Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 521 Leaf-biting Ants

The old Wisteria tribesman led the younger one over. They exchanged a few words, and then the old Wisteria tribesman looked at the three tiger-men brothers, his eyes lighting up: "ΠΣЕГнВПЖЗ".

Li Zheng: "What is he saying?"

Tiger-man number two had already switched to the Wisteria language and was completely bewildered by Li Zheng's question. It was Kota who realized what was happening and translated it again in their native language before he understood: "Oh, he just said thank you for bringing Basil back earlier. Basil is that little Wisteria, his grandson, who came from the 913 block to visit him."

Then he asked in surprise, "Wait a minute, when did we escort him back? Brother, didn't we rob him before?"

Kanger: "...?"

Basil: "...?"

Li Zheng: "...!"

Damn it, you failed in your robbery, and the guy mistakenly thought you were escorting him, so you just accepted it, but you actually told the truth in front of his grandfather.

It's okay to say it, at least you can use a different language!
Everyone understood!

Now, Li Zheng understood why Tiger Man No. 2 kept losing at the casino.

With this seemingly shrewd but actually naive thought process, you probably honestly tell people your cards when they ask you for them, right?
(For ease of viewing, the following dialogue has been translated.)
Kanger: "You guys are really joking. My basil told me that you escorted him here, afraid he might lose something on the way, and even made him check it carefully."

Since you're here by chance, I'll give you three a small thank-you gift later.

"A thank-you gift?" Tiger-man number three scratched his forehead and asked Kota, "Big brother, does this count as our robbery being successful?"

Boom!
Tiger Man's second brother punched him on the head: "Idiot! Isn't the point of robbing someone to get something from them? Whether we get it right away or later, it's still getting something, isn't it?"
Therefore, we know that our raid on this little Wisteria tribe member was successful!

"Oh..." The third tiger-man rubbed his head, raised a tiger paw and praised, "Second brother is really smart!"

Well, we've found out why Tiger Man No. 3 is so stupid. He gets hit like that all the time, and even a normal person would be driven crazy by it.

Li Zheng now suspects that the reason the three Tiger Brothers are so poor is not because they lost money or spent it in brothels.

They were simply scammed out of everything!

God!
These three idiots are trying to become robbers?

How dare they do that?

Li Zheng clearly saw the bark at the corner of the old tree man Kanger's mouth twitch, and probably realized that the three brothers' thought processes were a bit off, so he simply changed the subject: "I saw in the backstage that only one person accepted the mission, is this a team operation?"

"That's not it!" Tiger Man's second brother shook his head vigorously, pointing at Li Zheng and saying, "The one who accepted the mission is this guy... By the way, what's your name? Oh, Li Zheng. The one who accepted the mission is this player from the Li Zheng clan. We failed to rob him and were captured by him to be his helpers."

Basil tugged at Kanger and said, "Grandpa, see? I told you they were good people. What kind of robbers would help others with their mission after failing to rob someone?"

"Heh, from the perspective of casinos and brothels, they really are good people." Li Zheng said with a forced smile.

The three tiger-men brothers were not inherently bad, but the things they did were not good in essence.

Li Zheng was too lazy to dwell on such matters; he was more concerned about the mission and asked his second brother, the tiger-man, to inquire about the details of the Kanger mission.

"Talking as we walk."

Kanger then realized what was happening and led a large group of people into the botanical garden, explaining the mission-related matters.

In general, as a member of the wisteria family, Kanger has a unique advantage in cultivating plants.

The fruits cultivated by him are superior to other similar products in both taste and texture.

He has contracted the supply channels for many restaurants and fresh food stores on the nearby streets.

Recently, he has cultivated a new variety. Once it enters the market, there will be no similar products for a short period of time, and he will be able to make a fortune.

Just as harvest time was approaching, an insect called "leaf-biting ant" appeared in the new variety planting area.

This insect feeds on the leaves, stems, and roots of plants and has a strong reproductive capacity.

Moreover, they are the nemesis of the wisteria clan.

Once a leaf-biting ant crawls onto your body, its indestructible mandibles can easily break through its outer defenses, burrowing into the inner layers to nest and reproduce. In just seventy-two hours, the newly bred leaf-biting ants can completely devour a member of the wisteria clan, leaving not a single scrap.

“That’s strange.” After listening to Kanger’s account, Li Zheng asked, “I’ve observed the surrounding area as I’ve walked along. All the buildings are completely enclosed, so it should be difficult for anything from the outside to get in, right? Where did these leaf-eating ants come from?”

