Rainy Season

"Fuck, how the hell am I supposed to keep playing? At the last stop, I ran straight into a vicious Level 2 zombie! I nearly died there!"

"At the last stop, I stayed inside the train and didn't get off, but those monsters still caught my scent and tracked me down. They launched a fierce attack on my train, and now it only has three durability left. Do you understand what that means?! It's basically just one sheet of iron now!"

"I think if I don't adapt, I really won't make it past the next stop. Is there any kind-hearted person willing to buy the resources I have? Price is negotiable!"

Perhaps the pressure from the previous stop had been too great. Quite a few train conductors had begun selling off their treasures instead of treating them like family heirlooms. These things were certainly valuable, but they were useless if you didn't live long enough to use them. If they couldn't first survive the crisis before them, what future was there to speak of?

Lu Xingyuan spotted quite a few good items.

[Basic Fast-Growth Compound Fertilizer]

[Category: Extraordinary Creation]

[Level: 1]

[Description: Simply mix a small amount into ordinary soil and pair it with regular watering to greatly shorten the growth cycle of most crops, reliably achieving high yields and abundant harvests.]

"It can speed up crop growth?"

The first thing he thought of was his Delicious Mushroom.

He had planted it early that morning, but when he returned, it was still growing slowly, having only sprouted the tiniest bud.

Who knew how long it would take to fully mature.

Lu Xingyuan was genuinely interested in this Delicious Mushroom. He wanted to find out whether it really was as delicious as advertised.

"If I give it some technological enhancement, will it immediately sprout a whole bunch of mushrooms?"

Once the thought appeared, it grew wildly in his mind.

This stuff wasn't expensive anyway. Might as well give it a try.

After some haggling, Lu Xingyuan ultimately traded a 500-milliliter bottle of mineral water and a banana for one unit of compound fertilizer.

Unfortunately, the other party only had that one unit. Otherwise, at that price, Lu Xingyuan would have liked to trade for more.

Still, he should first see whether this compound fertilizer actually worked.

Following the instructions, Lu Xingyuan mixed a small amount into the soil.

The originally dark brown soil now glimmered with specks of starlight.

The docile seed began growing madly with savage force.

It had only been a tiny bud before, but in the blink of an eye, it rapidly grew to the size of an adult's palm.

It looked almost identical to an ordinary fresh edible mushroom: a round, plump hemispherical cap paired with a short, thick, even stalk. Its entire body was a soft, warm pale yellow, as if covered in a layer of smooth, thin butter. A faint ring of milky white circled the edge of the cap. It was clean and spotless, with only an almost imperceptible soft sheen under the light, looking fresh and tender enough to drip.

"Damn, this is way too magical."

Was this the power of technological enhancement?

Lu Xingyuan even came up with a bold idea.

With this, the Super Delicious Mushroom could be harvested and eaten.

He found a thick iron plate and laid it over the floor so the heat would not damage the flooring and reduce the train's durability.

Lu Xingyuan lit a section of a table leg he had swiped from somewhere with his lighter.

The simple cookware he had acquired through trading could finally come in handy.

Lu Xingyuan planned to cook himself a delicious mushroom soup.

As the saying went, high-end ingredients often required only the simplest preparation. With nothing but mushrooms and mineral water, no seasonings added, a rich mushroom fragrance spread throughout the entire carriage.

"So fragrant~~"

Lu Xingyuan swallowed.

The dwarf had not lied to him. This mushroom really was incredibly delicious.

After taking a small sip, he felt a burst of umami explode across his tongue, making his entire body shudder uncontrollably.

"Wonderful~~~"

He quickly ladled the thick, glossy mushroom soup into a stainless steel basin. But rather than enjoying it right away, Lu Xingyuan contacted Gu Wanqing.

"Big Sis Qing, want some mushrooms?"

"Yours?"

"Of course."

"Lonely nights always make people do crazy things. I've had experiences like that too, so I understand you very well. But I still hope you won't be such a pervert and ruin the image I have of you, though you lost all image long ago."

After a while, she added:

"If you really can't hold it in... I can take off my socks and give them to you as a side dish."

"What the hell are you babbling about?"

Lu Xingyuan directly sent over a prepared serving of mushroom soup.

After fooling around for a while, Gu Wanqing finally replied with a string of ellipses.

"This is the mushroom you meant?"

"What else would it be?"

"Mm... it's actually pretty good."

"Of course. This is a Super Delicious Mushroom, not an ordinary mushroom."

Lu Xingyuan stopped idling around and quickly started eating as well.

After finishing, he felt warm all over. His exhausted body recovered considerably. His waist no longer ached, his legs no longer hurt, and he even felt strong enough to wrestle with that fusion zombie.

That was one of the Delicious Mushroom's traits: it could rapidly restore stamina. It was precisely because of this that it qualified as an Extraordinary Creation.

Gu Wanqing had finished eating as well.

"Delicious!"

"After all these days, I finally had a proper dinner!"

Although their conditions were far better than those of most train conductors—they had food and water and did not go hungry—their previous meals had merely filled their stomachs. Only this hot meal gave them a real sense of truly being alive.

Midnight.

Lu Xingyuan woke up groggily.

He had been sleeping well.

Normally, he should have been able to sleep straight through until dawn.

But just now... it seemed like he had heard a notification sound?

He walked over to the control console.

Sure enough, there was a system notification. It had not been a dream.

[Up ahead: Rainy Season.]

???

This train world actually had seasons?

Lu Xingyuan instantly became much more alert.

When he opened the chat channel, the other train conductors had also been jolted awake by the sudden notification and were discussing it endlessly.

"Did you all get the notification too?"

"Rainy season!? What the hell is that?"

"Isn't that obvious? It means it'll rain every day for a while!"

"People from the south are once again remembering the terror of being ruled by the rainy season. You hang your underwear out for a week, and when you wring it lightly, water still comes out."

"Fuck, save me! My train was wrecked long ago by those terrifying monsters. It leaks from all sides, and I'm already freezing my ass off. Now you're telling me we're about to enter a period of nonstop rain? Are you trying to kill me?"

"It's already started raining over here."

"Same here."

Lu Xingyuan went to the window. Several raindrops fell from the sky, clinging to the glass as they slowly trailed downward.