Chapter 69

In the group chat, everyone was still busy, discussing jungle creatures and environmental changes such as air, climate, and geology.

Pei Jing told them that Li Musheng was conducting research that seemed to be related to diluting oxygen concentration. Since they couldn't contact Qiao Ning yesterday, they first formed a team to explore the jungle and found some unusual plants and insects; the materials from these would greatly help Li Musheng's research.

Although Fang Changling studied geology, he also had some knowledge of meteorology. He felt that the jungle was gradually becoming somewhat strange. Logically speaking, it was normal for the Carboniferous climate to be warm and humid, which was conducive to the growth of plants and insects, and it was not unusual for rainforests to have rain, but he always felt that something was not quite right.

[Jiang Yanxin: Don't you guys feel like the temperature has dropped a bit too quickly?]

[Fang Changling: Large temperature differences between day and night in the jungle are normal, but this frequent rain gives me a bad feeling.]

[Li Yangxing: You two top students, I'm a scaredy-cat, don't scare me.]

Fang Changling explained earnestly: "I'm not trying to scare you, but I genuinely feel something's off. This Carboniferous period depicted in the game is vastly different from what I know about it. There are inconsistencies everywhere, which has somewhat diminished my professional insight."

Li Musheng also sent a message at this time, saying: "[I feel the same way. However, the instruments I asked a friend to build have monitored some data. The growth and evolution speed of all organisms in the rainforest is almost three times that when we first entered the natural disaster cycle. Moreover, they are undergoing more rapid mutations every moment. If they continue to grow and evolve at this rate, I estimate that in two or three days, what we will see is a new Carboniferous jungle world.]"

[Tao Tao: What did Sister Musheng mean by that? Does she mean the jungle ahead will be more dangerous?]

Li Musheng sighed, "If only it were that simple."

[Jiang Yanxin: If it were just danger, which of the natural disasters we've survived hasn't become increasingly dangerous in the later stages? I'm afraid it's not just danger.]

There are several hypotheses regarding the Carboniferous extinction event in geological history. To my knowledge, one hypothesis suggests that the mass extinction began with the collapse of rainforests. At that time, the area and number of animals were far less than that of plants.

This paradise for plants created an atmosphere that was too rich in oxygen, causing large amounts of carbon dioxide to be absorbed by the plants and lowering the surface temperature. As a result, ice sheets appeared in some areas, which are the ice fields that everyone has seen in extreme cold disasters.

The ice sheet will reflect a large amount of sunlight back into the atmosphere, causing temperatures to continue to drop, and the ice sheet will gradually spread. At that time, the world will no longer be warm and humid, but will be filled with high oxygen, cold, and dry conditions.

This is the late Carboniferous period in Earth's history, a time when most organisms were no longer suitable for growth. However, life is resilient, and inevitably, a large number of cold-resistant plants and animals survived.

The high-oxygen, cold, and dry environment, along with the shallow coal seams formed by ferns, frequently caused natural fires. The largest fires lasted for many years, almost covering the entire ancient continent and causing devastating damage to life.

Logically, such a development process would take countless years, but survival games obviously cannot be judged by common sense. The rapid evolution and growth of these plants and animals, if it simply means they become stronger and more difficult to deal with, is not necessarily the worst thing.

The worst-case scenario is that it could cause a massive environmental collapse, leading to a mass extinction.

This is the most terrifying thing, and it is something that human power cannot resist.

[Miao Qinghe: Although the situation is dire, we can only take it one step at a time. Currently, the oxygen levels are not high enough to threaten the players' lives. The temperature is dropping, but it's not cold. The jungle has abundant water and food, and the players already have plenty of supply crates. They even stockpiled a lot of supplies in Lu Di City after the last natural disaster. Overall, everyone is in good condition; we're not in any real danger yet.]

Most importantly, we must not let ourselves be terrified before the disaster escalates.

[Pei Jing: Pay close attention to the information trends in the chat channels these days, speak up more when you have time, and keep the players' mentality stable; there's still hope to hold on.]

