Chapter 102: It Was Time for Ling Jing to Enter Hibernation Too
Ling Jing reaped a massive harvest east of Seed City.
One mutated sheep, two mutated goats, and a mutated cow monster that practically threw itself right into her net.
One D-rank beast core and three E-rank beast cores.
Just after securing the beef and mutton, she whipped the electric tricycle around and collided head-on with an E-rank mutated peppercorn monster wearing a vine trellis and a canopy.
Along with a mutated fennel monster that didn’t have a plant core.
Three hundred catties of white pepper, two hundred catties of black pepper, one hundred and twenty catties of fennel, plus one E-rank plant core—Ling Jing gladly accepted the haul.
How did that saying go again?
Within a hundred paces, you will always find your seasonings.
That wasn’t the exact quote, but the sentiment was about right.
On her return trip, plenty of mutated plants and animals bravely sacrificed themselves, rushing into her path one after another.
Boss Ling’s tricycle storage box gained fifty-two catties of green peppers, meat chunks from two unknown snake species, thirty-six catties of tribute chrysanthemum, eighty-seven catties of pumpkin, forty-five catties of bracken, and one hundred and sixty catties of pork.
Aside from the mutated flora and fauna that couldn’t be turned into ingredients, she also gained one E-rank beast core and one E-rank plant core.
Ling Jing returned to the Chinese Restaurant with a tricycle full of spoils.
Excluding what was stored in the cargo box, she had harvested a total of four E-rank beast cores, five E-rank plant cores, one D-rank beast core and one D-rank plant core, two C-rank beast cores, and one A-rank plant core.
She converted them all in the farm interface, exchanging them for a total of 350 Fauna Tokens and 575 Flora Tokens.
E-rank beast and plant cores could only be exchanged for 25 tokens. D-rank for 50, C-rank for 100.
B-rank for 200, and A-rank for 400.
…Well, how should she put it?
People really do change.
When she first discovered she could go out hunting in the wild, just securing ingredients was enough to make her happy.
Regardless of the rank, as long as it was usable, it was a good ingredient.
But after experiencing the thrill of a single A-rank plant core yielding 400 Flora Tokens, Ling Jing started to feel that E-rank mutants gave far too little.
If only a massive horde of A-rank and B-rank mutants would deliver their cores to her doorstep every time she went out.
This must be what they mean by “It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but hard to go from extravagance to frugality.”
Ling Jing chuckled, parking the electric tricycle and the storage boxes in the storeroom.
After putting everything away, she stood by the back door to spend her newly acquired Fauna and Flora Tokens.
Adding the previous balance of 20 Flora Tokens and 120 Fauna Tokens, her farm balance was now 595 Flora Tokens and 470 Fauna Tokens.
With the Flora Tokens, she immediately bought five 4×4 plots of land. Two were planted with the wheat seeds she got from hunting, two with corn, and one with rice.
Now there were eleven plots in total in the [Cultivation] tab.
Two plots of rice, three plots of corn, and the remaining six were all planted with wheat.
After watering them, Ling Jing tapped into [Livestock].
Four broiler chicks, four layer chicks—buy.
The two Level 1 coops were now full, with ten chicks each.
She bought four more bags of poultry feed, exactly enough to supply both coops for five days.
She spent a total of 320 Fauna Tokens.
Leaving her with 150 Fauna Tokens and 95 Flora Tokens.
Alright, she fed the new chicks, topped off their water, and went to check on how well Fufu and Caicai had finished their work.
“Boss is back! Welcome! ━(｀?′)ノ!”
As soon as she entered the kitchen, Caicai’s large, blocky head appeared in front of her.
Looking very happy.
“Mhm, how did the work go?”
“All tasks completed! ∠(｀?′)”
“Tasks completed.”
The two robots were on standby in the kitchen.
Ling Jing pulled open the holding cabinet to take a look.
Excellent. Five portions of every dish had been completed and were neatly arranged inside the cabinet.
The woks, spatulas, cutting boards, and knives had all been scrubbed clean and properly stowed away.
The kitchen was swept and wiped down, completely spotless.
The pickled white radishes were marinating in clear storage tubs placed neatly beneath the dual-access prep counter.
Caicai even poured a glass of water and handed it to her.
So incredibly worry-free.
She checked the time on the system interface.
It was almost 3 AM.
Time really flew by like an arrow when out hunting.
