In the planting area on level B3.

The last row of soilless planting units.

Standing in front of a transparent window, Chu Guang stroked his chin with his right hand, his handsome face full of shock.

"Potatoes, corn, tomatoes, pak choi, cabbage... I didn’t expect so many good things to be hidden here."

He originally planned to check out the situation in the planting area, but he did not expect that after walking around the planting unit, he found an unexpected surprise.

Behind the transparent window, there were many boxes with only labels, which stored the seeds of different varieties of crops.

The seeds were soaked in a special solution and kept at extremely low temperatures.

Chu Guang counted them carefully and found that there were 12 kinds of pre-war crops stored in the freezer. Their growth cycle ranged from short to long, and the climate suitable for growing those seeds ranged from tropical to frigid, almost completely covering every environment.

No matter what kind of climatic environment the inhabitants of the shelter were facing after the door of the shelter was opened, they could find at least one variety suitable for the climate they were facing to grow.

Other than that, the seeds were genetically modified and improved varieties, roughly similar to the Beta-712 cotton seeds he had previously drawn from loot boxes.

Quietly following the administrator, looking at the interested expression on his face, Makka Pakka yelled in excitement, "Dear administrator, I think we should make use of these facilities!"

Chu Guang nodded and said. "You’re right, I do have a plan for this."

Makka Pakka, who was standing beside Chu Guang, looked at him expectantly, but even after the administrator turned to leave, he still did not hear the sentence he wanted to hear.

Blinking in confusion, he hurriedly lowered his head and glanced at his VM.

Huh?

Why didn’t I trigger the mission?

Did I use the wrong key words?

...

When it came to growing plants in soilless planting units in the planting area, sowing, watering, fertilizing, and harvesting could all be done through preset programs.

In a sense, similar to the black box production method, the need for people who were knowledgeable when it came to growing crops was extremely low.

With such a high degree of automation, there was no need for players to take care of it. Chu Guang intended to leave it to Little Seven.

Excessive manual participation would only drag down the efficiency of the facility.

In terms of production ideas, Chu Guang intended to focus on the breeding of staple food varieties with long growth cycles, supplemented by short-cycle crops such as pak choi.

When spring came next year, the seeds of those staple crops would come in handy.

"There are 50 planting units, and the theoretical planting area is only 300,000 square meters... Actually, it might be a little less."

Even if one intensively cultivated planting unit could support 5 people, the output of 50 units was only enough to feed 250 people, and it was not even enough to cover the new players of Alpha 0.9.

Every time Chu Guang thought about it, he couldn’t help feeling a little speechless.

"This is very unreasonable. The planting area can’t even feed the residents on this floor. Is everyone here supposed to eat nutritional cream?"

It couldn’t be that bad, could it?

Or maybe… There’s a secret reason behind it?

In any case, food is the most important issue.

In addition to food, his players also needed fur coats to withstand the cold. Although a blue coat had the function of keeping warm, it was only for the ordinary coldness. This winter in Clearspring City, the lake had even shown signs of freezing, which obviously wouldn’t happen unless the temperature was extremely cold.

Compared with the nurturing cabin, the materials needed to support players were a more urgent problem that needed to be solved.

What’s more troublesome was that it would be December soon, the most difficult period of winter. Everyone’s food supply was probably running out.

Brown Farm couldn’t give out anymore food, and there were no survivors’ settlements with relatively high grain yields in the vicinity.

The only thing Chu Guang could count on was the Greenhouse Ruins.

He actually hoped Makka Pakka could create some miracle and do something useful for the shelter.

It’d been a while since Chu Guang gave him the corn seeds, it made him wonder how his cornfields were doing.

After leaving the planting area, Chu Guang went to the infirmary, intending to see what his newly recruited bioengineering expert was doing.

Due to the frequent onlookers and harassment of the players, the door here seemed to have been locked.

Although for Chu Guang, the doors from floors B1 to B3 were as good as decorations to him, he still politely rang the doorbell.

Soon after the doorbell rang, the door opened.

Passing through the infirmary, Chu Guang went straight to the room inside.

Judging from the equipment here and the layout of the room, it should be a medical laboratory.

When he passed through the sliding door, Hyrja, clad in a blue coat, was standing in front of an electron microscope, looking through the observation scope, and skillfully operating the buttons on the touch screen with her right hand.

Standing by and observing for a while, Chu Guang asked with interest, "What’s this?"

Without stopping her hand, Hyrja, whose eyes were firmly pressed on the scope, said excitedly. "Mutant Slime Mold. The sample collected from Crunchers! Thanks to your players, I’m able to study it. Can you please thank them for me?"

It seemed that she was completely familiar with how to use the players, although not fully used to their enthusiasm.

