There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

"Put the cucumbers aside, let me ask you first, did you dig that pond?"

"There are no cucumbers..." The kappa walked dejectedly toward the pond. "Of course, I dug that place out myself. It will be my home from now on."

I followed closely behind it and asked, "What other skills do you have? Can you fish? Can you farm?"

The pond was about three meters long and one and a half meters wide, sitting squarely on the riverbank. Although the soil on the riverbank was soft, it was not comparable to the muddy riverbed. Ordinary people would not be able to excavate such a project without tools.

Moreover, the pond water was crystal clear, without a trace of mud, indicating it had been dug very deep. Just looking at it this way, if the kappa could also catch fish, wouldn't I have gained a free source of labor...?

I'm a genius!

"I don't know how to fish. But digging is easy. I dug all the way up the mountain and swam all the way to the riverbank, and that's where I am." The half-meter-tall kappa walked with nimble steps.

"On the mountain?"

"Yes, that's the mountain!"

Following the kappa's finger, I saw the majestic Madras Mountains...

How could this thing dig a tunnel down the mountain by hand?

Are you a tunnel boring machine that has come to life?!

"What? This pond leads up the mountain?!" I exclaimed in surprise.

The kappa glanced at me with its tiny, beady eyes. "It's too hot for me to walk. There are no cucumbers to eat, and I don't have the strength, so digging a hole and swimming is the fastest way."

This has absolutely nothing to do with cucumbers!

I walked to the riverbank and looked at the clear water. Sure enough, I couldn't see the bottom of the pond. I could only see a very deep underwater cave through the water. It looked eerie, like the intestines of a huge creature, and I didn't know where it led.

It's impossible for the entire route to be dug through a tunnel. The kappa must have dug into a spring from Mount Mades, swam downstream into an underground river, and then groped its way here before emerging from the ground.

Therefore, the pond is so clear because the water source is not surface water from a river, but groundwater flowing from an underground river.

Good heavens, this thing dug a well for me!

Kappa seem to still have the habits of amphibians, and they are very resistant to dry air, preferring to live in warm and cool water.

It walked to the edge of the pond and easily jumped into the cool spring water, floating comfortably on the surface, its eyes half-closed as if soaking in a hot spring.

"Kappa, would you like to learn farming from me?" I tried my best to appear refined and easygoing, so that he wouldn't see through my intentions.

"Farming? What's that?" The kappa looked at me with obvious confusion.

"It's about getting things to grow in the ground. If you want to eat cucumbers, why don't you learn to farm with me? That way you can have as many as you want," I coaxed gently.

The kappa's initial boredom vanished, and he seemed to be fantasizing about a field of cucumbers growing in front of him, which he could eat as many as he wanted. He swallowed hard and exclaimed, "Really? Can I learn this? Please give me some cucumbers!"

"Growing cucumbers is nothing, you have no ambition at all!" I seized the opportunity to stand proudly with my hands behind my back, displaying the demeanor of a master. "I know more than just this. If you become my apprentice, what do you want to learn? Tell me, what do you want to learn?"

"What can I learn?" The kappa was bewildered by my sudden change in attitude, its small eyes showing a big look of confusion, completely forgetting that it had just said it wanted to learn farming.

The kappa rolled around in the pond, looking very excited: "Teach me! Teach me!"

Seeing that its curiosity had been piqued, I casually said, "I will teach you how to invoke the spirits, consult divination sticks, and understand the principles of seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune. Will you learn or not?"

The kappa asked, "Will I get to eat cucumbers?"

I thought about it for a moment, and unless I went out and became a conman, offering cucumbers as payment for my fortune telling, who would give cucumbers to a fortune teller? I decisively said, "No way!"

The kappa shook its head and said, "I won't learn, I won't learn!"

My expression remained unchanged: "Then I'll teach you Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Yin-Yang School, Mohism, and medicine; or you can study scriptures, chant Buddhist prayers, and even worship the immortals and saints. Will you learn or not?"

The kappa continued, "Will I get to eat cucumbers?"

After studying the works of the various schools of thought, one could at least establish one's own school of thought. Even Confucius, who was very frugal, had to offer dried meat as a gift to his teacher. Who would bring a cucumber as a gift to someone's door?

I shook my head and said, "No!"

The kappa shook its head and said, "I won't learn, I won't learn!"

