Chapter 27: The Second Plant

Long Teng covered his face and pouted. “I can follow the others. I’m sure I won’t get lost.”

Grandfather ignored him and looked at Maine. “How many people are on your team now? If there is still room, take him with you. Luckily I ran into you, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to find someone who can restrain this kid.”

He knew his grandson very well. Even if he became a teammate, he was always thinking about fighting. Maine was the only one he had seen of that age who was similar to Long Teng.

Maine shook his head. “No. He’s always thinking about fighting. It’s a mistake.”

Grandfather grabbed Long Teng’s ear. “Come on. Swear to him that you won’t find anyone to fight with during the league.”

“Grandpa, you let go!” Long Teng moved closer to his grandfather’s neck to keep his ear from being tugged. “With so many opponents in the league, there will definitely be fights!”

Grandfather glared at him. “If you fight randomly, the rest of the people will target you together and you won’t even get a permit to enter the city.”

Xie Sen spoke up at this point, and asked Maine, “How many members can we be sure of?”

Maine went to ask Bai Jiao, not knowing if he might have found someone else, so he had decided to confirm first.

“Three.” Maine said.

Xie Sen’s eyes lit up. “Bai Jiao has agreed?”

Maine nodded, and Xie Sen added, “Why don’t we let Long Teng join our team? Just four people.”

If the protagonist and the villain boss teamed up together and fought together, maybe a friendship would develop and they might not be on opposite sides in the future. He also thought that the more friends Maine made, the less likely he would be to go dark.

Maine looked at him. “You want him to join?”

Xie Sen laughed. “We are neighbors, and he is also very strong. Don’t you want to win the championship? He will be a big help.”

Xie Sen suddenly realized that if Long Teng joined, wouldn’t his teammates be the ‘strongest combination’ as they said on the forum? Suddenly, he felt a lot more pressure to speed up his ability!

Maine looked at Xie Sen, and said to Long Teng, “You can join, but you have to listen to me and you don’t move your hands. No private fights.”

Long Teng’s baby face puffed up, obviously not very satisfied. Grandfather pinched his palm, and the puffed face instantly disappeared, his mouth was forced to pout as his grandfather urged, “Quickly agree.”

Grandfather’s hand didn’t withdraw, and Long Teng’s voice was vague, “Agree, I agree. Grandpa, let go!”

Grandfather let go of his hand and smiled. “That’s great! When the time comes, you’ll need to take care of Long Teng.”

Since he had achieved his goal, Grandfather happily grabbed Long Teng, said goodbye and left the apartment.

Xie Sen knew that the first thing Maine did every day when he returned was to take a shower.

Maine looked at him and walked to the bedroom. Xie Sen received a 1 energy  alert, looked at his back and smiled.

While they ate, Xie Sen thought of Grandfather’s words and asked Maine, “What you said about breaking the law and needing to keep it a secret, was that for going out of the city?”

It was already clear that there was no need to hide it now, so Maine nodded. “Yes.”

Xie Sen was puzzled. “Didn’t you say you couldn’t leave the city without a permit? How did you get out?”

“I’m from the Information Department.”

Xie Sen suddenly realized. “You altered your information, and made a fake exit permit?”

“Yes. I was going to destroy the fake one after the league when I had the exit permit. I can make sure no trace is left,” Maine gave Xie Sen a look. “In case it was discovered, you would be implicated if you didn’t report it.”

Xie Sen smiled, relieved to know he hadn’t done what he thought he had done. “So you kept it a secret?”

“Mn,” Maine said. “The early exposure was an accident. I didn’t think Long Teng’s grandfather could smell where the blood was coming from. He’s very good.”

Xie Sen nodded in agreement and wondered, “What did you go out of town for? Grandpa said the blood on you was from a long-haired boar beast, and that you were in danger?”

“No, I went out of town to hunt. Hunting can exercise your skills. Hunted beasts can also be sold for money.”

“That’s impressive,” Xie Sen praised. No wonder he and Long Teng had equal strength, they were always exercising. “Are you very short of money?”

“Not for now. I’m just preparing in advance,” Maine didn’t hide. “If there is a giant lion beast on the market, I can’t buy it without money. I also need enough money if I go to find it myself.”

Xie Sen looked at his flawless face and admired it. He was older than Maine during the apocalypse, but nowhere near as well planned as when was living there.

“You’re amazing.” He sighed again, and couldn’t help but feel heartbroken. People his age who were looking for contract beasts probably had the help of their loved ones, but he was only relying on himself.

Maine smiled lightly at him, and didn’t say anything. Xie Sen thought about the league. “Do our teammates want to get to know each other in advance and make plans?”

“No need.” Maine said without thinking.

In the evening, Xie Sen finished training chili pepper bush, showered and sat on the bed to brush the forum. There were many posts for recruiting teammates on the forum, and the strategy post had been floating at the top.

He clicked in and saw that the posters hadn’t updated, so he looked through the comments, but didn’t get any useful information.

