Chapter 29: Corrosive Man-Eating Flower, Insect Hunting
After the instance ended, Su Ning returned to her usual work inspecting ingredients. Unknowingly, a week had already passed.
However, the expected instance hadn’t arrived.
Su Ning wasn’t worried. The system’s arrival had always been unpredictable. Now that she had various abilities to support herself, she wasn’t in a rush either.
After checking the last batch of ingredients obtained from the instance by the shelter, Su Ning packed her things and prepared to go home.
“Su Ning, heading to farm again?”
Jiang Nana suddenly interjected.
Ever since she apologized last time and Su Ning didn’t reject her, Jiang Nana had started sticking close and even began to admire Su Ning.
So young, orphaned, yet still managed to land this job through her own efforts.
Now the two of them could talk casually.
Su Ning nodded, “Yeah, going to check on what I’ve planted.”
Ever since she handed over the mutated fertilizer to Researcher Yan, the sixth shelter’s researchers had worked together and finally extracted something from it that allowed mutated land to grow crops.
However, Su Ning had provided too little fertilizer, so only the sixth shelter could grow normal crops on a larger scale. Still, this was good news.
Food shortages could finally be addressed, and the instance [Farming Farm] was now marked as high priority.
It wasn’t yet confirmed whether instances could be re-entered, but if one could return to the [Farming Farm] instance, that mutated fertilizer would be the most sought-after item by all players.
Jiang Nana couldn’t help admiring Su Ning for having time to farm even after intense work.
Maybe she had unlocked some traditional farming talent—Su Ning certainly enjoyed it.
She arrived at the small farming area assigned to her by the shelter, surrounded by the test plots of various researchers.
Many researchers came forward to greet her.
“Xiao Su, here again after work?”
“Yeah,” Su Ning replied with a smile.
Watching her walk into her private plot, a few researchers sighed, “Can’t compare, huh? A kid already surpassing decades of our work.”
“Jealous?”
“Who isn’t? A special job and a private plot—who wouldn’t envy that?”
“Envy all you want. Xiao Su earned it. She provided the mutated fertilizer info. Now only the sixth shelter can grow ordinary crops on polluted land. That’s her capability. If you want to be like Su Ning, go fetch something useful from an instance yourself.”
“I wish I could… Oh, but did you hear? Someone powerful appeared in Shelter 3. When a riot broke out recently, that person suppressed it by force.”
“Yeah, Shelter 3 was just built and already had a riot when they started taking in refugees. Who knows if our shelter will stay safe in the future? Things outside are getting worse.”
“Exactly. If only I had awakened a decent ability—then I could live better outside and get resources for my family inside the instances too.”
Their conversation trailed off as they returned to work.
Su Ning entered her private plot. Although it wasn’t large, it was enough for her.
Before her was a patch of green seedlings.
After getting the plot, Su Ning had planted regular crops using the seeds she’d collected—corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and lots of flower seedlings. She wanted to prepare for the Emerald Bees to collect nectar. Without flowers, there would be no nectar.
However, one plant clearly stood out—a strange-looking variant of the Mutant Flower.
Su Ning noticed something unusual when she planted it.
[Corrosive Man-Eating Flower]: A mutant variant of the Giant Flower. Due to being fed human corpses, it underwent uncontrollable evolution. The fruit it produces also has altered effects.
This was the very JuJu Flower Su Ning had used to dispose of two corpses. She hadn’t expected the flower to evolve due to that, and its appearance changed drastically.
Now, it looked very similar to the Chomper from Plants vs. XX.
If it weren’t for the fact that it still grew Juju Fruit, she might’ve thought she was hallucinating.
Of course, the fruit had also mutated.
[Corrosive Fruit]: Variant fruit of the Corrosive Man-Eating Flower. Inedible. Possesses strong corrosive properties and extremely high attack power.
From edible Juju Fruit to powerful Corrosive Fruit—Su Ning hadn’t seen this coming.
“Looks like I just gained another powerful weapon by accident.”
Given the fruit’s corrosive power combined with her deadly accuracy skills, Su Ning silently mourned for her future enemies.
She grabbed a shovel and loosened the soil.
“Still lacking water. Hopefully the next instance isn’t water-scarce.”
Although she had collected a lot from the farming instance, water was still the scarcest. She had enough for herself, but not for the crops—just a drop in the bucket.
Back at her dormitory…
Su Ning began her great bee-refining project.
Now that she had time, she needed to refine the living Emerald Bees she had collected, so they’d obey her commands.
Meanwhile, a totally unexpected crisis was brewing outside the shelter.
“What? An insect infestation?” Liu Jianjun frowned.
“What exactly happened? Explain in detail.”
The man who reported the situation looked distressed but had no choice but to speak.
“Some time ago, people discovered the characteristics of the Insect Mushroom. Residents who had brought back a lot of them from the instances started discarding them. But due to high temperatures, the discarded mushrooms hatched into swarms of insects. That’s what caused the infestation.”
Too many bugs could lead to bigger disasters.
“Looks like the insect biscuit plan has to begin immediately.”
Originally, Liu Jianjun wanted to wait a bit longer.
With hunger still unsolved outside, the plan was to raise bugs using the Insect Mushrooms to make insect biscuits. But now, things had taken a turn.
“Announce to the public: the Sixth Shelter will now accept trades of every 10 pounds of the same insect species for one insect biscuit.”
“Yes, sir!”
Thus began the dramatic insect-hunting operation.
Hearing the news, Su Ning took out a bug net from her backpack. Of course, she wasn’t after food—she wanted to feed them to other Giant Flowers and see if she could induce further mutations.
But she couldn’t let herself seem too different either. If everyone else was out catching bugs and she wasn’t—even living comfortably—it would draw attention.
Yet Su Ning hadn’t expected to run into someone she deeply resented during her bug hunt.
“Su Ning, you little brat. You can get into a shelter, so why won’t you let us in? Heartless!”
Standing in front of her was her uncle’s entire family.
Su Ning’s long-restrained anger was about to explode.
(End of Chapter)
