Before long, countless corpses of mutated cacti were piled up in front of them, along with a few unlucky military academy students who were being dragged away by the arriving teachers. In principle, the corpses of those mutated cacti were also to be dragged away, but they would keep the cores themselves and exchange them for star coins after leaving the arena.

While Lin Yiran was fighting, she saw the teachers dragging away the corpse of the mutated cactus. She was horrified and, without thinking, used too much force to slice off half of the head of the cactus she was fighting.

Before she could remove its core, Lin Yiran quickly stepped forward and grabbed the corpse of the mutated cactus that was about to be dragged away.

The teachers across from me, wearing gloves and straining: "What are you doing, student?"

Lin Yiran: "Can we recycle this later?"

Teacher: "You must give me a valid reason."

"We recycle this stuff because the roots and stems of the mutated cactus are excellent fertilizer for the soil. They are only useful when they are fresh. Otherwise, we wouldn't bother with these things."

"Or do you want to exchange it for star coins? This thing can't be exchanged for many star coins, and it's troublesome for you to take it out."

Lin Yiran shook her head: "No, I just saw that the fruit on the cactus was edible, so could you please help us pick it off? Or we can pick it ourselves, but it might delay your recycling, because..."

Lin Yiran turned to look at her companions who were still diligently fighting the mutated cacti: "We're a bit busy right now."

The teacher said: Speechlessness is my mother tongue.

In the end, not wanting to give up these natural fertilizers, he gritted his teeth and said, "Fine!"

Then another bizarre thing happened on the field: all the students of the First Military Academy were fighting against the mutated cactus. When the live broadcast camera turned to the corner, two teachers were working hard to break off the red fruit on the top of the cactus.

She said it's edible, but it's very sour, so what's so good about it?

The teacher's face was full of helplessness. Fine, he'd accept the bribe, so they'd do it! The main problem was that the kids from the First Military Academy were too good at fighting.

This small area is the lair of mutated cacti, with thousands of mutated cacti below level three. The kids from the First Military Academy have already taken down a thousand mutated cacti in just half a day. They're so busy collecting the corpses that their hands are sore, and of course, they're also so busy breaking off cactus fruits.

Taking it back saved us some research funding, awesome!

The battle raged until dusk, when the sun dipped below the horizon in the distance. Their first action wasn't to rest, but to gather around the mountain of small red berries, each picking one and asking, "Can we eat these?"

Some, still not believing it, took a bite and almost choked on the sourness. They turned their faces away and didn't dare to try it again.

Lin Yiran: "This stuff is edible, but you have to pick the ones that are all red; the green ones will be a bit sour."

"And this can be simmered in a big pot later, with some white sugar or honey. It's delicious whether you put it in bread as jam or eat it with rice porridge. Want to try some?" Lin Yiran looked at Sen Qi'an.

The others also looked at Sen Qi'an with bright eyes. Sen Qi'an, feeling helpless under their gazes, nodded and said, "Eat!"

We've been on nutrient solutions for the past few days, and everyone's really getting tired. Although the food we've been given includes rice, we haven't cooked because we're on our way. Today we have some cactus fruit, so we might as well have dinner tonight.

Let's have some fun!

Lin set up a large pot near the camp, then peeled and shaved the thorns off the cactus fruit, poured them all into the pot, and boiled them over high heat until they became a thick paste. Then he poured in a bag of white sugar.

Two more pots were set up over there to cook rice porridge. Just as the jam was almost ready, the aroma of the rice porridge filled the air, and everyone stood eagerly in front of the pots waiting.

Lin Yiran was stirring the pot vigorously, but she vaguely felt that something was wrong. That feeling was coming back, as if it was coming from underground in the desert.

Could it be sandworms again? But this one is different. Sandworms move over a wider area, and the resulting fluctuations are different from this one. So Lin Yiran asked Jin Shuo, who was closest to her.

Jin Shuo then closed his eyes and used his mental power to sense something. After that, he opened his eyes and said, "Hey?" He then drew the military dagger from his wrist and knelt on the ground, searching for something.

Lin Yiran clearly saw a small bulge rise from the sand. Jin Shuo, with lightning speed, stabbed it with his dagger just as it tried to emerge. Then everyone present heard a sharp scream!

"What's that sound?" Sen Qi'an asked as he came over.

Jin Shuo stood up, and in doing so, he also brought out the thing that had been stabbed with the military dagger from the ground. It was a rat about the size of a wolfhound. Jin Shuo's knife had just pierced the mutated gerbil's skull, and blood was now seeping out and flowing onto the mutated gerbil's face, making it look ferocious and terrifying.

"It's nothing, just a little mouse."

Lin Yiran keenly sensed the problem: "One?"

Sen Qi'an frowned. "All personnel on high alert!"

Then everyone took out their weapons and observed the surrounding movements, especially those in the ground. Lin Yiran stepped forward and covered all the large pots to seal them, and pulled out some matches so that they wouldn't find that the food was inedible after the fight.

What a pity!

"Rats usually appear in packs, so we must be careful and absolutely not give them any chance!" Sen Qi'an said. He used his mental power to sense that many rats were rushing in this direction, as if they were attracted by something. Could it be...?

He looked at the several large pots in front of Lin Yiran, and he roughly understood why.

Seeing his strange expression, Lin Yiran stepped forward and asked him a question. After learning the truth, she was speechless. She didn't expect these little guys to have such a keen sense of smell. She also admired their perseverance, migrating here with their families just to get food.

Lin Yiran: "Approximately how many are there?"

Sen Qi'an: "Not many, only about a hundred, we killed them all in ten minutes."

That's alright," Lin Yiran nodded, then took out her own dagger. She didn't plan to fight the mutated gerbils with them; she wanted to keep an eye on the pots to prevent the gerbils from ruining the contents.

She stood in front of the pot, ready and waiting, and everyone else was also prepared.

A swarm of gerbils is coming.

From afar, you can see mounds of varying sizes rising from the ground, like little graves. What's more, these mounds can move, which is quite unusual. As they move, they leave behind parallel lines that spread out from a distance.

They do look quite cute.