Experiment

Chen Hao felt as if an entire lifetime had passed when he woke up. What lay before his eyes was no illusion; the mental energy he had expended yesterday had fully recovered. But once again, hunger gnawed at his stomach.

He got up, dressed, and washed up. Spotting the potatoes on the table, his eyes lit up. He picked up a kitchen knife, cut the potatoes into several pieces, placed them in a steamer, and began to cook.

Time flew by. After about half an hour, the potatoes had turned golden and gave off a rich, fragrant aroma.

When he lifted the lid, the scent made his mouth water. After all, the potatoes available nowadays were all cultivated with nutrient solutions.

As for naturally grown potatoes—living space was already so tight that there was no land to plant them. The food supply in the base cities relied almost entirely on soilless cultivation.

This was thanks to the technological support from various ruins discovered after the Great Nirvana. Otherwise, with the size of the base cities, feeding a population of hundreds of millions without enough land would have been impossible.

Soilless cultivation technology, combined with alien tech, perfectly solved this problem. But as for the taste of the food—there was no point expecting much.

The potato Chen Hao had synthesized, however, was far superior in flavor to the soilless-grown ones he usually bought.

Chen Hao quickly took the potato out of the pot, placed it on a plate, and set it on the table. Even though it was scalding hot, he wolfed it down in less than five minutes, finishing a potato the size of a watermelon.

After eating all the potatoes—

"Burp—"

The fullness in his stomach brought him a deep sense of satisfaction.

In his predecessor's memories, he had never eaten such a fresh potato. To save money, he always bought wilted, limp vegetables, and potatoes were no exception.

This was his first time eating a fresh potato, and he even felt it tasted better than the potatoes he had eaten in his previous life.

Recalling his predecessor's memories, Chen Hao couldn't help but sigh. In this world, life was incredibly hard for those at the bottom.

After eating, Chen Hao sat down in a chair and began to think about his path forward.

Now that he had a golden finger, the most important thing was to figure out the limits of its functions.

Although it only had a synthesis function, he needed to experiment and see whether it could synthesize all kinds of items or only plant-based ones.

Then Chen Hao took out his bank card, grabbed his wallet, and headed outside his apartment complex.

After walking for over twenty minutes, he arrived at a supermarket. He didn't buy recklessly; instead, he made rational choices.

He bought three fruit knives, three kitchen knives, and several types of vegetables, then returned home.

Back home, Chen Hao set the vegetables aside on a table. He then picked up a fruit knife, focused his mind, and the virtual image—similar to a computer screen—appeared again.

This time, instead of tapping the furnace icon, he tapped the card icon. To his surprise, the card icon actually moved.

An image of the fruit knife appeared on the card, and a line of text showed up above it:

Inferior Small Knife

Forged from iron, carbon, molybdenum, manganese... elements.

Quality: Does not meet A1 Level

Seeing the text on the card, Chen Hao's eyes lit up. Could the card's function be identification? And it was incredibly detailed, even listing the knife's composition and forging method.

It seemed he could use this function to identify things he didn't know about. After all, Earth was full of ruins and unknown items.

As for the quality display—"Does not meet A1 Level"—in his opinion, this A1 probably wasn't the A1-level weapon from the Extreme Martial Arts Hall. It was likely the quality grade for Planetary Level weapons, meaning A1-level alloy weapons.

If that was the case, even an S-Grade weapon on Earth might barely reach this A1 level.

As for whether there were other functions, Chen Hao couldn't tell. He then picked up a kitchen knife, and the virtual image on the card changed again, displaying another line of text:

Inferior Cutting Tool

Material: iron, carbon, nickel, manganese... mechanically forged and rolled.

Quality: Does not meet A1 Level.

Next, Chen Hao picked up a tomato. The text on the card changed once more:

Tomato

Fruit of an Earth herbaceous plant. Edible. No nutritional value. No Cosmic Energy. Can satisfy hunger.

Item Grade: Does not meet A1 Level.

