Chapter 49: Lord Banana

Ye Da made a rough estimate: each banana tree bore around two or three hundred bananas.

There were five trees here with bananas ripe enough to eat immediately; the rest were still green and not yet ready, needing more time to ripen. Ye Da had no intention of picking the green bananas—one should always leave some room for future opportunities. After all, picking them now wouldn't fetch a good price, and would only add to the burden. Better to let them hang and ripen further.

He could return every few days, taking away the ripe ones and leaving the rest. With any luck... this banana grove could provide him with bananas to sell for at least ten days, maybe half a month. Perhaps soon, instead of being known as the Bear-Slayer, he would earn a new moniker—the Banana King.

"What a fragrance."

Ye Da snapped off a banana so ripe its skin was almost bursting. The moment he tore open the peel, a powerful aroma swept over him—a scent so strong it was almost pungent.

That slightly sharp sweetness was actually the ester compounds released by fully ripened bananas.

This was proof the banana was perfectly ripe!

The flesh was creamy white, plump, and round, resembling a peeled lotus root.

This was the signature of the Da Mi Qi variety—it wasn't slender and curved like the bananas sold nowadays, but was plump and rounded from top to bottom.

If modern bananas could be compared to slender beauties, Da Mi Qi was like the voluptuous beauties of the Tang Dynasty.

Just a glance was enough to make one's mouth water.

He took a bite.

The soft, sweet texture blossomed instantly across his taste buds!

Da Mi Qi bananas were full and satisfying, yet not at all dense—instead, they had a fluffy consistency, combined with a delicate and silky mouthfeel. It was as though Ye Da was eating the finest banana-flavored cream.

Delicious—simply delicious.

Moreover, these Da Mi Qi bananas were much larger than the standard Dole or Taiwan varieties found in the market!

Ye Da suspected that just two of these bananas would weigh a whole pound!

Having finished one, he even felt faintly full.

Truly delicious.

[Trading Market]

[One naturally ripened, extinct Da Mi Qi banana: exchange for 10 units of inferior lumber.]

Ye Da picked a whole bunch of bananas and listed them on the market.

He had assumed he could simply put an entire bunch—around a dozen clusters—on the trading channel and sell them directly.

But the listing on his market stall showed...

[Banana +1 bunch]

"..."

Ye Da was speechless at this unit of measurement.

Was this market really that unintelligent? He had thought he could toss in a whole bunch and have it sold by individual banana, but apparently, he had to separate them for individual sale himself.

Left with no choice, Ye Da took the bananas out of his storage backpack and split them up, placing them back in one by one—which took up quite a bit of space.

Even though his backpack had already been upgraded.

Now, his backpack could hold 10 stacks of 20 slots each, but that was only enough for 200 bananas—barely enough for a single banana tree, let alone the rest.

Ordinarily, Ye Da would have just taken all the bananas, returned to his treehouse, and unloaded them.

But now...

He was already close to the cannibal cave in the Greyrock Mountains—prime time for sneaking into the goblin treasure hoard. He didn't want to waste precious backpack space on a few bananas.

Bananas could be sold, true, but as the saying goes: if you can't part with the bananas, you'll never have room for treasure!

While Ye Da was fretting over what to do with the bananas...

He hadn't expected the bananas to sell a hundred times better than he thought.

Just now—

The two hundred bananas he posted on the trading market were snatched up within minutes!

And there were still plenty of people posting buy requests for bananas!

[Naturally ripened, extinct Da Mi Qi banana: exchange for 1 unit of standard lumber.]

"Damn, you animals! So quick with your hands—I just saw the listing and you already bought them all? How desperate are you, fighting over the Bear-Slayer’s bananas!"

"Wah, I was a moment too late! Please, I want bananas too!!!"

"Ten units of inferior lumber—Bear-Slayer is really being generous this time!"

"Looking to buy bananas—do you have any left, Boss?"

"Same here!"

The bananas Ye Da had just placed in his backpack were gone in a flash, traded for 200 units of standard lumber, filling his backpack to the brim.

[Combine!]

[-200 units standard lumber, +20 units superior lumber.]

One slot occupied—much more manageable.

Since sales were so brisk, Ye Da chopped down all the ripe bananas, split them, and listed them for sale. The players, apparently having honed their reflexes elsewhere, had hands as fast as single men of eighteen years—everything Ye Da listed was gone in seconds.

Eventually, Ye Da couldn’t even post bananas as fast as the “Kirin Arm” crowd could buy them.

When all the bananas were gone, Ye Da’s backpack now held 100 units of superior lumber.

That took up half the space in his magical storage backpack.

But now he was heading for the treasure cave.

Bringing so much material along wasn’t ideal!

Perhaps...

Ye Da scanned his surroundings. Next to the banana grove was a patch of grass, the stalks growing taller than a man—taller even than the famed scallions of Shandong.

After a moment’s thought, he hid all the superior lumber there.

After all, this stuff wasn’t edible, and as for use... apart from humans—those tool-wielding, fire-making primates—this lumber was no different from any other tree or flower to the animals of the forest.

Furthermore...

Ye Da had yet to encounter any other players in this forest.

So, he felt quite safe hiding his lumber in the grass.

Still...

Just to be safe, Ye Da covered the pile with some dead leaves for a bit of camouflage.

After emptying his backpack, Ye Da continued toward the cave in the Greyrock Mountains.

The map showed he was already very close.

Just a few minutes’ walk, at most.

But the closer he got, the more anxious he became.

After all, both cannibals and goblins were iron-tier warriors!

Although Ye Da had recently joined their ranks, that didn’t mean he could take on ten of them at once—let alone a hundred.

So he had to be careful—extremely careful.

Ideally, he’d pull off the theft without anyone knowing. That was the strategy of someone like Ye Da, the type who preferred to lie low and survive to the end in battle royales—a cautious, steady approach!

However...

Despite circling the area several times following the map, Ye Da still couldn’t locate the entrance to the cave.

Was it really this well hidden?

Left with no choice, Ye Da focused his attention on the spot the map marked as the cave’s location, staring at it for a while.

[Cannibal Cave: The cave is currently empty—a perfect time for a heist.]

[PS: If you’re lucky, you might find the goblins’ secret treasure here. That treasure hides a tremendous secret. Of course, this is a secret you might not wish to know.]