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Chen Luo recognized this little black creature.
Commonly known as a dung beetle, it feeds on feces.
This is actually a good thing, an insect that helps improve the environment.
If it’s not a beneficial insect, what else could it be?
In the post-apocalyptic world, with the significant reduction in the human population, zombies don’t excrete much, and there are fewer animals around.
This leads to a lack of food for these beetles. While Chen Luo hasn’t moved the entire population here, there are still many people inside, and there’s an outer wall.
So, these beetles have to dig tunnels and come to steal excrement to eat.
They go through a lot of trouble just for a bite to eat.
It’s not easy for them, you know? All this trouble just for a bite of feces.
But it still ended up getting hit.
Looking back at Chen Luo, Xia Haoran appeared puzzled. “What’s the use of keeping this weird bug that attacks people?”
This half-meter-tall dung beetle looks like a monster; it must have mutated to get so large.
How much feces must it eat daily?
It even brought a bunch of sidekicks along for the theft.
Chen Luo looked at Rice. “Can you translate for this species?”
Rice, gazing at the dung beetle, felt disgusted and scared. Huddled in Chen Luo’s arms, Rice replied.
“I can only understand what dogs say.”
“I can’t do it.”
Chen Luo’s lips twitched. He had no idea what she meant and decided to not force her. She had a habit of making startling remarks that could frighten people. He was sure the second sentence was learned from watching some random TV show.
And what did she mean by “I can only understand what dogs say”? Can’t she understand what I’m saying?
Rice couldn’t understand, but there were those who could.
Mengyin had heard there was a big bug and was quite curious. She ran over to take a look.
Hearing the dung beetle saying it came to steal some dung and would get beaten, everyone burst into laughter on the spot.
Chen Luo looked at Mengyin, his eyes lighting up. Some in the Nature department could communicate with animals. Could Mengyin have that ability?
Chen Luo asked, “Can you communicate with it?”
Mengyin was momentarily puzzled. Yeah, how could she understand a bug’s speech?
Chen Luo tempted her, “If you can communicate with it, tonight I’ll give you whatever food you want.”
Mengyin was thrilled at the prospect of this offer.
Mengyin tried to infuse her Nature-based ability into her voice and spoke to the dung beetle, saying, “We won’t harm you.”
The dung beetle was still agitated and said, “Aba aba, you just hit me earlier and now you say you won’t harm me. Are you blind? Just wait.”
Mengyin looked at Chen Luo and acted as a translator.
Chen Luo chuckled and said, “It seems it doesn’t recognize you. You came here to eat dung, didn’t you?”
The dung beetle responded, “Yes, yes, I came here to eat some dung.”
Chen Luo: “It was an accidental injury, don’t worry. You’re welcome to come here anytime, and we won’t harm you.”
Dung beetle: “I won’t be coming.”
Chen Luo: “We can provide for you.”
Dung beetle: “Provide for me? I eat over 200 pounds a day.”
Chen Luo: “Wow, that’s quite an appetite. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you have enough, at least enough for you to eat.”
Dung beetle: “Deal.”
Despite the unconventional conversation, it didn’t affect Mengyin’s appetite. Over these days, she occasionally had a good meal, mostly thanks to Xiaoyu. After all, she hadn’t succeeded in growing her own crops yet.
Mengyin looked at Chen Luo with eager eyes.
Chen Luo smiled and said, “You’ve made a contribution. What would you like to eat?”
Mengyin didn’t hesitate and immediately replied, “I want fried chicken, roast duck, and a large 2.5-liter bottle of Coca-Cola, enough for me and Xiaoyu.”
Well, good chicken is quite tempting for kids.
Chen Luo said, “Alright, we’ll have it for dinner.”
“In the meantime, you can try planting some crops with one of the older sisters I brought here.”
Mengyin eagerly agreed.
In Chen Luo’s group, there were over thirty Level 4 mutants, but there wasn’t a single Level 4 natural element user among them.
Having a low ratio of natural element users was one thing, but nurturing them to grow was even more challenging than other elements.
In the future, out of over a hundred King-level mutants, there was only one natural element user, and they were a shapeshifter.
Mengyin’s promotion to Level 4 should be happening soon, probably within the next couple of days.
Chen Luo gathered all the natural element users. Their combat abilities were weak, but their greatest value lay in their ability to cultivate crops.
Li Cheng, one of the villagers they had rescued, was also brought to the meeting.
Ouyang Lu brought a large pot filled with soil. She explained, “Before the apocalypse, I loved gardening and planting flowers. About a month into the apocalypse, I tried growing some vegetables, but I didn’t see any signs of success.”
“I tried transplanting them into pots and using my natural element ability, which had some effect, but they died the next day,” Ouyang Lu explained.
Chen Luo nodded, understanding the difficulty. Planting directly in the ground wasn’t feasible due to soil contamination, so they would have to use potted plants to isolate the soil. They needed to expose the plants to sunlight during the day and protect them at night.
Mengyin prepared different types of potato seeds, hoping to see which one would grow better.
Li Cheng, who was experienced in farming, planted the potatoes in the pots and added a bit of wood ash as fertilizer.
Ouyang Lu began infusing the soil with her natural element ability to neutralize any viruses within it.
This didn’t mean everything was okay; they would need to continue infusing the soil with their abilities each day to maintain its condition. The soil could easily become re-contaminated when exposed to the environment.
So, planting was a challenging endeavor. They couldn’t use their abilities to force the seeds to mature and bear fruit. Doing so would result in the seeds dying, similar to overfeeding someone by giving them a ton of rice and causing them to become overwhelmed.
They could accelerate growth, but they needed to control the process carefully.
In the future, as the level of infection deepened, farming would become increasingly challenging. A natural-type individual could barely sustain ten to a few dozen people.
As the infection progressed, lower-level natural types would struggle to grow crops. In a group of a hundred people, there would typically be only two or three natural types, which was insufficient to support a large population.
Currently, they were growing vegetables, but in the future, they would need to cultivate rice and wheat. Exceptional seeds could resist viruses, allowing them to conserve their abilities and yield more significant harvests.
Mengyin excelled in improving seeds, which was why Chen Luo valued her. He shared his farming experience with her without holding anything back, leaving Ouyang Lu baffled.
Who’s the natural type here? You seem to be better at farming than I am.
A normal potato takes about ninety days to grow, but with the help of a natural type, it could be ready in just a month and a half. Ouyang Lu, who could summon plant sprites, could significantly shorten this period. However, she could only summon them briefly, and the plant sprites didn’t seem eager to engage in such work; they required some coaxing.
Ouyang Lu summoned a plant sprite, and Chen Luo could sense spatial fluctuations. The plant sprite spat onto the soil.
Chen Luo: “…”
Is this the way to improve the soil? He wondered if slaughtering and burying the plant sprite might yield better results. However, he was concerned that this might lead to an issue similar to a summoner encountering a bug, potentially resulting in Ouyang Lu’s harm.
A thought crossed Chen Luo’s mind. Since Mengyin had the ability to communicate with living beings, why not try it with the plant sprite?
Chen didn’t have high expectations because in his previous life, there were natural types capable of communication, but they hadn’t achieved significant results.
As expected, the plant sprite seemed to understand Mengyin’s words, responding with chirps and sounds, yet Mengyin couldn’t comprehend it at all.
Chen Luo shook his head.
Five different potato seeds had been planted, and it would take at least half a month to determine which one performed slightly better, after which Mengyin would continue to improve them.