[Chapter 10 Wild Rewards]

“Stay for a while?” David knew why Mark Watney said that. In the plot, he was forgotten on Mars due to an accident, and he could only live alone on this planet with nothing.

His motivation to survive is to wait for the next manned mission to Mars in four years.

How to spend these four years is the biggest problem he has to solve at present – not to mention whether the living camp can last for a full four years without damage, and whether the oxygen equipment and water-making equipment can work normally for four years. For Mark Watney at this time, the biggest problem is food.

The base stores enough food for six astronauts for 68 days. Even if Mark Watney is alone now, these foods can only support him for 300 days, and can be limited to 400 days, which is still a long way from four years.

It was at this time that Mark, who was thinking hard about how to grow enough food on Mars for him to eat for three years, came to David’s Winter Village in a daze.

At this moment, Mark Watney saw new hope – if what David said was true, he could travel freely between the two worlds, then he could live here and find a way to meet up with the next batch of astronauts coming to Mars and return to Earth together.

So, for David, what’s wrong with taking Mark Watney in?

Of course not!

So David directly expressed his welcome: “It’s not a big deal, welcome to Winter Village.” Apart from anything else, Mark Watney is a botanist, maybe he can help me solve the land problem? Or let me learn some botanical skills from him?

Reaching out his hand and shaking hands with Mark, David welcomed him. David didn’t feel that he had suddenly learned any knowledge. I wonder if his favorability was not high enough?

David was not in a hurry. If his judgment was correct, Mark Watney would have to live with him for at least a few years. Whether it was botanical knowledge or anything else, he was not in a hurry. At

the very least, Mark Watney was a living person after all. If he wanted to become the official village chief, he needed a certain number of villagers.

In David’s plan, when Crawford helped him get seeds of high-yield crops and solved the most basic farmland and food problems, he would go to Iron Tree Castle to recruit a group of villagers. If there were already people living in the village before that, it would undoubtedly be more convincing and persuade more people to stay.

Therefore, even if we ignore the gains brought by the gold finger, Mark Watney will leave after only living there for a few years, and he is very welcome.

Mark Watney is not clear about these things at present. In fact, even if he knows, he doesn’t care. As long as he can urgently solve his survival crisis, everything else is a small matter.

Hearing David’s welcome, Mark was so excited that his mouth couldn’t close. He didn’t know if he was hungry and confused. He seemed to smell the aroma of meat.

Soon he found that it was not because he was hungry that he had hallucinations, but that there was really a pot of broth waiting for him.

“Our Winter Village is located in the northernmost part of the kingdom. It is a newly established village. There is nothing good here. I hope you don’t mind it!”

Looking at the steaming broth that David brought to him, Mark smiled even more brightly: “How could that be? Thank you very much for your hospitality. If possible, I also hope to be able to help.”

Mark didn’t want to be a freeloader, and he had already begun to think about what he could do?

In his opinion, although he didn’t know how he came to this world and didn’t know much about this world, based on the current observations, the civilization of this world seemed to be in a relatively backward stage. He should be able to use some advanced knowledge to make this village better.

While eating breakfast, Mark said that he wanted to visit Winter Village later, not just the “inside” of this village with only four wooden houses, he wanted to see the surrounding situation as well.

“Of course.” David had no reason to refuse, and Old Buddha said that he wanted to go to the forest in the north.

David knew that Old Buddha was worried about the wolf pack that had attacked David before, and wanted to go over to see if he could completely eliminate the hidden dangers. Of course, he would not object to this.

Just as several people were eating breakfast and deciding what to do next, Crawford ran over again.

When Mark Watney held the wooden bowl and saw a person appear from nothing in front of him, the last bit of doubt in his heart disappeared, and the last bit of doubt was left to the option of “This may just be a bizarre dream!”

“Hello, my name is Crawford-Crawford!”

When Crawford introduced himself to Mark Watney, the botanist from Mars had a strange expression on his face. He held it in for a few seconds before introducing himself to Crawford: “Hello, my name is Mark Watney.”