My expression was a little stiff. "Then I'll teach you to abstain from grain and guard the valley, to be quiet and inactive, to practice meditation, to observe the precepts of speech and fast, or to practice sleeping exercises, or standing exercises, and to enter a state of deep meditation. Will you learn or not?"

The kappa persisted, asking, "If I learn it, will I be able to eat cucumbers?"

I answered honestly, "After you finish learning, you won't feel hungry anymore. You'll feel full just by breathing air every day, and you'll say goodbye to cucumbers from then on."

"I won't learn! I won't learn!"

My face darkened. "Then I'll teach you how to massage your navel to expel qi, use the proper methods, burn thatch to make a cauldron, add red lead, refine autumn stone, and replenish yin... Bah! If I knew these techniques, would I need to spout nonsense here with a pointy-mouthed, monkey-faced guy like you! Learn it if you want, or get lost!"

After listening to me ramble on about things I couldn't understand, and seeing my increasingly grim expression, the kappa finally sensed something was wrong. It quickly jumped out of the pond, grabbed my trouser leg, and said in a shrill voice, "Learn, learn, learn! Tell me to learn anything! As long as you give me cucumbers, I'll learn anything!"

...If I had known a cucumber could have solved it, why did I go through all that trouble? I was still holding back the words, "You kappa, you don't learn this, you don't learn that, what are you planning to do?" when other refined and gentle words were about to spill out. I quickly shut up and looked at the kappa.

The kappa looked at me nervously, its beady eyes unblinking, gripping my trouser leg tightly, and began a new round of rocket headbutts.

"Alright, alright, just call me teacher. If you behave well, I'll pass on the farming techniques to you! First, shout after me: 'Farming techniques are great!'"

"Farming is amazing! Teach me how to grow cucumbers!"

I frowned at the oblivious kappa. Despite its ugly and strange appearance, it always wore an expression that said, "I'm cute, give me a cucumber." I preemptively made my demands: "Let's make three rules first. First, you can only move around in the pasture and pond, and you can't run around everywhere. Second, if you are seen by someone, you must hide immediately and actively avoid places where people are around. Third, you absolutely cannot speak in front of others."

"If you violate any of these three rules, I, Marcus, will starve to death, die outside, or jump off this cliff, and I won't give you a single cucumber!"

Strange, why did my mouth start drooling as soon as I said that?

Chapter 214 I came here because...

My eldest apprentice, though he has a hairy face and a thunder god's mouth, is skilled at exorcising demons and monsters...

After indulging in the fantasy of Bodhi Patriarch, I felt refreshed and everything seemed much more pleasing to the eye.

It might be because of Father Carter's unique dream-entering technique that I regained my energy after a short nap. But on the other hand, since Father Carter's dream-entering is an active skill, why am I still so sleepy every day, almost unlocking the achievement of falling asleep in my dreams?

Does he practice the Sleeping Arhat Fist in his dreams every day?

...Never mind, it's just because I'm lazy.

Sufficient rest can only alleviate my mental fatigue; the physical damage caused by the "energy-building mode" still requires a long time to recover.

My imagination got out of control here again.

Normally, the colonist system is set to the default mode, working only for my near-human physical limits. Although it looks flashy, it only reaches the peak in speed and skill, without doing anything too outrageous.

What? You mean steelmaking by hand?

Can something like having a cheat code be considered out of line?

Correspondingly, this should be Saitama's normal mode. A normal punch can shatter a small monster into pieces, but it's not enough for Boros, the cosmic overlord.

The charging mode corresponds to Saitama's serious piston-like... wait, I mean serious mode. Once he lands a serious punch, all we can do is silently cheer, "Go, big brother piloting the spaceship!" and watch Boros get reduced to ashes.

Judging from the way I exerted all my strength, it seems that as long as my physique is strong enough, I can gather enough power in my body to run through the entire process, like a taut spring that can release tremendous power at any time.

Currently, the power-up mode represents a special technique that can be applied to many fields, allowing my CPU to be overclocked from its default frequency to its maximum potential!

This is a feature full of potential. If I use it well, I can combine it with the colonist system's cheat functions and make "one-hit mountain-shattering transformation" a daily operation.

Of course, the prerequisite is that I need to have a healthy body to withstand strength beyond the human limit. I have absolutely no clue about that. The only method I know is Saitama's training method, which consists of 100 push-ups, 100 squats, 100 sit-ups, and a 10-kilometer run every day.