Chen Hao found that using the card to identify items consumed very little mental energy, so he had a great time identifying almost everything in his home.

But the results were all ordinary quality. That was to be expected—how could a poor wage earner's home have any treasure-grade items?

Next, he needed to test the synthesis function. Chen Hao looked at the virtual image before him. It looked very much like a 3D virtual panel, so he decided to call it the Synthesis Panel from now on.

Chen Hao placed the three fruit knives into the Synthesis Panel and tapped the vortex synthesis button. He felt a slight fatigue in his mind, and then looked at the synthesized small knife. Its blade gleamed with a faint, cold light.

Curious, Chen Hao took out the small knife. Whether it was psychological or not, he felt a chilling aura emanating from it.

He picked up a kitchen knife and used the small knife to shave off the tip of the kitchen knife's blade.

With a "shiiing" sound, the tip of the kitchen knife fell off. Chen Hao was startled—he hadn't felt much resistance at all.

It seemed the cold aura he had sensed wasn't psychological. The quality of this small knife had truly been upgraded by a level.

He identified the small knife, and the card displayed the result:

Ordinary Small Knife

Made through special means. Cuts iron like mud.

Quality: Not yet reached A1 Level.

Chen Hao suppressed the excitement in his heart and began experimenting one by one. He discovered that placing two identical items into the synthesis slot allowed for synthesis, but the changes after synthesis were not significant.

If three items were placed into the synthesis slot, the quality of the items would increase by one grade.

For example, a potato would go from being lab-cultured to a naturally grown, pollution-free, original-flavor potato.

Synthesizing four to eight items didn't bring much change, similar to three-item synthesis. Only when nine items were synthesized did the items undergo a qualitative leap, and the change was substantial.

As for how big the change was, he didn't have a specific comparison to judge.

Looking at the items he had synthesized, Chen Hao suddenly burst into laughter. "I'm finally about to hit it big!" It took a while before he calmed down.

Chen Hao tidied up the things on the table. With the Synthesis Panel, he knew his future wouldn't be too bad.

Of course, given the chance, he would still cling to Luo Feng's coattails, but the urge was no longer as strong as before.

Glancing around the house, Chen Hao packed up the synthesized items. After eating some of the synthesized fruit, he began to think about what he should do next.

The most important thing right now was to find treasures that could improve his physical fitness. The only things he could think of from the original story were the Spirit of Grass and Wood, Gene Potions, and the like.

Unfortunately, he couldn't get his hands on any of those. That left him relying on the Synthesis Panel to fend for himself, with the raw materials needing to be sourced on his own.

Chen Hao didn't have a computer at home, and the phone he used was an old-fashioned model that couldn't access the internet. Perhaps this was the compromise his predecessor had made in despair over society and life.

Chen Hao left the house, locked the door, and went down the stairs to the ground floor. It was already past nine in the morning, and most people had gone to work. There weren't many pedestrians on the paths in the neighborhood.

As a newly moved-in tenant, Chen Hao wasn't familiar with most people. The reason he knew Luo Feng's family was because he and Luo Feng had attended the same high school.

The two had met at school, and when he first moved in, he had crossed paths with Luo Feng once, so he was somewhat acquainted with Luo Feng's family.

After all, he was considered Luo Feng's senior, and there was also that guy Wei Wen.

But Chen Hao didn't have much interaction with either family. On top of that, he went to work every day and came back exhausted, leaving him no energy for socializing.

So in the neighborhood, he was pretty much a nobody.

After leaving the neighborhood, Chen Hao followed his memory to an internet café. The place wasn't very crowded.

After all, the Swallowed World wasn't like his past life—it was full of dangers, so not many people were obsessed with online games or the like.

Of course, since most people couldn't afford electricity and computers were considered a luxury for ordinary folks, home computers weren't common. That made the internet café business decent.

Chen Hao walked into the café and approached the counter. He pulled out his ID and handed it over. "Hello, I'd like to rent a computer."

