Large Vegetable Culture Medium (Excellent) Area: 35 square meters (water requirement: 50 ml/square meter/day) Description: Slightly accelerates vegetable growth, automatically pollinates, and the vegetables grown will not be lower than the Culture Medium's grade. Special Ability: Light Gathering Sensor (As long as part of the Culture Medium's land receives light, the effect can be transmitted to all vegetables.)
"Master, look! There's a Culture Medium here. Xiaomin will pick vegetables from the Culture Medium for you to eat." Seeing the properties of the Culture Medium, Su Mo laughed. No wonder Fengzi Ge had not had the confidence to keep raising the price.
Even he probably did not believe that people could provide the 1,750 ml of water required once the Culture Medium was fully planted each day.
Moreover, using that much water to irrigate vegetables would not be as profitable as trading the water directly.
Su Mo did not care about this at all.
His keen powers of observation had led him to notice the Culture Medium's property description.
The level of the vegetables grown would not be lower than Excellent quality.
This attribute seemed somewhat useless, but in Su Mo's hands, it was practically a divine artifact.
As long as he had extra Survival Points, he could invest them into upgrading the Culture Medium's quality, and the vegetables would improve along with it.
Just imagine vegetables of Rare grade or even higher later on.
Tears of delight flowed from Su Mo's mouth.
After opening the trading panel, Su Mo easily bought enough seeds to plant thirty-five square meters.
The price of these seeds was unbelievably low.
They had cost only 10 ml of water!
In the civilized era, what could 10 ml of water do? Take Nongfu Spring's bottle cap for example—it held nearly 8 ml.
Su Mo had traded a little more than one bottle cap of water for dozens of seeds. The discount on that deal was so huge that even Hua Tuo would have shed tears.
For two whole days, Su Mo had not eaten a single shred of vegetable. His mouth was practically growing feathers from blandness.
The farming talent engraved in his ancient bloodline had been activated the moment Su Mo got the seeds! Of the seeds for thirty-five square meters, he planned to use more than half to grow tomatoes, while planting garlic and Chinese Cabbage in the remaining area.
In the early years, people in the south lived in fertile regions and met their bodies' vitamin needs through a rich variety of vegetables, fruits, and seafood.
People in the north, however, had been limited by their water and land conditions to planting only a few vegetables that could keep them alive.
Among these, tomatoes, garlic, cabbage, and potatoes were the main four.
Tomatoes promoted digestion and relieved constipation.
Garlic detoxified, killed parasites, eliminated bacteria, and strengthened the stomach. Garlic sprouts could also be stir-fried to add fragrance to dishes, or eaten as snacks.
Potatoes produced a high yield per acre and were filling. One meal could provide enough energy for a full day's work.
Cabbage was included in the northern diet because it was easy to store and tasted good.
These four vegetables were all highly suitable for Su Mo at present.
After some consideration, Su Mo gave up on planting potatoes.
He summoned the Vegetable Culture Medium from his inventory. The previously spacious shelter immediately became cramped.
After placing the Culture Medium beneath the skylight and burying all the vegetable seeds at proper intervals, Su Mo thought, "Tomatoes and garlic both take about three months to mature, while cabbage is a little faster—about two months."
"I just don't know how much this Culture Medium can accelerate them."
Planting was troublesome.
Su Mo did not know much about agriculture and could only hope the Culture Medium would live up to its name.
After all, finding suitable fertilizer in the apocalypse was too difficult. As for adding some wood ash, Su Mo thought about it and decided to wait until after surviving the first disaster.
Without clocks, everyone living on the wasteland had returned to the routine of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.
Sitting on a stool, Su Mo began calculating the supplies he currently had.
First was the most important resource at the base: Psionic Water.
After an afternoon of storage, the Psionic Water had accumulated to 1,000 ml again.
At a rate of 300 ml per hour, Su Mo wanted to dump it all onto the market and trade it for supplies if not for his need to control the amount he released.
The strategic mineral resource iron had currently reached 130 units through trading.
If the shelter was to be converted into an iron structure in the future, calculating two Iron Blocks per square meter, he was still seventy units short of fully upgrading the shelter's material structure and making it sturdier and safer.
However, without a lightning rod system, that could only remain an idea for now.
