Ideas Three

"Planning to buy some? Is that your...?" Yu Hong looked at the chubby girl and asked softly.

"Yes, my daughter, Aisena," Li Runshan said with a smile. "She's very sensible and can even draw. I'll show you her drawings when you have time; they're very beautiful."

As he spoke, he pulled a rolled-up piece of white paper from his waist bag.

The paper listed rows of items for exchange.

'Edible Wild Vegetables.'

'Cattle Leg Mushrooms.'

'Sanitary Cockroaches.'

'Red Tail Lizards.'

'Custom Small Furniture.'

'Mailed Letters.'

'Mailed Items.'

'Candles.'

'Basic Survival Skills Teaching.'

'Basic Fighting Skills Teaching.'

'Basic Firearms and Weaponry Skills Teaching.'

"." Looking at the extremely detailed exchange list, Yu Hong was silent.

"No wonder you dare to bring a child alone to this wilderness; you're indeed impressive!" he murmured in admiration.

"You flatter me, you flatter me..." Li Runshan smiled. "These are actually essential skills for a postman. After all, some places lack everything, so you have to do it all yourself."

"What can these items be exchanged for?" Yu Hong asked. "I don't see any prices marked."

"It depends on what you have. For example, I'm currently cultivating mushrooms and breeding cockroaches, so I'm short on food and water. If you can provide some, it can be used as a trade. Of course, Glowstone and Large Glowstone would be even better," Li Runshan said with a smile.

"I have Large Glowstone, but the price needs to be discussed... Also, if I exchange for this Basic Survival Manual, will you teach me how to cultivate mushrooms?" Yu Hong asked.

"I can, it mainly depends on what you need and what you lack, to fill in the gaps," Li Runshan nodded. "These aren't really secrets; they're essential skills for wilderness survival."

Yu Hong nodded. From this, it seemed that this Li Runshan was much more versatile than the previous postman.

"I'd like you to teach me how to cultivate mushrooms and lizards, as well as basic fighting skills and firearms skills. How much will that cost?"

"Do you have any spare food? I'm running a bit short here," Li Runshan asked.

"Will this do?" Yu Hong took out a Protein Bar and handed it over. "One of these can keep you full for a day; it's very filling. I made it myself."

Li Runshan raised an eyebrow, took the Protein Bar, and examined it.

"Can I try it?"

"Of course," Yu Hong nodded.

Li Runshan picked it up and smelled it, then broke off a small piece and put it in his mouth, squinting his eyes, a faint wrinkle appearing on his face.

"Very high in calories! There's sesame, peanuts, butter, sugar, cream, rice flour... Hmm, and a lot of things I can't taste. This thing can't be made by you; you don't have that many ingredients."

Yu Hong was shocked. He didn't expect the other party to be so powerful, able to distinguish so many ingredients with just one taste. He knew that this Protein Bar was extremely sweet, and most of the flavors were masked, so he couldn't taste anything. Unexpectedly, he remained calm and said, "You're right, this is my old stock. There's not much left. Just tell me if you can trade or not?"

"I can. You want to trade for breeding technology. I'll count it as ten of these, provided that one of these can really last for a day." Li Runshan nodded. "As for the other fighting and firearms skills... Fighting is divided into many subcategories, and it requires extremely high calorie intake. Food supplementation must be in place, otherwise it will hurt your body. I suggest you choose a specific area to study first. Such as boxing, ground techniques, leg techniques, swordsmanship, etc.

As for firearms, I can at most give you the manual I recorded. You can practice on your own. To be honest, there is a shortage of bullets now. The higher-ups believe that firearms are useless against the Black Calamity, so they have converted a large number of military factories to other uses. Therefore, firearms and bullets are used less and less. They are generally only used internally. I suggest you switch to shooting. I happen to have a lot of experience with slingshots."

"Slingshot??" Yu Hong blinked, wondering if he had heard wrong.

"Yes, that's right. This one." Li Runshan pulled out a metal slingshot from his lower back with a handle as thick as an egg. There were more than a dozen elastic bands hanging on it.

"You can consider it. Although it's a bit laborious, you can use stones as ammunition, which can be picked up anywhere, and the lethality is sufficient."

"Well... I'll think about it first." Yu Hong was speechless. "Since you know breeding technology, from what you just said, it seems you've already started growing mushrooms?"

"Yes, the mushrooms will be ready in a week, and then the cycle will be fast. I brought the Culture Medium." Li Runshan nodded. "So I need a week's worth of food now. If your Protein Bar can give me fourteen bars for a week, I can trade you the survival manual teaching and three fighting classification training sessions."

Yu Hong was somewhat tempted.

If he could get the survival manual, he could supply himself with food and wouldn't always have to rely on outsiders.

And fighting skills... were also a necessity for him, because he would be able to strengthen body armor sooner or later. At that time, with firearms gradually being eliminated, close combat became a crucial ability.

Most importantly, the Advanced Physical Training Method he had practiced greatly strengthened the power of his legs and the endurance of his whole body.

So... he had to prepare for a rainy day.

If it weren't for the gun last time, he would definitely not have been able to beat Jenny. And if Jenny had body armor, he would most likely be finished.