Chu Guang was very pleased with her adaptability.

If only all of his NPCs had such a high level of comprehension, then his micro-manipulation could at least be reduced by half.

"I’ll pass on your thanks. How is it? Can you find anything?"

Unlike the shelter residents who had lived in the wasteland for a while, Hyrja had been staying in Shelter 117 before. Although she had heard about the dangerous species that were active outside, she had never really come into contact with them.

The administrator of Shelter 117 was a relatively conservative leader, and did not support taking samples from the wasteland back to the shelter at the risk of unbalancing the ecological environment inside.

But Chu Guang didn’t have so many scruples. Shelter 404 had already been opened, and he had no plans to completely seal the door again. So he didn’t mind taking some samples in at all.

So when he heard that Hyrja was planning to study mutants in the wasteland, he agreed immediately, and even gave her a budget of 2000 silver coins.

Even if he could only learn some weaknesses, the money was definitely worth it.

"Mhm, these samples have completely subverted my first impression of them! At first I thought that these mutant Slime Mold and those mutants you call Crunchers and Creepers have a parasitic relationship, but then I found out that it is not the case at all."

Chu Guang was slightly dazed by her discovery.

That was completely different from the rumors he had learned.

"… Is it not?"

Hyrja, who was staring at the microscope, said without hesitation, "Of course not! Cruncher, Creeper, and Suicide Bomber... According to the samples that have been collected so far, these creatures you call Slime Mold mutants are actually the fruiting bodies of the mutant Slime Mold, not a different species!"

Hearing words that he did not understand at all, Chu Guang asked in a daze, "A fruiting body? What is that?"

"A spore-forming structure! You may not know about Slime Mold… They have very special characteristics. Sometimes, they would crawl around the ground like amoeba, other times, they would stand up releasing spores like a mushroom. And the habit of this Mutant Slime Mold is even more peculiar, the fruiting bodies formed by them are different from others in terms of morphology and behavior. They are actually highly similar to animals with complex body structures and highly differentiated organ functions!"

Her pretty face was full of zeal when she spoke about stuff related to science.

Even though the scopes of the microscope blocked her eyes, Chu Guang could clearly feel that she was exuding a completely different aura than she usually did.

Chu Guang asked cautiously, "Can you explain it in detail? I mean, try to use the language that people who aren’t as educated can understand."

"In layman’s terms, these Slime Molds show the same sociality as ants and bees! They have a clear division of labor, some form toes, some form heads, some actively necrotize and harden, and the others transform into nerve tissue, and the muscles that move the limbs! It’s like a unified consciousness that determines the selective expression of each gene in the Slime Mold cells."

Taking her eyes away from the microscope, Hyrja looked at Chu Guang with an excited expression. "Have you not noticed that the Cruncher is completely reconstructed according to the form of human beings, and the Creeper is like a combination of some kind of strange human with mutated limbs. They not only copy the appearance of other creatures, but also copy their hunting habits!"

"The Suicide Bomber is rather strange. It seems to contain the characteristics of a variety of creatures and some plants. It simulates explosives in the way of attack, and uses self-sacrifice to help their own kind to capture prey... This is simply incredible! These Slime Molds are really creatures on this…"

Watching Hyrja babbling nonstop, Chu Guang’s face was filled with weird expressions.

He originally only planned to ask her to take care of the crops when she was free since those soilless planting units were highly automated, and only needed to be looked after occasionally.

He didn’t expect that he would hear something this incredible when he came looking for her.

"You mean… Do you mean to say that Slime Mold mutants like Crunchers, Creepers, and Suicide Bombers are all fruiting bodies of Mutated Slime Mold? And they are simply used to release spores?"

Chu Guang pressed his index fingers against his temples. After trying to understand, he frowned, "That’s strange, I heard that they are produced by hives."

"Hive? What is that?" Hyrja grabbed Chu Guang’s arm and said with sparkling eyes, "Can I get a sample of that? Oh right, you taught me that I can use VM to..."

Halfway through, Hyrja seemed to remember something, let go of the hand that grabbed Chu Guang’s arm, and raised the VM to prepare to place her order.

Chu Guang was taken aback by her actions and quickly stopped her. "Don’t get excited, with the players’ current strength, they can’t enter hives. You’re going to get them killed."

My goodness.

Is she using the VM as a wishing machine?!

Even if my player is easy to use, they can’t do everything!

Hyrja, who was stopped, was slightly dazed, and the movements of her hands stopped.

"That hive... Is it really difficult to deal with?"

"It’s not just a problem of it being difficult to deal with. In fact, it’s impossible.”

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Hmm… Master… Don’t you know that I know many things you don’t? Why don’t you ask me if you wanna know more? Read me, read me…

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