion mode, players could only play for up to four hours before needing to rest or switch to relaxation mode.
But in relaxation mode, players could play for a long time—even eight hours or more without issue, since this mode didn’t cause much fatigue.
Each gaming pod in these groups had three to four boosters, who could take turns playing 24/7, stealing vegetables nonstop.
You might not believe it, but just three days after "Leisure Farm" launched, many groups had already set up dedicated vegetable-stealing teams…
After all, the gold coins in the game could be directly exchanged for real items. Selling those items would essentially be the same as turning them into cash!
Of course, these groups didn’t just steal vegetables; they also grew their own. Chen Mo had set limits: each player could only steal a certain number of times per day, and each player’s field could only be stolen from a certain number of times. Otherwise, unlimited stealing would be too advantageous for players with plenty of time.
Compared to the income from stealing, growing your own vegetables yielded more.
“We’ve made a special auxiliary device. With this, you can steal vegetables with one click!”
“Really? Plug it into the VR gaming pod and try it out. If this works, it’ll save a ton of effort!”
Someone in the group quickly developed a plugin specifically for stealing vegetables in "Leisure Farm." After all, the game was so simple that making such a plugin was no challenge at all.
But when they plugged it into the VR gaming pod, everyone was dumbfounded.
[An unknown external device has been detected on your VR gaming pod. Login denied.]
“Damn, what’s going on?”
“How does it detect an unknown external device?”
“Damn, isn’t this the same detection system as ‘Overwatch’?”
“Great, so this plugin is useless…”
“Damn it, Chen Mo actually implemented the anti-cheat measures from ‘Overwatch’ into ‘Leisure Farm’?!”
“For crying out loud, it looks like using plugins is impossible. We’ll have to steal vegetables manually!”
“Shh, don’t let this get out, got it? Otherwise, our group’s reputation will be ruined!”
Genius remembers this site address in one second: