Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 524 New Species Added to the Stable
The composting workshop was integrated with the capsule dwelling and could not be separated and placed outside.

Li Zheng tried it out, and even when he arrived at the botanical garden, the capsule residence could not be materialized; it could only be used as a personal space.

"It's really troublesome!"

Li Zheng frowned and cursed, then produced a blueprint in his hand—the medicine table that had been sitting idle for so long.

I checked the materials; everything was in the capsule. I tried rubbing it.

The USB drive lit up with a faint light, seemingly responding, before going dark again.

"Well……"

He threw the USB drive into the capsule, and a minute later, Li Zheng tossed out a table covered with all sorts of strange and unusual gadgets.

"first……"

Take out 100 grams of refined fertilizer.

"Secondly..."

Take out another 100 grams of growth hormone.

"then……"

Pour everything into the snake-neck reaction flask, add an appropriate amount of water, and you will get 300 ml of high-concentration intermediate culture medium.

Intermediate culture medium (concentrated)
Type: Fertilizer

Description: Created by someone with no knowledge of science, pharmacology, chemistry, and physics, this extremely high concentration completely renders the intermediate culture solution ineffective, instead causing irreversible damage to the plants after irrigation.

Old Pu: How about adding more water?

"Huh? So that's how using a medical table to increase production output works?" Li Zheng's eyes lit up with realization. He thoughtfully added another 700 milliliters of water to the concentrated culture medium, diluting it to the properties of a normal intermediate culture medium.

“Damn it… I’m so stupid, really…” Li Zheng looked at the liter of intermediate culture medium, his eyes losing their luster.

One hundred grams of refined fertilizer, one hundred grams of growth promoter, and eight hundred milliliters of water can yield a full liter of intermediate culture medium.

Previously, he had been manually producing using the convenient functions provided by the matrix, but he could only produce eighteen liters at a time... resulting in huge losses!
"No wonder Ye Kai was so determined to pursue scientific research; he's saving so many materials!"

Li Zheng was full of resentment. Ye Kai had a younger sister who consumed a lot of materials, so he discovered early on that his research could save materials, but he didn't tell these acquaintances...

Really... cunning!
However, this is also related to the fact that I don't usually pay much attention to chat channels. Maybe they said it in the group or somewhere else, but I just didn't see it?

Li Zheng shook his head, took out some fertility gland fluid, and began to study how to combine intermediate culture medium with this material.

He didn't know that not only Ye Kai, but even Xiao Siyuan had mentioned in their small group chat that manual production could save materials, but Li Zheng hadn't seen it.

After several experiments, Li finally obtained two liters of dark green viscous culture medium with an addition ratio of 1:1.

Intermediate Culture Medium (Enhanced Version)

Type: Fertilizer

Description: The intermediate culture medium, mixed with the growth-inducing gland fluid produced by leaf-eating ants, combines dual growth-inducing substances to increase the plant growth acceleration by 2.75 times!
Plants irrigated with intermediate-grade nutrient solution have a certain probability of producing new varieties of fruit of the same type with higher quality.

Each 100ml can power one plant for 10-180 minutes.

Although it did not become a so-called advanced culture medium, it increased the effect of the intermediate culture medium by 0.25 times, which is an increase of one-tenth.

The last message is easy to understand; it probably varies depending on the size of the irrigated plants, or perhaps it fluctuates based on the quality of the plants.

These can be recorded by the farmer in future practical use.

The most crucial advantage is that, like intermediate culture media, it has no side effects.

"The product is good, but unfortunately it cannot be mass-produced. We can only pursue a high-precision approach to cultivate rare plants."

Li Zheng shook his head regretfully. There was only one queen leaf-biting ant. Only when the population grew large enough could it produce enough growth-inducing gland fluid. Until then, the enhanced culture medium had to be used sparingly.

It's more appropriate to use the standard version most of the time.

"Hmm...I wonder if the queen leaf-biting ant can be put into the animal pen?"

Li Zheng had a sudden thought: if they could enter the animal pen and raise them with feed, would they be able to produce some special leaf-eating ants?
For example, fire ants, gold ants, or something like that?

Without hesitation, Li Zheng pinched the trembling leaf-eating ant queen in the corner again, conjured a thin needle, pressed it against her body, and threatened, "Either die or go to the animal pen!"

call out!
Before he finished speaking, the leaf-biting ant queen disappeared from his hand. Li Zheng checked and found that the leaf-biting ant queen had entered one of the small animal pens.

"Quite sensible?"

Li Zheng was taken aback by this heartfelt act, finding it somewhat amusing.

Li Zheng moved some herbivorous food to the small animal pen and tried to open the pen's details page.

