Ten thousand I am across the heavens

After adjusting his body to a sufficiently good state, Mo Chengzi was confident in controlling the direction of his evolution. Even if he couldn't completely determine the effect of the drug, he could control the direction of mutation to a certain extent. At least he could ensure that malignant mutations would not occur.

Ordinary people wouldn't be able to find this information, but with the help of Norrell, he managed to find some clues online. Quite a few people had signed up for the Evolution 1 experimental test. Currently, there's no publicly available information about any unexpected incidents during the experiment.

However, based on a comparison of information found online before and after the experiment, more than half of the participants disappeared without a trace after participating.

This could be because they participated in highly classified projects, making it difficult to find publicly available information about them online. More likely, however, the mutations they experienced were not benign but malignant, which explains why the relevant drugs remain in the experimental research stage and are not publicly available on the market.

Similar situations frequently occur with other drugs developed at the Holy Spirit Life Science Research Center, compared to military technology. This company's technology is usually more radical and market-oriented, which makes their technological achievements appear more impressive.

Mo Chengzi searched online and quickly found the application form for the relevant project to participate in the experiment as a volunteer.

Just seeing that the registration form was free told him that this was no small matter. In a society where everything costs money, the fact that someone was willing to use a precious gene-enhancing drug on him without charging him anything meant that the drug was extremely risky, and there was a very high possibility that he would lose his life.

"I'm not in a rush to sign up. Regardless of the quality of the medication itself, I need to get my physical condition into top condition first."

Mo Chengzi, accompanied by his AI, left the conference venue and then squeezed onto the subway all the way back to the suburbs. After much difficulty, he finally arrived at an agricultural base outside the city.

This is yet another new guidance from the system. This time, the newly awakened system is a system that eliminates middlemen and their markups. You can tell from the name. This thing is a cheat system; its effect is to directly find suppliers, saving you the price difference made by middlemen.

This feature is actually quite useful. After awakening it, the system panel shows where various items can be purchased directly. For example, the planting base he's now at isn't accessible to ordinary people; agriculture in this era isn't something just anyone can get involved in. The entire agricultural project has been taken over by the Zhao Group.

They are responsible for over 70% of crop cultivation and over 80% of livestock breeding, monopolizing the relevant industries. This has made the Zhao Group one of the largest and most prestigious companies among numerous enterprises.

As for why they couldn't directly control the livelihood of the people by monopolizing agriculture and animal husbandry, the main reason is that synthetic food technology was very advanced in that era. Exchanging energy for food was already a fairly mature technology.

If the only goal is to sustain human life, disregarding factors like taste, food is extremely cheap. In fact, most ordinary people don't have the opportunity to eat naturally grown plants, nor do they have the chance to eat real meat.

For Mo Chengzi and his classmates, eating a pre-cooked meal was considered a luxury. Most places were forcibly promoting synthetic foods, and many restaurants that advertised themselves as high-quality pre-cooked meals were secretly selling synthetic foods. It was really difficult to eat fresh vegetables and meat; they had to go to the market and buy them at extremely high prices.

The planting base was under heavy security at this time. A wall more than 10 meters high surrounded the entire planting base, and there was an electric fence on top of the wall. Armed security personnel patrolled the wall. If anyone tried to go in to steal vegetables, they could open fire directly.

Even truckloads of agricultural products were transported out in armored vehicles. It was practically like an armored cash transport.

However, considering the prices of agricultural products at that time, this level of security wasn't excessive. In the past, there were even people who specifically targeted agricultural products. If someone could steal a truckload of rice or flour and successfully sell it, they might actually have a chance to achieve financial freedom.

If someone is secretly selling a bag of white powder on the streets of the downtown area, it's very likely they're selling real flour. Any clandestine farming will be severely cracked down on, and it will be difficult to find even a single grain of normal soil in the entire city.

Mo Chengzi gazed at the towering, wall-like fence, knowing that sneaking in to steal vegetables was utterly impossible. Fortunately, the system came to his rescue, providing him with the contact information for the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper himself was also involved in smuggling; smuggling vegetables, fruits, rice, and flour from here was simply too lucrative.

Even a small amount smuggled out would be enough to cover half a month's salary for him working here. Although the punishment for being caught is severe, money is a powerful motivator; people will die for wealth, just as birds will die for food. This guy has taken the risk and already made several deals. However, he doesn't dare to do business openly. For the time being, even if he wanted to sell secretly, not many people would know that agricultural products could be bought from him. Ultimately, the main consumers of these products are still wealthy people; only those with a little money, but not that much, would choose to buy smuggled agricultural products from him.

With his current authority, he could easily smuggle out a considerable amount of agricultural products every day. What he lacks are buyers. Most people don't have the money, and if he dared to publicize it, he'd be the first to suffer.

When Mo Chengzi found him in the nearby neighborhood, he saw him looking shifty, wearing a coat and a mask, wandering the streets. If the system hadn't marked his location, it would have been really difficult to find him dressed like that.

This guy would sneak up on anyone who was even slightly well-dressed and ask if they wanted "that thing," without daring to say exactly what it was. Many people assumed he offered some kind of special service, like some kind of enhancement drug, and were ready to pay for it. But then they saw him pull a cucumber out of his clothes, and immediately their faces darkened as they left.

