SWBG - Chapter 17

[From: Happy Board Game

You have completed [It's Fruit Harvesting Season Again] at normal difficulty.

“You are a competent helper who followed procedures and completed all tasks.”

After review, participant 08321-6 meets the conditions for exiting the instance.

If you do not leave, a forced exit will be executed 24 hours after this message is received.

Note: Game rewards will be issued upon returning to your room.]

Shang Min’e and Gu Jing Sheng received the message from Happy Board Game at the same time.

The former left the instance without a shred of hesitation.

Gu Jing Sheng, after watching the other disappear on the spot, calmly climbed into the carriage under Old Ivan’s hostile gaze.

Upon returning to the farm, she even nonchalantly joined in on dinner.

Though she had no intention of fighting over black bread, and Old Ivan wanted to dock Gu Jing Sheng’s food rations, Mr. Sam still silently fulfilled his duties.

Old Ivan chewed his steak forcefully with every bite, as if the bloody, stinking chunks of meat had been carved from Gu Jing Sheng herself.

The host’s hostility didn’t make Gu Jing Sheng nervous—partly because she could exit the instance at any time, and partly because of her speculations about the game rules.

And so, she stayed one more night.

When Gu Jing Sheng got up again, it wasn’t even 3 a.m.—the phones provided by Happy Board Game had no alarm function, but her recent routine had begun to shape an early-to-bed, early-to-rise biological clock.

There was still an entire day before the final deadline to exit the instance, which was more than enough for Gu Jing Sheng, who had basically figured out the game’s logic.

[Participant 08321-6’s guess is correct.]

Restriction lifted.

Note: This feature can only be used once in a low-level instance.

While players acted, NPCs also continued their routines.

Though Old Ivan was still snoring away in the main house, the diligent Mr. Sam had already arrived in the kitchen to begin his day’s work.

He tossed chunks of meat into the soup pot, put bread into the oven, then began boiling water to prepare a steaming cup of coffee for the farm’s master.

After working for about half an hour, Mr. Sam left the kitchen—as the chef, butler, and servant, he had far too many tasks to complete in sequence.

Once he left, a shadow swiftly slipped into the kitchen—Gu Jing Sheng silently thanked Old Ivan’s stinginess when hiring domestic help, as it had given her ample opportunity.

Gu Jing Sheng rummaged through the trash can—sure enough, her quick glance when entering the kitchen hadn’t been wrong.

The coffee Mr. Sam made for Old Ivan was [Old Sanna’s Instant Coffee].

The NPC was very cautious.

Although the cabinet held many coffee packets, the brass lock on it forced Gu Jing Sheng to abandon the idea of stealing one and instead use her own.

Gu Jing Sheng swiftly materialized all the instant coffee items in her possession, tore open the packets, poured them into a cup, and stirred thoroughly—according to the item description, drinking three packs at once might cause some harm to the consumer’s heart.

Considering that Mr. Sam might respawn in the kitchen at any moment, Gu Jing Sheng should have left right after finishing—but before she did, she couldn’t resist her curiosity and lifted the lid of the soup pot.

—And with that, it was as if Pandora’s box had been completely opened.

White steam spilled out from beneath the lid, and the pot boiled with a nauseating meaty aroma.

Gu Jing Sheng clearly saw a skinless, flesh-sloughing human head submerged in the thick broth.

“……”

The skull’s jawbone was exposed above the soup, showing two rows of gaping, ghastly white teeth—mocking her with malicious glee.

Gu Jing Sheng silently replaced the lid without a sound, turned around to leave, but was immediately forced back after just one step.

—That short and stocky Mr. Sam had returned to the kitchen at some unknown point, silently watching her every move with an expressionless face.

Gu Jing Sheng’s gaze met those still, bottomless eyes, and she felt her breath and heartbeat freeze for a moment.

Mr. Sam still held a blood-dripping kitchen knife in his hand.

Without hesitation, Gu Jing Sheng gripped her phone — according to Happy Board Game’s official description, to provide the best exit service for participants, the exit button was separately located on the right side of the phone.

If the conditions were met, one could leave at any time with a press.

To her surprise, the knife-wielding Mr. Sam didn’t plan to use Gu Jing Sheng to supplement his master’s meal.

Instead, he walked past her, went to the table edge, and slowly added a spoonful of honey to the coffee — for the first time, speaking to a participant:

“Mr. Ivan doesn’t have a very sensitive tongue — as long as the coffee isn’t overly bitter.”

Gu Jing Sheng stopped herself from pressing the exit button and looked intently at the NPC in front of her, her expression thoughtful.

…

Regardless of how many migrant workers still lived on the farm, breakfast was always exclusively enjoyed by the farm’s master, Mr. Ivan.

He gulped down the meat soup and tore up the bread, soaking it in the bowl.

Once the soup was almost gone, Old Ivan finally picked up his coffee—

Today, the coffee smelled unusually rich, and Old Ivan figured that careless Sam must’ve added too much honey.

That guy was always clumsy like this.

Even as a generous farm owner, he would still have to dock his pay a little.

For the sake of the King with the Thrush’s Beak, this wasn’t stinginess — it was fairness.

“Busy old Ivan still needs to fetch the new workers from the mountain base.

Let’s hope they’re more useful than the last bunch.

