Chapter 153 – Vanilla Forest (Part 1)

Flowers and grass don’t need your care!

This was the introduction to Vanilla Forest. At first glance, nine out of ten players would probably be baffled. But if that tenth player happened to be a Demon Refiner or a Life Skiller, they’d immediately understand.

Across the entirety of Huaxia Online, not every Life Skiller was a Demon Refiner, but every Demon Refiner—whether willingly or unwillingly—would inevitably become a Life Skiller. The reason was simple: when first captured, pets were wild and unbalanced in both stats and skills, like students with skewed strengths—some were eccentric geniuses with defense as tough as rhino hide but attack as weak as cookie crumbs; others were mediocre jacks-of-all-trades with neither outstanding offense nor defense, saddled with dozens of bound skills, none of which stood out. And of course, there were the completely useless trash pets. The trash was worthless, but the eccentric and the mediocre could, through the skillful hands of a Demon Refiner, undergo a metamorphosis into butterflies. However, all top-tier pets were like lightbulbs—born from countless failed experiments. Only Demon Refiners with perseverance rivaling Edison’s, after thousands of attempts, combinations, and refinements, sacrificing countless innocent pets, could finally succeed—provided their luck wasn’t abysmal.

Thus, scouring the land for materials and capturing pets became a mandatory course for every Demon Refiner. While Gathering was a Life Skill available to all Huaxia players, other classes could treat it as an elective, and even Life Skillers could choose not to specialize in it, opting instead for crafting accessories, weapons, or gear. But Demon Refiners had no choice—Gathering was compulsory.

A saying circulated in Huaxia Online: Love someone? Make them play a Demon Refiner—the joy of birthing a top-tier summon is like heaven. Hate someone? Make them play a Demon Refiner—the feeling of turning an MMORPG into a single-player game is hell.

Countless Demon Refiners cycled between these heavens and hells, sometimes elated by unexpectedly refining a stunning pet, other times despondent as they watched others PVP while they pulled weeds across the map.

But Refined Into a Demon 715 was an exception.

Of course, he preferred his nickname—438.

If Huaxia were to hold a vote for the happiest Demon Refiner, 438 would undoubtedly be a strong contender. Because he refined when he wanted, gathered when he wanted, PVP’d when he wanted—and, through sheer good karma, had teammates who, despite being tortured a hundred times by his shameless habit of gathering materials mid-dungeon boss fight, still treated him like their first love.

Why was he so lucky?

If you asked 438 this question, he’d firmly tell you it was because he lived by an ancient creed in Huaxia—karma is accumulated.

For example, right now, he had just entered the Vanilla Forest zone. His character hadn’t even fully rendered yet when his eyes caught a message in World Chat:

[Vanilla] Wandering Monk: Spinning 7,200 degrees through heaven and earth begging to buy Ephedra Herb!!!

[Vanilla] Wandering Monk: Spinning 7,200 degrees through heaven and earth begging to buy Ephedra Herb!!!

Ephedra Herb was rare, but since it was almost never used in crafting—whether for refining pets or potions—it remained obscure, as plain and unremarkable as its name.

Precisely because it was so overlooked, such desperate pleas for it were all the more intriguing—especially in Vanilla Forest, a zone teeming with keen-nosed Demon Refiners and merchants.

[Vanilla] Dr. Agasa: There’s something that requires Ephedra Herb to refine?

[Vanilla] Spring Breeze Doesn’t Get It: Don’t keep it to yourself! We’re all in the same boat—share the knowledge!

[Vanilla] Wandering Monk: If you have some, whisper me. If not, don’t butt in and make noise.

[Vanilla] Horsetail Whisk: I’ve got some. Tell me what you’re refining, and I’ll sell it to you. [smirk]

[Vanilla] Wandering Monk: Whisper me.

Seeing that buyer and seller had already connected, 438 silently closed his inventory window, which he’d just opened.

He’d come across three Ephedra Herbs by chance. Because they were genuinely rare, he’d used one immediately—only for his perfectly good squid pet to die with its eyes wide open in the Demon Refinery. Since then, the remaining two had been too valuable to discard but too deadly to use, so they’d sat at the bottom of his inventory until today. He’d thought he finally had a chance to clear them out—freeing up space while doing someone a favor and earning karma points—only for someone else to beat him to it. A faint melancholy settled over him, as if his mission had gotten off to an unlucky start.

Still, this proved Ephedra Herb did have a use, igniting a scientist’s fervor in 438. Sure, asking Wandering Monk would be the fastest way to get an answer, but just as he wouldn’t casually reveal that 748 was synthesized from a catfish monster and a Gale Pet, he wouldn’t pry into others’ secret recipes either. Since it was confirmed useful, figuring out how was just a matter of time—maybe his research would yield even more advanced applications than whatever Wandering Monk knew. ╮(╯_╰)╭

After this self-consolation, 438 cast aside his lingering melancholy and focused entirely on studying his surroundings.

The system’s top-right display indicated he was in Vanilla City, a Main City-like area with bustling players, shops selling items and potions, and his current location—the respawn point.

438 hadn’t moved since entering the zone, but most players lacked his patience. People constantly spawned in and hurried away. Some, like him, were at full HP, while others staggered weakly, clearly suffering from Resurrection Sickness. This meant the respawn point wasn’t just for entering the zone—it was also where players revived after dying within it.