[Li Yangxing: Sigh, I'm not really afraid of anything. Ever since I entered this game, I've been risking my life every day. I'm just trying to survive one day at a time. As long as I have a breath left, I'll just try my best to live.]

[Li Yangxing: @Yuan Heng, where are you, Heng-ge? Why aren't you saying anything?]

This player, who was affected by the natural disaster, could still freely teleport and form teams. Yuan Heng had been with Li Yangxing and Pei Jing in the morning, but left in the afternoon, and no one knew where he went. He didn't show up from the afternoon until the evening. If it weren't for the fact that he was still showing as online in the friends list, everyone would have worried that he was hiding somewhere in the jungle.

After being tagged, Yuan Heng immediately sent a video to the group, and everyone clicked "agree" to see his current situation.

He was killing giant insects in the jungle. His metal-based superpowers were incredibly effective at killing giant insects. Dealing with plants was a little more troublesome, but still not a problem.

Video chat makes communication easier. Li Yangxing joked, "Brother Heng, don't be so stubborn. What time is it? Are you still grinding monsters? Hurry up and go back to the highway. Your equipment will quickly become ineffective in the jungle. You'll just be wasting your durability if you go in there."

The information that equipment will gradually become ineffective in the jungle has been announced to the entire region. Qiao Ning was affected by this yesterday.

Yuan Heng looked like he had been fighting for a long time; his body was covered in blood, and it was impossible to tell whether it was his own or that of jungle creatures.

He was panting heavily as he turned his blood-stained face toward the camera icon on the virtual panel.

"My equipment hasn't malfunctioned. There's a type of fern in this jungle that releases a sap when its branches break off. This sap can restore equipment attributes. You just need to add the sap to your equipment in the crafting menu. But I'm not sure if it's present in every jungle or if it will work in every situation."

Yuan Heng then uploaded a picture of that plant to the group chat.

Qiao Ning examined it carefully: "I also have this kind of fern here, but it only appears about 500 kilometers deep into the jungle. Do you have it where you are?"

Tao Tao: "I've never seen this before."

Pei Jing and Miao Qinghe had seen it, also deep in the jungle. Fang Changling, Jiang Yanxin, and Li Musheng explored the most areas, venturing deep into the jungle; almost every known species was recorded in their research.

Li Musheng said, "The ancestor of this plant should be a marine organism that preyed on marine microorganisms. I never expected it to evolve into this form."

Li Yangxing: "Isn't this a cleaning kelp? I used its juice to wash my clothes when they got dirty before, and I have to say, it's much better than laundry detergent. But I was washing ordinary clothes, and the equipment can clean itself, otherwise I would have discovered its function a long time ago."

“This name…” Tao Tao was speechless.

Li Musheng smiled and said, "That's quite apt and straightforward. I guess the reason our equipment malfunctioned is related to the microorganisms in the jungle air. The sap of this plant can kill those microorganisms, thus restoring the equipment's attributes."

"Given the current limited resources, I lack the instruments to observe microorganisms invisible to the naked eye in the air, and can only rely on speculation. This judgment may not be accurate."

"Everyone should collect more of this juice; it might be effective against diseases caused by other microorganisms."

Seeing Yuan Heng having a great time killing in the jungle, Qiao Ning got itchy and changed her clothes, then took Bing Lin and went back into the jungle.

She has been either unconscious or sleeping for the past two days, and her body is not actually tired.

This time she brought plenty of supplies, including water balloons for heating, cooling, absorbing moisture, and humidifying, just in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

The Man-Eating Flower Queen is about to mature to its ultimate form, and the further it matures, the more fertilizer it needs. She needs to produce at least another thousand kilograms of fertilizer to mature the Man-Eating Flower Queen to the point where it can advance to its ultimate form.

If the advancement fails, she will have to force it to mature again.

To add this plant-type pet slot, Qiao Ning upgraded the car to level 6. This added three functions: firearms attack, enchanted attack, and energy shield. More than just a motorhome, it now resembles a large, well-rounded tank or armored vehicle.

The jungle was fraught with danger. After entering, she first had Ice Scale carry her to... Cleanse the seaweed to restore the attributes of her equipment. With the equipment effects on her, she could at least prevent sudden attacks from poisonous creatures.