“Great job. Thanks for your hard work, Caicai, Fufu. You can go into hibernation now.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Yes, Boss! (^▽^)”
Ling Jing had set the hibernation spots for both robots by the bedroom door, right in the entryway space from the back door.
The two robots filed out of the kitchen in a line, stood side by side against the wall near the bedroom door, and their screens powered down one after another.
Only the backend panel buttons on the back of their heads glowed with a soft blue light.
This was hibernation mode.
It was time for Ling Jing herself to enter hibernation, too.
Standing in the kitchen from morning to night, then driving for over three hours in the dead of night.
The exhaustion washed over her all at once while she was showering.
After quickly blow-drying her hair, Ling Jing changed into clean pajamas.
Lying on the small sofa in the bedroom, she placed her feet into the heated foot spa massager.
She fell asleep right in the middle of the massage.
A “beep” woke Ling Jing up when the forty-minute “health mode” foot spa ended.
The massage was genuinely comfortable.
She dried her feet and threw herself onto the bed.
As soon as she pulled the blanket up, Ling Jing fell into a deep, heavy sleep.
…
In the early hours of the morning, there were still people wide awake.
At the edge of the urban ruins.
A group of people was walking toward the direction of the high walls while eating.
And chatting.
“This is delicious.”
“Of course it is, these are my favorite sugar-roasted chestnuts,” Hall said proudly.
“This corn is good too, nice and sweet.”
“It even restores stamina. So why didn’t you guys eat it before the battle? Eating it now just gives you the energy to walk back…” Turner asked, puzzled.
“…Well, we’ve never seen stuff like this before. We thought we’d bring it back and share it with the other comrades,” Zhuo Tian said, looking a little embarrassed.
The members of the Red Flag Society had essentially stuffed the rations provided by the Commander straight into their backpacks without eating them.
Having fought tooth and nail together, the group’s dynamic was completely different from their tense exchanges on the way to the ruins.
Hall had even divided his remaining food among the Red Flag Awakeners.
Half a bag of leftover chestnuts, a bowl of rice porridge he’d saved for a midnight snack, two roasted sweet potatoes, and a box of pickled white radishes.
After sharing it out, he was met with a satisfying chorus of awe from the Red Flag Awakeners.
“Wow! This is so good!”
“Delicious, thank you!”
“Was this bought at the Chinese Restaurant too?”
Even with a ruined, hoarse voice, Hall’s bragging was completely unhindered: “Of course! Tomorrow you can follow me there. I’ll take you to buy some—we’re regulars at the Chinese Restaurant, you know!”
He was like an elementary schooler pulling out a backpack full of snacks on a field trip, strutting his stuff under his classmates’ envious gazes.
The other Dark Star members also had some leftover food in their bags, eating as they listened to Hall show off.
Zhou Xue walked at the very front. She smiled faintly and took a sip of water from her canteen.
Hm?
Her sharp senses caught a sound.
“Wait. Movement ahead.”
Zhou Xue raised a hand, signaling her comrades to halt.
But she didn’t see any mutated flora, fauna, or people nearby.
On the other side.
“Alert.”
“Looks like it’s the people from the Red Flag Society and Dark Star.”
“It’s Zhou Xue.”
Within the radius of [Cloak], the city guard whispered his report: “Confirmed. They are our target extraction subjects.”
The leading guard deactivated his ability.
—The two stealth squads sent to find them had bumped into their targets the moment they reached the edge of the urban ruins.
“Zhou Xue?”
“That’s me. And you are?”
“We are here on the Commander’s orders to reinforce you.” The city guard with two stars on his shoulders stepped forward. “Has the mutated organism been dealt with?”
“…We didn’t deal with it. It wasn’t a B-rank mutated plant at all. It was an A-rank.” Zhou Xue hesitated.
“A-rank?” The leading guard’s expression tightened sharply behind his visor.
“And it was a parasitic mutant plant that merged with another A-rank banyan tree,” Heixi stepped forward to add. “It had already expanded into the city center.”
“Two A-ranks?!”
“It also absorbed the energy of a massive flock of ghost birds!” Hall bounced over to add. “It might have even evolved!”
“What?!!” The guard’s gaze immediately snapped to the darkness behind the group.
“But they were all annihilated.”
The guard, whose hand was hovering over his weapon ready to activate his ability, froze: “?”
…
Why did this group love to deliver their news with such heart-stopping pauses?
It was putting people’s hearts through an absolute emotional roller coaster.
