Chapter 716: Universal Mining System (7)

"Splash—"

Perhaps sensing the intrusion of strange creatures, the giant octopuses that claimed the lake as their own surfaced one after another, waving their long and short tentacles and shooting ink toward the direction where Xie Yang stood.

【I told you they were dirty and disgusting.】

The Sub-system pinched its mimicked nose, expressing extreme disgust.

Xie Yang had already taken out a fishing rod and quickly reeled in a small octopus. After identifying it with a scanner, she found that not only was it edible, but its pollution level was far lower than the seafood she had netted while out at sea in the Modern Plane. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth: "Not at all, octopus is very fresh, how could it be disgusting?"

【……】

Since she was already here, she naturally couldn't leave empty-handed!

Especially after seeing the octopuses that had been breeding in the lake for N generations, with a density so high it made one's scalp tingle; it would be too itchy not to fleece them a little.

Xie Yang nimbly took a net and an extra-large bucket from the Aircraft Cargo Hold and squatted by the lake to scoop up the octopuses.

Before being bound by the Mining System, this planet had never been visited by humans.

In recent years, although human footsteps had set foot on this planet, they were all confined to the mine tunnels by the Mining System to dig for it; how could they have any chance to leave the mine tunnels?

Xie Yang was the first human to step onto the surface of this planet, and naturally, she was also the first person to come to the cavern to fish for octopuses.

The octopuses that were scooped up, after instinctively spraying ink blindly, just lay honestly in the bucket, not yet knowing what fate awaited them.

Xie Yang's mind was already filled with different ways to cook octopus.

She scooped up two full, large buckets before finishing her work and returned to the mine tunnel with a full catch.

She pondered that mining was so long and boring, so why not start a small business? It could kill time during her leisure hours after mining and also benefit her fellow workers.

Of course, the main thing was that she wanted to earn some Star Coins for herself, so that before leaving this plane in the future, she could bring back more local specialties, such as advanced and practical Robots, useful interstellar-brand electronic products, daily necessities, and so on.

If she could buy them with Star Coins, she didn't want to waste points stocking up from the Main System.

Thus, after testing that an electric griddle full of solar energy could be used in the mine tunnel, she developed this small business on the side of mining—selling fresh and delicious Octopus Balls on the "Miners Home" forum.

【Step right up and take a look! Freshly made Octopus Balls, crispy skin and tender meat, savory and chewy! Only five Star Coins each! You won't lose out, you won't be cheated! Buy four and get one free, limited quantity, first come, first served!】

To the interstellar people, Xie Yang's peddling text was truly novel and strange.

【Octopus Balls? Sounds like natural food, but is it really delicious?】

【Very delicious? Even if it is, can it be better than the strawberry-flavored Nutrient Solution newly launched by the Nutrient Solution company?】

【Could it be another scammer? The interstellar law doesn't reach here; really, all sorts of people are popping up.】

【Ahhh! This is a big shot! The big shot who trades Silver Ore with us! How could a big shot be a scammer!】

【That's hard to say! Maybe the Silver Ore was just thrown out to confuse you, with the goal of making you lower your guard. Now is when they are truly starting to scam! Don't be fooled!】

【Can you even do math! Would they deliberately trade Silver Ore with us just to scam our 5 Star Coins?】

【Exactly! It's only 5 Star Coins, I'll accept it if I get scammed! At least the big shot helped me get through a difficult time before.】

【Don't look at 5 Star Coins as cheap, but if you buy one, I buy one, and everyone buys one, wouldn't the scammer get a lot?】

A few minutes later—

【Eh? Why is no one speaking? Don't tell me they all went to buy those Octopus Balls? It's over! Another wave of people has been scammed!】

Another few minutes passed—

【Why is there still no one? Did they realize they were scammed and are now too angry to speak?】

In fact, they were all private messaging Xie Yang to snap up the Octopus Balls.

At first, everyone only bought one out of curiosity to taste it.

After tasting it, they were amazed!

What kind of ingredients was this made with? It was too delicious!

Everyone was busy eating intently; once they started eating, they didn't make a sound, so how could they have time to go to Miners Home to complain.

After finishing, they weren't satisfied and one by one private messaged Xie Yang to buy more.

This person wanted twenty, that person wanted fifty, and some even bought two hundred at once.

Xie Yang wondered what these guys were buying so much for? It wasn't like it was a meal. Even if it were a meal, they would get sick of it if they ate too much; could it be they wanted to be middlemen and earn the price difference? So she stipulated, "Each ID is limited to ten per day."

Ten is ten, who told them it was a seller's market now.

The buyers had no choice even if they thought it was too little, so they honestly paid the Star Coins.

Xie Yang was worried at first that there was no signal in the mine tunnel and that electronic transactions might not be possible.

She didn't expect that with the development of technology to this day, electronic transactions no longer required any network; a scan of the iris and a voice confirmation were enough to pay. Moreover, only the buyer and seller knew about this transaction; even if the Federation government wanted to check the transaction flow, they would need authorization from the parties involved. It could be called safe and fast.

Shipping was even more convenient: there was no need for the Main System to appear, the Sub-system could handle it.

This saved Xie Yang a lot of trouble.

On the first day of opening her small mine tunnel business, she sold about two hundred Octopus Balls and earned over eight hundred Star Coins.

Afterwards, there were always repeat customers private messaging her to buy more, and these repeat orders alone allowed her to maintain a profit of eight or nine hundred Star Coins every day.

Just like that, she mined in the morning, earned extra money in the afternoon, and occasionally went to the surface at noon to "get some air" and "stock up on ingredients" on the side; life was finally no longer so boring.

In a flash, it was the "Task Settlement Day" designated by the Mining System, which calculated the task completion rate of every miner for the past month.

Any miner who met the quota for the task would happily receive a three-day long weekend—they could leave the Mining Star and go home!

Xie Yang calculated the remaining minerals after meeting the task and the Star Coins earned from selling Octopus Balls.

She didn't know until she calculated it, but once she did, she discovered she could actually rank among the ranks of the little rich women—

The Rare Ore she opened from the Blind Box rewarded by the Sub-system totaled eighteen pieces, four of which were the Sub-system's favorite Cosmic Blue Stardust Crystal; one could buy a room in a sky villa in the core area of the Imperial Star, so four equaled four rooms.

Plus the remaining fourteen pieces of Rare Ore and the ordinary Platinum, Silver, and Copper Ore, it wouldn't be impossible to put together a complete sky villa.

Of course, houses on the Imperial Star, especially sky villas in the core area, couldn't be bought with just money; one also needed Contribution Value.

Contribution Value was issued periodically to Star Citizens by the Federation government, based on whether each person had made contributions to the entire star system during this phase.

The original body's family had long been huddled on the Garbage Star, and the contributions they could make were very limited.

In the family of four, only Xie Ba, who worked at the Garbage Recycling and Maintenance Station, had a stable amount of Contribution Value, while Xie Ma only had a meager amount of Contribution Value when she received temporary odd jobs.

The original body's older brother is a severe social phobic who stays at home long-term without going out, has no job and no social life, and in all likelihood will not marry or have children in the future, unable to make contributions to the development and reproduction of the galaxy; the Federation issues relief funds periodically, but he can forget about any Contribution Value.