While Chen Qiang and the others began hunting Xiao Yi down, he was busy leisurely gardening in Valley of Light.
Gardening was a very time-consuming profession, each plant had a different growth time and there were restrictions on what someone could grow regarding their gathering level. There were also equipment upgrades that could be bought late-level such as auto-harvesting systems, watering, fertilizing, breeding crops... Eventually, there would be levels to crops described as S - F, and year systems for rare ones.
The cooking system was quite similar, although there would be no auto-cooking system, and instead, there would be a shorter time for the mini-game.
As someone who had focused far too much on the combat system, getting geared, PVP, and dungeons before, Xiao Yi had only just begun his cooking and gathering professions in the last few months. He hadn't yet touched fishing, crafting, or alchemy, either.
Each level also had its own benefits, like players getting extra stats or the profession store items discounting the further the specific professions level and there was no cap level.
Pretty much, Xiao Yi was a noob. He even had plant guides open on the other monitor!
Sleepy paused his gathering of fruit trees and made his way over to another portion of his garden - the herbs.
He had an ingenious plan. Since cooking was a money-sinking profession to level with no set market prices, he wouldn't only focus on growing what he could use in cooking but sell to the alchemist and medicine shops in order to get some extra gold on the side. It wasn't like he was using those plots of land, anyway.
He began pulling Red Ginger, White Peony, and Schisandra Berries from the ground, removed the roots from the first two, and walked back to his house to use his warehouse.
He had 100 of each and estimated that he'd gain approximately 54,000 gold after factoring in seed and water prices. He hummed happily and took the medical ingredients and a few ingredients he wouldn't use for his own cooking needs and left his small abode.
One of the bonuses of creating chaos for 'Frost' was that almost everyone forgot about the small assassin vs assassin mission that 'Sleepy' had blown up for, allowing him to wander the main city without needing to switch to an alt or buy another name randomizer.
It was the middle of the week so there weren't as many people online, likely either working or at school, but there were still a few players sprinkled around in their own conversation.
He glanced at a team of guildmates laughing at an outdoor table of a player-owned tavern and quickly glanced away.
Those kids.
Hopefully, they didn't end up like him and his friends.
Hopefully, they don't dare to have the audacious dreams of becoming esports players together.
He shook his head as he found himself in front of one of the few player-owned apothecaries that wasn't run by a guild. It was a quaint shop that looked overcrowded with boxes meant to serve as warehouses that players who didn't work there could only glimpse into, but not take from.
Within a minute of him walking into the small shop, a player rushed in the door behind him and swiftly ran behind the counter while talking through his mic. "Sorry, I just went to deliver something - what can I help you with today?"
His voice was that of an old man. Actually, if Xiao Yi were to be precise, this man sounded similar to Chen Qiang's grandfather who had already long retired.
Xiao Yi perked up a bit at that and turned on his mic, replying back. "I would like to sell some herbs."
"Ah?" The man behind the counter moved to the left and pointed to the table. "Put it down, let me see what you've brought. There are a few things I'm overstocked with as is..."
Sleepy walked up to the counter and obediently laid out what he'd farmed. If this man didn't need anything, it wasn't a big deal - there were a dozen more players or guild-owned apothecaries in the game.
"I'll take it all, is 56,000 gold a fair price?"
Xiao Yi was hoping to make 60,000 in order to make a bit more profit after taking away the gold and time needed to grow the herbs but... "I'll sell to you for that price."
"Great! If there's anything else you want to sell, let me know."
"Is there anything that you need?"
"Well, there was an influx of gatherers a few years ago but now they've either quit the game, gone onto other professions, only gather for their guilds, or got bored, so anything that is grown in a garden or homestead is fine. The on-ground gather-ables like mushrooms and some low-quality herbs are generally easy for me to get."
Sleepy nodded. "I'm leveling gathering right now so I'll come to you with the next batch."