Chapter 32: Special Fruits on the Fifth Day of Spring
Yu Luowei opened the three-person chat group:
Fang Min: No, why is Jin Yu so disgusting? It was Lin Lang who told Zhou Jianhui the information, but he actually took it all as Zhou Jianhui's credit. And Zhou Jianhui is also Jin Yu's man. Why didn't he just tell Lin Lang that he was from the mutual aid group? He must have known that Jin Yu and his mutual aid group were not good people!
Fang Min: Ahhhhhh, I'm so pissed off, Linlang. Next time, don't tell anyone about this kind of information except us. Why do we always run into this kind of disgusting thing?
Zhao Linlang: Oh my god, how could this happen! I'm so sorry, I didn't get you into trouble. Don't worry, as the old saying goes, once or twice, but not three or four times. I won't do this again, don't worry. But thankfully, this time it wasn't like last time, where they pushed the blame on me again. I really don't want to be scolded again, and have you guys get in trouble for speaking up for me.
Fang Min: You don't have to apologize, Linlang. We weren't hurt at all. I just can't stand that Jin Yu. He's so annoying and stealing other people's credit!
Yu Luowei had already blocked Jin Yu, so she hadn't seen his chat just now. She then asked Fang Min about the whole story: Jin Yu, in an effort to redeem his reputation after his previous misinformation, had posted information about damaged ground causing more vines to grow, urging everyone not to damage the environment. He also said this was something they'd learned from their mutual aid group and urged more people to join in. Zhou Jianhui chimed in, prompting Fang Min and Zhao Linlang to realize it was actually Zhao Linlang who had given them the information.
The two of them had been discussing this matter for a long time, and they had said everything they needed to say. Zhao Linlang, feeling guilty, insisted on giving Fang Min and Yu Luowei ten iron blocks each, and even swore to heaven that she would never do such a thing again. She looked very sad. Yu Luowei had no chance to get a word in, so she finally made one comment:
Yu Luowei: It's okay. I don't think Jin Yu can necessarily repair his damaged reputation. It's already the fourth day, and he's already destroyed it two days ago. If he hadn't destroyed it, he wouldn't have gone back even if he hadn't said anything. His efforts are probably in vain.
After closing the manual, Yu Luowei checked the shelter and confirmed that there was nothing else to do. Then he went to wash up and fell asleep with Ma Tuan.
The fifth day of the Spring Season had already arrived. Yu Luowei awoke slowly in the morning, eating breakfast in the shelter while checking the base's defenses. While some damage had been sustained, it was half the amount lost yesterday. It seemed the inhibitors were still effective. When daybreak arrived, Yu Luowei stood in the base and gazed at the forest. Today, the forest felt threatening even from a distance. It was as if Yu Luowei had returned to the first morning of her first day in the game, the same feeling she had when she first saw the forest in the darkness.
Besides the green leaves, vines, and colorful flowers, Yu Luowei vaguely seemed to see quite a few fruits. She glanced at the bushes outside the fence and saw a few more berries there, too, though because they had been sprayed with a suppressant, the number was small.
Aside from spraying the suppressant once more, Yu Luowei had no plans to venture into the forest again today. Feeling that these fruits might have some unique properties, Yu Luowei immediately changed into her gear and headed out to pick some fruit. She'd already put on the gloves she'd found in the box yesterday, rather than making them herself.
The main purpose was to spray the bushes and ground outside the fence, as well as the outermost forest, with the inhibitory liquid. Therefore, Yu Luowei prepared to pick some fruits from the bushes and the forest. When he got closer, he found that the fruits did not come from bushes or trees, but from vines.
Without bothering to check the detailed information, Yu Luowei stuffed all the fruit she had picked into her bracelet and busied herself with spraying the inhibitor: "Hurry up and go back. I'll check the detailed information again when I sit down." Although the inhibitor was sprayed yesterday, more tree roots still pushed out of the ground today, but this saved Yu Luowei the trouble of digging.
