Chapter 23
Su Jing parked the small truck she rented beside the dirt road at the entrance to the deep mountains. The truck bed was filled with disassembled parts of a 20-square-meter villa with a yard, covered tightly with a tarpaulin to avoid exposure. She jumped out of the truck, her feet stepping on the soft, decaying leaves, and looked up into the distance—the chosen resettlement site was in a gentle clearing between two mountains, surrounded by pine trees with a diameter of half a meter. The layers of branches and leaves blocked the sunlight, the ground was covered with a thin layer of pine needles, and there were no obvious weeds. The mountain road 500 meters away wound through the woods, and the movement of people could be clearly seen with the naked eye. There were no signs of human activity such as smoke or footprints, making it sufficiently secluded.
"Unload the parts first, then assemble them in the center of the open space." Su Jing opened the truck bed and summoned two robots with her mind. A light blue light flashed, and the silver-gray bodies landed. The robotic arms unfolded into a transport mode, precisely clamping the parts boxes—each box weighing about 50 kilograms. The robots, however, did not exert any effort, following the path she had cleared (with a simple entrenching tool to remove weeds), and unloaded all the parts in three round trips.
Assembly was much faster than in the warehouse. The robots had clear roles: Robot 1 was responsible for connecting the main frame steel pipes, tightening the bolts to the perfect tightness; Robot 2 was responsible for applying the insulation layer and soundproofing cotton, spreading the glue evenly without leaving any gaps. Su Jing leaned against a pine tree trunk, her fingertips tracing the assembly diagrams on her phone—she had specifically asked the manufacturer to add adjustable feet to prevent the uneven ground in the deep mountains, and the robot was currently using a level to ensure the villa was stable. In less than two hours, the white exterior wall panels were installed, the blue doors and windows were fitted into the openings, and the metal fence around the courtyard was also in place. The 1.5-meter-high fence even had ventilation holes, which neither obstructed the view nor prevented small wild animals.
“It’s time to install the cameras.” Su Jing took out four solar-powered wireless cameras she had bought online from her spatial storage. They were black with night vision capabilities and their battery life depended on the solar panels on top. They had already been fully charged. She handed one to the robot and pointed to the four corners of the courtyard: “Install it on top of the fence, angled outwards to ensure it covers the entire open space; install the other one under the eaves of the villa entrance, facing the gate.”
The robot's robotic arm held a camera, precisely fixed to the steel pipes of the fence. The data cable was hidden inside the fence, connecting to the monitoring app on Su Jing's phone. She opened the app to test it: the camera at the east corner could see the mountain road in the distance, the camera at the west corner could see the hillside behind, and the camera at the gate could clearly capture the opening and closing of the gate. In night vision mode, the image was a light green, and even a squirrel 10 meters away could be seen clearly. "Set up motion detection alarm, adjust the sensitivity to medium." Su Jing swiped the phone screen so that the phone would immediately pop up a notification if there was any unfamiliar movement.
Dealing with the giant plant was the next priority. Su Jing walked to the open space next to the villa, set up a folding table, and took out a giant mushroom from her spatial storage—its cap was 5 meters in diameter. She used a folding spatula to cut it into half-meter square pieces. The "double strength boost" from the sweet grass roots made shoveling effortless. The cut mushroom pieces were piled up next to the table; the grayish-white flesh was firm and without a trace of impurity. "First, boil the mushrooms, then process the honey fruit, and finally grind the giant barley." She took out a portable gas stove (which she had stockpiled before, powered by a liquefied gas cylinder) from her spatial storage, placed a large stainless steel pot (also from her spatial storage) on it, added water and brought it to a boil, then put the mushroom pieces into the pot.
As the water boiled again, a rich, fresh aroma filled the open space. Su Jing tasted a small piece—the flesh was tender and soft, without the slight astringency of the raw mushrooms she had previously experienced. Confirming it was fully cooked, she scooped it out with a slotted spoon and placed it in a bamboo basket lined with gauze to drain. Once the temperature had cooled to room temperature, she took out a vacuum packaging machine, divided the mushroom pieces into 200-gram portions, and placed them into packaging bags. The machine hummed as it removed the air from the bags, sealing them perfectly. "Put them in my spatial storage, into the 'processed food area'," Su Jing thought. The packaged mushrooms vanished instantly, and the intelligent sorting function in her spatial storage automatically created a new area, separating them from the unprocessed plants.
Processing the honey fruit was even more time-consuming. She took out an 8-kilogram honey fruit from her spatial storage and peeled it with a knife—the orange-yellow peel was about 1 centimeter thick, the flesh was plump and juicy, and there was a fist-sized hard pit in the center. "Remove the pit and keep the flesh, cook it, and then seal it." Su Jing cut the flesh into small pieces, put it in a pot with water to cook, no need to add sugar, the sweetness of the flesh itself was enough. Cook until the flesh became translucent, then take it out and drain it, and vacuum-pack it, 150 grams per bag, for convenient direct consumption or brewing in the event of the apocalypse.
The most time-consuming part was grinding the Giant wheat. Su Jing switched Robot No. 1 to "threshing mode," and its robotic arm unfolded into a comb shape to separate the Giant wheat ears from the stalks. Robot No. 2 then transported the threshed ears and poured them into a small flour mill in the space (a commercial model purchased online, with adjustable flour coarseness). The flour mill started with a "whoosh," and golden flour flowed out of the outlet, fine and free of impurities. Su Jing filtered it through a fine sieve to ensure there were no coarse particles before packing it into sealed bags, 1 kilogram per bag, labeled "Giant Wheat Flour" and the packaging date.
With the robot's assistance, 500 kilograms of giant plants were processed in just one afternoon: 200 kilograms of mushrooms, 150 kilograms of honey fruit, and 150 kilograms of giant wheat flour. Su Jing leaned against the villa's doorframe, drinking mineral water from her spatial storage, watching the monitor on her phone—the open space was quiet, save for the rustling of leaves in the wind. Suddenly, a system notification sounded in her mind:
[System Feature Update: The "China Regional Chat Room" has been opened for participants from the same country to communicate. Opening the room requires 100 points. After opening, users can view regional chat messages, send text (free)/images (50 points/image), and anonymous chatting is supported.]
"100 points... Let's open it and see." Su Jing brought up the system panel, and after deducting 100 points, the chat room interface popped up—on a white background, dense text kept refreshing, mostly discussions about the "Giant World" dungeon. She scrolled down and quickly saw a topic about herself:
"Has anyone noticed 'I am the God of Wealth' who's ranked number one? He survived for 72 hours with a full statistic and was the first to complete the task. That's outrageous!"
"I bet this person has some special ability, otherwise how could they be so much faster than others? I almost died from exhaustion digging up 100 kilograms of sweet grass roots!"
"Could it be a spatial ability? Only someone who can hoard supplies dares to be so arrogant. Otherwise, if you can't take the items out of the dungeon, why would anyone bother to dig up more?"
"Stop guessing. Maybe they were just lucky and didn't encounter any giants. I was chased by giants for half the night!"
Su Jing didn't speak, just watched silently—no one knew that "I am the God of Wealth" was her, and even fewer knew that she had not only brought out 30,000 jin of supplies, but also built a villa deep in the mountains. She left the chat room, closed the interface, and turned to walk into the villa.
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