Chapter 6

After wandering around for more than two hours, Qi Heng took a look at the map he had drawn.

He walked through the area with a radius of one kilometer with Yan Ning's house as the center, and then changed into clothes that were no different from other Zerg people. Except for a few curious gazes, the number of Zerg people who noticed his presence decreased sharply.

Qi Heng put his hands in the pockets of his trousers and thought to himself: District 49 is indeed a slum. There is not even a wide road. The widest one I have seen so far is the one at the entrance.

That road is probably the main road of the 49th District.

As for the others… the widest road he had seen was barely wide enough for two and a half people to pass through, while the smallest ones could only be passed sideways. The main reason for the narrowness of the roads was the haphazardly built houses that were everywhere, practically squeezing into every available space.

Although the road is small, there are few small miscellaneous items, mostly because there are no resources to waste in the slums.

No Zerg noticed Qi Heng's behavior of feeling the terrain. In the eyes of other Zerg, he was no different from other Zergs walking on the road - with the system, he didn't need to remember the way deliberately, he just needed to mark it on the system map.

This way, if something happens later, it will be convenient for me to leave quickly... There is not much energy left in the system. If I encounter any danger and can't fight it, can I not just run away?

Of course, it’s best not to get into trouble if you can.

Fortunately, he is not the kind of person who would take the initiative to cause trouble. As long as others do not take the initiative to cause trouble, he is usually very kind.

Qi Heng was a little confused as he walked out of Area 49. Although he was just strolling around, he was also paying attention to the Zerg coming and going.

There weren't many Zergs on the road, but he didn't see a single female Zerg. There were old and young Zergs, but they were all male Zergs with short hair similar to Yan Ning's. This was really strange.

And Yan Ning, he even had eggs, so why wasn't his wife there? Did she go back to her parents' home, or did something happen? Given how much a female insect cares about her eggs and her husband, it's impossible for her not to be with her male insect.

It can't be that the Zerg will become a country of men ten thousand years later, right? Thinking of this, Qi Heng felt a little amused, but as he thought about it, he couldn't laugh anymore.

...If you think about it carefully, any changes that have occurred over ten thousand years are normal. No, no, no, that's not necessarily the case. Maybe there are just fewer female insects in this slum.

Thinking of that possibility, Qi Heng felt really scared. He couldn't help but raise his hand and tap his eyebrows to dispel the horrible picture in his mind.

It’s better to pick perilla leaves first. There’s no rush to solve the problem.

Qi Heng thought so and left District 49.

There are many wild grasses and shrubs growing on the roadside outside District 49. The number is not that large, after all, there are not many plants that can survive the temperature difference of more than 30 degrees between day and night.

Qi Heng glanced at the plants, turned and headed in a direction where few people had walked.

The plants along the roadside had the perilla leaves he wanted, but the quantity was not satisfactory. He thought of walking further to see if there were any elsewhere.

Perilla leaves are harvested from a perennial herb that can grow to 40 to 50 centimeters tall at maturity. They have straight rhizomes that typically grow in clumps, with twin, symmetrical pale purple leaves on the stems and branches that turn dark purple upon maturity.

He asked A1, who was currently in charge of the management system, to retrieve the relevant information about "Perilla Leaves" from the database. He directly skipped the pixelated picture, as it was indeed difficult to find it based on this picture.

Walking in the city that had long since become ruins, Qi Heng felt a heavy feeling in his heart.

In modern society, everything has become fast-food, and games are no exception. If a game can keep you playing for a year, it must be one that you truly love.

When the 'game' became reality and appeared in front of him, Qi Heng felt not only unreal and unreal, but also some complicated emotions that only he knew.

No one knows what this city has been through. It is basically unrecognizable from its original appearance. The ruins have weathered in the ruthless years, and in the end, there is not even any information left to identify the city's former name.

The empire established by the Tianjia civilization occupies a very vast star field, and has countless vassal civilizations. According to the agreements signed with these vassal civilizations when playing the game, the star fields where these vassal civilizations are located are also part of the Tianjia civilization.

Not to mention there was still… but now there is nothing.

Qi Heng came back to his senses and spoke to A1 in his mind: [A1, can you confirm which city on Tianyun Star this is?]

[Your Excellency, the information collected is insufficient for comparison.]

The game system has nine auxiliary artificial intelligence programs, which are different from other intelligent computers responsible for different areas of civilization, but they, including A0 as a hidden program, put his life safety first.

Qi Heng guessed that it was probably because the game system was afraid that he would not be able to complete the task of "saving civilization" after his death.

A1 is the first intelligent computer that awakens when the player is in the game, and has always acted as his assistant. When he doesn't want to listen to A0's chatter, he lets A1, who has the same authority as A0, continue his past duties - acting as the system assistant after his time travel.

