Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 29 - 28 Landscape Architecture

Chapter 29: Chapter 28 Landscape Architecture

Stone walked out of the church with a book in his hand, "Horticulture, can plant fruits and flowers."

Tangtang lamented, "Trash." Fruits take too long to mature, and flowers can’t be eaten as a meal.

Maya didn’t quite understand and asked in doubt, "It’s clearly a great item, why is it trash? We can plant pumpkins, tomatoes, bell peppers, olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers, etc."

Tangtang countered, "Aren’t the ones you mentioned all vegetables?"

Maya retorted, "But who told you these aren’t fruits?"

Everyone present, including Lin Wu, felt that Tangtang wasn’t wrong, but Maya’s tone suggested she was right, so they chose to remain silent, each with an "I knew that already" expression. However, the expressions were noncommittal, not siding with Tangtang, nor with Maya.

Maya explained, "In botany, vegetables refer to the edible parts of a plant, fruits refer to the plant’s fruit. Pumpkin and the like are indeed fruits of a plant, not part of the plant’s roots, stems, or leaves. Moreover, legumes, cucumbers, etc., are both fruits and vegetables. Speaking loosely, all fruits belong to vegetables, but not all vegetables are fruits. Horticulture is narrower than vegetable science, but it is also a very powerful Skill Book."

Stone asked, "Who wants to learn farming? You can start planting immediately after learning. Lin Wu, you brought it back, so you have the first right of refusal."

Lin Wu said, "I’m not that interested in growing flowers and raising birds."

Little Knife, Tangtang, and Horse Soul raised their hands, showing their willingness to learn the skill.

"Having horticulture skills allows you to actively provide food for the base, making you a core logistical member in any base," Maya said. "The key lies in advancement. Those who possess horticulture or agriculture-related attributes have a better chance of advancing their skills. Which of you have similar attributes?"

Tangtang said, "I have the ’Flower Enthusiast’ attribute."

This attribute seemed a bit tangential and not very useful, but since no one else had a matching attribute, Tangtang was chosen to learn Horticulture. Tangtang started learning on the spot, Stone began constructing a garden in the backyard, and Tangtang requested seeds for planting. Without any further attention, the base could yield one food item per day. If the base had water, the food production would increase. Fertilizer could also boost yields. With electricity, they could upgrade the garden to a greenhouse garden and further increase food income. To strengthen food output further, skill advancement was required.

Lin Wu nudged Snow Egg beside him, "You..." Although I shouldn’t pry into your hesitant behavior, my curiosity is too strong.

Snow Egg whispered in Lin Wu’s ear, "I’m an agricultural machinery engineer."

Lin Wu said, "But you don’t want to be an engineer in the game."

Snow Egg nodded, "Nor do I want to farm in the game."

Lin Wu fully understood this.

From the standpoint of maximizing benefits, it was optimal for Snow Egg to learn landscaping for the base. However, both Lin Wu and Snow Egg were common folk, lacking the dedication to do something they didn’t want to do. For them, the goal was to avoid unpleasant tasks as much as possible. If really no one else would learn landscaping, Snow Egg would take it up.

As Lin Wu set off again, Stone grabbed his hand and said earnestly, "Stay alive, don’t make trouble, let everyone sleep soundly. If things get too tough, just find a safe place and watch the stars."

Sleep and food are indispensable to humans, but in the game, they had additional implications. The base needed to consume a certain amount of food every day. The base had to ensure that it had the corresponding number of food items before 8 a.m., otherwise not only would the food be completely depleted, but everyone would be in a state of hunger, fatigue would increase, corresponding life stamina and infection value limits would decrease, stamina consumption would increase, and damage taken would increase. Moreover, double the food had to be guaranteed the next day to eliminate the state of hunger. If only enough food for one day was available the next day, then the players would remain hungry. If there was still not enough food on the second day, players would enter a state of extreme hunger. If there was still not enough food on the third day, the character would die.

Players are also human, and due to game mechanics, they have no physiological need for food, meaning they wouldn’t feel hunger. But even humans who aren’t hungry still enjoy delicious food. Having tasty food would make everyone happy, even though this happiness didn’t provide any system data bonuses.

The same went for sleep. It was necessary to sleep for five hours a day; as long as there were no negative statuses, one could generally fall asleep within about a minute. Therefore, it was possible to accumulate a full five hours of sleep through intermittent naps. Like the base’s food supply, these five hours were about complying with the system’s requirements. For many people, sleep itself was a comfortable pleasure, wishing to be woken by the chirping of birds in the morning, not by the sound of gunfire.

In short, it was the difference between survival and living.

As the farm base was surrounded by plentiful food, there were currently 40 food ingredients stockpiled, enough for eight people to consume for four or five days. Combined with Tangtang’s farming and scavenging from the commercial street, there was no risk of food shortage in the short term.

As for building materials, there were only three left, but after Bai Ban’s scavenging tomorrow, it was believed that the materials would fill the storage to the brim.

Essential medical supplies were rather scarce. Because they were using a medical room, only 1 unit of medical supplies would be consumed each day, which would not pose a problem for about a week. If a field hospital were built, it would require two units of medical supplies daily.

Gasoline belonged to the category of non-essential survival crafting materials, and with 10 units of gasoline, they had enough for the time being.

Ammunition was the most lacking resource. The base had no ammunition, and the outpost would consume 1 point of ammunition each day to reduce noise threats. Since there was no ammunition, no outpost had been established. Also, even if they got ammunition resources, they still couldn’t yet make bullets. Considering that materials wouldn’t expire, Stone and Maya, who was sick in bed, discussed stockpiling more ammo resources and figuring out a way to make them into bullets for storage.

There were no police stations or military facilities nearby; finding a gun was difficult enough, let alone collecting ammo packs. To find ammo packs, one must know the location of military facilities, which required a detailed map. But where to find such a detailed map?

...

Lin Wu was in the office of the general manager of Factory No. 2. Dawn was being lazy; the layouts of the two factories were almost the same. As usual, Lin Wu picked up the photo frame on the desk—it was a family portrait of seven. The background of the portrait was five apartment buildings. The mountain top base was to the left of the apartment buildings, while the photograph was taken from the higher ground on the right of the apartments. This meant that, with the apartment buildings as the center, the mountain top base and the location where the photo was taken were diagonally opposite.

The reason Lin Wu was concerned about the location was that among the seven people in the family portrait, two were in military uniforms—one an old man, and one presumably the manager’s wife. It was worth searching their villa. Lin Wu planned to go back to the base and call one or two helpers to check it out but then remembered Stone’s advice and gave up the idea for the moment.

Continuing through the factory, he made his way to the rooftop. There was still half a floor above the rooftop, and Lin Wu climbed the straight ladder up. There were no zombies up there, but there were three tents, two campfires, and also a barbecue grill and firewood. It was guessed that the factory’s personnel had escaped here and temporarily settled. Judging by the scene, they either left or died; there were no living people, nor any bodies.