Chapter 6: The Art of Gathering

Yun Qing’s thoughts stirred, and she placed the wild strawberries she had just obtained into her backpack, then continued to use her gathering skill to collect more.
Gathering experience +1;
Obtained one intact wild strawberry;
This spot was now depleted. Yun Qing looked elsewhere—there were many plants with labels, but the thicket without paths was difficult to traverse.
Not far away, a mature flax plant beckoned. Yun Qing broke off a twig from a shrub to drive away any snakes, insects, or rodents that might lurk in the grass.
Approaching the flax, she silently recited, "Use gathering skill to collect flax leaves!"
Her hand remained motionless. Beside her, Liu Liu reminded, "You can only use the gathering skill on items that match or are below your skill requirement, and you must have successfully gathered them before."
It didn’t matter if it couldn’t be done automatically; she could do it by hand. Flax leaves required a level-three gathering skill, so Yun Qing was especially careful as she collected them.
Gathering failed;
Obtained damaged flax leaves;
She had failed after all; her gathering skill was still too low.
Looking at the damaged flax leaves in her hand, Yun Qing asked, "Liu Liu, can these damaged flax leaves be converted to energy with the converter?"
"Activating the energy converter requires ten units of level-one energy. These damaged flax leaves yield only zero to one unit, so the cost outweighs the gain. Are you sure you want to convert?"
Better to accumulate more resources before converting them; energy could wait, but upgrading her gathering skill was urgent.
Yun Qing searched for the next target with lower requirements. All around were wild vegetables, herbs, wild strawberries—everywhere lay experience and harvest.
She walked to the nearest wild vegetable, which required only a level-one gathering skill, and gathered it by hand, so next time she could do it automatically.
Gathering experience +1;
Obtained one intact wild vegetable;
"Wild vegetable, restores one point of fullness."
Yun Qing looked at the green wild vegetable, palm-sized, and noted it had no deliciousness value. She wouldn’t dare eat it raw unless she was desperate.
She stored it in her system backpack. Next target: dig up the garlic ten meters ahead.
Though she collected only wild fruits, vegetables, and seasonings with little value, each attempt brought experience and resources, and Yun Qing found joy in the process.

Occasionally, her companions’ loud shouts echoed from not far away, and she responded with her own calls, truly experiencing what it meant to rely on voices for communication.
Breathing the crisp air outdoors, she felt worlds apart from the modern caution where speaking loudly might disturb others—she almost wanted to burst into song.
The area assigned to her seemed plentiful, but few plants could be gathered intact.
Anything requiring a gathering skill above level three was beyond her reach and had to be left for her partners.
The pathless wild grass made gathering herbs a physical ordeal. Luckily, the original owner of her body had trained; if it were her previous life’s frail physique, even lasting two hours would have been difficult, let alone a whole day.
By nightfall, Yun Qing’s gathering experience had increased by only ninety, and that was after successfully gathering several flax plants, each giving three points of experience.
Yes, her tests showed that a level-one skill gathering level-three items granted three experience points, but the gathering skill had to be used manually.
As the sun dipped, Yun Qing heard Ye Qiaoqiao’s call to gather at the roadside.
When she emerged from the grass, Ye Qiaoqiao and the others were already waiting, their baskets placed nearby. Yun Qing glanced over—full of flax leaves, flax stalks, replenishing ginseng, blood-staunching herbs, and more.
She looked dejectedly at her own basket—just a few flax leaves, some scallions, ginger, garlic, wild vegetables, and most of her wild strawberries had been eaten due to hunger.
Though her system backpack still held ten wild strawberries and five wild vegetables, their total value was less than a single herb from her companions.
Yun Qing’s meager harvest was plain to see. The others first stared in surprise, then burst into laughter.
Ye Dan Niu covered his cheek and said, "Sorry, Yun Qing, we didn’t mean to mock you, but honestly, we couldn’t help it. Did you really only get these…these seasonings?"
It stung. No respect was given; on her first day working, she was teased by a group of kids.
Yun Qing’s mouth twitched. "I had some wild strawberries, but I ate them."
Ye Qiaoqiao pointed to Yun Qing’s assigned area. "Yun Qing, why didn’t you dig up the replenishing ginseng and blood-staunching herbs over there?"
She would have loved to, but her gathering skill was too low; attempting it would only waste valuable herbs.
Ye Da Chun chimed in, "Did you not recognize them?"
Yun Qing rolled her eyes inwardly—another jab. Could they not just chat and work happily together?
Ye Qiuyue took out a medicinal hoe from her basket. "Yun Qing, do you not have a medicinal hoe?"
Ye Qiaoqiao and the others used hoes to gather higher-grade herbs, while Yun Qing had relied solely on her hands; failure was inevitable with high-grade herbs. With a hoe, the chance of successfully uprooting the entire herb would be much higher.
Yun Qing nodded, "I don’t have a medicinal hoe. I recognized the replenishing ginseng and blood-staunching herbs, but once I entered the grass, all the herbs I could see seemed to vanish."

Ye Qiaoqiao comforted her, "It’s alright. The more you dig, the more experience you’ll gain. After a few days, I could dig up replenishing ginseng, feed myself, and even save some silver."
That stung even more. After just a few days, Ye Qiaoqiao could dig up replenishing ginseng, while Yun Qing, with her system, might not manage it in the same timeframe.
What Yun Qing didn’t know was that her companions had been familiar with these things from childhood, so they naturally learned faster. Their families had provided all the tools; unlike her, who had never seen a pig, let alone butchered one or owned the tools for it.
After work, the group returned to the village together.
Medicinal hoes were expensive, and on the walk back, her friends offered advice—some suggested using a sharp stone as a makeshift tool, others recommended preparing more sharpened sticks or bamboo. They didn’t distance themselves because of her facial illness or poor herb-gathering skills.
Back in the village, villagers at the gate registered everyone returning.
Led by her companions, Yun Qing handed over all her gathered resources, except those in her system backpack, to the warehouse and received five copper coins.
Ye Qiaoqiao and the others, being villagers of Ye Family Village, each went home after handing in their goods.
Yun Qing exchanged her five copper coins for a roasted potato.
‘Roasted potato, restores twenty points of fullness.’
She still lived in the small straw hut arranged for her by the relief station. There were many houses at the relief station, but few residents—most were villagers who had lost their support, and staying there required paying fees for food and lodging.
After eating one roasted potato, Yun Qing touched her still-empty stomach—she was still hungry! She felt she could eat at least five fist-sized roasted potatoes.
The first day’s work left Yun Qing barely half full; the feeling of hunger was unpleasant.
Night had fallen, making it inconvenient to search for herb-gathering tools; upgrading her skill was urgent.
Closing the door, Yun Qing pinned her hopes on the scroll she’d acquired from the lottery in her backpack.
It had been obtained by sacrificing "A Certain Someone’s One Hundred Years of Solitude." Yun Qing gazed excitedly at the scroll and silently recited, "Use experience scroll!"
A mechanical voice sounded: "The experience scroll can only be activated under specific conditions."
"Liu Liu, the scroll can’t be used! At this rate, I’ll starve to death."
Liu Liu: "So hungry, I really want to eat meat."