The female attendant at the counter looked up from her screen, took the ID Chen Hao offered, swiped it on a machine beside her, and said, "All set. Find any computer and log in. It's five yuan an hour, or fifty yuan an hour for a female companion. Your account is your ID number, and the password is the last six digits."

Chen Hao's mouth twitched. "Damn, internet access isn't cheap in any world." He shook his head. "No need, I'm fine on my own." He took back his ID, found a computer, sat down, turned it on, and logged into a website.

He typed in "herbs for improving physical fitness," and the screen instantly filled with search results. But there were very few official websites—most were forum posts, so he was skeptical about their authenticity.

A few results seemed somewhat reliable to him. The ones he was familiar with included Ginseng, He Shou Wu, and Glehnia Root... All these herbs would have to be bought at a pharmacy.

After searching for a while, Chen Hao found that the internet didn't have much useful information about improving physical fitness.

Even the information that existed was mostly unreliable. It seemed that anything even remotely connected to martial artists was hidden from the public. For ordinary people, getting ahead was really tough.

Since he couldn't find anything useful online, he had no intention of lingering at the internet café. He soon left and headed to a nearby traditional Chinese medicine shop.

Entering the shop, a staff member in his thirties approached him.

"Hello, sir. What herbs are you looking to buy? Do you have a prescription? Our shop has a very complete selection. If you need decoction, we can prepare it for you free of charge."

Chen Hao nodded calmly. "I've just been feeling a bit weak lately, so I wanted to buy some Ginseng, He Shou Wu, and Glehnia Root to supplement myself. Do you have these? Could you introduce them to me?"

The staff member's eyes lit up.

"Hello, sir. We have Ginseng, He Shou Wu, and Glehnia Root here, all wild mountain-grown varieties."

Seeing Chen Hao's noncommittal expression, the staff member quickly added, "Of course, we also have cultivated Ginseng, He Shou Wu, and Glehnia Root. Which kind you choose is up to you. The prices vary by age, and wild versus cultivated also differ in price. Naturally, the best medicinal effects come from wild herbs, and the older they are, the better the effect—and the higher the price."

Seeing Chen Hao listening intently, the staff member continued, "Take a look at these three-year-old cultivated Ginseng—one root costs 100 yuan. For wild ones, it's about 300 yuan per root."

"He Shou Wu is a bit cheaper—50 yuan per root for cultivated, and 100 yuan per root for wild. As for Glehnia Root, sir, I'd suggest you don't need it. Both Ginseng and He Shou Wu have better effects than Glehnia Root, and Glehnia Root isn't cheap either, since very few people cultivate it."

Chen Hao thought for a moment and asked, "I just want to buy some to take home and use in soup. Do you have fresh ones? Cultivated is fine too."

The staff member understood: another person fooled by online rumors. But he was also a bit surprised, since there were many ways to use Ginseng and He Shou Wu. Online, there had always been talk that fresh Ginseng and He Shou Wu could improve physical fitness.

But the staff member scoffed inwardly: Relying on this stuff to improve physical fitness? You'd probably have to eat it by the pound.

Still, he kept a smile on his face. "We have fresh ones too, but fresh ones are the same price as dried ones. Which kind would you like, sir?"

Chen Hao was taken aback. "How is that possible? Aren't dried herbs usually more expensive, and fresh ones cheaper?"

The staff member chuckled. "That was before the Great Nirvana. Before the Great Nirvana, Ginseng's medicinal effects would diminish over time, so it had to be dried and processed professionally to preserve the potency."

"After the Great Nirvana, due to changes from the RR Virus, cultivated Ginseng isn't much worse than wild ones, and it grows very fast, so the price is quite low. There's no need to dry and process it, and even if you did, the price wouldn't go up."

Chen Hao was speechless. So he was just out of the loop. "Alright, give me twelve roots of Ginseng and ten roots of He Shou Wu, fresh and cultivated."

