But besides Xu Yi, Zhang Zhen and his so-called "good brother" Wang Gang were also staring at him expectantly.
’What the hell...’
"You can drink it, but we have to do it scientifically. We can extract a controlled dose of the hallucinogenic toxins inside."
Ye Fei said through gritted teeth.
He knew that once he opened this door, people could drink themselves to death.
But if he didn’t agree, would they really stop trying to drink it?
They weren’t even afraid of death; mere mushroom poisoning wouldn’t faze them.
It was better to channel the flood than to block it.
Having figured this out, Ye Fei casually spouted some nonsense about the principle he’d guessed at, then went to find Liu Ru to ask about the possibility of extracting the Hallucinogen.
"Doesn’t the Hallucinogen turn red when oxidized? I just tested it. This Hallucinogen dissolves in alcohol, but not in water. As long as we add alcohol and distill it, we can easily extract a high-purity Hallucinogen. The dosage would also become easier to control, but... we don’t have the equipment. We’d need to find some at a school or a hospital."
"Before we can do that, we could try a cruder method. For example, we could boil three mushrooms first, then four, then five, and test for a safe dosage step by step. Of course, there would inevitably be some margin of error, but it probably wouldn’t be too large."
Liu Ru was a little worried this would get someone killed.
More importantly, there wasn’t much point. Those who weren’t meant to awaken still wouldn’t. At most, they’d just get bolder from tripping on mushrooms.
"That’s a good idea. Leave it to me. My sense of smell is very sharp; I can judge the Hallucinogen content."
Ye Fei knew better than anyone how much Hallucinogen was in the mushrooms. Even with five seemingly identical mushrooms, the hallucinogenic content could vary. If someone else cooked them, there would be discrepancies.
But he could pick out five "standard" mushrooms with the exact same hallucinogenic content.
And so, in addition to his Cultivation, Ye Fei took on an extra job: brewing mushroom soup.
The mushroom soup he made tasted mediocre, but the dose of Hallucinogen was absolutely precise.
People could even ask Ye Fei to fine-tune the dosage based on their first experience, getting a personalized, custom brew.
Ye Fei would usually oblige. While this wasted a lot of his precious time—something other Superpower Users would never agree to, since they needed most of their time for Cultivation—
Ye Fei had his own reasons. After the mushroom soup incident, he suddenly realized he had nearly fallen into the trap of working in isolation.
It was true that he was worried about his mushroom Superpower being discovered—after all, you can never truly know what’s in another person’s heart, and he needed to keep an ace up his sleeve. But hiding it too completely was definitely not a good thing.
Because this was the apocalypse, his channels for learning were basically cut off. In other words, trying to research and develop his mushrooms with the wisdom of an ordinary person was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
This wasn’t a game where he could just kill monsters, gain EXP, and level up his mushrooms.
For example, as someone who never drank the mushroom soup, he would never have imagined that simply cooking them could concentrate the hallucinogenic toxins. This chapter was copied from novelping dot com without permission.
This perfectly demonstrated the meaning of "every trade has its master."
In this matter, any of the Yunbei People were probably better than him.
’If I want to develop more uses for the mushrooms, I have to get other people involved. The more, the better.’
Ye Fei thought to himself.
After all, three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang. And he was no Zhuge Liang—in fact, when it came to biology, he was just at the level of an average person, maybe even worse than a high school student.
The survivors in the mine pit included highly educated engineers as well as workers from all over the country. The collision of their different ideas and perspectives could contribute to the development of his mushrooms.
Therefore, any attempt to utilize the mushrooms was beneficial to him. He had to encourage it, and it would be even better if he could guide them and set an example.
He had to make full use of the group’s collective wisdom and get everyone to think of ways to make his mushrooms more powerful.
.....
"Mmm... for my Cultivation, this mushroom soup is just right. But for the foodie in me, it’s a little lacking."
Luo Zai smacked his lips and began his critique.
As word spread that Ye Fei’s mushroom soup dosages were extremely precise, many Superpower Users stopped cooking their own and came begging for his help instead. As a result, Ye Fei’s popularity began to skyrocket.
"By the way, I’ve seen a lot of beautiful women asking you to make them mushroom soup. Bro, you better take care of your kidneys at night. Even Superpower Users have their limits. Don’t waste too much energy on... that stuff. It’ll affect your Cultivation speed."