Speaking of which, if a skilled fighter wearing body armor, agile and difficult to shoot, quickly approached...

He might be done for.

This danger is much more troublesome than the Black Calamity and the Eerie Shadow and Evil Shadow. At least they won't try to pick locks in various ways. Yu Hong calculated in his mind.

He counted the number of Protein Bars he had now. All the Dried Meat had been converted into Protein Bars. After converting his own and the two bags of Dried Meat he had scavenged, he had a total of thirty-six Protein Bars.

If he exchanged fourteen with the other party, he would have twenty-two left, which was enough.

"Okay, if you can replenish it in a week when the mushrooms come out, no problem." Yu Hong nodded in agreement after calculating.

"That's great. I was planning to cut my daily food intake in half. You're a big help." Li Runshan smiled, "So, which aspect of fighting skills do you want to exchange for? I know boxing, swordsmanship, leg techniques, and ground techniques."

"...Leg techniques." Yu Hong felt that his legs were getting stronger and stronger. Continuing to strengthen his strengths and expand his advantages over others was the best choice.

"A good choice. Training your legs first will make you run faster! You don't need to run faster than the Eerie Shadow, just faster than the people around you. The Black Calamity is the same." Li Runshan chuckled.

The two agreed on a time to exchange later and then quickly separated.

Yu Hong went back to get the Protein Bars. After counting the number, he came to the Post Office again.

The two stood on either side of the Stone House fence.

"This is the survival manual you wanted, and the basic leg technique training steps I've compiled. Take it and have a look first. Come and ask me if you don't understand." Li Runshan handed two small booklets to Yu Hong. The edges of the booklets were worn and torn, indicating that they had been prepared long ago.

"Remember to return it to me after you've read it. You can copy it, just don't damage it."

Yu Hong wordlessly took the booklet, feeling somewhat taken advantage of as he watched the other party take his bag of Protein Bars.

If he had known, he would have only given two booklets; he wouldn't have been willing to exchange so many Protein Bars.

He picked up the booklet and opened the survival manual.

The first page clearly stated: Detailed Explanation of the Ecological Cycle Breeding System.

"Go back and take your time to read it. If you have any questions, come and ask me, but only three times. Three times for survival aspects, three times for leg techniques," Li Runshan reminded with a smile.

"Three times? Why didn't you mention that before?" Yu Hong said speechlessly.

"Before was before. It's impossible for me to teach you for a long, long time just for this little bit of food, right? It's only enough food for ten days or so. Do you think it's worth it?" Li Runshan laughed.

He seemed to like smiling. He was clearly a strong person, tall and sturdy, but when he smiled, he gave off a feeling of cunning and calculation.

"...Okay," Yu Hong could understand. "How about this? If I have more than three questions in the future and still want to ask, I'll exchange Large Glowstones with you. Two hours per question, how's that?"

"Large Glowstone..." Li Runshan's eyes flickered slightly. "Alright, two hours is worth it."

"Good, I'll go back and take a closer look first," Yu Hong nodded, slowly retreating until he was more than ten meters away, then he quickly turned and rushed into the Woodland, soon disappearing from sight.

While running, the outline of the Handgun he wore on his lower back was accidentally revealed, catching Li Runshan's attention.

Li Runshan smiled unconsciously, weighed the Protein Bars in his hand, and turned to walk towards the Stone House.

"Aisena, look what I brought back! Delicious sweets!" He entered the door cheerfully, and soon the little girl's cheers echoed from the Stone House.

'Another daughter? Bringing a daughter to this kind of place alone...' Yu Hong had a faint guess in his heart as he walked back.

'Jenny is like this, and so is this Li Runshan. Could it be that he also had an accident with his daughter and brought her here to try to use Glowstone Disease to solve the problem?'

Judging from the experimental records in that manual, Glowstone Disease seemed to be able to offset some of the marks and troubles brought by the Black Calamity outside.

'Otherwise, if there were no essential needs, who would be willing to leave the Hope City area, which is perfect in every way, and come to such a remote and dangerous place?'

He returned to the Mountain Cave and put down the two booklets.

He picked up the first survival manual, opened it, and besides the title on the first page, there was even a table of contents.

'Mushroom Cultivation - Pages 1 to 4'

'Cockroach Cultivation - Pages 5 to 8'

'Lizard Cultivation - Pages 9 to 13'.

He continued to flip through.

'Mushroom cultivation requires sufficient Humus Soil, clean Culture Medium, and a suitable environment. Because the current environment is special, we don't have many suitable mushroom varieties for cultivation. Therefore, after thousands of attempts, the Silver Tower United Research Institute has developed a special Culture Medium called Cattle Leg Mushroom. This mushroom contains more than 40% more protein, oil, and calories than other mushroom Culture Medium under the same conditions.'

'The most crucial point is that Cattle Leg Mushroom is a non-light Culture Medium, which can grow without any light, making it extremely suitable for underground cultivation. Below are the preparations required for planting.'

Yu Hong looked at the diagram below.

A mushroom Breeding Box, rectangular like a large wooden box.

A bag of clean Culture Medium. It looked like an arm-long soil cylinder, wrapped in thick white plastic cloth.

A pile of black mud, with small letters marked next to it: Humus Soil.