In the next few days, Xie Sen worked very actively every day. Except for lunch breaks, it was almost all the time, and sometimes he worked overtime for an hour on his own.

Sun Mao was so appreciative of him, that he said he would apply to the HR department for an early transfer. Xie Sen was just doing it for the energy, so he didn’t expect to get a surprise. He was very happy, and thanked Sun Mao very sincerely even though the matter wasn’t yet settled.

Soon, it was his double day off. He went straight to the supermarket after breakfast, bought a bunch of children’s toys and household goods, and then headed to the orphanage. The orphanage he went to was the largest one. When he went there, he was warmly welcomed, sent gifts, and then played games with the children until lunchtime.

He returned to the shuttle and instantly went limp. The kids were just too energetic, but the payoff was huge. In one morning, over thirty energy was harvested. He slept on the shuttle for an hour before he ate lunch. After lunch and some rest, he went to the supermarket and bought fifty pounds of meat, as well as some household items, and headed to the slums.

Xie Sen handed the meat to a dark-skinned man, who took it with a smile then turned around, and spat out to himself in a mocking tone, “You’re not stupid, are you? You have too much money, and nothing to do.”

Xie Sen’s smile stiffened, as people in line behind him urged him to continue handing out things.

The process of spreading the wealth was very smooth, but the energy harvest wasn’t as smooth. The orphanage was completely different. Like the dark-skinned man, many people thought he had nothing else to do.

Not everyone thought that way. There were people who were grateful and praised him for being a good boy, while others actively asked if he had a partner and wanted to match him.

Xie Sen finished his delivery, flew back to the shuttle and drove it back to the apartment. Although the harvest in the slums was small, the total amount of energy he harvested in one day was a record high, more than fifty in total.

It was still a little short of a hundred, but he could activate the second kind of plant soon!

Xie Sen went back to the apartment, and decided to give up on the slums for now. He found all the orphanages in Star City, five in total, and made a table according to their proximity.

The birth rate of young children in Brandt Star was decreasing year by year, and children were very precious. Most of the children in the orphanage were sent there because of sudden changes in their families. The staff at the orphanage had told him that there were many partners applying for adoption every day, and the children hardly stayed at the orphanage for more than a month.

If it weren’t for the extraordinarily strict adoption procedures, he was afraid there wouldn’t be a single child in the orphanage.

On his second day off, he went to two more orphanages, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The one he visited in the morning was very small, with only six children. He found that the children gave back energy not because of the gifts, but because he played with them.

There were thirteen children in the place he visited in the afternoon. He was playing with them when he felt a sudden warmth in his head, and the green hard-backed book appeared in his mind. The pages of the book slowly unfolded, and green leaves gradually emerged above the blank second page, while countless slender roots emerged below.

“Congratulations master. Activate plant: Potato. Each vegetable requires one energy. Density is determined by you.”

Xie Sen’s eyes instantly lit up and he silently gulped. Potatoes!

“Little Xie brother, I got you!” His legs were hugged. He looked back, and a small boy lifted the cloth over his eyes, tilted his head and smiled happily.

“Mn. Next brother will catch you. Go and hide.”

Xie Sen played with them all afternoon. Excluding the activation of the potato which used up one hundred energy, there was nine energy left.

He returned to his apartment and couldn’t wait to go to his room to summon the potatoes. Since the fruits of the potato grew on the roots, the summoned potatoes were intact, including the roots. 1

The two types of plants he had activated in the end times were red chili pepper and potatoes, so he knew their abilities well. The branches of the potato could be contracted, but the roots couldn’t, and the toughness was very poor. They didn’t have the power of attack, just like the chili pepper bush branches.

When he activated the potato, the keyword given by the System was ‘density.’ That meant that its ability was related to density.

Xie Sen thought, hesitated for a moment, looked at the word ‘exchange,’ chose a quantity of one, and used one energy to exchange for potato.

In a flash, a palm-sized yellow potato appeared at the root of the potato plant. He reached down, cupped his hand, felt the weight, and then kept ordering with his mind to switch the density of the potato from high to low.

As the density got smaller, the potato got bigger and bigger. Every now and then he held it with his hand, and the total weight of the potato never changed.

He continued to command, so that the density gradually became higher and the potato smaller, until finally it became the size of a marble. He felt the weight. The attack power wouldn’t be bad if he launched it with force.

After making sure the potato remained the same, and understood the direction of its training, Xie Sen decided to finish his meal and start training again. He looked at the potato, commanded it to be double the size of the original and then took it off.

As long as the potato was connected to the root, it would change according to his instructions, but not if it was disconnected from the root. The taste of the potatoes would also become lighter as they got bigger, but it was good to have vegetables to eat. He wasn’t looking for perfect taste.

Diluting the flavor by half wouldn’t be bad, and with a potato this big, he could fry up a big plate.

Maine returned to the apartment, and smelled an unprecedented aroma as soon as he opened the door. He was about to close the door, but he put one hand against the door, stretched his neck to look inside and gulped. “It smells so good, what’s cooking?”