Chapter 39: Dave's Crazy Shop.

With only three minutes remaining before the third wave of attacks, Dumb Snake and his companion finally returned.

At this point, a massive number of sunflowers had been planted across all three battle lines. Including the one Chen Jiang was stationed at, each line was filled with two hundred sunflowers. The wait time had been an hour and a half. One hour and fifteen minutes ago, they had taken the sunlight they harvested and replanted it to grow thirty-two sunflowers; fifteen minutes later, they repeated the process, resulting in sixty-four.

Every fifteen minutes, the total doubled. This extreme compound interest meant that even before the third wave began, their three battle lines were already saturated with two hundred sunflowers each, capable of producing 20,000 sun points every fifteen minutes.

It wasn't that they didn't want to plant more; they simply ran out of space. There were only 300 planting slots in total, and the remaining hundred were packed with pea shooters—every slot filled to the brim. They didn't even need walnuts. What was the point of all that "walnut-this, walnut-that" nonsense? Couldn't a pea shooter serve the same purpose? Let the zombies gnaw away—there were plenty of pea shooters waiting to fill the gaps. If they didn't bring in high-value plants, they would never be able to spend all their sun points; there was simply too much.

And so, when Dumb Snake and Xu Kun returned, they were met with a stunning sight: hundreds of sunflowers and pea shooters swaying in rhythm, turning the once-desolate Gobi desert into a place that felt almost bustling.

"How was the harvest?" Chen Jiang asked with a smile, no longer even bothering to look at the countdown for the third wave. Whatever the third stage held, he was ready. The allure of compound interest in this instance had proven terrifyingly effective.

In reality, this instance was quite simple. As long as one had the strength to withstand the zombies in the first two stages, utilizing all the sun from those levels to plant sunflowers allowed for a "steamroll" strategy from the third stage onward.

...

"The harvest was good." Dumb Snake grinned and handed over the items he had gathered. "There’s a special item from the instance scenario, a key, and a skill book."

"Oh?" Chen Jiang took the items. The special scenario item was a set of diving gear, perfect for diving into the deep sea to open the treasure chest—a reward he had originally thought he would have to abandon. The key was for the cabin located on the seabed. As for the skill book...

[Skill Name]: Cherry Bomb
[Skill Level]: Basic
[Skill Effect]: Permanently increases the damage of the player's explosive skills and items by 10%.
[Upgrade Requirement]: 1,000 Paradise Coins to upgrade to Proficient.

Chen Jiang glanced at Xu Kun, weighed the book in his hand, and tossed it to him. "It's yours."

This skill book was tailor-made for Xu Kun. It was a passive skill. While it seemed inferior to his pea shooters in the early game, its potential in the late game was far higher.

"Brother Jiang!" Xu Kun, after immediately using the book, thanked him with excitement and shared his player panel. "Look at my stats."

[Player Name]: Xu Kun
[Strength]: 11
[Agility]: 13
[Constitution]: 14
[Spirit]: 9
[Items]: None
[Balance]: None
[Skills]: Cherry Bomb (Basic)
[Explosive Skill/Item Damage Bonus]: 10%
[Faith]: None

After three months of specialized training, Xu Kun’s physical condition had improved significantly. The Spirit stat couldn't be helped—age was a factor. Honestly, he felt this passive skill was highly valuable. It meant that any bomb he threw would inherently be more powerful.

...

At that moment, the countdown for the third stage ended. Countless pale hands emerged from the sea, but before they could even surface, a storm of peas rained down. The firepower was so overwhelming that the zombies collapsed into the ocean before they could even finish landing.

"Brother Jiang," Dumb Snake reported with a serious expression. "On our way back from the treasure chest, just before reaching the jungle, we saw a small mountain next to the basin collapse, burying the center of it. If we had arrived any later, the chest would have been crushed."

"I suspect these special rewards are only obtainable in the early stages. Should I go check the seabed now? I don't want the chest down there to disappear too."

Chen Jiang nodded thoughtfully. The logic held up; if you played the game enough, you’d realize that with the right start, you could essentially go AFK for the rest of the run. But if you wanted to explore the island, the developers had made the special rewards scarce. If they were designed to vanish a few hours into the instance, the difficulty and rarity of obtaining them increased significantly.

As for Dumb Snake's suggestion, he turned to look at the churning sea and shook his head. "Wait until this wave ends and the sea settles before you go. You only know how to dive; you aren't an expert. In these conditions, if you go down there, you might not come back. Staying alive means more opportunities."