Luo Zai said, a little excited.
"I think you’re just horny."
Ye Fei rolled his eyes.
In total, only three women had asked him to make mushroom soup. One was a married woman who got upset when he called her "ma’am." Another was a 30-year-old female graduate student who had clearly been "developing horizontally" for 30 years. The last one was indeed pretty good; her name was Loli, but she was a little *too* true to her name—she was fourteen years old.
"But... does having sex really affect Cultivation?"
Ye Fei asked out of pure curiosity.
"It does. Of course, it does."
Luo Zai nodded with great certainty. "I heard it on the radio broadcast last time. There’s this guy named Ximen Jie who happened to be hiding out with eight women. That dude’s Cultivation speed is getting lower by the day. He’s worn out, and his energy is scattered."
"But that guy’s Talent is astounding."
"He was already Elite Level last week. According to him, if it weren’t for the Interference from the women, he would’ve been Captain Level long ago."
"A week has passed since then. He’s probably already reached Captain Level Power by now."
".....Alright, I guess he really does have the capital to show off."
Hearing about this level of Power, Ye Fei was stunned by the difference in their personal circumstances.
But he wasn’t discouraged. Time was on his side. He had only truly been developing for two days, tops, while everyone else had been at it for two months.
He believed that with his Superpower, as long as he developed it properly, he wouldn’t necessarily be worse off than others. But a top-tier genius like Ximen Jie... he felt it would be hard to catch up to him anytime soon.
Seeing Ye Fei fall silent, Luo Zai immediately tried to comfort him. "Don’t worry. Your Power may be weak, but your Talent isn’t bad at all. Besides, it’s fine if you get a girlfriend or two. That guy’s Power was already immense to begin with, and all eight of his girlfriends are Superpower Users, so even a small drop in Power is really obvious. You’re not that strong yet. If your Cultivation speed drops a little, you’ll barely even notice it."
"And later on, if the Shelter has abundant resources and we can get our hands on Spiritual Crystals, leveling up will be very fast."
"What? All eight of his girlfriends are Superpower Users?!"
Ye Fei completely ignored the snarky part of Luo Zai’s comment, utterly shocked by the "eight Superpower User girlfriends" part.
What kind of fantasy starting scenario was that?
To be honest, he wasn’t even fazed by the guy’s strong Talent, but this... this he was truly envious of.
"Yeah, eight of them. After a person becomes a Superpower User, their skin gets better all over, their waists become strong yet supple, their thighs tight and elastic, and their looks trend towards perfection..."
At this point, Luo Zai wore an envious expression. "I can understand Ximen Jie now."
"Eight of them... plus Ximen Jie makes nine people. A survivor camp with only nine people, and a one hundred percent Superpower awakening rate?"
Ye Fei’s focus was different from Luo Zai’s.
He was very puzzled by this. Wasn’t awakening a Superpower supposed to be difficult?
Generally speaking, women were more timid and lacked the physical strength and courage to face monsters head-on. Even if they did, they were less likely to survive, which should have lowered the awakening probability even further.
And yet, in that guy’s camp, everyone was a Superpower User... This didn’t align with their theory that stimulating one’s consciousness was what triggered a Superpower.
If it was just luck, it was far too good. Wasn’t he practically a chosen one of this world?
So, compared to luck, Ye Fei was more inclined to believe there was another reason.
But... Ximen Jie probably wouldn’t tell, or perhaps he didn’t even know himself. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have so brazenly mentioned something so important.
"By the way, I’ve heard about Spiritual Crystals several times now, but I’ve never seen one in person. Is that stuff really so effective?"
Ye Fei asked.
"Well... I’ve never used one either. You’d have to ask the captain, AHEM... Anyway, according to the control tower broadcast, it’s a real treasure for Spiritual Ability Users."
Luo Zai clearly didn’t want to talk about it anymore. "Oh, uh, look, another beauty is here to see you. I hope you seize this opportunity. She’s the number one beauty in our Shelter, you know? Remember what I just said about Superpower User girlfriends?"
He lowered his voice, whispering seductively in Ye Fei’s ear, "Strong and supple! Tight and elastic!"
"Hello, Ye Fei."
Just then, a woman’s voice came from behind Ye Fei.