Chapter 196

Having obtained the information he wanted, Fu Le returned to his car and continued watching the game.

Puff puff puff...

Clang clang clang...

Everyone was desperately trying to get closer to the tree itself.

Watching those oranges being launched, new little oranges would sprout and grow within minutes, the replication speed was comparable to that of a printer.

Fu Le was intrigued. She wondered if she could take the orange tree back with her. Hmm, her space couldn't hold living beings, so this orange tree must be considered some kind of object.

Finally, with a loud crash, an orange tree with few fruits fell down, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Team members rushed forward, some guarding the area, some digging for crystal cores, and others picking fruit—the division of labor was clear.

Fu Le's gaze fell on the hands of the team member picking the fruit. Steel wire gloves? It seems the fruit skin is also poisonous. Hmm, what's that box? It's about a foot square, and it's never full. Is it a ring?

The apocalypse in this world has resulted in the creation of the ring box so quickly.

At this moment, Fu Le's eyes lit up! She could take out items from her spatial storage and use them without worrying about being treated as an oddball.

After the first orange tree died, the other orange trees acted as if they hadn't seen it and continued to fight against humans.

That's incredibly stupid.

She was somewhat tempted, but such a stupid tree would be taken care of by them sooner or later. If she went up now, she would most likely be seen as someone trying to steal the spoils.

Forget it, let's go back.

Let me rest for a few days first.

Many people were watching Fu Le's van. Now that they saw her walking back, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The man who had the cigarettes also watched her leave with a bit of regret, but he didn't have any other questions.

Back inside the building, Fu Le set up the grill, took out a pile of charcoal, and began grilling seafood around the grill.

When the little prince saw Fu Le doing this, he immediately came over and helped Fu Le clean the arm-length shrimp, babbling in a language that Fu Le couldn't understand.

The rectangular plastic water tank was frequently hit with a loud bang.

Soon, the porridge began to gurgle and boil in the sand pot on the small charcoal stove.

The little prince skillfully washed the shrimp three times, put the washed shrimp into a bucket, and carried it to the side of the road.

Fu Le chopped the garlic and scallions, then took out the spice box and honey and placed them on the table next to him.

"Little Prince, come here, put the shrimp up here."

'Squeak squeak...' The little prince obediently picked up the prawns and then arranged them neatly one by one.

A square baking pan with a diameter of one meter can hold ten prawns as long as an arm at a time.

Sprinkle some butter flakes on top, and prepare the cheese and seaweed crisps.

The Little Prince likes cheese flavored food, and of course he also likes barbecued food, but he loves the former the most.

Sure enough, the moment he saw the cheese, the little prince grinned, revealing his bright white teeth, and even blew Fu Le a kiss, making Fu Le laugh heartily.

With the Little Prince by her side, her time-traveling life became much more interesting.

Sizzle sizzle...

Olive oil splattered everywhere, and the little prince bared his teeth and took a few steps back, but his eyes were glued to the baking pan.

About five minutes later, Fu Le put the little prince's cheese-baked shrimp into its special aluminum bowl, while he brushed it with honey, sprinkled it with chili flakes and cumin, and after sizzling for more than ten seconds, cut it into several pieces and put it in the bowl.

With a large piece of shrimp meat stuffed into his mouth, Fu Le squinted his eyes in satisfaction. Mmm, delicious...

A sizzling grill pan sits in front of me, and the fresh aroma of shrimp fills my nostrils. Ah, life is pretty good.

Thirty shrimp were grilled for the little prince before he was full. He then ate three spirit fruits to cleanse his palate. Fu Le, on the other hand, was full after eating just one shrimp. As an employee who had been reborn, he was still stuffed.

At this moment, the rice porridge was cooked and emitted a fragrant aroma of rice. Fu Le stood up, ready to take it down, but noticed someone moving around at the door and paused.

It's obvious without even guessing that they are the hunting team members who stayed behind.

The four men who remained on the eighth floor were chewing on bland compressed biscuits and playing cards when suddenly, a strong and rich aroma of grilled seafood wafted into their nostrils.

"Damn, who's grilling seafood? Slurp..."

"Who else could it be but the one on the seventh floor? That woman looks capable."

"They're as skinny as sticks, but I can take them down with one punch each. They still have the ability."

"Don't judge a book by its cover. It's the end of the world, don't you understand the value of this saying?"

"You can tell a person's character by looking into their eyes. If you look into her eyes, you can tell she's not a good person."

"It smells so good, shall we go ask her for some food?"

What do we have? Compressed biscuits?

The man who made the suggestion fell silent, took a big bite of the compressed biscuit, and chewed it hard, as if trying to taste the seafood.