However, I don't want to lose my hair and end up with a strong person's hairstyle, nor do I feel that such ordinary exercise can deplete my physical strength.

The second method is the "corporate slave self-management method": "I can only go home at 8 pm. I don't smoke, and I only drink a little alcohol. I go to bed at 11 pm and get a full 8 hours of sleep every day. Before bed, I always drink a glass of warm milk, then do 20 minutes of stretching exercises, and fall asleep immediately after getting into bed. I sleep soundly until dawn and never carry fatigue and stress to the next day."

...If I could awaken a Stand like Queen Killer through this, I'd be willing to give it a try. But is that even possible?

"...Anyone who seeks a sense of realism in a virtual world must have something wrong with their head!"

I muttered some dangerous words as I walked through the ranch, trying to walk on my own without my cane.

Soon, I was caught up by a short-legged kappa, who kept asking me when I would teach it how to farm.

"Farming is not such an inconvenient thing! You keep an eye on these crops in the fields and practice your connection with nature first! I'll teach you when you can hear the plants speaking!"

So after getting rid of it, I finally gained a moment of peace. But soon, I was overtaken by two fluffy little chicks...

The white-feathered chicken ran ahead, its short legs accelerating rapidly on the ground, almost turning into a bolt of lightning. The chubby chicken stumbled and followed behind, always a beat slower, occasionally bumping into the trees and rocks on either side. Taking advantage of its thick downy feathers, it quickly stood up and started running again.

"...It's truly a heartwarming daily routine amidst chaos and laughter."

As I walked, something came to mind. Boss Dart once told me that Zack, as a former member of the Navigator's Alliance, should possess special physical training techniques. He even demonstrated to me his incredible arm strength, lifting hundreds of kilograms with one hand. Should I take this opportunity to find him and learn from him?

What I need to do is to achieve the feat of surpassing human limits in physical fitness without relying on the colonizer system. Only after breaking through the ceiling will my physical fitness truly improve and completely surpass the basic values ​​given to me by the system.

If I can't even do that, then I've learned one thing from my short life: the more you scheme and plot, the more you'll discover that human abilities have limits... I'm not human anymore, Jojo!

Okay, I meant we could create some transcendent states, or raise the ceiling through methods like mechanical ascension. If we had something like the Stone Mask, that wouldn't be out of the question...

I was feeling unwell all over, except for my hands, which were still relatively normal. Rather than doing chores that were beyond my strength, I might as well go to the beach to catch fish... no, I mean, go fishing.

This is a proper job, and it's definitely not an excuse to slack off (serious face).

I grabbed the fishing rod I'd tricked out of Zack and headed towards the seaside cottage to see what Zack was up to today.

…………

The seaside remains a picturesque expanse of azure sea and sky, with the fierce sea breeze howling and sweeping through the invisible world, releasing boundless energy. Under this salty sea breeze, ordinary houses are quickly corroded and aged, and bricks and tiles easily crumble without anyone noticing.

Therefore, Zak's hut is not an ordinary structure. It likely utilizes new lightweight building materials and is supported by four piles driven into the sand as a foundation. Only such a house can withstand howling sea winds and erosion from waves, and even survive typhoons.

"Hey! Zack!" I greeted Zack warmly and saw him wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, busily moving goods, sorting and stacking the purchased and shipped items, ready to be transported to their destinations.

Hearing my voice, Zach turned around abruptly: "Marcus! You... how did you get hurt?"

It seems this person is unaware of my "heroic deeds".

“I’ve only made some minor contributions.” I coughed dramatically and straightened my clothes. “But from today onwards, I’m the acting sheriff of this town…”

When Zack heard what I said, he clapped his hands in surprise, looking completely dumbfounded: "Marcus, you're amazing!"

Seeing how much the audience is giving me face, I can't help but say something.

"You're too kind. I, Ma, have come to Mineral Town for only three things." With that, I held up three fingers and looked at Zack with a serious expression.

"What is it?" Zack wiped the sweat from his brow, put down what he was holding, and waited for my explanation.

I raised my arms and shouted, "That's fairness, fairness, fucking fairness!"

"...Isn't this the same thing you're talking about?"

Chapter 215 First-Order Gene Lock