No one present was a fool, and Old Buddha was the smartest of the smart. Although he didn’t understand English at present, after these two days, he already knew that Crawford’s sentence was a simple greeting and self-introduction. It was very interesting that such a simple greeting made Mark Watney react like this. David

knew why Mark reacted like this, but he still acted very “simple”, watching the fun from the side as if he knew nothing.

Crawford also realized something, but she had some experience, so she didn’t rush to ask questions. At this time, she had more important things to deal with first. After asking for some food and water, and letting David replenish various BUFFs for him, he left in a hurry.

Watching the golden light that fell when David waved his hand, Mark suddenly realized that he had not only come to another world, but also witnessed the mysterious power that once only existed in various magical works.

“What is this?”

“Holy Light!”

Such a familiar name, Mark Watney suddenly felt that the possibility that he was actually dreaming had increased a little bit.

Watching David skillfully put away the pots and bowls, Mark followed behind him and observed everything carefully, and from time to time secretly twisted his arms and thighs.

No matter how hard he tried, the pain from his body did not wake him up, and if he was really dreaming, the details were too detailed and real.

“Wait.” Just as he followed David around the village, Mark seemed to have discovered something and called David who was about to take him to the river: “I think I found something.”

“What?” David was stunned when he was called, and turned his head to see Mark rushing to the back of a wooden house: “Is it a beast?”

Because the surrounding environment was not safe, David would keep his weapons at hand even when he was resting, let alone when he was doing activities.

He reached out to take down the hunting bow on his back, but heard Mark say, “No, I think I found potato seedlings.”

“Ah?”

His hand that was about to take the bow stopped in mid-air, and he looked at Mark Watney in astonishment as he squatted cautiously in the open space behind the wooden house. He carefully observed for a moment, and finally looked up and said, “I’m not mistaken, these are indeed potato seedlings.”

“…”

David wanted to say ‘impossible’ to him. He had lived here for two years. How could he not notice the wild potatoes under his nose?

Just as he was about to speak, after looking at Mark Watney for a second, he suddenly realized something, and the rebuttal that came out of his mouth turned into: “What is that?”

“A kind of food that is easy to survive and high in yield.” Mark didn’t think much about it. He just thought that people in this world didn’t know the edible value of potatoes. This was not surprising. After all, in his world, humans didn’t know that this thing could be eaten for a long time… and it was delicious: “Since wild potatoes can be found, it proves that potatoes can be grown here.”

Mark Watney originally planned to grow potatoes inside the base on Mars, but there were too many troubles to solve in planting on Mars, and the probability of success was very low.

In comparison, bringing those live potatoes here, and then opening up a potato field in this world, and continuously planting a large number of potatoes, can not only ensure their own food, but also contribute to the village, which is perfect.

Mark Watney, who was in an excited state, was not going to continue the visit. He couldn’t wait to start his potato field development plan immediately. In his mind, he had already begun to calculate how much land he needed to open up to be enough, and where should the potato field be opened?

Looking at Mark Watney who was muttering in his mouth, David did not interrupt this person’s thoughts, but turned his head to look at the potato seedlings under his feet.

The green and tender branches and leaves grew on the black land. After observing carefully for a moment, David found that there seemed to be a very subtle difference between the land under his feet and the land in the distance.

“Illusion?”

After looking at it a few more times, he couldn’t tell whether he was seeing it wrong; or he had never noticed such a small difference before.

But one thing is certain, there was absolutely no wild potato in this place before – he lived there for two years, and he didn’t let go of the wild vegetables and berries that could be eaten and dug on the surrounding land. The crops under his nose could not be ignored by him. Besides, it’s not like he doesn’t know potatoes.

Since they didn’t exist before, there’s no reason for them to suddenly appear out of thin air.

The most reliable explanation is Mark Watney, who is mumbling and calculating something next to him.

“Could it be that the reward is not only the skills or talents given to people like me, but also includes real objects like potatoes?” David pondered: This kind of real object reward should also have a special connection with the person who “distributes the reward”, just like Mark Watney and potatoes – in the plot, Mark relied on potatoes to survive on Mars until the rescue arrived on Mars and successfully returned to Earth.

“However, it’s easy to find potatoes growing behind the house. If it’s some other strange thing, how can we find or claim it?”

(End of this chapter)