The staff member quickly wrapped them up and placed them on the counter. "Here you go, sir. The Ginseng comes to 1,200 yuan, and the He Shou Wu comes to 500 yuan. That'll be 1,700 yuan total."

Chen Hao winced at the cost of the two bags of herbs but still swiped his card without hesitation. "I'll try these Ginseng first. If they work, I'll come back to buy more."

The clerk handed over the receipt and said with a smile, "Alright, welcome to visit us again. Please take care."

Chen Hao hurried home with the medicinal herbs, feeling an impatient eagerness—after all, whether it would work or not all came down to this one thing.

Back home, Chen Hao closed the door, placed the ginseng and He Shou Wu on the table, then called up the panel. Looking at the fresh ginseng in his hand, he muttered to himself, "Let's identify it first. Hopefully it's not a white radish pretending to be the real deal, heh!"

After identifying it, the results appeared on the card:

Ginseng Three years old Contains minimal nutrients, no Cosmic Energy, can replenish a small amount of blood and Qi.

He Shou Wu Ten years old Contains weak nutrients, no Cosmic Energy, can replenish a little blood and Qi.

Chen Hao shook his head slightly. Cultivated herbs really weren't reliable—even with the Great Nirvana and Cosmic Energy nourishing them, if the growth period was too short, the effects were still mediocre. Now he could only rely on the Synthesis Panel.

Then Chen Hao placed the nine ginseng roots into the nine empty slots of the Synthesis Panel. He tapped the vortex, and a wave of dizziness surged over him.

Chen Hao's body swayed, and he sat down heavily in a chair, gripping the armrests to steady himself. He hadn't expected the mental energy consumption to be this severe.

Chen Hao focused his attention on the panel. By now, the nine ginseng roots had vanished.

In the center, a single, plump ginseng had appeared—roughly the size of an ordinary carrot, looking fresh, tender, and appetizing.

Fighting off the dizziness, Chen Hao took out the ginseng. A fragrant aroma immediately rushed into his nostrils. He then placed it on the panel to identify it.

The card revealed the information:

Century-Old Ginseng Herbaceous plant, contains a trace of Cosmic Energy, can strengthen the physical constitution of blood-and-flesh lifeforms below the Planetary Level, with mild medicinal effects. Quality has not reached A1 grade.

Chen Hao was overjoyed by the identification result. This was practically evolving into a Spirit of Grass and Wood!

He then plucked one of the ginseng's root hairs, put it into his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed.

Immediately, a cool, refreshing sensation spread through his entire body. Even the dizziness in his mind seemed to ease considerably.

As the cool sensation faded, Chen Hao's body grew hotter and hotter.

He hurried to the rooftop and began training according to the Basic Training Method. After about twenty minutes of exercise, he felt the heat in his body subside.

Then Chen Hao sensed that his body felt as if it had shed a heavy shackle—much lighter and more agile.

Feeling the ginseng's effect, Chen Hao's eyes lit up. The sense of running out of steam that had plagued his previous training sessions was also faintly weakening.

His heart stirred with excitement: "It seems the deficiencies I had since childhood are being made up for by the ginseng. If I eat the whole ginseng, I should be able to repair all the physical deficits and the hidden injuries left from past training."

Thinking this, Chen Hao was thrilled. He returned to the room and glanced at the He Shou Wu on the table.

"It looks like my mental energy isn't enough to perform two Nine-Grid Syntheses. If I want to synthesize multiple times, I'll have to wait until my strength improves. It's a pity I'm not a Spiritual Thought Master and don't have the talent for it—otherwise, the mental energy consumed by Nine-Grid Synthesis wouldn't have such severe side effects."

Chen Hao understood the principle that too much is as bad as too little, so he planned to eat the ginseng slowly, bit by bit, rather than consuming the whole thing at once. That would likely overwhelm him with the medicinal potency.

After putting away the He Shou Wu, he took a shower, rested a bit, had a quick lunch, and then began taking the ginseng and training again.