She collected a lot of kelp juice, probably a hundred or so buckets. However, she gathered the kelp in a scattered manner. This substance is a natural enemy of microorganisms, and if it disappears on a large scale in an area, given the current rate of evolution and mutation in the jungle, it would likely cause an immediate microbial overgrowth, or even disrupt the food chain. She herself would be the one to suffer then.

Although she wasn't a biology student, she still understood the severity of the disruption of the food chain.

With protective gear, Qiao Ning could freely hunt monsters, with dark green plants and insects being her main targets.

She rested three times throughout the night, each time eating poison lizard meat to quickly restore her strength and energy, until dawn when she returned to the highway with Ice Scale.

That night, she harvested 120,000 jin of deeply evolved and mutated plants, some of which were large plants that weighed hundreds or even thousands of jin each.

They hunted countless insects, reptiles, and amphibians of all sizes, obtaining a total of 50,000 jin of useful materials such as skin, bones, internal organs, and venom glands, as well as 18,000 jin of edible meat. They also collected 200,000 jin of inedible and unusable waste, which could be decomposed into fertilizer.

Qiao Ning then spent her time breaking down the fertilizer to accelerate the growth of the carnivorous flower king.

When Binglin gets hungry, it takes food from its own space. Whenever Qiao Ning has free time, she makes a lot of its favorite food and puts it in Binglin's gluttonous space. This way, when it goes out to play, it can eat and drink whenever it gets hungry.

The crucial step of accelerating ripening, the final step in advancing to the ultimate form, has arrived. Qiao Ning clicked to confirm the advancement. This time, the progress bar became long and slow.

Qiao Ning only dared to choose to advance because the auspicious star hadn't been triggered today; otherwise, she would have had to continue waiting.

Ten minutes have passed, and the progress bar has only climbed one-third of the way.

As the progress bar slowed down, Qiao Ning went from being serious and nervous at the beginning to being extremely calm, and even a little sleepy.

She spent all night grinding monsters and is still awake.

Just as Qiao Ning was getting sleepy and her eyelids were drooping, and she was about to take a nap, the system notification finally came.

[Congratulations to player Qiao Ning for obtaining her fifth pet, unlocking the pet evolution function for the entire server. Please check the pet panel for details.]

This time, there was a region-wide announcement, but there were still no rewards.

Qiao Ning carefully studied the new features.

The so-called pet evolution is actually the process of fusing a pet with other mutated plants and animals. The fusion partner can be chosen arbitrarily, but if the attributes are incompatible, the species difference is significant, etc., there will be a fairly high failure rate.

But if successful, the pet will undergo a dramatic transformation, becoming a powerful ally for the player in surviving in the jungle.

In addition, after this feature was unlocked, Qiao Ning discovered that the pets that could be tamed were no longer limited to mutated creature cubs; all the plants and animals in the jungle could be tamed by the player as pets.

This feature is incredibly timely. With over a million players lost more than 100,000 in just two days, this feature should slow down the rate at which players die and disconnect.

[The world is so unfair! I've struggled to get three pets, one of which I hatched from an egg I bought in Lu Di City. And this pro already has five?! This unlucky guy sheds tears of envy.]

[Thanks for unlocking this feature! It's amazing! I'll try pet fusion after I finish breakfast.]

[What about the fusion targets? Do you all have targets in mind? I'll observe a bit more to avoid wasting my pet. I think if the fusion fails, the pet will at least be injured, or worse, die. There's also a significant chance that the pet will be devoured by the fusion target, threatening the player's life.]

[Putting the pets aside for now, didn't everyone notice the system update about the natural disaster? The oxygen levels today are astonishing! I haven't dared to get out of the car yet. I'm afraid my body simply can't handle this level of oxygen!]

And what does that mass extinction process mean? Is it what I'm thinking? Really?

On the third day of the natural disaster, the temperature was 10 degrees Celsius, the oxygen content was 45%, the species evolution rate was 10 units, and the mass extinction process was 40%.