Magic Farm 113

Chapter 113: The Subtle Use of the Locator Card

Qi Yu examined the little card in his hand.

It was a palm-sized, white card, with no color, no pattern—completely blank.

If not for the information provided by the survival panel, it would look just like any ordinary scrap of paper, the kind no one would spare a second glance at if it were dropped on the ground.

[ILoveSurvivalGame: Have you used it yet?]

[Need a Little Money to Save Me: Nope, I haven’t had a chance to use it.]

[ILoveSurvivalGame: It’s called a one-time locator card, and it doesn’t have any special quality marked. I don’t think it works the way you imagine—just inputting someone’s ID and being able to track their movements indefinitely.]

If it really worked like that, it wouldn’t be a one-time-use item.

After all, the [Locator Teleport Scroll] that Money had opened before sounded even more advanced than this, and it didn’t have the “one-time” label. Yet it could only be used once, and even then, it couldn’t force a visit to another player’s shelter.

[Need a Little Money to Save Me: Good point! Game boss, wait a sec, I’ll go find someone to help me test it!]

[ILoveSurvivalGame: ?]

Test it? That meant Money had more than one of these cards? Probably more than just a couple.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t offer one up for testing so casually.

[Need a Little Money to Save Me: Hehe, I got them from opening chests—there’s more!]

He didn’t say exactly how many, but in truth, he’d opened a whole stack of them, like sticky notes.

[ILoveSurvivalGame: .]

For a moment, he seemed to understand how some players in the region must feel.

Need a Little Money to Save Me, are you a good friend of Survival Game too?

But how exactly would they test it? And with whom?

He set aside these questions for now and opened the regional chat channel.

Where moments ago the atmosphere had been festive, now it was a chaotic mess.

A few people, clearly not thinking straight, had even directed their complaints at Qi Yu because of My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s, words.

But Qi Yu didn’t need to step in—someone was already lashing back:

[Grumpy Old Bro: My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s, killed people, and you blame the game boss? Seriously, are you just picking on him because he’s good-natured? I bet in real life, if a murderer committed a crime, you’d blame the shop that sold him the knife, wouldn’t you?]

[Grumpy Old Bro: If you’re going to run your mouth, why not first give up the green resource point in your backpack? You can’t keep mooching off the boss’s resources while badmouthing him, can you?]

[Grumpy Old Bro: I thought this game didn’t let in minors, so why do so many people act like their brains aren’t fully developed?]

[Grumpy Old Bro: I don’t even want to waste words cursing you—Little Old Me does a much better job at that.]

[Little Old Me: ??? @Grumpy Old Bro, what’s that supposed to mean? What’s it got to do with me?]

[Grumpy Old Bro: Who knows, maybe I’m just used to cursing you. If I don’t do it once a day, I feel off.]

[ILoveSurvivalGame: @My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s, is your mental attribute very low?]

The regional channel fell silent.

The main character had appeared.

[My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s: So the coward finally dares to show himself? Stop talking nonsense and just wait for me to deal with you.]

[ILoveSurvivalGame: I’m just concerned—at your current mental state, can you even survive until the next resource zone opens?]

From the way he’d been ranting just now, it was clear his mental state was already unstable.

Qi Yu had seen plenty of madmen like this before, though most of them in his previous life had been driven insane by sheer hardship.

He just hadn’t expected that life in Survival Game could be so easy, and yet still drive someone mad.

Truly fragile.

Qi Yu’s appearance was within many people’s expectations—and hopes.

Many now hated My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s, with a passion, and desperately wanted “ILoveSurvivalGame,” the greatest victim and the top player of Zone 01, to step forward and, on behalf of all the victims, have it out with My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s, once and for all.

Ideally, he would descend like a god, perhaps even pull out some powerful item, and initiate a forced duel to deal with this scum in one fell swoop.

Qi Yu’s reaction, however, was so calm it was as if he were just a bystander, not the intended victim.

This disappointed some.

But it also put others at ease.

Several friends messaged him privately:

[Serenity Leads to Distance: Just let it go. Don’t give people like that any attention—they’re just clowns seeking the spotlight.]

[Old Civil Engineer: Game boss, don’t get upset, and don’t waste your time arguing with a madman. He’s already given up on himself—not worth your energy.]

Qi Yu replied to both:

[ILoveSurvivalGame: Thanks for your concern. I’m not upset, and I’m not arguing.]

He honestly didn’t know why everyone thought he’d be angry—he didn’t even know if My Fate was round or flat.

As for someone wanting to kill him?

He’d seen far too many of those.

Not just secret plots—back in his previous life, he’d encountered people who openly showed their murderous intent.

If he could actually meet the guy face-to-face, settling the score would be fine. But in all his time in Survival Game, aside from those who used teleport scrolls, he’d never heard of two strangers meeting in Star Forest.