[Lord, do you wish to enable the scanning function? After scanning, we can compare the remaining city area with the data in the Empire's remaining database...]

"No need." Qi Heng rejected A1 before he could finish his words.

Are you kidding? I don’t have the energy to carry out a city-level scan right now. I’m afraid the remaining energy will be drained as soon as I start scanning.

Tianyun Star is not some small broken ball in a corner. Every city on it covers a huge area, and some of them even exceed the concept of a so-called "city".

He didn't think much of it before, but now Qi Heng feels a little ashamed when he thinks of the "big things" he has done in the game. He remembers the largest city on Tianyun Star that can be classified as a wonder - a city that spans the entire continent.

At this moment, a dynamic image appeared on the system interface that was set to the right side in order not to block his vision. It was a planet composed of large areas of dark blue and a few pure white, and the planet was slowly rotating at this moment.

Even from the crude pictures generated in the game, you can get a glimpse of the beauty of this planet.

As Qi Heng's mind moved casually, the planet in the picture was magnified and zoomed in. The camera passed through the clouds at an extremely fast speed and landed on a city occupying a continent.

The camera freezes here.

It was originally a screenshot he took casually, and that was all the scenery he recorded.

Qi Heng's thoughts drifted away.

Tianyun Star has five continents, and the largest piece of land was named Lanzhou by him. There is a Lanzhou City on it that is close to the Imperial City of the mother planet of Tianjia civilization. Many interesting things happened in the construction of this city... He really thought too far ahead.

More than 10,000 years have passed since then. Except for the body of the overlord in the game that has been preserved by the system, the other Zergs should have died.

Qi Heng bent down and pulled out a perilla plant. The rhizome was milky white, thin and curved. He picked off a leaf, wiped it slightly, and put it in his mouth to chew. It was slightly sweet.

It was clearly the time for the perilla to ripen, but it was not yet ripe. He knew it was because the climate on Tianyun Star had changed so much. He looked at several unfamiliar plants nearby and asked A1 to enable the simple basic scanning function to scan them.

[Compare the plants I've never seen with those in the database and organize the retrieved information. I'll look at it later.]

Considering the changes that plants may undergo, Qi Heng said: [The minimum similarity in the comparison cannot be lower than 90%.]

[Yes, Your Excellency.]

After that, Qi Heng began to pick perilla leaves. In order to cook a sufficiently rich perilla leaf juice, a large amount of perilla leaves were needed. He picked them as he walked, making the map more complete.

After being busy for several hours, it was already 3:30 in the afternoon.

There were several bundles of compacted perilla at Qi Heng's feet, and the outside of the perilla was tied with vines that grew in symbiosis with shrubs.

He bent down and easily picked up seven or eight bundles of perilla and moved them to the shade of the wall on one side.

Fresh perilla leaves are more effective, but if they are exposed to the sun for a long time and wither, the effect will not be as good.

Compared with other plants, the number of perilla in this area only accounts for about 15%. With the results of my work in these few hours, I have basically picked all the perilla in this area. I will have to go to a farther place to find the amount I need later.

Qi Heng glanced at his feet and thought that it should be fine to soak for two or three days.

Then it's time to go back.

Qi Heng thought about it but didn't move. He clicked on the plant report compiled by A1 and started reading it.

The report was not long and I finished reading it quickly.

He looked silent.

None of these plants are edible. If they were edible, they wouldn't be growing everywhere. Although there are many other discoveries, they are not important in Qi Heng's eyes now.

When pulling out the perilla, Qi Heng found that his strength had increased. To be more precise, his entire physical fitness had improved after merging with the master's body. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage.

Yes, you won’t feel tired when you work after your strength increases, but you will get hungry sooner.

The meal I had at Yan Ning's house in the morning had been digested long ago. Given Yan Ning's family situation, with one more mouth to feed (and probably enough to eat), they would have fallen directly from barely making ends meet to below the poverty line.

He felt that he was living in vain in Yan Ning's house, and received more help from her than he gave.

——The method of curing insect eggs is very valuable to Yan Ning. It saved his insect eggs, but it is not important to him at all.

A person must have a bottom line. As a man, you cannot take it for granted to be a parasite, and live off a person who is younger than you and can be called a child.

never mind.

Qi Heng picked up the bundles of perilla and left.

If the plants cannot be eaten, we have to think of other ways. When I was scanning the system just now, I found a lot of traces left by animals. They were not seen during the day, so they must be nocturnal.

The temperature was low at night, but it was not a problem for me.

…

Qi Heng easily carried dozens of pounds of perilla through the open gate of District 49, and then walked towards Yan Ning's home.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I turned the corner, I saw Yan Ning standing outside the house, talking to a young Zerg man. The young man was wearing a gray coat that seemed to be some kind of uniform.

The author has something to say:

----------------------

This article will be updated daily at midnight (if the time is adjusted, it will be specially stated~~)