As for food, he had eaten one jin of Large Rye Bread that afternoon, leaving nine jin.
This stuff was filling and hard as stone. Without soaking it in water, Su Mo's teeth could not bite through it at all.
The remaining miscellaneous items were a Pet Egg and a blueprint.
After finishing his inventory, Su Mo went to browse the Trading Market again. Compared with the bustling scene that afternoon, the market had become deserted at night.
Water and food remained hard currency, and both were in extremely short supply.
Or rather, everyone was stockpiling them.
After all, apart from Su Mo, no one knew whether they would still be able to find water tomorrow after finishing the water they had.
Having found nothing valuable, Su Mo idly went to lurk in the chat channels again.
His main purpose was to gather information.
There were too many messages in the World Channel. At night, everyone was trapped in their shelters and could only go there to communicate and ease their loneliness.
Su Mo skimmed through them rapidly, stopping to take a look only when he came across keywords that interested him.
After the first day, by the second day, many players had encountered ruins refreshing right beside them.
However, not everyone had the courage to enter and explore.
Most merely watched from the outskirts.
According to the descriptions of some players who had entered, once someone entered the ruins, the ruins would disappear as soon as they retreated.
There was only one chance to explore them.
The time they could remain inside was also limited. According to some vague accounts, they would basically be forcibly thrown out after about two hours.
As for what dangers existed inside the ruins or what they contained, not a single person had mentioned anything.
After receiving this information, Su Mo's heart tightened.
The ruins might not be as wonderful as some people imagined. There were dangers lurking within them as well.
No one was saying exactly what dangers were inside, which most likely meant that none of those who encountered danger had survived to return to their bases.
Only those who survived could speak.
The dead had all shut their mouths.
There were only 762 people left in the Area Channel, which was the best proof.
In a single day, more than two hundred people had died on the wasteland, never to return to Earth and see their families again.
Su Mo could not help feeling a sense of grief at the misfortune of others.
If the ruins refreshed beside him tomorrow, should he enter or not?
Hunkering down in the base and slowly developing with the help of Psionic Water was certainly a good plan, but the generous rewards for killing the chameleon made Su Mo unable to resist the temptation.
The upgrade path of the Doomsday Survival System also required items to activate.
If he followed the normal course of development, with no disasters or Mutated Creatures, Su Mo could hide here until the end of time.
But here, that would not do!
Terrifying Mutated Beasts, randomly refreshing ruins, and unknown disasters. "Hiding in here makes me feel too insecure. In the end, my base is simply too weak. Even the door is wooden right now. If a stronger Mutated Beast comes, I might die without even knowing how."
"If ruins appear, I have to go in and investigate. When the time comes, I'll explore the outskirts, and retreat immediately if anything goes wrong."
Under the bright firelight, a trace of steely resolve appeared on Su Mo's face.
In the apocalypse, advancing or falling behind were the only choices.
When it came to supplies and developing the shelter, he had the system. He was confident that no one could surpass him.
As for individual strength and mentality, Su Mo did not want to fall behind there either.
"When my family arrives, I must have enough strength to protect them!"
After questioning himself repeatedly and solidifying his resolve, Su Mo's mindset underwent a tremendous change for the first time.
The humility and refinement in human nature from the civilized era were gradually being discarded, while the ferocity and wildness belonging to animals were continually awakening.
Clutching the Beech Spear, Su Mo lay down on the bed.
A moment later, as his breathing gradually steadied, he entered the land of dreams.
In the darkness, starlight spilled down, and countless black figures moved nimbly across the wasteland, raising waves of roars.
One human shelter after another was breached, and cries of agony and animal roars rang out before gradually falling silent with time.
There were also countless tough warriors who set traps and deliberately lured Mutated Beasts in, waiting for them to come knocking before capturing and killing them in one strike.
In the mining area, countless hardworking people still held up torches, bent over the veins, and mined resources.
The second day of the Doomsday Calendar.
Humanity's survival situation was hanging by a thread!
Thanks to Grey Meow Police Chief for the ten-thousand reward, thanks to Zhong Du Xiu for the 100 reward, thanks to Liang Yue Ru Mei Gua Liu Wan for the 100 reward, and thanks to Knowledge Circle for the monthly ticket! Thanks to all the esteemed readers—this Newbie offers his deepest gratitude!
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