Lu Yuelan didn’t dislike kind-hearted people, but she was extremely wary of so-called “well-meaning but unreliable” partners. People like that might, at some unknown point, drag their collaborators into trouble. In business dealings especially, it was very easy to be set up and ruined by them.
Coincidentally, she also had something she needed the other party to handle, so she could use this opportunity as a test.
If things went smoothly, the little boy would have guaranteed safety in the future, and she would also gain another trading partner.
Lu Yuelan had quite a number of special-category food items in her possession. The descriptions for them were all very vague, for example, “Special Chocolate,” “Special Lemonade,” and “Special Strawberry Pie.” All three only had a single line of description: “has a special effect,” nothing more.
She could take a portion of them and hand them over to professionals for analysis.
Who could be more professional than a government department? Even after a major upheaval, she believed the state would still be able to gather top-tier talent.
Lu Yuelan sent a private message to “Officially Certified by the State,” asking them to help test the effects of the three special food items. After receiving their agreement, she took out from her storage trunk roughly one-tenth of each of the three items and handed them over.
This way, even if she got scammed, she would only lose a very small amount, while most of the special food would still remain in her possession.
【Officially Certified by the State: Okay. Give me an hour. I’ll find experts to run tests for you.】
The reply from “Officially Certified by the State” left Lu Yuelan a bit stunned. Research results that quickly?
【Please Take Your Seat, Princess: No need to rush, take your time. I’m not in a hurry.】
【Officially Certified by the State: ??】
【Please Take Your Seat, Princess: You can slow down the research speed a bit, just make sure the report is accurate.】
【Officially Certified by the State: Haha, you’re overthinking it, little girl. That’s the old dean, and also a talent skill granted by the system. Unless the item’s level is far higher than his, most things can be broken down and analyzed very quickly.】
【Please Take Your Seat, Princess: Impressive. As expected of the State, I love you, mwah.】
Lu Yuelan casually typed that without thinking, not realizing that her words had instantly made a certain handsome young man blush bright red.
At that moment, he was also on a video call with Professor Meng from the research institute, multitasking while replying to Lu Yuelan. His embarrassed reaction was completely seen by Professor Meng, an elder who had watched him grow up.
“Haha, whose pure-hearted young man is this? He doesn’t even know what the girl looks like, and just from a teasing comment, he’s already blushing like this.”
“Grandpa Meng, stop making fun of me. You saw it too just now, the girl has some unknown special food items she wants tested. That’s your area of expertise, so I’ll have to trouble you.”
“Oh my, Xiao Ying, since when did you become so polite? Tell me, do you also have some kind of first love or ‘[1]“White moonlight” is a Chinese internet slang term for someone’s idealized first love or deeply cherished past love that is remembered as pure, perfect, and emotionally unforgettable. It … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2307944_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2307944_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });white moonlight’ like Li Ruifeng? The moment that girl asks for help, you immediately get all worked up and rush to solve it for her.”
“Grandpa Meng, that’s not something you should joke about. I don’t even know her. Saying things like that will damage the girl’s reputation.”
“But Xiao Ying, in normal situations you’ve never been this good to that woman before. Yet you’re treating this one so differently. It was only that woman who came to borrow medicine from you earlier. If it weren’t for Li Ruifeng blushing and coming over to tell you that she was his first love ‘white moonlight,’ and that he had already paid you in advance, you wouldn’t even have bothered with her at all, let alone help her get medicine or agree to some ridiculous installment payment scheme that’s time-consuming, thankless, and might even end up making you work for nothing.”
“You’re overthinking it. I just think that girl seems to be familiar with that little boy who can buy gasoline and electricity. I wanted to use her connection to get in touch with the boy. You also know the country’s power is strong, but because the team’s population is large, we need more fuel and electricity to complete the required travel distance for missions.”
“Don’t we already have people handling that?”
Although Professor Meng didn’t finish his sentence, Ming Tianying immediately understood what he meant. He rubbed his temples to ease the nerves that had been strained all day and said helplessly, “Not enough. Every occupational ability user has a purchase limit when they go to the shop, just like gasoline rationing in peaceful times. There are limits here too.”
“Even electricity??”
“Mm.”
“Alright then, I’ll help you wrap up the girl’s matter quickly. You handle things over there as soon as possible. Hopefully we can gather more talent for the country and successfully get through this crisis.”
……
On Lu Yuelan’s side, she was currently standing beside her vehicle, dealing with the boxes she had found that afternoon.
Aside from the green boxes being too dangerous, she only had three or four yellow boxes. Feeling a little nervous, she opened them all at once, holding the level-six frost dagger that Big Brother Monkey had helped repair, preparing for any possible intense battle that might follow.
【System Notification: Congratulations, player Lu Yuelan, you obtained Screw ×10, Aluminum Sheet ×8, Mineral Water ×6, Filter Blueprint ×1, Bread ×7, Cucumber Seeds ×8.】
【System Notification: Congratulations, player Lu Yuelan, you have spawned a Mid-level Monster: Mouse Soldier.】
【System Notification: Congratulations, player Lu Yuelan, you have spawned a Low-level Monster: Mouse Soldier.】
【System Notification: Congratulations, player Lu Yuelan, you have spawned a High-level Monster: Mouse Soldier.】
Before she even had time to feel happy about the rich resource drops, three enormous, fat rats appeared in front of her, each larger than the last. With “soldier” written above their heads, they bared sharp fangs and claws and charged straight at her.
Even though Lu Yuelan was already prepared, raising the frost dagger in her hand to defend the moment she saw the attack coming, her physical ability as a homebound type was still limited. Facing three monster-level rat soldiers at once was clearly a bit too much for her.
If not for the level-six frost dagger’s freezing and hard-control properties, she would have already been torn apart and devoured.
She had been careless. Lu Yuelan had thought that since she had found so many resources today, her luck couldn’t be that bad, so she had opened three or four boxes at once without much hesitation.
In the end, she realized her luck had already been used up during her big harvest in the afternoon. Out of four boxes, three spawned monsters. Lu Yuelan was instantly on the verge of tears, cold sweat pouring down her forehead.
She forcefully stabbed out with her dagger and dealt with the weakest enemy, the low-level Mouse Soldier. After much effort, she finally managed to kill it.
Seeing its subordinate killed, the high-level Mouse Soldier went berserk immediately. Together with the mid-level Mouse Soldier, it launched a clawing and scratching assault on Lu Yuelan.
Being attacked from both sides, the danger level kept rising. Cold sweat continued to stream down her forehead. She abandoned her earlier strategy of picking on the weakest target first and instead swung her dagger toward the high-level Mouse Soldier.
Damn it, why was she so unlucky? These Mouse Soldiers weren’t just fast; they had also developed intelligence. Realizing that splitting up would let humans pick them off one by one, they simply coordinated and focused all their attacks on her alone.
Lu Yuelan didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. In a moment of carelessness, her frost dagger missed, giving the high-level Mouse Soldier an opening. It swung its sharp claws straight at her face.
Nearby, the mid-level Mouse Soldier saw its leader about to land a hit and squeaked loudly. It then darted behind Lu Yuelan, staring at her with malicious intent, blocking her escape route so the leader could finish the attack successfully.
Seeing that all hope was lost, Lu Yuelan closed her eyes in fear, waiting for death to descend.
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