The thought crossed my mind a few times, but there was no reaction at all.

Li Zheng then realized that he had arrived in the outer city, and apart from Lao Pu, all system interfaces were gone...

"I don't usually notice it, but suddenly without the system's assistance, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable." Li Zheng chuckled, released the animal pen, and summoned the leaf-biting ant queen again.

Leaf-biting ant queen

Rank: Star-level (Pseudo)

Type: Insect

Status: Pregnant
Age: 0.5/3
Description: A herbivorous species that can also consume vegetarian food. Theoretically, they can reproduce continuously when there are enough male ants around.

It is recommended to provide sufficient plants in the dwelling to provide them with a habitat; otherwise, they may suffer from acclimatization problems.

Soil and water incompatibility can potentially cause adverse reactions such as depression, infertility, and mania.

"It turns out she's pregnant. No wonder her belly is so big. I thought she was just gaining weight."

Li Zheng remembered that after breaking open the ant nest, in addition to the growth-inducing gland fluid, he also harvested a small pile of things that looked like insect eggs. He casually put them into a capsule without looking at them closely.

Leaf-biting ant eggs

Rank: None
Type: Insect

Status: Late gestation
Description: Leaf-biting ant eggs can only successfully develop near the queen ant; if separated from the mother for too long, they will lose vitality and become stillborn.

The ant eggs are small, only about the size of two grains of rice, and have a crisp green color, looking somewhat like jade.

A total of 233 ant eggs were harvested previously, with 83 in the late stage of incubation, 80 in the middle stage of incubation, and 70 in the early stage of incubation.

The different states indicate that this is actually a combined number of three batches of ant eggs.

Based on the approximate number of leaf-biting ants that were just strangled and the time frame mentioned by Kanger, it can be inferred that the queen leaf-biting ant can produce a new batch of eggs every three to five days.

Each batch of ant eggs takes five to eight days to hatch.

Of course, this is based on the premise that Kanger did not lie, so the time is certainly not accurate enough.

Having finished his research, Li Zheng put everything back into the capsule, then gathered a batch of chopped wood and rotten leaves from the tiger-men brothers and threw them all into the small animal pen, leaving the leaf-eating ant queen to clean and tidy it up herself. "All done?"

When Mirell saw Li Zheng coming over from next door, she clapped her hands and said, "Come and eat when you're done. I figured you wouldn't need to deliver anything to anyone, so I made less of everything."

It has to be said that the little succubus Miriel has some qualities of a virtuous wife and loving mother. In such a short time, she has made three exquisite dishes, all of which are new dishes that Li Zheng has never tried before.

"What are you doing standing still?"

Miriel sat down cross-legged: "I had the people in your legion try all these dishes. I only wrote down the recipes after confirming that they were delicious and safe. You can eat them without worry."

Li Zheng: "..."

I was wondering before why you still have such a passion for cooking for so many people.

Good grief, are they taking advantage of a situation where no one will die to test the poison?
My poor group of friends had no regard for those dishes with unclear effects. If they were poisonous, they would have passed away peacefully.
Take out clean water to wash your hands, then place the basin of water in front of the red pollies so they can replenish their own moisture. Pour the rest back into the bathroom's recycling system, so nothing is wasted.

After having dinner with Miriel and Sakura, the three tiger brothers returned with Basil.

As soon as he entered, Hu San sniffed around in the air and exclaimed in surprise, "It smells so good! I can smell food."

Before he could finish speaking, his stomach started pounding like a drum.

Tiger Two jumped up and smacked him on the spot, scolding, "All you do is eat and play with Xiaohua. When are you going to become something of importance?"

He had just finished cursing when his stomach started growling...

Tiger Three rubbed his stomach, looking distressed, and said, "But I only ate one meal today, and I wasn't even full. Isn't it normal to be hungry? Big brother, you be the judge..."

"I'll give you a rating my ass! Do you think I'm not hungry?" Kota yelled, clutching his stomach. "If you two idiots hadn't spent all your money on the wrong things, would I be starving with you?"

"What should we do then..." Tiger Three's tiger-like eyes filled with tears: "Big Brother, I'm hungry..."

"roll roll roll!"

Kota waved his hand impatiently.

Tiger Two also said, "Big Brother, I'm hungry too. Let's find something to eat first."

"What are you doing?" Kota looked at them warily. "You've never been beaten up before, have you? Old Catfish already said that if the three of us go to his house to eat for free again, there will be three special tiger penis dishes on the menu tomorrow!"

"Special tiger penis?" Tiger Three drooled. "Is it tasty?"

Kota, at her wit's end, said, "Why don't you cut it off and taste it yourself?"