Back at the shelter, before she even sat down, Yu Luowei was met by Ma Tuan's sudden flight. She had seen him sleeping soundly that morning, so she hadn't woken him up. Now, hugging him again, Yu Luowei realized he'd gained a lot of weight—after all, he'd grown another month. Not only had he gained weight, but his fur had also grown longer.
Now that Ma Tuan had grown up, Yu Luowei prepared to feed him the advancement stone. Although it was called a stone, it looked like a pill and was softer to the touch. Worried that Ma Tuan wouldn't eat it, Yu Luowei sandwiched it in peach pulp and fed it to him.
After eating, Ma Tuan suddenly fainted. This startled Yu Luowei. After confirming that Ma Tuan was still breathing, she hurriedly checked her pet's status. A new sign read "Advancing" behind Ma Tuan, and the countdown showed it still needed eight hours. Yu Luowei finally felt relieved. She put Ma Tuan back in his nest and filled it with fruit and bamboo to prevent him from waking up hungry.
After staying beside the ball for a while and seeing its breathing gradually stabilize, Yu Luowei returned to the first floor and began to check the fruits she had picked today. Unexpectedly, these fruits were not ordinary food, but there were three kinds: the poisonous fruit, the life fruit, and the source fruit.
The entire fruit of the poisonous fruit is extremely poisonous. Even if you just touch it, if you don't take an antidote pill within half an hour, you will die. Fortunately, Yu Luowei was cautious and put on gloves before checking, so he avoided being poisoned. However, there must be an antidote within three steps, and the source fruit is that antidote. It is the ingredient for the antidote pill. However, it also requires a recipe. If consumed directly, the effect will be less effective. For example, a poison that can be cured by taking one antidote pill requires two source fruits.
The number of Life Fruits was very small. Yu Luowei had picked two or three hundred in total, but only two were found. However, their effect was very strong, increasing one's physical fitness limit. However, each person could only increase their physical fitness limit by 5 points at most by eating Life Fruits. After that, eating Life Fruits would be useless. Unlike the Cloud Pomelo Fruit, however, there was no time limit for eating Life Fruits. These fruits were only the size of cherries. Yu Luowei took off his gloves, washed his hands, and ate the two immediately.
Having experienced poisonous rain and flowers before, the only ones who dared to pick fruit now were those like Yu Luowei, who were well-equipped and intuitive, or those who simply had nothing to eat and wanted to try their luck. The others would definitely stay as far away as possible, so few people had access to this information.
Yu Luowei shared the information about the fruit with the three of them in the small group chat, and then posted a "glove fruit" under Lin Zhixia and the others' message. Lin Zhixia and the others would definitely understand if they saw it; this kind of tacit understanding was essential. As the store manager, Yu Luowei could adjust the placement of these messages, but she always placed them at the bottom, where relatively few people would see them. As for whether anyone saw and understood the information, Yu Luowei had no control over it. As usual, this game wasn't like one person could complete it without others being able to.
Because there were too many vines outside and few resources to find, Fang Min, like Yu Luowei, searched hard yesterday and didn't go out again today. Seeing Yu Luowei's message, she replied in the group chat and rushed out to pick fruit with gloves on. Zhao Linlang wanted to dig for more iron ore today, so she hadn't returned to see the message yet. Yu Luowei also wanted to go out again to at least find the remaining three Life Fruits.
Yu Luowei set off on her fruit-picking adventure. There were fewer Fountain Fruits than Poison Fruits, so Yu Luowei stored them all in her bracelet, fearing that discarding the Poison Fruits would contaminate the land. This meant that by the time she had collected all three Life Fruits, she had nearly 500 Poison Fruits and over 300 Fountain Fruits.
Today's forest was even more treacherous. Yesterday, vines were only scattered across a few areas, but now, the entire forest was covered in vines, baring their fangs, ready to deliver a fatal blow. Therefore, Yu Luowei tried to pick fruit only from the bushes. Only when there were none left would she venture to the outermost forests, holding up a large flame shield to protect herself from the vines' surprise attacks. Because of this, after finding three, Yu Luowei stopped searching for the Fruit of Life and returned directly to the shelter.
It was almost twelve o'clock when he came back. Yu Luowei ate three life fruits to whet his appetite and then went to cook.