It's really rare to see someone so mysterious, yet selling nothing more than a cucumber. This guy clearly doesn't know anything about this kind of business. He's smuggling and selling agricultural products privately. He has no idea where his target customers are primarily located?
Mo Chengzi pretended to be a passerby and just walked past him when he was secretly pulled into an alley.

"Hey bro, I have some stock here, just got it from the factory. The really authentic kind. Want some? If you do, I'll sell it to you for a discount." Mo Chengzi made the same expression as the passerby earlier.

Then they saw the other person pull out the cucumber from his pocket. "Just got it from the factory, very fresh. You can't usually get this. How about it? Want one? I'll only charge you 100 yuan. Really, you definitely won't find it this cheap outside."

"You want 100 yuan for this? I wouldn't feel as full as if I ate one energy bar even if I ate 10 of these!" Mo Chengzi said deliberately, but his eyes remained fixed on the cucumber as he spoke, and he even made a gesture of swallowing saliva. However, after he finished speaking, he turned around and left.

His expressions and actions were all observed by the other person. Their eyes lit up immediately. They thought to themselves, "This guy has seen it all."

"That look in his eyes, that swallowing motion... this guy has definitely been exposed to natural foods. Otherwise, just smelling and seeing them wouldn't evoke this level of appetite. Hmph, want to haggle? Well, that depends on how much you're buying." He was actually quite helpless; these things depreciated every second after being smuggled out. Even if he secretly hid a mini-fridge in his clothes to preserve these produce to some extent, their shelf life was unlikely to exceed three days. After three days, they were no longer fresh, making it even harder to find buyers.

So if you buy a lot from him, you can definitely get a discount.

"Don't go. If you think it's too expensive, we can discuss the price. If you buy more, I can sell it to you for a discount. How about 80 yuan a stick?"

Mo Chengzi hesitated for a moment, then turned around: "80 is still too expensive. I might be buying a large quantity. Let me see how much stock you have, what kind of stock you have, and what kind of stock you can get. If you can really get good stuff, and you give me a discount, I'll buy it."

Then they saw the other person secretly open their collar, revealing the food hanging inside their coat.

Besides a few cucumbers, there were also common vegetables like tomatoes and potatoes. There was even a vacuum-packed frozen chicken breast, which he carefully hid in a small hidden refrigerator inside his clothes.

"This is a top-tier, high-end treasure, chicken breast meat cut from a real chicken. You've probably never even seen a real live chicken before. A live chicken is completely different from the cockroaches and rats you usually see. If you haven't seen one, it's really hard for me to describe what it feels like to witness such a precious creature being slaughtered."
If you want this piece of meat, I'll sell it to you for three hundred yuan.

Mo Chengzi: "..."

He discovered that after these natural ingredients were monopolized, the prices they were sold at were outrageously high. The prices were still too expensive for him, even comparable to some enhancement potions. However, his body definitely needed a lot of natural food to replenish its nutrients. While the drugs could also enhance his body, they ultimately lacked many trace elements. If humans on Earth took drugs for a short period, their physical condition might even improve. That's because they grew up eating cumin-infused foods. Those elements contained in natural foods had accumulated in their bodies in large quantities. Their needs for many things were negligible. Even if they were deficient, they wouldn't see any difference for several years.

But these people have grown up eating synthetic foods. They've never ingested many trace elements. Taking medication under these circumstances is like building a house on an unstable foundation—it might seem effective quickly, but the foundation is weak and could collapse at any time.

Mo Chengzi gritted his teeth and, after some haggling, reluctantly paid a hefty 1500 yuan to buy all the ingredients the other party had. He also arranged the next food order and delivery location.

As he expected, right after he received the food, the system popped up the cheat-like cooking system, pointing him to which malls he could get free cooking tools, or where he could find a free fire source.

This wasn't actually too difficult for him. The hardest part of cooking a meal in Night City wasn't the cooking process itself, but obtaining the precious ingredients. For ordinary people, starting a fire to cook isn't actually that hard. Just find an abandoned building, collect some trash to put under the pots and pans, and you can light a fire—it doesn't require much effort at all.

As for cooking itself, nobody cares. The unfinished building has been abandoned for a long time, and even if someone lives inside, they won't be discovered.

Following the system's instructions, Mo Chengzi bought a discarded iron pot for a dozen yuan at a scrap metal recycling station. He then gathered some combustibles and went to the ruins to start making soup.

In a sense, this could be considered medicine making. Various vegetables and fruits could theoretically be considered medicinal materials, and they were exactly the kind of medicinal materials that his depleted body needed most.

The not-so-strong aroma quickly dissipated. Although he had previously obtained a lot of free food from various places, it was almost all synthetic. The aroma of truly natural food cooking instantly awakened his body's instincts, highlighting his deficiency in these trace elements. This created a strong physiological craving for these foods.

Mo Chengzi began eating without hesitation. After finishing, he quickly sat cross-legged and began to try circulating the electricity within his body to stimulate the nerves in his abdomen to promote digestion and intestinal peristalsis.

This world lacks the mystical ability of introspection, so he could only vaguely sense the nutrients being absorbed into his body. As the food began to digest and the burden on his stomach lessened, he quickly began exercising. Simultaneously, he started mental training, essentially taking on part-time jobs online to develop his multi-functional abilities.

With relatively stable advertising revenue, the next period will be a period of rapid growth for him. His skills in artificial intelligence, hacking, physical training, and multitasking will all improve rapidly in the coming period.

[To be continued]

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