But how could there be deaths in the supposedly peaceful Vanilla Forest? People came here to gather herbs, not to play Shen Nung tasting poisonous plants…

Puzzled, 438 maneuvered his Junior Demon Refiner around, scouting the map. Before he knew it, he’d wandered out of Vanilla City. Right after leaving, the map displayed “West Exit,” but as the grass beneath his feet thinned and the surrounding shrubs grew taller, the sunlight dimmed, and unidentified creatures darted through the distant dense woods, the label changed to “Spirit Valley.”

Clearly, this was the open-world map outside the city—the true heart of the zone.

And there had to be more than one such area—after all, if there was a West Exit, there should be South and North Exits too.

Lost in thought, 438 ventured deeper into the valley. By the time he remembered to stop and look around, he’d long lost his bearings. Strangely, Spirit Valley had no visible coordinates—what kind of treasure was hidden here to warrant such secrecy?

[Vanilla] Wandering Monk: Spinning 7,200 degrees through heaven, earth, and sea, plus a backward somersault eight times, begging to buy Ephedra Herb!! Scammers scram!! Serious inquiries only!!

While 438 was baffled in Spirit Valley, a certain determined comrade had started spamming World Chat again—this time with an even more difficult routine.

Clearly, the earlier private negotiation hadn’t gone well.

Faced with a second chance from the heavens, 438 decisively sent a whisper:

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: I’ve got two.

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: Screenshot.

The previous negotiation’s failure had clearly wounded the monk’s tender heart.

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: [Image]

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: How much do you want?

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: Up to you. I don’t have a use for them anyway.

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: Stop joking. I’ve been shouting forever—I’m serious. Just name your price.

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: 500.

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: Brother, are you out of your mind? For 500, I could buy a top-tier pet—why bother refining?

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: 500 Huaxia Coins.

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: Each?

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: For both.

Wandering Monk, who had been typing one-handed while shoveling seafood fried rice into his mouth, paused. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the laptop screen, scrutinizing 438 like a spy. After years in Huaxia, he’d encountered nothing but traps and pitfalls—even the occasional freebie was stuffed with poison.

Huaxia’s trading system required both parties to lock in their items, confirm the other’s locked items were what they wanted, and then agree to the trade. If either party canceled at any point, the trade wouldn’t go through, effectively preventing scams during transactions. Early in Huaxia’s history, before the system matured, trading hacks existed—but after player reports, the developers quickly patched them. Since then, scammers had to resort to…

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: That’s really not expensive. Give me your location—I’ll come to you.

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: I don’t know where I am. There aren’t even coords here. Let’s just use the courier.

Yeah, that kind of trick. =_=

Wandering Monk’s hunger vanished. As someone who could chat for half an hour with a scam caller and send a dozen follow-up texts to a loan shark’s SMS, he decided to abandon his half-eaten fried rice and let this clumsy, outdated scammer fill the emptiness of his late-night hours.

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: Fine. Do you have stamps?

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: Yeah.

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: Then mail them first. I’m out of stamps—gotta buy some.

Mailing items in this zone wasn’t as convenient as in regular servers. You needed the item [Huaxia Stamp], which wasn’t expensive but couldn’t be bought at general stores—only from the Item Mall or merchant alts reselling them.

Asking the other party to mail first was just a feint. Serious traders would be wary of sending items without payment, let alone a scammer. Wandering Monk just wanted to use this as an opening to string the other guy along.

First, the scammer would say, How can I do that? What if I send the stuff and you don’t pay?

Then he’d reply, Well, what if I pay first and you don’t send the stuff?

At this point, the scammer would theatrically protest, How could you think that of me? I’ve been in Huaxia for years—would I really cheat you out of 500 coins, blah blah blah.

And that was exactly what Wandering Monk was waiting for, because once those words were out, the conversation could spiral into countless directions—How many years have you played? What servers were you on? Oh, me too! Who was the strongest player back then? Oh yeah, him! Do you know what happened to him later? And so on. They could reminisce about the past, speculate about the future, and by the time dawn broke, he’d send a breezy Sorry, I changed my mind into the first light of morning.

Of course, this was Wandering Monk’s fantasy. He’d used this routine on countless scammers—the most successful one had lasted until 3:40 AM before sending a terse Are you fucking stupid? into the cold night air.

It was now 00:29 Beijing Time in Vanilla Forest. Wandering Monk hoped this special zone would bring him a new kind of joy…

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: Done. Mailed it. Let me know if you got it.

Wait. =_=

[System] Huaxia Courier: You have a package. Please confirm receipt.

Hold on!

[System] Wandering Monk has confirmed receipt of Ephedra Herb x2 from Refined Into a Demon 715.

Nooo! He didn’t mean to confirm!! TAT

Dammit, he reflexively clicked confirm the moment he saw it!!!

And it was genuine Ephedra Herb, roots and all, giving off an herbal fragrance!!!

Where was the scam? The trick? Was this guy a modern-day Li Shizhen¹A renowned Chinese pharmacologist from the Ming dynasty, famous for his work, “the Compendium of Materia Medica.” or just an alias for “Good Samaritan”?!!! TAT

……

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: Didn’t get it?

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: The system says you did.

Got it, got it—just buying stamps from a merchant alt now!

……

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: ?

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: Buying stamps?

Dammit, out of all the merchants trading materials in the world, not one sells stamps?!

……

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: You there?

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: Still waiting for the money.

Obviously! You don’t know your coords, and I haven’t bought stamps yet—how am I supposed to send it? Fine, fine, I’ll just buy from the mall. It’s only a few bucks—stop rushing me!

……

[Whisper] Refined Into a Demon 715: Uh… are you a scammer?

[Whisper] Wandering Monk: I’M NOT!!!

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  A renowned Chinese pharmacologist from the Ming dynasty, famous for his work, “the Compendium of Materia Medica.”