"There are two possibilities."

Kanger speculated on this: "One possibility is that I didn't check the original plants of the new variety carefully when I introduced them, and the leaf-eating ant eggs attached to the original plants took advantage of the situation."

There is another kind...

"Did someone else let him in?" Li Zheng had already guessed what Kanger was going to say.

"Yes."

Kanger sighed, saying nothing more, as if there was something else going on.

But that's none of Li Zheng's business; he only needs to deal with the leaf-eating ants.

The interior of the Kanger Botanical Garden was unexpectedly large; the area Li Zheng walked through with Kanger alone covered at least eighty acres!

The 80 acres of land were divided into more than a dozen greenhouses of different sizes, each with a fixed simulated sun lamp installed on its roof to provide the plants with the necessary light.

In some corners of the greenhouse, other high-end equipment such as temperature controllers, humidity controllers, and special gas controllers are installed to meet the different needs of each plant.

Arriving at the entrance of a greenhouse, Li Zheng looked inside through the transparent outer wall. What he saw was a plant that looked very similar to a coconut tree, except that its leaves were gnawed and torn apart, and the fruit that grew at the top was more than twice the size of a regular coconut.

"Are these the new varieties you've cultivated?" Li Zheng examined them carefully and finally found several bluish ants on one of the trees.

Each leaf-biting ant is about the size of a thumb and has long mandibles, allowing it to move effortlessly through tree trunks.

"If possible, could you please keep a few live leaf-eating ants for me?" Kanger hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to tell the truth: "Because although leaf-eating ants feed on plants, they also secrete a growth-promoting substance that can greatly accelerate the growth of plants."

This is also a skill that leaf-biting ants rely on for survival: using growth-promoting substances to accelerate plant growth in order to ensure that their food is not consumed too quickly.

Some botanical garden owners raise several broods of these plants to extract growth-promoting substances, accelerate plant growth, and increase yield.

"Grandpa!" Basil cried out hurriedly, "Leaf-biting ants are too dangerous! If you're not careful, they can easily endanger your life!"

The wisteria tribe is a plant-like life form; raising leaf-eating ants is as absurd as a mouse trying to raise a cat. It's far more dangerous than playing with fire next to an oil tanker.

There have been cases of wisteria ants doing this before, and the result was that during one feeding, leaf-eating ants burrowed into their bodies through their palms, forcing them to spend a lot of money to find a skilled doctor to remove them.

Some leaf-biting ants sense danger and will scurry around inside the host's body. There are also cases of leaf-biting ants drilling through the brainstem or heart and causing death on the way to the hospital.

“All investments carry risk,” Kanger said, patting Basil gently. “But Grandpa also believes that the higher the risk, the higher the potential return.”

"Several botanical gardens nearby have introduced leaf-eating ants. If Grandpa falls behind, his original market share may be encroached upon and swallowed up by them."

“The milk salt fruit is my grandfather’s hope. This batch of fruit is ruined. I have to cultivate another batch before the delivery deadline, otherwise I will have to pay a large amount of liquidated damages.”

However, conventional cultivation methods have a growth cycle that is too long, and he cannot afford to wait.

Li Zheng frowned slightly: "Don't you have any growth hormones here? You can use those to speed up plant growth, and they're safer."

"Oxytocin..."

Kanger shook his head bitterly: "Those high-end goods are only available in a few specific neighborhoods. Here... the cost is beyond our reach."

Who wouldn't want to use something safe?
The problem is that it's too expensive!
The commission rates for transporting goods across districts are too high, opening branch factories is even more difficult, and the price of oxytocin is simply astronomical when it is sold to the botanical garden after going through layers of agents!
Only a very few botanical gardens are willing to purchase small quantities for the cultivation of particularly rare and precious plants.

"How expensive?" Li Zheng asked casually out of curiosity.

"If you want to know the price..." Kanger held up a finger wrapped in vines: "One hundred grams of oxytocin extract, priced at one thousand white crystal coins!"

"So valuable?!" Li Zheng was shocked. One hundred grams of growth hormone could only supply a plant for a little over an hour at most.

“It takes twelve days for a milk salt fruit tree to grow. If we use growth hormones to speed it up the whole process…” Kanger shook his head: “I wouldn’t even dare to think about it!”