The aroma was like a hook, making the four of them drool and feel acid reflux.

"I can't take it anymore, I'm not going to fight anymore. The people downstairs are really going to keep this up. Kind people know that you shouldn't let others know when you're eating something delicious." If you can't bear to share, you can hide and eat it. That's a kind of kindness. The people downstairs are not kind at all.

Seeing this, the other three lost all interest in playing cards. Damn it, they're inhuman!

"How about we ask her for some food in return?"

“We don’t have anything to give in return. She can eat so well outside, she definitely doesn’t lack food.”

“Crystal, I have a colorless crystal of a tuft of grass.”

"A single Pompom Grass Crystal can only be exchanged for one pound of old rice. You think you can trade it for seafood?!"

The man who made the suggestion: ...

"You're the one who boosts others' morale. Never mind, I'll ask around and see what happens."

Even though I know the chances are slim, there's no harm in trying.

So the four of them came down and lingered at the blocked doorway, not daring to knock.

Fu Le raised an eyebrow, walked to the door, and fell silent upon hearing the noise outside.

"Want some food?" Fu Le asked bluntly, moving aside the furniture and wooden boards to reveal four embarrassed faces.

"Can we trade it for the crystals of the Pompom Grass?"

Fu Le looked at the man's outstretched, dirty palm, on which was a white crystal the size of a baby's fist.

"How much old rice can this be exchanged for at the base?" I overheard them talking about exchanging for old rice. Actually, I could roughly guess that the chances of fresh rice in the apocalypse were not very high, and even if there were, it wouldn't be for the lower classes.

Upon hearing this, the man holding the crystal frowned and said, "One pound of old rice."

Fu Le hadn't expected it to be so worthless. She was just about to ask if she could exchange it for some compressed biscuits, since she had seafood flavored ones.

'Host, trade with them; the crystal cores can repair the naval compartment.'

Fu Le: !!

Hey! The shuttle is back ahead of schedule!

"I have some seafood-flavored compressed biscuits here, want some? One colorless crystal core in exchange for two packs."

"Huh? Compressed biscuits come in seafood flavor?" The man holding the crystal core was named Wen Xing.

"Want some? Or you can go out and hunt mutated plants and animals, and I'll trade you some seafood. All the seafood I have here is non-mutated and non-toxic."

"Yes." Wen Xing wanted to try what seafood-flavored compressed biscuits tasted like; even if there was no fish, shrimp would be fine.

Fu Le went inside, pretending to take some biscuits from the tent, and then gave them to the four people.

A palm-sized silver plastic bag, containing three pieces, each piece about the thickness of a finger.

After the four people went up, Fu Le blocked the door again.

"Shuttle, why are you back so quickly this time?"

"The energy I found here isn't from minerals, it's from the crystal cores of those mutated plants and animals. There are so many crystal cores here, host, you need to go kill some monsters for me. The energy you had before was deducted because of your indiscriminate killing."

Fu Le: ...

Was it my fault?

"You didn't tell me not to kill those people. I was just acting on instinct. What's wrong with that?"

"That's a historical timeline. Your involvement will change history. Luckily, I discovered it in time, otherwise, I would have been reclaimed by the main system."

"If you're worried that I'll change history, then why did you send me there? In any historical timeline, having one more me is superfluous. You should have thought of this consequence before sending me there."

Shuttle: ...

I have nothing to say.

Seeing the shuttle rendered speechless, Fu Le felt a strange sense of shame, after all, she had indeed gained a lot from the shuttle.

"It's just killing monsters, I'll go."

The shuttle flashed wavy lines.

"What do you mean?"

'Happy! '

Fu Le was amused. "I didn't expect you to have emotions. I thought you were just a cold, emotionless mainframe."

An exclamation mark appeared, and the shuttle was unhappy again.

"Alright, alright, I told you. I'll rest for a few days and then go out to grind monsters. We have a year, that's plenty of time. By the way, are you still going out?"

"No more mines, there's no more."

It seems that obtaining the isopod stone this time will entirely depend on defeating monsters.

The four people upstairs had already finished eating all the compressed biscuits and were still licking their fingers with relish.

"It's delicious, it really tastes like seafood, and it's very filling."

The hunting party returned in the afternoon, almost as dark as it was getting dark.

The difference between black and white in the post-apocalyptic world is that there is no fog during the day, but the sky is gray. Fog starts to fall around 6 PM, and the gray of the sky deepens several shades.

A series of heavy footsteps approached.

"Hey, what's that smell? It smells so good! Has someone grilled seafood?" someone exclaimed.