Clearly, at least at this stage, Survival Game didn’t support players killing each other—or perhaps it was protecting the “weak.”

Qi Yu looked at the chaotic chatter in the regional channel and thought everyone had too much time on their hands.

He opened the Swallow Points leaderboard and checked everyone’s scores.

Imitating the tone Shenben Wuxiang used when chatting idly with him:

[ILoveSurvivalGame: I checked the event points leaderboard. Aside from the few just behind me, no one else is even close to my score. Is everyone getting lazy? Not working hard enough? If you have time to waste in the chat, why not go kill a few more swallows?]

[Be a Good Person: ???]

[Grumpy Old Bro: ???]

[Cockroach Flavor Is Strange: ???]

Now, even the people arguing stopped and flooded the chat with question marks.

[Grumpy Old Bro: Your Majesty! We’re already charging forward for you—how can you group-taunt us without at least giving us a debuff immunity?]

[Cockroach Flavor Is Strange: Damn, got scolded by the game boss. But I just got some of his handouts, so I’ll just slink away quietly.]

[Grind King: This is great! Game boss, you finally said what I’ve always wanted to say. Whether you’re gossiping or arguing in the chat, you can’t earn points that way. If you get too caught up, you’ll get overtaken by someone who’s actually working hard!]

[The Harder I Compete, The Harder My Life: Haha, if someone else said it, I’d think they were being passive-aggressive, but if it’s Grind King, it’s definitely sincere.]

……

Just like that, the chaotic war of words came to an abrupt end.

Little Old Me, seeing this, felt more and more that “ILoveSurvivalGame” was unfathomable.

My Fate had gone mad, and as the person involved, any response from him would have left someone dissatisfied.

But instead, he acted as if he didn’t care at all, and smoothly shifted the topic to the points event that concerned everyone.

Now, everyone’s attention had been pulled away from the drama. Knowing My Fate as he did, Little Old Me figured this probably hurt him more than any direct insult.

It was a kind of “neglect.”

For someone like My Fate, who cared deeply about face and others’ opinions, but was fundamentally insecure, this was the hardest thing to bear.

He ranted a few more times in the regional channel, but it was hard to attract the same attention as before.

Some brave players even taunted him:

[My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s, if you keep acting crazy and don’t work harder, you might not even keep your fourth-place spot!]

They didn’t even call him “boss” anymore, which only made My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s, lose it even more.

At that moment, Qi Yu appeared again:

[ILoveSurvivalGame: Buying Swallow Meat on the personal trading page, same price as last time.]

He set up the same 50,000 beast crystal auto-trade as before.

After the previous server-wide announcement, everyone now knew that the game boss was buying Swallow Meat because he had a channel to the outside world.

Just as he’d said: Swallow Meat was useful to him, but maybe not to anyone else.

Unless someone could, like the game boss, “explore” other regions, there was really no point in holding onto it.

The trading channel filled up quickly.

[Little Old Me: @ILoveSurvivalGame, game boss, can you take me off your blacklist?]

Swallow Meat wasn’t the point—the point was that ILoveSurvivalGame controlled a unique channel, and might someday sell something irreplaceable, like the “Magma Dragon Thermal Suit.”

Now, having just exposed My Fate’s “true face,” this was the perfect time to curry favor, and the best chance to get off the blacklist.

Qi Yu ignored him.

[Little Old Me: Boss, I admit I followed the wrong leader and did some bad things, but I really want to change. Can’t you give me a chance? @ILoveSurvivalGame]

[ILoveSurvivalGame: No.]

[ILoveSurvivalGame: Everyone I’ve blacklisted has insulted me or my goods.]

Little Old Me gritted his teeth.

How could someone be so impervious to both carrot and stick!

[Grumpy Old Bro: Haha, Little Old Me, take your brother’s advice—don’t try any of your tricks on the game boss. Didn’t you learn your lesson in the Pantheon? The boss is someone you simply can’t target.]

[Old Civil Engineer: I’m just saying, with a game boss like this in our region—discounts from wandering merchants, resource point rewards—no one’s asking you to worship him, but at least show some gratitude.]

[Don’t Dare Open My Eyes: Exactly. That server-wide announcement just now—I can only imagine how envious the other regions must be.]

.

[Need a Little Money to Save Me: Boss, the test is done.]

[Need a Little Money to Save Me: You were right. After you write someone’s ID on the locator card, the tracking function only lasts one minute. After a minute, it expires—no wonder it’s called a one-time locator card. Now I see why Survival Game was so generous with me.]

[Need a Little Money to Save Me: I just tested it with Little Eye Bro—his shelter is 215 kilometers away from me. At that distance, and with players required to stay in their shelters at night, there’s basically no way to use this to visit someone else’s shelter.]

[Need a Little Money to Save Me: But we both think it has other clever uses.]

[Need a Little Money to Save Me: When the resource zone opens next time, anyone who gets a resource zone card can use this to meet up in person!]