"There are plenty of 'tough guys' in this world. My master wasn't he tough? Yet he died just like that. Respect nature, respect the ocean."

He wasn't joking. He truly feared the ocean. Once, his master, refusing to accept his fear, had taken him far out into the deep sea, thrown him into the middle of the ocean, and told him to learn to adapt in an extreme environment. He had swallowed mouthfuls of water until he passed out, and when he was finally rescued, his stomach was bloated like a pregnant woman's. That feeling of helpless despair, of being unable to grab onto anything, had haunted him ever since. He respected the sea, and he was determined never to go out on it again.

Xu Kun, standing nearby, nodded in sudden realization. He knew it—someone like Brother Jiang must have received professional training. He just wondered who that master was, and what kind of organization they belonged to...

...

The third stage ended in the blink of an eye.

[Fourth Wave of Attacks, 01:17:28.]

The countdown for the fourth wave appeared in the air, and a panel floated before them.

[Ding! You have successfully passed the first three stages. More plants unlocked.]
[Repeater: 300 sun points. A pea shooter that fires two peas at once.]
[Cherry Bomb: 500 sun points. A one-time-use plant that can quickly clear a large area of zombies.]
[Torchwood: 500 sun points. Place in front of a pea shooter to significantly increase the power of its peas.]

"Brother Jiang, I'm heading down." Dumb Snake, having donned his diving gear, asked for permission.

"Go."

After Dumb Snake left, Chen Jiang checked his sun balance. It was essentially zero; he had used all his previous harvests to plant more pea shooters. He still had points coming in, so he would be able to harvest another batch soon. Every fifteen minutes, they brought in 20,000 sun points. Although he was currently broke, he would soon have plenty of sun to upgrade his plants and replace the standard pea shooters with Repeaters.

Soon enough, Dumb Snake emerged from the sea. He took off his gear, took a few deep breaths, and jogged over to Chen Jiang, his tone hurried. "Brother Jiang, we hit the jackpot!"

"There's a wooden chest and a mysterious cabin on the seabed. The chest contained a special item. When I used that key to open the cabin, it prompted me that I had entered 'Dave's Crazy Shop.' The shop stays open until the end of the tenth stage and is full of items and skill books."

"For example, 'Zombie Bloodline.' Once activated, it grants immense strength and invulnerability. It costs 100,000 sun points and can be brought out of the instance. There are over a dozen items like that!"

"Besides those, there are items that can't be brought out, like the 'Corn Cannon' permit. Buying it allows you to plant it within the instance. It costs 10,000 sun points."

"I didn't have enough sun to buy anything, so I came back. But I calculated that to buy everything that can be brought out of the instance, we need 780,000 sun points."

"..."

Chen Jiang took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing. This was a true jackpot. He hadn't expected the rewards for this final novice instance before becoming an official God’s Paradise player to be this generous.

In the previous instance, "Neon City," he had completed both the main and hidden tasks, but the rewards were meager—just a few Paradise Coins. In "Midnight City," he had also achieved a perfect run, but again, only received a few coins, a white-grade Uzi, a "Firearm Basics" skill book, and a trinket that some god liked. Nothing of real value.

The rewards for this instance might well exceed all his previous ones combined! He didn't even need to ask what the items in the shop were. Anything that could be brought out of the instance, he wanted!

780,000 sun points total. It wasn't too much. The three of them were producing 60,000 points every fifteen minutes—240,000 an hour. They would have enough in a few hours.

However, they needed to upgrade their plants to handle the increasingly difficult stages, and they had to buy the "Corn Cannon" permit to use more powerful plants against the high-difficulty stages after level ten. In that case, their sun points might be a bit tight...

...

Chen Jiang frowned in thought. The main issue was the lack of space; 300 slots were too few. Unless...

He suddenly thought of something and looked toward the two abandoned battle lines. Tentatively, he uprooted a sunflower from his line and planted it in a slot on one of the abandoned lines. A familiar progress bar appeared over the sunflower!

It worked!

The planting slots on the abandoned lines could be used, which would significantly increase their sunlight production rate! They could plant 600 more sunflowers. Their efficiency would double. Since there were no zombie attacks on those lines, they didn't even need to plant pea shooters—just sunflowers.

"Not bad," Chen Jiang remarked with satisfaction, though he added with a tinge of regret, "It would be even better if one more player died. That would open up another abandoned line for sunflowers."

"..."

Xu Kun stood nearby, silent for a long moment, before hesitatingly asking, "Brother Jiang, are you hinting at me? Should I... go die?"