"How much does the growth-promoting substance secreted by the leaf-eating ants enhance the plant's growth?" Li Zheng asked again.

“1.25 times.” Kanger thought for a moment. “However, I’ve heard that if we could find the formula, the growth-promoting substances secreted by leaf-eating ants could be made into fertilizer, which would increase that number to 1.75 times.”

It's 1.75 times stronger, which means it's slightly less effective than oxytocin.

Li Zheng recalled that when he first discovered the plant cultivation room left by Luo Aimang, he had obtained some ordinary culture solution, which doubled the growth potential and was even more potent than the growth-promoting substance used by leaf-eating ants.

“Actually, growth hormones also have some side effects,” Kanger said. “Using growth hormones directly on plants will squeeze out their potential. Apart from the first batch of fruits maintaining their original taste and flavor, each subsequent harvest will be worse and worse until it becomes worthless.”

Therefore, botanical gardens that purchase growth hormones will choose to stop using them after the plants have produced a batch of fruit quickly, allowing the plants to breathe and recover their original potential.

If oxytocin could be produced in a medium-grade culture medium, this side effect could be avoided.

At this point, he sighed deeply again: "Unfortunately, the factory that produced the intermediate culture medium was destroyed, and the formula was lost as well. No one on the market has been able to replicate it to this day."

Another factory destroyed?

Li Zheng's heart skipped a beat. How come the production factories of several items he had opened from the treasure chests were destroyed at some point in time?
Is it a coincidence?

still is……

"The first batch of goods is due in ten days, and I can only make it in time by taking a risky tactic and using leaf-biting ants," Kanger pleaded with Li Zheng. "Please, you must help me save a few live ones."

At this moment, Kota, the translator in charge of the first stage, seemed to want to show off, patting his chest and assuring everyone, "Old man, don't worry, I'll take care of this for you!"

Knowing that their target was leaf-eating ants, which posed a deadly threat only to plant-like life, the three tiger-men brothers regained their swagger and spoke with much more confidence.

Li Zheng glared at him: "Did you take on this mission or did I? What are you doing interrupting me?"

"I'm sorry!" Kota immediately shrank back in fright and stammered an apology.

I got a little carried away just now and forgot that my life was still in someone else's hands.

Although Li Zheng had dispelled his icy needles the moment he entered the botanical garden, Kota did not dare to act recklessly, because every time he had the thought of attacking Li Zheng, he could sense a faint pressure from the other party.

It seems this person always reserves a portion of their energy to monitor themselves.

Kota was unaware that he wasn't the only one who felt this way; in fact, everyone present felt the same way.

This includes the Kanger family, otherwise they wouldn't have been so polite to Li Zheng.

"Tell me about the weaknesses of leaf-eating ants first."

Li Zheng did not immediately agree to Kanger's request, saying, "I'll consider whether to leave you a few after I start eradicating them."

"Thank you so much!" Kanger was overjoyed, and then spoke of the leaf-eating ants' weakness: "These insects are afraid of high temperatures, and the only way to kill them completely is to cut them in half."

In addition, there is a type of soldier ant in the leaf-eating ant colony that is different from ordinary leaf-eating ants. Its mandibles are stronger than those of ordinary leaf-eating ants, and it even has wings, which allow it to fly and attack hostile targets.

If you see soldier ants, be sure to protect your most vulnerable organs, otherwise the consequences could be dire!

That's about it.

“Oh, right!” Kanger remembered something and added, “Don’t underestimate these insects. A single leaf-eating ant may only have diamond-level strength that is close to the extraordinary, but once there are many of them, even a star-level life form will suffer if it is careless.”

After Hu Er finished translating, his expression changed, and he pointed at Li Zheng with great pride: "Old man, let alone a few insects that are not even extraordinary, this Li Zheng is from the clan and has the strength of a king. Once we go in, it will be a piece of cake!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Tiger Three nodded vigorously: "Hands-on grip!"

Kota covered his face, unable to bear watching his two silly younger brothers fawn over Li Zheng.

He's the enemy!
The enemy!
Our lives are still in their hands, why are you two acting like they're their underlings?

"Kota!"

"exist!"

Li Zheng suddenly called his name, which startled Hu Da, who immediately put his hands down and stood up straight.

"You three, go in and kill the bugs!"

"!!!"

Kota then remembered that he and his two brothers were the ones being held hostage, and he had almost forgotten that he was supposed to help them with their mission.

(End of this chapter)