"Mmm, the familiar taste, it feels so fresh, wow... damn, my mouth is watering."

"It must be the seventh floor. Only we and the people on the seventh floor live in this building."

"Where did you get this seafood from? It doesn't smell bad at all, it's so fresh it makes my mouth water."

Chen Hao listened silently to everyone's murmurs, his stomach rumbling with cravings, and it took immense willpower to stop himself from grabbing it.

Qin Ling walked a step behind, smelled the aroma in the air, and couldn't help but swallow. It had been five years since the apocalypse, and she hadn't tasted such freshness in a long time.

"How about we go find her and exchange some food? We've had a pretty good haul today."

"We'll talk about it after the allocation is complete."

"Yeah, I'd like to change my food too. This compressed biscuit and stale rice porridge is fucking enough."

Qian Da swallowed hard, then glanced at the silent Chen Hao and Qin Ling, not daring to mention the matter of exchanging the grilled seafood.

They received a considerable share this time, but Sister Qin has a child who needs milk powder, so they can't just indulge their own appetites; after all, they are a team.

Qi Hai looked at everyone, then at Chen Hao, smacked his lips, and continued climbing the stairs with his head down.

Other teams, even those with ulterior motives, simply observed, their eyes repeatedly glancing towards the stairwell.

At that moment, Fu Le was reading in the tent and didn't pay any attention to the noise.

Eighth floor.

After dividing up the task results, everyone returned to their respective teams to have dinner.

"Brother Hao, our team is going down to the seventh floor to get some food. Want to come along?" Li Tong's team had a good relationship with Chen Hao's group, so they said hello when they decided to go down to get some food.

"We won't go." Chen Hao shook his head and sat to the side, staring at the iron pot of porridge cooking.

"Alright, let's go down."

"Hey, Li Tong, let's go together." Another team came over, all of them smitten by the aroma of seafood.

Five teams came out this time, intending to try some seafood. Three teams left, leaving Chen Hao's team and the team of five veterans.

Fu Le had actually overheard the plan upstairs. After all, there were no doors or windows, and everyone spoke without paying attention to their voices, sounding like vegetable vendors at a market.

She didn't mind.

He simply opened the door himself and filled the two large tanks with crabs and shrimp.

As soon as Li Tong and the others came down, they saw the open doorway and were immediately delighted. Sure enough, she had heard them.

"Hello, beautiful lady, um, can we exchange some seafood with you?" Li Tong walked to the door and politely asked.

Fu Le stood up and pointed to the water tank next to him, "Come in, crabs, shrimps, fish, what will you use to exchange?"

There were six people in total, representing the three teams.

Upon hearing this, the six people excitedly stepped inside and surrounded the water tank with great interest.

"Colorless crystal cores, corrosive fruit, aged rice, what else do you need?" Li Tong asked happily.

Fu Le: ...

"Ten colorless crystal cores for one, and I can give you barbecue ingredients and charcoal." Fu Le pointed to the snakeskin bag and the small mountain of black charcoal.

It's practically a giveaway; ten colorless crystal cores can only be exchanged for an area the size of a hair.

Colorless crystal cores are the easiest to obtain. Those mutated but immobile micro-mutated plants are particularly easy to kill, but you still need to have the opportunity to encounter them.

Ten crystal cores can feed you a month's worth of stale rice! That's so expensive!!

Seeing everyone fall silent, Fu Le pursed his lips and said, "Add two more large crabs."

"Exchange!" Two crabs the size of a face plate!! That's such a good deal!! Li Tong was the first to agree.

"Then I'll switch too." The other two teams followed suit and switched as well.

"Get it yourselves." After saying that, he turned around and went to pack the barbecue seasoning for them.

After obtaining the thirty colorless crystal cores, Fu Le put them into the warehouse, and sure enough, they repaired an area the size of a mung bean.

Fu Le: ...

This is so worthless.

How about making it even cheaper?

Hmm, she needs to find a way to get into the base. She can't just rely on fighting monsters on her own. She has so many resources, and exchanging them is the fastest way to get crystal cores.

In the apocalypse, food and water are scarce, and children are probably malnourished. She can make some bagged milk. One colorless crystal core can be exchanged for one bag, 250 ml. That should be cheap, right?

Without further ado, Fu Le pulled out a bunch of sealed milk storage bags he'd gotten from the Ice Age shopping mall, and then took out a milk jug. He started filling the bags one by one, while Little Prince helped seal the edges. The two of them, one human and one monkey, filled a large bucket in no time.

"Little Prince, thank you." Fu Le smiled and thanked him, then continued to pretend.