Sam, Sam, go to the stables and bring out my pretty little horse…”

Old Ivan called Mr. Sam’s name as usual—then suddenly, without warning, his voice cut off.

The farm owner clutched his chest in agony and collapsed headfirst.

At that moment, the dining room door opened.

Gu Jing Sheng walked in lightly, glanced at Old Ivan, and casually closed the door behind her.

Click.

The sound of the door closing was like a devil tolling his death knell.

Old Ivan’s breathing grew more rapid.

He tried to move, only to find he couldn’t.

Gu Jing Sheng tried to lift a chair in the dining room, but found she still lacked the strength to use it effectively.

Fortunately, some cheap and crude decorations still hung on the wall.

After a quick scan, she casually took down an axe and swung it twice through the air.

Old Ivan widened his eyes in terror, watching Gu Jing Sheng’s every move, and roared with false bravado:

“You stupid, greedy, vicious lowlife!

You’ve broken into innocent Old Ivan’s dining room like a bandit…”

Old Ivan watched as the young woman draw closer step by step, his voice trembled with fear,

“You actually dare to break the game rules!”

Gu Jing Sheng tilted her head, puzzled, and looked at Old Ivan:

“Since the conditions listed on the phone allow players to clear the game on hard mode, what I’m doing now shouldn’t violate the rules.”

She leaned closer to the NPC, lips curling into a polite smile,

“Or am I wrong, dear Mr. Crow?”

…

[Sender: Happy Board Game

[It’s Fruit Harvesting Season Again] - Hard Mode Completed.

“You successfully eliminated the annoying crow.

You’re the best employee — all problems solved, once and for all!”

Participant 08321-6 meets the conditions to exit the instance.

If the participant has yet to exit, forced exit will occur in 7 hours, 46 minutes, and 23 seconds after receiving this message.

Note: Game rewards will be distributed upon returning to your room.]

When Gu Jing Sheng saw the latest text on her phone, her back was leaning against the edge of the dining table.

Her long hair was pinned up, her coat had been taken off, and the gray knit sweater outlined the sharp curve of her waist.

The message content was completely expected — ever since she drew the game invitation, she’d been pondering what exactly the “crow” mentioned in the note referred to.

[Happy Board Game] had described it as “annoying” and “will steal fruit upon arrival.”

Given that the game frequently employed strongly implied wordplay, Gu Jing Sheng had never stopped trying to understand this character in depth.

—The person in the instance who best fit the label of “annoying” was undoubtedly the farm’s owner, Old Ivan.

If his black coat evoked the image of crow feathers, his choice of food also matched a crow’s scavenging habits.

Then the changing location of Old Ivan’s carriage confirmed for Gu Jing Sheng that he was indeed the “crow” slowly approaching the orchard mentioned in the game instructions.

From the base of the mountain, to a quarter way up, to halfway, and then to three-quarters up…

Four days was the maximum safe period within the instance.

[The Silly Goose’s Bee Friend] had used up both of its uses before reverting into a card.

One was when it stopped on He Suo Wen’s hand, and the other, most likely, was when it stopped on Old Ivan outside the carriage.

Both of them had hidden identities.

She could have figured it out earlier, but He Suo Wen — who clearly knew Ivan’s true nature — had been covering for him all along.

This gave the other players the illusion that the NPC was reducing the distance to the mountaintop because of He Suo Wen’s request.

On the fourth day, He Suo Wen chose to have He Nan hide the participants’ fruit baskets.

Probably as a safeguard in case he failed — so long as Shang Min’e and Gu Jing Sheng couldn’t submit the correctly color-sorted fruits before the deadline.

They could use Old Ivan to begin the purge, continuing until the “crow had to shut up.”

Having successfully cleared the “Beyond Words” instance, Gu Jing Sheng believed that for a game where even guessing cards could be life-threatening, a fruit-picking version was hardly going to be safe.

Old Ivan wasn’t a vegetarian — so once he reached the mountaintop, just what kind of “fruit” would he start stealing?

In Gu Jing Sheng’s mind, she seemed to see once again that human head was soaked in the soup.

After clearing the hard difficulty mode, Gu Jing Sheng walked around the farm briefly.

Once she confirmed there was nothing more to explore, she chose to exit the instance.

The condition of Room 08321-6 was exactly the same as when she had left it — even the wrinkles on the bed hadn’t changed.

Gu Jing Sheng ran a finger along the desktop — not a speck of dust on it.

She didn’t know whether the game space inherently lacked conditions for dust to settle, or if her absence had simply been too brief for airborne particles to fall.

Since her phone had lost its timekeeping function, Gu Jing Sheng opened the assistant app to ask how long until her next match.

[08321-6: May I ask how long until the next mandatory board game begins?]

[Assistant: Dear Participant, you have earned 240 hours of free activity time.

There are 263:45:32 remaining until the next mandatory game.

Please make good use of your time.]

“……”

Logically speaking, the additional 240 hours were clearly the reward for clearing [It’s Fruit Harvesting Season Again].

Then, the reward time from [Beyond Words] should now have 23 hours and 45 minutes remaining.

Gu Jing Sheng opened her phone’s notes app and typed: “Instance timeline operates independently of room timeline” as a reminder.

This arc is coming to an end soon... See you next week!