Chapter 148: Mutual Harm

The reputation of the Morel Mushroom was well-deserved, especially for these wild ones that had not been disturbed at all. Their flavor was truly incredibly fresh and sweet. After enjoying a delicious meal, Liu Heming’s desire to experiment grew even stronger.

He had never grown mushrooms before, but he had seen others do it. It was also commonly shown on TV—rows of mushroom logs stuck in the ground, with clusters of mushrooms growing out of them.

The difficult part now was how to cultivate these mushroom logs.

He was starting from scratch, knowing nothing at all. Then he thought, maybe he could try to mimic the natural growing environment of these Morel Mushrooms.

That afternoon, he kept himself busy. He drove to the Forest and dug up a lot of forest soil—the kind mixed with decaying leaves. He made several trips back and forth. He didn’t dare to start with too large an area, so he prepared less than fifty square meters, layering it with several levels of forest soil.

Then he scattered the Morel Mushrooms he had brought back that day, along with some soil, onto the prepared area and sprayed some Small Lake Water over them.

After finishing that, he set up a plastic shed to cover the patch of land and even sprayed some black paint on top.

Mushrooms grew in the dark Forest, after all. If they were exposed to bright sunlight, wouldn’t they just dry out? So, he came up with this method to roughly simulate the forest environment.

He had no idea if it would work. His only hope was the Small Lake Water. After all, he had no skills or knowledge to rely on. Back when the System said the Small Lake Water was good, he decided to stick with that one trick and see how far it would take him.

After all the work, he felt quite satisfied with his efforts. Even a long shot had a chance, right? If this actually worked, he could make a fortune growing these in the future.

After happily daydreaming for a while, he suddenly remembered a very important question: Why hadn’t he completed the task the System had given him later, even though he had found the Morel Mushrooms?

The Forest belonged to him and was within the Ranch’s boundaries. Morel Mushrooms were known as the “queen of mushrooms,” so shouldn’t they count as a product of the Ranch?

Impatiently, he called out the System and posed his question.

The expression on the System Sprite’s face was full of disdain. “A careless person like you can never perfectly complete the tasks I assign. Didn’t you notice? The task requires you to cultivate the product within the Ranch yourself, not just pick some random shabby mushrooms from the Forest.”

“Damn, such delicious Morel Mushrooms are called ‘shabby mushrooms’ by this lunatic,” Liu Heming grumbled inwardly. Still, he forced a wide smile and asked, “So, if I grow them myself, would that count as me cultivating them?”

“That involves how the task is completed. I won’t answer,” the System replied, giving him no face at all.

Liu Heming felt troubled. This System was too rigid. If it would just explain things clearly, he would have a direction to follow. That would be truly good for both of us.

“By the way, does Alex have a high affinity with animals?” Liu Heming asked, pretending to be casual.

“Of course! Her affinity has reached eighty,” the System said, switching to a proud expression.

Liu Heming curled his lips. He had expected as much. Although he didn’t know why the System liked his daughter so much, at least it wasn’t harmful to her.

“Hey, buddy, both of us are far from home. We should look out for each other. The two tasks you’ve given out recently are pretty good—they have a certain level of difficulty and technical skill, very classy,” Liu Heming began buttering up the System.

“But don’t you think you could assign some simpler tasks? Even just raising my physical attributes by one or two points would be fine. Over time, I could grow stronger quickly, right?”

At first, the System looked extremely proud, but after hearing Liu Heming’s words, the Sprite glared. “Right, my foot! Is it that easy to improve physical attributes? It needs a certain process. Even I can’t just recklessly change the rules of this world.”

“Are you trying to reach for the sky? Why don’t you wear your underwear on the outside and drape a ragged cloth over yourself? You need to keep your feet on the ground and not aim too high.”

“Damn, haven’t you changed enough already? What did you do to my daughter? Such big changes—didn’t that have any other effects?” Liu Heming retorted angrily.

“Well… there were some effects, but those will all be transferred to you. So, most of the tasks from now on will be long-term,” the System said, sounding a bit guilty.

Helping Alex improve her abilities was against the rules. The System’s excuse to itself was that its Database was damaged, so it didn’t know it was supposed to be a violation.

Before, it had thought that a damaged Database would be a heavy burden on its mission. But now, it felt pretty good about it. It seemed to have gained more control and could do things as it pleased. The only downside was that its host was a bit of a fool—moody, not hardworking with tasks, and lacking ambition.

It forgot that its emotional template was based on Liu Heming. Its personality was now quite similar to Liu Heming’s. As the saying goes, the crow doesn’t see its own black. The situation between him and Liu Heming was pretty much the same. In any case, they both thought the other was a lunatic. It was mutual harm, after all.

Liu Heming was truly at a loss. With the System, he could only occasionally complain a little, afraid that if he complained too much, it would assign him even more ridiculous tasks.

Today’s brief conversation gave him a bit more understanding of the tasks. He guessed his thinking was correct—if he could successfully cultivate the Morel Mushrooms, he might be able to complete one of the tasks. Otherwise, given the System’s lunatic Spirit, it would definitely mock him ruthlessly.

After finishing his work there, Liu Heming went to the small river and collected some duck and goose eggs.

This was part of his daily routine. The chickens were easier to handle—they laid eggs in their coops, so he could collect them every morning when he tidied up. But the ducks and geese had truly let themselves go; most preferred to lay eggs by the river. It was Alex who had discovered this earlier; otherwise, he would have thought they weren’t getting enough nutrients and that’s why their egg production was low.

When collecting goose eggs, he had to be careful. If the geese saw him blatantly taking their eggs, they would chase him around. But if they didn’t notice, it was fine—if the eggs were gone, they were gone, and they would just lay more the next day.

These geese were the only ones in the entire Ranch that Liu Heming couldn’t easily manage. They had strong personalities. Even though his affinity was quite good, it had much less effect on the geese.