"Oh..." Hu San lowered his head, looking somewhat eager to try.

"Fine, I'll try to find you something to eat later." Kota was at his wit's end; he was really afraid that his idiotic brother might have a brain fart and cut off that thing to taste it.

Tiger Two complained, "Old Catfish is so unfair. We helped him so much back then, and now he's turned against us just because we ate a few meals for free."

"Shut up!"

Kota was furious at the mention of this: "The three of us brothers were doing well working for Old Catfish, but you were the one who was so cunning. You heard that robbery could make a lot of money, so you stole fifty charcoal-grilled chickens from Old Catfish's kitchen and ran away."

If it weren't for the old catfish's leniency out of consideration for my past relationship, would he have allowed us to come over and freeload every now and then?

"What's wrong with me stealing fifty golden pheasants from him?" Tiger Two retorted confidently. "The three of us worked for him for several years, did he ever pay us a wage?"

Tiger Three chimed in with discontent, "That's right, that's right. He doesn't pay us our wages, so I don't even have money to see Xiao Hua."

"How do you know they didn't send it?" Kota retorted angrily, "It's all here with me!"

"Where's the money?" Tiger Two's eyes lit up. "You have to share the money that I and Third Brother have, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Hu San nodded vigorously: "Give us back our money, I still need to see Xiao Hua."

"Look," Kota said, pointing at Tiger Three and then at Tiger Two, "Look at your third brother, and then look at you. You squander every penny you get. The meager salary Old Catfish gives us has long been wasted by you two. How dare you ask me for money?"

"So what...so what?" Tiger Two seemed to know he was in the wrong and said guiltily, "Anyway, you're the eldest brother, so you have to take care of our food and drink!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Tiger Three nodded again: "I'm hungry!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Kota was furious. He yelled "Shut up!" and smacked Hu San once. He said angrily, "Can't you finish your work before you eat?"

"Oh right, this matter can't be delayed!"

Tiger Two finally remembered that he had important things to do: "We can't let our new boss's first task fall apart at this time."

Li Zheng had already heard them arguing. When the three tiger brothers came over, he asked with displeasure, "What were you arguing about when you came in? Haven't you finished your work?"

Kota mumbled something in Spanish, then realized he'd forgotten to adjust his translation tool. He quickly fixed it and said again, "Done. We've got basil... wait, where's that little wisteria tribe member?"

He pointed to his side and realized that Basil, who had been following him, had disappeared without a trace.

"Big brother, it's over there." Tiger Three nudged Kota's lower back and pointed outside.

Everyone turned around and saw that Basil had brought out a large pile of various kinds of fruit from the warehouse. He piled them on the ground in front of the three brothers and said, "These were returned because they weren't of good quality. If you don't mind, you can eat some first."

"Hehe, great, there's food!" Tiger Three sat down and unceremoniously picked up two fruits with both hands and started eating them, his mouth full of juice.

Tiger Two was so angry that he slammed his elbow down and roared, "Shameful! When did our Tagore people become a vegetarian race? How could you actually eat that!"

"But they're delicious!" Tiger Three held up two fruits: "Big brother, second brother, you should try them too, they taste great!"

Kota, smelling the fruity aroma, swallowed hard: "What kind of behavior is this? Let the boss eat first!"

As he spoke, he grabbed one and respectfully presented it to Li Zheng: "Boss, please!"

"No need, you guys eat."

Li Zheng shook his head and refused. He glanced at the pile of fruit and found that it only had descriptions of taste, such as deliciousness, and none of them could develop genetic power.

This is different from the Matrix. In the Matrix, there are more plants that can develop genetic abilities, and very few things that simply satisfy one's appetite.

"I'd better report to my boss first before I eat."

Kota put the fruit down and then explained to Li Zheng the prices of various items he had inquired about on the black market.

Items sold on the black market are often much cheaper than those from officially recognized channels because most of them are produced in the same neighborhood.

For example, oxytocin can be bought for 1,000 white crystal coins per 100 grams through officially recognized channels, but it might only cost 200 white crystal coins on the black market.

However, this price is not the only reference value, because the price of everything on the black market fluctuates. Sometimes, 100 grams of oxytocin can sell for almost the same price as the official price.

"The production of intermediate culture medium is very limited. We inquired with several companies before we found a quantity of about one liter. The price for 100 milliliters is 2,000 white crystal coins."

“I tried to bargain with the stall owner, but he insisted on 1,500 white crystal coins and wouldn’t budge. So let’s use this price as the standard. Do you think that will work?” Basil chimed in from the side.

1,500, 30% off is 1,050, which is almost the same as the officially recognized price of oxytocin.

(End of this chapter)