Since it was a rare afternoon without having to go out exploring, Yu Luowei decided to cook a feast. She'd make sweet and sour pork tenderloin, braised fish, and some pig's trotters for later use. Coincidentally, the food in the box from the previous day contained rock sugar, which enriched Yu Luowei's supplies.
An hour had passed by the time everything was done, but all her fatigue disappeared when she smelled the aroma of the food. She washed her hands and began to eat with relish.
Because Fang Min ordered lunch from Yu Luowei today, she specially made more dishes, packed Fang Min's portion, and had some leftovers, so she planned to eat them in the evening since she would never get tired of them anyway.
Back upstairs, Ma Tuan was still sleeping. Yu Luowei gently stroked Ma Tuan's hair and took a nap himself.
When she woke up again, Yu Luowei had received a message from Zhao Linlang. She had come back from mining at noon and read the information. She hadn't even bothered to eat before going out to pick fruit again. Now she had finally picked all five. Yu Luowei wasn't worried about Zhao Linlang spreading the news again. Firstly, Zhao Linlang had a strong sense of boundaries and would only trade her own information. Secondly, she had said there wouldn't be a third time.
There were no boxes to open today, and things had been packed up several times. Yu Luowei was very bored, so she wanted to go to the farmland again.
As soon as he arrived at the base, Yu Luowei found something wrong. He didn't know when the arrow tower was activated and was shooting flaming arrows.
Before, it was the fragrance of flowers and underground tree roots that destroyed the base, and the arrow tower could not attack it. Yu Luowei quickly went back to get the manual to observe the changes in the defense value, and then concentrated on observing at the fence, trying to see what triggered the arrow tower.
By chance, a giant flower dodged the barrage of arrows and floated before Yu Luowei. Just as she was about to shoo it away, it exploded right before her eyes. Because of the base's fence, the explosion didn't hurt Yu Luowei, but it did reduce the base's defense by twenty points.
In addition, Yu Luowei also saw several vines flying in the air, which were the focus of the arrow tower's attack. These vines could regenerate, and when one was broken, a new one would immediately grow. If Yu Luowei hadn't been used to replenishing the arrow tower, he might not have been able to hold on until now.
This was not a solution, so Yu Luowei refilled the arrow tower with arrows and topped up the base's defense value with crystals. He then put on his equipment and prepared to deal with the source of the vines.
The floating flowers will only explode when they touch the base or Yu Luowei. If they are hit by a flaming arrow, they will fall directly to the ground and lose the possibility of exploding. This makes Yu Luowei's journey forward a little easier.
Following the vines overhead, while also guarding against attacks from the surrounding vines, Yu Luowei finally found the main vine in the middle of the forest. It was like a giant green python, tightly wrapped around a tall pine tree, with a dozen smaller vines branching out and extending outward.
Without hesitation, Yu Luowei directly used the Lion Soul Flame Slash, which was her strongest skill, but it seemed a little insufficient in front of this "big python", and only destroyed half of the small vines.
The big vine felt the threat from Yu Luowei, and immediately retracted the remaining small vines, concentrating them together to attack Yu Luowei.
Yu Luowei, quick-witted, conjured a pair of large scissors from flames and controlled them to cut the vines. Although the vines would regenerate, this process consumed a lot of the vine's energy. Yu Luowei approached the vine while cutting, then used his mind to gradually increase the temperature around the vine.
With these two methods, half of the small vines could no longer regenerate and burn marks gradually appeared on the vines themselves. Yu Luowei quickly controlled the scissors and rushed towards the vines themselves, cutting them hard.
Of course, he didn't cut it the first time, but the flames, combined with the high temperature around the vine, ignited it. Even though it frantically secreted liquid to extinguish the flames, it was useless, and a lot of the liquid was directly evaporated. Yu Luowei struck while the iron was hot and cut a few more times, finally finishing off the green python.
This large vine not only attacked Yu Luowei and her base, but also suppressed the other plant monsters in the area to a certain extent. After defeating it, many other plant monsters in the surrounding area began to stir. Yu Luowei collected her spoils and left this troubled place without stopping.
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